402 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
Dec 
variety of fowls has long been bred here which has been 
so noted as to receive the name of “ Bucks county 
breed.” It is not easy to obtain an authentic account 
of their introduction; but it is evident that they belong 
to the family known as Malay, Chittagong, Shanghae, 
&c. The stock has however been much improved in 
some instances, and is not unfrequently found of much® 
better shape, better quality of flesh, and even greater 
weight than most of the newly-imported fowls of the 
same tribe. Mr. Adrian Cornell, Jr., has kept quite 
a large stock of poultry for several years. He kept last 
winter, seventy hens and seven cocks, and this is about 
his average number. He has several stocks which he 
breeds by themselves. The old Bucks county stock, 
we were assured by the elder Mr. Cornell, who is up¬ 
wards of seventy years of age, has been kept, unmixed, 
on this farm, for more than fifty years. These fowls, 
whatever some writers may say as to their being “ mon¬ 
grels, comparatively worthless,” breed with more 
uniformity, as to shape, size, and color, than any 
of the large Asiatic fowls that we have seen, imported 
within the last ten years! Mr. C. raises them every 
year. They are usually short-legged, broad-breasted, 
rather small boned for their weight, and give a good 
quality of flesh. But the stock to which Mr. C. gives 
the preference, eggs and flesh considered, was imported 
from China in 1842. They are now mostly black—hav¬ 
ing been bred with a view to obtain that color for the 
eight years Mr. C. has had them. He has paid particu¬ 
lar attention in the selection of these for breeding, to 
the proper shape, and has improved the stock much in 
this respect. They are large—the hens frequently 
weighing eight and the cocks ten pounds each. They 
are greatly disposed to fatten, and on this account some¬ 
times attain heavier weights than mentioned. Mr. C. 
selected two hens from his flock last spring, to be sent to 
a person in England, who wished to obtain the best speci¬ 
mens of American fowls, that weighed a fraction over 
ten pounds each. Mr. C. hasalso the Jersey Blues, and 
specimes of several of the late importations— 1 Shan- 
ghaes,” “ Cochin-Chinas,” &c. For the stocks which 
he wishes to breed by themselves, Mr. C. has separate 
yards. In February, the requisite number of the best 
fowls of each stock is selected, and put in their respec¬ 
tive “ walks ” The eggs laid by the selected fowls are 
hatched by other hens, which run at large, or are kept 
in different places. The chickens are hatched in April 
and May. The fowls are only kept in separate yards 
about three months. The rest of the year they all run 
together uncontrolled. Towards the latter part of the 
time they are confined in yards: they sometimes get the 
habit of pulling out and eating each other’s feathers. 
Mr. C. thinks this is caused wholly by the fowls being 
discontented and worn down by confinement. 
Mr. Cornell began the business with the object of 
selling eggs and chickens in the market, but of late 
years has made sales of breeding stock to good advant¬ 
age. Chickens usually sell in Philadelphia, dressed, 
nine cents per pound, and eggs at fourteen cents a dozen. 
He caponises more or less fowls every year. Samuel 
Reed, of Joabstown, N. J., makes a business of doing 
this work. He goes through a large extent of country, 
perhaps twice in a season, and operates on all the fowls 
that are brought to him, charging five cents each. He 
sends word when he is coming, and the fowls are shut 
up and kept without food for a day. He has castrated 
275 in a day, and castrates from 12,000 to 15,000 in a 
year. Not more than one in a hundred die from the 
operation. Last year Mr. Cornell had forty-eight 
chickens and six turkeys caponised by him in one day, 
day, and lost hut one. The age preferred for doing this, 
is three to four months, or when the feathers are well 
set. Capons are usually killed in February, when about 
ten months old. They are made very fat by full feeding 
for a month before they are killed, and weigh, dressed, 
from sixteen to twenty-two pounds per pair. Mr. C. 
has had a pair weigh thirty-two pounds, dressed, at fif¬ 
teen months old, and he sold them at seventeen cents 
per pound. The usual price is about twelve cents per 
pound. 
Mr. A. Cornell, Jr., keeps but few turkeys ; his 
brother (Mr. J. C. C.) had about 100, and he remarked 
that he thought they saved him a $100 worth of grass 
this year, by killing grass-hoppers, which have been very 
numerous. The turkeys were worth a dollar a piece for 
market. 
The income from Mr. A. C., Jr.’s poultry for the last 
two years has been as follows: 1849 sales of poultry and 
eggs $211.85—used in the family to the amount of 
$88.15-—equal to $250; 1850, sales, $131.89—used in 
family and otherwise disposed of, $68.61—equal to $200. 
Labor. —Mr. A. Cornell, Jr., employs two men on 
his farm the year round; one of them, as foreman, re¬ 
ceives $150 a year, and his board, the other $110 a year 
and board. The other hired labor on the farm amounts 
on the average to about $30 a year. The hired female 
labor in the house costs $75 a year besides board. Mr. 
C. superintends the farm operations. It will not be 
amiss to say, in order to give an idea of the labor ac¬ 
tually employed on the farm, that Mr. C. has but one 
child, a son, whose time is spent at school. His taxes 
amount to $100 a year. The following is a copy of his 
memorandum of sales for 1850: 
Butter and calves,. $628 96 
Hay,......... 26187 
Fruit,.. 258 60 
Wheat,. 193 65 
Oats,.. 136 88 
Poultry,...... 13139 
Pork,.. .. 64 52 
Wool and lambs,. . 40 00 
Grass-seed,. 20 00 
$1,735 87 
Some remarks in regard to farm buildings, fences, and 
the management of manures, are deferred to another 
occasion. 
Chinch-bug. 
L. Tucker, Esq. —A friend has kindly lent to me the 
October number of*“ The Cultivator,” containing an ar¬ 
ticle by Dr. Asa Fitch, on wheat-insects. The “ bugs 
upon growing wheat,” noticed by Dr. Fitch, are no oth¬ 
er than young chinch-bugs, insects that have long been 
known in the Southern and Western States for their 
depredations on growing wheat, Indian corn, and other 
grains. They are mentioned in the eleventh volume of 
Arthur Young’s “ Annals of Agriculture,” published 
about 1788, from which work Messrs. Kirby and Spence 
probably compiled the following account of them in the 
first volume of their “Introduction to Entomology:” 
“ America suffers in its wheat and maize from the attack 
of an insect, which, for what reason I know not, is called 
the chintz-bug fly. It appears to be apterous, and is 
said in scent and color to resemble the bed-bug. They 
travel in immense columns from field to field, like lo¬ 
custs destroying everything as they proceed; but their 
injuries are confined to the states south of the 40th de¬ 
gree of north latitude.” “From this account,” add 
Kirby and Spence, “ the depredator here noticed should 
belong to the tribe of Geocorisx, Latr.; but it seems very 
difficult to conceive how an insect that lives by suction, 
and has no mandibles, could destroy these plants so to¬ 
tally.” I have ascertained, from an examination of liv¬ 
ing specimens, that the chinch-bug is the Lygxus Cucop- 
terus. described by Mr. Say, in Dec., 1831, in a little 
pamphlet on the “ Heteropterous Hemiptera of North 
America.” It is a mistake that these insects are con¬ 
fined to the States south of the 40th degree; for I have 
been favored with them by Professor Lathrop. of Be¬ 
loit College, Wisconsin, and by Dr. L. Baron, 6f Geneva, 
Illinois. The latter gentleman had no difficulty in ob- 
