THE CULTIVATOR. 
81 
I have been informed that some have objected to subscribe 
for the Cultivator, supposing Mr. Thorburn was a proprie¬ 
tor—to such I would say, that he is not now, nor ever has 
had any interest in the Cultivator, except as a gratuitous 
agent for obtaining subscribers. C. N. BEMENT. 
Three-Hills Farm, March, 1840. 
Cotswold Sheep. 
Messrs. Gaylord and Tucker —I cannot leave this place 
without giving you some description of six Cotswold wether 
sheep, bred and fed by Mr. Dunn, of this place, and exhi¬ 
bited in this market by Mr. Kirkpatrick, on the 22d of Fe¬ 
bruary. I regret very much I did not arrive early enough 
to view the whole of them, as the sight must have been gra¬ 
tifying to a practical man, and not only to him but to every 
consumer, as they could go home, and rest satisfied that food 
and raiment can be procured, as long as such animals are 
looked to with considerate care by the breeders, (be the times 
as hard as they may.) 
I need not say much in praise of Mr. Dunn’s management, 
and the gratitude due to him from an enlightened public, as 
eccular proof would have a better effect. Allow mo to invite 
the enterprising farmer to examine for himself, and if it does 
not spur him on to obtain that breed, and pursue a similar 
course'—my views are not so valuable as I might repre¬ 
sent. 
I will give you a statement, with reference to the whole 
inhabitants of Albany. 
Mr. Kirkpatrick, the person who purchased them, says, 
the heaviest sheep weighed 210 lbs. and the fat on the ribs 
measured 54 inches. I saw the smallest.—the thickness of fat 
from my own measurement, was 4) inches—the price $22 
each; and the meat sold in the market rapidly for 12i) 
cents per pound. Mr. McLaughlan, of Montgomery 
county, bought a whole carcass at that price, to show the 
farmers in his neighborhood. The fleeces from these sheep 
averaged about 10 lbs. each. These are facts from the breed¬ 
er and butcher, without diminution or addition. Should it 
call the attention of the farmer to any benefit, it will be a sa¬ 
tisfaction. I am, dear sir, yours truly, 
WM. H. SOTIIAM. 
P. S. 1 —Perhaps it will be as well to observe, that these 
lambs were not thought sufficiently good to reserve for breed¬ 
ers, and were the culls of his males. 
Albany, Feb. 27th, 1840. 
Timber— Proper Time for Cutting, &c. 
Timber includes all kinds of felled and seasoned woods. 
Of all the different kinds known, oak is considered the best 
for building, and even when it lies exposed to air and water, 
there is none equal to it. The goodness of timber not only 
depends on the soil and situation in which it stands, but 
likewise on the season in which it is felled. People disagree 
very much in this ; some are for having it felled as soon as 
the fruit is ripe ; others, in the spring, and many in the au¬ 
tumn. As the sap and moisture of' timber is certainly the 
cause that it perishes much sooner than it otherwise would 
do, it seems evident that timber should be felled when there 
is least sap in it, or when the sap is most fusible or in a li¬ 
quid state. 
The ancients chiefly regarded the age of the moon in felling 
timber : their rule was to fell it in the wane, or four days 
after the new. An Amherst, Massachusetts, cooper states 
that he formerly furnished three oil mills in that vicinity with 
casks made from oak felled in June ; because, he says, tim¬ 
ber felled in winter being more porous, would not contain oil; 
and that oak and walnut cut in June, would not powder post. 
That the moon has an influence on the sap, no one who 
has paid attention will have occasion to doubt: the liber or 
inner bark is less adhesive at this stage of the moon, the 
ligneous or woody matter being in a more fluid state. It has 
been ascertained by various experiments, that the woody 
part of oak in full vegetation, is only four-tenths of the 
whole ; air constitutes one-fourth of it, and the rest consists 
in sap. Light woods have still a much less quantity of so¬ 
lid matter; but the season of the year and age of the tree 
occasion considerable variation. 
Timber should be cut when of a proper age,for when it is 
either too young or too old, it will not be so durable. They 
should be cut in their prime, when almost fully grown, and 
before they begin to decay ; and this will depend upon the 
dryness and moistness of the soil where the timber grows. 
The time of its commencement to decay, or when it is going 
past its prime, is when the concentric circles are less and 
less, as may be seen in the oak, beech, walnut, &c. These 
circles yearly enlarge the trunk by the formation of a new 
alburnum or soft wood, which the next succeeding year be¬ 
comes the lignum or hard wood. 
The wood of the north side of all trees which grow in this cli¬ 
mate is the weakest, and that of the south side is the strongest. 
The heart of a tree is never in its centre, but always near 
to the north side, and the concentric circles or annual coats of 
wood are thinner on that side. In conformity with this, it 
is the general opinion of carpenters, that timber is stronger 
whose annual plates are thickest: the air vessels makes the 
visible separation between the annual plates. Therefore, 
when these plates are thickest they contain a greater propor¬ 
tion of the woody fibre. 
Timber, after being felled and sawed, must be seasoned 
not by standing upright, but lie one piece upon another, on¬ 
ly kept apart by short, blocks interposed to prevent a certain 
mouldiness which they will contract in sweating on one ano¬ 
ther.^ Some advise the planks or other timber to lay in wa¬ 
ter a few days, in order to extract the sap, and afterwards 
to dry in the air : by this means they will be prevented from 
cracking or chopping. Some scorch and season them in the 
fire, such as piles, posts, &c. which are to stand in water 
or earth. They are charred and seasoned by burning them 
round in a strong violent flame, until a black, coaly crust is 
formed ; the internal part of the wood is thereby so harden¬ 
ed, that neither earth nor water can damage it for a long 
time afterwards. An excellent preservation of wood by 
charcoal, especially applied to eve troughs and water spouts 
is first to lay on a coat of drying oil, then immediately dust it 
over with a thick layer of charcoal finely powdered, and 
contained in a muslin bag. After two or three days, when 
the oil is thoroughly dried, brush off the loose particles of 
charcoal, and cover that which adheres with a coat of paint, 
and in a few days after a second ; the xvhole will become a 
fine solid crust, and is said to preserve the wood sound many 
years. 
The charcoal should be fresh made, or heated again in 
close vessels, so as to expel the water which it greedily 
attracts from the air. Some preserve their posts by salt, 
by boring a hole into the post that is to be covered by earth, 
and, after filling with salt, plug it up. Some advise to sea¬ 
son the timber before it is cut down, by taking off the bark 
a year before it is cut : the sap is expelled,and the alburnum 
is converted into wood in the course of the year. Sills and 
sleepers for out buildings should have a free circulation of air 
to save them from decay. 
SOLOMON W. JEWETT. 
Weybridge, Vt. Feb. 23, 1840. 
Popular Errors. 
MessRS. Editors —It would be amusing, were it not an 
incontrovertible proof of an ignorance that ought not to 
exist among any body of men, certainly not among the 
farmers of the United States, to read or hear the strange, 
not to say ridiculous, notions, which some of them enter¬ 
tain. These errors in most cases, may be traced to two 
causes : ignorance of the most common laws of nature, or 
inaccuracy of observation. With your leave I will point 
out a few of these, somenf which have long been naturaliz 
ed among us, and some of which appear to be of indigenous 
origin. 
One of these errors, which occurs to me now, relates to 
the fecundation of plants, and may be found on the 176th 
page of the Silk Grower, in an article on horticulture. Af¬ 
ter a long argument to prove that the impregnation of Indian 
com does not take place from the pollen as is usually sup¬ 
posed, and as is so easily demonstrated, the writer goes on 
to say : “ Oh. no, this is much too clumsy and bungling 
work to be believed in. The effect f impregnation] is, doubt¬ 
less, produced by scent or smell; for, observe, the ear is con¬ 
structed, and is at this season, so guarded, so completely en¬ 
veloped, that it is impossible for any matter whatever to get 
at the grain, or at the chest of the grain, without the em¬ 
ployment of mechanical force .” The error, in this case, ari¬ 
ses from the supposition that the pollen must be conveyed to 
the grain, whereas it is only necessary the fertilizing dust 
should reach the silks which are the organs of impregnation 
belonging to the ear. 
In another agricultural paper, I not long since noticed a 
paper from a farmer on the culture of corn, in which he 
earnestly contended that the impregnation did not take place 
by the pollen, but that certain filaments or threads, invisible 
except at particular times, extended from the blossoms to 
the silks, which effected this fecundation. These spider’s 
webs, for such every attentive observer is aware they must 
be, must be about as effectual in the process of impregna¬ 
tion as the ‘scent’ in the first writer’s article. 
On a par with these, is the theory of transmutation, or 
the change of one species of plant to another during the pe¬ 
riod of vegetation. Of these believed transmutations, that 
of wheat into chess, is perhaps the most common, and cer¬ 
tainly the most pernicious, as the belief has the effect of 
rendering the believer careless in cleansing his soil from 
that weed, or sowing pure seed in his field. Few men 
would believe that cutting off, or bruising the top of a young 
oak would change it to a sugar maple ; or that the same ope¬ 
ration, performed on a young pine, would convert it into a 
tamerack ; yot, either of these suppositions is just as feasi¬ 
ble, and consistent with the law of nature, as that any other 
plants should undergo a similar transmutation. There are 
some flowers that may be changed by the acfion of mineral 
agents in the soil, from one color to another ; but the seed of 
such a flower, the chrysanthemum for instance, never pro¬ 
duces a rose or geranium. 
Another common error relates to the migration or hyberna¬ 
tion of birds, particularly the barn swallow, or the chimney 
swallow. It is supposed by many that these birds descend 
to the bottom of ponds, lakes, &c.; in the mud of which 
they lie torpid during the winter, as it is well known the 
toad, frog, and lizard do, and as the bat does in caves or 
other dark recesses. These birds migrate, as their presence 
in the equatorial regions, during their absence from ours, 
conclusively proves ; and the idea of their being torpid has 
been countenanced by the fact, that the flight of most migra¬ 
tory birds takes place during the night. 
In many parts of the country there is an impression among 
farmers, that a kind of vegetation takes place among the 
white grubs, the product of which is the common blackber¬ 
ry bush. That a species of vegetation some times takes 
place on the bodies of insects, is doubtless correct; and the 
larvoe of the Melolontha, and the vegetating wasps, are ex¬ 
amples of this. The plant produced, however, is a species 
of the fungus tribe, and not any way related to the higher 
order of plants. 
In the last number of the sixth volume of the Cultivator, 
is an attempt to show that the Hessian fly and the Chinch 
bug, two of the greatest enemies to the wheat crop and the 
farmer, that this country has. are the same insect, or rather 
that they have the same parentage and origin ; and from the 
remarks there made it would seem that this opinion is quite 
common among our southern agricultural friends. This.it 
would seem, is the doctrine of transmutation applied to ani¬ 
mals, instead of plants, and appears to involve the same ab¬ 
surdity. In a reply to an objector in the American Farmer, 
the advocate of this transmutation of animals, gives the fol¬ 
lowing as proof and illustration : 
“Agricultor may think it strange and contrary to the or¬ 
der of nature, that the large white grub worms could be 
transformed or turned to grasshoppers. But such is the fact. 
A gentleman of highly respectable standing in this country, 
who caught one of these long, white cut worms, and placed 
it in a box with some loose earth, and after it was confined 
for some days, he examined it one morning, and found it 
had changed or produced a grasshopper. Is it more strange 
for a cut worm to be transformed into a grasshopper, than 
that a Hessian fly should deposite an egg which should pro¬ 
duce a Chinch bug?” 
That the large or long white grub is the larvee of the May 
bug is a fact so easily ascertained, and well known, that the 
mistaking of that insect for a grasshopper, though it might 
not. affect the standing of the gentleman alluded to, must 
have a tendency to impeach his knowledge of entomology. 
The grasshopper, when it first appears, is an insignificant, 
feeble animal, and it is only by long feeding and growth, 
that it becomes formidable. The May bug or melolontha, 
on the contrary, emerges from the earth, like the other bee¬ 
tles of full size, and commences the business of procreation 
with little delay. To suppose that such a large and formi¬ 
dable insect as the red headed grub, should be the parent of 
the tiny grasshopper, is having the mountain labor with a 
mouse, in good earnest. The Chinch bug and the Hessian 
fly are both perfect insects , and to suppose that they can have 
the same pareniage is preposterous. Insects in their several 
stages, appear under such different forms, that unless traced 
through the series of transformations, mistakes may well 
occur ; but in their perfect state, as the Chinch bug and the 
Fly, such mistakes are unnecessary. The theory is as in¬ 
correct, as to suppose that the progeny of the same Durham 
bull should in one case be like himself, and in another be a 
rhinoceros. 
Perhaps I have occupied enough of your valuable col¬ 
umns for this time. I may possibly recur to this topic here¬ 
after. M. S. D. 
Genesee, 1840. 
Rearing Chickens. 
Messrs. Editors —Having made some experiments in the 
raising of chickens, a business that forms a part of every 
farmer’s occupation, I send you a description of my present 
plan of operation, which appears to answer admirably. Un¬ 
der an out-house 16 by 18 feet square, raised 3 feet above 
the ground, I have dug a cellar, 3 feet helow the ground, 
making the height 6 feet altogether. Eight feet in width of 
this cellar is partitioned off for turneps, the remaining 10 by 
16 feet, being sufficiently large to accommodate 100 chickens, 
or even more. This cellar is enclosed with boards at present, 
but it is intended to substitute brick walls in the course of a 
year or two. The roost is made sloping from the roof to 
within 18 inches of the ground or floor; 12 feet long by 6 
feet wide. The roost is formed in this way; 2 pieces of 2 
inch plank, 6 inches wide and 12 feet long, are fastened paral¬ 
lel 5 feet apart by a spike or pin to the joist above, the lower 
end resting on a post 18 inches above the ground. Notches 
are made along the upper edge of these plank, 1 fool apart, to 
receive sticks or poles from the woods, the bark on. When 
it is desirable to clean out the roost, the poles being loose 
are removed; the supports W'orking on a pivot are raised and 
fastened up, then all is clear for the work of clearing out. I 
next provide the chickens with corn, oats and buckw heat, in 
3 separate apartments, holding about half a bushel each, which 
are kept always supplied. They eat less, I find, if allowed 
to help themselves to what they want than if fed to 
them in the usual way; for in the latter case each tries to 
get as much as it can, and thus burdens itself, but finding in 
the former case that they have abundance, they eat little, 
and that generally in the morning early, and in the evening 
going to roost. I have 60 chickens, and they eat about 6 quarts 
per day of the three kinds of grain, in the proportion of 
twice as much corn as buckwheat or oats. In the roost is 
also placed a trough of water, renewed every other day; 
burnt oyster shells, shell-marl and ashes. A row of nests 
is constructed after a plan of my own, and does well. It is 
a box 10 feet long and 18 inches wide; the bottom level, the 
top sloping at an angle of 45 degrees to prevent the chick¬ 
ens roosting on it; the top opens on hinges. The nests, 
eight in number, are one foot square; the remaining six inches 
of the width is a passage way next to the wall, open at each 
end of the box, and another opening midway of the box. 
The advantage is to give the hens the apparent secrecy they 
are so fond of. 
The following are the advantages of this plan of keeping 
chickens. By having a roosting place partly under ground, 
the chickens can keep warmer through the winter than any 
roost above ground could be made without fire ; and this is 
absolutely necessary to induce them to lay. When fed 
plentifully in the winter they lays enough eggs to pay for the 
grain, and in the spring they will repay fourfold. Even 
now, February 17th, our hens lay enough eggs to pay twice 
over for the grain they eat. I would recommend this plan 
to all who wish to make their chickens profitable. As fowls 
are very troublesome, running about the farm, I propose to 
enclose a few rods square of ground, with a pale fence 8 feet 
high, and confine them in that, allowing them occasionally a 
little more liberty. Respectfully yours, 
E. H. VANUXEM. 
Long-Branch, N. J. Feb. 17. 1840. 
Hog Illustration—A True Picture. 
Messrs. Editors of Cultivator —We are all of us wil¬ 
ling to show forth any thing that will illustrate any favor¬ 
ite theory, or favorite breed of cattle that shows to our 
own advantage. Would it not be equally useful if we were 
equally willing to illustrate the reverse of the picture f I 
think it would. And, therefore, I offer the following true 
picture of the profits of that universal breed of hogs, that 
covers the face of our country, to the exclusion of a better 
breed. 
When I settled in this new country a few years ago, I de¬ 
termined that 1 never would be the owner of any of that 
vile race of animals which infest the country, and which, 
before the discovery of the name of “land sharks,” used to 
be known by the name of hogs. But being unable to pro¬ 
cure any thing worthy of the name, the force of circum¬ 
stances made me the owner of several breeding sows in the 
winter of 1837, then running in the woods. With a force 
of dogs, men and guns, I caught and brought them home, 
and confined them in a lot, w'here I kept my cattle upon 
prairie hay. I found no difficulty in wintering these wild 
animals which I had bought for hogs upon the same. In the 
spring, they “multiplied and replenished” the woods. In 
the fall there was not sufficient “mast” (i. e. acorns and 
nuts] to fatten them ; and I was not so green as to under¬ 
take making pork of them with corn, and they lived to mul¬ 
tiply another season. 
The next fall, mast was plenty, and “wood hogs” were 
fat. I now had “ from fifty to one hundred head,” but fat 
hogs in the woods will die ; and when killing time came, I 
could only lay violent hands on eighteen. Only one-half of 
them were fit to be called pork. I still had a large “ claim” 
upon hogs in the woods ; but last fall I could only muster 
some ten or a dozen “ fit to fatten and these I let a neigh- 
