POULTRY.
Nearly every family can, with very little trouble, have eggs in plenty during the whole year; and of all the animals domesticated for the use of man, the common dunghill fowl is capable of yielding the greatest possible profit to the owner.
The Hen-House should be warm in winter, well ventilated in summer, white-washed and kept clean. Roosts of sassafras poles are less infested with lice. Have no ground floor. Supply slacked lime, fine gravel, or ashes, or burnt oyster shells, &c.
Feeding.–They will sing over Indian corn with more animation than any other grain. The hen must have secrecy and mystery about her nest; watch her, and she wilt forsake her nest, and stop laying.
They eat less, if allowed to help themselves to what they want, than if fed 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 but little and that generally in the morning early, and in the evening going to roost.
A farmer may keep an hundred fowls in his barn, may suffer them lo trample upon and destroy his mows of wheat and other grain, and still have fewer eggs than the cottager who keeps a single dozen, who provides secret nests, chalk eggs, pounded brick, plenty of Indian corn, a few oats, lime, water, and gravel, for them; and who takes care that his hens are not disturbed about their nests. Three chalk eggs in a nest are better than a single neat egg, and large eggs please them.
A single dozen fowls, properly attended, will furnish a family with more than 2,000 eggs in a year, and 100 full-grown chickens for fall and winter stores. The expense of feeding the dozen fowls will not amount to 18 bushels of Indian corn. They may be kept in cities as well as in the country, and will do as well shut up the year round as to run at large, with proper care.
A Fact.–Eggs the nearest to roundness produce females, and those pointed at one end always produce males.
For Fattening.–Boiled Indian, wheat and barley, is better than oats, rye or buckwheat. One-third is gained by boiling.
MISCELLANEOUS HINTS.
Wild Onion may be destroyed by cultivating corn, ploughing, and leaving the field all winter.
Remember.–The great rule in relation to animals holds perfect in its application to vegetables: breed only from the best animals; defects and imperfections have always a tendency to propagate themselves, and are always, in a greater or less degree, transmitted.
Wheat shoots strongest when there is an interval between the time of ploughing and sowing, but barley is most vegetative when sown immediately after the plough.
Grease Wheels.–50 parts, by weight, of pulverized black lead, 50 of lard, 50 of soap, and 5 of quick-silver. Rub the lard and mercury first together, then the lead and soap. If well mixed, it is invaluable.
Plants, when drooping, are revived by a few grains of camphor.
Flowers beginning to fade, can be restored by putting the stems in scalding water.
Bacon Hams in summer.–Pack in a barrel, in clean dry ashes or charcoal; head up the barrel and put it where it is dry, and as cool as possible.
Timber cut in the spring and exposed to the weather with the bark on, decays much sooner than that cut in the fall.
In Feeding with corn, 60 lbs. ground goes as far as 100 lbs. in the kernel.
Apples.–Experiments show apples to be equal to potatoes to improve hogs, and decidedly profitable for fattening cattle.
Pears are greatly improved by grafting on the mountain ash.
Rats and other vermin are kept away from grain by a sprinkling of garlic when packing the sheaves.
Wet Land.–Money skilfully expended in drying land by draining or otherwise, will be returned with ample interest.
Grass.–Sweet and nutritious grass gives a richness and flavour to milk, attainable from no other source.
Curing Fodder.–Bundles may be so placed around centre-poles as to form a hollow stack, having a foundation of brush, sticks, &c., admitting a circulation of air that will thoroughly cure fodder in the shade.
Turnips of small size have double the nutritious matter that large ones have.
Ruta Baga is the only root that increases in nutritious qualities as it increases in size.
In transplanting trees, the hole should not be proportioned to the extent of the roots as they are, but to their extent as they may be and should be.
Toads are the very best protection of Cabbages against lice.
Peach Trees are protected from hard winters by covering the roots a foot deep with straw, in January, after the ground has become thoroughly frozen, which keeps the frost in the ground, and so prevents the sap from starting until the Spring is fairly opened.
The Udder of a beef cow, sailed, smoked and dried, is rich, delicious eating.
Lard never spoils in warm weather if it is cooked enough in frying out.
Wash your Butter in cold water, work out all the buttermilk, pack it in a stone jar, stop the mouth air tight, and it will keep sweet for ever.
Tomatoes make an excellent preserve.
Sweet or Olive Oil is a certain cure for the Bite of a Rattlesnake. Apply it internally and externally.
To cure Scratches on a Horse.–Wash the legs with warm strong soap suds, and then with beef brine. Two applications will cure the worst case.
A lump of Sal eratus or Pearlash, crowded into the pipe of a Poll Evil or Thistleows, two or three times, will cure this incurable disease.
Corn Meal should never he ground very fine. It injures the richness of it.
Rice is often over-boiled. It should be boiled but 10 minutes, and in no more water than it will absorb while boiling. Put two cups of rice in three cups of water.
Sulphur is valuable in preserving grapes, plants, &c., from insects.
Old Brine.–If sweet and good, and has kept your old pork good, it will keep the new without boiling. If the brine is full of matter which if has received from the old pork, it cannot extract the beat juices of the new, and is quite as sweet.
Salt is really necessary to horses, cattle, and sheep, and they should be supplied with it at regular stated intervals throughout all seasons of the year.
Manure, on a wet soil, produces but half its effect: and gypsum, that grand stimulant of dry soils, on a wet one is useless.
Save your Fire Wood.–Mr. Madison, in his Notes of Agriculture, says, “Of all the errors in our rural economy, none perhaps is to be so much regretted, because none so difficult to be repaired, as the excessive and injudicious destruction of fire wood.”
Sorrel may be killed out by lime, while ashes has no effect on it.
Shumac or Sumac, a poisonous shrub or plant, which grows wild in abundance, and frequently where nothing else will, is used for dyeing in England, at the rate of thirteen thousands tons per annum. It might be made a source of profit to our farmers.
