THE 
RAL NEW-YORKER. 
their appetites are generally so satisfied that 
they do littlo barm. Their principal depreda¬ 
tions are in the early morning on alighting 
from the roosts. It, then, they come npon 
grass instead of more valuable greeus, their 
keen appetites will ‘‘go lor” that. It is not 
easy to calculate the good. In destroying in¬ 
sects, poultry do when roving the fields, and 
this is a strong argument to the fruit-grower 
not to confine them ; for not only does he need 
them most at this season of the year, but a 
great part of their food will, in this way, cost 
him nothing. 
Again, it. is almost impossible to raise large 
and fine chickens if they do not have access to 
a large range, where their growing frames can 
have exercise and where they themselves can 
find food suitable for their wants. To give 
this last in confinement must greatly increase 
the cost of raising. Upon the development 
and vigor of the young birds depends the egg- 
production of the following winter, and it is 
therefore to the breeders’ interest to see that 
they are not stunted. I have been very suc¬ 
cessful with poultry here on our dry soils, 
never having been troubled with disease, and 
hens have laid well at almost all seasous of the 
year. My Hock of thirty Lcghc rn crosses net¬ 
ted. me for eggs alone in less than four months, 
last winter and spring, over 81 each; and, 
accidents aside, all of our spring-hatched 
chickens are living. o. a. m’b. 
Brlcksburg, Ocean Co., N. J. 
-- 
GAME, BABBITS AND POULTRY. 
English pheasants, hares and partridges 
might be introduced into the South, and the 
wealthy classes in the United States might* 
enjoy field sports with the finest game in the 
world, in addition to the kinds already plenti¬ 
ful here. Both from a commercial and agri¬ 
cultural point of view, it would bo a very good 
speculation to establish English game on an 
island, or any estate which could be held safe 
from enemies, aud by doing this in conjunc¬ 
tion with poultry-raising, on the “egg farm” 
style, and combining ralsiug rabbits, also, a 
magnificently gigantic undertaking would re¬ 
sult, and be astonishingly remunerating ; for, 
once establish an enterprise of this sort, aud 
the stock being all prosperous and acclimated, 
there would be such a demand for the increase 
that the profits would he very great. 
The rabbits might be of the tume species, 
and if well managed and given liberty, tiiey 
would increase amazingly and their fiavor he 
so improved by ruuniug at large that, they 
would sell readily at a great price, because it 
would be quite u novelty for them to be 
brought tc table weighing three times as heavy 
as the common wild breed aud tasting equally 
fine, for, of course, the disagreeable taint of 
tame rabbits is owing to their elose confine¬ 
ment in hutches or other small spaces. 
The writer has experimented in England 
and in the United States with rabbits, and 
proved the profits to be great. He has raised 
all kinds of game and had the superintendence 
of deer in one of the best managed parks in 
England, so that he knows all about such ani¬ 
mals' habits and the requirements for their 
prosperity, and, of course, he and everybody 
know that deer and rabbits are so fond of the 
bark of young trees thatif there are auy which 
it is desired to be unmolested, they have to be 
protected. 
Why these different animals are all men¬ 
tioned together is that, by their being all kept 
on one estate, those in attendance upon the 
poultry, and who are continually around, 
would be a constant protection to the wild and 
eemi-wihl animals, which would take care of 
themselves if all enemies common to poultry 
and game were exterminated. Rabbits run¬ 
ning at liberty will breed very young, and do 
well, too. There is a ridiculous idea that the 
bucks kill the young ones, and also that young 
does cannof raise their young. Some old- 
womanish men will say, also, that some of the 
little ones should he destroyed, so that those 
remaining should be stronger. Protect them 
from skunks, weasels, minks and cats, and 
nature will regulate the age at which to breed, 
and also the number at a birth. If a man 
going into such a business had sufficient capi¬ 
tal, it would be a great additional profit to 
breed colts and other young stock, placing a 
few horses in each field and giving them 
a shed to have a feed of oats, bran and 
hay in during the fall, winter and spring, and 
if not fed during summer, it would be a resort 
for shade; and at such places roosts could be 
combined, and the fowls be much healthier ior 
the animals being there. Calves, too, could be 
kept at other places, and sheep, also, might 
have a shelter for such weather as they chose 
to protect themselves from. 
Where the winters are comparatively mild, 
the young stock of all varieties will do better 
by lying on blue-grass, or any natural perma¬ 
nent grass laud, and being fed twice per day 
in comfortable sheds; and this will make it 
better for the poultry, as it adds to the health. 
The scratching among the litter and manure 
is suitable for hens, and is something as essen¬ 
tial to the perfect well-being of common fowls 
as the range over the natural ground in search 
of green herbage, grubs aud worms. Talk 
about stock-raising! imagine lots of colts, 
calves, lambs, and the best that can be pro¬ 
duced of chickens; or, say horses, cows, sheep, 
geese, ducks, turkeys, hens of every variety— 
and all. with game interspersed, beiug beauti¬ 
ful aud of the most fashionable breeds. 
PouLtrtman. 
- ♦ ♦♦-- 
RAISING POULTRY. 
The losses in the poultry business are far 
greater than the profits, and still the profits 
will average at least fifty per cent, per annum 
over the outlay. Paradoxical, you say ? Grant¬ 
ed !—but did you know that a paradox is al¬ 
ways true? I will make the assertion that, a 
hen always knows what is best for her, while 
her owner never does, except in some great 
emergencies—a storm for instance. 
Disease, almost entirely unknown to birds in 
the wild state, is the canker which causes ail 
the loss referred to above. Disease is the con¬ 
comitant of civilization in man, and follows 
every attempt to bring poultry to our level. 
Hen houses breed more vermin than artificial 
dust baths will remove ; they gradually render 
poultry delicate in constitution, aud thus more 
aud more unable to repel any disease which 
change of diet, weather, or forced habits may 
invite. Stock thus deteriorates, eggs fail to be 
fertilized, chicks are tender, mothers abandon 
them too soon, and the artificial state which 
fauey food produces, interrupts the laws which 
govern health and success. 
Civilized mail must, to a certaiu extent, have 
his poultry cared for in a rational manner, 
and, as “ forciug ” is supposed to be tbe foun¬ 
dation of profit, and, as much profit is desira¬ 
ble, much forcing is resorted to. More stock 
is lost, more weak and worthless stock is pro¬ 
duced, and more loss sustained by over-anxi¬ 
ety and petting, than many imagine. 
A strict account of the number of eggs set, 
the number which hatch, the total arriving at 
maturity, and finally the actual number of 
really profitable fowls sold or carried over 
wiuter—which includes good, steady layers, 
good mothers, and vigorous fathers—would 
give such an insight iuto the waste in the 
poultry department as would create wonder 
“that hens paid at all.” 
There is nothing in business pursuits like 
facts. Every one is full of fancies, theories, 
notions, cranks and crudities, but hard facts 
are never thought of. 
Ail the diseases of poultry are directly the 
fault of the owner. They are the consequences 
of too much or too little care being bestowed 
on them. The successful poultry breeders are, 
in every case, those who, instead of compelling 
stock to walk a chalk mark, only interfere 
when some sudden emergency arises which the 
chicken is not equal to. 
Food and water ad libitum, in variety, 
shelter in various places and of several kinds, 
room to wander at will, perfect freedom from 
annoying animals, both wild and domestic—in 
fact, absolute wildness, with only a few of the 
“ modern improvements ”—a yearly change of 
male stock, and a share of common sense (not 
quite so much of the uncommon sort), will do 
much toward making poultry pay better than 
any other branch of farming. 
Elevate the stamina, select so as to suit the 
climate and soil, ward off all loss through fool¬ 
ishly devised safeguards, then give the old hen 
her full enjoyment of instinct, and the yearly 
account will show a profit of from 100 to 300 
per cent. I have pursued this plan for many 
years, have hud no gapes, roup, pip, cholera, 
or other diseases, and don't know them, abso¬ 
lutely. 
My remarks are founded on facts, hard facts. 
My old hens and I together have just enough 
common sense between us to succeed perfectly. 
Dodge Co., Neb. S. Kcpcb Mason. 
$arm tottoraji. 
MORE ABOUT PEAT MUCK. 
GEN. W. H. NOBLE. BRIDGEPORT, CONN. 
It Is not to show myself in print that I write 
for the Rural. I crave no audience for farm 
or rural fancies. Such are plentifully rife. 
But I aim to help rural life to brighter hope 
in enterprise, to quicker grasp of the resources 
on the farm, to better finance than hoarding 
the sixpences and starving the land. There 
are about it bottom I acta aud sense not only 
got down to by study, but that he who runs 
may read. There are graceful tastes unwonted 
to its life, which call for hrighter-mindedncBS, 
lighting up the home and its surroundings, yet 
heedlug well to thrift aud profit. As one help 
to the fulfilment of such hopes aud purposes, 
I have put at the front, peat-beds and muck, 
as grand treasures of farm enrichment. I have 
strongly urged their deep stores as the salva¬ 
tion of New England and Eastern farming, 
their best estate, gained by tarrying in the barn¬ 
yard and compost heap, I have stated. No 
fine-spun theories about humus and geine, am¬ 
monia, nitrogen and carbon, have been woven. 
I have dabbled in no chemical wrangle about 
what the ages have grown, or drifted into the 
peat-bed's deep decay. These I have left to the 
alchemy of plant life to feel out and ‘ell of in 
crops. My last call was on simple common 
sense ; short of manure, seek in this store of 
vegetable life and death, food to deepen the 
soil and swell the harvest. Let science settle 
down on the way things grow, and what out 
of, what is plant food, and what mere stimu¬ 
lus. It will be time enough then to dose out 
nourishment by parts and formulas. Till 
then,let the farmer hang up his little scales, 
and pile on and plow under the richness siored 
in the muck-beds. It will rise to uew life in 
brimming grain-bins aud barns well filled. So 
doing, common sense can afford to wait a sup¬ 
ply of exact science on the farm. 
In this line of talk, among other things, to 
the farmer short of manure and long of a 
muck bed, I plead for a liberal use of raw 
muck, turned out to tbe handling of tbe 
wintry elemcuts. Yet I fouud the editor, 
or staff, telling some anxious inquirer that 
peat muck was uot fit to use till composted 
with baruyard mamirc or lime; that it needed 
fermentto rend its fiber, aud the lime to quell its 
rauk acids and astringeney. Such delay and 
handling form a good general rule; but this 
did not help in a dearth of manure for quick 
and large use. So, in the Rural of March 15th. 
last, I claimed this shortness could be relieved 
by peat muck carted in freezing weather onto 
grass, grain or plowed land ; that there the 
wintry frosts and thaws and storms would 
rend the fiber and dreuch and turn out its 
bitterness and acids. Right here the editor 
stuck in a (?). Then came to the front a 
“Western Farmer,” in the Rural of April 
12t,h. He says he knows a good deal about 
peat muck; “that frost and wet and thaw 
won’t rend its chunksthat only fermenta¬ 
tion will do this; that raw peat is not fit plant- 
food, and only gains that fitness by decompo¬ 
sition, which comes with warmth and mois¬ 
ture; and, all in all, that Geu. Noble was, in 
bis advice on March 15th, “ wide of the mark." 
He warns the farmers against such a blind 
guide. 
Now, “ ‘tis pity if ’tis trueIs it true ? 
Whether “ Western Farmer” or Gen. Noble 
is right, as a personal question, is of no sort 
of consequence. But to the farming world, 
the right about it means either thrift and 
crops, big harvests and thriving stock, or toll 
worse, than thrown away, as Western Farmer 
says his was on ten acres covered deep with 
raw muck. Now, our Western brother may 
“know a good deal about muck but I hope 
to show him, and all, that there are some fixed 
and tested facts about peat muck “not 
dreamt of in his philosophy.” Let’s see. 
Three propositions cover all I claim for peat 
muck: 
1. That raw muck is fit plant food. 
2. That it is powdered by the wintry ele¬ 
ments. to readily spread and mingle with the 
soil. 
8. That crops in reach of such enrichment, 
should not wait for its handling in rich farm¬ 
yard and compost heaps. 
“My offense hath this extent, no more,” and 
these three propositions “ I am bound to main¬ 
tain.” If the first two are sound, the third 
becomes self-evident. 
Now, let there be no mistake about what I 
mean by raw peat muck. It is that under-tier 
and black rot of vegetation above which rests 
a top spit aud pack of moBsy filaments, roots, 
leaves and nndecay. Some of this unleavened 
upper-crust, must have made np the “ chunks” 
which so bothered our " Western” friend’s ten 
acres. Such I have not often seen turned out 
to weather. But when so treated, wet and raw 
from itB bed, frost rends its pack to shreds. 
This result so follows such handling that the 
peat chunks, defiant of frost arid thaw, which 
“Western Farmer” so berates, would seem 
made of “steruer stuff.” Possibly his top 
spit tier of uudecay is ranker aud heavier 
than that which blankets New England muck 
beds. 
Let’s note another thing: Not all raw peat 
fulfils its promise as ready fitted plant food. 
Some peats are possessed of seven devils of 
acidity, which only curing alkalies, or long 
weathering, can cast out. Luckily, such de¬ 
posits are rare, at least iu New England. Most 
of ours are fit plant food as soon as the frost 
tears the stuff into fineness fit to easily spread 
and commingle with the soil. 
Now let’s Bee about this fltnesB and the rend¬ 
ing power of the frost. Professor Johnson, of 
Yale Scientific School, aud now Director of the 
Connecticut Experiment Station, lias put out 
a sound and exhaustive treatise on peat and 
its uses. It is full of common sense, and emi¬ 
nently practical. It is a record of all the 
alchemy of tiie bog, and of all known about 
its use in the arts, as plant food, or for fuel. 
His chapter on its agricultural use, without 
whims or theories, records just the hard-pan 
facts and teats about peat. He lays down four 
faculties of peat: 
JULY 26 
1. Its power of holding water and watery 
vapor. 
2. Its power of absorbing ammonia. 
8. Its solvent power on the mineral elements 
of the soil. 
4. Its raising the temperature of the soil. 
Then follow four propositions as to the plant 
food and stimulus in peat. 
1. Its organic matters, associated with am¬ 
monia and nitric acid. 
2. Its inorganic matters. 
3. The benefit of its decay in tbe soil. 
4. Raw peat equal to stable manure. 
Now, under those heads the Professor fully 
proves, by scientific analysis and the tests of 
trial, all I have claimed for raw peat. Spe¬ 
cially, on page. 59. he says, “Most peats might 
be used perfectly fresh.” but for the difficulty 
of reducing them t* the proper state of divi¬ 
sion, for admixture with the soil. Then, on 
page 60, lie says that frost speedily reduces 
fresh, wet peat to pulverization; that it should 
be exposed, when wet, to wintry weather; that 
such exposure works chemical chauges—liken¬ 
ing the quality of such peat to that of old soil. 
These positions he does not state as opinions ; 
they are the condensed.results of experience 
and scientific tests. As to my three proposi¬ 
tions, the Professor records analyses of all prior 
tests, and proves them. But further, he re- . 
ports five separate trials of raw peat by five 
practical Conn. farmers. They cover its use on 
grass, grain aud hoed crops. All were favora¬ 
ble. In view of these tests, let no one be dis¬ 
heartened by the reported ill-luck of others. 
Science, observation and trial prove raw peat 
to be fit plant food, and show pretty plainly 
that I have not shot very wide of the mark. 
Right views on this peat question are wealth 
to the land. Eastern farms are hungering for 
enrichment. Our big forests, ashes from 
whose clearings have sent so much food and 
stimulus to crops, are melting away. We 
shall not long have them to supply the land 
with what we so uuthriftily exhaust. Even 
were the elements of the ash in untold store, 
they would be the better iu fellowship with 
peat. Then, too, these deep deposits, to the 
extent of their endowment, must replace the 
waste plant food which pours through the 
sewers or is dumped in the garbage of great 
cities. The farm and garden need and should 
be choice of every manurial resource of the 
land or of the great deep. Of all these, none 
is so cheap, so close at hand, so vast, as the 
big peat beds. 
I hope to awaken my brother farmers to this 
wealth sleeping beside their homes. I shall 
therein have done them a great good, and 
helped the land. Capital is sorely needed on 
the farm, but uot half so much as brains and 
open eyes. Because the plaiu and present 
chances seem so small, or are so little stud¬ 
ied, many turn their faces westward. The 
glamour aud mirage in the distance “ lends 
enchantment” that hides the discomforts of 
frontier life. The farmer, East, has everything 
to favor bis Rtay. The country is built up in 
roads and homes, and steeples aud close-by 
schools. The smoke of a neighbor’s chimuey 
rises quietly iu the morning air; the light of 
his evening lamp invites you to his fireside; 
all over New England are ready aud greedy 
markets, and cheap lands are growing up to 
bush beside deep swamps handy for their en¬ 
richment. Why go West? You and yours 
may thrive there. You can here, if you will. 
All you go West for ia half in your sanguine 
hopes. They will only be realized through 
stint and toil and struggle with all the far- 
apurt and unadjusted belongings of a new 
country. “Stay East, young man," or you may 
get bogged in a worse slough than that out of 
which “ Western Farmer” dug those storm¬ 
proof chunks of peat. 
$anii ®o|irs. 
PATENTS ON THE SLIDE GATE. 
Testimony of Use Venrn Before the Patent 
wan Granted. 
PROFESSOR R. C. CARPENTER. 
Since the article of Jan. 25th in regard to 
the existence of patents on the gates that 
open by partially sliding hack and then turn¬ 
ing, testimony has been gathered which shows 
conclusively that the gate has been in com¬ 
mon use in various portions of Michigan and 
other States for more titan twenty years. The 
importance to the farmers of defeating this 
patent, is very great; for the gate is now in 
extensive use all over the United States. 
As evidence of extensive use it may be prop¬ 
er to state, that since the article of Jan. 25 in 
the Rural, letters have been received show¬ 
ing it to be in common use. iu portious of New 
York, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, 
Wisconsin aud Michigan. In Michigan this 
style of gate is used more frequently than the 
ordinary swing gate. Hon. A. J. Heston, of 
Sidney, Iowa, says that In his business of stock 
feed! raj he has used these gates for 14 years. 
He uses them with ft set of adjustable friction- 
