Green leaves and vegetable matter of
whatever sort will aid to give moisture,
which the compost must have. As often
as necessary to keep down bad oders and
to hold escaping gasses, grass sods or
soil from the fence corners should be
thrown over the heap. When thoroughly
decomposed this will be a fertilizer of
great value—Thomas D. Baird.
Effects of Inbreeding
American Agriculturist.
Take a flock of common hens of all
colors, shapes and sizes, so as to conduct
an experiment. Place with them a pure
bred Plymouth Rock cock, and the chicks
will become uniform and so near like
Plymouth Rocks that it will be difficult to
distinguish them from pure-bred. To
continue the experiment, the next season
use a cock of the last year’s production,
with pullet’s of the same blood. That is,
keep one of the half-bred Plymouth Rocks
and mate him with a few of the half-bred
pullets. The result will be that chicks
hatched from the eggs laid by the half
bred pullets will revert to like their gran
dams, and instead of being uniform, like
the cross from the pure-bred Plymouth
Rocks will come of all colors, shapes and
sizes (when larger). By inbreeding the
uniformity is destroyed, because the par
ents arc not pure bred. Hence, always
use a pure-bred male in the flock, no mat
ter of what breed it may be, a;-.d your
chicks will be not only uniform, but sup
erior to those of the previous season.
The same rule applies to the breeding
of cattle, sheep, and to all domestic ant
mv.ls.
THE HOUSEHOLD
COLD BICE.
