124 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
shorter legs. Never use a male with his own 
offspring. It is a saving of time to let a hen 
sit, in preference to breaking her, as hens 
lay but few eggs when deprived of sitting, 
and go at it again in a week or two. Breed 
your own fowls, and never bring them to 
your yards from other places. Hens lay as well 
when not in company with males as when 
with them, and such eggs keep fresh longer. 
Young chicks, when feathering, undergo 
severe natural drain on the system, therefore 
never omit a meal. Use only the freshest 
eggs under sitting hens. Hot whitewash, 
containing carbolic acid, liberally applied, 
will kill or keep off vermin. The rough 
scales on fowls’ legs are easily removed by a 
mixture of lard and sulphur, or coal-oil. 
Finally, be as attentive to fowls as to horses, 
cattle, hogs, or sheep, and be in your yards 
from morning until night. P. H. Jacobs. 
Chemistry of the Farm and. Garden,—III. 
Hydrogen enters into the composition of 
all organic compounds, and is therefore one 
of the leading elements to be considered in 
agricultural chemistry. When uncombined 
with other substances, hydrogen is a gas des¬ 
titute of odor, taste, or color. A clear glass 
jar filled with this element would appear 
empty. It is not found in the free or un¬ 
combined state, except in small quantities in 
the fumes from boiling springs and volca¬ 
noes. Water is the most common substance 
in which hydrogen is present in considerable 
quantities. This liquid is composed of the 
two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. 
All substances are supposed to be made up 
of small particles called atoms; and when 
these atoms of different kinds of matter 
unite to form a compound, the smallest part 
of the substance thus formed is called a 
molecule. Two atoms of hydrogen unite 
with one of oxygen to form a molecule of 
water. When water is de¬ 
composed by electricity, and 
the two gases are collected, 
the hydrogen has twice the 
bulk of the oxygen. The 
weights of the two, how¬ 
ever, are widely different, 
oxygen being sixteen times 
heavier than an equal bulk 
or volume of hydrogen. The 
element under consideration 
is the lightest one in the 
whole list, and therefore, 
though present in considera¬ 
ble quantities in organic sub¬ 
stances, it makes up only a 
small part of the weight of 
those compounds. Iron is 
fifty-six, and mercury two 
hundred times, as heavy as 
hydrogen. On account of 
its levity, this gas is used in filling balloons, 
it being fourteen and a half times lighter 
than common air. Hydrogen is very com¬ 
bustible, and burns with a flame of low 
lighting power but great heat. A bottle or 
flask that is filled with this gas must be held 
inverted. When first ignited, the hydrogen 
burns on the lower surface with a pale flame. 
If now the flask is turned upright, the whole 
burning gas rises rapidly, and is soon com¬ 
bined with oxygen of the atmosphere to form 
water. The process of burning is simply the 
rapid union of oxygen with some other sub¬ 
stance. Hydrogen forms the chief illuminat¬ 
ing ingredient of kerosene, benzine, paraffine, 
coal-gas, and other similar substances. 
Water is an adequate source of the hydro¬ 
gen needed in the growth of all agricultural 
plants. In fact, this liquid is nature’s almost 
universal solvent, and carries in solution the 
various essential elements of plant food de¬ 
rived from the soil. Water, together with 
the salts of potash, phosphoric acid, nitro¬ 
gen, lime, etc., which are dissolved in it, are 
taken up by the roots of plants, and passing 
through the stems to the leaves, are there 
changed under the action of the sunlight, 
into substances fitted to build up the struc¬ 
ture of the plant. Water not only furnishes 
the hydrogen, so essential to plant growth, 
but is the vehicle in which the other food 
elements are moved from place to place, both 
before and after the process of assimilation 
has taken place in the green cells • of the 
leaves. The importance of this liquid is 
fully appreciated by the gardener, who wa¬ 
ters his tender house plants at frequent inter¬ 
vals, and by the farmer, who knows that a 
withholding of rain for a season means ruin 
to his crops. Hydrogen, though the lightest 
of elements, has a weighty place to fill in 
the plant economy of the farm and garden. 
“ Rambouillet ” Sheep in Texas. 
An importation of this superb class of 
French Merino sheep has recently been made 
by one of the enterprising flock-masters of 
Texas. They come directly from what is 
called the “ Royal Flock,” bred by the French 
Government for nearly a century past, on the 
Rambouillet estate, about forty miles from 
Paris. This is a larger class of sheep than 
the American Merino, and the object of the 
Texas importer in obtaining them, is to in¬ 
crease the size of his sheep, and at the same 
time improve the quality of their wool, and 
the weight of fleece. In all these points 
the “ Rambouillets ” excel, and are well wor¬ 
thy of being imported into other South-west¬ 
ern States. 
Large numbers of sheep have been recently 
driven from California across the Rocky 
Mountains into Texas. The reason of this 
great demand of the latter State upon the 
former, is, that the sheep bred in California 
are usually of a larger size which, it is said, 
they have obtained from the amenity of its 
climate and from a cross of French sheep, 
derived from those imported into Vermont 
some thirty-five years ago. 
a frencii (“rambouillet”) merino ram. 
The first importation from the Royal Flock 
of Rambouillet was in 1840. These were kept 
a few years near Hartford, Conn., but the 
flock soon passed into Vermont and from 
there to the different States of the Union. 
This desire of improvement, together with 
the advantage which will probably flow from 
it, of increasing the size of sheep in Texas, is 
of great value. The improvement of our 
domestic animals is a subject deserving 
greater attention among stock breeders than 
has hitherto been devoted to it in our country. 
A Cheap Fence. 
BT W. D. BOYNTON, WIS. 
To those who desire an inexpensive fence 
for confining poultry, or for protecting then- 
garden and grounds, I would recommend 
Fig. 1. —PANEL OF PICKET FENCE. 
the one described below, which I have used 
for the purposes above-mentioned, and also 
for a movable fence about the farm. It is 
really an ornamental fence compared with 
most of the fences we see around farm houses. 
Tlnrpanels, fig. 1, are 16 feet long and are com- 
Fig. 2.— frame for making fence. 
posed of 2 pieces of ordinary 6-inch fencing, 
for top and bottom rails, with lath nailed 
across 24 inches apart; the top ends of the lath 
extending 10 inches above the upper edge of 
the top rail. Posts, 3 or 4 inches through 
at the top end, are large enough and after 
sharpening well, can be driven into the 
ground, by first thrusting a crow-bar down 
and wrenching it back and forth. A post ia 
necessary at the middle of each panel. Both 
rails of the panel should be well nailed to the 
posts. These panels may be neatly and rapid¬ 
ly made in a frame, constructed for that pur¬ 
pose. This frame, shown in figure 2, consists 
simply of 3 cross-pieces of 6 by 6, 4 feet long, 
upon which are spiked two planks, 1 foot 
wide, and 3 feet apart, from outside to out¬ 
side. Four inches from the inner edge of 
each plank is nailed a straight strip of inch 
stuff, to keep the rails of the panel in place 
while the lath are being nailed on. Against 
the projecting ends of the cross-pieces, spike 
2 by 6 posts 12 inches long; on the inside of 
these posts nail a piece of 6-inch fencing, to 
serve as a stop, for the top ends of the lath 
to touch when nailing them to the rails. 
These panels can be made in the shop or on 
the barn floor at odd times, and piled away 
for future use. For pigs or poultry, nail a 
wide bottom board around on the inside of 
the enclosure after the fence is in position. 
Superiority of Southdown !Miit» 
ton.— 1 This, as well as that of the other 
varieties of the Down breeds, consists in the 
mutton being almost entirely of a tender, 
lean, sweet, juicy quality. In consequence 
of this, the whole carcass is palatable, and 
can be eaten without waste. 
