Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1866-02-21
AGRICULTURAL.

How TO DISTINGUISH BARREN HENS.
Barren hens are those that never
lay, or that will sometimes produce a
few eggs in the spring and at other
times small number during the latter
part OF summer. Such hens are to be
found in almost every poultry yard.
AS none of the treatises on poultry
now extant allude to this subject we
herewith record certain infallibIe signs
by which barren hens may be distin-
guished from those that lay.
Hens that lay are off the roost at
the first dawn of the morning, while
barren hens often remain there until
the sun is high in the sky, or until the
laying hens have ample time to fill their
crops. Laying hens have yoracious
appetite, which appears almost in
satlable When they are beng fed i
while barren hens are often very in
different about eating, Hens that are
about to commence laying, or that do
lay every day, or every alternate day,
are as active obtaining feed for them
selves as one having brood of hungry
chickens is dilligent in scratching up
and scratching out necessary feed for
her young ones; and such hens arc
always ready to run into the barn,
stable, or other places where they are
not permitted to go, while barren
hen moves about with as much indif-
terence as if she were a piece of ami
mated stupidity. A hen that lays an
egg today and another tomorrow has
a comb and gills red and glowing like
tie ruby lips of a beautiful damsel in
th e la st stage of her gigglehood,
while the comb and gills ola barren
hen will be as colorless,palid,and some
times wrinkled and dried up as the
once fair face of some of our maiden
aunties of f0rty-fve and upwards
When a hen that lays has eaten till
her crop appears distended to its ut
most capacity, she will force down a
little more, while q barren one will oft
en- appear as indifferent about eating
good feed as weaned baby after it has
been stuffed with sweetcake and candy.
A hen that has laid an eyg to-day and
will lay another tomorrow, will 90
singing around the yard and uttering
soft and cOmplacent notes, as If the
vast universe were an Eden of love,
and producing eggs were source OF
exquisite pleasure; while the hen that
never lays has no more music in her
soul than the wife OF Socrates, and 3p.
pears as fOrlorn as the mother of
Samuel ten months before the birth
of that distinguished prophet, Those
hens that lay will cOmpanlonize with
their betrothed chanti :leers, viii | c
, those having no eggs in their ovary
will avoid the flock and resent the at
: tentiOnS of the rooster as if he were
, some insulting and abusive renegade
+ The part of the body Of laying hel
around the ovary will appear plump
and sometimes an egg can be felt
J while one that does not lay will seen
y as destitute ofeggs as if it were he
twenty-eighth day Of incubation OF
q turkeys eggs.
" PRESERVING GRAFTs.-lt trequentl.
= happens that scions cut in cold weathe
: are exposed to severe freezing, 0
! perhaps a bundle Of twigs may la
Is over for a whole week in some "wa
:, station" where the mean temperatur
- "a very mean temperature for twl9
NJ is at 35. In the first instance, tn
u vitality of the scion is greatly impair
" ed, perhaps destroyed entirely by tn
. penetration of for at the cut ent
a. a. shooting up the capillary ducts, an
u disarranging the valvular econom.
al while in the other case the twig wi
D ;" very likely have been bled to deaf
" or its fluids so depleted that though
1' 1' NAV survive, and even put forth fol
~ age, as a graft, it can never become
IL vigorous, fruit-bearing branch.
All scions cat from either tree
shrubs, or vines, suffer to greater
. less extent by delay and exposure
he atmospheric Influences. For a n
oi one to argue that scion Is none Il
IN. worse for being cut and laid by for
nd month in cold weather, is to argue
he error, and against the imperative Il
as cessities of plant life. If a scion, c
M and tied up with a bundle Of twi2
40 cannot survive always, and grow u
ter as vigorously as it did on the pare
I've stock, then it cannot remain III I'll
her condition a month, week, or TWEEN
zen four hours without some damage.
to But if by an application to the
out part of something that shall act
me the plant structure, as the hcali
On salve does upon the wound on IL
ter or animal, we can maintain partia
her normal condition of the scion, we sh
yea have added very greatly to its chan
ere of life and vigor.
- A good many years ago ws saw
red New York State farmer eXperim
dis with scions and this was his practl
,ash Cutting large, sound potato III
en- 5 halves, as fast as his scions were
ntly from the tree he thrust the heels
her the depth ofabout threequarterS
her an inch into the cut side of the pot
'een each half receiving some fifty
rug ons. The buudlcs were then wrap
was in the leg Of an old pair of woe
and pantaloons, and laid away i'll the
erai lar for winter. In the spring
dis were grated, and nearly all G
the we'll.
her If any one will take the tro
nor next spring, when apple trees ar
hu- bloom, to cut a twig bearing, say
con- dozen blossoms and as many lea
act thrust the cut end into large 81
DIS sound potato, place the potato IN
7" llh of earth, barely covering it, moi
wiie, occasionally, and watch the resul
ana will very likely argue afterward
e the there is something more than II
ef1tc ,L,,o about n potatpp'S nrpSpT