Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Lyrasis IVIembers and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/ploughloomanvil04phil '^flACH, "E^ A MONTHLY PUBLICATION DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC AND fRACTrCli.L AGHICOLTOHSr+MANDFACTUEES— ^^^^\ i^ \iU MFCU '>i\'ICS-NFW I\'V"\T"Q\b-r\ PODND ?PO't-E'"T" V i-" i-OLICT — " '^Ril S^^^^T " ' HI ID \ 3^ — njr i A^l. Lt'^'TS' -— P' i I Kf E — j-i- VrR-^-GAR V. -Be Jib CATl IE, Li .^ b 1 Tb orio^ ' H I'^L I i' , i.c ^^^^ Jier ' i ,^l^>^?'l^' 4^ '• [i^^^-^=-__l^Q '.S^-^o<&»=^^^ IV E W^ - V O R K : PUBLISHED BY MYRON FINCH, 9 SPRUCE STREET. Philadelphia: R. C. THOMSON, 168 Market, cor. 5th St. 1852. JOHN A. GRAY, PRINTER, 97 Cliff, cor. Frankfort Street, New-York, ^ INDEX TO YOL. IV. Absurdities and their Authors, 244. Ad Valorem System, Effect of, on Morals, 160. Agriculture, 3(l8. " and Manufactures in Virginia. 102. " IS atioual Congress of, 97. " of Nottinghamshire, England, 201, 275, 333. " How Protection Benefits, 739. « Peculiarities of English, 718. " Religious Prosperity and Scientific, 425 " Census of, 481. " Measures for Improving, 732 Agricultural Dinners and Speeches, English, 45. " National Convention, 753. Agriculturist, What can he do ? 725. Alabama, Coat of Arms for, 473. American Produce in I iverpool, 223. American Science, 248. Ammonia and Water in Guano, 191. An American Author, Justice to, 361. Analysis of the Turnip Beet, 290. Annual Fairs of 1851, 3119, Apple Trees, Pruning, 556. Artificial Manuring, The Principles of, 231. Ashes, &c., as a Manure, 33. Barn-yards, The Scrapings of, for Wheat, 221. Bathing-rooms attached to Dwelhngs, 373. Beardsley's Planing Machine, 355. Bees, 376. Carrots, Value of, 750. Canker- Worms, 741. Cheapest Marliet, Buying in the, 372. Chemistry applied to Agriculture, 296, 494, 618. Chinese Husbandry and Policy, 525. " Opium Trade, 555. Chicory, 632. Chloroform, Operation on a Horse while under the Influence of, 745. Coal, Application of Anthracite to' Iron-making, 372. Coal Regions of Pennsylvania, Visit to the, 301, " in North Carolina, 340. Coffee, How to make excellent, 635. Coins, Value of Foreign, &.C., 183. Colonial System, Beauty of the, 34, 285. Competition with Cheap Labor, 298. Comstock's System of Ttrra Culture, 374. Congress, American Pomological, 220. Consumer from the Producer, Effects of Separat- ing the, 731. Consumeis. The Way to convert, into Producers of Food, 158. Cork Tree, The, 635. Corn, Hilling Indian, 691. " Oysters, How to make, 169. . " Trade of Europe, The, 239. Cottage Design?, 399, 460, 531, 621, 661, 717. Cotton and t'ugar, 94. " Making, to buy Provisions, 724, " Manufacture ot, 1 12. " Manufactures Decreasing, 362. " Plant, New, 370. " Gin, The American, 341. Cows, Hints on the Treatment of, 171. Cultivation, Changes in Plants produced by, 752. Dairy Management, 47, Dairies of Holstein, 60. Daisies and Thistles, 273. Dispersion, Evils of, 78, 141, 291. Dog, The Shepherd's, 187. Dogs, To Protect Sheep from, 352. Drain Level, 630. Draining, New and Valuable Discovery in, 103. Durham Short-Horn Cattle, Great Sale of, 108. Duty, Who Pays the, 219, i41. Effect of bringing Consumer to the Producer, 218, 421. Effect of separating the Consumer and the Produ- cer, 285, 731. Eggs, Preservation of, 483. English Agriculture, 548. " Monopoly, Frauds in the Advocates of, 267. " in South America, 34. Entomology, with Illustrations, 23. Everett, Speech of Hon. Edward, S04. Exhausting Land, Result of, 420. Extraordinary Change of Position, i:90. Farming and Farming Lands in Minnesota, 458. Farmers and Book-learning, 685, 740. " and Mechanics Wanted, 43. " How they pay for Iron, 42. « Hoys, A Hint to, 689. Farming, 633. " Statistics of, 496. " on a Small Scale, Effects of Judicious, 554. " Mode of, in England, 662. " Thorough or High, 5S7. Fattening Cattle, 49. Feeding Cattle, 437. Fertility of Soils, 540. Flax and Hemp, 164. " Old and New Methods of Treating, 671. " Cotton, 4.34, 751. " " M. Claussen's Invention, 211. » " Preparation of, 101. " Seed, as Food, 48. Flour, Great Packing of, 200. Fodder, Comparative View of different Kinds of, 128 Food of Plants, 35. " Market of the World, The Great, 357. " Setting Kettles for BoiUng, 559. Forsythia Viridissima, 625. ^bO>A5 IV Index. Fowls, Management and Profit of, 491. Freedom of Trade, Ilow to Protect, 465. Free Trade, Harmony of Real, &.C., 321. " " England's Professions and Practice of, 41. " " Paradise of, and Direct Taxation, 734. " Traders, Consistency of, 15. " " Logic of British, 722. French Merino, Fouadation of the, 735, Fruit, Cultivation of, 540. " Trees, Wash for, 48. " The Use of, 172. Fruits raised by J. 0. Hodges, 165, Fuel, Unseasoned, 436. Furniture, Home-made, 482. Georgia, Statistics and Prospects of, 44. Grain Crop, Crisis of the, 726. " Market of the World, 150. " Reaper, s^tart's Patent, 210, Grape, The \Vhite.Native, 629. " Culture, 746. Grapes, Can they be grown successfully in Pots? 43. Grapes, How to Preserve Fresh, 168. Grass Lands, Manure for, 48. Grasshoppers, Immense Flight of, 167. Gravi ty, The Centre of, 228. Great Britain, Causn of Prosperity in, 688. Green-house Plants, General Treatment of, 192. Guano in Great Britain, Consumption of, 40. air. Wool, and Sheep Breeding, Lecture on, 88, Hard to Beat, 77. Harrow and its Uses, The, 546. Harvest Labor, 80. Hear Both Sides, 65, 19.3. Hemp and Flax, 154. Hints on Purity of Breeds, 99. " to Housekeepers, 36:?. Hollyhocks, 46. Horses, To Cure the Distemper in, 59. " Treatment of, when Heated, 552. Horticulture, &c.. The Science of, 190. Hudson, Close of the, 627. Husbaudry of the best portion of England, Prize Essay, 145. Hygrometer, Portable, 422. Illinois, Resources of, 470. " Western, 365. Importations, 34. Industry, The Sounds of, 149, Internal Improvements, 613. Ireland, The Way for Irishmen to avenge, 673, Iron, Domestic Product of, 433, " Duty on, 32, " Fence, 98. " How the Farmers pay for, 42, «' Virginia R. R.. and British, 105. « Works in the United States, 469, Irrigation, 17,82,292. Jottings, Editors', 505, 565 700, 759. Lamoville County, Vt., Topography of, 634. Land Draining, New and Valuable Discovery in, 103. Land, English, What gives Value to ? 300. Lands, Renovating Southern, 350. Lecture on Hair, Wool, and Sheep-breeding, 88, Libraries, Public, 744. Lice on Cattle, To Kill, 26. Light in the Northwest, 289. Lime Burning in Great Britain, 551, " Composts, 172. " Preparing Mortar and Slaking, 622. " Superphosphate of, 119, Macon, Convention at. 310, 375. Maine, Agric\iltural Prospects of, 369. » HowtheTariTof 1846 affects, 558. « Winter Wheat in, 377. Mangold Wurzel and Salt, 40. Manufacture of Pins, Uooks, and Eyes, 222. Manufacturing Property, Sale and Sacrifice of, 14. Manufactures at the South, 472, : 50, 636. " and .Agriculture in Virginia, 102, " How they increase the Products of Agricultural Labor, 303. Manure, Barn-yard Scrapings for Wheat, 221. " " Value of, 747. " for Grass Lands, 49, ♦' Muck as a, 499. Mapes on High Farming, 657. Maple Sugar, 167. March, Work for, 563. Market on the Land, Benefits of, 104, 411, 529. " of the World, The Great Grain, 150. Maryland, Resources of, 111. Maynard's Primer, 626. Meat, Pickling of, 48. Melons, Analysis of, 155. Mineral Ingredients of Average Crops, 45. Minnesota, Farming and Farming Lands in, 458| 687. Missouri, Farming in the Platte Country, 396. Monopoly System, Gambling Character of, 364. Morris, L. G., His Second Annual Sale, 107. Muck as a Manure, 499. National Agricultural Society, 717. Nations, Ileal Grandeur of, 1, Natural Sciences, 225. New Books, 500, 563, 637, 693, 756. Nobility of Russia and America, 81, North Carolina Coal, 340. November, Work for, 272. Nutrition in Various Grains, 238, Orange Tree, A Venerable, 111, Orchards, Management of, 363, Our Correspondence, 507, 567, 695. Over-production, 479. Ox, The, 370. Parsnips as a Field Crop, 737, Parting Words. 362. Pear-tree, Moving a, 151. Peat Charcoal, Ashes, &c., as Manure, 33, " " a Deodorizer, 96. Phosphate cf Lime as a Manure, 299. Pickman Farm, Salem, Mass., 215. Pie Plant, The, 759. Plank-Roads, Steam Locomotion upon, 748. Planing Machine, Beardsley's, 355. Plant more Trees, 59. Plants, The Food of, 34. Plaster, Experiments in the Use of, 497. » Use of, 171. Plough Deep, 492. Plough, Loom, and Anvil, Consequences of Sepa- rating, 561. Ploughing by Steam, 361. Poisons and their Antidotes, 359. Policy of Democratic President:?, 95. Political Economy, Working of New, 656. Poppy Oil, .371. Pork, Profit of raising, 170. " Raisingin Vermont, 535, Porter's Graduating Try ere for Blacksmiths Forges, 155. Potato, The, 311. " Disease, 367. potatoes, California, &c., 374. Poultry, Management of, 44. " Manure, How to save, 368, Preserves, How to keep, 547. Prize Hams, Mode of Curing, 755. Prospect for ia52, 449. Prosperity, 556. " New Test of a Nation's, 350. Protection and Commerce, 743. Protection, How it affects the Farmers of Germany, 679. , ,„ .. Protection, The true Mode to Freedom of Trade, '59. . „„ Purity of Breeds, Hints on Preservmg, 99. Pursuits, Concentration and Variety of, 752, Index. Raspberry, Propagation of the, 165. Rats desert a Sinking Ship, 5.36. Reaping Macliine and Irish Laborers, The, 152. Resources of California, 166, 533. " of Maryland, 111. " of Virginia, 110. Restrictive Policy, Which is the, 161, Rice HuUer and PolisJier, Strong's Improved Pa- tent, 562. Rich Richer, and Poor Poorer, How to make the, 109. Roads, Compulsory Sabscriptions to, 672. Roses, Select, 558. Salt as a Manure, 40, 467, 521. Science and Agriculture, 160. Screw, with Illustrations, The, 126. Seeds, Choice and Selection of, 412. Sheep-folding, 479. " Foundation of the French Merino, 735. " vs. Peach Trees, 161. " Improved Spanish Merino, 629. Skinner, Memoir of John S., 348. Slaughter-house, An Hour in a, 73-3. Smoke-IIouses, 247. Soil, Pulverization of, 168. Soils, Fertility of, 540. Solar Rays, Influence of, 400. Song of the Railroad, The, 168. South Carolina, 736. " " and the South, The Future of, 413. " " Policy of, and its Effects, 534. South, Mineral Resources of the, 545. Sowing, Advantages of Thick, 680. Stables, Disinfection of, 738. Stock, Improvement of our Common, 528. Strawberries, Different Varieties of, 163. Sulphuretted Rags vs. Hares, 112. "Surplus Wheat of the United States, 248. Swamp Muck as a Manure, 499. Tariff Convention in Northern New-York, 407. " of 1842 and 1846, Tendencies of, 214, 665. " of 1846, and the Great Staple of the South, 353. Tariff of 1846, how it affects Maine, 558. " " " protects Agriculture, 563. " " Effect of, on Merchants, 160. « " Fruits of, 246, 553. Tax on Land, The First and Greatest, 283. Tea in the United States, The Cultivation of, 483, 628. Teeth set on Edge, 243. Tennes ee. Letters to a Planter of, 641, 705. Thistles and Daisies, 273. Thoughts and Facts, 29. Tilling much Ground without much Profit, 723. Tobacco, Cultivation, Inspection of, &c., 25,31, 465, 475, 631. Topics of the Press, 508, 570, 761. Transportation, Cost of different Modes of, 27. " First Tax of, paid by Labor, 129. Trees, Shade and Ornamental, 171. " What are they made of? 747. " Method of Transplanting, 755. Turnip Beet, Analysis of, 290. University, A National, 557. ' Urine, a Fertilizer, 245. Vegetable Kingdom, The, 241. Vermont, Raising Pork in, 535. Veterinary Medicine, &c., Remarks on, 430. Vine, Cultivation of the, 181. Virginia and her Interests, 428. " Manufactures and Agriculture, 102. " Railroads and British Iron, 105. " Resources of, 110. " Wool Growing in, 162. Volcanic Action, Effects on Atmosphere, 358. Water Freshening Apparatus, Bread and Fell's, 274. Weights, Measures, Coins, &c., Foreign, 183. Wheat, Cause and Cure of Smut in, 165. Women in England, Out-door Occupations of, 100, Woodlands, Effect of Skinning, 434. Wool-growers, 366. Wool-growing in Australia, 427. " in Virginia, 262, Vol. IV. JULY, 1851. No. I. Those of our readers who are familiar with Mr. Carey's work, The Past, the Present, and the Ftitufe, will recognize in the following article a portion of one of its chapter?. "We have been frequently urged to lay it before them, as containing the most satisfacto- 1-y oxDlanation of the cause, throughout the Union, of the extraordinary tendency to dis- toersion. Men arc every where flying from each other, scattering themselves over large surfaces, when each and every one of them is fully aware that his labor would be ren- dered doubly productive by increased facility of combining his efforts with those of other men. They fly from each other, that all mny become producers of food, when each man knows that land and labor increase in value as the consumer of food takes his place by the side of its producer. Desirous to exhibit to our readers the explatiation of the causes of these remarkable phenomena, we have obtained from the author a copy of this jjaper. revised and corrected to the present time ; thus exhibiting a view of the effects of the tariff of 1848, in arresting the progress of the nation towards that highest point of real grandeur, indicated by the existence in perfection of the power of self-protection of the people, each among his neighbors, and of the nation among the community of nations. — Ed. p., L., and a. THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS-. The population of the United States is by the late census above twenty- three millions ; and the surface comprised within the existing States and territories considerably exceeds a million of square miles, containing probabh' seven hundred and tilly millions of acres, each of which is capable, at a mod- erate estimate, of feeding a full-grown man ; and were it properly cultivated, it would clothe him too. The surface, then, that is already organized, is capable of maintaining seven hundred and fifty miUions of people, or three fourths of the whole population of the globe ; and yet men are seen, by thou- sands and almost tens of thousands, removing to Oregon and California to appropriate more land, of which they must cultivate the drier and less fertile soils ; while behind them are left fertile lands covered with the finest timber, almost utterly valueless because the cost of destroying the timber would be more than the land would sell for when cleared — and other lands underlaid %vith marl and lime that would at the smallest cost of labor fertilize them for centuries. For the benefit of the rich lands from which man thus flies, his predeces- sors have labored during more than a century. For their benefit, they have made roads, railroads, and canals — have built houses, and towns, and cities — and he can purchase them, with all their advantages of timber and soil, at the price sometimes of even sixty cents an acre, or one twentieth of the interest they have acquired in these improvements : yet he flies from them to commence the work of cultivation upon distant land that has no value, and that can never acquire any but from the labor that he himself bestows upon it. He flies from lich lands, that he may have at far less than cost, to obtain poor ones at full cost ; and a heavy cost it is. He flies from the neighbor- hood of rich bottom lands, covered with mantire that has there accumulated VOL. IV. — 1. THE REAL GRANDEUR OP NATIONS. for ages, and that he may have for little more than the labor of clearing them, while men near towns and cities pay thousands of dollars a year for the manm-e yielded by the produce of poor lands cultivated by him and others like himself. The natural tendency of man is to combine liis labors -nith those of his felbw-man, lie knows that two can roll, and four can lift, a log, that one alone could neither roll nor lift. Here, however, men are seen flying from their fellow-men, each one seeking to roll his own log, for lift it he cannot. The labor of each is thus wasted on the road. The manure of his hoi'ses is wasted on the road ; and his labor is unprofitably employed at the end of his journey. The natural tendency of man is to combine his axe with his neighbor's spade, lending one and borrowing the other. Here, however, the man with the axe flies from the man who has a spade. The natural tendency of man is to begin on the thin soil at the side of the hill, and to work down towards the rich soil at its foot, gathering manure on the latter with which to enrich the former; but here man flies from the rich soils near him, to seek the poor ones distant from him. The natural tendency of man is to combine with his neighbors for improving old roads, but here man flies to a distance that he may employ his labor on new ones, while the old ones remain unimproved ; and henceforth two are to be maintained instead of one. The natural tendency of man is to combine Avith his neighbors for improv ing the character of education in old schools ; but here he flies from his neigh- bors to places where there are no schools, and where there can be none until he shall build it himself. The natural tendency of man is to hold in regard old places and old churches, mellowed by time and sanctified by the recollection of those who had before inhabited them ; but here he flies from them, to cutout new places in the woods, whose harshness and hardness are quintupled by the recollection of the places he has left, occupied by the friends of his early years. Why is this so? Why is it that men should fly from western New- York, where railroads run through rich lands, coTered with dense forests, and through swamps that need ch'ainage alone to give to cultivation the richest soils in the world, to seek the West, where they even now cultivate poor soils distant from market, yielding but ten or twelve bJishels of wheat to the acre, and that small yield, too, annually decreasing* because of the necessity for starving the gi-eat machine, by wasting on the road the maiiure yielded by the horses or oxen employed in the work of transportation ; while the wheat itself is consumed abroad, leaving nothing whatever to return to the land ? Why is it that throughout that rich country, with its canals and railroads, its towns and its telegrajihs, popalation diminishes, and land concentrates itself in fewer hands t always the signs of diminishing wealth ? Why is it that men fly the fertile valleys and rich slopes of northern New- York, near neighbors to both the 8t. Lawi-ence and Lake Champlain, Avhere steamboats abound, to seek the shores of Lake Superior, there to obtain from the drier r.nd less fertile soils, that always must he first cultivated, a reward of little more than Ave or six times the seed ? Why is it that rich meadow-lands on the Schuylkill remain unimproved, while men seek Oregon and California ? Why if. it that vast forests still cover flue meadow-lands on the Susquehanna, capa- ble of yielding crops whose ions would number more than the bushels ob- ' See Report of Commissioner of Patents, January, 1845, p. 25. rSlE REAL GRANDE trS. OF NATIONS. tained from tlie wlieat lands of Ohio, and furnishing manure in tons for fertil- izing the poor soils of the hills, on which now stand farm-houses in the midst of farms that have been iu -cultivation for half a century :' Why do men ■seek Iowa, to raise from an a<:re thirty bushels of Indian corn, that befoi-e it ■can reach market must be converted into pork, while the lower lands of Vir- ginia arni Maryland are abandoned — lands tkat are ueai'er to market, and from which, by careful cultivation, a hundred bushels might be obtained ? Why is it tha^ men fly from the uieadow-lands of South Carolina, leaving the re* snaining inhabitants a prey to fevers and malaria consequent upon diminished populati-on, to seek the thin land of Texas, at the heads of the streams ; there to raise small crops to be wagoned over half-made roads down to new towns, possessing none of the conveniences that tend so greatly to diminish, the friction between the consumer and the pix>ducer ? Why is it that men are ■everywhere seen 10ying from their fellow-men — from those destined by the Deity <)0 be their helpmates — from parents and relations — from okl houses, and old churches, and old school-houses — e?d comforts, and old feelings — and from all the conveniences and advantages that tend so largely to promote their happiness and their respectability, and to increase their powers of exertion — to seek in Texas and Iowa, Oregon and California, K-ew homes and new rela- tions, amidst woods that they cannot fell,a'nd swamps that they cannot drain, -and upon the drier aad less ferti^fe soils tiiat yield, invariably, the smallest return to labor 1 These things would seem almost impossible ; yet if v.-e turn to India, we tnay see the poor Hindoo cultivating the poorest soils, and then laboring, almost m vain, to drive through the rich black clay that lies between him and his market the half-starved cattle that bear his miserable crop. Here we have the same state of things; and both here and there it may be traced to the same cause — necessity. In neither can men exercise power over the I'ich soils, because in neither have men power over th&inselves ; and until they ■shall have it, they must continue to fly from the neighborhood of rich soils 'Capable of yielding tons, by aid of whose manure pocr soils might be enriched, to poor soils becoming daily poorer, because to them even the manure yielded by their own little product cannot be returned. They borrow from the earth, and they do not repay, and therefore it is that they find an empty exchequer ; performing thus the process that farmei-s are enabled to avoid, when, as ia England and New-Ei^gland, the consumer takes his place by the side of the producer. Therefore it is that the average produce of New-York is but four- teen bushels of wheat to the acre, while that of Ohio is even less, although acres may readily be made to yield forty or fifty bushels ; and therefore it is that the average produce of Indian corn is but twenty-five, when it should be a, hundred bushels, and that of potatoes feut ninety when it might be four hiTodred biJshels. If we desire to understand the cause of these extraordinary facts, we may, perhaps, obtain our object by taking a biixi's-eye view of a farm-house cf western PeEnsylvama, near neighbor to the rich meadow-land above described. The farmer is reading the newspaper, anxious to know what are tlie crops of England, and whether or not the rot has destroyed the potato crop in Ireland. Four yeai-s since many of the people of Europe starved ; but he sold his crop at a good price, and paid off his debts. This year he wishes to purchase a new wagon, and to add to his stock of horses, but, unhappily for him, the farmei-s of England have had a favorable season, and the rot has not appeared in Ireland. Starvation will not sweep off its thousands, and he will get neither liorses nor wagon. His eldest son is preparing to remove to the West, to raise wheat and corn THE REAL GRANDEUR OP KATlOKS. in Wisconsin or Iowa, and to send to the ali'eady overstocked markets increased supplies of food. His daughter is grieving for the a})])roaching loss of her brother, and of her sweetheart, the son of the neighboring wool-grower, who is about to leave for Michigan to raise wool, that he may compete with his father, who, on his part, is studying carefully tlie newsjiapers in hopes to see that the sheep of Australia have rotted otf and thus diminished the supply of wool. He desires to pay off his debts, but this he cannot do, unless the price of wool should rise, and thus increase the difficulty of obtaining clothing. "Why do these sons move off? It is because there is no demand for labor. All the land is held in large f.'rras, because the swamps are ilndrained and the heavily timbered land is uncleared, and the less fertile soils alone are cul- tivated ; and farmers that would hve at all must farm and fence! in a great deal of land, where a dozen bushels to the acre are considered a good crop. Why does he not clear some of the meadow-land ? It is because there is no demand for milk, or for fresh meat— for hay, or turnips, or potatoes — or for any of those things of which the earth yields largely, and which from their bulk will not bear carriage to distant markets. He knows that when the great machine yields by tons, the product is worth little unless there be mouths on the spot to eat; but that when he restricts it to bushels, the pro- duct may be transported to the mouths. There is no demand for timber, for all the young men fly to the West, and new houses are not required. The timber is valueless, and the land is not worth clearing to raise Avheat, almost the only product of the earth that ivill bear carriage. To clear an acre would cost as much as would buy a dozen in Iowa ; and the ]'>roduct of four acres, at ten or a dozen bushels each, would be equal to one of forty or fifty bushels. He therefore goes to the West to raise more wheat, while his friend goes to raise more wool ; and his sister remains at home unmarried. Why does she not marry, and accompany her lover ? It is because she has found no demand for her labor, and has earned no wages to enable her to contribute to the expense of furnishing the house. Here, then, we have labor, male and female, superalnmdant for want of wages with which to buy food, and clothing, and houses — -food superabun- dant, for want of mouths to eat it— clothing material superabundant, for want of people to wear it — timber superabundant, for want of people desiring to build houses — fertile land superabundant, for want of people to drink milk and eat butter and veal — and poor land superabundant, for want of th,? manure that has for ages accumulated in the river bottom; while the men who might eat the veal and drink the milk produced on rich lands, are flying to the West to waste their labor on poor ones: those who should be consumers of food hecoriuiiff liroducers of food. Why is this ? It is because they have no market at which the labor, male and female — the food and tlie wool — can be exchanged for each other. They want a woollen mill, and had they this, the sons would stay at home and consume food, instead of going abroad to produce more. The daughters v/ould marry, and would need houses. The timber would be cleared, and the fertile lands would be culti\ated. The manure would be made, and the poor lands would be made rich. The milk would be drunk, and the veal would be eaten, and the swamps would be drained to make meadows. The saw-mill ■would come, and the sawyer would eat corn. The blacksmith, the tailor, the hatter, and the printer would come, and all wotdd eat corn. The town would grow up, and acres would become lots. The farms woiijd be divided, and the fencing of each diminished. The railroad would be inade, and the coal and iron would come ; and with each step in this progress, the farmer would ob- tain a better price for his corn and his wool, enabhng him from year to year THE REAL GRANDEUR, OF NATIONS. to appropriate more and more labor to tlie development of the vast treasures of the earth ; to building up the great machine, whose value would increase in. the precise ratio of the increase in the return to his labor. The more he could take out of it, the more it -^vould be worth. The good people of this neighborhood now use bad machinery of exchange. They send to market annually live thousand tons of food and wool, one half of which is absorbed by the horses, and men, and machines, required for its transportation, conversion, and exchange ; and thus they Day annually as much as would be required for the erection of a place of home exchange. The amount thus spent is lost for ever. The following year the same expen- diture is needed ; and the next, and every succeeding one. The same labor once applied at home, would stand, and in the following year the wagons, and horses, and men would be at work upon the farms, clearing richer lands, and carrying manure to the old ones; and with every year new combinations would arise — new and better lands would be cleared — new houses vi'ould be needed — new demands for timber would arise — new marriages would take place — new children would be born — and with each step in the progress of P'opulation and wealth, men would become richer and happier, and land would be more divided, and farms would be better cultivated, and schoolmasters and preachers would be better, and man would acquire more power over land and over himself. Let us now take a similar view of one of our planting friends in the South. His cotton is half picked, but early frost has come and killed the rest. Why is this ? He had not hands to pick it. Wh}^ had he not ? Because through- out the year there is no demand for labor. His best lands are imcleared, ]>ecause there is no demand for lumber. His meadow-lands are undrained, because there is no demand for milk or veal. He raises bushels of corn, when he might have tons of turnips or potatoes. He wants a place of ex- change for labor, food and cotton — a cotton mill. His neighbor is going West to the light soils of Texas, leaving the rich soils untouched. He is go- ing to raise more cotton. If he stayed, he might be a consumer of corn, and cotton, and milk, and veal, and beef. If we now ask the worthy planter why he does not clear the rich land close to the poorer soil that he now cultivates, his answer will be, that he has of- ferred twenty or thirty dollars an acre for clearing it, and destroying the tim- ber, but in vain', nobody will undertake it. Nobody needs timber. There are no houses wanted, for his neighbors are flying to jworer and more distant soils. There are no railroad sills needed, for the production of the neighbor- hood diminishes, and men will not make roads except when production in- creases. If we look in upon him at his hours of leisure, we shall find him in- tent upon the last news from England; desiring to know how many mills are closed — how many are v/orking half time — how many operatives have been discharged to starve — and wondering within himself if a time will ever arrive when it will be possible to calculate upon a continuance of the same state of things in that country during any single half year. If we look in upon him when meeting with his neighbor planters, we shall find them discussing the expediency of restricting the culture of cotton ; or of holding conventions for the purpose of determining how much shall be grown, with a view to acquire some power over their own actions, and thus to diminish their necessities — but all in vain. Each successive arrival brings with it the news of a further re- duction in prices, yet no means can be devised to bring the supply down to the demand ; and yet his neighbor goes to Texas to raise more cotton. He and his neighbors send annually to market four thousand bales, of which THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. tlie chief part is swallowed up by the men and the horses and machines em- ployed in the business of transportation and exchange. They send five thou- sand bales of cotton to get in exchange one thousand bales of cloth. Two thousand bales would build a place of exchange for labor, and corn, and cot- ton ; and the new machinery of exchange Avould stand. Thenceforward, the produce of hundreds of these bales would go upon the land, and newer and better soils would be cleared — and labor would become more valuable — and wages would rise — and men would marry, and hotisec Avould be needed, and children Avould be born — and land would become divided — and the planter would in time become the landlord of happy tenants, cultivating their own little farms for their own advantage ; and thus it is slaves would become free, while their masters would become rich, and only as they became rich. If we desire to see this process in full operation, we must turn our eyes to- wards New-England. The best soils are there cultivated, because there is a mar- ket on the spot for those productions Avhich our great mother earth supplies in such profusion that they will not bear carriage to distant markets. The Yan- kee can take tons from the land, and he can return tons of manure back to it, because he uses the best machinery of exchange. He concentrates his popu- lation by tens of thousands upon the poor soils of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and there he consumes the corn raised by the people of the West, and places on his own thin soil the manure with which they part. His soils double in productive power, while theirs fall off. lie becomes rich and richer every day, by concentration. They remain })oor, and then they scatter ihem- selves over new thin soils, to repeat in Iowa and Oregon the process of ex- haustion already so well commenced in New-York, Virginia, and Ohio. If we desire to see it elsewhere, we must turn to Eastern Pennsylvania. Under the tariff of 1842, population was there concentrating itself in the eoai and iron regions ; and what was the result ? She had ceased to be a corn-ex- porting State. Her miners ate the wheat of Michigan and Iowa. Her farmers were then clearing richer land. Houses were needed, and mine-props were needed, and railroad sills were needed, and Ix^at timber was needed, and in every spot, for iifty miles around the coal region, the farmers were felling their trees, which yielded them the means of draining their meadows, while the demand for milk, and beef, and veal, and potatoes, and turnips, and all those vegetable products that the earth yielded in greatest abundance, enabled them to grow rich themselves and to make their poor soils rich. She had ceased to be a rival to Ohio or Wisconsin in the market of the world, and, therefore, their products were more valuable ; and with the increased value of their produc- tions, the planter of Mississippi or Alabama was enabled advantageously to devote more of his land to raising food, and less to raising cotton, the effect of which has since been seen in the increased price of the latter. Since then the coal trade has become stationary, and many of the mines have been discon- tinued. The iron trade has been diminished one third, and many of the fur- naces have been abandoned. Her people have been and are now dispersing themselves over the West, to become producers of food, instead of consumer of food, and more planters will now raise cotton, and fewer will now raise food ; the result of which is about to be seen in the fall in the price of cotton. Such was the effect of a trade of six millions of dollars, the establishment of which had required fifty millions of dollars. Two millions more would have put up fifty furnaces, capable of producing two hundred and fifty thou- sand tons of iron, the producei-s of which would have eaten as much food, occuj)ied as many houses, and worn as much cloth, as those who had been set in motion by the fifty millions already expended. In the fashioning of the THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. great machine, it is the first step that costs, and each is but preparatory to a newer and greater and more profitable one. Three or four miUions more would have erected rolling-mills to convert all this iron into bars, and thus to produce a demand upon the farmer and the planter as great as that which has been produced by the fifty miUions. Ten millions would have built a hundred great cotton factories, furnishing a market for two hundred thousand bales of cotton, and five millions of dol- lars' worth of corn and clothing. Instead of opening these mines and building these furnaces and roUing- mills and cotton-mills, the tariff of 1846 has closed large numbers of those which were already in existence, and driven the miners and the workmen in iron and cloth to seek the West, there to become producers of food. The people who made the machinery and built the houses, would have been consumers of corn and cotton, and not producers of either. They would have needed houses at home, instead of houses in Texas or Iowa. The de- mand for houses would have made a market for timber. The demand for timber would have cleared the rich soils Avith profit to their owner, who would have felled his trees instead of paying men for killing them. He wovild have produced more food, and more people would have come to eat it, and they would have wanted more clothing, and more mills would have been needed, and more stone, and timber, and lime, and clay Avould have been required ; and with each step he would have been improving the great machine, while concentration would have afforded him means of improving his mind and his tastes, and of educating his children. Six millions would have built two hundred woollen factories, that would have used thirty millions of pounds of wool in a year ; and distributed among farmers, workmen, and workwomen, twenty millions of dollars in a year, to be applied to the piu-chase of food, by which the farmer would have been enabled to improve his better lands — of wool, by means of which he would have been enabled to improve his breed, and increase his product — • of timber, by aid of which he would have been enabled to clear his land — and of stone, by aid of which he would have been enabled to bring his quar- ries into use; while the constantly increasing circulation of man and of ma- chinery, and of their products, would have offered large inducements to im- prove the roads by which he could transjjort to market the surplus, for which he would have obtained better prices ; because population would have in- creased far more rapidly than at present, and men would have remained at home instead of seeking the wilds of the West ; and the increased demand for labor throughout the countiy would have enabled all to consume more ; and thus his powers when at market would have increased as his necessity for seeking that market decreased. But is this all ? It is not. The annual saving from this improvement of the machinery of exchange would have gone again upon the land, and more lumber would have been raised, and wages would have been greater, and the demand for houses and machinery Avould have made a market for the labor of thousands, all of whom would themselves have needed houses, and all would have consumed more food and clothing ; and the quantity to be sent into the great market of the world would have diminished, and prices would have risen. The farmer and planter would have increased their crops, while the machinery of transportation would have improved and the loss in exchanging would have diminished and all would have grown rich, and all would have acquired more power over land, and over themselves; while their land would have improved hourly in value. Their necessities would have di- THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. rainished, and their power would have increased, and as they made their own iron and cloth, and ate their own food, they would have been enabled to pur- chase more silks, and books, and newspapers, and pictures, and statues; and intellectual power would thus have grown with physical and moral power, and thus wdr ioulpraovement have kept pace with freedom. Why has not all tliis been done ? Why is it not now being done ? Let us ask the farmer. He will tell us that cloth is sometimes high and some- times low: that the woollen manufacturers have invariably been ruined by the perpetual fluctations of England. He will say that at this moment, under the tariff of 1846, coal and iron, and cottons and woollens are destroying all those engaged in their production. Further, he will say that if he and his neio'hbor fanners desired to associate for the purpose of building a mill, they would have to be bound, each for all ; and that they cannot get a charter, as there is no general law for that purpose, and the power freely to associate has no existence. Ask the planter. He will tell us that the cotton manufacturers have been ruined over and over again — that cotton goods are sometimes high and some- times low — that last year they were high, and that now England is forcing them into every market of the world — that he has no cliarter, and that with- out this he and his fellow-planters cannot associate; whereas, if they had a general law for the purpose, every man in the neighborhood would subscribe a little, and that then they might make an effort at concentration. Ask the farmer of Pennsylvania why he does not associate with his neigh- bors to erect a furnace, and his answer will be, that eight years since all the iron-masters were nearly ruined ; that five years since iron was worth £10 or £12 per ton, but that now it is down to £5, and that those who then built furnaces and rolling-mills have since been ruined. Here lies the secret of dispersion. Here is to be found the cause of the im- possibihty of concentration. The people of the United States have no power over their own actions. They waste annually more labor in hauling their pro- ducts to market^ and their consumers J'rom market, to the West, there to bo employed in raising more food and cotton, than would build places of exchange for all their labor and food and wool. Thoy Avaste on the roads the manure yielded by the products of poor soils, and they leave on the rich ones the ma- nure that has accumulated for ages, and that would render their poor ones rich ; and while they shall continue so to do, they must scatter themselves over the far West — they must leave home, and friends and school-houses behind — they must continue to b? hewers of wood and drawers of water on the poor soils, instead of becoming rich on the fertile ones — they must continue to obtain bushels where they might have tons — they must continue to do as do the people of India : cultivate poor soils, and find themselses bogged in the rich ones through which they have to drag their products to market. The annual loss to the people of the Union, from the want of the power to concentrate themselves on the rich soils, is far more than the value of the whole exports of England to all pxirts of the world, and were she to g'ive them the whole, the gift would be injurious. It would tend only to scatter the people more widely, for confentration would then be impossible, and loithotit that the. earth cannot he made to yield; and unless it be made to do so, the poor soils catmot be made rich. POPULATION MAKES THE FOOD COME FROM THE RICH SOILS, while depopulation forces men back to the poor ones. The number of States employed in producing cotton is ten. The whole product is about two million three hundred thousand bales, and the average THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. is therefore about two hundred and thirty thousand bales per State. To pre- pare a State for producing that quantity, and the food that is to be consumed by the men who raise it, has cost hundreds of millions of dollars. To place in that State machineiy requisite for the conversion of all its cotton into cloth, would cost twelve or fifteen millions of dollars, o;- less than the amount annu- ally wasted of labor for want of employment at home — of labor and manure in transporting the product to market — of labor and manure in transporting men to new lands — of crop, from the want of hands to pick it — of freights, because of the increased demand for ships and v.-agons — and of prices, because of the surplus in the markets of the world : and less than half the amotmt annually toasted, because of the necessity for cultivating poor soils while rich ones he idle. The cost of transporting the hides and the food to the shoemaker, his awl and his lapstone, is great, and all the manure is lost, and lost for ever. The cost of bringing the awl and the lapstone to the hides and the food is small, and all the manure is saved ; and the great machine is improved, because the manure is saved ; and the shoemaker wants a house, and the house wants timber and stone, by the furnishing of which the land is cleared. A large portion of the people of the United States are busily employed in carrying the hides and the food to the awl and the lapstone, and in driving people Avho might use the awl to other places where they must raise more hides and food. What is the remedy for this state of things ? The answer is easy : Eng- land must be made to raise her own food, and she must be made to let other nations consume theirs. The resistance of the United States put an end to the navigation laws. Their resistance killed the right of search. Their re- sistance will kill the colonial system, and give freedom to India and Ii'eland, to the 'people of England, and to tliemselves. To their resistance is due the fact that competition has already been in some degree established, and that the monopoly system of England is tending gradually to its fall. To make a short war, however, it should be a strong one. No set of men can now feel any confidence in erecting iron-works, cot- ton-mills, or woollen-mills, r.nd until confidence shall be restored, the little capitalists cannot get to work, and the business must remain in the hands of great ones, who can run great risks ; and while that shall be the case, but little will be done. Almost all that exists in the Union is the work of the mil- lions of little men engaged in improving the great machine — the earth — and when they, the little farmers, and little mechanics, and little shop-keepers, shall feel themselves pi'otected in their efibrts to get to work, the production of iron, and of cotton and w^oollen cloth, will go ahead as rapidly as farming has done, and then concentration will take place, and the rich soils Avill come into cul- tivation, and every county in the Union will have its iron, or its cotton, or its woollens exchange, and then land will double in product and in value. There is not a single county that could not supply the stone, the timber, and the labor necessary for building a furnace or a mill, and the food or the cotton necessary for the purchase of machinery — thus making a place of home ex- change. Once built, further capital would not be needed. The grower of corn, and hay, and oats, and wool, and the young men and young women who have labor to sell, perform their exchanges at the factory, which becomes a httle bank, in which each man buys a share while accumulating means to build a house or buy a farm, selling it again when the house is built or the farm is bought. Throughout the Union, south of the Hudson, there is not a single county in which there is not more labor unemployed than would build 10 THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. sucli a place of exchange ; and not one in which, for want of such a place, there is not wasted ten times more labor power than would suffice to carry it on. Were each county to help itself, all would be helped. Wealth is power. The people of the United States have the wealth. That wealth has given them power, dispersed as they have been, to do much. Con- centration will give them greater wealth and greater power. Their twenty- three millions produce at this moment a greater quantity of commodities than the people of England, while they build twice as many houses — make twice as many roads — apply thrice the labor to the improvement of land — build four times as many school-houses and churches — and print ten times as many newspapers. The machinery of production is greater than that of Eng- land, and all they now require is better machinery of exchange. Let the farmers and plantere have this, and population will increase with greater rapidity than ever, for young men will stay at home and marry, instead of going to the West ; and tens of thousands of mechanics, and of coal and iron miners, will seek the United States ; while laborers will come by hun- dreds of thousands, if not by millions, and every man will furnish a mouth to be fed, instead of, as now, furnishing hands to produce food. They will then be consumers of corn, and wool, and cotton, instead of producers — customers, instead of rivals. The Irishman, once landed here, will consume a dozen pounds of cotton where now he consumes not even one, and he will consume mutton and beef, instead of starving on a handful of j^otatoes. Corn and cot- ton will be produced at less cost of labor, and wages in corn and cotton will be higher, while cloth and iron will be cheaper, and the farmer will cease to have to jjray for bad crops in Europe ; while the planter will find in the in- creased demand for his product, consequent upon the higher wages of England and of Europe, a certainty of a good market for all he has to spare. Coffee, and tea, and sugar will then be paid for in cotton cloths, and the men who make the cloth will be customers to himself and to his brother agriculturists of the north, who will use more cotton than at present ; while Brazil and Cuba will want more cloths, because they will have a better market for their sugar. Every diminution in the machinery of exchange tends to give more time for improving the great machine of production, whether for cotton or sugar, wheat, rye, oats, or hemp — to increase the qaantity produced — to in- crease the wages of the laborer and the profits of the capitalist, whether landed or moneyed — and to increase the comfort and happiness of all. Let but the people of the United States set the example of a determined resistance to the system, and it will be followed by all Europe. British arti- sans will then seek America and Germany, and Britain will raise her own food. Her fleets and armies Avill disappear, and her colonies will become in- dependent. The people of the United States owe this to themselves, and to the world. They enjoy a higher degree of happiness than has fallen to the lot of any other nation, and they should desire to aid their fellow-men in England, in Ireland, in Germany, and in India, and by helping themselves they will help them. As colonies, India and Ireland will remain poor. As independent nations, they will become rich, for they too will insist on the right of placing the consumer by the side of the producer. Westward the star of empire wends its way. From the west to the east civilization has gone, and so it has yet to go — from the base of the AUegha- nies to the foot of the Himalaya. The measure is one of peaceful and quiet, but determined, and it should be of united, action. It is one that interests Every planter that wishes to cultivate rich lands instead of poor ones : THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 11 Every farmer that would raise tons instead of bushels : Every fether that would wish to see his sons and his sons' sons settle round him : Every mother that wishes to see her daughters married : Every son that would have a wife and a home of his own : Every daughter that would have a husband : Every journeyman that would be an employer : Every laborer that would have a farm and a house, or shop, of his own : Every property-holder taat desires higher rents : Every man that hates crime and loves virtue : Every man that loves literature and art : Every man that loves freedom : Every man that loves the people of England : or of France : Every man that loves Ireland : Every man that feels for India : Every man that loves his old fatherland, Germany: Every man that loves free trade : Every man that loves peace : Every man that loves his fellow-man : Every man that loves his Creator : Every man that desires that the great law of Christ, " Do unto othere as ye would that others should do imto you," should become universally operative. It is the great work reserved for the people of these United States. It ia one that they have the power to accomplish, and it should be entered upon with the same feeling that animated the Puritans of old ; the same that gave confidence to the men who, seventy years since, signed the Declaration of Independence. It would be a peaceful war for the emancipation of them- selves and of the world. For two centuries ]:)ast, the v/orld has been perpetually disturbed by the ware of England and France, for ships, colonies, and commerce. Had France had no colonies, there would, probably, have been no wars of the French Revolution after the failure of the invasion of 1'792. But for them, France would have been permitted quietly to settle down, in which ease Italy and Spain, Holland, Germany, and Russia, would have escaped the war of twenty years, and France might now be rich, powerful, and free. The system of both nations is one of perpetual interference. At one time, Poland is to be excited ; at another, she is to be abandoned. At one time, Greece is to be aided ; at another, Syiia is to be delivered over to the tender mercies of the Egyptian Pasha ; at a third, China is to be made to buy opium, and to open her ports to the cloths of the men who have ruined the poor manufacturers of India. At one moment, the affairs of Spain require the interpositioii of Eng- land ; at the next, we see her fleets in Portugal, dictating terms to people driven by oppression to revolt. At another, France governs Spain, and the country is made a scene of murderous war, while the court is one of endless intrigue, having for its object the promotion of the interests — not of France, but — uf the family of Louis Philippe or Louis Napoleon : all anxious, as French princes have at all times been, for appanages at home, and thrones abroad. For centuries has the European world been agitated by the princes of the houses of Valois and Bourbon, and those of the house of Orleans and of the family of Bonaparte are well disposed to follow their example. For years past has almost all commerce with the La Plata been interdicted, because England and France chose to interfere in aflairs that were not their 12 THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. own. They failed, and the country was worse by years of wars and poverty. But a few years since, the afRiirs of Texas claimed their attention. Now (Central America has become the focn?i of tlie intrigues of England. But a short time since, the people of the United States were to be compelled to join in a crusade against the African slave-trade, which would long since have ceased to exist had England and France permitted the world to remain at peace. At every difference of opinion as to rights, we are menaced with the destruction of our towns and cities, and the seizure of our ships. At every quarrel, whether to maintain the trade in opium, or to put down that in slaves, our trade is interrupted. The two nations are everywhere seen med- dling with everybody's business, and neglecting their own. They are the great bullies of the world. Italy would now be strong to help herself, but for the wars of France and England. So would Spain and (jermany. Wars made for private ends are afterwards carried on for " the public good," and in defense of " the liberties of Europe," which will take care of themselves whenever the armies and fleets of England and France shall disappear, but not until then. Both countries should be placed under bonds to keep the peace ; and the peace-loving portions of the earth can take those bonds when they will. Both should be made to turn their attention homeward — to raise their own food — to feed their starving artisans — to im- prove their own morals — to free their own people from the thousand restric- tions under which they labor — and thus Avould they set to the world an example far more woi'thy to be followed than Avhen they are seen preaching liberty and practising oppression ; paj'ing for slaves in the West Indies, and making slaves in the East by means of taxes on salt for the payment of divi- dends on India stock. Nations that pursue the natural system of concentra- tion v.'ill find that the first of all rules is the simple one : " Let every man mind his own business." The people of the Unitecl States possess the power of compelling both nations to follow this rule ; for if they determine on the course that is essential to their prosperity, it will be followed throughout Europe ; and then fleets and armies must ho, abandoned, and colonies must be left to exercise the right of self-government. THE REAL GRANDEUR OF NATIONS CONSISTS IN THE PER- FECTION OF THE SELF-DEFENSIVE POWER, and that is now pos- sessed by the United States in a degree greater than iiny other nation of the world. They have laid the foundation of a pyramid whose base is a mil- lion of square miles, occupied b}'^ twenty-three millions of people, and filled with little communities, each with its little school-house, its church, and its newspaper. Each of those little communities occupies space sufticient for a large one, with its academy, or its colleges, its numerous churches, its newspa- pers, its bookstores, and its libraries, all aiding to give to the structure a height proportioned to its base ; and that height may bo obtained whenever the planters and tarmers of the Union shall determine to exercise the right peaceably to defend themselves. Until they shall do so, concentration caimot take place. Until they shall do so, their people must continue to waste their labor upon poor soils, yielding bushels, while neglecting rich ones that would yield tons. Whenever they shall do so, they will at once take the place to which they are entitled by two centuries of peaceful action, in which it is difficult to discover a single important error until the occasion of the Mexican war ; and we cannot but hope that they will hereafter exhibit to the world a specimen of real greatness, in protecting instead of assiuUting their poorer neighbors incapable of self-defence. They are strong, and they can afford to be generous. With England and with France lies the THE REAL GRANBEUr OF NATIOrNS, 13 great contest, and it is for the exercise of power over their own actions ; for the exercise of the right to stay at liorne and become rich by the cul- tivation of rich soils, in preference to flying from home to remain pooi- while cultivating poor ones : and eveiy dollar spent in support of fleets and armies tends to lessen the power vigorously to maintain that one which is to result in the emancipation of the world from the tyranny of foreign fleet? and armies, and the establishment ot pei'fect peace. The truest grandeur consists in the most ])erfect power over ourselves, our thoughts, and actions, and in conceding to all men the exercise of the same powers that we desirt; for ourselves. The people of the United States do not exercise that power ; but they may do so, and w-e trust they Avill. Their position is one of sur- passing strength. They are twenty-three millions, among whom there is universal activity and intelligence. Of these seven hundred and fifty thou- sand are the product of the present year, and soon the addition of a year V'iil reach a million. They have more school-houses and more scholars in them, more churches and more hearers in them, and thus print more books, than any other nation of the world. They have more and better printing- presses, and they consume more paper •, and their authors are better paid.^"' They have a mercantile marine that can pc/form more service in a given time than any other. Their machinery of manufacture already, in m.any depart- ments, takes precedence of that of England. They have railroads, canals, and magnetic telegraphs, over a surface of five hundred millions of acres. They have thiitj'- millions of shee]i, five miUions of horses and mules, fifteen millions of cattle, and thirty millions of hogs.f They raise a thousand millions of bushels of food for man, and more than a thousand millions of pounds of cotton ; and this vast product can be doubled by the apphcation of the same quantity of labor, whenever they shall determine that they toill make their own cloth and their own iron, and, by thus placing the consumer by tlie side of the producer, enable the latter to cultivate rich soils instead of poof ones. So soon as they shall have thus determined, thousands of tons of the surpkis machinery of England, and tens of thousands of her artisans, v/ill be seen leaving her shores to place themselves where food and cotton together grow, and whei'e liberal and constant wages will be the reward of moderate but steady labor; and the Union will then, but not till then, occupy that position before the world to which its generally peaceful policy s<7 fully entitles it. It needs but the effort to place it speedily in a position to dictate the law of the ocean — to say to the other nations of Europe that in future the trade of the world shall be freed from the restrictions imposed by blockades, orders in council, rules of ^56, colonial systems, and all the other contrivances by which the prosperity of ourselves and of the world has been thus far hindered. Such was the tendency of the democratic tarifl:' of 1842. Directly the reverse is that of the tariff of 1846. The one tended to give us power over the movements of the world by increasing our power over our- selves ; the other tends to diminish our power to control the movements of the world by lessening our power over oinselves. The tendency of the one was to peaceful and quiet grandeur ; that of the other to warlike and unquiet littleness. It is for the people to choose between them. * We except from this the authors of sucli trash as "Le Jidf Errant^ and of historioa ■whose object is to teach that " glorj'" is the great object of hfe, and that it is to be soug'ht at any sacrifice of honor or houesty. Such writers arc better paid in France. •j- Great Britain aud Ireland, Anth a population of twenty-eight millions, have forty millions of sheep, two millions of hoi'ses, and five millions of cattle. France, with :i population of tliirty-five millions, has thirty millions of sheep, three millions of horses, seven millions of cattle, and five millions of hogs. 14 SALE AND SACRIFICE OP MANUFACTURING PROPERTY. SALE AND SACRIFICE OF MANUFACTURING- PROPERTY. The New-Bedford Mercury says that the cotton mills, machinery, and dwelling' houses of the Farmers' Manufacturing, Company, in Attleboro', were disposed of at auction on the 4th inst, by assignee's sale, for $22,075. Tiie property originally cost from $50,000 to $60,000. One by one the farmer's best customers are being sacrificed under the operation of the tariff of 1846; and as a necessary consequence of this, we see the gradual conversion of our population, from being consumers of food and customers of the farmer, into producers of food and ridals of the farmer. The diminished demand for the smaller products of the form, or for those more bulky products that will not bear carriage, resulting from the closing of mills, and furnaces, and mines, causes the emigration of thousands and tens of thousands of men who would have given value to the land ; and hence it is that we see the new States being filled up with the " steady, well-educated farmers" of the older States referred to in the following article:— Immigration.— The Iowa papers record the arrival of large numbers of immigrants in that flourishing State. It is said that the majority of them are not foreigners, but of the steady, well-educated, and industrious farmers of New- York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other northern States. For the most part, they are men of substance, as well as enterprise. We are now rapidly converting our popitlation into producers of food, and sacrificing the consumers of food ; and this we are doing because it is held that that is the mode of procedure by which the farmer will be enabled to obtain higher prices for his products. The next operation of our free trade friends is to be that of sacrificing the farmer by aid of the mechanics and operatives of the Union, who are assured that ^Hhe jjractical ojjeratioti of the duties on agricultural products is to raise the price of the necessaries of life to the non-producing consumers in toions on the seaboard, to the exclusive ad' vantage of the Western farmerP We invite our agricultural friends to peruse the following sketch of the course of proceeding by aid of which the advocates of the tariff of 1846 expect to be enabled to abolish the protection now afforded to them against the cheap land and cheap labor of Canada, and then to determine if their own interests do not imperiously require that they should combine their eflbrts with those of the other advocates of pro- tection to American labor : — Tlie Legislature [of Canada] has now been in session nearly three weeks ; but, with the exception of scnne skirmishing, in which McKenzie took an active part, the proceed- ino's have been chiefly of a routine description. There is a scries of resolutions before the House, which will probably come up for discussion in a day or two ; the object of which is to forward an address to her Majesty, praying that she will recommend to tlie Imperial Parliament to enact that a like duty may be imposed on grain, brcadstuffs, vegetables, fruits, seeds, animals, hides, wool, cheese, tallow, horns, salted and fresh meals, ores, plaster of Paris, ashes, timber, staves, wood and lumber of all kinds, as are imposed by foreign nations on the itnportation of similar productions of Great Britain and her dependencies ; and praying furtlier, in anotiier series, which has been submitted for consideration, that her Majesty will not witliliold her royal assent from any act that may be passed by the Legislature of this Province, iov imposing differential duties on imports, by which importers will be encouraged to bring their goods into Canada by sea, via the St. Lawrence, instead of through tlie United States. It will hardly be possible at present to form any idea so as to judge with certainty of the action of the House on this subject; but from what fell from Mr. Hinclcs, the leader of the Government in the House, the other day, it is not improbable both propositiona CONSISTENCY OP FREE-TRADERS. 15 ■will be entertained ; the effect of which -would probably be the successful result of the negotiations that are pending between the United States and Great Britain ; as the duties at present imposed in the former country on tlie productions of Canada, (which are not exacted, however, "when they are exported,) the practical operation of which is to raise thp price of the necessaries of life to the non-producing consumers in towns and on the seaboard, to the exclusive aduantage of the Western farmer. It is probable, I tliink, that the British Government will agree to the imposition of differential duties; and as it is evidently to the interest of the Province that intercourse "svith England should be via Quebec, it may receive the royal assent. To encourage shipments and importations by this route, an address will be moved to the Queen on the subject of a line of ocean steamers between Liverpool and Quebec. I hope, however, that the removal of restrictions which are of no general benefit to the United States, will prevent the adoption of either of the ulterior measures that h,ave been proposed, the withdrawal of which, it strikes me, would be of more advantage to Canada than to the United States ; and I feel satisfied that if the attention of Congress were once directed considerately to the subject, the heavy duties on articles imported from Canada would be no longer imposed. — Exchange paper. , CONSISTENCY OF FREE-TRADERS. We take tlie following from one of tlie free-trade papers of the day, and recommend it to the careful consideration of our readers. We are here told that " the farmers and mechanics should be direct customers to each other," and that by so doing, they would reheve themselves from paying "the profits of a host of intermediaries," — and that the farmer and the mechanic would thereby be enabled to grow rich ; and yet, the same journal is a wai-m ad- vocate of the tariif of 1846, which is gradually closing the mills and furnaces at which the farmers and mechanics were enabled, under the the tariff of 1842, to effect their exchanges, and compeUing them to make their exchanges at a distance of thousands of miles. The farmer of Ohio sees the neighbor- ing furnace closed, and he mortgages his farm for the purchase of the iron of Britain, whose loltole purchases of our food will scarcely pay the interest on the debt toe are noto so rapidly accumulating ; and this, according to one of the columns of our contemporary, is the way in which he is to be enriched, while in accordance with another column, he is to be enriched by bringing the pro- ducer and the consumer into closer connection with each other ! Such is the consistency of those who teach that freedom of trade is to be sought by aid of other means than full and complete protection I Protective Movement. — Some time ago, we mentioned the " Protective Unions," or associations among farmers and mechanics for their mutual benefit, which had already become numerous in several of the New-England States. They originated, if we mis- take not, in Boston, and thence spread rapidly through the rest of Massachusetts, and thence into other States. Their object is to make the farmers and mechanics direct cus- tomers of each other, without compelling them to pay from the produce of their labor the profits of a host of intermediaries ; and they accomplish this object partly by barter, and partly by purchases at tvholesale instead of retail prices. A plan is now under considei • ation for introducing this system, upon an extensive scale, at Weedsport, Cayuga coun- ty, in Western New- York , and a list of subscribers to it already includes the most in- telligent and wealthy farmers of that region. Stock to the amount of $10,000 is already taken, on which 10 per cent, has been paid. If this project succeed, hundreds of similar character will be established in the State, who will eventually unite in establishing in the city of New- York an importing and jobbing house, and a depot for agricultural pro- duce and manufactured articles. These associations in New-England already have simi- lar depots in Boston ; and if they succeed m New- York also, they will soon be estab- lished in Pennsylvania, and have their depots in Philadelpliia. Some will object to these associations as " socialism," and say that " socialism" means 16 COXSISTEXGY op FilEE-TRADEllS. '• infiJclity"' and all kinds ofniiscliiof. But let us consider the subject rationally, -with- out belny' blinded by frivolous or vulgar objectinnj. So far aa " socialism" means tlie union and co-operation of individuals and families, for the purpose of reaping tiie full benetit of their labol-— and We have never undei'stood it ih any other sense — It means Kometliing worthy of universal support and enfiouhtgement. Common sense and com- mon justice v>'ill say that the farmer should receive most, if not the whole price paid by the consumer for a bushel of wheat, and the shoemaker most or all of what is paid by the wearer for a pair of shoes. But under the present constitution of society, or rather the present constitution of trade, the farmer and shoemaker receive much the smaller portion. The remainder goes into the pockets of various middlemen or intermediaries, in the shape of wholesale and retail merchants and tradesmen and carriers. Beginning with a bushel of wheat, we find that the farmer sells it to the miller, who grinds and sells it to the wholesale dealer in the city, who sells it to the country trader, who carries it back to the region wdiere it grew, and sells it to the shoemaker. The latter may pay seven dollars for a barrel of flour containing five bushels of wheat, while the farmer may have sold this wheat for fifty cents to the bushel. The difference is four dollars and a half, ■which is divided among all these intermediaries. If their number could be diminished, the producer would get more, and the Consumer pay less. So the shoemaker sells hi--- work to the wholesale dealer, who S(;lls to the retailer, who sells to the wearer, perhaps the maker and wearer dwelling in the same town, while the wholesale dealer dwells one or two or three hundred miles distant. Can the number of these intermediaries be diminished without interfering with the convenience of pn)ducers and consumers ? Their total extinction M-ould reduce the world to barbarism. But their needless multiplication " fobs the laborer of his hire," and pro- motes that concentration of property, that aggrandizement of the few and impoverishment of the many, which has ever been the tendency of civili2iation, ancient or modern, anil -which is the sotirce, in conjunction ^'ith bad government, of the manifold evils under which Europe now labors. The " m.iddlemen," the numeious intermediaries between landlord and tenant, are the standing theme of complaint among English statesmen and political economists, to v.'hich they refer most or all of the misery that paralyzes Ireland. The same system prevails in commerce, and produces the same results, the robbery of the producer, the enhancement of price to the consumer, the concentration of property, the multiplication of paupers. Farmers and mechanics, the producers, are not so rich as Dierchants and traders, the intermediaries. The two former, while prodticing all luxu- ries, are comparatively restricted to necessaries. The two latter, who produce nothing, are the greatest consumers of luxuries. The distribution is unjust, not because the latter are unnecessary, but because they are too numerous. These associations tend to correct, or at least to diminish this ey'il.^-^Fhil. Ledger. Inst-j^nces of CAtfLE FEEEfiNG. — I. Lot 1st, J3 three-year-o?d heifers, miJced breed. Lot 2d, 7 thrte-year-o!d bnllocks, mixed breed. Lot od, 9 three-year-old heifers, Here- ford breed. 2. Lot 1st, soiled in yards during summer; put up to fatten eth October. Lot 2d: ditto, ditto. Lot 3d, Put into open yards as soon aa bought. 3. Lot 1st, ti"d up in stalls 10^ feet long by 4^ feet wide. Lot 2d, ditto. Lot 3d, in open yard, with shed to lie under. 4. Lot 1st, each beast consumes daily 70 lbs. raw Swedes, 2 J lbs. linseed-meal soaked in cold water, 2 lbs. barley-meal, and 8 lbs. straw chaff. Lot 2d, each beast con- sumes daily 'JO lbs, raw Swedes, 2.J lbs. linseed-mcal, .soaked as above, 2 lbs. barley- meal, and eight lbs. straw chaff. Lot 3, ]?ut in the j'ard to freshen up for stalls, receiv- ing a small quantity of turnips, with as much straw as they can consume, but no account tasen of the quantity. 5. Little wheatcn straw ; no account taken of the quantity. 6. Lot 1st. esUmated increase in weight by Christmas, lo imperial atones; the valae depends on the market price when sold. Lot 2d, insrcase in size more than the first, but not so forward. Lot 3d, going on very well. 7. As clean as hunters ; very comfortable. N. B. There are no cattle bred on this farm ; they are all bouglit regardUss of breed, endeavoring to buy what will pay best, — English paper. IRRIGATION. 17 IRRIGATIOISr. Translated principally from the " Journal d'Agriculture pratique." BV F. G. SKINNER. \^C'o?ill7iucd.^ Means of Improving the Quality of Water. — Any "wator naturally un- fitted for irrigation may be so treated as to be rendered useful for that pur- pose. Water may be unsuited to the growth of plants from three causes. It may be too cold, or, from a prolonged sojourn in a bed wanting inclination, it may be too warm ; again, it may become stagnant and charged with prin- ciples inimical to vegetable life. As has already been stated, the collection of the water in reservoir until the temperature rises, is the remedy for the lirst evil ; and motion communicated in various ways will correct the two last. The fertilizing power of a stream may be greatly augmented by placing in its bed a coft'er, constructed of slats, which is filled with such manures and offal as can thus be disposed of. Patzig, who recommends this course, says a mixture of sheepVdung and lime, thus used, produces the most astonishing results ; moreover, says the same author, " Instead of burying the animals that die upon the farm, they should be thrown into this coffer, and the mead- ows will be thereby greatly benefited. In a short time a bluish-colored oil will be seen upon the surface of the water, which, deposited upon the sod, communicates to vegetation the most extraordinary activity. The solvent power of running v/ater is remarkable, and much greater than is usually sup- posed, for at the end of six months not a trace remains of the carrion thrown into it ; all, even the bones, are dissolved and carried off"." Action of Water upon Different Varieties of Soil. — Wherever water ex- ists, a meadow may be created and grass grown, and though this is the case on all soils, the action of Avater is nevertheless subject to variations depending upon the surface upon which it is apphed. Water nourishes and stimulates vegetation; it alTords a protection from sudden atmospheric changes; and, finally, it delivers the meadow from many enemies, as well animal as vege- table. Water Nourishes Plants. — Considered as a manure, (as has already been shown,) water contains mineral, vegetable, or animal particles, and occasionally all three. Water charged witJb any of these enriches by its deposits the sur- face over which it flows, but motion is necessary. The proof of this is, that the fertilizing action is much more apparent upon meadows of rapid inclina- tion than upon those that are not. In this last case the water flows slowly, depositing only the grosser matter which it contains ; while the finer particles, those the most favorable to vegetation, are lost, because there is not sufficient friction to separate them. Where the surfiice is too level, the water dwells upon it ; a portion is absorbed, while the remainder is evaporated, not only without any beneficial effects, but acids are formed which destroy the valua- ble, and favor the growth of useless plants : this evil may often be remedied by increasing the quantity of water, as then from its own weight it acquires a swifter motion. If the grass should grow thicker and better along the edges of the trenches, the inference is, that the irrigation is imperfect, and the sm-- face should receive more slope, that the action of the water may be extended to points more remote. Vegetation, however, to a certain extent, is always more active near the trenches ; tlie water as it advances becomes despoiled of VOL. IV. — 2. 19 iRRldATIO??. its enriching ingredients, and the ground should accordingly be so disposed as not to irrigate too wide a space with the same water. When the quantity of fluid to be disposed of is small, as is generally the case when that from springs is used, the surface can scarcely be too much inclined, for then the effects of the water seem to multiply and extend much farther. If, where the ciuantity of water at comjnand is small, the slope cannot well be too great, it is not the case where the supply is abundant ; and due care should be observed in proportioning the quantity of water to the degree of slope, for much water tiowing rapidly will wash away the vegetable earth and lay bare the roots of the grass. Water a Stimulant to Vegetation. — It has been observed that the pores on the under-side of the leaves of such plants as grow upon irrigated land are larger than those of the same plants growing elsewhere. The inference is, that the first possess greater powers of absorption, and that irrigation increases their vitality, and renders them capable of taking in a greater quan- tity of the atmospheric gases. Water protects and preserves Plants ; for as long as water runs upon ji meadow, the temperature remains uniform, and the ill effects of sudden at- mospheric changes are prevented. Even where vegetation is overtaken by frost, it may be protected from injury by letting on the water before a thaw. Finally, water is an efficient agent in delivering meadows fi'om destructive vermin and insects, such as mice, moles, grasshoppers, &c. In the same vray, properly applied, it destroys the sedge and heath of dry, and the sour vege- tation of cold, wet land. These different effects of water are modified by the nature of the soil it flows over. Thus there is no soil better adapted to irrigation than that which is sandy ; though naturally dry and sterile, it can with sufficient moisture be converted into excellent meadow, and this is probably the most profitable disposition to be made of it. Precaution, however, is necessary in watering sandy land, for if it be loose and shifting, it must be allowed, after being prop-' erly graded and seeded to grass, to stand a year before irrigation commences ; otherwise the water will filter through the surface and re-appcar in the lower trenches, oxidized and spoiled. It is bad economy to be deterred by expense from covering a sandy surface with grass. The quality of the grass is a sec- ondary consideration ; the main object is to hind the sand. Subsequent inv gation will soon change the nature of the growth, Avhatever it may be, and the finest herbage will supply its place. Should the sand be mixed witli clay, even in small proportion, barely enough to give it some consistency, it may at once, without previous preparation, (other than grading,) be submitted to irrigation. Before a sandy soil becomes consolidated and well clothed with grass, it requires a great deal of water, and that which is turbid and muddy, as it usually is after rain, is best suited to it. An equal mixture of sand and clay makes the best meadow, yielding in quantity and ijuality the finest crops ; it is improved by any water not naturally bad, and requires much less mois' ture than sandy land. A stiff' clay is not well adapted to " water meadows ;" roots penetrate it with difficulty, and of all soils it is the most diflicult to irrigate ; very httU- water should be let on at a time, but the irrigation must be prolonged. A strong flow of water covers the surface with a cement which adds to the natu- ral tenacity of the soil, and which becomes indurated, almost to the hardness of brick, on exposure to the sun. The best corrective in this case, where the means are at hand, is to add to the clay an earth of less consistency ; tht; work will be facihtated and the vegetable growth increased. If, in grading iltRlGATtoNs li> land for irrigation, it becomes necessary to remove the sod, (to be replaced ■when the grading is done,) there must be no precipitation in letting on the water ; the sod must first be allowed to take root ; else the water, running between it and the land, will prevent the roots from striking in, and the sod \vill perish. Calcareous soils, being naturally vrarm and rarely retentive of moisture, arc liable to suffer from drought, and for this reason they are pecuharly suited to, and are much improved by irrigation. Though almost any water is beneficial to them, that from springs is to be preferred, and they not only produce largely, but the hay is of the very best quality. Preparation of the jSoil. — Implements. In preparing land for irrigation, it is of consequence, as in every other agricultural jirocess, that the implements and tools made use of should be the best of their kind. In agriculture, ^ things seemingly of the smallest importance, though they contribute materially to success, are usually the last to occupy the attention of the inexperienced ; and any / Imperfection in its various processes may generally be traced to a deficiency in, or neglect of the tools or im- plements employed ; and for this reason, what otherwise might appear r^tther too nlinute a description of the sev- eral instruments and the manner of using them, in pre- paring land for irrigation, is here given. The spade., (fig. 2, a.) Notwithstanding the simplicity of this implement, it is always important, and indeed indispensable, and should occupy the first place ; h re- Fif}.^. presents the spade in profile. The curve is essential This imple- ment is not destined to turn up the earth, but to pare off the sod, to level the bottom of trenches, to cut by a line, Lc. Except the han- dle (four feet long,) the whole is of iron, and the sides as well as the lower edge are kept tolerably sharp. The more spongy and mossy the ground is, the greater the necessity to keep the spade sharp, and as the implement is usually pvished forward by the pressure of the hands and chest, it requires a longer handle than those in ordinary use. Schwerz, from whom this description is borrowed, thinks it would be well (where the works are extensive) to have spades of different Widths, to be used as the dimensions of the ditches and trenches may require. Where a single spade is used, it should not be wider than eight inches, Schwerz recommends still another, (figs. 3 and 4,) which he considers indispensable for lifting the sod, flattening the bottom of ditches, &c. The irrigators in the Seigen country do not attach as much importance to the spade as does Schwerz, and in its stead they use the shovel, (fig. 5.) The round spade^ (fig, 6,) though not iHentioned by Schwerz, or used by the farmers of Seigen, will be found exceedingly useful. It is made of a single piece of wood, shod with a crescent (a?, y) of / steel, and is principally used for cutting the sod in hues by a cord. It may be as well to observe that in using it, it should not be with- I drawn from the earth at every cut ; on the contrary, it should be f/ retained in the ground, pressed to the cord, and advanced by a cir- cular motion one third of its length at each cut. The crescent, (fig. T.) — The round spade is best for the deeper ditches that 'carry off the water, but for the smaller irrigating trenches the crescent is pre'- 20 IRRIGATION. ferred. The drawing is from the implement in use in Seigen. At the back of the blade a hoe is usually attached ; this, though not essential, gives weight to the tool and effect to its blows. This hoe (iig. 8) may be used separate from the crescent. The crescent serves to cut the edges of the trenches, and Fig. 4. Fig. 6. Fig. 1 Firj. 8. some skill is required for its use, as an awkward workman is very apt to cut the cord, which should always be used when straight lines are to be traced. When a trench is to be dug, the edges are cut with the crescent, and the sod between is taken out with the hoe. This operation is much facilitated when transverse cuts of the sod are made at short intervals. Fig. 7, a, b, arc cres- cents with and without the grubbing hoe. Fig. 9. Fig, 9 is a flattening-board made of half-inch oak plank, as heavy as can be conveniently lifted, with a slightly curved handle. It is used for " patting" down the sod and loose soil. Figs. 10 and 11 are mauls to be used where the action of the levelling-board is not sufficiently powerful. For moving sods and soil to short distances the ordinary wheelbarrow should be used, and to avoid making ruts the tire should be unusually broad. The road-scraper is a val- Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Q uable implement, but it should not be used to carry dirt more than 35 yards, Levellinr/, or Grading. — Before cutting ditches or trenches, the surface should be levelled, in order to trace out the plan of the works to be executed. For this several instruments are required. First, the water-level, made of quar- ter-inch tin tube, a yard and a quarter long ; the extremities of this tube are turned up at right angles, and are surmoimted by glass tubes of the same IRRIGATION. 21 diameter a few iiiclies long. (See fig. 12.) This tube is supported by a base that may be lengthened or shortened at will, hke a common spy -glass, and a suflScieiiL quantity of any col- Fig. 12. ored fluid is put in it to rise half way in the glass tubes. When the surfaces of the fluid are exactly at the same height, a line drawn through them is horizontal. There are other instruments for levelling, but the above described is the cheap- est, and will answer all ordinary pm-poses. The levelling staff (fig. 13) is an indispensable adjunct to tlie water-level. n This staff is three or four yards long, planed perfectly smooth down to two inches square, and marked Fig. 13. off into feet and inches, or, ^ y — - — ^ ^ ■what is better, tenths of a ~~~ "" foot. Sliding upon the stafl', and provided with a clamp or thumb-screw to fix i'., is a board fi\e inches square, di- \'ided as in the figure. TheX central cross formed by the lines is the point sighted at in taking levels. For short distances a much more simple instrument is used, the ordinary ma- son's level. The sighting boards (fig. 14,) three in number, are pickets four feet and a half high, with boards at the top, as in the engraving. Two extreme points being given, these boards serve to ascertain one or more intermediate Fig. 14. points on the same line, whether liliii [IZJliiiiliiij i_ _|iii!lj!| it be horizontal or inchned. laiFIl' "^ Besides the instruments above described, a surveyor's chain, a large square, stakes of difi:erent lengths, a maul, and gardener's line, should be provided. By lev- elling is understood the operation by means of which from a given point a horizontal line is drawn, and which is marked off" with stakes, or it determines the degree of inclination formed by the surface of the ground with the horizontal line, or, finally, it determines upon the ground the points through which a line will pass, the Fig. 15. inclination of which is given. For long lines the water-level is used, but for short distances the mason's level is more convenient. If it is desired to draw a horizontal line from a given point a (fig. 15) to 22 IRRIGATION. anotlier point x, tlie level is placed at a, so as to sight conveniently at x. An assistant, standing at the point x, in obedience to signs from the operator, raises or depresses the board upon the levelling staff, until it is exactly at the heif^ht indicated by the water in the glass tubes. The height from the soil to the level of the water in the instrument is then measured and compared with that from the ground to the cross on the marking-board, and the differ- ence indicates the depression of x below a. If to preserve the inclination it becomes necessary to follow a very tortu- ous line, it may be avoided by sinking the ditch at certain points, and raising it by means of embankments at others. If the inclination between the points a and x is too great to be measured by the height of the staff, the distance must be divided into shorter lengths that can be measured. Thus (fig. 16) Fiff. 16. it is proposed to level the line A B, or rather to ascertain the elevation of P above 7i, but the point n is so low as to render it impossible with the level to sight to P. The level is then moved to the point a, whence it is easy to sight to n ; the point where the hue of sight strikes the staff at n is marked. The level remaining in the same place, sight is then taken at m and the point of intersection also marked ; a liorizontal line z x is thus obtained, and the difference of the two heights is the exact indication of the height of m above n, and so in succession with the other lines. The heights of m above n, of o above m, and of P above o, are added together, and their sum is the height of B above A.. Lams. — It is not necessary here to give directions for the construction of dams ; but it may be as well to observe, that whenever they can be dispensed with by prolonging the irrigating ditch a few yards, it had better be done. Fig. 11. Aqueducts are frequently required to convey water over or under streams. They should be constructed as in fig. 17, of two-inch oak plank. [To be contludfd in next number.] Emigration to Texas.— On the 3d inst., the Universal Emigration and Cf)lonization Company dispatched their tirst ship, the John Garrow, of 1,200 tons, for Galveston. The emigrants comprised 150 fiirmers, with more or less capital. An inHuential (lirector of the company preceded them, to make preparation for their reception. Tlic cele- brated Indian traveller, Mr. George Catlin, sailed in the ship to enter upon his duties as superintendent. The second ship is to sail in October, and is already half full of her complement of passengers. ENTOMOLOGY. 23 ENTOMOLOGY. BY S. 8. HALDEMAN. Clytus Robini.e. — In Ponusylvania, in the month of June, this handsome insect may be met with upon locust tvca, (Roeisia p,seudacac[a,) in the branches of which they hved as a larva. Its length (fig. 1) varies from half an inch to nearly nine tenths of an inch. The color is black, with transverse yellow bands, those upon the elytra being some- what irregular. The under ])arts are varied with yellow, the legs are reddish, and the antennte reddish brown. The female deposits her eggs in the irregularities of the bark, and the young when hatched penetrates into the inte- rior to feed upon the wood. The smaller brandies are gen- erally attacked, and the presence of the larva may be known by the wood-dust about the aperture where it entered, the cuttings being for some time ejected here. But the most prominent is the swelling of the branch at the point of attack, which becomes weakened, and is often broken off Ji'ig. 1. by storms, or dies, so that new shoots must be thrown out below. From these causes the tree becomes disfigured and materially injured. The annexed figure (2) represents a fragment of a locust branch attacked by this insect. The same insect attacks hickory, and as the larva continues its depredations after the wood has been cut, it frequently does much damage ; and we have known a large lot of hoop-poles to be destroyed by them. The figure (3) represents a piece of one of these poles split to exhibit the i) ( Vjjl I illJI'l'llI'lTlil'JdlSl^i^SI burrows of the larvcB, and their place of exit through the bark. A plug of wood}' fibres is observable in one of the burrows, similar to those made by the Elafhidion. Dr. T. W. Harris, in his " Insects injurious to Vegetation," states, on the authority of Gen. Dearborn, that the grubs of this species are full-gi-owa by the 20th of July, and the perfect insects leave the tree early in September, ia Massachusetts. From this it is evident, tliat as they appear at ditferent times in v;irious parts of the country, the pro- per season for cutting wood infested by tlieni Fiq.2. Fig. 3. Fi9^. 4. must vary. Hoop-poles phould be cut before the eggs are laid, or they should be soaked some time in water. This would kill the larvre, not only of Clytus, but of another and nmch smaller insect, which burrows beneath, and loosens the bark, and penetrates and destroys the wood of hoops, long after the barrel has been fimshed and applied to its proper use. Dr. Harris recommends wliitewashing the trunks of trees to prevent the insects from affixing their eggs; he also recommends catching the adults and drowning them in bot- tles of water by children — to be repeated year after year during the period of their appearance ; but it is very evident that this cannot be extensively practised. Clytus campkstiiis of Olivier, (or C. terminans Fabricius,) figure 4, is about three fifths of an inch long, of a dark brown color, the elytra varied with ashy down, and hav- ing t wo yellow quadrants near the base. The thorax is rough above, with four yellow epots in the corners, arranged in a square. The thighs are thickened towards the end. The perfect insect appears m Pennsylvania in May and June, and occurs from Massa- chusetts to Carolina and Mississippi. The larva does considerable damage to fallen chestnut timber, particularly that which is cut for fencing rails. The younger larva3 bur- row between the bark and wood, but the older ones penetrate into the wood, forming boles wliich the rain can enter. — Pa. Farm Journal. 24 THEORY OF DRAINING. ON THE THEORY OF AGRICULTURE, AS FAR AS RELATES TO DRAINING. The following is brief and to the point. It is an extract from a lecture delivered in England by the Kev. Doctor Buckland. By-the-bye, we have often thought that our circuit and country clergymen would be still more useful, if they would qualify themselves to deliver occasional lectures on Horticulture, Agriculture, Natural Ilistorj'-, &c. He who reads the following attentively, will gain as much as is sometimes gained by listless listeners to prosy sermons : — The learned Professor then referred to the important operation of draining, as the foundation of all good farming. It was useless to put tons of manure on land that was not dry ; in that case it would only float upon the surface, for wet clay would not allow it to go down — it was almost entirely thrown away. Draining rendered the land pene- trable by water, and enabled the rain to descend freely through it, carrying to the roots those fertilizing elements of carbonic acid and anuiionia, with which rain-water "was always charged. Carbonic acid was continually supplied to the air from chimneys, and from putrefying animal and vegetable substances ; also from the breath expired from the lungs of anmials, and a hundred other sources ; it floated in the atmosphere in a gaseous form, and was brought down again by rain. Falling upon drained land, this rain penetrated its surface, and, as he had just said, carried with ittotiie roots of plants two of their greatest elements of fertility. Fifty j^ears ago, Parliament* had given a premium for draining to Mr. Elkington, and his system, where it was. applicable, had answered the required purpose; but it was not applicable so generally as newer sys- tems, for the publication of which the country Avas mainly indebted to Mr. Smith, of Deanston. lie remembered, when returning from Scotland after visiting Mr. Smith's farm at Deanston four years ago, being taken by Sir Robert Peel into a field of his near Tamworth, which was almost swamped Avith water, and nearly unproductive. He advised Sir Robert to drain it after the manner of Mr. Smith, which he forthwith did, and the result was in the very first year a splendid crop of turnips, and the second year a crop of barley so luxuriant that the stalks could not support the ears, and fell pros- trate to the ground. The expenses were repaid in two years, and this worthless field was now a most profitable piece of land. The Rev. Doctor then mentioned another instance of the effect of drainage near Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire, by Lord Hathertou. His Lord.ship had reclaimed a wild tract of 1500 acres adjoining Cannock Chase, on hills higher than those in East Devon, and had increased its value from 5s. to * When did oui- Parliament ever give a premium or medal for any im- provement in an industrial pursuit, or for any thing except successful and copious shedding of liuman blood in war ? The members of Congress are entitled, or rather entitle themselves to take, and we believe (but are not sure) to pocket, if they do not take, newspapei-s to the amount of some thirty dollai-s each. For each agricultural newspaper taken by them Uncle Sam would have to pay fifty cents — perhaj)S one dollar! Now it would be curious to see how niany, or rather how few agricultural ])apers they select. They are ready enough to sujiplant agricultural pajjcrs, by distributing the scrajjs gathered at the Patent Office, but how many do they patronize ? Most of them take not one, even when they can do it at the public expense. All go for ihoh- partij pa])ers! And were Mr. liuffin, the author of the great work on Calcareous Manures, to present himself at the door of the Senate Chamber, on the inauguration of the President, or any other public occasion, he would not be allowed the privileges enjoyed by the lowest commissioned officer of the army or navy — so politic does this republican government consider it to reserve its distinctions for men whose employment is to carry swords and muskets, while the most eminent civil virtues are stigmatized and proscribed as parties rise and fall. TOBACCO. 25 25s. per acre. After impressing thus forcibly the importance of draining as the first step in agricultural improvement, the learned Professor proceeded to remark on the application of manures. As the elements of manure could only act on plants when iu a state of solution, it ought never to be applied as a top-dressing, except in wet weather. It was coniuiou to see manure applied to turnips during the dog-days, when the sky was bright and clear, and not a particle of rain falling. In this case, so far from the manure doing any immediate good, its ammonia was speedily evaporated, being extremely volatile, and passed into the atmosphere, instead of to the roots of plants. In a dry season, if manures were used at all, they ought to be buried in the ground, and not applied as a top-dressing; in rainy seasons the virtue of manures descended with the rain-water, to the immediate benefit of the growing plants. There were two advan- tages to be derived from draining, which were — time and money. He who was always behindhand could not be a good farmer. The early farmer takes lus commodities early to market from well-drained land, which is fit to be worked at almost any time, and has threshed his barlej/, and converted it into cash, while the late farmer's crops are not yet ripe for the harvest. No farm on a wet clay soil can produce half the corn it is capable of growing if thoroughly drained. Referring to different kinds of manure applied to land after it was prepared by drainage for receiving it, the Professor observed that he need hardly say that the best of all manures was farm-yard dung, though he was sori-y to remark the farmers did neither produce nor preserve so much of it as they might easily do. Farm-yard dung was the best of all manures, because it gave back directly to the soil the elements of the plants that had been consumed by cattle as their food. But, besides the manure produced on his own land, the good farmer is obliged to borrow and fetch from a distance the elementary substances of imported artificial ma- nures. Tlie fiirmers of the east side of England go to London for bone-dust, and- to Holland for rape-cake and oil-cake. This oil-cake, together with straw, is used for the "winter food of oxen in their farm-yards, which are thus annually charged with an abundance of rich manure. TOBACCO. THE TOBACCO INSPECTION WAUEIIOUSES IN NEW-YORK APATHY OF PLANTERS CANADA RECIPROCITY BILL. A VISIT to the New- York Tobacco Inspection Warehouse fronting on the East Kiver, under the inanagemeut and supervision of the proprietors, Messr.s. Pearce and Jarvis, prompts us to say that, as connected with an import- ant branch of agricultural industry, the buildings are large, substantial edifices, covering twenty-four lots of ground, and are some five or six stories high. They are capable of storing about nine thousand hogsheads of Kentucky or Virginia tobacco, and the arrangements for examining, saraphng and con- ducting the business seemed to be perfect in every particular. Mr. Pearce, the senior partner of the concern, is a Marylander, and for many years was extensively engaged in the tobacco trade from Baltimore to Europe, and resided fur some time in Germany, for the purpose of perfecting his know- ledge es not concern us to inquire whether the above calculations are strictly accu- rate or not. The result to which they lead is one that has been verified by the expe- rience of every region in which improved modes of transportation have been substi- tuted for inferior. The whole saving, in the cost of getting the produce of the land exchanged, has been added to its value. Nobody has been injured by the process, but everybody has been benefited, for the cost to the consumer is not increased. Agricul- turists are beginning to appreciate their interest in bringing tliemselves into proximity with their customers, by facilitating and cheapening the cost of their going to the latter. It is a strange thing that they will not take another step, and accomplish the same end by bringing the consumer to them. The cost of a railroad of one hundred miles in length is cheaply estimated at two millions and a half of dollars. The amount of its advantage to the occupiers of the land lying upon it, is that it reduces the effective distance of each of them from market in the jjioportion of one hundred to nineteen, as compared with the turnpikes which we may su|>|)<)se to have previously existed. The most distant upon the line has for all financial purposes moved his land to within nineteen miles of the point where its pro- ducts must be sold. But it is plain that this advantage diminishes, as we recede on either side from the line of the road, in the inverse proportion. The farmer living off the track can compete with him at its extremity only by keeping within such a line that tlic distance which crops have to be hauled by team increases but nineteen hun- dredths oi a mile for every mile that the railroad transportation is diminished. This being tin- case on each side, it follows that tlie effect of the railroad is summed up in the statement that it has made a parallelogram one hundred miles long and nineteen broad, of ihe same value as the nineteen miles square, immediately surrounding the market, j.revious to its construction. The amount expended in the construction of one hundred miles of railroad would pay for tlu' erection of twenty-five manufacturing establishments, costing one hundred thousaiKJ dollars each. It would have made twenty-five mills capable of working up two till usand bales of cotton each per annum. It would have made three times that number of furnaces, each of them capable of producing five thousand tons of pig-iron per wci k. If we suppose it divided equally, we should have fifty mills and furnaces scatteri'd over a surface of nineteen hundred square miles — one to every thirty-eight square miles — about the size of an ordinary township. Tliis would bring every pro- ducer w ithin .seven miles of a market, and reduce his expense of transportation, as com- pared wih the reduction effected by a railroad, to less than one third. But .lie question may be started in respect to the extent of such a market. This there i- no mode of estimating, for it constantly increases. The operatives who work in the Jac ly or mill draw about them those who make thoir clotiies, their shoes, and min- ister t(. ( very other want except that of food. Each of those who comes for that pur- pose blinds with him wants of his own, which require the services of still fresh artisans, and al. f iliem must be fed, and clothe i, and housed, and kept warm by the labors of the nei . hlioring farmer. The progress is in a geometrical, and not simply an arithmetical ratio; .nd tjio only way in which a proper eoncej)tion of its rajjidity can be obtained is by wai. :iiiig the growth of the villages which cluster about manufactories. Tho wliohave seen, (r in the Sou h are now witnessing, the wonderful effect of such t< \Mis upon the surrounding country, will have no difiiculty in believing that the marke whieli one of them supplies is better and surer than that small share in a dis- tant tliiHiyh larger one which is available to the man who has to go a hundred miles to reach i;. md meet there the cultivators of a circle of twice their diameter. But Wi had no further purpose than to accumulate testimony to the general proposi- THOUGHTS AND FACTS. 29 tion that all tbe freight of agricultural products is a charge upon them, and upon the land which bears (hem. It follows from this, that a recommendation to the fiirmers and planters to depend upon foreign markets is equivalent to asking them to keep their lands at the lowest possible value to which they can be reduced. — Republic. THOUGHTS AND FACTS. Stall-feedhig Cattle. — In a valuable work on practical farming, the writer (Hillyard) says : Beasts should increase in the first month sixty-four pounds, second, eighty pounds, and the last fortnight forty-eight pounds, James H. Leigh, an English farmer, gives a very minute account, embracing every par- ticular of stall-feeding — eighteen Durham bullocks and ten Durham cows for ten weeks from 11th November. One bullock died of pleuro-pneumonia in the last week. The average weight gained by the twenty-seven beasts in five weeks was two hundred and eleven twenty-sevenths pounds, at a cost of $1*7 60 each. The feed was daily : 4 lbs. oil-cake, 4 " barley meal, 10 " cut oat straw, 20 " turnips, 2 " hay, at night. He then took in hand sixteen Scots and Welsh bullocks, one Durham ox, one long-horned heifer, and twelve cows and heifers, from the 5th of July to the 21st of April ; the average gain of each beast was three hundred and three and twenty-one thirtieths pounds, at a cost of $22 32 each, in ten weeks and five days. The regular feeding was commenced the 3d, but they were not weighed until the 5th of February. In each case every beast was weighed weekly, and every item of his food every day ! The Eoglish agricultural books abound with experiments equally extensive and exact. What would prevail with our American farmer to take the same pains ? Would a silver goblet ? How much easier to say a thing was as big as a lump of chalk ! Well, says the reader, what's the value of this information ? Why, it's worth the space, if only to inform those who never even guessed at it, how much a bullock ought to gain in a given time. How without occasional ex- periments can the farmer tell the cost of his meat per pound ? He knows what he gets, but does he know luhether it wUl pay ? And without knowing that, may he not be sold out before he knows what hurts him ? The Habit of Guessing. — To show how many men go through life guess- ing at every thing, at the last Maryland Cattle Show an old and most respecta- ble farmer was in attendance, exhibiting some of his cattle. Mr. Patterson's two yoke of superb Devons were passing at the moment, and we asked the respectable old gentleman how much he supposed the two yoke could haul, on level, smooth ground ? " Why, he did not know — he reckoned they could haul a ton ! " When we told him we had no doubt, from what we had seen in New-England, that either yoke could haul three tons on hard level road, he was doubtless amazed at our credulity, or something worse. Thus it is that farmers go through life -without appearing to be sensible that if they would read, reflect, investigate, think, they might be adding every day to tlic stock of useful knowledge, in the very line of their busines>i, Hovi to make Animal and Wooden. Machines. — Reader, do you wish tc know ? We'll tell you. Make time vuludhie — -enable tnen to sell their labor high ! How is that to be done ? ]3y drawing men close together and di- versifying employment; Thus you create demand for labor, and when a man's time becomes valuable and in proportion as it is valuable, he will seek to work with the most perfect machinery. He can't afford to follow a bad plough. or to drive weak animals, lo turn his time (which to hini is money) to the best account, all his accessories must be of the best. His horses must be fast and strong, his oxen must bj powerfid, and he must knou) their poiver, that he may task it to the full ; for he knows and feels that he must accomplish the most work that is ])ossible in the shortest possible time. The less employ- ment is diversified, the clie^pcr the labor, and the less iriiportant that the tools and iuiplements should be the most perfect that can be. How long could the farmer stand upon his legs in New-England vrho would know no better thrtii to estimate one ton as a load for two yoke of large oxen ? Hence it is in New-England, where the looill and the anvil are near to the plough and the harrow, you see all the impleitlents and appliances so perfect — houses, railroads, oxen, wagons, horses, roads, bridg'es, fences. If you want to see bad roads, bad gates, bad carts, poor horses, little oxen, slow men, im- perfect machinery, ragged harness, slow driving, go where all are at one pur- suit— where, therefore, men scatter and lose the povV'er of combination — where, in a word, time is of so little value and labor so cheap (regarded by some as ^ blessing) that men can afford to work with bad and imperfect ma- chinery, and where, consequently, every art and every industr^^ declines. Ample revrard to labor is another word for a prosperous countiy — cheap labor is a curscj The ragged Hindoo works for two sous a day 1 ilOHN BULL'S LAST* OATOH-PEJi^Nl^ li^ROivl the outset we have cautioned our readers aigainst having any thing to* do with John Bull's last contrivance for the maintenance of a system which looks to increasing the number of iniddlemcn, by separating the jM'oducers of the world from the consumers of the world. The great Exhibition — the World's Fair^was a trap for catching pennies, having for its object the tilling of the purses of the people of England, at the expense of the rest of the worlcL and thousands of our countrymen have fallen into it, having incurred large expenditure for the purpose of aiding in the occupation of the space assigned to this country within the walls of the Crystal Palace. What success they have had in conciliating the good feeling of John Bull, may be seen from the following paragraph, which we take from the London Times: — "What idea of Jonathan is to be gathered from his " notions ?" And can wc detect iir the offspring the lineaments of its parent's face ? England is not given to boasting and Rwa'-'geritv ; she generally understates her strength, and studies moderation of language about herself, though she has some excuse for being proud. Her republican progeny are not so modest, if one may judge from the wings of that very aggressive American eagle with which the eastern end of the nave is decorated. The king of birds is hover- ing over a set of " notions" spread out very sparsely beneath him ; and the visitor is some- what astonished to iind him making so vast a demonstration over a space so unoccupied. The American department is the prairie-ground of the Exliibition, .ind our cousins, smart as they are, have failed to fill it. They cannot yet keep pace with the grent strides of ON THE CULTIVATION OP TOBACCO. SI. European industries, and even the seven-leagued boots, if tliey had them, -would not en-' able them to do so, lor some generations to come. They art groimng, however, and wdl be a great voinvmidty by-and-by. Let them, therefore, await the future ivilh patience and humility. lu obedience to the commercial laws of England, we are daily closing our mills and furnaces, aud daily diminishing our power to compete with her in sup})lying the world with cloth and iron, and our reward for all this is, to be told that we shall be " a great community by-and-by," but that we must con- tent ourselves for the present with '• patience and humility." Assuredly, the world has never yet seen a nation that wasted its resources and j^revented the growth of its power, to the extent that is now being doue by the farmers and planters of this Union, They richly deserve, as we think, to be taught a les^ son of " patience and humility," aud it will be taught as soon as we shall have sufficiently supplied the markets of Europe with our certificates of debt. ON THE CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO, [ Concluded.^ or STRIPPIXG AND PUIZINGi BtHipplxG is begun as soon sifter the plante are thoroughly cm'cd aud s?asDuedj sis th9 convenience of the planter AviU permit. It is taken oft* the stick.? in proper season 01" order, aud packed in a large bulk for this piu-pose, and generally in higher order than i? proper for prizing, wliich enables the strippers to handle it with less waste, aud to tie it moi-o neatly. There are two facts generally believed to exist, in relation to the order of tobacco, which are unaccountable.- One is, that tobacco, in order, or in a moist state, is no heavier than when dry. The other, that if it is taken down and bulked, as it is going out of season, that is, as it is passing from a moist to a dryer state, it will return in the bulk to the highest state of order it had previously acquii'ed. These opinions, however, seem to have been established more by prescription than recent experiment, for I can find no person that wiU absolutely assert the facts upon liis own experience^ But be it as it may, the latter fact is so generally beheved as to be attended to in bulking tobacco, In stripping, the best planters make two qualities besides stemmed. For this purposei every plant passes through the hands of the sorters, (the most experienced and judicious of the laborers.) who pull off the two first, or ground leaves, without looking. Upon ex- amination, the remainder of the plant may be found fit for the first class ; perhaps two more leaves are to be taken off, or perhaps the whole is only fit for the second class. In this way the fu-.st class is obtained, the leaves pre-viously pulled off are again sorted foi' tlie second class, aud what is unfit for tliis is stemmed. No definite idea of the quality of the different classes can be well conveyed by descrip- tion. It can only, and soon -^vill be, acquii-ed by observation aud experience. The bun- dles of each consist of four or five leaves neatly A\Tapped around the head with another leaf. The stemmed tobacco (about two thirds of the stem only are taken out) is tied in large bundles, and when packed in the hogshead for pressing is untied and laid loosely, but in .straight aud uniform layers. After stiipping, some planters hang up their tobacco again upon sticks drawn smootli aud somewhat to a feather-edge, and as it comes in proper order for prizing it, is taken dowu and bulked, aud closely and effectually covered till the tune of priziug amves. The months of April and May are thought the best tune for this. Others pack theu- tobacco in double wiurows, that is, slightly lap the tails of the bundles, placing the heads on the outside, and thus raise a bulk of 'three or four feet in Jjcight. It remains in this situation well weighted, but oftentimes without cover aU the winter, and perhaps gets completely diy ; but returns in proper order for prizing in the warm weather of April and May. It is a matter of much doubt and dispute, wliich of these two modes is the best. Perhap s the latter Ls to be preferred, because it is the least trouble, provided the planter has plen- ty of house-room, aud can so order it as to leave the wiurows entu-ely £i-ee fi-oni interrup- tion. Other planters, more careless, carry on the operation of stripping and prizing to-- 32 DUTY ON IRON. gether, without due regard to the order of the tobacco, wliich may account for the ex- cess of inferior qualities, and tliversity of prices exhibited in our markets. Prizing is the last operation, but not the least important in the care and attention it requii-es. The size of our hogsheads is prescribed by law. They must not exceed fom* and a half feet in height, nor thirty-six inches in the diameter of the head.s. In these we generally attempt to press 1500 pounds, but we oftencr fall beloAV tlian go over it. The average is perhaps not more than 1350 lbs. Our prizes are of the cheapest and simpleist construction, generally fixed by the laborers who use them, and not exceeding two or three dollars in entire cost. The stump of a tree is generally used, instead of a post in the ground, until it rots, and the hogshead is jirotected by a temporaiy shed, or a light portable roof straddled across the beam. I subjoin a sketch of the one most commonly used. This you will observe operates by an unceasing suspended weight, capable of being increased by the addition of stones to any required extent, and which is suffered to settle gradually to the desired point, by which all danger of bruising from sudden and violent pressure is avoided. The important points in prizing are, to pack the tobacco neatly, in straight and regular layers. This is best done by putting in only one bundle at a time, pressing and squeezing it closely through the hands as it is done, to make it occupy less space, by which it will exhibit a better appearance when it is opened for inspection. To make it descend always on a level in the hogshead, by never suffering the beam to be depressed below a horizontal position, and to cause the tobacco in prizing, not to leave the inside of the hogshead, which can only be effected by having differeot sets of press boards, corresponding to the different dimensions of the hogshead between the buldge and the head. A the stump or post, c the blocking, r? the hogshead, /the sword connecting the weight c to the first lever b ; the second lever /* is applied to the first by the frame g ; by pulling the rope I, the sweep j, working on the gallows k, raises the lever h, as the sweep and first lever are connected by a sword i. If the weight put in e is too great to be raised by the power applied to the second lever h, the design of the sword /, not being fixed in the ground, would be frustrated ; the weight, however, may be readily adjusted to your power by putting more stones in e, or taking some out of it. DUTY ON IRON. The Baltimore Republican^ a Democratic paper, says : — There are doubtless many articles which will bear heavier duties than those levied by the present tariff, without diminishing the revenue, but on the contrary increasing it. If so, we see no impropriety in raising the duties. Iron, at its present foreign value, will bear a duty of sixty per cent, without diminishing the reveime from it ; but if the home value be substituted, thirty per cent, is as much as it will bear. If the foreign valuation be adhered to, we think that the duty on iron should be increased to sixty per cent, whilst it continues to sell at the present low rates in England, with pro- visions for decreasing the duly in proportion to the rise of its price. This sliding scale of ad valorem duties we think far preferable to specific duties, as the latter taxes a common article at the same rate that it does a costly and valuable one. In increasing the duties on certain articles, with the view of increasing the revenue, instead of shutting out foreign competition, we see no departure from the Democratic platform. PEAT CHARCOAL AND MANURE. 33 PEAT- CHARCOAL AND MANURE. PEAT-ASHES, WOOD-ASHES, SOOT. I HAVE been in tlie habit of using all these for the last twenty years, to the great benefit of all sorts of plants ; but if we could purchase this peat-cbarcoal mixed with night-soil, how much more beneficial it would be, even to gardeners. To the farmer it will far surpass guano iu its lertiHziiig properties, and being of easy carriage, it can be sent to the remotest part. As for the expense, I hesitate not to say, from the millions of tons lying waste, both ia Ireland as well as Scotland, that the price per ton on the ground where it will be burned would amply pay at ten shillings per ton — nay, more than pay. There is ten times more peat found above, than coals underneath. I know one estate in Scotland where several hundreds of acres are covered with solid black peat, varying from ten to twenty feet deep, containing millions and millions of tons, belonging to Sir David Dundas, the Judge Advocate-General. Therefore, I think, I have made out a good case to prove the cheapness, that in time it can be bought where it is chaired. We all know that there is a deal of labor in bringing the coals to the pit's mouth, and still they are sold for the low price of from 8s. to 12s. per ton there. No one, as yet, can at all arrive at the mighty benefits that Mr. Jasper Rogers's mix- ture will do — which I shall christen, " Rogers's British Manure." In the first place, it will be a mighty benefit tt) the poor in those districts where the peat is charred ; it will also be of great benefit to the landlord ; it will also be very beneficial to the health of the country to have the peat districts drained, (as attention is sure to be paid to that, oa account of the value of the hitherto valueless peat ;) it will employ many hands in the shipping interest — as well as when it arrives at the various coast towns. No one can make any calculation of the benefit it will be to thousands, even before it is put on the land ; and no one can have a doubt of its value, as a first-rate manure, afterwards. For instance, look at what a poor farmer has to pay, in remote districts, where he is far removed from towns, for a wagonful of solid rubbish, (all the ammonia, all fertilizing matter gone,) and a whole day lost, with a man and three horses, in bringing this load of delusive and high- priced rubbish home — and a pound paid for it in the first instance. Farmers, with free trade in full operation staring them in the face, cannot stand this any longer ; therefore, great praise is due to Mr. Rogers for bringing this valuable mixture before the public in such a spirited way. The next point to be considered is, how is the manure to be made ? As far as I have read the plans for the drainage of London, in the Daily News, none of them, in my opinion, will answer, on account of the enormous expense and difficulties to encounter, and having their works at dilfercnt points instead of one. It is well known to every one that the Thames is the lowest part, and the only course to carry off all sewerage; therefore, I sliould simply advise sewers to be made on each side of the river. The north sewer could not pass any forther down than London Bridge, where I would carry several iron sewers across the bed of the river, and empty into the south sewer ; the south sewer following the river's course, and striking off for Plumstead Meshes, where the works and reservoirs could be formed ; a canal then cut to allow the clear water to run down to the river, as well as to allow the peat-charcoal to arrive at the works, and there mixed. The charcoal, being dry, would at once absorb and take up all the gases and the moisture of the solid, and would be very little trouble in the drying process. But there are hundreds of towns and villages where the charred peat would be used in the open privies and dunghills, and would at once absorb all those valuable gases for the land, although highly deleterious to the air when allowed to escape ; therefore, I hope that Mr. Rogers will meet with that support which he so justly deserves from Great Britain, well knowing how difficult it is to surmount the prejudices of even those to whose after-benefit it will be sure to do good ; hoping the press, in general, will see the great benefit that the above splendid manure will be, not only to the land, but the laborers, and the country at large. — James Cuthill, Florist, Camberwcll. [Mr. Cuthill, in a note accompanying his paper, dated 21st instant, says: "Should you mention the Irish peat-charcoal again, don't forget that letter of mine, which you published in the beginning of the year, to Mr. Smith, of Deanston." (See Scottish Agri- cultural Journal, No. 1, in which he alludes to vast quantities of peat-bog in the island of Lewes, from one to twenty feet deep, which he suggests should be burned in heaps, along with sea-weed, shell-sand, etc., after the manner of burning bricks ) "I am now giving the Irish peat-charcoal, mixed with night-soil, a trial ; and you may depend upoa it, that the two combined is far surpassing guano. I have strawberry plants in pots-, VOL. IV. — 3. 34 BEAtrrrES^ of the coloiwal ststem^ geraniums and many other plants growing luxuriantly, with a small quantity of the mixture in each. But the plants, in this mixture, are finer plants than tlie others, and' have much finer roots. Even' peat-a,she3 arc valuable, as mentioned in my letter to Mr. Smith, in your paper. I am using charred peat, ever since Mr. Rogers's lecture at the- London Mechanics' Institution, down- the privy, and have not been anaoyedj in the least Bense by smelLJ — Seottish AgvioulPu/rai Jowmod. DIRECT IMPOSTATIOI^ra We leam that the principal importing merchants of Charleston- -wrll, this summer, go- to Europe, and lay in their stocks for the earning season, to be imported direct. It is a good beginning, and will, we doubt not, find imitators in other Southern cities, as welt as meet the sympathy and support of the Southem- people. — Charleston Mercury. How mucli better v?ould it not Ije for tie people of Sonth Ca?olina to de- termine to adopt measures that would enable them to import machinery, for the conversion of their cottion into eloth^ to be tended by spinners and weavers who should consume home-grown food-, thus giving them a direct trade with the consumers of cotton goods throngboiit the woi-ld, instead of limiting themselves, as now, to supplying British spindles and looms, tended by persons who consume Polisli and" Kussian foo4 and' wear the cotton of India I BEAUTIES OF THE. COLOmAL SYSTEM. We have had occasion frequently to call' the attention of our readers to the fact that the people of the United States are now the chief supporters of the colonial system. Their food r-nd their eotton go to England in Britisli ships, to be disposed of by British merchants, ti-aiisported on British rail- roads, converted into- cloth by British looms, and refcransported to the place of consumption on British roads and in British ships; and at evtrij- stage of the jy^ocess a contribution is^ in one form or another, exacted for the sup- port of British fleets and armies, employed in the constant deterioration of the condition of the people of Ireland, India, fmd of all the other countries- dependent upon Great Britain ;, and the result is seen in the fact that each and every of the countries so dependent is rapidly becoming exhausted, and its people are becoming pauperized and enslaved. We pray our readers to study the follov/ing sketch of recent proceedings at the British colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and then to remember that they themselves are the chief contributors to the maintenance of the armies employed in destroying the houses and wasting the lands of the peaceful and industrious Hottentots : — The English in South Africa — Results of British " Civilization." — It has been remarked by some one that the chief result of the extension of British rule and "civiliza- tion " ov^r India, has been tO' drain it annually of one hundretl million pounds, to be spent chiefly in England. Sonae of the English papers arc making disclosures relative to tyrannical proceedings at the Cape of Good Hope, by English officials, which do not speak well for those who are continually flaunting before the world the beneficial results of the extension of English power. It is charged that the English Governor, Sir Harry Smith, had compelled the native chiefs to give up a large portion of their lands. ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 35 At the public meeting of the London Missionary Society in London, the Rev. J. J. Freeman, Secretary of the Society, who has been on a visit to the Cape, stated that Sir Harry Smith, at a public meeting of chiefs, held up a treaty and tore it to atoms, say- ing, " There go the treaties." He also charges Governor Smith -with forcing the Griquas, by intimidation, to sign away large sections of their country, telling them with solemn oaths that unless they signed the treaty by five o'clock that afternoon, he would hang them up to the beam in the room where they were then standing. When Sir Harry Smith heard that some of the Christian Hottentots had joined the CafiVes, he styled them a set of " psalra-singing rebels." It is further stated that the Government had burned the habitations of a number of Hottentots who had been heretofore faithful to the English. The account says : — " The Hottentots entreated for their friends in vain ; nothing availed — neither the cries of the children, nor the tears of the mothers, some of whom were in childbed with babes of three or four days old, on one of the coldest days of the inclement season ; and that on a Sunday, the day of peace, rest and prayer, two hundred and fifty persons were burned out and driven from their homes." Mr. Freeman also denounces the annexation of territory in the interior of Africa, as tending to involve the inhabitants in savage wars. — Exchange paper. ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. BY A FARMER. If we imagine a soil properly pulverized, and yet retaining sucli a degree of firmness and consistency as to gi\'e a secure bold to the roots, a plant situated in it will find a matrix at once suitable to receive and transmit the atmos- pheric influence, and also to supply the moisture necessary for the wants of the plant. But if the mineral ingredients of such a soil are insoluble, and fixed, (as it is expressed in chemical phraseology,) a plant will certainly live in such a situation by deriving much of the food it requires from the atmosphere. But vegetation in such a situation and under such circumstances will not suffice for the farmer. It is only by means of certain soluble ingredients in the soil that this normal state is attained ; and if the soil does not contain these soluble substances, or does not contain them in sufficient quantities, it then becomes our business to supply them. These supplementary substances, (if the expres- sion may be allowed,) this sustenance for the plants, to which the name of " manures," or " stimulants," have been given, according to the point of view imder which they are contemplated, is therefore an important subject for study. After having given the plant a suitable dwelling-place, we must also supply it with suitable food : in this respect plants resemble animals. But in order to understand what we are about, it may be advisable briefly to recapitulate the principles of vegetable physiology on which this doctrine is based. If we call to mind the mechanism of vegetation, we find that water, con- taining various substances in solution, penetrates by endosmose into the roots, rises from thence by capillary attraction under the bark, where it is called sap. When it reaches the leaves, a portion is removed by evaporation, and the solution of course becomes more condensed. Under the action of air and light, the free carbonic acid it contains is decomposed, carbon is fixed in the plant, and oxygen given oflf into the air. During the night, on the contrary,* the oxygen of the air is absorbed by the leaves, combined with the carbona- * This assertion, that during the absence of light growing vegetables vitiate the air, is to be received with some caution, as it is by no means well established. — ^Tkanslatok, 36 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. ceous elements of the sap, to be again decomposed at the return of hght. The solid matters present in the sap are deposited, according to their special natures, round the cellular vessels, or on the surface of the leaves, or at cer- tain determinate parts of the structure ; the superfluous or injurious matter being carried oft" by the descending sap, and eliminated from the roots as excrement. It is unnecessary to follow the sap through the vq,rious changes its elements undergo — the successive changes by which sugar, mucilage, gluten, albumen, and the various vegetable acids are formed ; this part of the subject belongs to vegetable physiology. All soluble matters within their reach being absorbed by plants, (a fact well ascertained, even in the case of virulent poison,) which of these substances are so essential to vegetation that plants in general cannot be deprived of them without suftering? And, in the second place, do certain kinds require certain substances to be pi-esent in the soil, which are not absolutely necessary to others ? In a word, is there in vegetables a univereal food, so to speak ? or does each plant require a special one ? These are the questions which we have to examine. 1st. The Food necessaty for all Vegetables. The attempt has often been made to ascertain by experiment the substances essential to vegetation, or those by means of which the vegetable can live and grow, though deprived of all others. It has at least been ascertained that a plant cannot live without oxygen and carbonic acid. In an atmosphere de- prived of moisture,-a plant will not live ; water is therefore also indispensable, not only on account of its solvent powers, but also because its elements enter into the formation of many of the products of vegetation. As for carbonic acid, that which is absorbed by the leaves, though sufficient to support life, does not appear to be enough to secure the full development of plants, as the foUov/ing experiment (which also goes to prove the importance of vegetable matter in the soil) will satisfactorily show. Two boxes were taken, the one containing soil calcined, so as to destroy all organic matter ; the second contained soil in its natural state. In both a few grains of peas were sown, and it was observed that the plants in the former were much less vigorous than those in the natural soil. Upon examination, the first contained '4(5 of its weight, and the second "57, or rather more than half its weight, of carbon. This difference was undoubtedly owing to the carbon present in the second box. In all the experiments which have been made, none have as yet been under- taken under such circumstances as to exclude nitrogen in its simple form, so that we cannot speak positively as to its importance. But a.s it is universally present in the form of ammonia, and as it enters largely into all the more important vegetable products, we may safely affirm that nitrogen is requisite for plants. Thus, oxygen, water, carbonic acid, and nitrogen, are the j^rimary and indispensable elements of vegetation. The action is undoubtedly assisted by the important agents heat and light, and in all probability by electricity. Chemical analysis demonstrates the justice of this conclusion. Amongst a gi'eat number of substances, varying with the species, the climate, and the soil, these important ingredients are always present. They exist in the form of starch, gum, sugar, manisite, ulmic, gallic, acetic, malic, citric, and other acids, and neutral substances. In a word, they form the basis of the almost endless variety of organic compounds which modern chemistry has brought to hght. ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 37 2d. The sjjecial Food of Vegetation. It miglit have been thought that the above-mentioned substances would have siifiiced to give stabihty and solidity to plants, especially as carbon forms such a large proportion of the vegetable tissues. If even this had been pos- sible, the framework of a plant is not exclusively composed of carbon, certain alkaline and earthy matters being always found to be present along with the organic [lortion of vegetation. The difficulty exists in the varying proportion in which these alkaline and earthy substances are found, not only in different plants, but even in the same species when grown upon different soils. They are to a certain extent interchangeable amongst each other, so that it is difficult or impossible to say which of them are absolutely indispensable to vegetation. It is even possible to imagine a plant existing without any of them, in the same way as a mammiferous animal may live after all the solid portions of bones have been removed.* In both cases, though hfe might be maintained, neither the amimal nor the plant could fulfil their destined uses. Besides the materials necessary to support life, as oxygen, water, carbon, &c., there ai*e therefore others, which, though of less importance, are necessary to enable plants, as well as animals, to arrive at full perfection. It is therefore of importance to ascertain how these are introduced into vegetation. The plant lives and grows by absorbing into its substance the various gase- ous elements that exist in the atmosphere and the soil. The water absorbed by the roots contains, in solution, a considerable quantity of the alkahes and earths ; drawn upwards towards the extremities of the plant, this solution is evaporated by the leaves. The various solid matters which are thus intro- duced, after passing through a great number of chemical chano;es, ai-e then by the flov>" of the sap dispersed over the plant. Are we then to consider these substances as excretions which the vitality of the plant is able to carry no fur- ther— or are they essential to the organization of the plant ? If the substances of which we speak are only to be regarded as excretions, or as an attempt made by the organs to relieve themselves of useless matter, it becomes necessary to explain how it happens that potash and soda, added to a soil deficient in alkalies, so powerfully assist vegetation. We can only understand the action of these substances, by supposing them capable of sup- plying an element necessary to the growth of vegetation ; and perhaps they also in some way or other assist the chemical changes which are going on in the interior of the plant. For certain plants it is necessary to admit the value of chalk or lime ; and the importance of gypsum to certain of our cultivated plants is also sufficiently well knov.n to prevent it from being considered a substance to which they are indifferent. If it be also considered that silica, alumina, (?) phosphoric acid, oxalic acid, &c., are not deposited indifferently in all portions of the plant, but in certain special determinate organs ; that there is, therefore, on the part of these organs, a certain power of choice, a vital action, which enables them to sepa- rate those substances from the sap which they require, to the exclusion of others ; it is difficult to assign any other reason for this well-known arrangement, except that nature has prepared a special place for each of these substances, and has as- signed them certain determinate functions in the formation of the vegetable tissues. These reflections conduct us to the conclusion that a great number of the earthy and alkaline substances, carried by the current of the sap into the cir- * We very much doubt the possibility of an animal living under such circumstances ; if even it could, such abnormal existence or disease (as it should be called) does not afiford ground for comparison. 38 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. culation, are useful to vegetation, by giving to them their full %ngour, their proper size, and their diversified properties. We do not yet pretend to be able to assign to each ore of these various substances its particular function in accomplishing these important ends. It may, perchance, be shown at some future time, that certain compou ids are absorbed and assimilated by plants in the state in which they exist already in the soil, or in the manure. The sci- ence of vegetable chemistry is yet far short of perfection, and holds out the most brilliant results to those possessed of the industry and skill necessary to investigate this difficult subject. After having thus settled the first question proposed, another one arises : Do all plants make a similar consumption of the soluble materials present in the soil, or have they the power of selecting those most suitable to their wants ? In a word, do the different species of plants require, each one, a different nutriment ? Plants, even when grown in the same soil, do not draw up, a sap exactly identical. Saussure has proved in the most positive manner that the roots have the power of selection, though his experiments on the unequal absorp- tion of different salts are not quite satisfactory : for instance, sulphate of cop- per, though soon causing the deatli of the plant, is absorbed in as large quan- tities as any of those compounds which are beneficial to vegetation. Saussure explains this anomaly by showing that, in the case of the sulphate of copper, the roots were decomposed, and consequently, except at the commencement of the experiment, only acted mechanically. It was Avell ascertained that the substances present in any solution were absorbed in very different proportions where their substances were not, like the sulphate of copper, positively inju- rious : for instance, Bidens (bur-marygold ?) and Polygonum (buckwheat ?) absorbed the salts in the following proportions : — Bidens. Polygonum. Chloride potassium 16 14.7 Cloride sodium ----.-..-15 13.0 Nitrate of lime 8 4.0 Sulphfite of soda ----10 14.4 Muriate of ammonia 17 12 o Acetate of lime 8 8.0 Sulphate of copper 48 47.0 Gum 32 9.0 Sugar 8 29.0 Humus {extrait de terreau) G 5.0 These experiments Avere repeated with the greatest care ; and it was proved : 1st, That ])lants absorbed all mineral substances when dissolved in water ; 2d, That they were absorbed in very different I'roportions, according to the plant experimented on : this absorption was also quite irrespective of the fluidity of the solution ; and, 3d, That organic matter, when dissolved in water, is not in that shape absorbed by the roots, but decomposed by their influence, and then j)artially absorbed. 1. Without entering into the minute details of the experiments, the absorp- tion of the following substances was proved : prussiate of pota'^h, chloride of sodium, sulphate of copper, acetate of lead, chloride of barium, ioduret of potassium, and many others. The absorption of nitrate of silver, corrosive sublimate, and gallic acid, did not take place until after the death of that portion of the plant pJunged into their solution. 2. When the plants were placed in a solution containing two salts in equal proportions, it was satisfactorily ascertained that they were absorbed in differ- ent proportions. Even when the salts were present in different proportions, this elective absorption was not deranged. In a solution containing three 'on TH3a FQOD OF POL ANTS. 39 liimes as much common salt as nitre, a plant of Chenopodium viride (Goose- foot) absorbed much more nitre than common salt ; whilst the contrary took place with Solanum lycoperskum iWig\iiA\?d.Qy Other plants selected also common salt, and the Tamarix coiitain nitrates in large quantities, tbough they may be grown alongside of plants containing none at all. It seems therefore impossible to avoid the conclusion that plants possess the property of choosing, or at least of retaining certain substances in pi'eference to others, and, consequently, that -different j^Jants requii'© diffemnt food. But this opinion does not rest on the authority of <;hemical analysis alone, dt is confirmed by the experience of agriculturists. For instance, it is known that certain manures seem especially to favor the growth of certain plants, as gypsKui for clover ; that certain plants oely thrive on soils where they can obtain an abundant SRpply of a special ingredient, as the fern and the chest- nut, on soils rich in potash, or such as are derived from slate rocks, and those of volcanic origin ; that a mixed husbandry is the most productive ; that a plantation containing; .a variety of trees produces more wood than if one spe- cies alone had been planted. These miiltiplied facts prove that it is not a cer- tain quantity of a natritive principle, but a choice amongst several, that is necessary to vegetation. Zd. Mesearches respectinij the Food most suitable to d'lff&r^mt Plants. The difficulties which we encounter in attempting to settle the general question become still more serious as the a,ttempt is made to descend from general to particular cases. It is rarely that an opportunity occui-s which eaiables as to decide upon the effect of such or such a manure upon plants. To ■do this with certainty, the substances tried must be in a state of chemical pwrity ; and as plants are com- posed of a great number of different substances, it would also be necessary to try each cue of these separately, and to observe the effect of their appli- cation, and of the want of tliem ; an admirable subject for the study of those who are ambitious to establish on sure grounds the principles of scientific agriculture. The long and difficult experiments necessary for this jDurpose have as yet hardly been commenced, and our knowledge of this important subject is as yet merely empirical. But the information we already possess must not be despised because it has not as yet arrived at the perfect solution of the question, esj>ecially as the benefit of certain mixed manures to certain plants is well known. In addition to the examples quoted in a former part of this paper, the benefit of lime to cereals, and of the sulphates to legu- minous and cruciferous plants, is well known. But the very limited number 40 CONSUMPTION OF GUANO IN GREAT BRITAIN. of instances we can quote, is a significant proof of the state of our knowl- edge. The most of the manures used contain a great number of the ele- ments of vegetation, and it is difficult to distinguish what each plant carries off, and what is left for future crops. In the meantime, until the experimental application of different manures shall have pointed out what is most suitable to the plant we wish to cultivate, we have no other guide than chemical analysis, or examination of the quan- tity of nitrogen, carbon, and mineral matter present in the ashes of the plant. Such an analysis shows us the substances which a plant has absorbed. But it is only after having submitted the growing vegetable to an experimental test, that, the effect of these various nutritive matters, and the theory of vege- table food, can be established on a sett ed basis. When we shall have arrived at results from the combination of these two methods, first ascertaining by analysis the materials which enter into the composition of plants, then by synthesis offering these materials, and thus satisfactorily ascertaining their in- dividual effect, the science will then be perfect. — London Farmcr^s Maga- zine, COJ^SUMPTIOX OF GUAXO VS GREAT BRITAIN. The following statistics of Guano imported into the British islands will probably have interest for those of our agricultural readers who arc in the habit of exporting all their produce to be consumed at a distance, thus im- poverishing their land and exhausting their capital, when it needs but a brief effort to bring the consumer to their sides, making a market on the land for all its products, and enabling them to return to it the manure, augmenting instead of decreasing its productive power : — In 1841 the total quantity imported into the United Kingdom was 2,881 tons from Peru and Bolivia ; in 1845, owing to tlie discovery of supplies on the coast of Africa, it rose to its highest point, namely 283,300 tons, of which Peru and Bolivia contributed only 14,101 ; and in 1848, the African supply having almost entirely ceased, it had de- clined to 81,414, nearly the whole of which was from Peru. Since then the total has again increased, the quantity having been 83,438 tons in 1843, and 116,925 (of which 95,083 were from Peru, and 5,587 from Bolivia) in 1850. During the past year various minor shipments have been received from the Azores, Mexico, Brazil, and Buenos Ayres, and at the same time those from Africa, Chili, and Patagonia, have all partially re- covered. The increasing demand is evidently occasioning renewed inquiry as to the resources of other countries with regard to this material. The extent of the newly- found deposits at Shark's Bay, Swan River, remains yet to be ascertained, but the accounts regarding them have thus far been promising, both as regards quantity and quality. Mangold Wuezf.l and Salt. — My crop of Mangold Wurzel, in the autumn of 1843, was magnificent ; more especially on two thirds of the field which adjoined a small cop- pice-wood, which, lumng been cut during the previous winter, gave life and vigor to all the weeds that hatl been kept under during the previous ten years. And this part of the field was, consequently, covered with connnon groundsel, which, dming the wet spring and fine summer, s])rang up and flomished surpassingly thick, covering every space between the drills. I ordered my old fi-iend and assistant, conmion salt, to be strewed over the groundsel and between tlie di-ills, following the hoes, which were at work upon this weed. The result was, their total destruction. The quantity of salt applied was much more than I intended, and I apprehended injury to the wurzel ; they were, however, far advanced in size. But, so far from suffi'ring, they increased immensely. The crop — up- wards of 100 tons. [How did you ascertain this ?] The field is I5 of an acre. Wheat followed — .an excellent crop. Then turnips after ploughing ; which are, at this moment, floiu-ishing — for sheep by-and-by. From (he moment the turnips came up, the part of the field salted has been most conspicuously superior to that not salted ; so much so as to be visible from the opposite side of the valley. — Waierhouse, near Bath. CONCENTRATION AND VARIETY OF PURSUITS. 41 ENGLAND'S FREE TRADE PROFESSIONS AND PRACTICE. The London Nautical Standard, says the Hepublic, in an article devoted to the "World's Exhibition, indulges in a strain of comment on the free trade professions and policy of England that it may be possible for some of our friends to profit by. The Standard, after stating the total number of exhibitors from foreign countries at 9,743, of which France sends rather more than one third of the whole, proceeds to say : — " These figures must give to Englishmen much to think, and to reflect. But a few years ago Belgium could hardly be considered as a manufacturing country, and this year she sends to Hyde Park the large amount of 1,050 specimens of her own productions. France, in 1815, had but few and unimportant manufactures, and in 1851 she presents the high number of 3,329 samples of her commerce. Prussia is represented by 1,072 articles of her own fabrics, and many States, which a few years ago were represented as our customers, have become manufixcturers and concurrents with us in many foreign as well as in our own markets. We are afraid that the progress made by many of the nations we have named is owing to the blind policy England has followed for so many years : by imposing many and heavy taxes on the productions of other countries, we have caused them to ivipose the very same duties on our own, a.ndin self defense they have been obliged to become jnoducers instead of buyers of goods. We quarrel with other coun- tries for imposing duties on our goods, and in the same breath we mulct their produc- tions to the utmost. "We grumble at the French for laying a duty on our sea-borne coal, and we lay a tax of three or four times its market value in their brandy. We ask Government to interfere with the ministers of the United States on account of their pro- tective tarifl", and we put and receive a duty of something like eight hundred or nine hundred per cent, on their tobacco. In fact, we insist on our goods being admitted free of duty abroad, and we tax other countries' goods with the largest and?nost exorbitant du- ties. We speak about recijirocity and free trade, but ive do not follow out our boast nor our principles!' CONCENTRATION AND VARIETY OF PURSUITS. We bave repeatedly urged the improving eftect of concentration and variety of pursuits on all the arts of useful and productive industry. In a late number it was said, that he who wishes to see and enjoy fruit and flowers in the greatest variety and excellence to be met with in the United States, must turn his face to the bleak North, and wend his way to the rocky and snow-clad regions of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, where he will see, as he travels cheaply and swiftly in all directions, what would seem to be a desperate, impracticable compound of stone and sand. Nevertheless, it is there v/here the loom and the anvil are found in social proximity to the plough and the harrow ; there be will see the plough and the spade rewarded with the heaviest crops. A practical knowledge and familiarity with the arts of horticulture and floriculture is not there the exception, but the rule. As men of various occupations approach each other and combine their knowledge and their labors, refinement ensues in the practice of all the arts ; the coarser and simpler occupations, as the growing of grain, and cattle, and sheep, and horses, are relinquished and pushed farther off, to be followed by men who hve to exhaust in their culture more distant lands, and to live in ignorance of and abstinence from fruits and flowers, making shift to get along as well as men can do who live apart from each other, and who, having no market at hand, have no encouragement to cultivate the luscious pear and the harvest plum ; the purple grape,"the tulip, the carnation, and the japonica. From all these exquisite enjoyments are men precluded when nobody is near to consume the products of the land. In Massachusetts not only is every imaginable pursuit followed with activity, so near to each other as to afford i 42 THE WAY THE FARMERS PAY FOR IROX. mutually a market and a support, but they have provided, in all directions, the best possible roads of stone and of iron ; so that over any given distance the shortest possible time is consumed in the work of exchange of product for product. They seem in this to have thoroughly put in practice the r/reat spriiiff to improvement in every art. Yes, this is the only road to certain and progressive improvement, and reward to labor and capital ; and the policy hat promotes it is the one in which the landholder above all men is most deeply interested. If any one doubts the practical effect of success in the growth of fruits and flowers, and how invariably it denotes not only high social and intellectual retinement, but increased value in lands, let him inquire, and see if he does not always find lands rising in value as they are connected ■with or form the localities where fruits and flowers are most generally culti- vated, and in greatest excellence and variety. THE WAY THE FARMERS PAY FOR IRON". We learn from the Pittsburg papers, that D. Kilgore, Esq., President of the Steuben- ville and Indiana Railroad Company, is now in that city superintending the engraving and printing of the Company's bonds, which are nearly ready for execution. These bonds are on the city of Steubenville, and the various townships in Jefferson, Harrison, Carroll, Coshocton, and Tuscarawas counties, Ohio, which voted in favor of subscriptions to the Raikoad. They are of the denomination of §1000, bearing seven per cent, interest, pay- able at the office of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company in the city of New York. The amount subscribed is about §;i,000,000, which, it is supposed, will be sufficient to build the road from the Ohio River to Coshocton. An effort will be made to push this road east from Steubenville to Pittsburg, a distance of about forty miles, so as to con- nect with the Pennsylvania road at that point. There is a charter in existence for this route, and the estimated cost is between $800,000 and §900,000. If this link were com- pleted, it would successfully compete with any other road for the trade of Southern Ohio. We take the above from one of our exchange papers, with a view to call the attention of our agricultural readers to the similarity of the course of things at the present time, and in the "prosperons" years 1836, '7, '8 and '9. At that time the States of Indiana and Illinois issued bonds to the amount of many millions of dollars, and thus created a debt under which they have been struggling from that time to the present hour. Now it is the counties of Jefterson, Harrison, Carroll, &c. dtc, that issue their bonds, and the disposition that is made of them will be seen by the following paragraph, which we take from the Pitts- burgh Journal: — Tlie British iron bought by the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 8,000 tons* cost $34 per ton, laid down on the landings at Quebec and New-Orleans. The American iron bought by the same company, 3,000 tons, cost §52^ per ton, laid down in Allegheny City, or at Beaver. The recent contract with the same parties, for 2,500 tons more of American iron, is at ?48 per ton. If the clear saving on the 8,(i00 tons British iron were no more than §5 per ton, it would be a total of §40,000 saved to the stockholders of the Ohio and Penn- sylvania Company, by the purchase of British iron. The people of Ohio, whose farms are underlaid with coal and iron ore, unite to give bonds — that is to say, to mortgage their farms — for the purchase of British food in the form of iron, believing it more profitable to them to cmj)loy British laborers in Great Britain, than to offer them inducements to come here and eat their food while employed in making their iron. The British laborer, at home, may perhaps consume one, two, three, or five pounds of their food in FARMERS AND MECHANICS WANTED. 43 the course of the year, whereas, once here, the whole product of his Uibor would go to the purchase of food for himself and his family — to the payment of those employed in raising the cotton and the wool, and in converting them into cloth for ihe use of his family — and to the payment of the men who were employed in furnishing them with house accommodation, &c. &c. ; and each and every one of the men thus employed in his service, would be a customer to the farmer for food. The market to the American ftirmer afforded by a single ton of American iron, is greater than that afforded by twenty tons of British iron ; and yet our farmers are busily employed in closing our furnaces and compelling miners and furnace men to become farmers, while mortgaging their farms for the purchase of British food in the form of iron. The effect of this is already visible in the low price of grain, and should the anticipation with regard to the crops in Europe and in this country be fully realized, the day would seem to be not far distant, when our farmers will experience in its fullest extent the benefits of the tariff of 1846, in closing a large and rap- idly grovi'mg market at home, for the purpose of securing a small and rapidly decreasing market abroad. FARMERS AND MECHANICS WANTED. We have long been of opinion that no part of the United States offered greater advan- tages to the laboring population than the Lake Superior region. The climate, though cold in the winter season, is i-emarhably healthy, proving a sure remedy for the fevers and consumptive complaints of warmer latitudes. The soil of large portions of the country is equal to any in the Western States, and yields large crops of the best potatoes, turnips, hay, oats, 1 strike of barley for do., and grinding, -.-..... 0 4-1 1 cwt. bran, -----050 6 pecks tail wheat, 060 Marketing expenses, --..-.- 00 1—1 16 11 XO 0 h)4 £6 Os. 5^c?., divided by 8, the number of hens, gives a net profit of rather more than 1 5s. for each hen. — The Son of a Country Rector. MINERAL INGREDIENTS PER ACRE OF AVERAGE AGRICULTURAL CROPS. Salt, Id Lime, Gypsum, Bones, Potash at Ad. per lb. per 6rZ. per Id. per ^d. per Total. stone. bushel. lb. lb. lbs. .9. d. lbs. d bshl. d. lbs. s. d. lbs. s. d .9. d. Wheat,.... 6 2 0 14 2 1 6 6 0 2 34 1 5 4 3 Barlev,.. ..14 4 8 17 2.^ 1 6 12 0 4 48 2 0 7 8i Oats, . .42 14 0 7 1 1 6 9 0 3 8 0 4 15 2 Rye,.- ... 9 3 0 10 U 1 6 16 0 5i 13 0 6i 4 7 Bean.... 88 27 8 44 64- 11 9 8 0 3 70 2 11 .52 1 Pea«, 28.i 9 6 36 5 2 12 32 0 11 60 2 6 14 4 Swedes,.. 106 35 4 100 14 n 9 70 1 11 66 2 9 41 11 If the analysis be correct, and the foregoing hypotheses also based on proper princi- ples, it follows that wheat can be grown at less expense per acre than any otlier crop ; and it may be equally deduced that it is less exhausting to the land. It al.^o follows that such land as contains the greatest portion of potash and phosphoric acid can be cultivated the most economically. — On the Possibility of growing Wheat successively on the same Land, by H. Briggs, Wakefield. English Agricultural Dinners and Speeches. — A wiiter in a late English Agri- cultural paper says : " Wo should have been glad to have heard from one from the fiirther hemisphere the words he would have uttered ; we mean Colonel Morris, of Nev/-York. But the rules of the Society silenced him, though the meeting called upon him by name. Mr. Rives, of Virginia, we would also gladly have heard. Vii'ginia, so associated with our own great countryman Raleigh, so wise, so learned ! The axe and the veto of a chaii'- man can cut short instruction. However, in excuse it may be supposed the American guests might argue the question of free trade, aud so put the meeting in hot water. At these meetings much information is obtained from men who attend from various countiies. It ia to be hoped Devonshii-e will improve after this visit of the Society. Cream and apples ai-e veiy good things, but good farming far better." 46 CHEAP LABOR. HOLLYHOCKS. If I were not afraid of advancing a horticultui-al heresy, I should say that many ama- teiu-s jirefer hollyhocks to dahlias. The hollyhocks of Belgium and Germany had a great celebrity l<">ng before they appeared among us. The coUectioas of the Prince of Salm Dyck, and M. Van Houtte, of Ghent, have been much admired. In other places varieties have been obtained with leaves more or less lobed, more or less entire, more or less pal- mate, all with flowers large, full or colored differently from those of other plants, being sometimes of a more or less dark mahogany color, at others of a delicate tint, and vary- ing from tlie purest white to the darkest glossy black. Some prpgi-ess has also been made in the cultivation of those plants by om-selves. Since 1830, M. Pelissier, Jr., a gentleman of Prado, has cultivated hollyhocks, and from the seeds of a pink variety has succeeded in obtaining plants with flowers of a delicate rose color, and which, in con- sequence of the extreme delicacy of theu tints, and regularity of fonn, may serve both to encourage perseverance and as a good type for seed. In the following year, from the seeds of pink flowers, he obtained a beautiful, brilliant, clear, sulphiu--colored specimen, perfect in every respect. It is from the seeds of those two plants that he has obtained all the other beautiful and remarkable varieties which he now possesses, after a lapse of ten years from his first attempts. As a general rule, M. Pelissier prefers flowers with six exterior petals, with entire edges, well open, well set out, of a middling size, of a pure, clean, brilliant color, and forming a perfect anemone. Seeds sown in the spiiug and in unwatered gi'ound never flower till the second year. Experience has shown that if the seeds are sown in September, and in earth wliich is kept fresh, flowers may be ob- tained in June or July following, which are in no way inferior to those of spring-sown seeds. M. Pelissier follows the foUowiug plan of procedure : The seeds, which are taken as soon as they are ripe, from good specimens, are sown in September, in a border a foot and a half deep, and composed of good coarsely sifted garclen eai-th, mixed with well- worked soil. The seeds, if they are covered lightly with leaf-mould, and the soil is kept fresh, begin to swell at the end of the week ; they require Uttle care till spring, as they ai"e not hurt by frost. In the spring the gi-ouud nuist be repricked, occasionally hoed, and frequently watered. As the flowers expand, M. Pehssier removes whatever is not conformable to the type he has chosen, or is not of a marked color, and like a perfect anemone. It is by doing this every year that he has obtained twenty remarkable varie- ties. We wish we could see more attention paid to the cultivation of this mag- nificent flower — only neglected because not very new, nor difficult to be had. CHEAP LABOR It was recently stated, in a mercantile pajier, that in Massachusetts, the great staples of agriculture — cereal grains — beef and pork, &c., had dimin- ished, as appears by the census, with the growth of manufactures ; and an argument was thereon predicated, or rather a conclusion jumped at, that therefore manufactures were thriving at the expense of agriculture. Now nothing could well be more fallacious than such an inference. So far from it, it comes in direct corroboration of what we have ever contended fur in the Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil ; in fact, it illustrates the main purpose for which this work was established, for it proves that when the jnanufacturer sits down by the side of the agriculturist, when the loom and the an^^l take their place by the side of the plough, then it is that men g-ive up }naking corn and wheat, and rye, and oats, and things that are measured in bushels and sent off to be consumed at a distance, and go to making potatoes and tur- nips, and cabbages, and milk, and butter, and fruit, and onions, and carrots, that may, on the spot, be sold and exchanged for manure, or consumed on the spot and converted into milk and butter ; the refuse of the land being in all DAIRY MANAGEMENT. 47 cases returned to the land ; its ammonia, its phosphates, and all its elements of fertility which grain crops carry off and which bullocks carry off in their meat and bones to a distant market, is thus reserved and restored to the mother that bore them. DAIRY" MANAGEMENT. " A Flintshire Daiuyman," amongst other questions of much importance to daiiymen, which, I doubt not, will be readily answered by a more practical man than myself, asks how far the system of house-feeding is applicable to dairy management, particularly the manufacture of cheese ? I would refer your coiTespondent to Professor Playfair's lecture in the 4tli volume of the Royal Agricultural Society's " Transactions," where he will find that whilst house-feeding of cows is admirably suited for promoting a great increase of butter, if the animals are properly fed, grass-feeding, or out-of-door feeding, is essentially necessary for the manufacture of cheese. And this reason is assigned for the difference in treatment : that a generous diet and warmth and quiet are promotive of the oily sub- stance of the milk, from which butter is made ; but that exercise, and less rich nom-ish- nient, produce that peculiar substance in milk called casein, from which cheese is pi-ocm'ed. In fact, it appears that, without exorcise, very little casein is obtained from the cow, and that the waste of the tissues which exercise promotes, increases indirectly the amount of casein in the milk. It is, however, a matter of very great importance to the cheese farmers to ascertain whether, by feeding the cows more fi-equently with leguminous food, 'which contains a larger proportion of casein than other vegetable food, and giving them regular exercise, as yom* correspondent suggests, the advantages of house-feeding, which ai'e in many ways of essential benefit, cannot be practised by the dairyman in the manu- facture of cheese. Tlie economy of food, the collection of maniu'e both solid and fluid, the general comfort of the animals, the increased mmiber of cows which can be fed on the same land, the facility of millving, cfec, all combine to render the house-feeding of cows most desirable ; and I hope some ex|)eriments will be made with this object in view. As exercise increases the casein in milk, a cow-house could be so constructed that there should be a circular covered walk, where the animals could be daily exercised ; or could they not be trained to the yoke, and accustomed to draw light weights ? (the manure, for instance, out of the yard.) Of course, great care would be required that they should not strain themselves, but merely exercise their muscles. I have seen m Flanders the plough- iug of land by cows, but I should consider tliis much harder labor than is proper. — An Old Subscriber. Flax-siced as Food. — Will you allow me to communicate to the readers of your valuable paper the result of my little experience in the use of Flax-seed for feeding a saddle-horse. I was induced, from reading Mr. Sproule's articles in the Gazette, on Flax, and AVnrnes's System, &c., for farm-horses, to try the experiment with my saddle- horse, which has now been fed 12 weeks upon the following diet, and is in excellent condition, with a good coat, notwithstanding the severe weather to which it has been a good deal exposed ; for, being a surgeon, I am obliged to leave it standing at the doors of my patients continually : — 6 stone (of 20 lbs.) of wheat-straw, at Gd., - - - - 3s. Od. ^ stone good hay, at 13 J., 0 6^ i score bran, ----06 7 lbs. ground linseed, at 3c/., 19 (Per week,) 5s. Q^d. These are retail prices, and include straw for bedding, which, however, is economized by being put up under the manger during the day-time. Upon this my horse has, of course, done easy work ; it has, however, only been four days in the stable, and has averaged 8 miles a day for the last 12 weeks. I have also a drawback on the manure, which, at the price here, will I think reduce the cost of keep to 5s. a week. I should state that my apparatus is neitlier extensive nor expensive. I boil in a five-quart pan a gallon of water, with ^ lb. of good linseed and a little salt, a common butter-firkin 48 NEW BOOKS. being filled with the ohaff (straw and hay) mixed with the proportion of bran ; the boiling linseed is poured over it, and well mixed with a broomstick, mure chaff bei ng added as it settles, after standing an hour or two ; this is given at night, and a second supply (the operation being repeated with a little more chaff) stands all night, and affords the animal as much as she can eat the whole of the next day ; the salt increases her relish. — /. B. N., Liverpool. Wash for Fruit Trees. — I am, at this season of the year, frequently asked what is the best wash fur fruit trees, both trunk and limbs. The following has given me the best satisfaction of all tlie various mixtures I have tried, and I have used no other for at least 12 years: — I use a large vessel, say a tub, made by sawing a molasses-hogs- head in two, at the bung, which will liold about 70 gallons ; in this tub I put a wheel- baiTOW load of yellow clay, and an equal quantity of fresh cow-manure, covering it with ■water. After soaking and mixing a day or two, I add half a bushel wood-ashes, 1 lb. of sulphur, 6 or 8 lbs. of soft soap, and mix well together ; then slake half a peck of lime, and add to the above, using water sufficient to make the wliole about tlie consis- tency of thin cream, which will nearly fill the tub ; mix well together for several days ; then, with a common whitewash-brush (an old floor-brush will answer) I paint the bodies of the trees, having first used a smaller brush to paint the crotclics of the limb.?, and the limbs themselves, as far as possible. I think any gentleman trying this wash, or paint, if you please, will find it to give him perfect satisfaction on every kind of fruit tree in oi'dinary cultivation with us. — CaplabiLovctt, in Hovcy's Maga-.lnc of Horticul- ture. Manure for Grass Land. — I was anxious to know what quantity of grass could be procured by stimulating manures, by experiment. This experiment has been made on 100 superficial yards of grass land; and by manuring after every crop, I have mowed five times, and have had each time as much grass on the land as what there usually is when persons mow for hay. The manures I made use of were pounded charcoal, malt-dust, nmnate of ammonia, sulphate of magnesia, and nitrate of soda. The salts were put on in a liquid state, 2 oz. to each yard. I mowed the fifth time on the 10th ot August. The land is by no means good land on which this experiment was made, and which is not yet completed. These manures will give to very poor land llie ap- pearance of very good laud, as long as tlieir effects last. — C. A. A. Llo>/d, Whittinr/tQu Oswestrij. Pickling of Meat. — Professor Refinesque denoimces the use of saltpetre in brine, in- tended for the preservation of flesh to be kept for food. That part of tlie saltpetre which is absorbed in meat, is nitric acid, or aquafortis — a deadly poison. Anhnal flesh, previous to the addition of pickle, consists of gelatinous and fibrous substances, the former only possessing a nutritious virtue ; this gelatine is destroyed by the chemical action of salt and saltpetre, and, as the Professor remarks, the meat becomes as different a substance from what it should be, as leather is fi-om the raw hide before it is subjected to the pro- cess of tanning. He ascribes to the pernicious effects of the chemical change all the dis- eases which are common to mariners and others who subsist principally upon salted meat, such as scurvy, sore gums, decayed teeth, ulcers, ifec, and advises a total abandonment of the use of saltpetre in the making of pickle for beef, pork, t&c, the best substitute foi" which is, he says, sugar, a smjiU quantity rendering the meat sweeter, more wholesome, and equally as dui-able. — Bath. NEW BOOKS. Tlie Year Booh of Facts in Scicnc; and Art ; exhibiting the inoH Important Discoveries atid Improvements of the past year. One vol., pp. 328. I'hiladelphia : A. Hart, late Carey & Hart. In the present iige of improvement, wlien every day brings out some new discovery in science and art, such a book as the one before us cannot but prove not only vastly interestmg, but almost necessary to enable us to keep up with the progress of the age. Looking into this volume the reader will be surprised at the many " new tilings" a single year haa brought out. FATTENING CATTLE. 49 FATTENING CATTLE. A DISSERTATION ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF FATTENING CATTLE. . .PART 11. Much discussion has arisen between Mens. Dumas and Baron Liebig respecting the foniiation of fat ; the French ilhilosopher maintains that the vegetable which is par- taken as food by the animal, possesses, al- ready Jbnned in its structure, all the fat which is absolutely essential for the animal ; and that, like the gluten which is necessaiy for the formation of muscular or fleshy fibre, the phospliate of lime for the bones, and the starch or gum for the formation of animal heat, the fat which is contained in the vegeta- ble is destined to supply the fat iii the animal body. Oa the contrary. Baron Liebig contends that if the animal is properly snpplied with a gi-eater quantity of the non-nitrogenous con- stituents of the food — viz. the sugar, starch, and gum, than are necessary for the proper supply of the demands in the animal heat, they become converted into fat in the animal economy. I am inclined to support the hy- pothesis of Mons. Dumas ; for, in my humble opinion, I think it both simple and beautiful; and, if we take into our consideration the animal in its primitive and original state, I conceive the accuracy of the tlieory cannot for a moment be questioned. But we must remember that the great quantity of fat we see accumulating in those oxen, sheep, and other animals, which we keep confined in our stalls, originates from au abnormal con- dition of the system, and is produced by the circumstances under which the animal is placed ; and as such, in addition to the fat already formed in the vegetable, the aniiiial possesses the power of secreting an addi- tional portion of fat from the food whicli it consumes. The earthy and saline substiuices which are contained in the crops themselves have very important duties to perform in the animal body ; thus, for example, they afford a supply of phosphate of lime for the dno formation of bones, as well as the saline par- ticles which are constantly present in the blood, flesh, softer tissues, and secreted fluids of animals. How far the ordinary cultivated crops are capable of properly answering tlia functions thus required of them, you will see on referring to the following Table : TABLE in. ON THE AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF CROPS. 100 Paits. Water. Woody Fibre. Starch, Gum, or Sugar. Gluten and Albumen. Fatty Matter. Sahne Matter. Wheat coutaiu of Barley 16 15 16 16 13 75 85 85 14 14 12 12 14 14 18 13 14 10 15 to 20 15 15 20 10 8 5 3 3 30 25 25 45 50 50 18 16 m 15 to 24 55 CO 50 40 50 12 10 10 40 40 45 35 30 30 45 51 30 to 50 10 to 15 12 14 28 24 o 1 2 7 9 12 1-3 1-3 1-3 10 10 o 22 12 to 22 2 to 4 2-5 5-6 3 0-3 ? 0-4 2 to 5 3 1-8 0-8 0-5 0-8 2-6 5-6 5-2 36 5 to 14 20 20 3-5 3 2-8 1 1 1 5 to 10 9 5 6 5 5 2-3 2-5 2-2 4 5 to 10 Oats Peas Potatoes . Turnips . . . Carrots Meadow Hay Clover Hay Pea Straw Oat Straw Wlieat Straw Barley Straw B unk wheat Maize Rice Dust Linseed (good) OilCake You will easily perceive from this useful Table, that 100 parts of the various species of crops grown by the farmer contain very va- riable proportions of dry solid food ; thus, in order tliat the animal may obtain the same equivalent of dry ibod as 100 lbs. of hay would produce him, he must consume not less, but probably more, than COO lbs. of Swede turnips or carrots, or 300 lbs. of po- TOL. IV. — 4 tatoes ; but of this dry matter, you will please to bear in your recollection, the composition exerts a very material influence over its vahie as food. I have described the manner in which the gluten, casein, and albumen of the vegetable are converted into the blood, flesh, softer tissues and fluids of the animal : hence young animals which are supplied with food coutaiuLug much of these muscle-furmiug 50 FATTENING CATTLE. pi-inciples nre found to fji'ow rapidly, and their nuiscular IVaines will be duly devel- oi)ed : l)iit, unless they are liberally supphed with such substances as fat, Sinn, and starch, by which the animal heat is tomieil and kept np, the animals will he mnscidar, but utterly unfit for the butcher's purpose. It is a very common practice to feed young growing pigs upon the refuse of the slaughter-house, ni some places, such as the blood and intestines of the slaughtered animals ; and in France, many hundreds of pigs are annually fed upon horse-Hesh ; these pigs grow rapidly, and their nmscular frames are finely developed, but they do not become fat, unless they are properly supplied with a liberal portion of non-nitrogenous food, such as potatoes or meal would yield. As it is only from the nitrogenous constitu- ents that muscle is formed, it has been sup- posed that the quantities of these substances contained hi any given article of food would be a fair estimate of its feeding value ; and, under this supposition, Mons. Boussingault has constructed some Tables of the proportion of nitrogen contained in difierenl vegetable substances. The late Rev. W. Rham has pub- lished in The Journal of the Royal Agricul- tural Socitty of Ensrlaiid, some Tables of the relative value of ditiereut kinds of food as ai-rived at by practice; but all such Tables must, to a certain extent, be aibitrary, inas- much as the quantity of these animal sub- stances consumed by the animal must be in- fluenced by circumstances ; the animal taking active e.xercise requiring a much larger quan- tity, in order to supply the natm-al waste which would occur under these circum- stances, than if the animal was at rest. We have also seen that the starch, gum, and sugar of the vegetable supplies the con- stituents iiy which the heat of the animal is maintained ; and as this heat never varies during health, whatever variation may occur in the temperature of the atmosphere or apartment in which they are placed, it follows that the lower the temperature, the larger will be the that of the body that a little additional heat is sufTicient to maintain the requisite temperature. Exercise, also, by increasing the number of inspirations, in- troduces into the body a larger amount of oxygen than would otherwise be inspired ; and as this never leaves the body without un- dergoing a change, it follows, as a matter of course, that the greater the number of inspi-- rations taken within a given time, the larger will be the demand for food to supply the consunijition in the body. Hence we find that an increase in temperature, with dimin- ished exercise, tends to lessen the quantity of food consumed, and also to increase the weight of the animal. This fact was clearly proved by Mr. Childers in feeding sheep. In this experiment he selected from his Hock forty sheep, and divided them into two lots of twenty each; one lot was left in the field, which had a dry and sandy soil ; the other lot was placed in a shed, upon a Hoor made of pine-planks, in order that they might be kept dry, the floor being swept once a day. The experiment commenced on the first of Janu- ary, when the twenty sheep in the field weighed together 184 stones 4 lbs., while the weight of those placed in the shed was 183 stones 3 lbs. ; each lot had as many turnips as they could eat, which averaged 27 stones per day ; each sheep was also aUovved in ad- dition, half a pound of linseed-cake, and half a pint of barley per day, with a little hay, and unlimited supply of salt. For the first three weeks each lot consumed equal por- tions of food ; but in the fourth week, the sheep confined in the shed ate a less quantity of turnips, by three stones per day, than those in the field ; and on the first of February they had gained in weight 21 stones 11 lbs., while those in the field had only gained 15 stones 14 lbs. By the ninth week of the ex- periment the sheep in the shed had dimin- ished their consumption of tuniipstwo stones more, and also three pounds of linseed-cake per day ; and on the first of March the shed- fed sheep had gained 10 stones 10 lbs. more in weight, while the sheep in the field had only gained 8 stones 8 lbs. ; and at the end of the experiment, on April the 1st, the shed- fed sheep liad gained in the last month 23 stones l.'j lbs., or in the three months .50 stones 6 lbs., while the sheep in the field had only gained 12 stones 10 lbs. in the month, or in the three months 3G stones 8 lbs., making a difference in favor of the shed-fed sheep of nearly twenty stones; the sheep in the field consuming the same quantity of food during the whole time of the experiment. In this experiment we have convincing proof that the quantity of fiiod required by an animal will be less in proj)orlion to the increase of temperature; and that when a liberal diet is alloweil, but without, shelter, nuich of the constituents (jf the fiiod will bo consimied to keep up the heat of t'ho animal, which would be otherwise sfnreil i ip in the body as liit, if no such cause of wa; «te uxisted : and hence tu the iullucuce ulco |t( » \u bo uttribultid tlio FATTENING CATTLE. 61 difficulty of fattening animals in cold weather, or iu bleak, unsheltered situations. I may here state to you some experiments which were made by that truly philosophical agriculturist, Mr. Morton, at Earl Ducie's fann, at Whitfield, as illustrative of the effects of an increase of temperature and diminished exercise upon the feeding of sheep. In the first expeiiment five sheep were fed in the open air, between the 21st of November and the 1st of December ; they consumed 90 lbs. of food per day, the mean temperature of the atmospliere being 44° of Fahrenheit's ther- mometer ; at the end of this time they weighed 2 lbs. less than they did on the 2l8t of November. In the second experiment, five sheep were placed under a shed and al- lowed free motion, the mean temperature be- ing 49*° ; they consumed at first 82 lbs. of food per day, then 70 lbs. ; at the end of the experiment they had gained in weight 23 lbs. In the third experiment, five sheep were placed in the same shed, but were not allowed to take exercise ; they ate at first 64 lbs. of food a day, then 58 lbs., and in- creased in weight 30 lbs. Darkness, in combination with rest and waraith, tends mutually to facilitate the fat- tening process, by removing those causes of excitement which might othei-wise exist, and which would tend to an increased consump- tion of carbon or fat-forming principle in the lungs. It is well known to the practical farmer, that restless animals consume a larger quantity of food, and fatten much slower, than those of a quiet disposition ; and as it is the object of the feeder to produce the largest weight of flesh with the smallest quantity of food, all those collateral circumstances should be attended to which will facilitate the attain- ment of the desired object. Another important point to be properly at- tended to in the management of cattle is the regularity of their feeding ; inasmuch as the gastric juice is secreted by the glands of the stomach at the accustomed time of feeding ; and therefore, if there is no food for it to act upon, it irritates the coats of the stomach itself, producing a degree of inquietude and restlessness which is highly injurious, and tends to check that steady progress of the animal which it is so desirable to maintain. M. Von Tha6r, in his work on " The Phi- losophy of Agriculture," informs us that, in fatteiiing, care should be taken to maintain a uniform and, particularly in winter, a some- what high temperature Light must be in- tercepted ; for just in proportion as it keeps up the due health of cattle, so does dark- ness accelerate the attainment of the required degree of fatness. The repose and content- ment— the happy freedom from anxiety, arismg from the certainty of receiving their food in proper time and measure — contributes so much to the fattening of cattle that a much more plentiful supply, given iiTegularly, can- not make up for the want of order. The hour for feeding, and the quantity of food, maybe variously regulated, but a system when once adopted should be- strictly adhered to. The saline and earthy matter contained in the food is by no means an unimportant fea- ture. The animal, it must be borne in mind, requires that the food or plants upon which it lives should supply phosphate of lime for the due formation of its bones, and saline matter for the blood ; and it is a truly beau- tiful provision of Nature, that plants will not grow in soils which are destitute of those con- stituents required in the economy of animals : hence the advantages which are derived from the employment of such manures as bones, guano, Croggon's and other saline manures, or the urine of cattle, &c., in the growing of our commonly cultivated crops. The due proportions of which these differ- ent constituents of the food are required by the animal, vary at different periods of its growth, and also at different stages of its ap- proach to that degree of fatness which fits it for the shambles. In the young and gi-owing animal, there will be a much larger demand on the food than there would be iu after-life. The mus- cles require to be enlarged by the addition of more gluten or muscle-forming principle than would be necessary to compensate for the natural waste which is continually going on in the body, and the food must supply an increased quantity of phosphates for the gi'owth of bone ; the lungs are more active, and a greater number of inspirations are mad© in a given time, by which more carbon is consumed : hence the necessity of supplying the gi'owing animal with a richer and far more nutritious diet than would be requued by the adult, and of feeding at shorter intervals. Nature has prepared in the milk of the ma- lernal quadruped a species of food suitable to the wants of ihe young animal ; and a glance at its composition, which is pointed out by chemical analysis, will soon convince us how admirably it is adapted to fulfill the purpose* ill the animal economy : TABLE IV. COMPOSITION OF MII.K. Butter 27 to 351 Casein or Cheese 4.1 to 90 Milk-sugar 37 to 50 Phosphate of lime 3 to lOi Salts 7to 10 Water 881 to 805[ The sugar of milk, with the butter, sup- plies the materials which are consumed in the lungs of the young animal, by vt^hich the animal heat is properly kept up. The casein, or cheesy matter, yields the materials for the growuig muscles, and the gelatine of the bones ; while the phosphate of lime, dissolved in the water, supplies the earthy matter for the bones. The quantity of milk, and the proportions of the ingredients which it con- tains, %'ary with circumstances, such as the breed of the cow, the food with which ohe is supplied, the time of her calving, her ago, Oli FATTENING CATTLE. aiiJ state of health. It is also materially iii- fliieiiceJ by the tejnperature of the atmo- S])here ; wannth producing similar effects on the rompositiou of the milk as on the fatten- iujr of the animal ; the colder the air, the less butter will the animal yield in her milk. This fact is well known to farmers, the cause being the larger consumption in the lungs of tlie animal (to retain its heat against the cooling influences of the external air) of those principles hi the food fl'om which the butter is fonned. As an illusti'ation, I may quote an account of an experiment made un- der tlie directions of that practical agi-icul- tural chemist, Mr. Gyde, and which is well worth your notice. " Six cows, during the warmest part of the summer of 1844, when in the field, yield- ed, on an average, 14 quarts of milk each ; as the season advanced and the weather be- came colder, the quantity of milk steadily di- minished, and of course with it the butter. In the early portion of November, four of the six cows were placed in a house, the floor of which was boarded in order to keep them dry. Light was nearly excluded, and the mean temperature of the house was kept at about 55°, the animals having barely enough r.)om to lie down in their stalls; their diet was composed of cut timiips, hay, chaff, and a little ground lentil mixed with the chaff". For the first few days the animals were evi- denly uncomfortable in their new habitation, and their yield of milk diminished. At the expiiation of three weeks the milk had again increased, and the quantity given was equal to that of the best yield of the summer. By the middle of December — the cold being then intense in the open — '.he cows gave 18 quarts each of rich milk, from which a proper quantity of butter was made. Animals when yielding milk require a richer food than when they are dry, since it is fiom the food taken that they are enabled to secrete their milk ; and if their food does not contain a sufficiency of the elements required, the milk is less nu- tritious : hence the growth of young and fiuckli g animals is less rapid, and its future health and strena;th of constitution suffer by the t eatment whicli it receives when young. When sheep are fed upon turnips, and in winter, during the time they are giving suck, it is an excellent plan to allow a portion of oil-cake, or linseed, or pea or Ijeaa meal, as part of their daily food ; such addition greatly improves the secretion of milk, the lambs grow rapidly, and fatten much earlier than when no such addition iti made, and the sheep are found to be in much better condition in the 8|)ring. In the rearing of calves, like- wise, it is desirable that they should have the ■«vhole milk, and not be supplied after the tJrst two or three days with milk that has been skimmed, as is the custom in some parts of England. The practice of the late Earl Spencer, in feeding calves, was to allow them the iniskiunned milk for the first three mouths, ttud ul'tei-wmd tu give them ekiuuued milk for the first three months, and afterward to give them skimmed milk mixed with bar ley or oatmeal ; tliis practice was found to succeed remarkably well ; Init I am inclined to believe that pea or bean tneal mixed with linseed would have probably been better than oat or barley meal, since the bean and pea contain vegetable casein, which is iden- tical hi composition with the casein of milk, and forms an admirable substitute for it; while the soluble gum and mucilage of the linseed would be the more easily acted on by the stomach of the young animal than the insoluble starch of the oat or barley. In fattening calves for veal, attention should be devoted to the production of fat animals of moderate size, veal of this description be- ing most sought after by the epicure. The animal should be kept perfectly quiet, and placed hi as warm a situation as convenient, that there may be as little loss of the fat- foi-ming principle as possible ; and a gloomy situation, not amounting to actual darkness, is found, by experience, greatly to assist the above means, by inducing tranquillity and a disposition for sleep. The food should be rich, and regularly supplied, and the strictest attention to cleanlinese should be obsei'ved. Bleeding is occasionally resorted to by some feeders, and its effect is to check the too rapid development of muscle, while it does not hiteifere with the regular accumulation of fat in the body. Animals intended for stock should be allowed free exercise, that their muscular frames may be well developed; and their food should be of a nutritious char- acter, containing sufficient gluten to supply the full demand of then- growth. They should have sheds to go hito at night and during rain, with a dry bed to lie upon ; animals which are so treated will grovi^ rapidly, fatten much faster when required, and be of a stionger constitution than those li;d upon coai'se, infe- rior, and unwholesome food, which is unfit to supply the demands of the system, pro- ducing an imperfect development of the an- imal frame, and not unfrequently engender- ing diseases of a troublesome and fiequeutly a fatal character. Time, gentlemen, warns me to conclude I have endeavored to detail in a few words, what is known on the subjects by our best animal physiologists, who have applied their theories to the ixaring and feeding of cattle. If, by the knowledge I have imparted to you in this Lecture, you are enabled to pnjmote your own interests, and that of the public, by better regidating ihe treatment of your live-stock, I shall not have addressed you in vain. I am the theorist, you are the prac- tical men ; your practice and my theory (or rather the theories of sound philosophers) com- bined, cannot, when i>roperly managed, but conduce to your own pecuniary benefit, and that of mankind in general. Accept my thanks for your kind attention, and. for the preseut, 1 res|j«;clfully sjiy. farewell, h. w. d I' Tiio ^Loudo/i; Plyujjli.'J LECTURES ON BOTaNY. 53 LECTURES ON BOTANY* COURSE OF LECTURES ON BOTANY IN REFERENCE TO AGRICULTURE. By Charles Johnso.v, Esq,, Professor of Botany at Guj/'s Hospital, ^r. <^-c. At Messri. NesbU's Agricultural and Scienlijic Training School, Kennington Lane, Lambeth, near London. LECTTRE II. Our preceding Lecture was dedicated to the detail ot'a tew of the advantages that have ah-eady resulted from the knowledge of a simple fact in vegetable physiology, namely, the inHiience of the external organs or parts of the tljwer ui the production of the seed. It is a subject on which we might dwell at much greater length, as manifesting ihe vast importance of a branch of study that the practical cultivator, regarding it generally in the liglit of an abstract science, has hitherto considei'ed rather as an amusement for the idle speculator, than as intimately connected with the practice of his profession, and illiis- tratizig those proL'esses of his art that have been established by the slowly accumulated experience of himself and his predecessors. But this early stage of our inquiry is not the fitting place to extend our remarks upon the action of organs whose operation can scarcely be comprehended without reference to their own uhiniate slruoture — in other words, to the minute organs or vessels of which diey are themselves built up; and this observation applies not only to the flower, but to every part of the vegetable fabric : every product of the plant, whether cultivated for food or as adapted to the other almost innumerable wants and purposes of man — nay, its very existence — is dependent upon these. A vegetable is a livuig being, and, as such, is made up of parts or members, all more or less iuHuencuig each other, and united and simultaneous in their o[)erations for the growth and preservation of the whole. Some parts, when cut through, appear solid to the naked eye, others present a minutely porous appearance; but under a microscope or strong magnifying-glass the apparent solidity of the hardest and closest wood disappears. It is in these small and all but invisible cavities that the vital functions of the being before us are to be traced ; it is here that are elaborated the starch, the gluten, the gum, the sugar, and the other proxinaate principles of our food; here are formed the tainiin, the dye, the medicine ; the production of the wood, the bark, the ditfering fibre of the flax and cot- ton, and the increase of the universal sub- stance of the plant itself, are all of them pro- cesses dependent upon the economy of these mysterious recesses. The prying eye of cu- riosity is somethnes at fault in its endeavors to penetrate the sources of organic action, but a glance is often sufficient for the speculative mind of man to work upon and form a hy- pothesis which a second will enable him to improve into a theory, and although we posi- tively know but little, that little enables m to assume a great deal, and this is especially the case as regards the science of Vegetabla I'hysiology, or tliat which treats of the nat- ural laws regulating the growth of plants and their productions, as just referred to. in giving you a general outline of the action of these laws, and endeavoring to explain the structure through wliich they opei-ate, I shall avoid as much as possible reference to what is merely supposititious, relyhig upon the statement of facts, and such conclusions as, though in our present state of knowledge they are incapable of being positively demon- strated, are still .so closely accordant with what we really do know, that, until they are contradicted by facts, we are justified iu re- garding them as such themselves. Divide the stem of any common plant- transversely or crosswise, and examine the section with a microscope, it will present the appearance of net- work, the meshes of which are of various sizes and figures, some perhaps regularly hexagonal, or six-sided, like the cells of a honey-comb, others more irregular, oth- ers square, and some circular ; the circular ones are generally disposed in groups, which are sometimes scattered, somethnes arranged at corresponding intervals in a concentric manner. If we divide the same stem per- pendicularly, or lengthwise, we find the an- gular meshes presenting a nearly similar ap- pearance, showmg them to be small, mem- braneous cells or cavities, while the circular ones are discovered to be sections of little tubes, more or less elongated, and narrowing toward each extremity so as to termuiate iu a pohit, and farther that they are disposed iu longitudinal layers, or thread-like bundles. These cells and tubes are denominated the elementary organs of the plant ; and minute examinarion of them shows that, independent of difiereuces in form, size, and disposition, they vaiy gi-eatly in structure, and are |)rob- ably subservient, in consequence of that va- riation, to the pertiirmance of difFei'ent func- tions; these functions, however, are, in our present state of knowledge, very imperlectly understood ; of many, and those perhaps the most important, we are altogether ignorant ; while others are little more than simnised from their apparent comiection with some obvious fact iu vegetable growth, such as tha Continued from page 377, Vol. II., Monthly Journal of Agriculture. 64 LECTURES ON BOTANY. rise and distribution of the sap, &c. So very minute are the elementary organs of plants individually, and so obscurely revealed are their physical phenomena, even with the as- sistance of the most powerful microscopes, that few observers agree in their accounts of either, beyond the admission of certain gen- eral facts. The eimplest definable form of the vegetable tissue or substance appears to be the cellular, namely, thqt presenting in division the angu- lar meshes just referred to; each of these meshes is the section of a cell, consisting of a very delicate transparent membrane, rudi- mentally globular, but assuming different figures in consequence of being pressed upon by others in the growing plant ; when equally pressed on all sides by similar cells, the globe becomes twelve-sided, and of the form denominated by mathematicians the rhomboidal dodecahedron, which being di- vided in either direction, presents a hexagonal outline, resembling the cells of a honey-comb; where the pressure is unequal, the regularity of the cells is vaiiously affected and distorted, and they become more or less oblong and rectangular, or present such a diversity of figures in different plants, and in different parts of the same, that the delineation of them would require a far greater space than our confined limits will admit, or the subject be- fore us justify the dwelling upon, where a hasty oudine will answer the end proposed, without entering into minutiae belonging to the more abstruse and philosophical portion of the science. Cellulai- tissue constitutes a very considerable portion of the substance of all plants ; the pith is wholly composed of it ; BO is by far the greater part of the bark, and the external covering of the more delicate organs ; while, filling up the interstices left by the disposition of the woody and other tubular tissue, it seems to be almost analo- gous to fat in the animal economy, and, like tnat, increases so much, under certain circum- stances, as to alter materially the general as- pect and condition of the plant ; it is indeed that part of the vegetable fabric that is the most influenced by cultivation. The magni- fied views in fig. 1 will convey some idea of the arrangement of the cells, and especially of the origin of their angular ouriiue, which is veiy beautifully seen by the assistance of a microscope, or even by a good magnifying- glass, in a thin transverse slice of the stem of the common raspberry, or that of any other plant in which the pith is not invested by a very thick cylinder of wood. The size of these little cells varies from the fiftieth to the tliousandth part of an inch in diameter, their average bulk being about midway between these estimates. In the earlier stages of their existence they are filled with a fluid in which a multitude of little colored bodies, only visi- ble under a very high power of the micro- scope, are seen floatuig with greater or less rapidity— a phenomenon apparently as inti- mately connected vdth that of vegetable life as are those of the lymphatic and arterial ca- nals to animal existence. Cellular tissue has been justly denominated the basis of the vegetable fabric. Tha sim- Fig. 1. CKLLULAR TISSUE. plest of all known plants exists as a single globular or oval cell ; those a degree higher on the scale are composed of similar ceils, more or less elongated and attached end to end like the beads of a necklace ; then come others more complicated by the attachment of cells in breadth as well as length, the lower or meaner of which present mere shnnelesa or in'egular masses, while the remainiier of the series, ascending by successive grades of structure, may be traced by the eye of the naturalist through a thousand vaiied and im proving forms, bo beautiful, bo admirably LECTUliES ON BotANY. 55 adapted to the fulfillment of the offices allot- ted to them by Providence, as to force thera- Belves upon the attention of mm, though too distantly connected with his immediate in- terests to admit of his due appreciation of their value. Under myriads of modifications, which our space will not permit us to inves- tigate, this tissue constitutes the whole sub- stance of the lichens, sea-weeds, mosses, mid other allied and equally neglected families of plants. However different in appearance such cells are from the little tubes with which they are found associated m all the nobler classes of vegetation, there seems at present to be scarcely a possibility of question that the latter are not merely the results of their super-development ; in other words, that the tube, under whatever form it may exist, is but an elongated cell, or the breaking of the cavities of several into one. These, however, are speculations that we may hereafter refer to more particularly ; let us look previously at the tubes themselves, and note what is known or understood respecting their uses in the economy of the growing plant, and first at those which compose the principal sub- stances ol the wood, its harder and tougher portion, called woody fibre. Fig. 2. WOODT FIBRE. If the diameter of the cells just described is so small that without assistance from the microscope we are generally unable to dis- tinguish their cavities, that of the woody tubes is frequently much less, and in some plants not more than the five-thousandth of au inch. Fig. 2 repi-eseats a small fragment of oak wood highly magnified, showing it to consist of such tubes closely disposed upon each other, so as to occupy the smallest pos- sible space, and leave no openings between them, the narrow, tapering or attenuated ex- tremities of each generally lying between the broader portions of those that lie around them. These tubes extend in the fonii of continuous bundles or layers from one ex- tremity of the I'lant to the other, sending out branches into the leaves and other subsidiary organs, and giving strength to, and maintain- ing communication between all its parts ; they constitute the channels through which the sap ascends and is distributed, a fact readily ascertained by cutting into the stem or branch of a vine, birch, or any other tree in the spring, when that fluid may be traced as flowing trom the mutilated vessels of the wood. The passage of the sap through this medium, though certified by long observa- tion and repeated experiment, would appear to those who examined the vegetable texture for the first time, or without a previous ac- quaintance with the natural phenomena con- nected with organization, as an inexplicable mystery, no r.-iertures being discernible un- der the highest powers of the microscope, through which the cavities of the woody tubes communicate with each other. The dis- covery, however, by Mons. Dutrochet, of tha permeability of vegetable and animal mem- branes, or that they are capable of transmit- ting fluids through their substance, although destitute of any apparent passage of commu- nication— a phenomenon to which he gave the name of Endosmosis — has contributed gready to the elucidation of this and other physiological iiicts, that were as stumbling- blocks to the philosophy of our forefathers. The demonstration of this important fact is easy, and within the reach of those even whose means of scientific inquii-y are the most lim- ited, as instanced in one of the earliest ex- periments of Dutrochet himself: he filled the swimming-bladder of a carp (any other small bladder will answer the same purpose, and any fluid heavier than water) with a thin so- lution of gum, and, placing it in a glass of water, observed that the bladder swelled out and became heavier, in consequence of the water being attracted through its substance by the weightier fluid within : he reversed the experiment by filling the bladder with water, and placing it in tlie mucilaginous so- lution, under which circumstances it lost weight, by the water passing out instead of in. It was afterward ascertained by numer- ous experiments that plants placed in water draw it up through the thin tissue of tlieir cells and woody tubes, and acquire a great increase of weight, which they lose again, at the will of the experimenter, by simj'y add- ing to the water in which they stand simo soluble substance, sugar, for instance, that renders it heavier than their contained juices. The force of this atti-action, and of course the facility with which tha fluid passes, is very 56 LECTURES ON BOTANY. considerable ; water holding half its weight of sugar ill solution raised pure water through membrane with a power capable of sustain- ing the pressure of a column of mercury of 127 inches m higlit, a power ueaily four and a half times greater than the pressure of the atmosphere which sustains the mercury in the barometer and raises the water in a com- mon pump. On the cause of this curious phenomenon philosophers are not agreed : it is probably only one of those numerous in- stances that are from time to time brought to light by inquiry into the hidden processes of Nature, of the general tendency of matter to maintain an equilibrium among its particles ; but the pemieability of the vegetable mem- brane being established, it is not necessary to our present purpose to pursue the subject farther : we have only to consider, as a nat- ural consequence of the development of the living plant, that the sap becomes thicker as it ascends from the root, drawing after it the thinner and more recently imbibed fluid, to account for its successive rise through the mi- nute vessels above described — a rise so rapid that several quarts or even gallons are obtain- able daily for weeks together by tapping the tiiinks of some tropical trees. The fibre of hemp, flax, and of many other plants employed in different parts of the world in the manufacture of cloth, cordage, &c., consists of these woody tubes ; and some idea of their extreme tenuity may be formed from the examination of ihe finest flaxen thread by a microscope, which shows it to consist of a considerable number of tubes. The membrane composing them, though delicate and transparent, possesses much strength and. elasticity in most plants, and in all cases is greatly superior in that respect to ceUular tissue, the mem- brane of which is comparatively brittle ; the diflerence in the strengthof cotton and linen thread is an instance of this, the former being cellular, the latter woody tissue. The wood of the fir tribe appears to be very dissimilar to that of ordinary ti'ees and herbs, the tubes being marked with dots or apparent pores, sur- rounded by a series of concentric circles ; similar markings are observable in the w^oody tissue of a few other ti-ibes, but only such as, like the plants in question, produce aromatic or resinous secietious, whence they have been generally regard- ed as glands ; their structure is, however, at present very imperfectly understood, and not anything is known respecting their functions ; if really openings, they constitute a remai'kable exception to the closeness of the coiTCspoudhig tissue in otb'T |(l,iiiis. Tlie name of duct has been given to various comparatively large tubes or vessels, generally associated with those of tlie wood, but always distinguishable from them by theirgreater diameter. The large pores, frequently observable by the naked eye in a transverse section' of wood, are the divided cavities of the vessel so called, which are sometimes distributed through the layers of wood, but more com- monly form themselves distinct layers or bundles. Many vessels of different stnicture have been confounded under the general name of duct; and bemgwholly unacquainted with their offices in the economy of the plant, much diversity of opinion exists among physiologists respecting their classification and relative uses. Some are angular, and very evidently foi-med by the bi-eaking of cells longitudinally into each other, or by the absorption of the dividing membrane ; others are dotted with apparent pores ; a third kind are more or less distinctly marked with spiral lines, sometimes continuous, oc- casionally broken at irregular intervals, as though a spiral thread contained within a membrane had had its coils separated and ruptured in places by the longitudinal growth or extension of the membrane ; a fourth se- ries, called annular ducts, consist of concen- tric rings, or perhaps of the coils of spiral threads so broken as to present the appear- ance of such, and held together by the mem- braneous tube containing them. These larger ubes are disposed in a similar manner to the smaller ones of the wood, and resemble them in being more or less nan'owed or con- ical at their extremities : several of their forais, and there are some intermediate between those described, approach so neai'ly to the following form of tissue, that it is difficult to conceive Fig. 3. SPIRAI. VESSKLS. them other than more imperfect or disurbed modifications of the same, viz., the spiral vessel. ^ LECTURES ON BOTANY. 57 This last foitn of the vegetable elementary organs consists of one or more filaments coiled epn-ally within a very delicate membraneous tuije, similarly attenuated toward eiUier end as are those of the wood and the duct, but, unlike the spirals apfiarent in some of the latter, capable of being drawn out like a spring, when the part containing them is broken. They are very advantageously seen by breaking carefully across the leaf of a rose or strawberry, or the young brittle shoot of the rose, and drawing the parts slowly asunder, as exhibited in tig. 3. The spiral coils are in most instances so close together as to appear to form the tube, and the mem- brane which invests them is so exceedingly fragile as to break between each coil of the spire when it is drawn out, so as not to be readily discernible unless occasional- ly when the extremity of the filament is relaxed, as represented in one of our fig- ures. Each spiral is generally composed of a single filament or thread, but in some plants the number of parallel fibres twined in the same direction is considerable; one of the figures exhibits a magnified view of a portion of such a vessel from the stem of a banana, consisting of three threads or fibres; but in this, and many other plants of the same and allied orders furnished with compound vessels, there does not appear to be any reg- ularity in their production. De Candolle re- marks that the number of threads composing each spiral of the plant just referred to va- ries from seven to twenty-two ; but they are sometimes formed of a single thread, and I have found in the same portion of the stem no fewer than eleven different modifications of these curious vessels, varying in the num- ber of their threads fiom two to twenty-nine, the largest number which has, to the best of my knowledge, been met with in any i)lant. The size or diameter of the spiral tube ^s ex- ceedingly variable, the largest being about the three-hundredtli or four-hundredth of an inch, while in some cases they are not above the two-lhousandth or three-thousandth. They are variously distributed, but chiefly in the young stems or shoots, in which they occupy that cylinder of woody .substance that imme- diately surrounds the pith, called the medul- lary sheath, and in the stalks and veins of the leaves and other organs which are modifica- tions of them and originate from the sheath in question. They are of very rare occurrence in the root, and still more so in the bark and the true wood, or that which in after periods of growth forms around the first year's layer. Where the tissue of the stem is not stratified, and the pith or cellular substance does not form a separate cylinder or column in its cen- ter, as in the liliaceous orders, palms, and others belonging to the same great natural class, the spiial vessels accompany the bun- dles of woody fibre aud ducts that lie dis- persed through its mass, and are present often m such abundance as to constitute the most remai'kable featuro in their iateraul structiue; fi-om the stems and bases of the large leaves of the banana and pi;iiiitain they may be drawn out by the haiidfnll, aud in the \Vest Indies are sometimes collected in this way for tinder. The use of the spiral vessels in the vegetable economy is, like that of their other minute or- gans, rather to be surmised than demonstrated. A very general opinion, liom the earliest peri- od of their discovery, regarded them as organs of respiration ; hence their denoniinatious of "trachea" and " trachenchyma," alluding to their supposed coiTespondence in function with the trachea (or windpipe) and air-tubes in the lungs of an animal ; to those of insects their structure presents a remarkable parallel. They are generally filled only with air ; and although instances may occur in which they are " gorged with Huiil," such instances are rare, and probably either accidental, or arising from one of those morbid changes to which the minuter portions of the vegetable fab- ric are unquestionably liable, although iheix- causes are hidden in consequence of our imperfect knowledge and slender means of inquiry. The opinion, however, founded only upon analogies that may be rather fancied than real, seems of late years to have been gradually losing ground in the estimation of some of the best [)liysiologists, although they have been hitherto inca[)a hie of substituting a more plausible hypothesis; and the [)rincipal argument that can be adduced against that pve- viously entertained, consists in the fact that the spiral vessels of plants are not in immedi- ate connection with the surfiice pores or sto- mata, nor even with the air-chambers with which the latter communicate, and hence dif- fer from those accompanying the breathing apparatus of an insect. \Vhen, however, we reHect upon the permeability of the vegetable membrane to a comparatively gross fluid like the sap, the passage of one so thin and infi- nitely more diftusible as air can scarcely be denied, even though it had to penetrate to a much greater dei)th than to the interior of a leaf, an oi'gan the structure of which is so stiictly accordant with its supposed and al- most experunentally-proved function as the vegetable lung. Under whatever conventional name the elementaiy organs are known, however great the apparent difl'erence of their structure, and. diversified their functions or offices, the deep and unwearied researches of modern naturalists aided by the increased powers of observation placed at their command by the improvement of the microscope, have led to the conclusion that they are all only so many modifications of the cell, while the wall of the cell itself is probably merely consolidated mucus, as- suming the form of membrane or fibre, ac- corduig to laws of which we are at present ignorant. That changes take place of one kind of tissue into another, at different stages of the gi-owlh of the plant is unquestionable, as well as that such changes are correspoad- eut with alterutiou of fuactioa ; but it la no leas 68 LECTURES ON BOTANY. certain that the simple cell contains the mdi- ments necessary to the formation of the other organs, and especially the spirals, which in their most perfect state appear to be the most complicated of the whole series. " There is no doubt," observes Dr. Liudley, speaking of the different kinds of vegetable tissue, " that all these fonns are in reality modifica- tions of one common type, viz., the simple cell, however different they may be from each other in station, function, or appearance. For, in the first place, we find them all devel- oped in bodies that originally consisted of nothing but cellular tissue ; a seed, for instance, is an aggregation of cells only ; after its vital principle has been excited, and it has begun to grow, woody tissue and vessels are gener- ated in abundance. We must, therefore, either admit that all forms of tissue are de- veloped from the simple cell, and are conse- quendy modifications of it ; or we must sup- pose, what we have no right to assume, that plants have a power of spontaneously genera- ting woody, vascular and other tissues, in the midst of the cellular," Mirbel has lately re- duced the first of these suppositions to very nearly a demonstration ; in a most admirable memoir on the development of Marchantia, he speaks to the following effect : " I at first found nothing but a mass of tissue composed of bladders filled vnth little green balls. Of these some grew into long, slender tubes, pointed at each end, and unquestionably ad- hering by one of their, ends to the inside of the sac ; others from polygons passed to a spherical form in rounding off their angles. As they gi-ew older, other very important changes took place in certain cells of the ordinary structure, which had not previously under- gone any alteration ; in each of these there appeared three or four rings placed paral- lel with each other, adhering to the mem- brane, from wliicb they were distinguished by their opaqueness ; these were together analogous to annular ducts. The cells which became tubes did not at first differ fi'om other cells in anything except their form ; then- sides were uniform, thin, colorless and trans- parent; but they soon began to thicken, to lose their transparency, and to be marked all round from end to end with two contiguous parallel streaks disposed spirally. They then enlarged and their streaks became slits, which cut the sides of the tubes from end to end into two threads, whose circumvolutions sep- arated into the resemblance of a gim-worm," In these cases there can, I thinlc, be little doubt that the changes witnessed by Mirbel were chiefiy owing to the development of a spiral thread in the inside of the tissue. There is much diversity of opinion as to the mode in which the elementary organs of vegetables are nuiltijilied during the advance of growth, and the rapidity with which that growth proceeds in certain plants is such as to render actual observations as to its source exceedingly difficult ; speculation has therefore sometimes tukea the lead where sober inquiry has proved at fault, pointing at results almost too startling even for human imagination to receive as ti-uth ; and yet, when we contemplate from day to day the increasing size of many plants in ordinaiy cultivation — a gourd, for instance, or vege- table marrow, adding to its circumference nearly three inches in the course of the twenty-four hours, and the stem which bears it extending its length between five and six inches during the same period, common sense would pause ere it questioned the tnilh of records much more marvelous. The rapid growth of the common mushroom has become proverbial, but some other individuals of the class of fungi greatly exceed it in that respect ; the Phallus or etink-hom sometimes elevates itself six inches from the ground in the space of an hour ; the Bovista gigantea, or great bull })uff-ball, is recorded to have giowu in the course of a single night from a mere point to the size of a large gourd, the actual measure- ment of which is not mentioned, but on a moderate computation of the diameter and number of the cells, it has been estimated to have increased at the rate of 4,000,000,000 of cells in every hour, or upward of 00,000,000 in a minute. It is true that much of this en- largement may have arisen from the disten- tion of the cells individually ; but even if this be admitted, the force of development and the vast increase of weight, which can only be accounted for by an appropriation of nutri- ment so rapid as almost to elude conception, leaves sufficient of the wonderful to impress upon our mind a just idea of the grandeur of that vital energy which inspires and regulates the growth of bodies thus low in the scale of organic nature. The force with which the minute organs above described are produced and enlarged is no mere supposition, but a fact within the reach of attestation by those who will condescend to observe its operation ; the root of a tree descending through a crevice will break and dislocate the hardest rock ; cellular tissue, not harder in substance than pith, has elevated a weight with the power of a lever; the lat- ter effect is not unfrequently seen in the growth of fungi under stones and heavy blocks of timber ; and the following anecdotes, both, I believe, refen-ing to the same circumstance, and copied from the Hampshire Advertiser of July, 1830, are recorded by Professor Burnet as affording a striking instance of this power : " At different times, several of the stones in the pavement in the town of Basingstoke, wereob- served day by day, to be rising gradually from their beds, until they were some inclies above the ordinary level ; under one of these, which weighed seven pounds, a large mushroom was found, that measured a ibol in circumference." The other case is recorded by Mr. Joseph Jefferson, who says: " A toadstool six or sev- en inches in diameter, raised a large paving- stone an inch and a half out of its bed ; and the mason who had the contract for paving was much enraged at the idea that a weak fungus PLANT MORE TREES. HORSE DISTEMPER. 59 should have lifted so heavy a weight. But his uueasiness was much increased, and even his alarm excited, when, about a mouth after the injury had been repaired, the adjoining stone was lifted m a similar manner, and two mushrooms, not quite so large, were found beneath it ; for it seemed doubtful whether the whole town of Basingstoke might not want repaying during the term of his contract. The stones were nearly of the same size ; each bemg twenty-two inches by twenty- one ; the last stone raised in this manner was weighed, and its weight proved to be eighty- three pounds." The hardest of such fungi are, ia the growing state, so soft as to yield to the pressure of the finger, and so brittle as to be shivered to atoms by the slightest blow ; yet the organic force with which their tender tissue is developed is capable, acting in millions ofpomts, in the growth and dis- tension of their individually invisible cells, of elevating an inert mass of stone which the strength of an ordinary man would with diffi- culty raise from its plaster bed. Such are some of the facts connected with the minute anatomy of plants, the farther ex- amination of which, and of the laws of their growth, will furnish the subject of a succeed- ing lectture. PLANT MORE TREES. Under the above head the Farmer's Monthly Visitor has a capital article, from which we learn several interesting facts. The editor truly remarks that " Valuable pine timber lots are now grown, whose oii- gin was in the seed less than fifty years ago." The opinion has pi-etty generally prevailed that pmes grown by artificial culture are nearly worthless for timber. We see no rea- son why this should be so, any more than oak, chestnut, or ash. Mr. H. remarks that " Nature does everything to make up for man's neglect in the planting and growth of trees ; nor is she slow in her operations. She has made every acre of waste land in New- Hampshire valuable. The beautiful chestnut timber so much used in the New-England railroads grows spontaneously in all our poor- est rocky lands which have been considered too hard for cultivation ; the railway chestnut cross-timbers are worth, standing, on the average, sixteen cents apiece — trees of the suitable size making sometimes three £uid four cuttings. It is said these chestnut trees will grow to the suitable size of posts in the years that these posts rot in the ground. A re- markable feature in the chestnut is that where a main tree is cut, sprouts the same year shoot forth from the roots, growing up a clump of trees, some three to six of which soon grow into sizes to be used for timber." We have had some little experience in at- tempting to raise a small forest of chestnut timber from the seed, but with poor success. We have been told that the seeds should never get diy after they ripen in the fall, be- fore they are planted, either in pots or a nursery. Such is the demand for fence posts and railroad ties that the culture of chestnut timber, we are confident, can be made prof- itable. Every farmer has a wood lot, and as he thins it out, or cuts it off, he should set the ground full of small chestnuts. Under favora- ble circumstances tViey grow rapidly. It is safe to calculate on the growth of a cord of wood on an acre per annum in West- em New- York. This, at $2, is much better than no income — while the annual burden of leaves that fall to the earth enrich the land. Shade trees are equally an ornament and luxuiy during the intense heat of our summer months. Speaking of these the Visitor says : " We boast in the southerly part of the Con- cord Main-street as beautiful elms as can be shown in any part of the world. There are many charming villas in the country range about Boston ; but we must say of these that their cleaned path avenues shaded and cov- ered over by trees high before reaching the limb, or surrounded by the shrubbery which entirely shuts out access of foot or of eye, do not compare with the unadorned beauty of the row of elms opposite on the street to the place of our writing. There is a remarkable similarity in the spread of the isolated elm, which is a native of our intervale and stands either on that or the first upland of the river bank. The men who set out our stately elms seventy-five and a hundred years ago, Hall, Shute and others, have passed away : at this season, when hundreds of birds come there and build their nests, the elegant gold-robin, the gay bluebird, the chattering wren, and even the shy crow, blackbird, the snarling cat and scolding thrush both sing so beauti- fully and so alike when undisturbed as to be mistaken each for the other — there is a charm in these venerable trees which bids us re- member those who planted them there, and to present them as proof that i)lanting trees is one of those " good deeds " of men which " live after them." To Core the Distemper in Horses. — Give a teaspoonfull, three times a day, of finely powdered gum myrrh, (mixed with the food or otherwise,) and a speedy cure, it ia said, will in all cases bs eH'ccted. 60 DAIRY HUSBANDilY— THE DAIRIES Of HOLSTEIN. DAIRY HUSBANDRY— THE DAIRIES OF HOLSTEIN. The use of steam eveiy year for a gi-eater variety of purposes, the laying down of rail and plank roads, and opening canals, ai-e working revolutions in the industrial economy of all sections of the connlry. This liabiUty to change of circumstances requiring con-espond- ing changes in the habits and pursuits of different localities, imposes the necessity for a gi-eater variety of knowledge — that is, for a practical knowledge of a greater number of pursuits than fonnerly. A grazing distinct this year may next year be converted into a farming one by bemg pene- trated by a railroad and presented with facilities for transportation which it had never before enioyed. We have long been impressed with the belief that, along with their fine climate, and cool fountams, and fragrant herbage in the mountain regions of the Southern States, there should be large flocks of sheep and ample dairies for the manufacture of butter and cheese — articles that, if well made, will bear to be kept until remunerating prices will pay for producing and sending them to market. To some of our patrons who entertain the same views — in fact to every curious and polite inquirer, we feci persuaded we may be making an acceptable offering in the following paper on THE DAIRIES OF HOLSTEIN. HoLSTEiN butter is said to be (with the exception of that made in Holland proper) the best in the world. It may not be uninteresting to our readers to describe the process adopted in that Duchy for making that valuable article. The Duchy of Holstein (together with the Duchies of Schleswig and Lauen- burg) lies in a favorable position for commerce, being bounded by the Elbe and the German Ocean on the west, and by the Baltic on the east, while a ship canal unites the two seas. The climate is temperate, inclining to moisture ; it does not materially differ from that of the midland country of England, except that the cold is more steady and severe in winter, while the summers are warmer and drier. The night-frosts in April and May are the most unfavorable circum- stance affecting the interests of Agriculture ; they are felt more than in England because the heatof the sun in the daytime is greaterand the contrast, therefore, the more prejudicial. The soil is rich, and often receives accessions from the depo- sitions of the river Elbe. The peculiarities of management in the Holstein dai- ries relate to the buildings and utensils ; to the time of milking and number of hands employed ; to the management of the milk ; and to the mode of working, salting and packing the butter. Tliese have been described by Mr. Carr in a communication to the Royal Agricultural Society, and may be thus shortly stated : The buildings on a large dairy are a milk-cellar, a butter-cellar, a churning- housc, with a horse-mill adjoining, a cheese-room and a kitchen, in which the utensils are washed and food is cooked for all persons immediately engaged in dairy work ; to which are sometimes added their sleeping-apartments. The size and situation of the milk-cellar are deemed of great importance : it fronts the north, and is shaded from the summer sun by rows of trees, the elder being chosen especially, and planted as near the windows as possible, on account of the influence of this tree in keeping off insects. A thatched, projecting roof af- fords protection from the heat, and great care is taken in choosing the site of the dairy to place it out of the reach of anything that might taint the atmosphere. The size of the milk-cellar is regulated by the number of cows, but it is gener- ally calculated to contain the produce of four mil kings. The milk-dishes are placed on the floor, and usually occupy the space of two feet square each. Thus the produce of one hundred cows giving on an average eight quarts per day, would fill fifty milk-dishes at each milking, and would require a ground surface of five hundred square feet, as there must unavoidably be space left to enable DAIRY HUSBANDRY. — THE DAIRIES OP HOLSTEIN. 61 the dairy-maids to go through their various operations. The floor is sometimes flagged, but oftener of brick neatly fitted, so that no water may lodge in the joints, and always gently inclined, with a grating at the lower end to facilitate the washing of the floor, which is never omitted to be done twice a day, not- withstanding that every source of impurity is guarded against and every drop that may fall at the time of the milk being strained is carefully wiped up. A recent improvement is the dividing the floor into compartments with brick ledges from three to four inches high, between which the milk-dishes stand ; the lower extremity of these compartments is fitted with a small sluice, and twice a day they are filled with cold water from a pump. Thus the milk is preserved so cool as to prevent all approach to acidity for several hours longer than when placed on a dry floor. In sultry weather a piece of pure ice is sometimes dropped into each milk-pan, or a pailfull of ice is placed in the dairy, which, by absorb- ing the heat, sensibly lowers the atmospheric temperature. The best milk-cellars are sunk from three to four feet in the ground ; they are from sixteen to eighteen feet high, with an arched roof, and two rows of win- dows looking north, east and west, to secure a thorough air. The lower range of windows consists of wooden trellis-work, provided inside with gauze frames, to exclude insects, and outside with hanging shutters, which can be lowered and elevated at pleasure. The upper range is furnished with glass sashes, which are exchanged for gauze frames when greater coolness is needed. The butter-cellar also is light, airy and cool ; it is likewise sunk in the ground and supplied, by the same means as the milk-cellar, with plenty of pure air. Here the butter, when carried from the churning-house, is worked, salted and packed. The filled butter-casks are ranged on clean boards a little elevated from the floor, to allow of a free passage of air, and are turned and wiped every week. Wext in order comes the churning-house, which has much the same ar- rangements as we find common in England. Of late years the perpendicular movement of the churn-staflf has been exchanged for the rotary, which is found to churn in a shorter time, and with less risk of oiling the butter. The cheese- room in these dairies is placed as far as possible from both the milk and the butter-cellars. The persons required to conduct the business of the dairy are an overseer, a cooper, one or two cowherds, one or more swineherds, an upper dairy-woman, and dairy-maids in the proportion of one to every eighteen cows. The overseer takes care of the cattle, and is expected to know their diseases and the remedies. He is responsible for the conduct of the swineherd and cowherd, and superin- tends the fatting and rearing of calves. He also sees that the milking is thor- oughly performed. When the number of cows does not exceed a hundred, he also undertakes the cooper's work ; but in large dairies a cooper is kept in addi- tion, who, besides his particular duties, assists in carrying the milk, feeding the cows when housed, &c. The wages of these two persons vary with the extent of the dairy, but may be averaged at sixty dollars for the first and forty for the second per annum. The dairy-maids, besides milking, cleaning the vessels, &c., work in the gar- den in summer, spin in winter, and wash, bake, brew and cook for the estab- lishment under the direction of the upper dairy-woman, who is by far the most important personage therein, as on her skill, attention and diligence depend, in a great measere, both the quantity and quality of the product. She must not only thoroughly understand, but accurately observe, the moment when the milk should be'creamed ; the degree of acidity it must attain in the cream-barrels ; its temperature, whether requiring the addition of warm or cold water to the churn ; as well as the subsequent operations of kneading, beating, sailing and packing the butter. She must be j'unctiliously clean in her person and work, and require the same cleanliness of her maidens. In large establishments the upper woman has full employment without milking, and even requires assist- ance in her own compartment ; but in smaller dairies she milks about ten cows. Her wages are from fifty-five to sixty dollars per annum, while her chief assist- ants receive twenty-two and the rest eighteen dollars. During summer the dairy people of Holstein rise at three, or even two, in the morning, if the weather be very hot ; for which exertion they are allowed two hours' sleep iu the middle of the day. The milking is carried on ia the held. 62 DAIRY HUSBANDRY. THE DAIRIES OF HOLSTEIN. generally commencing at four, and lasting two hours. Each girl marks her own cows, by tying a particular colored ribbon around their tails ; and in some places each milker carries a string, on which a knot is made for every cow that is milked, to prevent any from being forgotten. The fields are large, and often at a irreat distance from' the dairy, but the milk is safely and easily transported by means of a long, 1oa\", four-wheeled one-horse wagon, in the side-bars of which strong iron hooks are inserted at such distances that the milk-pails, containing from thirty to forty quarts each, may swing free of each other ; and these, though tilled nearly to the brim, are prevented spilling by merely having thin pieces of wood, about the size of a dinner-plate, floating on the surface. The milk, when brought to the dairy, is immediately strained through a hair-sieve into the vessels placed to receive it. These vessels are of various materials : ihey may be of wood, earthenware, copper tinned, zinc, cast-iron lined with a China-like composition, or glass. In order to secure butter of a first-rale quality, the cream is removed from the milk before any acidity is perceptible, and it has been found that a cellar tempera- ture of from 60° to 62° Fahrenheit is the most favorable, allowing a complete dis- severment of the cream in thirty six hours ; whereas a greater degree of warmth, while it quickens the separation, still more hastens the souring process, which injures both the quantity and quality of butter. In a cold temperature the sepa- ration is effected much more slowly, so that forty-eight and even sixty hours may be required ; this, however, is the longest period which can be given without the risk of imparting a rank, unpleasant flavor to the butter. The first signs of acidi- ty in milk are a very slight wrinkling of the cream, and a scarcely perceptible acid taste. The moment this is observed, the skimming commences, even if the milk have stood but twenty-four hours. The cream is poured through a hair-sieve (which is kept for the purpose and never employed in straining the new milk), into large barrels, containing about two hundred and forty quarts each, in which it remains until it is sufficiently sour, being stirred at intervals to prevent its be- coming cheesy. The next object of the dairy-woman's skill is the degree of warmth or coolness which must be imparted in order to secure good butler. In warm weather the churn is rinsed with the coldest Avater, in which a piece of pure ice is often thrown, and sometimes, though more rarely, cold spring wa- ter is added to the cream about to be churned, which operation is then always performed either very early in the morning or late in the evening. In cold weath- er, on the contrary, warm water is applied both to rinsmg the churn, and to the cream itself. The churning being completed, the butter is taken off by means of a large wooden ladle, and carried in a tub directly to the butter-cellar, where it is cast into a laro-e trough, hollowed out of the trunk of an oak or beech, very smoothly polished Inside, and provided with a plug-hole at the lower extremity, beneath which a small tub is placed to receive the expressed milk. There the butter is slightlv worked, and salted with the purest salt, then moulded with a wooden ladle into a mass at the upper end of the trough, and left for some hours to soak and drain. In the evening it is thoroughly kneaded and beaten, or rather slapped, the dairy-maid repeatedly lifting a piece of from three to four pounds, and slapping it with force against the trough, so as to beat out all the milky par- ticles; and thus lump after lump being freed from extraneous matter, the whole mass is spread out, receives its full proportion of salt, about an ounce and one- eighth per pound, which is worked with the utmost care equally through it, and a^aia moulded into one compact mass. The butter in Holstein is scarcely ever washed, as water is believed to rob it of its richness and flavor and to be unfa- vorable to its preservation. When a quantity is ready, sufficient to fill a cask, the several chnrnings are once more kneaded through, a very little fresh salt added, and the butter is packed in a barrel made of red beech-wood, water-tight, which has been pre- pared by careful washing and rubbing on the inside with salt. Great care is taken that no space shall be left either between the layers of biftter, or the sides of the cask. In large dairies a cask is never begun to be filled until it can be completed, as thus alone the butter can be exactly of the same flavor and color throughout. The qualities of the excellent butter on which the llolsteiner prides hunself, ^xt first, a fine, even, yellow color, neither pale nor orange-linted ; second- DAIRY HUSBANDRY. — THE DAIRIES OF HOLSTEIN. 68 ly, a close waxy texture in which the extremely minute and transparent beads of brine are perceptible ; but if these drops be either lar^je or in the slightest de- gree tinged with milk color, it is considered as marking an imperfect working of the butler, while an entirely dry, tallowy appearance is equally disapproved ; thirdly, a fresh fragrant perfume, and a sweet kernely taste ; fourthly, the qual- ity of keeping for a considerable time without acquiring an old or rancid flavor. There are four qualities or varieties of butter known in Holstein. These are named, Fresh-milk, May, Summer, and Stubble butter, according to the season in which each is produced. The Fresh-milk butter is that made in the spring, between the time when the cows calve and their being turned out to pasture. The May butter is that produced in May, after the cows have been sent to grass. This is highly prized for its peculiarly fine aroma when fresh, but is found not to keep well, and, therefore, like the Fresh-milk butter, is generally sent to mar- ket as it is made. The Summer butter is made in June and July, and frtm that time till the cows are removed from pasture, the butter bears the name of Stub- ble butter. Both these latter sorts, improperly made, keep well, and retain their fine flavor nearly unimpaired until the following spring. The small quantity produced between the time of the cows being housed and becoming dry, is call- ed old-milk butter, and is least of all esteemed. In winter, when the cows are confined to dry food, and the butter loses its fine yellow color, artificial means are employed to remedy the defect ; for the Hol- stein merchants find that without the usual degree of coloring, their butter will not in some markets (as in Spain and Portugal) fetch its accustomed price. The ingredients used for this purpose are a mixture of annatto and turmeric, in the proportion of five ounces of the latter to one pound of the former. These ingre- dients are boiled in butter for half an hour, stirring them frequently, and then straining through linen. The preparation can then be kept for use. When but- ter is to be colored, a portion of this mixture is melted over the fire: it is then poured into a hollow made in the mass of fresh churned butter, and by rapid stirring is intimately united with the butter immediately in contact with it, which being then spread over the whole mass, is, together with the requisite propor- tion of salt, carefully kneaded and worked through until no particle remains more highly colored than another ; and when smaller portions have thus been colored from day to day, before a cask can be filled, the whole must, before packing, be kneaded once more, that no disparity of shade may disfigure it. The greater portion of the butter made in the dairies of Holstein and Schles- wig, is bought up by the Hamburgh merchants, though it is likewise sent in con- siderable quantities from Keil and other parts to England and Copenhagen, and the West Indies. We have already noticed the importance attached to every particular relating to the milk-cellar, and the utensils employed in making this celebrated butter. The different materials used for milk-pans were named, and we may now give some farther notices from the same authority on this head. Various kinds of uten- sils have been tried in Holland, in the hope of discovering how, in hot weather- more especially when a thunderstorm is gathering — the milk can be kept from too early an acidity. Those in most general use are shallow wooden vessels, nearly of an equal diameter at top and bottom, containing, when full, eight qunrls but in which, during summer, seldom more than six quarts are poured. The chief disadvantage of these vessels is the great labor and attention required to remove all acidity, which, in some states of the atmosphere, is almost una- voidable ; and which, penetrating the pores of the wood, sometimes resists all the patient scrubbing, first with hot water and small birch-scrubbers, and sec- ondly, with boiling water, and a hard round brush made of pig's bristles, with which every part of the utensil is carefully polished over. Sometimes the dairy- maid is compelled to resort to washing in a lye of wood-ashes or boiling, or even scorching over lighted chips, followed by countless rinsings in pure spring water. To diminish this labor the milk-venders in town paint the milking-pails and dishes with a preparation of cinnabar, linseed-oil and litharge ; but this is expen- sive, for the vessels recjuire three coats of the composition at first, and one yearly afterward— and, after all, the milk, for some days after these vessels are brought into use, has a perceptible taste of paint. Tinned copper milk-pans are very 64 DAIRY HUSBANDRY. THE DAIRIES OF HOLSTEIN. costly, and require constant watching, lest they should require re-tinning. The zinc pans are yet but little known, and their value not sufficiently proved. Cast- iron lined with enamel are durable and very clean, but too expensive. Glass pans have many opponents on account of their b'rittleness. The testimony of Mr. Carr, however, is decidedly in favor of this material. He says that in his dairy (which is supplied by 180 cows,) the glass vessels have been used for four years. They are sixteen inches broad at the top, and twelve at the bottom: the glass is dark bottle-green, transparent and perfectly smooth, about one-eighth of an inch thick, and furnished with a round rim at the upper edge, which makes it easy to retain a safe hold of them even when full. They would contain eight quarts, but never receive more than six. " They cost eight-pence apiece, and their durability may be estimated by the fact that, to encourage carefulness, each dairy-maid is allowed one dollar extra as pan-money, being bound at the same time to pay ten- pence for each one she breaks : yet hitherto," says Mr. Carr, "no girl has broken to the extent of her dollar." The great advantage of these vessels is in the saving of time, fuel and labor they effect, for they merely require to be washed in luke- warm water, then rinsed in cold water, and put in a rack to dry. Supposing, therefore, (which Mr. Carr does not admit,) that the milk, during summer, be- comes sour sooner, and consequently throws up less cream, in glass than in wood, this disadvantage would be more than counterbalanced by the diminished expend- iture of glass vessels ; for, of course, where time and labor are saved, the number of domestics may be lessened. Cow-houses in Holstein are generally twice as long as broad, and calculated for four cows lengthwise, standing head to head, with passages between, floored with brick, and furnished with feeding and drinking troughs. One passage, if not both, is broad enough to admit a loaded hay-wagon, and is provided with large folding doors at each end, while there is also room behind the cattle suffi- cient to permit the manure being sledged out with a horse without incommoding them. The lofty roof affords accommodation for hay and straw, which helps to keep the house warm in winter ; the doors are kept shut as much as pos-^ible during that season, sufficient light being admitted by small glazed windows. The quantity of food which can be afforded to cows during winter is ascertained as soon as the harvest returns are known. In plentiful seasons the calculation is that each cow should be allowed three sacks of grain, (generally oats, 140 pounds each sack,) 3,900 pounds of straw, including bedding, and 1,800 pounds of good hay ; while for every hundred pounds of hay less, she receives twenty- five pounds of grain more, or vice versa. There are three distinct breeds of cattle in the Duchies — the native cow, the marsh cow, and the Jutland cow. The first is middle-sized, with fine head and horns, and moderately thick neck ; the color generally red or brown, though often yellow, black, or spotted. The District of Angeln produces the finest specimens of these cows, which are considered to yield more milk in proportion to the food they require than any other kind. The marsh cows are large-boned, generally red, and require luxuriant pasture. They thrive well in the marshy delta of the Elbe, giving from twenty-four to thirty-two, or even forty quarts, when in full-milk, daily ; but the return of butter is much smaller, and of inferior quality to that of the Angeln cattle. The Jutland cow is fine in bone, rather lengthy than deep in body, but rit generally long-legged. The usual colors are gray, dun, or black, or" either o' these spotted with white. They are distinguished for fattening easily, and are 'ot much prized for dairy purposes. The average quantity of i.iilk obtained from good stock is estimated at from 2,000 to 3,000 quarts per annum, according to the food and care bestowed on the cows. The produce has been calculated thus: every 100 pounds of milk will give 3 J pounds of butter, 6 pounds of fresh cheese, 14 pounds of buttermilk, (ex- clusive of the water added before and after churning,) and 76 pounds of whey ; and though the difforen^t circumstances affecting the cows cause a great variety in the results, still it is considered a fair average that fifteen quarts of milk are required for a pound of butter ; for although from some cows a pound may be ob- tained from twelve quarts, yet others, and even the same cows at dillerent sea- sons, and with different food, (such as beet, or raw potatoes,) will not produce a pound of butter from less than seventeen or eighteen quarts. On the whole, it is esteemed a fair return, in these Duchies, when the average produce of the dairy amouais to 100 pounds of butter, and 150 pounds of cheese, per cow. tljf lllnugl), tl)e f 0am, ml i\)t ^mH Vol. IV. AUGUST, 1851. No. 2. HEAR BOTH SIDES. "VVe yesterday read an artkle in a morning pa,per, impliedly eulogistic of a high tariff and condemnatory of free trade, as tfce writer is pleased to style the present revenue policy of the government; a policy, by the way, which yields the government some fifty millions of dollars annually, and which steadily favors the increase of domestic produce, tiie exports of the last month being over $800,000 more than for the corre- sponding month of last year. Still, the high protectionists will insist that the country is laboring under all the evils of free trade, and that the evidences of wonderful prosperity that every where all over the country show themselves, are so many signs of bankruptcy and ruin, only deferred to the present by the intervention of the " Irish famine." Why •all these misrepresentations ? We have no free trade, nor is the country otherwise than prosperous. It is true there are some manufacturers who are making loss than they desire, and they would have the la^*' compel those engaged in other pursuits — the ■iarmer, mechanic and laborer, nt whatever occupation — pay to them such pro'Sts as would insure fortunes in a few years. There are some manufactoi'ies too, perhaps, worn out, or having in use machinery that cannot compete with others enjoying the most modern improvements, that may lose on their work. But that is no government affair, nor is it any proof that the same description of goods cannot be profitably produced in this country. Indeed, such goods are produced daily, and new pi-eparations for their creation are daily m.akiug in almost every section of the Union. So much for the facts — now, a word for the sneer at free trade. I have corn and I want pork. My neighbor has pork and wants corn. We exchange ; that is fiee trade. That is the thing which the protectionists sneer at and ridicule. They say to the farmer. Your free trade is a very bad thing for you ; do you just pay the government a third of the price of the pork yon get from your neighbor, and let him .pay the third of the price of the cwn he gets of you, and it will be much better for both of you. That is a tariff of protection. Which ds best foi- farmers and all other laborers who have this description of tas to pay ? The shoemaker makes shoes for his neighbors and takes their grain, meat and potatoes in payment. This is free trade. Would it be better for him and his customers to make him pay the government the value of one third of all he gets in exchange for his labor ? That is the tariff policy. So it is with all other classes of society. Fre^ trade permits every body to sell what they have for the best price they can get, and to buy what they want as cheap as they can. A farmer drives his wagon to maiket, gets the best price he can for his load, buys what he wants, and is on his return home. It is free trade thus far ; but at the boundary of his county or his town, there is a little toll-house, the keeper of which makes him pay to the government a sum of money equal to one third of the value of all he has in his wagon. Is this better than free trade ? Better than carrying home the money he has left ? Would it be a ^ood thing to have these toll-houses at the lines of all our towns, counties and citic^. to take a third of all that 'Comes in, or its value in money, from the farmers, mech' ■ ics and other laborers, who are always carrying the products of their industry to and fi'o for a market ? Would it be better than free trade ^ Our Constitution establishes free trade between the States. Would it be better for our farmers and otiiers if toll-houses or custom-houses were erected on every road, river and canal, where it crossed a State line, to take from eyeiy ipassing cart, wagon or boat, for the use of the government, one third of all the produce and goods transported in them or their value in money ? Would it have been wiser in the framers of the Constitution to have given us such a system, instead of the free trade that they established ? Few there are who will maintain that it would be a good thing for farmers to be taxed on the road to their neighbors, or at the town, with the products of their farms or the goods or other produce they have purchased by their sale. What difference does it make whether the farmers and mechanics who exchange products live VOL. IV. — B. 66 HEAR BOTH SIDES. on opposite sides of a stone fence or of the Atlantic ocean ? What difference does it make -whether the articles coming in exchange for the farmers' products are taxed at the gate as they enter his yard, or at the Philadelphia custom-house, where they enter his country ? Is it not the same to him ? Is it better fur him that they should be taxed at either than that they should not be taxed at all ? Is it better that the tariff should deliver them, taking from the farmer one third of their value at the same time, or that free trade should deliver them without taking from him any thing 2 So much for our neighbor's sneer at free trade. — Public Ledger. From the day on which we con:menced the publication of this journal, we have made it an invariable rule to practise perfect free trade in reference to ideas, permitting our opponents to lay their views before our readers, and we have never in a single case replied to any of the many attacks tbat have been made upon us without also giving the attack itself. We have desired that our readers should form an intelligent judgment in reference to that greatest of all questions for the Union, the importance of making a MARKET ON THE LAND FOR ALL THE PRODUCTS OF THE LAND, thereby en- abling the farmer to return to it the manure yielded by its crops, maintain- ing, and even increasing its power of production, thus increasing the value of the land — and at the same time enabling him to find employment for the spare labor of himself, his sons, his wagon and his horses, when not required upon the farm, and for that of his daughters, unfit for out-door employment, thus increasing the value of labor. In accordance with this our usual mode of proceeding, we now lay before them the above argu- ment from the Philadelphia Public Ledger, in favor of the system known in the British books by the name of free trade, the object of which is the per- petuation of the British monopoly of machinery for the production of cloth and of iron, and the maintenance of the power of Britain to compel all the farmers and planters of the world to make their exchanges hi her single mar- ket, that she may there fix the prices of all she requires to buy, and of all she desires to sell. It is the ai-gument, too, of that portion of the community which sees advantage to the farmer from the exliaustion of his soil in raising commodities for foreign markets, and injury to him from every effort tending to bring the market to his door, and place the consumer by the side of the producer; fnd will, therefore, as we trust, be studied by all our readers, to whose careful perusal we strongly recommend it. In thus circulating the arguments of our opponents, our object is, and has been, that of finding among them some one possessing either the corn-age to defend his doctrines, or the honesty to admit that they were indefensible, but thus far we have failed to find even a single one possessed of eithei- of these qualities. We have invited them to publish our views, weak and fallacious as they hold them to be — and have offered in return to lay their powerful argu- ments before our readers ; yet advantageous as w^ould appear to be such an arrangement, not one as yet hjis ventured to accept it. They stigmatize the arguments of their opponents as " fallacious," yet fear to circulate them ! They profess to regard their own arguments as being unanswerably true, yet will they not accept our offer to circulate them among the advocates of protection ! They shout "Free trade ! Free trade !" and would have the world believe that they alone are the opponents of restrictions upon the freedom of exchange, well knowing at the moment that we advocate protection as the true and only possible mode by which freedom of trade can be reached. In all this there is, as it appears to us, strong evidence that the opponents of protection doubt the truth of their own doctrines. Were it otherwise, would they not gladly re-publish our arguments with a view to show their weakness, and would they not as gladly avail themselves of our offer to exhibit to our readers the HEAR BOTH SIDES. 67 strength of their own? We reprint theirs, and will reprint those of any journal of equal standing with our own that will do as much by ours, and thus do we prove our perfect conviction of the truth of what we have to say ; hut of all the journals professing " free trade," not one, we fear, will be found to follow our example in permitting their readers to see both sides of this great question, and thus enabhng them to form a judgment for themselves. Of all the journals that meet our eyes, we know of no one more persever- ing than is that from which we take this extract, in its efforts to prevent the adoption of measures tending to enable the farmer to bring the market to his door, and thus to enable him to find employment for himself, his sons and his daughters, while enriching his land with the refuse of its crops— none more pertinacious in its efforts to prevent the adoption of any measures tending to protect the American laborer in his competition with the half-starved, ill- clothed, and down-trodden laborers of Europe — none more ready to seize upon any stray fact to be used as a set-off against the thousands of facts that are brought forv/ard in support of the doctrine, that if the farmer and planter would prosper, they can do so only by acting in accordance with thf doctrine of Adam Smith, who taught that the true place for the artisan ■"^s to be found in the midst of the producers of the raw materials that w-i"© to be converted, and of the food that he was to eat while converting t-'ifese raw materials into the forms fitting them for transportation to distant aiai'kets. It is for that reason that we now re-publish its views, and we do'SO in the hope that it will, /or once, enable its readers to see both sides of t-^ie question, as we certainly shall do in relation to any rejoinder it may see fit io make to what we have now to say. We scorn to deceive our readers. They, at least, shall have laid before them the arguments of the oppon^^^ts as well as of the friends of the protective policy, and if they act ^nt^ ^s, it shall be upon full conviction. As usual, this free-trader begins with the public revenue. The tariff of 1846 yields much revenue, and therefore it must be retained. In 1832, protection was found to yield too much revenue, and therefore it was to be anni- hilated. Such is the consistency of free-t>-aders ! The argument of to-day dif- fers always from that of yesterday, yec do they reproach then- opponents with teaching "fallacies !" The free-trad<3V of '46 contended that the power of the people t1) consume was dimiiiisJied by protection. The free-trader of to-day is content that Governmd^f has much to waste, and it is indifferent to him whether the means of the people increase or decrease under the present system. To prove t^ him now that the people consume less cloth and far les? iron than they did four years since, notwithstanding the vast growth of population, is a iraste of words. He points triumphantly to the revenue, and so did he do in 1836, when the nation had just arrived at the brink of the precipice, as soon was proved. He is opposed to any interference of Govern- ment for the protection of the farmer in his efforts to draw to his side the spin- dle and the loom, the hammer and the anvil ; yet does he rejoice that the Government can collect a large amount of taxes to be employed in supporting steamships in their competition with the cheap labor and cheap capital of Eu- rope, and fleets of Government vessels in looking after the ships and min- isters resident and ministers plenipotentiary, in scrutinizing^ the operations of other countries in the hope to find more employment for ships — and thus is he ever the advocate of governmental interference in one direction while denouncing it in another, compounding " for sins he has no mind to, By damning those he's not inclined to." 68 HEAR BOTH SIDES. The piston that drives the steamship must be protected, but it is held to be contrary to sound policy to protect the one which drives the cotton mill. What, however, are the facts in regard to this revenue ? Does not this writer know well that since the passage of the bill of '46 we have contracted a foreign debt of at least a hundred millions, making, with that contracted un- der the compromise, not less than three hundred millions ? Does he not know that the amount of interest now payable abroad requires almost eighteen mil- lions of dollars per annum ? Does he not know that each and every day increases the amount of bonds and stocks held in Europe, and in a cor- responding degree the sum required to discbarge the interest? Does he not know that we had in 1836 an equal amount of revenue, and that the lauda- tion of free trade was then the same as now ? It gave us surplus revenue, and doing so, it was then, as now, held to be perfectly clear that protection was " a fallacy," and yet does he not know that in a few short years the Gov- ernment was on its knees to the brokers and shavers of Europe, soliciting a loan, and meeting every Avhere with repulse ? Does he not know that such is ■"-he inevitable tendency of things at the j^resent moment ? Does he not see tha\ enormous importations and large revenues must inevitably be followed, a& were ft>ose of 1836, by small importations and small revenues, when the Gov- ernment viU again be in the market as a borrower? Does he not know that it was the p-otective tariff of 1828, and the large and constantly growing revenue which >.t gave, that annihilated the public clelt in 1834 ? Does he not know that it \vas the constantly diminishing reveniie under the compro- mise that built Up tn^ debt which existed in 1842 ? Does he not know that the rapid growth ol revenue under tlie tariff of 1842 enabled us at once to cease borrowing and eoiamence the payment of the debt? Does he not know, and see, and feel, tlaat the present revenue is due to a credit that, de- Uroyed by the camjJWinise, wus reconstructed under the tariff of '42, and that tends novf to disappear with every increase of debt, precisely as would be the case with an individual ? If he does not \no\v these things, we would recommend him to study anew the facts in relation to the pubhc revenue and the public debt, before he shall again undertake to wvite of either. The tendency of revenue under protection has invariably been upwards and permanently so, whereas nnder the system eomraonly called free trade — lucus a non lucendo — it has invariably been downward, except so lono- as credit has enabled us to contract loans — or rather to ])uy goods without payino- for them. The tendency of credit has invariably been upward under protection, and as invariably has it disappeared after the withdravfal of protection, because with its withdrawal there has been invariably a diminished poiocr to pay for foreign merchandise, and an increased necessity for running in debt, the consequence of which to a nation is precisely the same as to an individual. The tendency of public expenditure has invariably been upward under the system called free trade, and as invariably downward under protection. The one system looks to increasing the power of Government, while the other looks to its diminution. The tendency of the public debt has invariably been downward under protection, because large home [)roduction gave great power to purchase foreign commodities, and to contribute to the support of Government. We had much to sell and could pay for much produced elsewhere. It has as ivariably been upward under the withdrawal of protection, because small home jiroduc- tion was accompanied by diminished power to pay for foreign commodities, and the revenue fell off as soon as we had exhausted our credit. HEAR BOTH SIDES. 69 We are here told of the increase of domestic ] iroduce exported, but our poh- tical economist carefully avoids to inform us whether this increase is of a charac- ter to be 2)rofitable to the farmer who produces the commodities exported. The value of exports has in some cases increased, because of short crops — -^^ro- ducing temporarily the same effect onjoreign 2yrices that would huve been pro- duced permanently by increased home consumption^ had our free-traders per- mitted it to increase. We have raised httle cotton, and therefore the price has been high ; but so soon as it came to be ascertained that the crop of the present ■season would reach 2,300,000 bales, it fell to little more than tlie price of 1846, the last of four large ovps, by which the markets of Eui'ope had been glutted. The average crop of the years 1843 to 1846 was about 2,200,000 bales, and the average price of the last of those years was 7"3 cents per pound, while the price of middling — which is the average of the crop — is now in Mobile and New- Orleans but ^i'^ to 8 cents, although this is the last of three small crops. Should present prospects be realized, the next orop will reach, if not exceed, three millions of bales ; and what then will be the price ? Our free- trader will then boast of the quantity exported, and not of the value. The tariff of 1846 has effectually prevented the buildiwg of mills throughout the northern portion of the Union, and the addition at the South is too small to have any effect upon such a crop; whereas had the tariff of 1842 been per- mitted to remain, vre should now have machinery for the conversion of more than a million of bales into cloth, and the quantity to go to Europe would be much less out of a three million crop than it was in 1845 out of one of 2,400,000 bales. Our sagacious political economist would inquire what we should do with all this cloth ? In answer, we tell him that we should be now mining six millions of coal for the supply of furnaces, factories, and steam- ships, and the prosperous v/orkers in those mines, fui'naces and factories. Pros- pero^ts miners would need food, and coal, and iron, and cloth ; and prosj erous farmers would need cloth, and iron, and fuel; and prosperous furnace-men would need fuel, and cloth, and food ; and prosperous operatives would have abundant cloth to give in exchange for footl and fuel and iron ; and thus would all be benefited, while the planter would be recei\ing higher prices for a large ciop than he has been accustomed to receive for a small one, and consuming thrice as much of the products of the North as he will now do when next his crop is large. The columns of the Ledger abound with sug-gestions of over-production of various commodities, but it is t-ime that gentlemen who undertake to teach pohtical economy should understand that every man is a consumer to the whole extent of his production, and that what he calls " over-productioa" is but a •consequence of under-production of other articles to be offered in exchange for them. If he doubt this, we would recommend him to study the work of Mons. .J. B. Say,'* who is, we doubt not, high authority with him, a-nd there he will find that '■'■a product is no sooner created than it, from float instant.^ affords a market for other products to the full extent of its value."^ Looking further in the same work, he will find that " it is because the production of some commodities has •declined, that others have become superabundant." Again, be will be told, f_ That iR every coramuwity, tke more numerousare the producers, ami the more various their productions, the more proinpt, numerous and cxtem^ivc are the markets for those pro- ductions; and by a natural consequence, the more prof table arc then to tJie producers for ■price rises with ike demand. Bof.k I., chap. XIV- 70 HEAR BOTH SIDES. What, now, is the pohcy advocated by our contemporary ? Is it not that which tends to convert the miners and farnace-men and the mill operatives into farmei-s, and thus to diminish the variety of their productions, and to render less prompt, less numerous, and less extensive the market for their products ? Does he not know that the man who eats the food while mining the coal or ore, and he who converts the food and fuel and ore into iron, are compressing into a small space a vast bulk of food and other raw produce of the earth, so as to fit it for transportation to distant markets? Does he not know that England is the largest exporter of food in the world? If he does not, we would recommend him to read a letter on that subject by the free-trade member of Parliament, Mr, Brown, and afterwards to study carefully the following extract from a high free-trade authority, Adam Smith, who per- fectly appreciated the importance of making a market on the land for all the products of the land : — An inland country, naturally fertile and easily cultivated, produces a great surplus of provisions beyond what is necessary for maintaining the cultivators ; and on account of the expense of land carriage, and inconveniency of river navigation, it may frequently be difficult to send this surplus abroad. Abundance, therefore, renders provisrons cheap, and encourages a great number of workmen to settle in the neighborhood, who find that their industry can there procure them more of the necessaries and conveniences of life than in other places. They work up the materials of manufacture which the land pro- duces, and exchange their finished work, or, what is the same thing, the price of it, for more materials and p7-ovisions. They give a new value to the surplus part of the rude produce, by saving the expense of carrying it to the water-side, or to some distant mar- ket ; and they furnish the cultivators with something in exchange for it, that is either useful or agreeable to them, upon easier terms than they could have obtained it before. The cultivators get a better price for their surplus produce, and can purchase cheaper other conveniences -which they have occasion for. They are thus both encoxiraged and enabled to increase their surplus produce by a further improvement and better cultivation of the land; and as the fertility of the land has given birth to the manufacture, so iJie progress of the manufacture re-aets upjon the land, and increases still further its fert-ility. The manufacturers first supply the neighborhood, and afterwards, as their work improves and refines, more distant markets. For though neither the rude produce, Hor even the coarse manufacture, could, without the greatest difficulty, support tlic expense of a con- siderable land carriage, the refined and improved manufacture easily may. In a sr?iall bulk it frequently contains the price of a great quantity of the raw produce. A piece of fine cloth, for example, which weighs only eighty pounds, contains in it the priee, not only of eighty pounds of wool, but sometimes of several thousand tveight of corn, the mainte- nance of the different working people, and of their immediate employers. Tlie corn which could with difficulty have been carried abroad in its own sliape, rs in this manner virtu- ally exported in that of the complete manufacture, aixl ntay easily be sent to the remotest corners of the world. In this manaer have grown up naturally, and as it were of their own accord, the manufactures of Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield, Birmingliam and Wolverhampton. Such manufactures are the offspring of agriculture. These views are in perfect accordance with the facts. The laborer rejoices when the market foi* his labor is brought to his door by the erection of a mill or a furnace, or the construction of a road. The tarni'er rejoices in the ojiening of a market for labor at his door, giving him a market for his food. His land rejoices in the home consumption of the ])roducts it has yielded, for its owner is thereby enabled to return to it the refuse of its product in tlie form of manure. The planter rejoices in the erection of a mill in his neighboyhood^ giving hiin a market for his cotton and his food. The parent rejoices when a market for their labor enables his sons and his daughters to supply tiiemselves with food and clothing. Every one rejoices iu the growth of a home market for lal)or and its products, for trade is then increasing daily and rapidly ; and every one mourns the diminution of the home market, for it is one the defi- ciency in which cannot be supplied. Labor and commodities are wasted,, and HEAR BOTH SIDES. 71- the power of consumption diminisbes with the diminution of the power of pro- duction, trade becomes languid, labor and land diminish in value, and laborer and capitalist become daily poorer. The opponents of protection deny the truth of this. They say that we are an agricultural nation, and must so continue, and that we must have a surplus of food and cotton, and that it is quite idle to suppose that a market could be made at home for the hundreds of millions of bushels of food for which, as is alleged, we need a market. Our exportation of food is, however, a mere trifle, while that of England is immense, because England adopts the idea of Adam Smith in combining the food and the wool, and sending to distant markets thousands of pounds weight of corn combined with tens or hundreds of pounds of cotton, in the form of a piece of cloth. The object of the advocates of protection is that of the extension of the power to maintain trade with dis- tant nations, by bringing about the establishment of machinery at wliich the wool and the food may be combined with each otlier, and so reduced in bulk as to fit them for transportation ; and that protection does produce that result is obvious from the fact that we now export largely of manufactures of which but recently we were large importers — that the German Customs Union, or Zoll Verein, now exports largely of various commodities for which, until protection was established, Germany was wholly dependent upon foreigners — and that the whole competition with England for the trade of the world is with those countries that have established protection — -to witt France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States. The object of the system called in Britain free trade, and advocated by the Ledger, is that of compelling our farmers and j)lantere to continue to export their products in tlie mo&t bulky form, thereby exhausting both the land and themselves — for the farmer who sells off the produce of his land to be consumed at a distance, is selling the soil which ■constitutes his capital. The cation that esiports raw produce has a lim- ited market and pays heavy transportation, and remains poor; whereas tlie nation that finishes the work of production by convei'ting its wool and its cotton into cloth, and its food into iron, and thence into machinery of iron, has befoi-e it the trade of the world, and the cost of transportation is trivial — .and as the eost of goiiig to market falls .always on the producer, it is .obvious that as that cost is diminish^^d the farmer and planter -must grow rich. Why is it that the people of this country export raw produce? Why should they be guilty of the folly described in the following passage, which we copy from .an article by i]xQ free-trade editor of the Democratic Eeview ? — What a sbrange absurdity it is to see fiilk goJBg.frDm (!!bina aud France, cotton from the Southern United States, wool from Australia, coffee and si:igai- from Brazil, wheat from New- York, Michigan, Ode^ssa, and Poland, liemp and liax from St. Tetersbavg, pork and lard from OIeo aud Illinois, concentratii^g in Lancashhe, to be returned in goods to the localities from whence they came ! It is a strange absurdity. The Tennessee planter -eends his eora and his -cotton to New-Oi'ieans, that both may cross the ocesn together, the corn to be ■eaten by the child that spins the wool and the woman who weaves it, and he pays for transporting and exchanging tlie food and the wool five times as much as it would have cost him to have the wool S2mn and ivoven at home — the consequence of which is, that instead of obtaining one bale of cloth for two i-ales of .cotton, he has but one bale for five — and instead of obtaining two pounds of cloth for a bushel of grain, he has less than half a one— and this is rihe mode, according to om free-traders, in which Tie is to grow rich. Weiie this all,, it might be borue:; but it is veij far from all. Throughout 72 hE'ar both sides. the country, the land, constantly cropped for the supply of distant markets, is impu\erished, and thus is the farmer constantly wasting his capital. The effect of this is so well described hy Professor Johnston, an eminent agricul- turist who recently travelled through this country, that we are induced to lay his views before our readers :- — ■ I will briefly refer to some points which came uuder my observatioD in that part of the country which I visited. Fii'St of all, as to the state of agriculture iu the noitliuru parts of America, iu om- own provinces and in New-EnglaiKl, with which we are ourselves more familiar, when I tell you geuerally that the state of agricultm-e in those parts of America is what the state of agriculture in Scotland probably was eighty or ninety years ago ; and when I tell you that iu some parts of New-Brunswick they are veiy nearly in the precise condition iuwhich Scotland was one hundred and twenty years ago, you will have an idea of the state of agriculture in Noith America. The system of agriculture is no farther for- ward— it is exceedingly far behind. Now what has been their procedure — by what kind of procedure have they brought about the state of exhaustixyn to tvhich the soil has heen redii'ed? Of course, in speaking of the exhausted soil, I do not refer to the virgin soil which has never received the plough or the sjiade, but to the soil under their cultivation, and reliich tliey are now exliausthtg. When 1 tell you how the land is cultivated, you will understand how this exhaustion has been produced. The forest is in the first place cut down and burnt, after which the ashes are scattered, and a crop of wheat and oats is sown. When this crop is cut down another is sown; but they do not always remove the straw — 'they do not trouble themselves with any manure. The second year th^y sow it again and harrow it, 0iid generally ttike three crops in successions When they cantake no more out of it, they either sow grass seeds, or as frequently let it seed itself. They will then sometimes cut hay for 12, 14, 16, 18, or 20 years in succession > in fact, as long as they can even get lialf a ton- an acre from it. And j'ou may suppose what is the natm-al fertility of the land, when they ai'e able to obtain as n^uch as three or four tons per acre at first, and go on cutting it for twelve years.. They will probably have two tons an acre dm-Jr^ all that length of time. The land is then broken up, and the crop of oats taken, tlien potatoes, then a crop of wheat, and then hay for twelve years again, and so the same course is repeated. Now this is the way in which the land is treated — -this is thje loay in which the exhaustioK is browyht about. This exhaustion exists in Nova Scotia, New-Brunswick, Lower Canada, in Upper Canada- to a considerable extent, over the whole of New-England, and extends even into the State of New- York. . Now, the condition of tilings in the Western States, in reference to England, is precisely the same as the condition of England in reference to the wheat-producing countries of the Baltic. The condition^ of the farmers is exceedingly bad, and in Maine I was informed that they were all in- a state of bankruptcy. The laud is all mortgaged, which hangs like' a mill-stone round their necks, and is worse even than the state of farmers in this country.- They are thus unable to compete with th« western parts of New-York or Lake Ontario. You have all heard of the famous wheat of Genesee, wlicre the land is more fertile than in any part of Great Britain ; and I learned there that they are laying the laud down to grass, because tlicij cannot aford to gro^j} wheat. In New-Brunswick, New-England, Vermont, New-Hampshire, Connecticut and New- York, the growth of wheat has almost ceased, and it is now r/radtiaili/ recedinf/ farther and farther westward. Now, when I tell you this, you will see what I believe to be the case is really the case — ^that it will not be very long before America will be unable — in fact the Lhntfld States are unable nois—to snfpli/ ns with wheat in any large quanlity. If we could bring Indian corn into general use, we might get plenty of it ; but 1 do not think th it the United States need be any bugb^ai- to you. I beheve the great source of competitnn you will have to contend with is the Baltic, and the countries on the borders of the Black Sea. Why is it that the fjirmers and planters of the coi^intry purswo a policy so- adverse to tlh'ir interests ? Why should they desire to exhaust the land and thus diminish its power of production, Avhile increasing the cost of transport- ing to market the small quantity they do produce, and thus destroying the value of both lan.i and labor? The answer is that they do not desire it, but that they are subjected to a pohcy having for its object that of com])eI]ing them to make all their exchanges in distant markets, a,nd to pay hosts of mid- HEAR BOTH SIDES. 7B dlemeu tor doing that wliicli they could better do themselves, while wasting on the road and in those distant niarkets the manure that should be returned on the land ; the consequence of v/hich is, that they are always increasing their distance from market, because of the necessity for abandoning worn-out lands, the owner of which has wasted his capital in obedience to the laws of what is called fi'ee trade. What man of all these but is fully aware of the advantage that would result from bringing consumers of food to take their place by the side of producers of food ? Not one of them hesitates even for a moment to believe in the views taught by Adam Smith, when labwinff for the abolition of the British monopoly system, having for its object to make of Great Britain " the -workshop of the world " as here given : " Witliout tlie assistance of some artificers, indeed," says Dr. Smith, " the cultivation of land cannot be carried on, but-^itb great iuconveniency and continual inteiTuption. Smiths, carpenters, wheel-wrights and plougliwrights, masons and bricklayers, tanners, shoemakers, and tailors, are people whose service the farmer has frequent occasion for. Such artificers, too, stand occasionally in need of the assistance of one another ; and as their residence is not, liice that of the farmer, necessarily tied down to a precise spit, they naturally settl© in the neighborliood of one another, and thus form a small town or village. The butcher, the brewer, and the baker soon join them, together with many other artificers and retail- ers, necessary or useful for supplying their occasional wants, and who contribute stUl faither to augment the town. The inhabitants of the town, and those of the coiuitry, are mutually the servants of one another. The town is a continual fair or market, to which the iuliabitants of the country resort, in order to exchange their rude for manufactured produce. It is the commerce which supplies the inhabitants of the town, both with the materials of their work, and the means of their subsistence. The quantity of the finished work which they sell to the inhabitants of the country, necessarily regulates the quantity of the materials and provisions which they buy. Neither their employment nor subsist- ence, tlierefore, can augment, but iu proportiou to the augmentation of the demand from the country for finished work ; and this demand can augment only in proportion to the extensio)! of unprovement and cultivation. Had human institutions, therefore, never dis- turbed the natural course of tlihigs, the progressive tcealth and increase of the towns ivould, in ever;/ political society, be consequential, and in proportion to, the improvement and cultivation of the territory or country^ The whole object of the British system is, and has at all times been, to pro- duce directly the reverse eiiect. Every species of manufacture was forbidden in America, and as tar as possible "discountenanced" in Ireland, that both might be compelled to employ English ships, English merchants, English looms, and English workmen, and thus contribute largely to the system of shijjs, colonies, and commerce, by aid of which Britain aimed to rule the world. The extreme injustice of this system was ob^'ious to Dr. Smith, who said of it that To prohibit a great people, however, from making all they can of every part of their own produce, or from employing their stock and industry iu a way that they judge most advantageous to themselves, is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights cf mankind. The Impolicy of the system, as regarded the interests of Britain herself, was shown to be as great as the injustice to her colonists, because tending to drive British capital from the profitable home trade to the comparatively unprofit- able foreign one. " The most advantageous employment of any capital to the country to which it belongs," says Dr. Smith, " is that which mamtains there the greatest quantity of productive labor. and mcreases the most the annual produce of the land and labor of that country. But the quantity of productive labor -which any capital employed in the foreign trade of con- sumption can maintain, is exactly in proportion to the frequency of its returns. A capi- tal of a thousand pounds for example, employed in a foreign trade of consmnption, of which the returns are made regularly once m the year, can keep in constant employment, in the country to which it belongs, a quantity of productive labor, equal to what a thousand 74 HEAR BOTH SIDES. pounds can maintain there for a year. If the retui'ns are made twice or thrice in the year, it can keep in constant employment a quantity of productive hxbor, equal to what two or three thousand pounds can maintain there for a year. A foreign trade of consumption carried on with a neighboring, is, upon that account, in general, more advantageous than one carried on with a distant countiy ; and, for the same reason, a direct foreign trade of consumption is in general more advantageous than a round-about one." The nearer the place of exchange, the greater is the advantage of the par- ties by whom the exchanges are made. The farmer and the miller who ex- change directly with each other, divide between themselves the whole product of the wheat, but if they employ a middleman they must give him a portion of the product for doing that which they might better have done themselves. Adam Smith saw that as the market was made on the land for its products, the farmer was enriched, and his power of purchasing the produce of distant lands was increased, and he saw clearly that his countiymen were injuring themselves as well as " violating the most sacred rights of mankind," in pur- suing the system which looked to converting Great Britain into that which it has since become, one vast workshop. Instead of following his ad\'ice and establishing free trade in the sense in which he desired it, that is, with a view to permit the artisan every where to take his place by the side of the food and the raw materials of manufacture, she sought free trade with directly opposite views — those of preventing the consumer from any where taking his place b}^ the side of the producer, and compelling all nations, in the name of free trade, to make all their exchanges in England. With that view, she passed repeated laws prohibiting the export of artisans, coUiers, and machinery of all kinds, and when at length machinery and artisans were smuggled out of the kingdom to such an extent as to enable foreign nations to compete with her, and the maintenance of those prohibitions became useless, she deliberately resolved to sacrifice her agriculturists to her manufacturers, in the vain hope of thereby inducing foreign nations to aban- don the policy of Adam Smith, which taught the advantage of bringing the consumer and the producer into close connection with each other, and to adopt that of Mr. McGulloch, which teaches the advantage to be derived from an increase in the number of middlemen, to be maintained at the cost of the man who produces the food and that other who requires to consume it. Her whole effort is to secure to herself a monopoly of the machinery for converting cotton and wool into cloth, and food and clothing and fuel and ore into iron ; and the result of that effort is and long has been a steady deterioration of the condition of her own people, and the ruin of the people of her colonies. Ireland and India, the West Indies and Portugal — the latter long a mere colony — have all in succession been ruined, as this country would have been but for protection against the system so strongly denounced by Adam Smith. Canada is unprotected, and land may be bought on one side of the line for one fifth of what it will readily command on the other. Why is this ? The man on the south of the line has a market for his products which the other has not. Canada has free trade, yet she desires annexation. Why ? Because it will increase tJie value of both labor and land to be brought under a 2)rotective tariff. It is really time that gentlemen who are accustomed to the publica- tion of such platitudes as that v^'e now copy from the Ledger should undertake to exjilnin a few of the facts presented to them for consideration by the advo- cates of protection. Let them, if they can, explain the cause of the ruin of L-eland by any other process than that of the waste of labor and manure, con- sequent upon the separation of the producer and the consumer. Let them explain the cause of the present condition of Portugal, the West Indies and India. All these countries have had the advantage of free-trade with England,! HEAR BOTH SIDES. 75 yet all are in a state of ruin ; and such is the condition of India, with her ruined cotton manufactures, that the Government is now enabled to exist only by aid of the power which it possesses to enforce the smuggling trade in opium — the most infamous trade — the slave-trade not excepted — in which a nation was ever concerned. Let them explain to us why it is {h^tfree4rade India should be so reduced as to be compelled to depend for its revenue upon the power to produce demoralization among its neighbors. Let them explain why it is that land in the States immediately adjoining the boundary line is worth five times as much as it is in Canada. Let them explain why nearly the whole emigra- tion from Europe is directed to the United States, when free-trade Canada is open to it, with land at one fifth of the price. Let them explain why it is that Canada, with the advantage of free trade with " the great grain market of the world," seeks absorption into the Union. Let them explain the universal poverty of this country in the years prior to the passage of the tariflFof 1828. Let them explain, if they can, the wonderful growth of trade and of revenue under the highly protective tarifii' of 1828. Let them explain the almost annihilation of trade and of public revenue under the free-trade clauses of the compromise. Let them explain the wonderful resuscitation of trade, of credit, and of public and private revenue under the tariflf of 1842. Let them explain why it was that the consumption of iron doubled under the taritf of 1842, and why it has since gone back in absolute quantity, notwithstanding the vast growth of population in the period that has elapsed since the passage of the tariff of 1846. Let them also explain why the consumption of cotton, which doubled in the five years following the passage of the tariff of 1842, is now less by one hundred and fifty thousand bales than it was four years since. The writer of this article describes free trade, and then informs his readers that this is what " protectionists sneer at and ridicule." We are bound of course to believe that he supposes that to be the case, as we cannot suppose that he would thus deliberately state what he knew to be untrue, and there- fore it is that we ascribe this statement, and indeed the whole paper, to the want of knowledge so universal among the advocates of the maintenance of the British monopoly system. Few things are more remarkable than the almost universal deficiency of knowledge of the disciples of the Ricardo-Malthusian system of political economy — that system which teaches that one nation should raise cotton and another should convert it into clothing — and that deficiency extends not only to the facts of the case, but to the views of their opponents. The protectionists of this country do nothing of the kind that is here attributed to them. They are more thorough free-traders than is the writer of this article. They do not believe in incidental protection and revenue duties of 30 per cent, called free trade. They believe in the abolition of custom-houses and the establishment of perfect freedom of trade, and it is because they know that protection is the true and only road to perfect freedom of trade, that they advocate the establishment of such a system of protection as shall at the earliest possible moment enable us to establish freedom of exchange with all the world. The views of the advocates of the system which looks to freeing ourselves and the world at large from the tyranny of the British monopoly system are so well explained in the closing portion of an article given in the last number of the Merchants' Magazine, that we are tempted to lay it before our readers, in the hope that the offer therein made may be accepted by our contemporary of the Ledger : — With every association leading me to favor it, and after serious endeavors, and no little study, for years, I could not convince myself of the soundness of the protective policy, and did not, till the " Past, Present, and Future" reconciled that policy to the logic 76 HEAR BOTH SIDES. of free trade. In common with Mr. Carey, I hold to that logic still. AVe are opposed to indirect taxation,— we think that duties on imports are -ndefensible as a mode of raising revenue from our own citizens, and that unless they can be justified on the ground of protection, not as the incidental result, but as the primary object, they cannot be justified at all. We do not ask that domestic labor in one or more dej^artments of industry should be fostered by the Government at the expense of others. We concede that all men should be permitted to buy in the cheapest market, and sell m the dearest. We put no stress on the common notion of the balance of trade, that the country may be impoverished by the draw of its specie in payment for imports. In snort, we have the same ends in view as the friends of free trade— and adopt no line of aigument which is not warranted by its most distinguished advocates. We are ready t(j admit ourselves beaten unless we can show that perfect protection is the shortest road to per- fect freedom of trade; and that the interest, not of producers, but of the consumers of protected fabrics, is subserved by following it. Upon these terms we are ready to dis- cuss the question whenever the opportunity may be presented, asking only that both sides may be freely heard through the same medium. To many of the friends of pro- tective policy, I am aware, it will seem that we are abandoning tenable ground, while to its o|.)ponents tlie challenge will appear mere bravado. To both of these classes, I only can say that if they will study Carey for themselves, they will be convinced that the offer is made in good faith, and that it is too late for any man to venture u[)on the discussion, on either side, who is not acquainted with Mr. Carey's " Past, Present, and Future." Meantime the offer stands. Where is the editor of a journal or periodical, opposed to the protective policy, who will lay before his readers Mr. Carey's argument in its favor, on the condition that the answer thereto shall be presented, column for column, and page for page, in a journal or periodical of equal standing and circulation on the other side ? Since writing tlie above, we Lave found in tlie same paper (the Ledger) the tollowing article, that we lay before our readers as a specimen of free- ti'ade reasoning ; — The United States have sent to England, for the present year, down to the 17th June, the following quantities as compared with the saiue period last year : — Bbls. Wheat bn. 1850, .... 307,015 - - ' 430,329 1851, - - - . 1,018,869 - - 944,830 The excess of export is equal to 730,000 bbls., worth nearly three millions of dollars. So nnicli for free trade. Wliat would our farmers do with this large surplus, and wliat would be the price of flour and wheat, should we return again to a high tariff, and so cut them ott" from the market of the world ? Tlie domestic consumption of wheat and of flour lias fallen with the closing of the mills and furnaces of the Union, and the miners and furnace-men, and the builders of furnaces and mills, and the woi'kers in cotton and wool, are every where being compelled to become competitors with the farmer in the production of food, instead of being his customers for the consumption of his food. The necessary consequence of this is, that the price of wheat and of (lour has fallen to the point at which it can go abroad, and tlie learned Theban who indites these free-trade articles sees great advantage to the farmer from such a state of things. He inquires what would our farmers do without this great market of the world, knowing that the price of a barrel of flour in Liverpool, freight and duties and commissions paid, is but about four dollars and a haU", and knowing that by the protective tarift (/[ 1842 tlie production of iron grew in amount si.x hundred thousand tons, worth, in the various forms in which it was consumed, sixty millions of dollars, all paid to the farmer for food for the men who mined the coal and the ore, and food for the men who l)uilt the furnaces and the rolling mills and the shops and the houses for the workmen, and food for the peo})ie who HEAR BOTH SIDES. 77 made the clothing, and for the raw materials of every kind required by the people who performed all the various processes in the production and manu- tacture of this iron which owed its existence to the tariff of 1842. Tiie pohcy he advocates has closed the furnaces and the mills, and co77i2)elled the farmer to seek a foreign market, and he finds in the miserable market here described compensation for the destruction of a great market that was growing at the rate of more than twenty millio7is of dollars a year, among the peojjle who produce fuel and cloth and iron to give in exchange for food. He desires to know what the farmer would do under a protective tariff, and we will tell him. They would raise more food with fewer hands. They would put back on the land the refuse of that food, and they would enrich the land instead of exhausting it. They would see tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people remaining in the East to be consumers of food, instead of going West to be producers of it. They would see the coal trade increase in two years to six millions of tons, and affording a market for twenty millions of dollars worth of food and other of the raw products of the earth. They would see the iron trade increase in four years to a million and a half of tons, affording to the farmer and planter a market amountiuo- to a hundred millions of dollars. They would see the cotton manufacture in three years absorbing a million of bales of cotton, affording to the planter an im- mense market for his great staple, and enabling him to obtain in the market of Europe double price for what he had to export. They would see the country becoming rapidly independent of the " nation of shopkeepers," and rapidly occupying the place among the communities of the world which it is fairly entitled to fill — the first place — instead of continuing, as now, to follow in the train of a nation whose every feeling is adverse to its elevation or improve- ment, and whose every action is directed by a desire to perpetuate the colonial dependence from which it was the object of the war of the Revolution to free ourselves. We here repeat the invitation to our contemporary to reprint the comments upon his article, pledging ourselves to lay before our readers whatever he may have to say in ansv/er to them. We trust that he will accept our invi- tation, and thus prove that he himself believes in the truth of the doctrine he desires to advocate. Hard to Beat. — One would think W. S. King, Esq., of Rhode Island, not easy to be beaten in any thing that he undertakes. He exhibited a short-horn cow, at the late State Fair and Show at Albany, which was, he says, not thought even worthy to be mentioned by the committee. The public may judge, from this fact, that New- York boasts of cows tohut is cows from the following statement, the truth of which Mr. King was ready to verify by two credible witnesses on the ground. With all who knoAV him, his own word would be all-sufficient : — The short-horn cow, Flora, the property of the writer, was certified to the committee to have given 1,020 quarts of milk in sixty days, and to have averaged sixteen quarts per day for the next thirty days, and to have given nine quarts on the morning of the show, (she gave eight in the evening ;) this in her fourth jnonth, and the beast only four years old. A passing injury to one of her teats considerably diminished her yield dur- ing the trial. This is equal to over twenty quarts per day, for a cow six years old, or more. 78 THE EVILS OF DISPERSION". THE EVILS OF DISPERSION. The recent floods in the West have been the cause of immense loss and suffering. Thousands upon thousands of farms upon the Mississippi and its tributaries, from Caii'o north, were submerged, and then- owners compelled to flee to the highlands for their lives. Theii" crops of course were destroyed — their improvements greatly injured — then- stock disowned — their lands in many cases covered with sand ; indeed, an estimate of the property lost would amount to millions, and generally speaking, this loss falls upon a class of people poorly able to bear it. The St. Louis Times says that five hundi-ed famiUes from llliuoia Town and the American Bottom came into St. Louis in great distress. This is but one point among hundreds where the people of the bottoms fled for life and suc- cor.— Exchange paper. There are few facts connected with the history of man more remarkable than is that of the tendency to dispersion over this continent. Ev^ery man is flying from his neighbor man almost as if from pestilence. At the West, every paper informs us of the influx of emigrants from the East — farmers from New- England, New- York, New-Jereey, Pennsylvania, and even from Ohio — while at the South-west the migration to the new territories becomes in each suc- cessive year more enormous than before. The cause of this is properly explained in a European journal, which describes the agriculture of this country in the following terms : — At present, but one principle of farming, with trifling exceptions, prevails. This con- sists in exhausting the natural soil with a scourging succession of grain crops ; then deserting the land, and going on to fresh territories, which are exhausted and deserted in- turn. Nothing like proper restorative cultui-e is known, and never will be tiU the enter- piise of the settler is stopped in its western progi-ess by the Rocky Mountains or the Pacific. In short, it is cheaper to buy new land than to manure the old ; and only when there is no more fresh land to purchase, will the art of farming in America be properly known and practised. — Chambers' JEclinburgh Journal. It is cheaper, we are here assured, to buy new land than to manure the old, and it is so for the simple reason that the farmer and planter nowhere make a market on the land for the products of the land. They send their wheat and their corn, their pork and their beef, their rice and their cotton, to a dis- tance, that the food may be there consumed by the men who convert the wool into cloth, rather than adopt the measures required for bringing the spinner and the weaver to take their places by their sides, there to consume the food, and thus enabling them to return to the land the refuse of its products. They are perpetually wasting their capital, and then wasting their time in seeking new capital to be again exhausted, and thus exhausting both their land and themselves. From the same journal we take the following notice of the observations of a recent traveller in the Union, which we most earnestly commend to the notice of such of our readers as desire to understand the cause of the increasing tendency of man to fly from the neighborhood of his brother man, manifested through- out this country : — A repetition of the remark here occurs respecting the method of cropping lands, which is rapidly deteriorating the soil. In one place nicotidiicd, "wheat has been Uiken fi-om the land for fifty years in succession." Diminishing andprccarious crops are the consequence. Lat- terly, the crop of wheat on these exliausted and ill-used lauds has suferedfrom diseases inci- dental to plants of weakly growth. Occasionalli/ the crop entirely fails, and the farmer finds to his cost that nature is not to be outraged with imprmity. Still, few think of restoratives. A usual plan is to chsxnge the crop ; and potatoes, peas, and oats are therefore coming more into use. Already Lower Canada, and some other old settled parts, are under the necessity of imptrting wheat; and, says Mr. Jolinston very emphatically, "the same con- siunmatiou is prcpai-ing for the more newly -settled parts, unless a change of system takes THE EVILS OF DISPERSION. 79 place. The new wheat-exporting — so called — gi'anaiy districts and States will by-and-by gradually lessen in niunber and extent, and probably lose altogether the ability to export, unless when unusual harvests occui*. We would here beg our readers to remark that the total cessation of the power to export wheat is here predicted by an eminent British agriculturist, as being the necessary consequence of the system which looks to sending from the land all the products of the land, in accordance with the doctrine taught in the British politico-economical school, that England should be permitted to retain her present position of " the workshop of the world," and that all the farmers and planters of the world should unite in securing to her a mo- nopoly of the machinery for the production of cloth and iron. The writer continues : — If the population of North Ameiica continue to advance at its present rapid rate — especially in the older States of the Union — if large mining and manufacturing populations sprmg up, the ability to export wheat to Em-ope will lessen still more rapidly. Accurate as are in general the views of our author, nothing could be more inaccurate than those here given. The exhaustion of the land and the destruction of the poiver to export wheat is a natural consequence of the necessity for depending on distant markets, in which, and on the road to which, the farmer wastes his labor and his manure. The springing up of " large mining and manufacturing populations" would diminish the necessity for looking abroad, and increase the 230wer to go abroad with wheat and all other of the products of the soil, because the farmer and planter would cease to " scourge the soil," and the crops would cease to be so " preca- rious," because his plants would cease to be " subject to diseases incidental to plants of weakly growth." He would obtain twice as much food from the same surface, and with no more labor, and his power to go to foreign markets would increase as the extension of the market on the land diminished his necessity for so doing. " The diminution in the supply of wheat," says our author, " may be de- layed for a time by the rapid settling of new Western States, which from their virgin soils will draw easy returns of grain ; but every step westward adds to the cost of transporting produce to the Atlantic border." This cost mtist be paid by the producer, and that such is the case the producer well knows, as may be seen by the strenuous exertions that are being every where made to obtain roads by which to go to market, and by the increase of the value of the land as roads are made. The object of protection is that of enabling the consumer to come and take his place by the side of the producer, and thus relieve the latter at once and for ever from the necessity for ffoinff to the distant market. The following remarks are deserving of the careful consideration of every man that desires to see an improvement in the condition of the people of the Union and an increase in the power of the Union itself. To all such we would beg to say, that wealth is power, and that no nation can become powerful whose pohcy looks to scourging the land and producing a necessity for dispersion : — In their relation to English markets, therefore, and the prospects and profits of the British farmer, my persuasion is, that, year by year, our transatlantic cousins will become less and less able — except in exti'aordiuary seasons — to send large supplies of wheat to our island ports ; and that, when the virgin freshness shall have been rubbed off their new lands, they will be unable, with their present knowledge and methods, to send wheat to the British market so cheap as the more skilful farmers of Great Britab and L'eland can do. If any one less familiar with practical agiiculture doubts that such tnust be the final effect of the exhausting system now followed on all the lands of North so HARVEST LABOR. America, I need only inform Mm that the celebrated Lothian farmers, in the immediate neighborhood of Edinburgh, tvIio cany all their crops off the lanil — as the North Ameri- can farmers now do — return on an, average ten tons of well-rotted manure evert/ year to svery acre, while the American farmer returns notldwi. If the Edinburgh farmer finds this quantity necessary to keep his land in condition, that of the American farnser must go out of condition, and produce inferior crops in a time which will bear a relation to the original richness of the soil, and to the weight of crop it has been in the habit of produ-' cing. And when this exhaustion has come, a more costly system of generous husljandry must be introduced, if the crops are to be kept up ; and in tliis more generous system my belief is that the British fanners will have the victory. Of this there can be no doubt. The British farmer returns to his hind " ten tons of rotted manure" per acre, and that manure is the soil of Russia and Poland, of Germany, and of this Union, The farmer of Ohio extracts from his land all the capital for which he purchased it, and transfers the same to the farmer of England, and having done so for a few years he then abandons his land and removes to Illinois, and thence to Iowa or l^iinnesota, " dragging at each remove a lengthening chain ;" for, in the words of our most intelligent traveller, " every step westward adds to the cost of transporting produce to the Atlantic border," and yet every year adds to the tendency to ily westward, abandoning the rich bottom lands that would pay so largely for the work of clearing and drainage. In many cases, however, the prosn-^ct of working out a rich soil induces the settler to place himself in the low lands, and the conseqiience is found in the perpetual recui-rence of facts similar to those described in the paragraph at the head of this article ; their lands are submerged, and they are themselves compelled to fly to the high lands to save their lives, their improvements are destroyed, th^sir stock is drowned, and their lands are covered with sand. Such are the beautiful results of the system which looks to securing to Great Britain a monopoly of the machinery for making cloth and iron ; and it is to relieve the planters and farmers of this country from the taxation of a system so exhausting and destructive that we seek protection to both the farmer and planter in their efforts to draw the spindle and the loom, the hammer and the anvil, to take their natural places by the side of their ploughs and their harrows. HARVEST LABOR, The Frederick Examiner says : " Our haiwest has fau-ly set in. The wheat and rye crops -are very good, well filled, in excellent order, without bUght or injmy in any respect. Hands are much sought after, and the general complaint is the want of laborers." In the immediate \icinity of the farmere who thus complain of want of aid in harvest, are deposits of coal and iron ore unlimited in extent, and there too are to be found numerous furnaces that were built for the purpose of converting the ore, the coal, the limestone, and the food into iron ; but those furnaces are now closed, and the people who mined the ore and tended the furnaces have gone West to aid in raising food, when if they had been per- mitted to remain at home, they would have continued to be consumers of food, and would always have been at hand to aid tlie farmer in harvest lime. Combination of effort makes men rich. Dis])ersion makes them poor. The farmers of Frederick county vote to expel from their neighborhood the millei's and furnace-men, and the blacksmiths and carpenters, whose services -cease to be needed when the furnace is closed, and then they employ English THE NOBILITY OF RUSSIA AND OF AMERICA. 81 miners and furnace-men to make their iron, and their crops sometimes perish in the field for want of aid in harvest. With the cottou-phinter it is even worse. He hmits his phinting because it is useless to plant when he knows that he cannot gather the product. The loss to the Uni07i from this alone is more than the value of all the merchandise of evert/ description that ive receive from England. THE NOBILITY OF RUSSIA AND OF AMERICA. The private resideuces of the nobility at Moscow are fLU-nisbed with unparallcd magnifi- cence, and the museums and Ubraries which they contain surpass in extent mauv pubhc collections in other countries. In then- style of bving the nobles display a similar ambi- tion to rival the grandem- of princes. Some of them have as many as five hundred domes- tics ; and in the banquets which they give, the splendor which reigns around is said to equal the sumptuous exliibitions of Oriental courts. But the state of the people at large is bttle in accordance with these external signs of power and gi-andeur. — Exchange paper. The description here given of " the style" of Russian nobility might apply almost to that of some of the " merchant princes" whose fortunes it is the object of British free trade to build up, and it might be advantageous if the formers and planters of this country were to study who are the people at whose cost the enormous establishments of our trading nobility are maintained. The bushel of corn or the bale of cotton acquires no value from passino- into the store of the merchant at one door and out at the other. The one would feed and the other would clothe as many persons if the merchant had no ex- istence. He adds no value to either. All thai he does is to stand between the farmer ivho raises the corn and the planter tvho raises the cotton, and to take a j)ortion of each for negotiating their exchanges, and that portion thev would have saved if they had made their exchanges themselves without his intervention. Nevertheless, while himself producing nothing and adding no value to the things that pass through his hands, he it is that every where accumulates the largest fortunes. Mous. Say informs us that " the butchers, bakers, and porkmen of Paris, are pretty sure to retire A^ith a fortune sooner or later ; indeed," says he, " I have it from pretty good authority in such matters, that half the houses and real property sold in Paris and its environs are bought up by tradesmen in those lines." (Political Economy, book ii., chap, iv.) The butchers and bakers are middlemen li\-ing at the cost of the producei-s and consumers of food, and if the producer of food could bring the consumers to their sides, fewer middlemen would be required, and both producers and con- sumers would grow rich. In those countries in which the merchant princes have occupied the most conspicuous ]3laces, the democracy have always been the poorest. The trading aristocracy of Rome grew in their dimensions pi-ecisely as the people became more and more pauperized. The traders of Venice were princes, but the people were enslaved. England transplants her Barings and her Jones Lloyds into the House of Peei*s, as she sends her laboring population to the Alms House, and the dimensions of the palaces of the merchant princes of New- York grow in size with the growth of the AATetched- ness and the crime by which they are surrounded. The object of the tariff of 1842 was that of enabling the farmer and the planter to bring the market to their doors and to enable them to make their own exchanges. That of the tariff of 1846 is to separate the farmer and the planter from the consumers of their products, and to compel them to aid in building up, at their oxvn cost, the fortunes of the merchant princes of the earth. VOL lY. — 6. 82 IRRIGATION. IRRIGATION. Translated principally from the " Journal d'Agriculture pratique." BY F. G. SKINNER. [ Concluded.^ Hill-side Meadows. — The irrigation of hill-sides and mountain slopes, as practised at Gerhardsbrunn in Germany, is perfectly suited to the present state of American agriculture, and if generally adopted, it would not fail to add vastly to our production of forage. The hill-side to be watered is grubbed, the stones or rocks that can be conveniently moved are carried off, and the land thoroughly cleansed and reduced to a fine tilth. If, after this, slight depressions remain upon the surface which would retain water, they are filled up, and the land is seeded to grass. As soon as a sod is formed sufficiently close to prevent washing, the main irrigating ditch is cut along the top of the Fig. 18. field, with a fall of not more than one foot in 3,500. From the main ditch, small trenches two inches wide are neatly cut in the sod, and follow all the sinuosities of the ground, so as to cover as great a sur- face as possible with running water. If the surface to be irrigated is old field already turfed over, it is best not to break it up ; all that is necessary is to remove any im- pediments to the sweep of the scythe, to cut the main ditch and trenches, and let the water on immediately ; the old sod will soon be replaced by grasses of the best quality. If the slope to be irrigated is very wide, a ^-^econd horizontal ditch should be cut in it, as in figures 18 and 19. a, a, and 6, 6, are the ditches distributing the water derived from c, to the Fig. 19. upper and lower sections of the meadow — 6, 6, besides taking water from the stream, gathers that descending from the upper section of the meadow. d, d, are rocks or hillocks that could not be removed ; ff, <7, p, are the small IRRIGATION. 83 irrigating trenches. Below and adjoining the canal 6, &, is a road by which the hay from the upper section of the uaeadow is carried off. i, i, i, i, are vertical trenches terminated by the horizontal trenches k, k, k. The road is graded so as to be irrigated and mowed ; sometimes it is so arranged that one wheel of the cart runs in the ditch. Many of the meadows in the district of Gerhardsbrunn are watered in this way ; but when in the course of time the eminences are cut down and the depressions in the surfaces filled up, and all obstacles removed, a much better system of irrigation prevails. The bare spots occasioned by cutting down a hillock or fiUing up a hollow must be sodded or seeded; if there is not enough sod to cover the entire surface, it should be cut into strips and pounded in. The improved irrigation of hilly meadows consists in replacing the irreg- ular cuts by horizontal trenches, which are supplied by a distributing ditch. Fig 20. The irrigating trenches should be traced by the mason's level. They must be perfectly hori- zontal, though it is not neces- sary they should be perfectly straight ; on the contrary, they may describe as many curves as the undulations of the siu"- face and the necessity for pre- serving the horizontal may re- quire. As before stated, the distance between the trenches depends upon the nature and supply of the water aud upon the inclination of the sur- face. On this subject it is difficult to lay down precise rules, because it would be necessary to measure the quantity of water and the degree of inclination. In general, however, it is best not to be too sparing of the smaller trenches ; indeed, there cannot well be too many of them. On surfaces with a fall of four or five feet in a hundred, the distance between them should not exceed eighteen feet. The irrigating trenches may be supplied from the main canal by a vertical trench, or each irrigating trench may have its own feeder pro- ceeding directly from the main canal, (figs. 20, 21.) Fig. 21. It will be perceived that in figure 20, care has been taken to prevent the vertical trenches from corresponding directly with each other ; because, if the IRRIGATION. fall (as is supposed in this case) is rapid, these vertical trenches would form a continuous straight line, and the increased action of the water in consequence would soon wash the land into gulleys. A better arrangement is to furnish each irrigating trench with its own trench of supply, as in figure 22. Fig. 22. If there should not be sufficient water to cover the whole surface at once, it is cut off from the different trenches at the i)oint.'5 marked 0, (an ordinary shingle Avill answer the purpose,) and only portions of the meadow, as at A, B, C, are iriigated, and the water may be shifted at will, from one spot to another, merely by moving the shingles at O. General Directions. — The degree and duration of an irrigation may be modified by several causes. Thus, water naturally suited to the purpose may be applied throughout the whole winter, if the cold is not so great as to con- geal it. Water of indifferent quality should not be used in winter, unless the meadow is manured. At a short distance from their source, the temperature of nearly all waters is favorable to vegetation, and they may therefore be used at all seasons. The effects of irrigation are also much modified by the sea- sons, and, as a general rule, autumn waterings are to be preferred ; they renew the vigor of plants exhausted by previous cropping, the turf becomes closer, the young plants newly sprouted from the seeds left by the first crop are invigorated to resist the coming winter, and the whole meadow, as it were, clothes itself to encounter the cold, and in early spring the grass starts forth more flourishing than ever. Again, in the fall, water is more abundant ; it is more highly charged with the elements of fertility ; the ploughed grounds manured for the autumn-sown crops contribute to its richness, and at this sea- son ordinary water becomes good, and good becomes excellent, and the irri- gation should be prolonged as much as possible. As soon as the last crop of grass is removed, and the wounds of the scythe have had time to heal, is the moment to turn on the water. But this is often postponed, in order to graze oft' the after-math : a portion of the winter prov- ender may be saved by it, but the practice is to be deprecated, for not only is the subsequent crop injured, but the meadow is deprived of water in the month of September, the best of all others for irrigation. The first waterings may be prolonged for three weeks, or even a month ; after each, the meadow should be allowed to become dry. Under all circum- IRRIGATION. 85 stances of soil, season, or climate, it is essential the meadow should drain itself easily and rapidly ; for without it, the good effects of irrigation are lost. If the autumn is warm, the waterings must not be of long continuance, and as soon as a little scum or foam is perceived on the grass, they should cease ; to be renewed as soon as the meadow becomes dry. If the water is of the best quality, the iri'igation may be continued throughout the autumn, as long as the weather does not become too cold, but the periods of irrigation should be diminished, while those of draining are increased. In winter, all irrigation with indifferent or bad water should cease, unless the land be well manured, in which case it may be prolonged, until inter- rupted by hard frost or scow ; and even then, if the quality of the water be good, the temperature high, and the land of easy drainage, there can be no objection to let the water lun under the ice ; it is in no danger of freezing, and the turf over which it flows remains green and continues to grow. If the irrigation has been suspended in winter, the first that is given after the weather moderates should be prolonged ; but the duration of those fol- lowing must diminish as the season advances until May, when they are usually suspended, particularly if the water is muddy, for it may then "foul" the grass, when nearly ready for the scythe. Another precaution to be observed is, never to turn or take oft' the water at midday, particularly under a bright sun ; evening is the favorable moment. The most beneficial irrigations are those given in cloudy and rainy weather. With warm rains and southerly winds, herbaceous vegetation acquires great activity, and the growth of grass is rapid, and should the rain be cold, the brook water tempers its chilling effect upon the meadows. Late spring frosts are to be dreaded, and all irrigation must cease when they are threatened. After the weather moderates, a few days' watering will repair, in a great degree, any damage that may have been done. If, how- ever, there hd an abundance of water at command, a full flow during the prev- alence of frost will prove an eflicient protection. The water is usually let on in the evening, before the dew falls, or in the morning, after it disappears. There is no reason assigned for this, but it is the usual practice. Both the extremes of heat and cold are to be avoided during the irriga- tion ; and if, as before stated, it may go on with suitable water when the thermometer falls one or two degrees below the freezing point, it is on the express condition that the water runs off" freely ; for wherever sheets of ice remain in contact with the turf for some time, the shallow-rooted plants will perish, leaving none but those with deep roots, and of httle value. In rainny seasons the object of irrigation is to fecundate, and not to give moisture ; it may therefore be abundant with good water, and should be very shght with that which is bad. Nature of the Soil. — Varieties in soil induce modifications in its irrigation. Thus, hght sands and gravel require longer and more frequent waterings than heavy clays, and these last require a longer time to drain. Inclination ot sur- face is another modifying cause. A light soil, with little inclination of surface, should not be so long or so often under water as if it were much inclined, and a steep clay surface can receive more than a level one. The appearance of scum or foam upon the sod is an indication of suffering in the roots of some of the plants, and is a warning to shut oft' the water. The abundance and duration of an irrigation should not be controlled by the vegetable surface alone, for frequently beneath a shallow vegetable surtaco an impervious clay is found, in which case the watering should be moderate ; if, however, the subsoil be gravel or sand, the irrigation may be more abun- dant. 86 IRRIGATION. Location and Exposure of Meadows. — The site of a meadow has an im- portant Dealing on its irrigation : thus, a sloping surface or a southern expo- sure requires more water than a level surface or a northern aspect. It may- be remarked that meadows facing the south, though earher than others, and producing better forage, are more liable to injury from late frosts, and it is best where the climate is variable not to force them by premature watering. Eastern should be more moderately irrigated than northern exposures, because vegetation is more active npon them, and they are more liable to white frosts. A western, being warmer, requires a little more water than an eastern aspect : and, finally, latitude is a sei-ious consideration, since a southern evidently re- quires more water than a northern climate. It may be objected that the wonders wrought by irrigation in Italy, Spain, and other southern countries, are to be attributed to climate, and that the system would not confer equal benefits upon the agriculture of the United States. To show how groundless such an objection would be, it will only be necessary to cite results obtained in England and Scotland, countries where the farmer has to contend, not .with parching droughts, as in America, but with too much moisture. Coleman, in his "European Agriculture," states that the most extensive and finished works of irrigation, or, as they are called there, water-meadows, to be found in England, are at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, at the residence of the Duke of Portland. They considerably exceeded three hundred acres, and were being extended at the time of his visit. These meadows receive no other manure beyond that furnished by the water, yet every acre, in its produce consumed by entile on the farm., supplies manure for five acres of other land. Corringham's Report of Nottinghamshire, alluding to these meadows, states that their annual value had been raised trom £80 to £3600. The water- meadows at Audley End farm are described by Mr. Colman as being formed of old pasture without disturbing the sod, and as yielding in two annual cut- tings six tons to the acre. The same author concludes his description of the irrigated meadows he saw in Enirland thus : '' I shall close this part of my subject with the remarks of Philip Pusey, Esq., M. P., which are always deserving the highest attention, and which are as api)licable to many parts of the United States as to those places to which they immediately refer : — ' I have known Mr. Roals' farm for many years. It stands alone on the wild Exmoor range of mountain land. If any one asserted that, for a trifling outlay, he could enable heath-covered steeps to rival, in produce and value, the old grazing grounds of Northamptonshire, he ■would be regarded as a dreamer. But if any owner of moors will visit Som- erset or North Devon, he will ascertain the literal truth of the statement, as I did five years ago. All tliat is requii'ed is a streamlet trickling down the mountain side, or a torrent descending rapidly along the bottom of the glen. The profit of wrtder-drainimj old arable land aj^j^ears trifling when compared with the profit of thus forming water-meadows ; which, according to Mr. Roals, is more than one pound inteiest for two pounds invested.' " The two pages of this report, which state no more than Mr. Roals him- self has done, contain a talism;in by which a mantle of luxuriant verdure might be spread over the mountain moors of Wales and Scotland, of Kerry and Connemara. New-England especially, and many parts of the other States, are full of sites and means for such imjirovements, and in many cases the expense of labor and levelling the land, bringing the water into a body and placing it under control, would be met many times orer by the profits of such improvements." IRRIGATION. 87 The account ^iven by Mr. Colman of a system of irrigation with the sew- erage water of Edinburgh is exceedingly interesting ; and though by no means of general application, it is inserted hei'e entire, with a view of showing how immensely valuable to agriculture would be the wash of our own cities, if, as in the Scotch capital, it were turned to account. " I come next to speak of a system of irrigation established in Edinburgh, which I looked at with a good deal of interest, where the sewerage watei from the drains of the city is applied to grass lands in its neighborhood, which by this means are rendered most extraordinarily productive. " The drainage water from a large portion of the city of Edinburgh is col- lected into covered carriers and drains, and from these emptied into a stream of water, very properly, as one may suppose in such a case, called the Fout Burn, the term burn being the Scottish name for a small stream or brook. Here it passes along in an open brook, among some flat lands, which by proper arrangement? it is made to overflow. I should state that, before it reaches the places where it is thus diff"used, it is received in tanks, where the more solid parts are deposited. It does not require any extraordinary acuteness of smell, on approaching these irrigated lands, to become satisfied that the waters, even after passing from the cisterns or tanks, are sufficiently charged with odoriferous particles held in suspension. " This water thus received Is diffused over three hundred acres of land; and these lands are rendered productive to a most extraordinary degree. One of the j^rincipal proprietors, who held his land under a long lease, at a rent of £5 per acre, and sub-let this irrigated land at £30 per acre, informed me that it was sometimes cut seven times in a season. The grass is carried into the city, a distance of two and three miles, for the support of the cows which supply the city with milk. Different channels or gutters are made for the water, so that the whole may be flooded. It is applied generally after every cutting, where the situation admits of it ; but it is found advisable not to apply it immediately upon the grass being cut, nor before it has obtained some small growth. '' The offensive exhalations fi'om meadows thus treated have been the sub- ject of prosecutions at law. In the testimony adduced on these occasions, it has been stated that the rent for which some of these meadews are leased in small portions to cow-feeders varies on an average from £20 to £30 per acre. Some of the richest meadows were let in 1835 at £38 per acre; and in that season of scarce forage, 1826, £57, or $285, per acre, were obtained for some meadows. The waste land called Figget Whins, containing thirty acres, and ten acres of poor sand}^ soil adjoining them, were formed into water-meadows in 1821, at an expense of £1,000. The pasture of he Figget Whins used to be let for £40 per year, and that of the ten acres at £60. Now, the same ground, as meadows, let for £15 or £20 an acre per year, and will probably let for more, as the land becomes more and more enriched ; that is, land which before the irrigation let for about $500 per year, now, under this improvement, yields an annual r^nt of from $3,000 to $4,000. The irrigation is continued at different times, from the first of April to the middle of September. The parties interested in defending the use of this water for irrigating these lands, maintain that the grass produced in these meadows by this process supports in Edinburgh 3000 cows, and in Leith GOO cows. It is added, 'that the par- ties interested in the lands estimate the compensation which would induce them to discontinue the practice at £150,000, or $750,000. This is stated as the sum which the proprietors at the west side of the city would be enti- tled to, exclusive of those at the east, were the practice abolished by Govern- ment.' " SS LECTURE ON HAIR, WOOL, AND SHEEP BREEDING. It is to be lioped that the results of irrigation above described and vouched for by Mr. Cohrian, will be sufficient to awaken the American fanner to the incalculable value of the system, and induce him to put in practice the simple rules laid down in this essay. LECTURE ON HAIR, WOOL, AXD SHEEP BREEDING. The following interesting lecture upon the new science of "Trichology" was dehvered in this city, a few days since, before the "Central Southern liights Association of Virginia," by Petkr A. Browne, Esq., LL.D., of Phil- adelphia. It has been furnished to us for publication at the instance of friends who, having heard it themselves, were unwilling that a paper so full of curious and protitable matter should be kept from the public. We need not say that we are happy that our pages have been made the medium of its publication. The lecture abounds with curious and valuable information upon a subject of great importance and intimate concern to every farmer, and to the welfare of the State at large — wool raising and wool manufacturing. It also possesses another recommendation, which we cannot refrain from noticing, viz. : It is almost en'.ircly freed from scientijic (cchnicalitics, which few readers can com- prehend, and is couched in plain English phrase that all who peruse can understand. We trust every reader will give it careful attention, believing that no one can do so without being amply repaid. — Southern Planter. LECTURE. Nothlngwhicli belongs to the study of nature is insignificant. Tlie naturalist surveys, with interest, a/l the works of the Gheat Creator ; — with the telescope, he measures the parallax of the distant stars, and with the microscope, lie examines the minutest part of the smallest leaf, crystal or infusoria. Nothing for liim is too large, — nothing too small, which God h"s placed within his reach. If that Mighty Being who created the heavens and the eaitli did not consider it beneath His dignity to make so minute as a micros- copic object, surely it would be great presumption in man to consider it too small for his examination. We are, therefore, of opinion that making collections of pile, and exam- ining hair and wool under the microscope and with the trichometer,* are exceedingly interesting. The natural history of man has, within the last ten years, attracted more attention than at any former period of time. It is not to be wondered at, that we should be de- sirous of knowing the rocr from which we and our immediate ancestors sprung; but, as almost all very ancient history is involved in fable, it often happens, that no positive testimony as to the origin of nations can be obtained ; wherefore it is proper and laudable, by fair arguments, founded upon circumstances, to assist the arclia^ologist in liis valuable researches. To do this the ingenuity of modern times has pointed out several methods. Professor Samuel G. Morton has chosen the department of crauiology. With great industry and perseverance, he has collected a vast number of human skulls, of all nations and of all ages; and by their examinations, by the measurement of their facial angles, and by ascertaining tlie capacity of the cavity for the repository of the brain, he has :anc ; and, with a view to test the accuracy of the position, I have made very large collections of the covering of the head of the last named unfortunate fellow-beings, in no less than five lunatic asylums in the United States, includin/. The wool produced not merely in Ireland, but in England also, is thus exclusively adapted to the worsted trade. For woollen cloths and similar goods the wool is imported from the Continent. It has often been an object with the English wool- growers and landed proprietors to produce this felting wool in England, and thus get rid of the necessity of purchasing abroad; but it has been found impossible, after the most expensive experiments, in importhig sheep of particular fiocks. It has been found ihat in two or three generations, of cvc7i the pure breed, the influence of the climate and food totally changed the character of the wool, and brought it to the same quality as that of the native animals." We repeat, then, without fear of contradiction, " England cannot produce the fine wools required for manufacturing broadcloths," but she will continue to manufacture these cloths as long as she can find sale for them; consequently she must import fine wool from some other country. Why should not or of gathering these togeth- er, and of making the iron, the breadstuffs, clothing, houses, (fee, 'psum, and leaves the other moiety of lime tmited with a double portion of phosphoric acid in the state of a superphosphate. Thus, 43 lbs. of acid will be required to effect these changes, leaving any additional quantity for other purposes.! Phosphate of lime is a substance very diffi- cult of solution, and thus in a very dry sea- son the effects of bones are often very slight and imperfect. Superphosphate of lime, on the other hand, is extremely soluble, so much so that the vitriolized bones can be entirely dissolved or suspended in water, and thus ap- plied. This at once explains the cause of the valuable properties of the preparation. The bones in their natural state are extremely in- digestible : the acid cooks them — converts them into a species of soup which can readily be eaten and digested by the young turnips. The adamantine fetters with which the vari- ous elements composing bones are bound so compactly together, are, by means of tliis new agent burst asunder — the compact is broken, and each constituent element is left to pursue its own course and to exercise its * I find that the average weight of bone-dust, as it comes from the mill, is 1(J8 lbs. per 4 bushels, al- though I have found it reach the weight stated in the text.' [AM. t I do not mean to say that these are the precise changes which take place, but only an approxima- tion to them. Probably some portion of phosphoric acid may be left in a free state in the prepared mixture. 122 SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME. own natural affinities. The chemical changes which take place between the siilpliuric acid and the organic portion of the bones are, no doubt, very complicated. Sugar is one result, and probably sulphate of ammonia is another ; but I cannot venlnrc to state what quantity of sulphuric acid may be necessaiy to effect these changes. If we presume that one-thi)d is the proportion of sulphuric acid employed, then there will remain 17 lbs. to act on the organic portion of the 4 Ijushels of bones — the remainder having been required by the earthy portion. \Ve find that niaiuifactm-ing chemists, in the prej)aration of phosphorus from bones (now largely required for lucifer matches), first destroy the oiganic part of the bones by means of fire, and then mix the I'emaiuder with half its weight of sulphuric acid. Thus, if we .suppose 180 lbs. to he the quantity em- ployed, by burning it will be reduced to 1-20 lbs., requiring 6(1 lbs. of acid to form super- phosphate, which would be one-third the weight of the bones previous to burning. I suppose, however, that in this case an excess of acid is required to render the process com- plete, as one-half would otherwise appear to be more tlian the quantity demanded. From these and other reasons we may lastly consider that the proportion of acid to the bones should never be less than one-third nor more than one-half. The fonner, I think, is the most economical, but probably the pre- cise quantity most desirable will be 42 ]ier cent, of acid. I may, however, observe that in an experiment during the last season, in which one portion of die land was maimred with bones and acid in different ])roportions, that which had more bones and less acid proved to be a somewhat belter crop than where fewer bones and more acid were used ; the expense being the same in both instances. 3. The proportion of water to be mixed with the acid will next receive our attention. When one part by weight of water is mixed with four of acid, the temperature is raised to 300° Fahr. It is, therefore, veiy desira- ble that sutficient water should be used to produce this gi-eat heat, which facilitates the dissolving process; and the (luiuility aliovc stated, or, if more convenient, the .7 Green spergula 43.'5 Stems and leaves of Jerusalem artichokes 325 Cow-cabbage loaves 541 Beet-root leaves 600 Potato haulm 300 Rye straw 442 Oat straw 106 Peas haulm 153 Vetch haulm 159 Bean haulm 140 Buckwheat straw 195 Dried stalks of Jerusalem artichokes 170 Dried stalks of Indian com 400 Millet straw 250 Raw potatoes 201 Boiled ditto 175 White Silesian beet 220 Mausel-wurzel 839 Turnips 504 Cairots 276 Swedish Tumips 306 Ditto, with leaves on 3.50 Grain — Kve 54 \Vheat 42 Barley 54 Oats 59 Vetches 50 Peas 45 Beans 45 Buckwheat 64 Indian corn 57 Lin.«ced cake 69 Wheat hran 105 Rye bran 109 Wheat, peas and oat chaff 167 Rye and bailey chaff. 170 Vol. IV. SEPTEMBER, 1851. No. 3. THE FIRST TAX TO BE PAID BY LABOR IS TRANSPORTATION. BV HENRY C. CAREY, ESQ. Adam Smith taught that the right place for the artisan was that in which food was cheap, and the raw materials for manufacture were abundant. He could then eat the one while converting the other and fitting them for cheap transportation to distant countries. The modern English school of political economy teaches, on the contrary, that the food and the raw material should ho carried to the workman ; an operation that, if repeated each and every year for a thousand years, would have to be repeated again in the thousand and first ; whereas, the workman once placed in the midst of the food, the work is done for ever, and thereafter the food raised upon the land is con- sumed upon the land. Such is not, however the doctrine of those who seek to make of England the workshop of the world. By them it is held that the ship which carries the food is as productive of food as the earth which yields it. Men are required to disperse themselves over the earth in quest of land whose products may find employment for ships and wagons. The power to associate is thereby diminished, and as every act of association is an act of track., the power to trade should therefore be found to undergo a similar diminution. Nevertheless, it is in that direction that we are taught by Mr. Walker to look for increase of trade, and the system now known by the name of "free trade," and which looks to the centralization of machinery in Great Britain, is uiged upon the Avorld as being the mode in which trade may be increased. Adam Smith looked to an extension of intercourse with other nations, based upon a great internal commerce, consequent upon an in- crease of population, and increase of the power of association. With him, COMMERCE FORMED A TRUE PYRAMID. His succcssors look for an extension of the foreign trade consequent upon the export of population and the diminished power of* association. With them, trade is an inverted pyramid, and hence it is that we see in England a perpetual succe sion of revulsions, de- structive to herself and to all connected with her. Her present position could scarcely be better described than in the following words of the great father of political economy : — The whole system of her industiy aud commerce has thereby been rendered less secure ; the whole state of her body poUtic less healthful thau it otherwise would have beeu. In her present condition Great Britain resembles one of those unwluilesome bodies in which some vital parts are overgrown, and which, upon that account, are Uable to many dangerous disorders, scarce incident to those in which all the parts are more properly .proportioned. A small stop in that great blood-vessel, which has been artificially swelled beyond its natural dimensions, and through which au unnatural portion of tlie industry and commerce of the country has been forced to circulate, is very likely to bruig on the most dangerous disorders upon the whole body pohtic. VOL. IV. 9. 130 TRANSPORTATION Such is the description of England written more than seventy years since, and the only difference between her condition then and: now is, that the disease has since been greatly aggravated. We now ask the reader to study the following d'-^^cription of English colonial policy at the date of the pub- lication of the Wealth of Nations, and to compare it with that of the present day, that he may satisfy himself how perfectly the Stvtter is in accordanec with that which the illu^trious author of that greait work denounced as being " a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind," and as tending to produce at homo not only " very dangerous disorders in the body politic, but disorders which it is often very dithcult to remedy," the na'5ural consequence of her desire to make herself the " workshop of the world." It is from a work of high reputation, containing, an admirable account of the condition of agriculture in these colonies shortly previoiK to the Revolution ; — In case of such a settlement being made, the "whole valuable part of that a>ntiucnt, the southern division of it, vrould thea be in th« desirr.ble state of improvemeut : the population, from being so spread I'ound a great extent of frontier, woultl increase without giving the least cause of je'dovay to Britain ; laml would not only be plentiful, but plen- tiful whore our people wanted it; whereas at present, the population of our colonies, especially the central ones, is confined ; they have spread over all the space between the sea and the mountains, tlie consequence of whid> is, that land is become scare*.;, that which is good having become all planted or patented, the people therefore find tliemselvea too numerous for their agriculiure, wh'eh is tlir ftr.ft step to be manuf admirers, thcsS step lohich Britain has so much reason to dread. Nothing, tlierefore, can be more political than to provide a superabundance of colonies to take otf those people thai find a want of land in our old settlements ; and it may not l>e one or two tracts of country tha^ will answer this purpose ; j^rovision should he made for the convenience of soi\)e, the ii>clina- tions of others, and eveiy measure taken to infoi-m the people of the colonies that were grovnng too populous, that land was plentiful in other phwes, and gi'anted on the easiest terms ; and if such inducements were not found sufficient for thinning the countrj/ con- siderably, government shoidi by all means be at •i part of the expense of transporting them. Notice should be given that sloops shoidd always be ready at fort Pitt, or as much higher on the Ohio as it is navigable, for carrying all families, without expense, to whatever settlements they choose on the Ohio or the Mississippi. Such measures, or similar ones, would CiUiy off that surplus of population in the central and northern colo- nies which has been, and will every day be, more and more the foundations of their manu- factures. They never could establish such fabrics, while the plenty of good land in a good climate was so great as to afford every man an opportimity of settliing ; for wliile that was the case, none Avould let themselves as workmen in a manufacture. Consistent with those ideas, we see that those colonies where the good laud is most plentiful in a good climate, the manufactures are trifling, or nonic to be found, which is the case with the tobacco colonies and with the southern ones; but in the northeim settlements, where these ch-cumstances arc cUfferent, we there find maoy fabrics. Nothing can be more fortunate than the navigation of the Ohio quite to the Apala- chean mountains, at tlie back of the centre of all our colonies, since by that means people may, with only a small or a moderate journey, an'ive at a navigation that will carry theui thi'ough all that inuiieiise tract which we may in future colonize, a part of which we are now about to settle, and yet more of which I am urging the prop-iety of likewise settling. "Were it not for this vast navigatioti, to the very f^pot almost that one would -^^'ish to have it, there woiild bo difficulties in the people getting to the countries we wanted them to settle in ; but as we ]»sses3 this gi'eat advantage, it would be unjiardonable not to make effectual use of it, iu case the establishment of uew colonies did not of itself draw the whole surplus of population away from those provinces, the numbers in ichich tvant so much to be thinned. Nor is the advantage of drawing off people from the nort,heni colonies confined to the prevention of manufactures ; it is further of vast conserjueuce to take them from countries that produce nothing valual)le iu a British market, and fix theni in others abounding witli staples of high importance to the commerce and manufactiues of tlie mother country ; this single idea ought to be the corner-stone of all the regulations and measures adopted by this country in her transactions with America ; and if it is well pursued in future, ■will keep off the dangerous rivalship, which there is so much reason to fear, frcnn the manufactures and commerce of the northern colonies. THE FIRST TAX TO BE PAID BY LABOR. 131 If we now compare this with what is being clone in Canada, India, and Aus- traha, we shall find no difference. The theory of the British system is — now as it was then, there as it was here — that cf the territorial division of labor. The Hindoo is to raise rice and cotton, that the Englishman may eat the one while spinning and weaving the other ; and the more perfectly this idea can be carried out, the greater, it is supposed, will be the prosperity of both Eng- land and India. The result, however, does not answer expectation, as the reader will see by the following paragraph from the highest "free trade" authority : — Looking to our Indian empire, we cannot but be struck with the singular fiicilitios which — in climate, soil, and population — it presents to the commerce of Great Britain. At first sight, it seems to oft'er everything tliat could be devised, in order to inckice to a commercial intercourse almost without hmit. There is scarcely one important article of tropical produce which is consumed in this country, either as the raw material of our manufactures, or as an article of dail}' use, for the production erf which India is not as well, or better, ad'ipted than any otlier country; while its dense and industrious popula- tion would seem to offer an illimitable demand for our mauiifactures. Nor are there opposed to these natural and flattering elements of commerce any fiscal restrictions to counteract their beneficial results. Indian produce has long entered into consumption in the home markets on the most favorable terms; while, in the introduction of British manufactures into India, a very moderate duty is imposed. Yet, notv/ithstanchng all these advantages, it in a notorious fact, deducible alike from the tcndcnct/ which the srcp- plij of some of the most important articles of Indiaji prodicce show to fall off, and from, the stagnant, or rather decLirting, state of the export of our manufactures to those mar- kets— and, perhaps, still more so, from the extremely unprofitable and unsatisfactory result which has attended, both the export and import trade with India for some time past — that there exist some great and serious impediments to the realization of the just and fair hopes entertained tuith regard to our Indian trade. — Economist. What is that impediment ? That it exists is unquestionable. It may be found by studying Adam Smith, who taught that the way to improve agricul- ture, to increase the power of production, and to increase the value of labor., was to permit the artisan to go to the food, that he might there, while making himself a customer to the farmer, employ himself in the Avork of converting- other raw materials into the forms that fitted them for cheap transportation to foreign markets, building up a large foreign commerce ttjyon the basis of a vast domestic one, and thus constructing, as we have said, a true pyramid. The whole tendency of the British system in India has been to destroy the manufactures of that country, and to compel tkQ poor Hindoos to make their exchanges in England, by virtue of the system which they call " free trade ;" and the result is shown in the following passage, given in a late number of the North American, Review, from a recent correspondence between the Gov- ernor General and the Company, on the subject of the Dacca weavers : — Some years ago, the East India Company annually received of the produce of the looms of India to the amount of sbi million to eight miUiou pieces of cotton goods. The demand gradually fell, and has now ceased altogether. European skill and ma- chinery have superseded th.c produce of India. Cotton piece-goods, for ages tlie staple manufacture of India, seem for ever lost ; and the present suffering to numerous classes in India is scarcely to be pmrallclcd in the history of commerce. We have here precisely the same residts that have, among ourseh-es, followed close upon the heels of every measure tending to diminish the jwwer of the planters and farmers of the country to draw to their sides the men who would cat their food while engaged in converting the raw products of the earth into the forms fitting them for cheap transportation to distant countries. Throughout his work, Dr. Smith showed himself to be fully acquainted with the fact, that the man who desires to sell his labor or its products, iniist pay the 132 ■ TRANSPORTATION cost of going to market ; and lie failed not to see that the tendency of the wholo British system was to increase the labor of transportation, and thus to impose on the people of the world an immense amonnt of taxation for the mainte- nance of the system which he denounced as being " fit only for a nation of shopkeepers," but which has yet been maintained, even to the present hour. To what extent it is a tax upon the labor and capital of the Avorld, we pro- pose now to inquire. The first or all the taxes to be paid by labor is that of trans- portation. It takes precedence even of the claims of government, for the man who has labor to sell or exchange must take it to the place at which it can be sold. If the market be so far distant that it will occupy so large a jiortion of his time in going to and returning from his work as to leave him insufficient to purchase food enough to preserve life, he will perish of starva- tion. If it be somewhat less distant, he may obtain a small amount of food. If brought near, he may be well fed. Still nearer, he may be well fed and poorly clothed. Brought to his door, so as to make a market for all his time, he will be well fed, well clothed, well housed, and he will be able to feed, clothe, lodge, and educate his children. The reader can scarcely f;iil to see that here tho tax of transportation is, and always must be, the first to be paid. The labor must be carried to mar- ket before it can be exchanged, and until the owner of that labor can exchange it for something, even the government can obtain nothing from him. Next, he must have food, but his allowance of that will depend upon the mode in which he and the tax-collector divide the little that is received. In India, the government takes from one half to two thirds of tlie cotton, leaving the bal- ance to the man who has obtained it in exchange for his labor; and the value of the share left to him is about a rupee or two per month,* which is deemed, by English writers, quite sufficient to afford " profit to the cultivator." Having paid the tax on the transportation of his labor, obtained food and paid the government, there may next be something foi- clothing, but for that there can be nothing \intil he has paid those taxes, and fed himself. These things understood, it may not be difficult to understand why it is that the labor of India and Ireland is unproductive of commodities to be exported, and why it is that India alTords so poor a market for the exports of England. The market for the labor of the country is so distant and the cost of transporting it is so great that it is wasted. So is it to an enormous extent in every part of this country. Every English manufacturer understands perfectly well that the tax on. labor, and the inevitable one, is that of transporting it to the place at which it is needed, and therefore it is that whenever the loss is lilcely to fall upon himself, we find him economizing so carefully the cost of transportation. Having contracted for the services of a given number of persons, during a certain number of hours in the day, he first requires them to place themselves on his premises at a given time, there to remain for the number of hours agreed upon. The labor of transporting themselves to his door must be taken out of their time, and not from his. There arrived, every arrangement is made to prevent them from being compelled to pass from one room to another, or even from one spot to another. The raw material is brought close to the hands of those by whom it is to be first prepared, that they may work undisturbed by any necessity for going abroad to seek it. Near to them are placed the hands under whom it is to undergo the second operation. To * The value of a rupee is about half a dollar. THE FIRST TAX TO BE PAID EY LABOR. 133 them follows a tbiixl set, and after them a fom-th, and so on to the end ; and the work is so perfectly organized that the raw material is every where found following the laborei-, and thus the manufacturer obtains the whole amount of the labor for which he had contracted, undiminished by any tax that would otherwise be imposed by the necessity for passing it from one place to another. In every large concern we find similar efforts for economizing the transpor- tation of labor from one place to another. Among the most remarkable is the arrangement of the General Post-office in London. There the news- papers and letters having been received, and having undergone certain pre- liminary processes, it is desirable that the sorters, with their boxes of letters and -papers, should be ti-ansferi'ed to another room, up stairs, an operation that would involve the loss of both time and labor — a tax resulting from the ne- cessity for ti'ansportation. To avoid the payment of this tax, the government has caused to be constructed a " lifting machine" which is thus described : — Within a set of iron bars about three inches asunder, and altogether about ten feet broad, reaching vertically from the i^oor of the lower halls to those suspended above them, there are in strata a series of platforms nine feet six inches broad by four feet deep, resembling the cages in which wild beasts at country fiiirs are usually confined, ■which, by the irresistible power of a steam-engine, arc made on one side to rise twenty- eight feet from the lower to the upper halls, and then passing through a slit in the wall, to descend in like manner on the other side, the whole thus circulating like the buckets of a dredging machine. By this contrivance sorters and letter-carriers, accompanied by their baskets and bags, instead of having to toil up and down a steep stair-case, are quickly and most conveniesitly transferred from one set of halls to the other. The persons who paid for this expensive machine were perfectly aware that it was they who must pay the cost of transporting the labor from the spot at which it was, to that at which it was needed, and that that cost would be a deduction from the value of the labor for wliicli they had con- tracted, and for which they would have to pay. Hence they were willing to invest capital to a large amount for the purpose of saving this trifling tax. We see, here, how hxrge is the price that may be paid for the saving of a few minutes of the labor of a few clerks, every day in the year, and we may now sec how large is the loss to a nation when hours, days, and weeks, if not even years, of much of its population are lost, because of the distance of the market for surplus labor. The farmer and his son are frequently not needed on the farm. Their wagon and horses are frequently unemployed. If the market for labor be close at hand — if the coal miners and the furnace men be at work — they can readily exchange their labor for coal and iron. If they have days, half-clays, or even hours, to spare, they can cut timber for the use of the miners, and thus clear their land while finding employment for the wagon and horses on other days. If the mines and the furnace be closed, their days and hours and those of the wagon and horses are lost, and they remain at honre, idle consumers of food, Avhen they wouLl have prefei'red to be employed, earning fuel and the materials for axes and ploughs. To make a market for their spare labor there must be diversity of employment, and any system that tends to prevent the existence of such a market imposes thereby a tax upon labor compared with which all the exactions of the most oppressive government are trivial. Such, however, is not only the efi'ect, but the object of the system which is built upon the idea of the. territorial division of labor, and which seeks to make of Great Britain the "workshop of the world," and it is directly the opposite of that of Adam Smith, which looked to making- every where a market on the land for the products of the land, iu- 134 TRAN'SPORTATION crea'^ino- the jwwer of association, and producing thus a lucnl division of labor, by aid of which every member of a community should find at his door a demand for all his days, half-days, and hours, leaving to himself to exercise in perfection the power of self-government, by determining how much he would sell, to whom he would sell, and what should be its price. The freedom of man would thus go hand in hand with the growth of the power to ex- change labor for the commodities required by the laborer. It is scarcely possible to conceive of an idea more foreign from the truth than that of the "territorial" division of labor, as now taught by the politico- economical school of England. It is one that could never have been invented, or even entertained, by any man who had studied the workings of society elsewhere than within the walls of his library. When, on a former occasion, we called tlie attention of our readers to the prodigious waste of labor con- sequent upon this separation of the loom and the anvil from the plough, we otiered some views on the subject that we shall here repeat; feeling that it ' cannot be too strongly impressed iipon the people who labor — and we are all laborers — that the tendency of the system of British free trade is to the waste of labor, the diminution in the value of labor, the increase in the power of capital over labor, and the deterioration of the condition of the laborer. Were it asserted that some nations were fitted to be growers of wheat and others grinders of it, or that some were fitted for cutting down trees and others for sawing them into lumber, it would be regarded as the height of absurdity, yet it would not be more absurd than that which is daily asserted in regard to the conversion of cotton into cloth, and imj)licitly believed by tens of thousands even of our countrymen. The loom is as appropriate and necessary an aid to the labors of the planter as is the grist-mill to those of the farmer. The furnace is as necessary and as appropriate an aid to the labors of both planter and farmer as is the saw-mill, and those who are compelled to dispense with the proximity of the producer of iron, labor to as much dis- advantage as do those who are unable to obtain the aid of the saw-mill and the miller. The loom and the anvil are, like the plough and the harrow, but small machines, natui-ally attracted by the great machine, the earth, and when so attracted all work together in harmony, and men become rich, and pros- perous, and happy. When, on the contrary, from any disturbing cause, the attraction is in the opposite direction, and the small machines are enabled to compel the products of the great machine to follow them, the land invariably becomes poor, and men become poor and miserable, as is the case with Ireland. To those who doubt the extent of the loss resulting from this unnatural division of labor, we recommend a visit to any farm at a distance of thiily or forty miles from a furnace or a factory, that they may theie, on the ground, satisfy themselves of the foct. They will there see days perpetually wasted for want of means of occupation — and other days on the road carrying to market small amounts of produce — and general listlessness resulting from the Avant of stimulus to activity, on the part of the men, while children, male and female, are totally unemployed, and the schoolmaster remains abroad for want of means to pay him when at home. As a general rule, our farmers attach scarcely afiy value to time. They go to a distant market in preference to selling at a nearer one, when the difiei'encc of price to be obtained upon their few pounds of butter, or V)askets of vegetiiblcs, appears utterly insignificant compared with the loss of time and labor, and tlicy do this because labor is to 8o great an extent totally valueless. Lot the inquirer look to these things for himself and let him then add the enormous proportion of the labor that is THE FIRST TAX TO BE PAID BY LABOR. 135 misemployed in badly cultivating large surfaces instead of small ones — in keeping up fences and roads entirely disproportioned to the product of the laud — and finally let him add the waste of intellect from the want of proper instruction and tVequent communication with their neighbor men — and then Jet him determine if the loss is not Jive times over as great as would pay for all the cloth and iron — raw material included — consumed upon the tarm. Place the mill there, and aH this is saved. The former and his horses and wagon are empkyed in hauling stone and timber for the mill and for houses, and his children find employment in the mill, or in the production of things that<;an be used by those who work in the mill, and all their extra earnings may go for cloth and ii'on,/or food ihey had heforc. We say all, for with the mill ■coma improved roads, and the tacility of sending to market the many things for whsch a market on the laiid cannot as yet be made. The mill aod furnace, and the coal mine, are saving-funds, in which the people of the neighborhood deposit the labor and the things which otherwise wowld be waste, and wliere these depositories exist, farm.ers and planters be- come rich. Where they do not, they remain poor. To those who desire to und^i-stand the wondertul efiect of the daily deposit of small quantities of labor, we recommend au examination of the saving-fund system of Europe and this countiy. Thej' will there see how much can be accumulated from small savings when a safe place of deposit is offered, and thence can foiin a judgment of how much is liable to be wasted for want of such institutions. The p)eople of New England have saving-funds in which they deposit what wocald be otherwise the waste labor of themselves, their horses and wagons, their sons and their daughtei's, and much of the produce that would otherwise be wasted, making by the very act a market on tlie land for the products of the land, and thus are enabled to save the manure, and they grow lich because of these economies. The people of other States waste laboi-, and water-power, and produce of various kinds, and then they destroy their timber for want of a laiarket for it, and they waste their manure, and thus it is that th«y remain poor beca^ise of this extravagance. One cent per day for each person of the nation is almost eighty millions of dollars in a year. Is there not wasted, for want of a demand for it, labor to quintuple that sum per h(^d ? If so, the amexint is four hundred millions of dollars, or forty times the ]>rice — raw material included — of all the cotton cloths we can atlbid to buy from abroad. Were all this saved, it Avould make a market for four hundred millions of dollars of cottons and woollens, of linens, iron, hardware, agiicultural imple- ments, coal, and all of the thousand other thini;;s required for the comfort and enjoyment of hfe. We say four hundred millions of those things, for fuod they had before, and as they are all consumers to the whole extent of their production, they must expend almost the whole extra production in other things tiian food. To the extent of these four hundred millions they would be customers to the land and its owner, for the earth is the sole producer. The increase in the productiveness and consequent value of labor, resulting from bringing to the door of die labortr a maiket for the commodity he has to sell, is so well exhibited in the following account of the efi'ects resulting from the building of cotton mills in South Carolina, that we are disposed to invite to .it the attention of our readers, although it has once before been placed before them : — The girk of various ages, who are employed at the spindles, had, for the most part, a sallow, sickly couiplexion, iind in many of Uieir feces I remarked that look of miuuHed distrust and iejectiou which often accoiupauies Llie condition of exti-eme, hopeless po\erty 13G TRANSPORTATION "These poor girls," said one of our party, "think themselves extremely fortunate to be employed hero, auJ accept work gladly. Tiiey come from the most barren parts of Carolina and Georgia, where their famihes live wretchedly, for hitherto there has been uo manual occupation provided for them, from which they do not shrink as disgraceful, oi: account of its being the occupation of slaves. In these factories, negroes are not em- ployed as operatives, and this gives the calling of the factory girl a certain dignity. You woukl be surprised to see the change which a short tune effects in these poor people. They come bare-footed, dirty, and in rags ; they are scoured, put into sJioes and stockingsi, set at work, and sent regularly to Sundaj'-school, where they are taught what none of them have been taught before — to read and write. In a short time they become expert at their work ; they lose their sullen shyness, and their physiognomy becomes compara- tively open and cheerful. Their families are relieved from the temptations to theft, and other shameful courses which accompany the condition of poverty without occupation." The Avriter adds that "at Graniteville, in South CaroUua, about ten miles from the Savannah river, a little manufacturing village has lately been built up, where the fauuliesof the cracX-Trs, as they are called, rechiimed from then- idle lives in the woods, ai-e settled, and white labor only is employed. The enterprise is said to be iu a most pros- perous condition." These poor people liad always had labor to sell, btit the market for it was so far distaut that the amoitnt of labor wasted in reaching the market would have left them none to sell. The cost of transportation was therefore more than the value of the thing to be transported, and therefore it was that it was wasted ; that is to say, the tax imposed by reason of the distance from mar- ket was equal to the whole value of the thing itself. To relieve the laborer from the payment of taxes so enormous, there must be diversification of employment ; that is, men must be enabled to combine their exertions for the impruvement of their common condition. Every act of association is an act of trade. The object of the American system of pro- tection is that of enabling men to associate, and therefore to increJise trade. Briti.sh free trade seeks to separate the loom and the anvil from the plough and the harrow, to diminish the power of association, and therefore to diminish the power to trade. The power to trade and the freedom of trade liave in- variably grown under full and complete protection. The poor people of South Carolina above described were unable to trade off their labor because of its distance from a market. The market was biought near to them, and trade in labor began. They were enabled to associate their efforts with those of the capitalist. That association may take place, and that it may increase, there must be increased density of population. AVith increase of })Opulation comes division of the land, which cejtses to be held in hirge plantations or overgrown estates. So said Adam Smith ; but the modern English school teaches the reverse, and insists that large farms, cultivated by hired laborers, are more productive than small ones, ctUtivated by men who work for them- selves ; and hence it is that estates are being to so great an extent " improved," by levelling the houses, and expelling occupants whose ancestors have, in many cases, tilled the same land almost from the date of the Conquest. Large farms involve heavy taxes on the ti-ansport of labor, and these are invariably paid liy the laborer himself. He must be on the ground at a fixed hour, and if he live at the distance of a mile, or of two, three, or four miles, he must take from his own tune as much as is required to do the work of transporting himself to and from the place at which he can exchange labor for food. Had he a little piece of land of his own, the labor thus wasted ou the road would be more than would suffice for its cultivation. That, however, is not all. Ills earnings are now spent in the ale-house, for he has no place of his owa upon which to expend his labor. If it rains he has nothing to do; whereas, had he a lot of his own, ho would employ his time upon it, uotwith- THE FIRST TAX TO BE PAID BY LABOR. 137 standing the rain. The system of large farms thus ijiiposes a tax on labor that the laborer himself must pay, and that far, very far exceeds all that is imposed upon him by the government ; yet it is the system of the modern English politico-economical school, which teaches free trade while imposing upon the laborer, at home and abroad, a system of taxes heavier than the world has ever yet seen. The subject has recently occupied much attention in England, and the fol- lowing remarks upon it are recommended to the reader's attention : — England, as Ve have seen, was once a country of landholders, and althoiigk the con- nection of the great body of agricultural laborers with the soil has long been severed, there are still some districts in which the laborers have always been occupiers of land, and others in which the practice of grmiting them allotments has of late been revived. In many parishes of Rutland and Lincohishire, especially, the cottagers have never been dispossessed of their little teuements. What has been tlie consequence ? Have theii' fields been divided into minute patches by never-ceasing partition i Has population become excessive, or has pauperism extended more rapidly than elsewhere ? On the contrary, the peasantry of these counties stand out in most pleasing relief from themelan- choly picture which must be drawn of the generality of their brethren. So cmfortable, contented, and Avell-conducted a race can scarcely be found in any part of the kingdom. The quantity of land occupied by a femily is, in general, as large as that of its predeces- sors two centuries ago, and enables it to keep a cow or two, as well as pigs and poultry, and sometimes a few sheep. 7'he paupers, instead of being extraordinarily numerous, were maintained by a poor's-rate of nine pence in the pound, at a time when in some of the southern counties, where the laborers had nothing beside their wages, the poor-rates absorbed more than half the rent. So far, indeed, is " the allotment system" from en- couraging the growth of pauperism, that its abolition has invariably been followed by a great increase of poor's-rates. There are instances on record of parishes in which, until the cottagers were deprived of their plots of laud, it was scarcely po-sible to tiad any- one who would deign to accept parochial relief, in order to protect his birth-place from the obligation of contributing to the support of the poor of neighboring villages. One of these pari.esides turnips and cabbages enough to pay his reut. . . . The average profit derived from cottage allot- ments is at the rate of £20 per acre ; and an instanse has occurred of a man growing a crop worth £5 on the eighth part of an acre of very indifferent land. . . . These results are owing, in a groat measuire, to the unremitting industry and attention of the culti- vators. . . . The enltivation costs absolutely nothing. It" does not draw the laborer fiom work for which he is paid, nor does it even cause him to tire himself before he sets about his employer's business. It is performed partly by his wife and children, who would otherwise be idle, and partly by himself, but only in the evening when his task is done, or on whole days, not exceeding two or three in the year, when he is either not wanted for his master's work, or gets leave to stay at hom'i.—lltornton on Over-Population, Adam Smith looked to the freedom of trade in land and labor, the great instruments of production. His successors limit their ideas of free trade to the mere products of land and labor. It is clear that there can be no freedom of trade in labor where there is no market for it, as was the case among the 138 TRANSPORTATION poor people of South Carolina above referred to. Equally clear is it tliat there can be none where the laborer is obliged to labor on another's farm, and can find no market for his own spare hours and half hours, or the da^^s of liis wife and children. In land, there can be no freedom of trade where it is locked up by settle- ments and entails; and this is the system which gives us large tarms culti- vated by hired laborers. If our readers will now examine for themselves the amount of tax upon the labor of the people of England, that results from the fact that there is no market for it at h^iid, and that it will not bear transporta- tion to a distance, they will have little difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that it is far greater than the amount paid to the government. Nevertheless, the modern English school advocates this system, which tends to the diminu- tion of association, and consequently to the diminution in the power to trade; and it does so in the name of freedom of trade I The s«bject of the division of land iias rcx^ently occupied much of the at- tention of many of the men of Great Britain wlio are unable to find in her modern j>olitical economy any solution of the difficulties which now present themselves on every side, and which are the necessary result of her mainte- nance of the system denounced by Adam Smith. Two of them, Mr. Laing, well known by his interesting travels in Norway and Sweden, and Mr. Kay, of Cambridge, have just given to the Avorld their observations on the effects of th-e division of land in continental countries, aw abstract of which is thus given ill one of the journals of the day: — These two travellers perfectly agree in the declaration that ciuring the last thirty or forty years the inequality of social condition arnonif men — the deterioratioii toward two ijreat classes of very rich and very poor — has made very little progress m the continen- tal states Trith which they are familiar. They affirm that a class of absolute paupers ra any degree formidable from its nv.mbers lias yet to be created in those states. They represent is the most emphatic language the imm<>nse superioiity in education, manners, conduct, and the supply of the ordinary wants of a civilized being, of the German, Swiss, Dutth, Belgi.ui and French ])easantry over the peasantry aod poorer classes, not ■only of Ireland, but also of England and Scotlaiid. This is tho gorls of work ; reaping, and mowing, and threshing with the men. They were without shoes and stockings, clad in a simjile, dark-blue petticoat ; a body of the same, leaving the white chemise sleeves as a pleasing contrast ; and their hair, in some inst:uices, turned up under their little black or white caps; in others hanging wild and sunburnt on their shoulders. The women, old and young, work as hard as the men, at all kinds of work, and yet. with right guou-will, for they work for themselves. They often take their dmners with them to the fields, frequently giving the lesst'r children a piece of bread each, and locking them up in their cottages till they return. This would be thought a hard life in Eng- land ; but hard as it is, it is better than the degradation of agricultural laborers, in a dear country like England, with six or eight shillings a week, and no cow, no pig, no Iruit for the market, no house, garden, or field of their own; but, on the contrary, con- stant anxiety, the fear of a master on whom they are constantly dependent, and the des- olate prospect of ending their days in a union work-house. Each German has his house, his orchard, his road-side trees, so laden with fruit, that if he did not carefully prop up, and tie togetiier, and in many places hold the boughs together with wooden clamps, they would be torn asunder by their own weight. He has his coin-plot, his pk)t for mangel-wurzel or hay, for potatoes, for hemp, etc. He is his own master, and he therefore, and every branch of his family, have the strongest mo- tives for constant exertion. You see the effect of this in his industry and his economy. In this country tlie same effect is, to a considerable extent, produced — greatest in the north, and gradually diminishing as we pass south and west. Every man is working for himself, and anxious to have his own house and lot, or farm, or shop. Those who have houses and lots, and farms and shops, have in them their own little savings' banks, in which they deposit all their spare hours, and half hours, their spare dollars and half dollars ; and thus there is made, almost insensibly, an addition to the wealth of the community, the amount of which, could it be ascertained, would be deemed incredible. Those who have not yet houses and lots, or farms, or shops, have at hand the little factory, or the little bank, owned in shares — the savings' bank of the neighborhood — in which they make their deposits, there to remain until they shall have enough to buy the house or the farm, or to set up the shop. AVealth thus accumulates rapidly, and produces a constant demand for labor. Every one feels tliat he can " go ahead " if he will^ and every body, therefore, does; the necessary consequences of which is, that those who are "ahead" must work to keep so. If they pause but for a moment they are left behind; and this is equally true, intellectually and physically. Every man ivill edu- cate h's children, and ivill have his own newspaper, and will have portraits, whether in oil or daguerreotype, of his family, and 'will invent his own ma- chine ; and the rich must study books, and newspapers, and pictures, and machiner}-, if they would maintiiin their position in the world. To this state of things is due the vast productive power of the Union, far exceeding that of the twenty-eight millions composing the population of Great Britain and Ireland, and not to the abundance of land, upon the poor soils of which they have been forced to scatter themselves ; expending upon them, and upon distant roads and canals, labor that would have been thrice more productive if employed upon the river bottoms of the older States, ujjon the marl and the limestone, the coal and the iron ; all of which would long since have been done, could they have concentrated themselves as they would nat- urally have desired to do. The great commodity in which to trade is labor. It is the thing with which all other c.mmodities are purchased, and the slightest interference tending to 140 TRANSPORTATIOX THE FIRST TAX TO BE PAID BY LABOR. prevent the existence of that freedom of trade therein which shall enable men to dispose to advantage of even minute portions of it, is of more serious importance than a heavy tax upon any commodity whatsoever, not even ex- cept! ni; food. The nearer the market for labor the more perfect is the power to exchange it, and the higher is its price. The more distant the market, the less must be the demand, the more of it must be wasted, and the less must be the power to obtain those necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of life for which men are willing to give it in exchange. The tendency of the sys- tem, of Adam Smith was towards bringing the market to the door of the laborer, by enabling him to combine his etforts with those of his neighbor men. The tendency of the modern system of British free trade is to remove the market from the laborer, and to such a distance as shall forbid his combi- nation with other men. The one tended to relieve the laborer from any tax on the transportation of his commodity to market. The perfection of the other would be to raise the tax to its greatest height by sending the laborer to the greatest distance in quest of the richest soils — the swamps and river bottoms — upon which, according to Mr. Eicardo, the poor emigrant must commence the work of cultivation. British free trade is based upon keeping the plough and the loom at the greatest distance from each other, that the employment of ships and wagons may be increased ; while that American system which looks to the combination of action between the man who fol- lows the plough and him that drives the shuttle, and that sees therein the true mode of raising the value of land and of elevating the condition of the laborer, seeks to dispense with the employment of ships and wagons, sailors and wag- oners, thereby increasing the power of production and facilitating the approach of licrfect freedom of trade. The one tends to inci^ease the necessity for competing with the labor of the people of distant lands — with the people who have for sale that which is called cheap labor, and who are fed with the pro- ducts of what is called cheap land. The other tends to increase the power of competition and to dinnnish the necessity for it, and therefore it is that the value of labor and land has invariably increased under the American system, and as invariably diminished with every tendency towards the adop- tion of the British colonial one. It is for the farmers and planters of the Union to determine if they will continue to be colonists in fact, subject to the same system that lias destroyed the value of labor and land in Ireland and India ; or if they will carry into full effect that American System which, imperfectly as it has Ijeen adoj^ted, has given value to the labor and land of the Union, and would in less than ten years establish so completely the power of associ- ation as to relieve us from all necessity for interference with trade as a means of raising revenue, and would double the productiveness of labor, doubling therewith the value of both labor and land, to the infinite advantage of both land-owner and laborer. The first thing to he 2Kdd by labor and land is transportation, and whatever tends to diminish the necessity for transportation tends to increase the 2>ower of those who desire to sell their labor or the pro- ducts of their land. Coal- Ashes. — T be;^ to offer, for the information of " J. B. II.," the result of an appliea- tion, on a small .scale, of coal-ashes on grass land. Part of a )>ieco of wet, heavy hind was dre.sscd witJi them ; tlie result was most satisfactory. It could be easily seen at a con- siderable distance how far they had been applied ; and the crop was quite as heavy as it could have been expected, had good niaiuu-e been a])j)lied. I imagine they act not directly as a majiure, but, like charcoal, they are instrumental in absorbing ammonia and other gases, which plants are known to feetl rapi ily on, and to yield it to the ])lantfl, without giving off any of theii" own substaiKie, which remains unchanged for a series of year.s. — IC. Wakefield. THE EVILS OF DISPERSION. 141 THE EVILS OF DISPERSION. In our last we sliowed the enormous extent of loss resulting from the rapid dispersion of men who, in the effort to cultivate the rich soils of the flats and river-bottoms of the West, find their crops destroyed and their lands covered with sand, because of the deficiency of the means of preservation against inundation, to acquire which requires that combination of action wliich can take place only where men are enabled to live together, making a market on the land for all the products of the land. We have now to record the existence of another species of evil, more univer- sal and more destructive, that of a deficiency of the water needed by the farmer and planter, producing drought, and followed by a destruction of the crops of both. The Concordia (Louisiana) Tntell'tgencer of the 2Cth instant, in the course of an article on the prospects of the cotton crop, says: "In the parishes of Concordia, Tensas and Madison, great uncertainty and doubt hang over the amount which will be produced. The season is two weeks later tlian ordinary seasons ; and to make even an average crop in these three parishes, we must have one of the most remarkably favorable autumns ever known." The Prairie Star, published at Marksville, Avoyelles parish, says: "All the informa- tion that we have been able to obtain from various sources, appears to be the prevailing opinion of t!ie most intelligent planters that the crop will be short. There will not be a sufliciency of corn produced in the parish for breadstuffs ; tiie third of a cotton cropwiU be made, no doubt. The cane crops suffer very much for want of rain, as well as all kinds of vegetables." The IlarriHonhurg Advocate of the 24th instant says : " We saw a few days ago a limb of the cotton plant pulled from a stalk in the field of the Rev. T. A. Routman, in the pine hills, about twelve inches long, containing se^en joints and fifteen forms, all prom- ising a perfect yield, besides numerous germs at the end. Can any of your swamp plantations beat that ?" The Brandon (Miss.) Eeprthlican of the 2.jd instant, in speaking of the dry weather, remarks : " In some sections the corn crops are literally ruined, gardens have suffered extremely, and cotton is to some extent injured." Such has been, and such must ever be, the case, where men are engaged in exhausting the land, and are perpetually flying from each other to find new soils to be again exhausted, as is the case throughout this country; and the conse- quence is, that the loss to the farmers and planters of the Union from drought is twice greater than the value of all the cloth and the iron that they are enabled to consume. The object of the tariff of 1842 was that of enabling men to live together, combining their efl:brts for all useful purposes, the ditch- ing and draining of their lands, their preservation against floods, and their preservation against drought by means of irrigation. Desirous to call the attention of our readei's to the advantages resulting from this latter mode of rendering available the vast bodies of water by whicli this country is every where traversed, we lay before them the following remarks upon the irriga- tion and the planting of Lombardy, persuaded that they will agree with us that rivers were made to aid in the 2)roductton of food and the raw materials of clothing, as well as in the transportation of those products ; and that they will be made so to do whenever the policy of the country can be directed towards efficient protectmi as the true and only mode of reaching perfect freedom of trade : — American agriculture has just two arts to learn from Lombardy — Irrigation and Tree- planting. Nearly all our great intervales might be irrigated immensely to the profit of their cultivators. Even where the vicinity of mountaiua or other high grounds did not 142 THE EVILS OF DISPERSIOW. afford the facility here taken advantage of, I am confident that many plains as well as valleys might be piutitably irrigated by lilting water to the requisite height and thence distributing it through little canals or ditches as here. Where a head of water may be obtained to supply the requisite power, the cost need not be considerable after the first outlay ; but, even though steam power should be requisite, in connection with the admi- i-able pumping machinery of our day, irrigation -would pay liberally in thousands of cases-. Such easily parched levels as th'ose ©f New-Jersey and Long Island would yield at least double their present product if thoroughly irrigated from the turbiJ streams arxl marshy ponds in their vichiity. Water itself is of course es.-ential to the growth of every plant, but the benefits of irrigation reach far beyond this. Of the fertilizing sul>ssances so laboriously and necessarily applied to cultivating lands, at least three times a-3 great a proportion is carried off in running water as is absorbed and exhausted by the crops grown by their aid; so that if irrigation simply returned to the land as much fertility as the rains carry off, it would, with decent husbaixlry, inci'ease in utility from yea? to year. The valley of the Nile i-i one example among many of what irrigation, especially from rivers at their highest stage, will do for the soil, in defiance of the most ignorant, impro- vident and unskilful cultivation. Such streams as the Raritan, the Passaic, and most of the New- Jersey rivers, annually squander upon the ocean an amount of fertilizing mat- ter ai (equate to the comfortable subsistence of thousand*. By calculation, a-^sociation, science, labor, most of this may be saved. One hundred thousand of the poor immigrants annually arriving on our shores ought to be employed for years in New-Jersey alone, in the construction of dams, canals, Jrc, adequate to the complete in'igatioa of all the level or moderately sloped lands in that State. Farms are cheaper there today than in Iowa for purchasers who can pay for and know how to use them. Long Island can be ren- dered eminently fertile and productiTe by systematic and thorough irrigation ; otherwise I doubt that it ever wdl be. Much of Lombardy slopes very considerably toward the Po, so that the water in the larger or distributing canals is often used to ran mills an(} supply other mechanical power. It might be used also for manufacturing, if manufactures existed here, and nearly every farmer might have a horse-power or so at command for domestic usc^ if he chose. We passed yesterday the completely dry beds of what seemed to be small rivers, their water having been entirely drawn away into the irrigating canals on either side, while on the other bank there were grist-mills busily at work, and bad been for hundreds of years, grinding by water-power where no stream naturally existed. If I mistake not, there ai'o many swch in this city, and in nearly all the cities and villages of Lombardy. If our farmers would only investigate this matter of irrigation as thoroughly as its importance deserves, they would find that tbey have neglected mines of wealth all around them more extensive and far more reliable than those of California. One man alone may not always be able to irrigate his farm, except at too great a cost ; but let the subject be commended to general attention, and the expense would be vastly diminished. Ten thousand farms together, embracing a whole valley, may often be irrigated for less (haii the cost of supplying a hundred of them separately. I trust our agricultural papers will agitate this improvement. A.S to Tree-planting, there can be no excuse for neglecting it, for no man needs his neighbor's co-operation to render it economical or efi'ective. We in America have been recklessly destroying trees quite long enough; it is high time that we began systematic- ally to reproduce them. There is scarcely a farm of fifty acres or over in any but the very newest States that might not be increased in value ^1,000 by §100 judiciously ex- pended in tree-planting, and a little care to protect the young trees from premature de- struction. All road-sides, steep hill-sides, ravines and rocky places should be planted with oak, hickory, chestnut, pine, locust, Ac, at once; and many a farm would, after a few years, yield filOO worth of timber annually, without extracting $10 from the crops otherwise depended on. By planting locust, or some other fiist-growing tree alternately with oak, hickory, Ac, the former would be ready for use or sale by the time the latter needed the whole ground. Utility, beauty, comfort, profit, all combine to urge immedi- ate and extensive tree-planting ; shall it not be commenced ? Here in Lombardy there is absolutely no farm, however small, without its bowers of mulberry, poplar, walnut, cherry, &c., overshatlowing its canals, brooks, roads, ttc, and traversing its fields in all directions. The vine is very generally trained on a small tree, like one of our plum or small cherry trees, so that, viewed at a distance or a point near the ground, the country would seem one vast forest, with an undergrowth mainly of wheat and Indian corn. Potatoes, barley, rye, Ac, are grown, but none of them exten- sively, nor is much of the soil devoted to grass. There are no forests, properly so called, but a few rocky hill-sides, which occur at intervals, mainly about half M^ay from Venice BRITISH CEXSUS AND BEITISH FREE TRADE. 143 to Milan, are covered with shrubbery -wliicb would probably grow to trees if perrrsitted. Wheat and all sutnmer grains are very good ; so is the grass ; so the Indian corn will be, where it is not prevented by the vicious crowding of the plants and sugar-loaf hoeing of vhich I have frequently spoken. I judge that Italy altogetlier, with an enornioos area planted, will realize less than half the yield she would have from the same acres with judicious cultivntion. With potatoes, nearly the same mistake is made, bat the area is uot one tenth that of corn, and the blunder "far less vital. — Tribune. BRITISH CENSUS AND BRITISH FREE TRADE. The Briti.=h census, whkh has just been completed, brings to light the striking' fact that the entire increase for the last ten years in the population of Englant!, Scotland, Wahs, Ireland, ai)d the islands in the British Se.as, is but 640,220. This moreover is subject to a large deduction, from the fact that the census of 1851 includes the seamen in the naval and merchant service and persons ou board of vessels in the ports, all of whom were omitted in the enumeratioti of 1841. A proper reduction on this account would exhibit the truth that Great Britain has arrived at the period when her popula- tion is already stationary, and is likely hereafter to retrograde. If she persists in the policy that no-sr governs her councils, diminution and decline ss the inevitable law of her luture. Withholding for the moment all retlection on that policy, it may help us to fix the facts in miixl, if we remember that during the same period the State of New-York h^s increased in population 676,174 ; with an aggregate of less than two millions and a lialf of i^eople in 1840, she has won ai>d raised and kept a larger increase than the Im- perial Islands with thiir twenty-seven millions of subjects. The great decrease is in Ireland, which, from a population of 8,175,124 in 1841, hag fallen to 6,515,t94 in 1851, being 1,659,330 less than it was ten ye^irs ago. The Irish in Ireland are absolutely fewer than they were in 1821. In 1841 the number of houses in Ireland was 1,384,360 : it is now (or raither was in March, for twenty or thirty thousand have since been destroyed) 1,115,007. More than two hundred and sixty-nine thousand roof-trees have been "levelled" — this is the technical term for pulling down a cabin over the beads of its women -and children — and their inhabitants have been driven into the poor-houses — such of them as did not die of hunger and fever, clinging in des- perate love or patient despair to their ruined hearths — to be thence redeenjed by the savings of their relatives in this country, and brought over the blue water ia seaach of an asylum against English Free Trade. For all this is the result of Ireland's subjection to that godless system of abominations ■which England calls Free Trade — a system which, infernal as it is in its application to Ireland, is tender-hearted and charitable there, in comparison with its manifestations in India — which only starves and slaughters an Irish mother and her children now and then, where it sweeps ofl* the poor Hindoos by the thousand. Thus much of mercy Ire- land has got from her proximity to her loving sister Isle. England has condemned h* to expend her entire energies in raising potatoes to feed her own people, and wheat and the finer grains to feed the English — to ferry across a narrow channel food Avhich was thrown into the Thames by English speculators to prevent a glut in their market, while Irishmen were perishing by famine for want of even " lumpers" — potatoes, whose great recommendation is that they are indigestible, "stay longer in the stomach and keep the hunger off." England has sternly restricted Ireland to agricultural production in order that she might continue the great workshop of the world, ai>d she has thus compelled her Irish subjects to send away the grain for which they wei-e ready to perioh — to starve in the midst of plenty — to come to England two hundred thousand of them every year, for a little harvest work, from a land in which millions of tillable acres have never been broken up. But England has made her send her products but a little way, and herefore suffer but a little compared with India. England has never, to our recoUec- lon, inflicted upon Ireland so bold and wicked a wrong, as that which levied a duty of 10 per cent, upon the cotton manufactures of India — the products of the household industry of the simple Hindoos— to protect the looms of Manchester, while she per- mitted a duty of but three and a half per cent, to be levied in India, for the purpose of revenue, on the cotton fabrics of Lancashii j. This was to compel the Hindoo to send his raw cotton to England to be spun, and bring it back again to wear, instead of sjain- ning it himself under his own tent. This was done in the name of Free Trade, and done thoroughly. 144 BEFORE AND AFTER. The manufacture of cutton ^ras utterly uprooted from the soil -where it first sprung into being. The Hindoo was forced to send liis raw cotUtn to Manchester. It cost some millions of lives, cut off by disease and famine ; it covered the sites of once populous cities with j unfile, and made the habitations of man a lair for tigers. It destroyed finally the growth of cotton as well as its manufacture, and left the Hindoo more wretched than ever. Tiie only retiun England has ever made to him is to encourage him to raise poppies and distil opium from them, which she compels the Chinese to buy and to stupefy himself into life-in-death, by tlie persuasive bayonet and the convinc- ing bombshell. These at the last resort, and wherever it will answer, are her agents in giving Free Trade to those who are slow of conviction. The grand object of what England calls Free Trade is to midersell the world ; tlie in- dispensable means, as she thinks, are loiv ivages. When she had accomplished all that could be done by reducing her operatives to the minimum that could keep together an ill-led, ill-clothe(J, ill-lioused body and a savage, uniustrueted soul, by such nutriment as could be raised on British soil, it was found that wages were still too high to enable her to undersell the manufacturing competitors that her greed and rapacity have driven abroad, to introduce her arts and skill in tiie United States, in France, in the ZoUverein States, and in Russia. One step remained. It was found that the wages of agricultur- ists were too liigh. It made their beef and grain too dear for their fellow-subjects to eat with any hope of underselling the human race. With the faith of Dr. Sangrado, in the system of blood-letting and cold water, the free trade doctors insisted that the difficulty was, there had not been enough of bleeding and drenching. The repeal of the Corn Laws followed, that Englishmen might, by feeding on grain raised by still worse paid labor in i'oland and France, and on the shores of the Black Sea, be put on lower wages yet, till the tillers of the soil in Great Britain and Ireland would so come down in tlieir wages, as to enable them to feed their countrymen at I'educed rates. The experiment lias reached tlie beginning of its end. It has driven, year after year, an increasing num- ber of British subjects to seek refuge in a land wliere the maxims of British Free Trade, though adopted by a party, and taught with owlish gravity by theorists, are scouted by tiie native intelligence of a great peop'e who know tliat population is wealth, and that high wages to labor are signs, as they are the sure instruments, of national wealth, happiness and vktue. — Rochester Democrat. BEFORE AND AFTER, But for whom are reserved those eighty thousand square feet of the tables ? What guests are to supj)ly this part of the board ? Oh ! it is the ajf'txtionate parent extending her loving hand to a once obstinate hut now forgiven child. The mother country has appropriated a position to our young confederacy, and that country which Wiis once tacitly forbidden to manufacture even a hob-nail, is now invited to be a prominent guest at the levee of the arts. The idea is ennobhng ; it makes us feel our importance in the scale of nations; it strengthens the cords which bind together the pattern Republic ; it gives energy, and stimulates us to a yet higher state of advancement. See steamer after steamer, propelled by a power which it took a Fulton to harness, bearing from our shores to England those numerous specimens of skill which western ingenuity have either invented or perfected — the products fi the fields, the forests, and the mines of America, in their natural state, or with artistic skill wrought into the vari- ous articles of ornament and use on wliich well-requited labor has devoted its powers. Such were the anticipations that were formed in relation to the last grand speculation of Englnnd, nicknamed " The World's Fair." What have been the results ? The taste, and skill, and ingenuity of our country are derided by all the Eno'lish journals, and the representative of Virginia at the fair — the representative of that State which, more than almost any other, has contributed to maintain the Dritish colonial system — complains that, because coming from a slaveholding State, he is not treated with even common decency, and assures liis friends that the great objects of Britain are those of maintaining a monopoly of manufactures for the world, and annihilating slavery in this cotmtry ; Avhile we see her starving the jjopulatiun of Ireland down to a point lower than that at wliich it stood thirty years since, and doing this for the mainte- nance of her great monopoly. ESSAY ON THE HUSBANDRY OF ENGLAND. 145 PRIZE ESSAY OX THE HUSBANDRY OF THE BEST PORTION OF ENGLAND. There is probably no liberal-minded, intelligent reader who has not wished that he could travel leisurely through the best cultivated portions of England and Scotland, so famed for the excellence of their husbandry. For those who have not the opportunity of doing so, what is the next thing to it ? Why, to 'lear and read the most authentic accounts, to be sure ; and hence we have detarmii/ '=!d to give the following Report, to which was awarded the prize of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, " On the Agriculture of Not- tinghamshire," where may be seen the highest exhibitions of skill, the finest specimens of improved cultivation. We are not unmindful of the old objection, that the lessons it teaches are not applicable, on account of diftcrence of climate, cost of labor, and other circumstances ; but let us look at the case. Is it not, even as a matter of curiosity, worth while to be made familiar with that district, which in all England has undergone in the last half century the greatest change for the better ? The inclosures are divided by quickset hedges, and are for the mo?t part large, though varying in that respect, for the sake of con venieuce, with the size of the farms, -which are usually from three hundred to five hundred acres each : some few are, however, consid- erably larger, although not many exceed one thousand acres. The great proportion ot the land which is annually sown with turnips, imparts to the country at all seasons, and especially so during the winter months, as compared with many counties, a pleasing aspect 'The bright colors of their leaves, with the flocks of sheep spread over them, give to the gently undulated hills, as they succeed each other over all the western part of the county, a cheerful and highly domestic appearance; an appearance, in short, which is characteristic of England, and can be seen in no other country in Europe. But words would be wasted on those who need to be stimulated to the perusal of such essays ; for, after all, we do raise turnips, barley, grasses, wheat, sheep, cattle, hogs, and horses; and of all these this essay treats as con- nected with the husbandry o^ one of the most productive counties of England, and in a manner so ])erspicuous and exact as to have commanded one of the prizes, always offered with great deliberation, (and never easily won,) by a voluntary patriotic association of gentlemen, which is enlightening the art of agriculture ; while in that country, and still more in this, Government is caring only to 2}atronize and eniighien the art of war ! In this number we take all that is material for the American reader, to the end of the first year. In our next, we shall give what relates to the barley, the grass, and finally, the wheat crop, which is the last in what is called " The Norfolk Four-coui-se System," which prevails also in Nottinghamshire ; and in due course we shall give what is said of their various kinds and races of domestic animals. As a matter of interest to American breeders, we may be allowed to men- tion, that it was from Blyth, in this county, that the father of the writer imported, through the late Charles Champion, the first pure Short-horns, Champion, White-rose and Shepherdess, and the first Dishley or new Leices- tei-shire sheep. The cattle were sold to Governor Loyd, 11500 for the three, and the sheep to John Barney, of Delaware, at $100 each. It is to the introduction of the Swede turnip that the improved state of fanning in Nottinghamshire must be mainly referred. This it is which forms the farmer's eheet- VOL. IV. 10. 146 ESSAY ON THE HUSBANDRY OF ENGLAND. anchor during at least four or five months, and those the most trying of the year, for the support of his stock. This invahiable root was, if we are rightly informed, introduced into this county about the commencement of the present century, by the late Colonel Mellish, of Blyth ; and small portions of seed were distributed by him to tlie leading agriculturists of that neigh- borhood ; but as the improved mode of growing turnips in drills was then quite unknown, the success attendant u|jon the first essays of these gentlemen is said to liave been very limited ; neither were the results of their efforts of so much value to the animals for whose sustenance they were provided, as might have been supposed. Besides, no imple- ment for cutting the turnip was at that time thought of; and we have been informed by an eyewitness that the sheep to which they were given not being able, without great difficulty, to eat them — doubtless, in part, from their imperfect growth — they were re- moved from the ground, and pronounced to be, with due respect to Colonel Mellish, a very unsatisfactory article of food to be provided for animals which had not the power to make a meal of them. But as their culture was improved, and machines at length were introduced for slicing them, they obtained that place in the estimation of the farmer which they well deserve, and have ever since held. Indeed, so highly is the Swedish turnip estimated on the light soils, that it forms llie criterion by which to judge of the degree of cultivation upon any farm ; and amply have the farmers of these districts made amends for any deficiencies in their first attempts, by the success which has since crowned their efforts ; for we hesitate not to say that heavier crops can be nowhere seen than in some districts of this county, which, in the recollection of persons now living, were deemed too poor to repay the expenses of cultivation. It would be anticipating our subject to enter at present more fully into the means iiiployed for the att.unment of an object of such primary importance ; we will only observe here that the expenses incurred in the cultivation of this particular crop, impor- tant as it unquestionably is, are not estimated by the mere actual value of that crop, but success attained here is regarded as an earnest of success in each crop throughout the ensuing course. And we couLl not but be struck witli the following fact, in a ride we took through the county in the month of November last, tiiat we found the turnip crop more uniformly good, after a season of drought almost unprecedented, on the western side of the county, than on the eastern and southern sides, although the soils in the former are much more liable to suffer from a dry season than either of the latter; from which we could not but arrive at the conclusion that capital had been more freely ex- depend upon those districts where success had been the greatest, otherwise a superiority would not have been found where it was least to be expected; an expectation founded on a full consideration of the means employed, to which the results must always be cor- respondent. And here it may be very naturally asked, on the assumption that such splendid crops of turnips are produced and aro in time succeeded by those of grain of equal excellency, on a soil by nature so poor. By what means has a change so happy been effected? To such question we would reply, that it will form the subject-matter of this Essay to enter as fully as po-sible into the means so used; and we will only say, in concluding these general remarks, that the first great impetus given to the farming of this county was by the introduction of bones as a manure. It is self-evident that the land which w^as too poor in the first instance to produce any thing useful, could not without extraneous aid jield what was ni'cessary to improve its first condition ; added to whicli, considerable tracts of these soils lay too far removed from any large towns which otherwise might have furnished, at least in some measure, the means necessary for their improvement ; but through the medium of bone-tillage and other light manures, the fiice of this extensive district has been within the present century entirely changed. Bones were originally very cheap, and as their effects were strikingly manifest to all who made use of them, they were, until the increasing demand for them raised con>ider- ably the price, most lavishly used. It was tliought by many that as the quantity used was increased, the effect would follow in the saiiK! ratio ; and considering how little science in its application to agriculture was ihen known, we need feel no surprise at an opinion so erroneous being entertained. At length, Imwever, it became evident to some intelligent minds that they were rifling too fr^'eiy a favorite hobby; and it was asserted that the "lan'd required change." The Duke of I'ortlnnd was one of the first to direct attention to this fact, by publishing the result of ex|)erinients carefully made on his own farm-t, which tended to show that, by repeateilly applying bones to the same soil, the good effects which resulted from their first application were almost or altogether want- ing, owing to its repletion of phosphate of lane. Then it was that the farmer began to ESSAY ON THE HUSBANDRY OF ENGLAND. 147 look out for substitutes, and hence have followed the long list of artificial manures in their various forms. The course of cropping usually adopted in the ■western division of the county is the Norfolk, or four-years' course, namely, 1st year, turnips. 2il year, barley. 3ci year, grass seeds or red clover. 4th year, wheat. FIRST YEAR, TURNIPS. As soon as the wheat crop is removed, the preparation immediately commences for the crop of turnips, by giving the land one, two, or even more orders or workings, as it may be necessary or convenient during the dry weather of autumn. This is now most com- monly done by putting on the scarifier, which is in general use throughout the district ; the land being again crossed by the same, and afterwards worked by lightt^r harrows until the quitch-grass is ready for being got off. It was formerly the custom to burn this on the ground after being raked together ; but it is now more generally, by good farm- ers, carted away and put into a stack, and after remaining there until dry, used as a bottom for the manure in the yards, where it is useful in absorbing the drainage of m-ine. This method of using the quitch-grass has been objected to, but we think without sufficient force, on the ground of its being liable to grow afterwards : to obviate this, it is only necessary to see to its being dry before it is so applied. It was tlie practice of an excellent farmer to apply salt by way of assisting the pro- cess of decay ; and we doubt not that tlie idea is well worthy of the attention of all who desire to make as much manure on their farm as possible, — which certainly will be the object of every farmer who duly estimates its value. If the season is favorabh; for cleaning the fallows, when they receive the last plough- ing before winter, they are not unfrequently so perfectly tilled as to be in a lit slate for the reception of the seed, which on the dry soils of Nottinghamshire is an advantage that can scarcely be too highly estimated, or too much sought after. As the winter raius then succeed, the land requires to be but little disturbed in tlie following spring, but remains cool, and is far more certain of producing a crop of turnips than if exposed by repeated plougliings during the drying months of the spring season. In the wmter months, as the manure is ni.'ule, it is carted out of the yards into the fields where it is intended to be used in the a]5proaching season for the turnip crop. There are various modes of preserving it during the interval which ensues. Tlie one we are inclined to believe the best is, to have it thrown up into hills out of the carts by hand, and not, as is more frequently the case, run upon by the carts, to prevent thereby — what is, after all, an erroneous idea — its overheating. By throwing it liglitly together, the fermentation is equal throughout, and will be found so when it is again disturbed. Instead, however, of allowing the gases to escape by exhalation, we would, by all means, recommend a covering of soil to be thrown upon it, sides as well as top, of not less than six inches deep; by which means tho^e gases are repelled back upon the manure itself, and there fixed, instead of wasting themselves on the " desert air." Manure so treated will require nothing more doing to it until within a fortnight or three weeks of the time of using, when it ought to be turned, and again covered with the s;.me soil. The expense of covering is very trifling, tlie advantage attendant upon it very great. There is no need to cart the soil from a distance, but only to make a trench round the manure, the same as if covering potatoes for the winter. The usual season for sowing the Swede turnip commences the last week in May, or the first in June, and continues till about the 2uth of the latter month. If sown earlier, they are liable, on the dry soils, to mildew ; if later, they frequently do not attain the same size which they otherwise would. Some experienced farmers prefer a rather late season, from the circumstance of the la'e-sown turnips being mostly of better quality than those sown earlier. Presuming on the land being perfectly clean, and free from quitch, the usual method is to throw open drills for the reception of the manure, which is done by a common swing plough, in most general u^e thmuidiout the county, drawn by two horses abreast. The distance between the drills should vary, with the quality of the soil, from 22 to 2Y inches. The better the soil, the wider the drills may be drawn, as the plants will be larger, and consequently requ re more room to expand in. The manure is then carted on by one-horse carts from the hills, as described above, in quan- tity from 10 to 15 loads to the acre, as it happens to be plentiful or the contrary, or as the farmer may wish to reserve it or not for other purposes. Women and boys then 148 ESSAY ON THE HUSBANDRY OF ENGLAND. follow, for the purpose of thoroughly dividing and equally distributing it in the drills. If the manure has been vreW. made in the yards, and afterwards treated in the manner ■\ve have described, it will present a black and oily appearance, retaining considerable heat, and giving cvt ry indication of strength and goodness. The ridges are then imme- diately split by another plough, covering in the manure as quickly as possible, which at this season of the year, when evaporation goes on rapidly, is an object of paramount im- portance. The Northumberland drill now follows upon the newly-made ridges, whilst the mould is fresh and moist, depositing, at one and the same time, although at different depths, the seed and such hand manures as may be used. The quantity of seed sown on the acre ought to be varied according to the state of the soil at the time of sowing, and the general character of the soil. On the liglit soils, if sufficiently moist, every seed may be expected to vegetate, and even then not less than 3 lbs. ought to be sown ; but on the stronger soils, which lie more open, and upon wliicli it is, in consequence, more diflBcult to secure a sufficiency of plants, not less than 4 lbs. should be sown. We are aware that many will consider this an unnecessary quantity; but, supposing the whole to grow, which is seldom the case, it is only requisite to introduce the hoes somewhat sooner. Phuus are much easier thinned from a superabundance tlian sup- plied wlien wanting, particularly on dry soils, where transplanting is attended with un- certainty; and in favor of a large quantity of seed we may cite the Northumbrian practice, which is high authority on the subject. Amongst a great variety of hand manures now in use, the most common are bonea ground either to what is called " dust," or to "half-inch," that is, left in pieces of about that size, and rape-dust mixed with them, which serves to quicken into action their dormant powers. Many substitutes have, however, of late years been made use ofj which we propose to notice briefly afterwards, and will only observe that the dressing supplied for the turnip crop forms a very heavy item in the farmer's annual expenditure. lu 1842, the present Mr. Milward informed us that he spent that year at Babworth, upon 170 acres of turnips, from 50.s. to lOs. an acre, and even more than that sum, for the greater part of his crop was Swede turnips, which received half-a-ton of rape-dust to the acre, at a cost of ,£7 ^ts. a ton, tlie price current for the year. The turnips were, however, good in proportion, insomuch that, the great breadtli crmsidered, and the quality of the soil upon which tlicy were grown, they were the best we have ever seen. I have heard Mr. Milward observe that he has spent upon the same farm, consisting of about 550 acres of arable land, upwards of £600 in linseed-cake in one year; and, supposing the half of this cake to have been consumed in the yards by beasts, and the manure ap- plied to the turnip crop, the two items form together a very heavy outlay pf capital. But it may be urged that the case here adduced is an extreme case, and a solitary one, and that the farming of an individual forms no criterion wliereby to judge of a district. But to such a remark we would rejoin, that it is by no means a solitary case ; that, on the contrary, there are many tenant-farmers in the same neighborhood who are farming with equal spirit; and that such a degree of cultivation amongst the sand-land farmers forms the rule rather than the exception. As soon as the young plants are large enough to admit the horse-hoe, no time is lost in stirring the ground tffectually between the drills, as it is found that their growth is thereby greatly accelerated. They will now soon be ready for striking with tlie com- mon hoe acro."i, they are not to.be excelled for grum- bling and fault tiiidiiig ; biit then, wdUiig they are to conf)rm to the wi.^lies of their rulers, and Ueno<> the farmer is generally found ready to perform his part truly and well in tiie national drama. Chopped straw, in some of its combinations, is now beginning to be found the best and most economical food that can be used for the cattle on a farm, and by wiiich the largest number of animals may be kept on a given quantity of food. It is greatly to be wondered at that the choppini^ and cooking system does not make more headw.ay than lit really does, when we consider tiie advantages to be derived from it. But many farmers are apt to look on any thing modt-rn with an air of dis rust, and are afraiii to try the experiment; time, however, changes all things, ami wi* hojie to see the day when the farmer will have all tlie food cooked for his stock, for the same reason that he now cooks his own. Many intelligent farmers aring reduced into so much smaller particles by chopping, it more easily combines with the soil, without baying to undergo the wasteful process of extreme fennentation in a large heap. Fried Tomatoes. — Tomatoes sliced and fried in butter are excellent. Tomatoes are fine in eoups. Also, as every one know?, the best catsup in the world is made from them. 158 DRYING FRUIT. THE WAY TO CONVERT CONSUMERS OF FOOD INTO PRODUCERS OF FOOD, AND TO DEPRESS THE PRICES OF ALL THE PRODUCTS OF THE EARTH. The Fhhkill Standard contains an official notice from Robert G. Rankin, of Pough- keepsie, and Josiali Carver, cf Matteawan, annimncing that they have been appointed assjo-nees of the Matteawan Cumpany. The deed of trust requires them, in the fir^t place, " to'^pay all the just debts and demands due and owing by said company to tlieir labor- ers servants and apprentices, for their services and mcjney loaned by them to said com- pany ; in the next phice, to pay and satisfy all other jiersons their just debts and demands against said company, ratably ; and lastly, if any surplus be lett after fully paj ing and satisfying the just debts and liabilities of said company, to pay such surplus to said com- pany." The Standard says that it is the inteniiou of the assignees to continue the works in operation for a sufficient time to finith up the materials on hand, in order that any unnecessary loss may thus be prevented as far as practicable. • Thus, one by one, are all the great domestic markets being dosed, and with each successive faihire there is a diminution in the domestic consump- tion of food, and wool, and cotton, notwithstanding the growth of population. DRYING FRUIT. A correspondent inquires for a description of the best mode of drying fruit. While so much attention is given to the cultivation of fruit, there still exists a great deficiency in good, cheap, and expeditious methods of drying, which, by converting perishable pn p- erty into a condition fur h)ng keeping and ea^y transportation, may greatly increase, both in extent and profit, the culture of the highest flavored sorts. Dried apples and dried peaches already constitute a considerable article of commerce. But their quality is immeasurably inferior to that which might be attained. The same difference in flavor exisis between unpalatal)le seedlings and the most highly improved grafted variety, whether they be fresh or dried. Yet the poorest apples are usually selected, simply because the dried fruit is bought by the pound, and not for its excellence. Late or inferior peaches are chosen, because their owners have no other use for them ; when, besides the inferior flavor of the late seedlings so largely used, the cool damp weather to which they a e exposed while drying does the work in a very imperfect manner, and a half-decayed flavor is often mingled with that of the fruit itself If dried at all in the open air, it is of much consequence that early sorts, both of apple and peach, be selected, that the benefit of a hot sun may be secured. Why is it not as easy to plant and raise early prolific sorts, that will ripen at a time when two days of hot sun will dry them, as later sorts, which will scarcely get dry at all in the open air? A good and faultless mode of using artificial heat appears not to have been yet prac- tised. The great and exi>ting deficiency is a want of a free circulation of the heated air. Hence the reason that the use of flat boards and shelves is usually attended with greater or less decay. Light wooden lattice-work is better, but imperfectly admits a free circulation, without making the slits too wide to prevent the dried fruit from falling through. Cheap netting or light twine is a still further improvement. An easy mnde of making it is thus described by a correspondent of the Mklugni Farmer: — "Take com- mon carpet-yarn, warp it fiir two or three yards length, just as you choose; use a five or six quarters reed; in drawing through the reed, use every third or fourth space between the teeth of it ; to insure strength, double your thread occasionally, and in weaving, beat two or three threads loosely together, and then more open, alternately ; when taken from the loom, fasten it to a light frame, and it is ready for use." Frames covered with millinet would probably be found well adapted for drying the smaller fruits. Rooms or buildings made for drying by artificial heat, must admit a very free venti- lation. We have found that when fruit on lattice shelves is placed near a fire or under a stove, where there is no current of air, and where heat is imparted solely by radiation, it becomes heated without drying, for there is no current to sweep off the moisture about it. But when suspended immediately over the stove, where the heated air is constantly ascending, the process goes on rapidly and ])erfectly. When thus dried, it is nearly •white iu color, and retaina its flavor luiimpaked, and is incomparably better than a great PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 159 deal that we often see, which is brown witli age, and spoiled with incipient decay, be- fore the moisture is all expelled by the tardy process to which it id subjected. The following would probably be a well-arranged drying-room for this purpose. Let the shelves, made of netting, stretched on frames, occupy the interior or central portion of tlie room, one above another, at free intervals, and leaving sutKcient space for the person in attendance to pass freely round on every side, next to the wall. This would not only be more convenient, but admit a better circulation of air, than if the shelves were placed again>t the wall. The room might be heated with a small stove, the pipe of which Bhould at first pass horizontally as near the floor as pos.--ible, and afterwards ascend to cause sufficient draught. This arrangement would heat the room far better than to !)lace the pipe overhead, as is too often the case; the heat will rise through the whole leight of the room, thus causing a cn-culation of air. The room must be well ventilated at each end near the top, to let off the vapor cimstantly arising ; for even fresh cool air is better than a hot air charged with moisture. The ventilators may be covered with wire gauze when it may become desirable to exclude flies, wasps, &c. — Albany Cultiva- tor. PROTECTION THE TRUE AND ONLY MODE TO PERFECT FREEDOM OF TRADE. American Shawl Manufacture.— The Bay State Mills have recently sold 100 cases, numbering nearly or quite 5,000 shawls, for the Canada market, to a regular dealer there, who can afford to pay a duty of 12 per cent., and sell his goods alongsiiie of Brit- ish productions at a profit. The production of shawls from some of the principal mills the current year will be as follows: — James Roy & Co., nearly all long shawls of beautiful designs 30.000; Bay State Mills, the great pioneers in this wo^k, 385,000; "Waterloo Co., 22,000 ; Empire" State Mills, 30,000 ; Peacedale Mill, Duncan and Cun- ningham, and one or two smaller makers, say 25,000; making a total of 492,00.), or nearly half a million of the medium and better class of goods, produced in this country in a single year. — Newark Advertiser. The shawl manufacture has been protected, and therefore it is that we can raanuf:icture shawls so cheaply as to be able to export them ; that is, that we are enabled to export food and wool in the compact form of shawls, instead of doing it in the bulky forms in which they leave the hands of the farmer. Abol- ish prottction,and the manufacture of shawls among ourselves will cease, for the demand for them will diminish as the cotton and woollen mills, the furnaces and mines, are closed, and the consumers of food shall every where find them- selves driven to become producers of food, the customers of the farmer becom- ing his rivals. To produce any commodity cheaply, there must be large de- mand, enabling the producer to use good machinery, and when that demand- ceases there is at once an end to all improvement, producing, ultimately, the abandonment of that which had once been deemed so perfect ; because for- eign I'ivals go on to make improxemonts which the domestic producer is una- ble to do. It is now clear that protection has diminished the price of shawls, for our manufacturers compete in Canada with the foreign manufacturer, at the same rate of duty ; and equally clear must it be that it is the latter that must j^uy the duty on all the shaivls /hat he imports into ottr markets. Abol- ish protection, and production will be diminished and prices will rise, and thus will the foreign producer compel the consumers to pay the duty. Maryland Agricultural Society. — The citizens of Baltimore propose to raise by subscription, in shares of $50, the sum of |25,0O0, to be invested in a lot and improve- ments near that city, for the use of the Maryland State Agricultural Society, for ten years, as long as the annual exhibitions of the Society shall continue to be held therein. — Valley Farmer. 160 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. THE EFFECT OF THE AD- VALOREM SYSTEM UPON MORALS. A Frkncii manufocturer of blankets lately consigned to this market an inToice of his manufactured articles to the value of 60,000 francs. Upon this, which must be taken here as the true market price of his commodities, be receives an export premium of twenty per cent., or 12,000 francs, in ready money. When the goods reach this port, they are entered at a valuation of 30,000, franca and passed at thirty per cent, import duty, or, in other words, ti.OOO francs are paid to our Government — leaving the balaftce in the foreigner's favor of 3,000 francs, which he receives from his own Government to- insure him against loss by competition with our mechanics. Now this is no fancy sketch, but a stern reality, which hss been, and is being, carried on at our Custom House to the manifest injury of our mechanics ; and if it be thus with the one article of blankets, is it not reasonable to conclude that it is practised and encouraged by a wise and con- siderate Government? Still, there are men who exp'.^ct our mechanics to compete with a class of foreigners, who are not only protected by their own Government, but are en- couraged to fraud in order to insure a heavy profit upon their jnanufiictured articles. Can such delusions long endure ?— /Y. Y. Leader. EFFECT OF THE TARIFF OF 1846 UPON THE MERCHANTS. Prices, which were drooping during the whole of last foil and sprii^, when material and labor were advancing, have at length settled down to a point thoit leaves a heavy loss to those engaged in the production, and renders the business of the merchant any thing but satisfactory ; for after e.xerting himself to the utmost, using all his eloquence, backed by the strong facts of cost of production and offers of extra time, it is impossible for him to realize a price tliat will save the consignor from loss. — Exchmige paper. Tlie tariff of 1846 was tlie merchants' tariff. Its objoct was that of separa- tinoj the consumer from the producer, and increasing the number of middle- men, but its effect has been only that of diminishing the number of exchanges to be made and increasing the number of persons employed in the business of exchange. Production diminishes, and the power to exchange is dependent upon the power to produce. Consumption diminishes, for those who cannot produce cannot consume, and they do not consume, and thus it is that the merchants suffer under the tariff of 1846. SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. Ma. RkveedY JonssoN, says the American Farmer, purchased, in 1848, a sn-vall farm near Baltimore, in the last stage of impoverishment. Such was its reduced condition, that the last crop of corn was not more than one peck to the acre. He states that all the vegetable matter growing on tlie two hundred acres of cleared land, including briers, sassafras, and other bushes, if carefully collected, would have been insufficient for the manufacture of one four-horse waggon-load of manure. He applied to Dr. David Stewart, of Baltimore, an able chemist, who rode out to the farm and procured specimens of the soil, which he carefully analyzed. He found that it contained an abundance of lime, potash, magnesia, iron, and organic matter, duly mixed with alumina and sand. One element only of a fertile soil was Wanting, phosphoric acid ; and of this there was no trace. He recommended an application to the soil of biphosphate of lime, a prepa- ration of bones, as the best mode of supplying the deficient element. The remedy was given, at an expense of ten dollars per acre. It was the one thing needful. Health was restored to the exhausted patient, and the grateful soil yielded last year twenty-nine bushels of wheat per acre to the proprietor. Nothing else was applied, indeed nothing else was wanting. Here was a beautiful triumph of Bcience. There is no doubt abou' WHICH IS THE RESTRICTIVE POLICY? 161 the facta; the experiment came uudev the observation and attracted the attention of hundreds. It was detailed to the writer by Mr. Johnson himself, and vaiious others worthy of perfect reliance. WHICH IS THE RESTRICTIVE POLICY? The American Democracy are for appreciating the prices of labor and for diffusing the wealth of the country among the greatest possible number of its inhabitants. They be- lieve that, with the protection which is i'lcidentally afforded by a tariff of revenue, and the cost of transportation, our manufacturers can meet the foreign competition on more than equal terms. They believe, too, that in a country of such diversified interests as this, that protection for sake of one branch of industry in one section of the Union, detri- mental to other branches of industry prosecuted in other parts, is unjust and not sanc- tioned by the Constitution. They also believe, that the more unfettered the whole industry of the country is, the better for the people and the country, and that as the agricultural is the main branch of industry, it should not be restricted in its markets. These are a few of the reasons which induce the American Democracy to oppose the ultra high tariff notions of the Tribune and its party. — Cincinnati Inquirer. If our contemporary believes that the present revenue tariff, with the cost of transportation, is protection enough for our manufactures, we should hke to understand why it is that so many furnaces and mills have been shut up under its working ? Or if it appreciates wages and diffuses wealth among the greatest number, why the consumption of iron and cotton in the country has fallen off? Also, how protection, which creates a home market for the more perishable products of agiiculture, that would otherwise have no market at all, favors manufactures at the expense of farming or any other interest? Also, whether the markets of the farmer are more restricted when he can find in his own neighborhood a ready demand and ready pay for his vegetables, milk, veal, &c. ; or when he has to send to England to find a precarious and shifting demand for wheat, cheese, hams, and other heavy articles which can be transported, most of which exhaust the soil without making it a return ? To our thinking the restriction is really on the side of the bastard Free Trade, advocated by the Inquirer. — New- York Tribune. From the Wool Grower. PEACH LEAVES versus SHEEP. It may not be known that peach leaves are poisonous, and often prove fatal whpn eaten by animals. A few days since, in Western New-York, we witnessed the deaths of two sheep, caused by eating freely of peach leaves. The peach is a native of Sicily, we believe, and was originally poisonous ; but, by cultivation, has become one of the most delicious of fruits. The leaves, however, are said to contain prus«ic acid. Sheep should never be allowed to run in peach orchards. Several cases have occurred in which eattle and sheep have been poisoned by eating the leaves of the wild cherry. The fame cherry is equally poisonous. It has been said that cherry leaves are free from poison until the leaves have wilted ; but cases have been known in which the green leaves have proved poisonous and fatal to animals. In the cases we witnessed, the sheep exhibited vertigo and trembling, and frothed af the mouth, and evidently endured much pain. After several hours had elapsed, a noble lamb, belonging to one of the poisoned sheep, came up and called out urgently for his supper. The sick and dying mother raised her head, and turned and looked piteously at her offspring, crying with hunger. Nerved with a spirit of matirnal affection, she struggled and gained an upright position, and with much difficulty maintained it and gave nurse to the bleating lamb. This done, she lay down and died instantly ; and we presume in peace. Various remedies have been suggested. A writer in the Massachusetts Ploughmen' VOL. IV. — 11. 162 WOOL GROWING IN VIRGINIA. recommends a pint of New-England rum, mixed with a pint of molasses, and given to each grown animal; one third of the quantity for a sheep. Salt would doubtless be beneficial, as it is useful in cases of poison from the bite of snakes, the sting of bees, &c. A gill of sweet oil, castor oil, lard or fresh butter, given in a pint of new milk, it is said, will sometimes effect a cure. Most vegetable poisons, however, are acid-^, an 1 require alkalies to neutralize them. Ammonia, lye of wood ashes, and pot and pearl ashes are used for the purpose. One word in reference to the management of stock bucks. It has within a few years been materially changed. Formerly the buck was turned in with a flock of ewes, and ran with the flock through the tupping season. The objections to this course are, that it proves injurious to the buck; and many of the lambs are small and feeble. Experience has shown that when the buck is kept up and tetided, the above objections are obviated. It has been said that one service is pietVrable; but the best flock-masters in this section now agree that a single service is not in all cases sure, and that the buck should be allowed to serve each one at least twice, during the few weeks of tlie tupping season. When all have bjen thus served, let the buck and ewes t(jgetlier for a few days, which will generally render the matter sure, and give as many lambs as there are ewes in the flock. S. B. Rockwell. Cornwall, VL, July 16, 1851. CACTUS GRANDIFLORA— THE NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS. The editor of the New- Orleans Crescent recently received a most rare and beautiful gift, a flower of this plant in full bloom. These flowers, says the Crescent, are rarely seCL, as but few plants in this moist climate come to perfection. We accompanied the gentleman to the garden where the plant was in bloom, and which was completely covered, there being not less than eiglit in their perfection. They began to open a short time after sunset, and at nine o'clock they were in full bloom. The flowers loolc more like gigantic water-lilies, only much more delicate in their structure; the stamen^ form a most beautiful plume, in grace and beauty recalling the crest which adorns the necks of some varieties of the crane. The perfume is that of vanilla. Perhaps the sense of the beautiful was more intense from the reflection, that before morning these flowers must fade. The gratification to the eye was as perfect and as brief as one of Jenny Lind'a concerts is to the ear. The flower which we were so fortunate as to obtain was im- mersed in a glass jar of alcohol, and will, we hope, grace our sanctum for many months. This plant did not bloom in the precincts of any costly, luxurious garden, but is in the little patch of a hard-working Dutchman, who finds time enough to gratity his taste for flowers, and in this piece of ground, not much larger than a blanket, he has eoUected many beautiful specimens. Unlike all other exhibitions, no solicitations of friends can induce Signora Nature to repeat tlie performance till next summer. But we shall give our readers tunely notice of the next appearance of this gorgeous flower. WOOL GROWING IN VIRGINIA. At the present time, says the Richmond Whig, when the attention of the people of our Northern States is turned to Virginia, as oflering a fine field for investment in her lands for agricultural, mining and nianufactuiing purposes, it may not be amiss to point out the many advantages possessed by a very large portion of the State for the wool growing business. This subject has be- n brought to my mind by seeing the fait stated, in many newspapers, that, out of one hundred parcels of wool collected by an extensive wool dealer at the North, frem various parts of the United States, for exhibition at the World's Fair, the palm wa^ awarded to a parcel grown by Messrs. Patterson, on their sheep grounds, in Bedford county, Virginia. The whole tier of Piedmont counties, immediately under the Blue Ridge, from the Potomac River to the North Carolina line, namely, Fauquier, Orange, Albemarle, Bed- ford, Patrick, and a'l intermediate counties, have been fully proved, by a few northern wool growers settled in them, to be most admirably adapted to this business; tlie most suitable grasses for sheep grow finely. Diseases incident to this animal are of seldom occurrence, and the wolf, that deadly foe to the sheep, is rarely ever seen. I ranklio, Henry, and Patrick, the least opened of this range of counties, contain very few if any wolves. Th,ese three counties offer, on account of the low price of land and the absence STRAWBERRIES. 163 of all ravenous wild animals, a great opening for sheep grazing. Large tracts of un- cleared land are to be had there on mountains and hill-siiies, for perhaps less than fifty- cents per acre, which, if partially cleared of its undergrowth, (that the rays of the sun might strike the earth,) would put forth grass spontaneously, and make excellent ranges for sheep. STRAWBERRIES. The New-England Fanner describes a few of the varieties of this delicious fruit which are desirable fur cultivation; and so valuable is it that every one wlio has room in his garden should raise it for his own family, at least, unless he is fortunately in a region where the delicious wild strawberry abouiid--'. It requires but little attention, and a single bed four rods long and one wiile will with a fair crop produce about four quarts of fruit every day for about twelve days and in some seasons twice that quantity may- be obtained. It is healthy and delicious, and its cultivation should not be neglected by a single individual who has a square rod of ground to spare. As a guide to those who are unacquainted with the different varieties, we subjoin the following table, showing the time of ripening of the different kinds : Early- Virginia, June 22 Black Prince, June 27 Large Early Scarlet, " 22 Hovey's Seedling, " 28 Boston Pine, " 26 Fay's Seedling, " 28 Willey, " 20 Wood, or Alpine, July 1 Jenney's Seedling, " 27 Milford Native, " 4 The time named is when the fruit began to r pen, and generally, it continued about one week. Jenney's continued in use nine or ten days. This table agrees very nearly with previous experiments, and with the experiments of m-any other cultivators, in the comparative time of ripening, which is the main subject in view, as it shows the inex- perienced how to select so as to have a succession of fr uit. Earhj Virginia. — This is the best early strawberry generally known in this season. It is one of the principal kinds for main crop-:, and some cultivate it almost exclusively. The plants ai-e very strong, vigorous and hardy, enduring the cold of winter, and suc- ceeding well on dry soils, as well as on those rather strong and heavy. Tlie fruit is medial size, very handsome, and of excellent quality, which it retains well after picking. It sells well in the market the next day after it is picked. It is very productive. We have accounts of its yielding some of the largest crops ever produced from any variety. It is nearly perfect in its blossom, and is a good variety to fertihze pistillate kinds. Large Early Scarlet is the same as the above. Boston Pine. — This fruit seems pi'culiarly adapted to strong soils ; and under high cul- ture, planted in hills, or the plants well thinned, it yields large crops; but if the plants are tliick, it sets more fruit than it can perfect. The plants are strong, vigorous, produc- tive and hardy, enduring our cold winters well. The fruit is quite large, beautiful, and of a 3*«'eet, pleasant flavor, as taken from the vines. Som" prefer it for its mildness; others give a preference to sub-acid fruits, whicli ia the hi.^ season are admirably adapted for the table, with a little sugar. Willey.— T\{\.s is a female strawberry in Ohio, producing large crops of excellent fruit Tlie plants are remarkably vigorous, hardy and prt/dtictive. Tlie fruit is tolerably large, and of excellent quality. It is very promising:, and worthy of trial. Mr. F. R. Elliott, Cleveland, Ohio, a well-known pomologist, raised of this variety 1,345 quarts on one fourth of an acre of land. Jenney's Seedling. —This is a new variety, not yet cultivated to much extent, but it is very promising indeed. The plants are strong, vigorous, productive and hardy, enduring our winters without injury. The fruit is large, very handsome, and of a very high quality. It is sub-acid, but as the strawberry is usually used with sugar, and in hot weather, a little acid mingled with sweet is very acceptable. Time must determine its merits for the market. Mr. Jeniiey raided, on one fourth of an acre, at the rate of more than 4,000 quarts to an acre. This plant is mostly pistillate, but we believe it yields good crops without a fertilizer. Black Prince.— Some praise this highly, others condemn it with severity. It has a peculiar fl.ivor, that is pleasant to some, aii 1 to others it is offensive. Some amateurs will cultivate it, but we do not think it will be valuable for the market. Honey's Seedling. —Tnis is one of the mo-it valuable of strawberries. It has not the vigor and hardiness of the Early Virginia, Willey, and Jenney's Seedhug, but it usually 164 BRITISH FREE TRADE IX II^fDIA. endures our cold winters well. When it produces a very great crop, the plants ai-e souietiines thin the next season, either from the effects of the winter or from exhaustion. The size of the fruit is extremely larije, the color is beautiful, and the flavor is mild, rich, and excellent. This variety is remarkably productive, and owin» to its large size, and the readiness with which the fruit parts from the hull, it is picked with less expense than any other variety. Fiv/s Seedlinj. — We prefer Hovey's or Jenney's to this, and they ripen about the same time. Wood, or Afpinr.— This is an old variety, which held an important place as a late strawberry before the introduction of Hovey's, and other late varieties. M'dford N'ative. — A good fruit, and very late, but neither vigorous nor productive. BRITISH FREE TRADE IN INDIA. Late advices from Calcutta say, in consequence of the excessive heat and hot winds and absence of rain, the plant is dried and scorched up, and there is every probability of this year's crop not exceeding 75,000 maunds, in which case the consuming qualities will be worth, next year, in this market, 225 to 250 rupees per maund. When the news reaches England of a certainty of a short crop, prices will, without a doubt, go very high. The drought is so great that they have not water enough for the cattle, and the tanks have dried up. The heat is excessive, and the plant scorched almost to a cinder. They say it has not been such a hot season for fifteen or twenty years. Even should the rains come now, it will be too late to be of much benefit to the indigo. Indigo will be very high here the next year. The usual outturn is from 140,000 to 130,000 maunds; but the outturn last year was a short one, being under 120,000 maunds. — Eng. Journal, Look where we may, we find the same results. Agriculture becomes pro- ductive as the consumer is brought to take his place by the side of the pro- ducer, and it becomes less and less productive from year to year, as the, producer is compelled to depend on distant markets. Twenty years since, while the cotton manufacture still flourished in India, the 2>roduction of Bengal alone averaged more than 120,000 maunds, and here we see that of all India reduced to 75,000 maunds. With the gradual decline of wealth the power of combination for the irrigation of the lands has diminished, and they have now, under the influence of British free trade, to complain that the country is " scorched up," and that their crops are ruined. So too complain the planters ot Louisiana and Alabama, who see vast streams running by their plantations, useless to themselves and the world, when one half the labor now spent in seeking ap4 clearing new plantations to take the place of those they have exhausted woukI place them beyond the reach of cither droughts or inundations. The farmois and planters who have a market on the laud for the products of the land grow richer and richer every day, but those who have not, grow poorer and poorer every day, for they are afways selling off the soil which constitutes their capital. Geeen Beans and Peas in Winter. — We notice in our exclianges an article in regard to drying green beans for winter use, which is highly recommended as a new discovery, but which with ourselves is by no means new. Some years since, to save our " Lima" and " Cranberry" beans from a severe early frost, we had them all plucked in their green state, (the pods just filled,) and spread on linen cloths on the floor of an attic room, and carefully cured untU they were perfectly dried. They were then gathered in baskets, and kept until the winter and following spring, and shelled as they were required for table use. The result was, the beans were as fine and palatable as when first taken from the garden. This method we have since followed with perfect success. In their pre- paration for cooking, nothing is required except simply soaking them in cold water two or three hours before boiling. Peas may be preserved in the same mnnner, but do not retain so much of their original sweetness and flavor. — Farmer and 3fcchanic. PROPAGATION OF THE RASPBERRY. 165 CAUSE AND CURE OF SMUT IN WHEAT. A CORRESPONDENT of the Gcncsee Farmer writes as follows, respecting the cause and cure of smut in wheat : — I am an old former, have been in the business of cultivating -wheat. for more than thirty years, and I have heretofore raised a large quantity of smut. I have tried all the preventives I have seen recommended in the banner, ■without an entire^ cure ; but for the last teu years have raised no smut. I will now state my former practice when I did raise smut, and my present practice, and hope other farmers will try the experitiient, and I think they will give up the practice of steeping their seed wheat in any solution what- ever ; neither will they need a sieve to separate the large seed from the small ; if it is ripe and sound it will not bring smut. I will now say that I formerly harvested my wheat very green, or in other words before it was fully ripe, and made use of the same for seed, and from that seed I always raised plenty of smut. At length my " bump of causality " whispered to me, " You cut your seed wheat too greeu ;" and from that time I have selected the part of my wheat field that ripens the evenest, and let it stand in the field until it is dead ripe, and until the heads are weather-beaten, and I have raised no smut since I followed the above rule. Some seasons my wheat does not ripen even, and if I find a green head when I am cutting my seed wheat I throw it out; for I am fully of the opinion that a small unripe grain of wheat, if it vegetates at all, will bring smut. Such a grain contains but a \ ery email particle of vitality ; and solution of salt, vitriol, or lime will sometimes destroy that vitality, so that the grain does not vegetate ; and here is where farmers are mis- taken— they suppose they destroy the smut, when in fact it is the unripe, sickly grain, which produces smut, that they destroy. I eay again to my brother farmers, try it, and my word for it you will not be sorry. DELICIOUS FRUITS. John C. Hodge.s is taking the lead in the grape culture, as well as in that of the peach. He recently presented us with specimens of his white and black Hamburg, which are beyond question the best matured and most luscious grapes we have ever tasted. One bunch of the white weighed two pounds, and another one and a quarter pound. The berries are very large, well formed, aad uniformly distributftd over the bunch. The same is the case with the black. The vines are remarkably healthy and vigorous, and this is tlie first crop of grapes produc d. Mr. Hodges is of opinihly distributed. About the middle of April I took a walk with a friend, and we counted no less than fifty-one plants in bloom, though our walk did not extend more tlian half a mile from the out- skirts. A gentleman, who rode a few days ago about twenty-four miles over the jtlains near Sacramento City, describes the entire field as one gorge(JUS flower-bed. Such is the condition of one half of the surface of California at this moment. Will a soil like this refuse a profitable recompense to labor? Your readers have heard of the gigantic cedars of the Pacific coast. They are found to the north, as you approach Oregon — near Humboldt Bay ami the famous Gold Bluffs. It is liard to credit the stories which everybody brings liome who goes there. A tree sixteen feet in diameter, and having a trimk two hundred feet in length, beneath the MAKING MAPLE SUGAR. 167 branches, is of moderate size. I am assured that the largest are thirty feet in diameter. A friend of mme, Robert Lammot, Esq, of this city, informs me that he and his brother measured a tree near Humboldt, p ssmg round it with a tape as high as they could reach, and found the circuit to exceed ninetii feet ! These monsters are apt to be hollow, and it is nut uncommon to find them converted into human habitations. Redwood is the name commonly applied to this species of cedar, from the color of the wood, which is very soft, and has a remarkably straight grain, so that thin and perfectly even strips may be split off many feet in length. I should have mentioned that the entire length of the largest of these trees exceeds 300 feet. In the same region raspberries grow to an inch and more in length, and strawberries also to an enormous size — of course I mean without cultivation. The soil of California is remarkably adapted to the cultivation of these Iruits. In places near this city the ground is now white with strawberry blossoms, and the blossoms are much larger than any I have ever before seen. MAKING MAPLE SUGAR. The sugar-maple is a beautiful tree, reaching the height of seventy or eighty feet, the body straight, for a long distance free from limbs, and three or four feet in diameter at the base. It grows in cold climates, between latitude 42 and 48, and on the Allegha- nies to the southern termination, extending westward beyond Lake Superior. The wood is nearly equal to hickory for fuel, and is used for buildmg, for ships, and various man- ufactures. When tapped as the winter gives place to spring, a tree, in a few weeks, will produce five or six pailfuls of sap, which is sweet and pleasant as a drink, and when boiled down will make about half as many pounds of sugar. The manufacturer, selecting a spot central among his trees, erects a temporary shelter, suspends his kettles over a smart fire, and at the close of a day or two will have fifty or a hundred pounds of sugar, which is equal to the common West India sugar, and when refined equals the finest in flavor and in beauty. When the tap has been boiled to a syrup and is turning to molasses, then to candy, and then graining into sugar, its flavor is delightful, espe- cially when the candy is cooled on the snow. On this occasion the manufactui-er expects his wife, children and friends, if near, to enjoy the scene. IMMENSE FLIGHT OF GRASSHOPPERS. On Sunday, the 10th of August, says the Rcadhiff (Pa,.) Pres.i, at about 12 o'clock noon, a flight of grasshoppers passed over our city, continninp some three hours, and extending some miles to the east and west, which, in point of numbers, exceeded all computation. The sky was perfectly full, and in the rays of the sun myriads C(juld be seen, looking like snow-flakes, moving about in circles, and apparently going simthward. Some eight years ago, a similar phenomenon was observed. A Question. — The Rochester 7'mes says : " We could never understand the reason why the man who sells a yard of cloth, or a hoe, or an axe, or a pair of shoes, is regarded by the community as a better or more respec'able man than he who made it; nor he who sells a barrel of flour, or ships it off" to another country, than he who raises the wheat from which it was manufactured. Will some one enlighten us on this subject ?" The reason is, that the commercial policy of nations is governed by middle- men, who stand between the producer and the consumer and enrich themselves at the cost of both. The trader produces nothing, and yet hves in a hirge house at a cost of five, ten, or twenty thousand dollars a year, while the former who produces and the artisan who consumes remain poor, and are happy if they can obtain necessary food and clothing. The object of protection is that of bringing the consumer to take his place by the side of the producer, and thus enabling them to dispense with the middlemen and to grow rich themselves. Protection looks to the elevation of all ; British free trade to the elevation of the few at the expense of the many. The one is purely democratic, while the other is as purely aristocratic. 168 PULVERIZATION OF THE SOIL. THE SONG OF THE RAILROAD, BY C. T. WOLFE. TnRouoH the mould and through the clay, Tliriiugh tlio corn and through the hay, By the margin of the lake, O'er the river, through the brake. O'er the bleak and drear > moor. On we hie with screech and roar! Splashing ! flashing 1 Crashing! dashing! Over ridges, Gullies, bridges! By the bubbling rill. And mill — Highways, By-ways, Hollow hill- Jumping — bumping — Rocking — roaring Like 40,000 giants snoring ! By the lonely hut and mansion, By the ocean's wide expansion. Where the factory chimneys smoke, Where the foundry bellows croak — Dash along ! Flash along. On ! on ! with a jump, And a bump. And a roll ! Hies the fire-lieud to its destined goal. O'er the aqueduct and bog, On we lly with ceaseless jog. Every instant something new, Every instant lost to view ; Now a tavern — now a steeple — Now a crowd of gaping people — Now a hollow — now a ridge — Now a cross-way — now a bridge — Grumble — stumble — Ru I able — tumble — Fretting — getting in a stew ! Church and steeple, gaping people, tjuick as thought are lost to view ! Kvery thing that eye can survey Turns hurly-burly, topsy-turvy ! Each passenger is thumped and shaken, As physic is when to be taken. By the foundry, past the forge. Through the plain and mountain gorge, AVhere cathedral rears its head, Where repose the silent dead ! IMonuinents amid toe grass Flit like spectres as you pass ! If to hail a friend Inclined, V\ hish ! whirl ! kaswash !— he's left behind ! Rumble, tumble, all the day — Thus we pass the hours away. TO PRESERVE GRAPES FRESH. A correspondent of the Newarh (N. J.) Advertiser says, that for several years past he has succeeded in preserving Isabella grapes till March. " We have had the luxury of having fresh grapes all through the winter ; antl have found them very useful and re- freshing to the sick, especially to consumptive people We pick ours to preserve for the winter as late as we can and save them frotn the frost ; gathering them when they are perfectly dry, say in the middle of a sunny day. We take a dry box -a common candle-box is very convenient for the purpose — first covering the bottom with cotton batting. We then put down a layer of grapes, one cluster after another, as thick as they can well lie. Care should be taken that no broken nor green ones are in the clus- ters. If there are, tliey will cause the others to mould and decay. We then put down a layer of cotton batting, and then anotlier layer of grapes, till the box is full. " Some liave been at the trouble to seal the end of each stem with wax. We do not believe it is of any service. As the stems are brittle, it is necessary to handle tliem with a great deal of care. When they are thus laid down, much depends upon the place where you deposit the box. It should be placed in the dryest and coolest place you have in the house." PULVERIZATION OF THE SOIL. The fact that plants can only receive their food in a soluble state, cannot be too strongly impressed on tlie mind of tlie farmer. He should also be acquainted witii the agencies which bring the crude elements into this state of solution. Hon. L. C. UM, iu an address before the Rensselaer County Agricultural Society, gave some good illu.stra- tions of this subject, in speaking of the " tnechaiiical |)reparation of the soil." He explains the importance of this in reference to (ho pre])aratioii of soluble food for plant.4. and ob- serves : •' All these operations and results which I have endeavored to explain, take place nowhere else than upon the surface of the earth — in the presence of iireciating its fitness for wool. Important Discovery — Remedy for the Hydrophobia. — A vapor-hath heated to one hundred and seven degrees Fahrenheit, inducing copious and violent perspiration, is said, in a communication to the Paris Academy of Science, to be a certain remedy for this (h-eadful malady. It is the discovery of M. Buisson, who states that he has treated in this manner more than eighty persons bitten by rabid animals, in four of whom the symptoms had declared themselves, and in no one case has he failed, except that of one child. The mode of treatment lie recommends is, to take a certain number of vapor- baths, (commonly called Russian,) and induce every nigiit a violent perspiration, by wrapping himself up in flannels, and covering himself with a feather-bed ; the perspira- tion is favored by drinking freely of warm decoction of sarsaparilla. He declares, so convinced is he of the efficacy of his mode of treatment, that he will suffer himself to be inoculated with the disease, if required. Tomato Sauce. — Pour boiling water on the ripe tomatoes, then slip off the skin and mash them ; to every pound of tomatoes add an ounce of butter, season with pepper and salt, and simmer over a slow lire until they are thoroughly cooked ; if toast or bread crumbs are added to the sauce, put in a little more butter. EDITORIAL AND SELECTED MISCELLANY. The following is a statement of the amount of duties collected at the principal ports for the year ending June 30, 1851 :— New- York, $31,75fi,199 ; Boston, f!6,57'7,540; Philadelphia, $3,667,838 ; Baltimore, $1,047,278; New-Orleans, |2,296,636 ; Charleston, $600,712; Portland, $209,030; Savannah, $208,994; St. Louis, $213,832; Cincinnati, $105,191 ; New-Haven, $102,130 ; Mobile, $76,184 ; Louisville, $66,572 ; Oswego, $91,557; Richmond, $70,235. . . . The Noith- western Vii-ginia Railroad Company was organized at Parkersburg on the 2d of August, by tlie election of James Cook, Pi-esident; and George Neal, jun., Joseph Spencer, J. M. Bennett, Wm. Logan, and Jefferson Gibbons, Directors. . . . There have been for the past few yeai's over 30,000 hogs killed and packed at Alton, and over 100,000 hogs are killed and packed at St. Louis annually. . . . The city of Alton, Illinois, has voted to subscribe $100,000 to the capital stock of the Alton and Terre Haute railroad. . . . The aggregate amount received for tolls on the New-York State Canals, from the commencement of navigation to the 14th of August inclusive, is $1,702,222 34. . . . The Sandusky and Cincinnati railroad, the Xenia railroad, the Columbus and Cleveland raih-oad, and gene- rally the Ohio railroads, have a width of 4 feet 10 inches; Sandusky, Mansfield, and Newark railroad, 5 feet 4 inches ; Georgia railroads, 5 feet ; South Carolina railroads, 5 feet ; New- York and Erie railroad and its branches, 6 feet ; and St. Lawrence and Atlantic railroad in Maine and Canada, 5 feet 6 inches. . . . Recently there were •hipped, in good order, from the port of Ashtabula, Ohio, twelve boxes of chickens, each holding seventy-five — nine hundred in all — and one box of turkeys, all for New- York city; and the profits will come up to two hundred dollars, to say nothing of the eggs laid by the way. . . . The potato-rot has made its appearance in the vicinity of St. Johns- bury, Vermont. . . . Josiah B. Williams, of Ithaca, Henry Fitzhugh, of Oswego, and General Adams, of Clyde, have been appointed by the Governor of New- York State lo investigate in reference to the practicability of draining the Cayuga marshes. ... It is estimated that there are at present one hundred and twenty-five miles of sewers in 174 EDITORIAL AND SELECTED MISCELLANY. New- York city. . . . The following are memoranda of the business of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad for the, month of July, 1851 : — Passengers. Freight. Main stem, $29,036 10 $65,912 07 Washington branch 20,737 52 3,377 67 Total, §49,773 62 $69,289 74 Making an aggregate of $94,948 17 on the main stem, and $24,115 19 on the Washing- ton branch; — the total being $119,063 36. . . . The steamer Baltic, Capt. Corastock, recently made a trip from Liverpool to New- York in nine days, twenty two and a half hours. . . . Messrs Rodger.s, Ketchum recediiig summer; yet there is a considerable difference in its stnicture now : the pith and the medullary sheath remain, but the former has perhaps contracted into half its former compass ; its vesicles are no longer turgid, but dry and empty ; instead of being regulai ly formed, they are compressed in vaiions directions; while the latter (the medullary sheath) is scarcely distinguishalile from a larger cylinder of woody matter which surroimds and sepa- rates it from the bark with which it was pre- viously in contact; the leaves have fiiUen, and the points of their union with it obliter- ated, except so far as they are denoted by the development of the buds which they assisted to noinish into branches, the newly formed shoots we have previously examined. The cause of this alteration, and of die greater di- ameter or thickness of the last year's branch, remains to be explained : before attempting to do so, let us examine a horizontal section of a branch or trunk (for it is immaterial which we take) in a more advanced stage of growth — say of several years, instead ol one or two, as exhibited abovu in fig. 1. Here is the medulla or pith occn])ying the centre in a still more compressed state, reduced perhaps to a mere point; the sheadi is proportionally contracted likewise, owing to the pressure of a great accumulation of lator-formed substance around il, viz.; the wood, which, whatever may be its thickness, has been gradually in terposed between the medullary sheath and the bark with which it was originally in cun- tact. The wood is seen to consist of many concentric layers or cylinders : each layer consists of a more or less comf)act mass of woody fibre or sap-vessels, and of ducts, which latter are sometimes distributed till oughf)ut the layer, but aie more frequently disposed toward the inner face of the woody cylinder to which they aj)i)ertain. There is another remarkabh^ feature in the wood of all exogenous trees — the i)resence of what nro called medullary rays, lu a Lorizoutul sec- LECTURES ON BOTANY. 179 tion they usually present the appearance of so many radii of a circle ; they consist of com- pressed plates of cellular tissue, and extend from the pith in the centre of the trunk or branch quite throuc;h the layers of wood to the bark (see fig. 1). Of their office in the economy of the plant we have no positive knowledge, but they probably act as a medi- um of communication between the outer and inner portions of the trunk, and in the con- veyance of those secretions that are eventu- ally deposited in the ol Milrea. of Azores 83 1-8 Ware Banco, of Hamburg 35 Pound -terliiig, of (ircai Britain 4 84 Pound, of Briiish Provinces of Nova t'co- tiM, New-Brunswick, Newfoumiland and Canada 4 00 pagoda of India 1 Hi Kfjal Vellon, of Spain 05 Real Plate, of Spain 10 Rupee Company 44 1-2 Rupee, of Biitirh Imiia 44 1-2 Specie Dollar, 'f Denmark 1 05 Rix Dollar, or Thaler, of Prussia and the Northern States of Germany 69 Rix Dollar, of Bremen 78 3-4 Ruble, Silver, of Russia 75 Specie Dollar, of Sweden and Norway 1 06 Florin, of Austria l8 1-2 Ducat, of Naples 80 Oum-e, of Sicilv 2 40 Tale of China.' 1 48 Leghorn Livre 16 TABLE OF FOREIGN WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, RE- DUCED TO THE STANDARD OF THE U. STATES : AmsUrdam. 100 lbs., 1 centner pounds 108-9^ Last of grain bushels S-'i'SS Ahm of wine gallons 4100 Amsterdam foot foot OOT Antwerp foot foot 0P4 Rhineland foot fpet 103 Amsterdam ell feet 226 Ell of the Hague feet 2-2-' Ell of the Brabant feet 2-30 China. Tael ounce 1 1-2 ICtaelsl catty pounds 1 1-2 100 catties 1 picul pounds 133 1-4 England. Old ale gallon gallon 1-22 Imperial gallon gallon 1-20 Ol'l wine gallon gallon 1-00 Quarter of grain, or 8 imperial bush hush. 8-25 Imperial corn bushel, or 8 imp 1 gall bush. 1-03 Old VVitichcfcter bushel Inisb, l-OO Imperial yard inches 36-00 Troy pound pounds avoirdupois 144-175 FrajiCi: \Ietre feet 3-28 Deciinetre (l-lOih metre) inches 3-94 Velt gallons 2-00 Hectolitre gallons 26-42 Decalitre gallons 2-64 Litre pints 211 Kilolitre feet .35-32 Hectolitre bushels 2-84 Decalitre quarts 9-08 Millier pounds 2J-05 Quintal pounds 220-54 Kilogramme pounds 2-24 P07 tvgal. 100 pounds r Jnds 101-19 2-2 pounds 1 1 nrrobe) j A\nda 2'2--'6 4 arrobes, of 22 pounds, (1 quintal) pounds 89-05 Alquiere Inishela 4-75 Majo, of gi-ain bushels 2303 Last, of salt bushels 70-00 Almude, of wine gallons 4-37 Bussia. 100 pounds, of 32 laths each pounc"- 90-26 Cheitwert, of grain bufhe's 5-P5 Vedro, of wine gallon ■ S-S."] I'etershur? foot gallons 1-18 Moscow loot gallons 1-10 Food pounds 1,36 Sweden. 100 pounds, or 5 lispunda pounds 73-76 Can, of can bushels 7-42 La-t bu.'he!3 75-00 c "nnn, of wine gallons 69-09 Ell, of cloth feet 1-95 Smyrna. 100 pounds, (1 quintal) pounds 129-48 Oke pounds y-RI Quiltal, of grain bushels 1-46 Quiltal, of wine gallons 13-50 184 CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. Management during the Second Year. — Mai-ch 1. — Remove the covering, and f.)rk up the surface of the ground, to the depth of Ivvo or three inches, that the sun and air may freely penetrate it. April 1. — Keep the soil roiuid the roots free from weeds, and the surface" of it loose, either by raking or fo king it up as often as necessai-y. May 1. — r^ov/ remember that only a single shoot is permanently to be trained throughout the summer; the object of leaving two buds the previous autumn being to pro\ade against the loss of a shoot in case of any accident. As soon, therefore, as the strongest has grown sufficiently to be out of danger of being ac- cidentally nibbed off, the other is to be cut out, as hereafter directed. If any other shoots have pushed besides the two principal ones, rub them all oif. As soon as the shoots have grown about a foot in length, nail them to the wall or fence, as the case may be. Do this very carefully, for they are as yet extremely tender. When they have grown about six inches from the last nailing, they must again be nailed, and contiunaily kept so, never suf- fering the tops of the slioots to be blown about by the wind. As the tendrils and lateral shoots successively appear throughout the summer, pinch off the former when they have grown about three inches in length, and the latter to an inch beyond the first eye. June 1. — Throughout this month, and the two fol- lowing ones, whenever the ground appears parched through by the heat of the weather, give the roots, once a day, about half a gallon of soap-suds, or dung-water. Keep the ground free from weeds, and the surface loose and open, by raking or forking ir up once a week ihrough-iut the summer. July 1. — The young shoots being firmly united to the preceding year's wood, and therefore past all danger of being broken off by any accident, unnail the weakest shoot of the two and cut it out close to the stem, m iking the surface of the wound quite smooth and even. The remaining shoot must be kept nailed to the wall as belore di- rected. November 1. — Cut the vine to the two lowermost buds, and in the winter, if the weather be frosty, cover the groujid over in tile same manner as in the preceding winter. Third Year. — March 1. — The winter cov- ering may now be removed, (provided there should be no hard frost,) and the surface of the ground must 1)6 made quite mellow by using lig'itly a garden fork or trowel, observ- ing great care to avoid disturbing the roots, as they will now be found very near the sur- face. Let the subsequent treatment through- out the season be precisely the same as in the preceding summer. If any fruit be shown, piiich it off as soon as it appears. November 1. — It is presumed the stem of the vine will now be more than two inches in girth, and therefore two leading shoots are to be peixna- nently retained the next year. For this purpose, cut the vine down to the three loweniiost buds, thus reserving one to spare, in case oliaccident. The vine will then resemble the adjoining figure. The roots being now snHiciently strong to withstand the severity of the weather, will not in future require covering. Fourth Year. — March ]. — Clean the sur- face of the gi'ound, and fork it up lightly, and let the sulisequent management throughout the season be the same as before. May 1. — As soon as the shoots have grown a sufficient length, nail or tie them carefully to the wall or trellis, and rub off all the others, if any should h ive pushed. If fruit be shown, pinch it off as in the preceding year. July 1. — (Jn- uail and cut out the weakest of the three slioots, and train the two remaining ones care- fully during the remainder of the season. Sept. 1. — Pinch off the tops of the shoots. November 1. — As the girth of the stem will not be less now than three inches, the vine may be permitted to mature fruit the next year, not exceeding five pounds weight ; for this purpose, cut down the two shoots to the seven lowennost buds each. Pnine away the remaining portion of the tendrils and dead wood close to the shoots ; and ctit out care- fully all the lateral shoots close to the base of the buds, whence they have sprung. If the outer bark of the stem be decayed, rub it off clean ; and then nail or tie the shoots to the wall or trellis in a temporary manner. Fifth Year. — Febniaiy 1. — As soon after this time as the weather is open, cut out of each shoot the first, second, fourth, fiflli, and sixth buds ; then bend the two shoots care- fully down, and secure them in a horizontal j)osition, similar to that represented by the shoots ill the adjoining figure., March 1. — Clean the surface of the ground, and fork it up as ill the ;)receding year. May 1. — 'J'laia the shoots that push from the buds 3 and 7, in the manner represented by the dotted lines 1, 2, 3, 4, and if more fruit shows than is equivalent to the weight before mentioned, the excess must be cut off when the berries are set. July 15. — Continue the same course of management as in the preceding year, and CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. 185 when the roots require watering, they are liquid manure that can be most conveniently now sufficiently strong to have ap[)lied to obtained. September 1. — Pinch otT the tops them for that purpose any description of | of the shoots, and the sap will then accumu late in the buds. Here we will leave our author, and pursue a somewhat different treatment. Early in October, or soon after the fruit is gathered, let the shoots numbered 1 and 4 be cut back to as many buds as may •be deemed necessary to produce the quantity of fruit which the vine can mnture the next year, and let those marked 2 and 3 be cut back to the three lowermost buds. The lat- eral shoots, as also the stumps of the tendinis, should be cut out as directed in the preceding year. Let the loose and decayed bark be rul)b^(l or scraped off, and the shoots fistened Lo the wall or trellis, to protect them during tlie winter. Sixth Yeak. — Commence early in March, and treat the ground in every respect, during the season, as in ihe preceding year, taking care to incorpora'e all the leaves or clippings of the vines with the earth about the roots Earlv in Mav. or as soon as the shoots num- l)ered 2 and 3 have irrown a sjifficientlengih, fasten them carefully to the wmII or ti'ellis, and let them grow until the first of July. Then cut out the weakest of the three young shoots, and treat ihe two remaining ones (as indicated in the adjoining figure) precisely as those numbered 1 and 4 were the year pre- ceding, due care being observed to deprive all the shoots of any supei-fluous fruit or leaves which may put forth. In October, soon after tlif} iiTiit is gathered from the shoots num- bered 1 and 4, cut them down to the three lowermost buds, thus reserving one to spare in case of accident, in order to produce double shoots the following year. No farther 186 CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. treatment will be required Ihuii rubbing or scraping off all loose and decayed bark from the vines, until the next spring. Seventh Year and Subsequent Treat- ment.—Commence early in the month of March, and treat the gi'ound throushout the season as directed for the preceding year. Early in May, or as soon as the shoots num- bered 1 and 4 have attained a sufficient length, carefully liisten them to the wall or trellis, and let them grow until the first of July. Th^ni cut out the weakest oi'the three young shoots, and treat the two remaining ones (in- dicated by 1 and 4 in the annexed figure) in every respect as those numbered 2 and 3 were the year before. By the end of the 7th year, if the plant belongs to a vineyard, in which the vines are grown at the distance of six feet apait. it will have acquired a suffi- cient number of leading shoots to bear fruit in abundance. But if it be an isolated vine, thf> hf"'izontal branches may be allowed to extend themselves, and a pair of new shoots added each year, as long as the fertility of the soil and the nature of the situation may re- quire it. During every subsequent year, the treatment of the ground during spring and summer should be the same as i:i the two seasons preceding. Early in September, the tons of the young shoots should be phiched off, in order that the sap may be assimilated into buds ; and in October, or soon after har- vesting the grapes, cut back the shoots of the same year and leave but four eyes to each ; as, by li.'aving too m-my, the vine becomes exhausted and yields but little fniit, and is soon destroyed by premature decay. The shoots should be cut off in an oblique direc- tion, opposite to, and about ati inch and a half above, the fourth eye from the old wo:)d, in such a manner as will shed the rain and ;Jlow the buds to suffer no injury from the wet. In the course of the month of May, the vines should be examined .and all the shoots from the old wood rubbed off; and if an eye of the la-st year's grow'.h should be found to pro- duce twin shoots, the weakest of the two must be removed, in order that the remaining one may the better thrive. In the course of the seasim, the superfhious leaves and twigs must often be thinned out; and about the first of September, as in the preceding years pinch off the tops of the shoots, in order that the sap mav assimilate in the buds that are to be reserved for the next year. If the vines appear to be too exuberant, they may be pruned at the roots, without injury, at any season of the year. The most convenient pe- riod, however, for performing this operation, where the climate is mikl, is in November, when the roots should be exposed to the light and air, by drawing away the earth, and let- ting them remain till sprinsr ; but where the winters are severe, and subject to continued ice and frost, eaily in December thev should be re-covered with earth, mixed with well- rotted manure, leaf-mould, husks and seeds of grapes, or the clippings and leaves of vines. If they remain exposed during wnnter. early in March the earth should be restf)red, and mixed with the manure or other snbslances, as naini^d .ihove. Th' ; mode was called "ab- latjueatio " by the Romans, and is still prac- ticed with advantage in some parts of Italy and Spain. Although spring and summer pmning of the vine may advantageously be adopted in all countries of the globe, yet in places ex- THE SHEPHERD S DOG. 187 posed to the sun, with mild wn'nlers, {mining in autumn is thought to be tlie best, the most natiu'iil, at which time trees and nhrnhs, by a divine and eternal law, drop both their fruit and leaves. "Snag pruning" is thought to be pi-eferable by some, because, in " close pruning " the wounds s|)read, and pi-eveiU the piotrusion of buds near the atiected |)arts ; but if these parts be covered at the time of pruning willi a preparation of fine earth or white-lead, mixed wiUi linseed oil, they will innuediately heal. Mr. Loudon, in treating of the vine, men- tions three modes of pinning it in hol-lioiises, viz : the fruit-tree method, in which the plant is spread out in the manner of a fan, and trained like a common friut ti'ee ; the long or young-wood method, in which all the wood above a year old is cut out down to the stool or stock ; and the spurring-in method, in which the fruit ispioduced from yomig wood grown amiually from the seeds of the main .^hoot, or shoots of okl wood. The last two method.s ho I'egards as the best. It i.s cnstoin.iiy with many to cultivate Hovvers, or vegeinbles of vannus kinds, be- tween or near their xni'-s. without rcHecting that they are doing tliein gii-at injiny by ab- stracting their pio|ier noiiri>linii'iit liom the soil; a practice not only siricily guarded against by the most intelligent vine-dressers of the present day, but condi'inned by all ancieiU writers on the sul)ject ; ami .Moses, in exhorting the |)eo))le ol" Israid. very forcibly elucidated liis discourse by coiMnuiinling them not to tiefile their vineyartls with the liuit of divers seeds : "Thou Shalt not sow thy viiirynnl wiih divors sends; lest llie IViiil ol" ihy semi which ihnii hiist sown, and the iVuit of thy vinoyHvd, ln' dcliird '' Iikctkhono.mv, x\ii. '). Thus plainly showing that the wisdom and prudence of this imjiortant law was well un- derstood even at that early day. THE SHEPHERD'S DOG. WITH SKETCHES AND ANECDOTES. Extract of a letter from G. W. Lafayktte — Chava- niac,* Nov. 5, 1845 — to tho lato John S. Skinner. " I am here in a place very dear to me — the house ill which my fatlicr was born. I will re- luaiu until December, ilie time at vvliich 1 will have to attend die Chamber of Deputies in Pari.'J. ■' You must not tliink I have forirottcn the Do£?s. To send useful animals so far, it is ne- cessary to choose them with disccniment. I liope to be able to fend you two dogs from Brie. well b>.)ken ; the oivc to remain near the shep- herd, the other on tho outside of tlie tlock. I will send you, also, two doirs from Anvera-ne, equal to thc-^e of Uie Alps or Pyrenees. You will receive, at the .same time, instructions as to the eniplojunent of each.'' * Ghavaniac — the birth-place of General Lafay- ette, inherited hy George W. Lafayette from his Aunt, Madame de Lusignac. The Shepherd's Dog of Brie is about as large as a mcdiumsizcd Setter — with lone, rough, wiry hair, generally, though not al- ways, black ; bright, Intelligent, but rather wild-look- ing eyes : in fonn loose and gangling, for action and endurance incomparable. With different and suit able training, be is also of great use to the drover. In the mountainous parts of France, the wolves are frequently forced by the snows into the valleys and plains, vvhcre from their size and voracity, they be- come exceedingly dangerous to both man and beast — not unfrequently destroying both, in the very midst of the villages. In these regions, the flocks are pro- tected hy large mastiffs — dogs of the largest size, of gi-eat intelligence, and of magnificent appearance — two of which are considered more than a match for any wolf. The breed exists in its greatest purity in the Pyrenees. The disposition which exists to e.stabli.sh large .sheep farms in the mountainous and other por- tions of the Southern States, so far south as not to require cultivated food in winter, can never be carried out succes.sfully until some legislative provision is made against sheep killing dogs, and until there shall exist a more general con- viction of die indispensable services of Shep- herd's Dogs, and provision be ma(ie for a more general supply of them, with tlie knowle, Q V.1 b f 1 which the benignant stores of mother Earth will forego all thoughts of improving the " dull pur- „Qt |,g soueht after. suits of civil life," and all that contributes to the The cultivation of the ground, in all its de- fniitfalnes.s of the country and the quiet happi- I partments, manifests the high honor which is . , II,, /-->!. I 7 • ' attached to human wisdom and skill by the ness of the people ! Ok ! «-e are a glorious . ^^.^^^ Lawgiver of the univer,=e. Nature, wild nation ! " and landholders of all classes the j ^nd untcnded. will produce luxuriantly the in- most zealous, acute and alert in all that concerns | digennus fruits of the soil, but demands fore- their real, true interests ! 1st. Writedown asmanysTiecics of tliefollow- in? genera as you may remember to be under culture in Enc'land, stating their country, char- acter of the plants, whether trees, &c. descrip- tion of culture, whether stove, &;c. natural or- der : — Beibcris, Nymplupa, Cleoiiie, Allha?a. Pistacia, Senipervivum, Lonicera, Eupatoriuin, Vaccinium, Asdepias, Ajuga, Vitex, Croton, Dors'eniii, Neottia, Pancratium, Ruscus, Pas- palum. Stipa. 2d. Name a few of the principal genera un- der culture, ill the following orders: — Tiliace^n!, RutacejK. Apocynefp, Scrophularinene, Coni- fenp. Iridea?. Cyperacem. .td. How do you distinguish the followinsr or- ders from each other : — Papaveracere from Nym- phtpacejB. Capparideffi from CrucifersB, Cype- racerfi from Graminea;? 4th. Point out the difference in the structure of the fruit of the Mulberry, Raspbeiry, and Strawberrj-. thought and labor from her dependents, before she yields to them her most valuable riches. By ob.«ervation, man has improved upon the pa.st. and better methods of cultivation are constantly discovered. Now, in this process of induction, or the Baconian method, as it is called in [ihi- losophy. the amateur gardener has employed efforts which have often been crowned with eminent success. Tho.-e who till hundreds of acres as the means of .subsistnnce have seldom the courage to perform experiments on a large scale; but the owner of a .^niall garden can do so with pleasure unmingled with the fear of loss. Affriculture has thus been indebted to the lov- ers of gardening for many -fiscoveries, liy which the wealth of nations ha> liecn in<'reased, and every amateur, however limited he his domain, may hope to add to the ma.«s of knowledge. If, by the application of manure in .some novel man- ner, or by experiments in hybridizing or cross- ing, a vcLTCtable mav f>e made more productive, the application of this principle may result in a grand uation;!! beuclit. 1 have a great respect ABIMONIA AND WATER IN GUANO. 191 for working gardeners of ail grades, for this rea- Bon, tliat they are the silent and modest precur- sors of those great changes by which the veget- able property' of a country acquires an enhanced value. Whether, therefore, you are delighting in an exclusive garden adjoining a country resi- dence, or looking proudly on the beauties of a suburban retreat I thus remind you of a very important argument to be employed in the de- fence of your pursuits. But I turn with pleasure from the objects con- templated by the spade and the plow to flowers, those luxuries of Nature, given to reward man for his obedience to the law, " In the svs-eat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread." The.se em- blems of purity and innocence are like the briglit eyes which animated the knights of the tournament, calling forth their exertions and re- warding their conquests. The matchless charms of flowers force the attention of the most taste- less of mortals, and win the hearts of tlie sus- ceptible and refined. A child once said that the stars were little holes pricked in the firma- ment to let Heaven's glory through ; a truthful idea, though linked to a physical error. Apply the same mode of reasoning to flowers, and what can they be but emanations of the beauty and happiness which reside in the mind of an Infinite Being ? Their utility is less manifest than their subserviency to the wants of our in- tellectual nature, since they appeal almost ex- clusively to what is refined and sentimental and poetic in our constitution. Seed is produced without the accompaniment of a splendid co- rolla, with its ^vondrous sanctuary of stamens and pistils, as in the case of all kinds of corn, so that utility is rather associated with that which is plain and unattractive. But the mo.st glorious structures of tlie floral world belong to plants which, in reference to man's bodily wants, may be called useless. Trade v^ould go on, and for- tunes be made, if the world If (Hir readers desire to eec this exceeded, we would beg to refer them to the letter of Mr. William Brown, member of the British Parliament, published in oui* last number, and they will find it far exceeded. Mr. B. there assures his friends that they are the greatest of all the exporters of food in the world, and that they are so because thei/placn the food in that wo7iderful compressing machine, the human stomach, to nourish and sup- port the men who are employed in converting the cotton and the wool into cloth, and the coal and the ore into iron, and that thus it is that they are enabled to send their food to all the world. The Illinois farmer sends his corn to market, obtaining fur it fifteen AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. 201 or twenty cents a bushel. It travels to Liverpool, where it sells at sixty or seventy- cents a bushel, and then having been packed away according to Mr. Brown's receipt, he buys it back again at two or three dollars a bushel ; and thus it is that he is to be en- riched by Bi-itish free trade ! ON THE AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. [^Continued from p. 149..] SECONDYEAR. BARLEY. Of late years it has been common, from the very low price of barley, to sow all the early cleared turnip land with wheat, either as soon as the turnips are eaten, or during the succeeding month of February. This practice appears to some persons open to objection. If half the turnip land is sown with wheat instead of barley in each year, it will in due time bring the whole of the land to produce wheat three times instead of twice in eight years, or during every two courses ; and whether tlie weak soils of this county are capable of supporting the practice permanently is the point on which some cautious minds demur. That it is desirable for all land to have as frequent change of cropping as possible, so long as such change is attended with profit to occupiers, none will venture to deny. The respective prices of the two kinds of grain for the time being Avill go far to determine for or against the practice. And whilst farmers, who have made so great an outlay on their turnip crop, can, as we have known to be the case, grow forty bushels and upwards of fine wheat to the acre, instead of perhaps as much barley — worth only two thirds the price of the wheat, and with far less risk of being spoilt in the harvesting — they will not fail to regard present profit notwithstanding a contingency of future loss. The land intended to be sown with barley is ploughed as soon as cleared of the turnips, to prevent waste by evaporation of that manure which has been left by the sheep, and also its being washed by heavy rains irregularly upon the surface. The land should then have a second ploughing before the barley is sown, as it is found to ripen more equally after two ploughings than one, and also, we think, to withstand the drought more etFectually if the fol- lowing summer should prove a dry one. The season of sowing seldom com- mences before the 20th of March, and even that is earlier than many will sow, lest the frosts should injure the plant when young. The largest breadth is sown duiing the early part of April ; the season continues, however, up to the month of May, but the quality of the produce is mostly inferior when sown thus late. The most generally approved kinds of seed are the Welsh and Chevalier. The quantity of seed sown varies with the mode of sowing ; if sown by hand, which is the practice of many, upon the common furrow, and harrowed in by the drag-harrow, from 14 to 10 pecks an acre are used ; but if drilled, not more than 22 pecks are necessary. THIRD YEAR. GRASS SEEDS, OR CLOVER. The grass seeds are sown most frequently at the same time with the bar- ley, although the prudence of the custom is, Ave think, questionable, and has not received the consideration tliat it deserves. It is said that if seeds are sown thus early with the barley they take so much better than if sown latter ; and the practice is, on that ground, defended, without, perhaps, at all weigh- ing the serious injury that is occasioned to the barley by such rampant 202 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. growth of various plants at its roots. Is it }iot probable that the exuberant growth of clover, and its accompanying grasses, is equally hurtful to the cereal crop, whether wheat or barley, with the exuberant growth of so many "weeds, if they were permitted, but which are, by all good farmers, carefully removed ? Another great evil in allowing the clover to make so much head arises from the increased difficulty of harvesting well the barley crop. Now, by driUing in the barley in the first instance, and when it well covers the ground to hoe in the clover seeds, will, in our humble opinion, in most seasons be found far better as regards the grain crop, and not in the end much Avorse as relates to the seeds. Of red clover 12 pounds, with half a peck of rye- grass, to the acre, is generally found sufficient. For summer pasture is re- quired of white or Dutch clover 10 pounds, with 2 pounds of rib-grass, and 2 pounds of trefoil, accompanied by 2 pecks of dwarf rye-grass. The season for cutting the early sown barley is rarely retarded beyond the last week in July or the first in August. This is most commonly done by the scythe, which is followed by a woman, who gathers the mown corn into sheaves by means of a i-ake having three or four long iron teeth ; she places the sheaf upon a straw band, made usually by one of the children. The man then binds the sheaves, and, as he returns to the point from which he started, the woman carries his scythe. In this manner an active family will clear five roods in the day, for which they receive from 5s. to Ys. 6d. an acre, according as the crop may be light or heavy, including the stooking and raking after- wards. From the more than ordinary scarcity of pasturage Avhich the occupier of these dry soils has to contend with during the months of August and Sep- tember, he is generally obliged to stock the young clover during the autumn, and perhaps, if not eaten too lotv, it may be benefited by the treading of sheep, more than injured by the pasturing. It is, however, the invariable custom to clear the ground before the severe frosts come on, and to allow no- thing to go upon them until the following spring, when they are required for the ewes and lambs. With these they are, in most cases, stocked ; and when an allowance of half a pound of linseed-cake to each ewe is made, they will often carry five or six ewes and their lambs to the acre up to weaning time, but the number kept depends much on the moisture of the season. The red clover is generally mown fur fodder for the working horses during the winter months, the after crop being reserved for the lambs when weaned. The pro- priety of pasturing lambs on the second crop of red clover has been much debated, as great losses frequently ensue from it ; such, in particular, has been the case on some farms during the present year. It has been suggested, and we think with good reason, that the danger arises from its being done when the clover is too young, which induces flatulency and disorder of the stomach and bowels, and ends in diarrhoea, which often proves fatal to lambs at that season of the year. It has been almost the universal practice to allow the grass seeds to remain down for pasture tvi'o years, and often longer, before the land is ploughed up for wheat. An opinion now, however, prevails in favor of ploughing it up after one year, as it is found that as much wheat can be grown after one year's seeds as upon those of longer growth, which, perhaps, may be accounted for on the ground of the fibrous roots of such seeds as are the growth of one year being sufficient for the support of the succeeding wheat crop; whereas, "when of longer standing, a season commensurate is required, before the roots can decompose, and become available matter for the support of other plants. The red clover is seldom allowed to remain down longer than one year, AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. 203 doubtless from the circumstance of its deteriorating more than the white after that time. FOURTH TEAR. WHEAT. The season for sowing wheat on the warm soils of this district commences now much later than it formerly did. Very httle is sown before the last week in October, but November is the principal month for this important operation. The customary mode of prejiaring the ground is by ploughing and pressing the clover ley, one presser following two ploughs. There is no neater mode of performing the work when it is well done. It is, neverthe- less, objected to by some good farmers, on the ground that the grass is liable to grow up between the furrows, so as to interfere materially with the after growth of the wheat. The almost universality of the practice in the district seems to furnish an argument against that objection. It has, however, been met more effectually by a plough invented some yeare ago by Mr. Hodgkinson of Morton Grange, which is termed a " skim-coulter plough." The advantage he proposed was, that it shoidd take off a thin furrow from the surface before ploughing the main one : the sward would, by that means, be effectually disposed of by being thrown to the bottom of each furrow, and could not grow through to the injury of the wheat. The Avhole is performed by one plough, which requires four horses. Its adoption would certainly increase the labor of the wheat seed-time, but it would, at the same time, carry out a most important principle of good farming, we mean that of deep ploughing, (to which it is, undoubtedly, a preliminary step,) on almost every kind of soil. Deep drilling follows of necessity on deep ploughing, which is an ob- ject of the last consequence on soils liable to suffer from drought. The quantity of seed sown is regulated by the quality of the soil, less being required where the soil has sti-ength to cause it to tiller during the winter months. Few sow less than 9 pecks to the acre, and on the light soils as much as 12 pecks is sown. The amount of seed is a subject that has been too often discussed to leave room for much that is new to be said upon it. We may, nevertheless, observe that custom_^in this district has fixed u])oa ^ about 10 pecks an acre as the most desirable quantity. If sown thick the ears will be small, and the yield, regarded individually, will be found defec- tive. If, on the other hand, it is sown not thick enough, an increased expense is incurred in hoeing to keep down the weeds, and nature, in seeking to supply what is wanting, will continue to throw out, as the roots gain the requisite power, a succession of ears until so late in the season that it will be impossible for the crop to ripen uniformly ; the inevitable consequence of which will be an undue proportion of small and defective grain in the produce. White wheat in its several varieties is almost exclusively sown on the sands, and the one which for some }'vars has taken precedence of all others, at least in the northern part of the county, is " Hunter's White Wheat," in favor of which so strong a feeling exists, that it is thought by many to be unequalled for this soil and climate. So great is its popularity, that it is extending its fame generally throughout the cold soils of the clay districts, on which at one time white wheat was seldom or never atteApted to be grown. It is held in high request also by the millers, from whom it commands the best price. It would be difficult to give a decided opinion on the average produce of the wheat crop ; but we may nevertheless state, that on well cultivated farms of ordinary quality it is seldom below 30 bushels an acre ; and on the higher farmed land of good quahty, not much, if any below 40 bushels. 204 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. Of barley, the fluctuation in produce is greater as the season suits it or otherwise. On the average, it may be stated at 4 J quarters, although in some instances a field will yield 7 or 8 quarters an acre. The harvesting of the Avheat crop is now more frequently done by the scythe than by the sickle. The work is performed as described in the harvest- ing of barley. Mowing has several advantages over reaping with the sickle. It is cheaper, far more expeditious, and clears the ground at once of all stub- ble and Aveeds. If well done, the grain is found not to suifer so much in wet weather as when reaped by the sickle, which may be easily accounted for by its being looser in the sheaf, which allows the rain to pass more easily through it. From the same cause it admits more freely the sun and wind, and is in C£>nsequence sooner ready to carry. A strong prejudice existed for some years against the practice, but it has now given way, the advantages being too decided to be any longer doubted. The price is from 6^. to 8s. per acre, and occasionally 9s. may be given, which includes mowing, taking up and binding the sheaves, as well as taking up and bindino- the rakinofs. Oats are not much sown on the sand lands ; a crop is sometimes taken after two years' grass seeds, as fodder for the working horses ; the land being afterwards manured and sown with wheat. In general, two white crops in succession are opposed to good farming ; but when the land is in high con- dition, and obtains an extra dressing of manure as compensation, it cannot reasonably be objected to. Peas both white and gray are occasionally sown in the place of the red clover crop, under an impression that the land in the following course will be more certain for clover. They are drilled wide so that the horseshoe may be applied. A single crop of ])eas is not unfrequently taken after the wheat crop, the land being fallowed the succeeding year for Swede turnips. Vetches are sown extensively for soiling the working horses during the summer months. Those for early mo\^ing are sown on the wheat stubble as soon as that crop has been removed, and are protected during the winter by an admixture of rye. A succession of crops is provided throughout the season ; the land, as we have before stated, is sown with white turnips as soon as it is cleared of the vetches. The most economical manner of using vetches is to cut them with a proportion of dry fodder ; the horses will, when thus fed, go through their work much better, and be less liable to sufter from disorders of the stomach and bowels, occasioned by feeding too freely on them in an unmixed state, when they return hungry from their work. On most of the large farms, the cutting of chaff for horse food is performed by horse power. In some instances steam-engines have been erected, which, in addition to the cutting of chaff, thresh out the grain, as well as grind what is necessary for the use of tlie farm. Earl Spencer has had one on his farm at Wiseton for several years past, Mr. Smith, of Gringley-on-the-IIill, has lately erected a small, but complete engine, which is capable of threshing out about eight quarters of wheat an hour, and is made applicable to several other useful purposes. These, and more which might be mentioned, we doubt not will be but the forerunners of others, as the necessity for economy in every de- partment of labor shall become more urgent. On referring to Mr, Lowe's Report upon the State of Agriculture in Not- tinghamshire in 1794, we find mention made of practices adopted at that time by certain individuals, which bespeak an intelligence and enterj>rise much b'-yond their day; as for example, the application of bones at the rate of 50 bushels an acre to the turnip crop, and of rape-dust at the rate of half AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. 20-5 a ton an acre ; those individuab possessing moreover the foresight to deter- mine on the four course system, as the best adapted to the district, when, after so many years' experience, it has become universal These persons had also the sagacity to perceive the great superiority of the Leicester sheep over the other breeds then known in the count}'', and spared no expense in bring- ing it to perfection. It must be confessed that such statements of the farm- ing of fifty years back are calcuhited somewhat to startle us, when drawing a comparison between it and the agriculture of the present day. In carefully revising Mr. Lowe's report, however, we think it clear that the instances he there adduces of such spirit and intelligence were confined to the practices of the few, and formed little or no part of those of the many. In every age are found persons gifted with minds superior to the mass of those around them, who, anticipating improvements, the r ecessity of which is not admitted by their neighbors, shape their conduct by their own convic- tions, indifferent to the prejudices of others. AVe have no wish to become detractors from what is justly due to our an- cestors of the eigliteenth century ; but we think that very little reflection is needed to show that their movements must of necessity have been confined within a narrow circle by the disadvantages with which they were at the time surrounded, which disadvantages must have formed an almost insurmountable barrier to any thing approaching a perfect system of farming. When a considerable poi'tion of the county was uninclosed, when the art of drainage was all but unknown, and at a time when the prime virtue of the husbandman w-as the observance of a rigid economy — far too rigid, we should imaging, to allow of that liberal Investment of capital which has since proved the foundation of all the essential improvements which have taken place — with all these disadvantages, and especially the want of requisite information on subjects in general connected with his profession, on which science has since thrown light and knowledge, we cannot but infer that the agriculture of 1794 must have been, as compared with that of 1844, very defective and imperfect as a whole. SHEEP. The pure Leicester, or a cross of that with the larger framed animal from Lincolnshire and the Yorkshire wolds, is the general stock of the county. Nottinghamshire has long been famous for its superior breed of sheep. Mr. Lowe makes mention of the names of several celebrated breeders of Leices- ter rams J chiefly resident in the southern part of the county, who*svere, at the time he wrote, going to great expense in improving the breed of sheep ; giv- ing even at that time as much as 100 guineas for a ram. It appears from his report, that Mr. Bakewell's celebrated stock had then been introduced about twenty years. The spirit infused by that eminent breeder has, wo be- lieve, been unceasingly at work ever since. It is well known that the late Duke of Bedford once hired for the season a ram of the late Mr. Buckley, of Normanton, for the suni of 800 guineas ; end also, that Messrs. Thorpe, Dud- ding Loft, and Marris, paid to the same gentleman 1000 guineas for the hire of a ram. The success of Mr. Burgess, of Holm-pierrepont, at the last Christmas show in Loudon, will alone prove the high place he holds in the present day, not only as compared with his neighbors, but as challenging competition with the country at large. And although these names belong more properly to the other division of the county, their owners are honored, and have their merits recognized, alike in both. Nearly every farmer in this western district is a breeder of sheep. The 206 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. country is more adapted to the support of that animal than to any other ; and it is doubtful whether so certain a profit is attainable by any other method of stocking a farm as by the farmer raising his own flock. For the difierence between the price of poor stock, and the same animals when made fat, ha* of late vears been so small, as not unfrequently to leave little or no profit to the person in whose hands that change has been effected. On the othei* hand, the fault of those who breed lies too often in breeding more than they can well keep at all seasons, and thereby materially lessening their profits. We are convinced that any infringement of the above as a rule, will assuredly in- adverse seasons be attended by greater loss than is ever made amends for, by the profits of more favorable years. We have before observed that it is the general practice to sell the wether hogs fat before midsummer, when, without any great forcing, they will fre- quently attain a weight of from 20 to 22 lbs. a quarter, their fleeces averag- ing from 7 to 9 lbs. To bring about this result when allowance is made for the number kept on the acre, no time must be lost, and it can only be accom- plished by giving them fruitful pasturage on clover seeds during the summer, and by putting them early to turnips in the autumn, with an allowance of linseed-cake or corn, mixed with culm or chaft", to meet the wants of the ani- mal during that season especially when it is fed on the turnip, a food not natural to it, and for that reason requiring the assistance of some such aux- iliary. Daring the several years when there was an annual prize show at Blyth, (which is now discontinued,) the animals from this district exhibited there might have borne comparison with any others that could have been brought against them. The show took place in May, at the fair which is held during that month. The competition was between the exhibitors of the best pen of 20 wether hogs, clipped. The age of the sheep would then be about 15 months. The weights to which these animals attained were in some instan- ces 35 lbs. a quarter, and even more. Amongst the most successful of those competitors was Mr. Allison, of Bilby, who has for many yeai-s distinguished himself as a breeder of pure Leicester sheep. We mention the above only to show what may be obtained by superior blood, with unremitting care and attention, Southdowns are kept on some of the large estates, but they do not obtain a place amongst the general stock of the county. We greatly doubt, indeed, in opposition to all that has been said to the contrary by the advocates of Southdowns, whether they can compete with the Leicesters, age and weight considered. We made an experiment some years ago between the two, pla- cing them as far as possible on an equal footing, and the result determined itself greatly in favor of the Leicesters. When fat lambs are wanted foi- an early market, the Southdowns possess an advantage, by being more hardy, more prolific, and nursing their lambs better than the Leicester ewes ; but where the lambs are required to be wintered, and then go to an early market, they fail in both mutton and wool; their habits are more erratic, they want the quietude which the Leicesters posssess, and which contributes so much to their being made fat. Before we quit this subject, we cannot but briefly advert to the greatly increased number of sheep now kept in this district, conq)ared with the time when Mr. Lowe wrote. Many persons can remember, subsequently to that period, when forest farms of 300 acres of land had not more than 50 ewes upon them, and these of an inferior kind, and that much difficulty was often experienced in supporting them through the winter. These same farms in AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. ENGLAND. 207 the present day, as "we can bear testimony, support from 500 to VOO slieep throughout the winter — the greater part of which are sent fat to market at weights of from 80 lbs. to 120 lbs. each. We need scarcely observe that the breed of sheep known formerly as the one peculiar to this district, and called " The Forest Sheep," is now nearly extinct. Judging from the general appearance of the few which remain, they mdicate an animal more likely to endure hardships than to repay any expen- diture in attempting to improve it. As there is but very little permanent grass land in this district, the number of beasts kept is greater during the winter than the summer months. Many cf the farmers sell off almost all they winter in the spring months, to the summer grazier, and buy in again to supply themselves in the following au- tumn. When the turnip crop is an abundant one, the number of fat cattle sent to mai'ket throughout the winter is very great. When that crop is less abundant, much fewer are made fat, the farmer's attention being directed chiefly to the converting of his straw into good manure, without drawing many turnips to be consumed in the yards. Any profit that he might realize on the feeding of cattle, he well knows would be more than counterbal- anced by a diminished crop of barley, where such turnips ought to have been eaten on the ground. He accordingly contents himself with preparing beasts for the summer grazier by sending such stock to market in good condition, rather than by fattening them himself to the injury of his farm. This he does by giving to each beast a moderate allowance of linseed-cake, varying from 4 to 6 lbs., according to their size, other circumstances also being con- sidered. The animal is thereby kept healthy, and with only a daily allow- ance of 4 lbs., which is the minimum of what ought to be given, will at least maintain its condition. Each beast will thus cost during the six winter months from three to four pounds, more or less, according to the price of cake at the time. When, however, the farmer has in prospect his nest year's turnip crop, and looks still beyond to the barley crop which is to succeed, a proportion of his beasts will most probably be allowed 8 lbs., and such as are being made fat, from 12 to 16 lbs. each, which will impart a power and goodness to his manure, visible wherever it is apphed for years afterwards. The best farmers have long since ceased to give cake to their stock, at those times only when they find a profit on that stock to justify them in doing so. They now look upon the conversion of their straw into the best possible ma- nure as an object of the highest importance to their farms. They calculate • how they shall use the greatest amount of cake, which they regard as an in- dispensable in good farming, at the least possible loss ; for, as prices both of beef and mutton have of late been, they must necessarily incur a loss if they expect their remuneration from the live stock, instead of from the land. The farmers take a wide view in this matter, and we think regard their interests in their true light. Mr. Pusey has observed, in his spirited description of Lin- colnshire farming, that there the cattle are looked upon only as " machines whereby to make manure," and upon the same principle does the Notts farmer act when he considers his straw, which increases year by year with the im- proved condition of his farm, as a " vast number of tubes," whose use is to be filled with liquid manure, and carried out to the support of his future crops. Beasts are bred to a greater or less extent on most farms, the only breed being, with few exceptions, the Durham, or as they come now to be styled, 208 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. " the Improved Short-Horns," of which the county can boast some of the best specimens in the kingdom. Earl Spencer's celebrated herd at Wiseton is too well known to require further notice here than to state, that we be- lieve his Lordship contiimes to feel an imdiminished interest in that depart- ment of farming. Mr. Parkinson's herd of Leyfields, near Newark, has also acquired a high character, to which it Avill be admitted to be fully entitled, by all who have seen it. ' Mr. Parkinson is owner of the celebrated bull, " Sir Thomas Fairfax," to which was awarded the first prize, as the best short-horn bull, by the lloyal Agricultural Society in 1842. Mr. Watson, of Walker- ingham, has in the coarse of a few years attained great eminence as a breeder of short-horn beasts, and is in possession of a bull, " Lord Adolphus Fairfax," of perhaps equal merit with his sire, "Sir Thomas Fairfax." These herds are well known amongst breeders, but the county has many others of less fame,- though of distinguished merit, to which we only allude for the purpose of showing that their influence must have been very great on the general stock of the district. The most cursory observer has only to walk through any cattle feir in the county in the present day, to be struck with the improved appearance of the stock of all kinds, compared with what could have been seen a few years ago. Calves are reared both by the pail, and by sucking the dam, or a foster- mother ; but the point which appears to require most attention in the perfect rearing of any kind of stock, consists in promoting without any check a con- tinued progression after weaning, without any loss of condition at that time, or indeed at any time afterwards. An instance of the effect of such a mode of treatment was given us some time ago by Mr. Brooke, in a large lot of bullocks, fed on the farm of the Hon. John Simpson, at Babworth, which averaged, when about two years and one month old, upwards of 60 stone each of 14 lbs to the stone. PIGS. Those who have pursued farming more as an amusement than from any profit to be derived from it, are observed generally to have evinced a greater disposition to improve the breed of pigs than of any other animal. It is especially the poor man's property, and this may account for the additional interest which has been taken in its improvement. Certainly no other animal has been subjected to so complete a metamorphosis during the last twenty years. Instead of the long-eared, coarse-ofi'alled animal, which was common formerly, and which was as difficult to make fat as it was hard and unpalata- ble to eat when so made, may be now seen a compact creature, with small ears, short snout, deep in the sides and thighs, with leg^ short, and seemingly unequal to support the superincumbent weight which it is their office to carry. It has been often said by various judges at the local agricultural shows in this county, that the show of pigs has been superior to any thing they have witnessed in any other part of the kingdom. And yet with such celebrity, we are quite at a loss by what term to describe the peculiarity of breed. One of the best breeds with which we are acqnainted was supplied by the late Mr. Fowkes, of Barmborough Grange; it has been bred very closely, and without a single cross from any other source for more than thirty years. The breed to which we allude is that of Mr. Crofts, of Blyth, from which has emanated much of the best blood in the district. Viscount Galway has also a very superior breed of a similar caste, at his Lordship's scat at Serlby, which combines with great size the best quality, being quite equal in that respect to the Neapolitan or Chinese, yet in its general character bearing little affinity AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. 209 to either ; possessing a larger frame, attaining with nothing beyond ordinary keeping at 14 or 15 months old, 25 stone and upwards. This breed of pigs has the greatest possible aptitude to fatten, and is made fat at the least pos- sible expense ; a merit which the cottager has discovered and fully appreci- ates. In default of a better distinguishing title, it will be no misnomer to call it The Improved Nottinghamshire Pig. HOKSES. In this district the ploughing is invariably done by two horses abreast. The horses in general use are of a more active kind than formei'ly, being found to get over the ground much quicker than the old Lincolnshire breed, which in this part of the country is now nearly extinct. Many of the mares have of late years been crossed by a Cleveland stallion, brought into the county at a great expense by Mr, AVatson, of Walkeringhara, whose spirited exertions in behalf of agriculture in every branch are well known. This cross has unquestionably been an excellent one for the light soils, by impart- ing to the ploughing horses a mettle and speed which they before wanted. Many however of the farmers buy their horses as they require them, at two or three years old, of the graziers of the Trent side district, where the permaneijt grass land ofl'ers a more suitable pasturage than the sheep-Avalks of their own. Premiums are given also for blood horses by the Agricultural Societies ; but they do not receive much attention from the majority of farmers. With the late increased demand for good horses, both in the home market and on the continent, the prospect of remuneration in that department has been cer- tainly equal to any other. The farmer looks, and not unwisely we presume, at the long period of five years, which must elapse before the animal is mar- ketable, and also at a certain risk during that length of time, with perhaps an uncertain profit at the end of it. Any speculation which requires such a length of time to decide it, does not, we confess, present a very encouraging field to enter upon ; nevertheless, if the first principle of breeding be looked to, which is that " like produces like," and we were to expect good ones only from good ones, we belie\-e that the uncertainty would be much lessened. The Yorkshire Wolds have been long regarded as the nursery for our best blood-horses, the breeding of which has tlaere been considered lucrative, from its being confined to such horses only. The degree of success will depend much on the stallions introduced into the district being of first-rate character ; but as these are a class which can only be had for high prices, and which it does not suit the generality of breeders to supply, they must be introduced, if at all, by the wealthy and influential. {To be continued.) To Secure the Feuiting of a Tree. — The following directions may, probably, be in- teresting to some experimentalists and amateur gardeners. They were given to me sev- eral years ago by the late Lady G. Murray : — Select a tree well furnished witli blossom buds, just as they are beginning to expand. Take a potato-fork and with it make holes all over the surface of the space occupied by the roots, heaving the earth by pressing on the handle, and with this exertion make holes about 18 inches apart. Having dis- solved 1 oz. of nitre to 3 gallons of water, fill the holes with the solution. No manure must be given. Should, after stoning, the tree appear unable to sustain the fruit, the following preparation may be applied in the same manner. To 1 gal. of blood add 1 gal. of water and 1 oz. of potash. Stir the whole well together, and when it has set- tled, pour off the liquid, and mix 1 gal. of this lirocess the fibre is loft in a coarse and half cleaned state. It is now ready to undergo the chemical proceas and manipu- lations described in M. Claussen's pamphlet, and is also in a fit state for putting in bales like cotton or hemp, for market, and is worth from 850 to $60, or more, per ton, as prices now range, to persons who may engage in the busi- ness of completing the process and shipping the cotton to the manufacturers. The value of this material to the manufacturer will of course vary slightly according to the price of cotton, and may be supposed to bring about the same price, in its finished state, as fair qualities of cotton, say from 10 to 12 J cents per pound in New- York, or from 12|- to 14 cents in England. In estimating the cost of producing flax cotton in England, M. Claussen puts the value of the flax straw at $20 per ton; or of the rough fibre as cleaned by the grower at about 860 per ton ; then the cost of materials and labor for completing the process, at about 825 per ton of rough, or 850 per ton of finished fibre; making the total cost to the manufacturer about 8175 per ton — which he is sure is a liberal estimate ; and this is only about one half the ruling price of cotton for the past year. In regard to the value of the flax cotton for manufactuiing purposes, all the experiments that have as yet been tried seemed decidedly in its favor, whether used alone or mixed with cotton or with wool. I have examined fabrics of each class, and can testify that their appearance is good and their strength quite remarkable. I will inclose in this letter a small sam})le of the flax cotton, and also of unbleached muslin made from flax and other cotton mixed in equal proportions, for the inspection of any readers of the Cultivator who may be curious to see them. To show that experienced manufacturers have full confidence in the success of this new article, it may be stated that several large establishments are pre- pared to engage in the business as soon as the new crop can afford a supply of the material. Among these are the mills of Messrs. Quitzow, Schlessiuger FLAX COTTON. 213 & Co., near Bradford, and Mr. Dagan, near Cork, in Ireland ; also of Messrs. Bright Brothers & Co., Rochdale, England. Samples of the cloth woven at the mill of Messrs. Bright Brothers, of Roch- dale, were exhibted at the meeting of the Royal Agricultxxral Society, on the 26 th of February, as well as of the following articles, as noticed in the official report of the proceedings : — Sample of flax straw, prepared according to the new process, adapted for linen manu- factures. Sample of long fibre scutched from the above. Samples of pure flax fibre, or " British cotton," adapted for spmning on cotton machinery. Samples of yarn spun on cotton machinery, some from all above flax fibre, others mixed in various proportions with American cotton, those mixtures being termed by the inventor flax cotton. Samples of flax fibre prepared for mixing with wool. Samples of yarn produced on ordinary woollen machinery, composed of wool and flax in various proportions, termed by the inventor flax wool. Samples of flannel woven from the above. Samples of fine cloth woven from yarn composed of flax and wool in various propor- tions, and dyed. Flax fibre prepared for mixing with silk, and dyed of various colors. Flax fibre mixed with spun silk, and termed by the inventor flax silk. A sample of yarn produced from the above. Samples of flax-cotton yarn dyed of various colors. Samples of cloth woven from flax-cotton yarn and wool, dyed. After a full and careful investigation of the whole subject, the Royal Agri- cultural Society give tlie followiuig conclusions in their official report, in regard to the advantages of this method of preparing flax : That by the new process flax is rendered capable of being spun, either in whole or in part, on any existing spinning machinery. That the fibre to be mixed with cotton or spun alone on cotton machinery, is so com- pletely assimilated in its character to that of cotton, that it is capable of rcceivmg the same rich opaque color that characterizes all dyed cotton ; and, consequently, any cloth made from flax-cotton yarn can be readily printed, dyed, or bleached, by the ordinary cotton processes. Tliat the flax fibre can always be produced with profit to the British grower at a less price than cotton can be imported into this country with profit to the foreign producer. That, as a consequence of this advantage, the manufacturers of this country will be less dependent on the fluctuations of the cotton crop for a supply of the raw material, and a more regular employment will be given to the manufacturing population, and the present amount of local rates be greatly diminished tliereby. That the British grower will of necessity derive great benefit from the supply of the wide demand thus opened to him. That with respect to the advantages rf being able to spin flax in combination with wool on the existing woollen machineiy, the first is, that the flax prepared by M. Claussen is capable of being " scribbed," " spun,' " woven," and " milled," in all respects as if it were entirely wool ; havmg an advantage in this respect over cotton, which has not the slight- est milling properties ; on the contrary, the flax fibre is capable of being even made into common felt hats with or without an admixture of wool. To such an extent has the milling property of flax been proved, that the sample of cloth exhibited had been woven to 54 inches wide, and milled up to 28 inches wide. That the flax fibre will not, under any circumstances, when prepared for spinning with wool, cost more than from Gd. to 8d. per lb., while the wool with which it maybe mixed will cost from 2s. to 4s. per lb. ; consequently reducing the price of cloth produced from this mixture 25 or 30 per cent, below the present prices of cloth made wholly from wool, and being of equal, if not greater durability. That short wool refuse, which cannot by'itself be spun into a thread, may, by being mixed with this thread, be readily spun and manufactured into serviceable cloths. That by this process flax maybe also so prepared as to be spun in any certain propor- tions with silk upon the existing silk macliineiy ; that when so spun, it is capable of re- ceiving considerable brilliancy of tint. That the fibre may be prepared for thus spinning 214 THE TENDENCY OF THE TARIFF OF 1846. at a uniform price of from &d. to Sd. per lb. That as it may be spun in any proportion with silk, it is evident that the price of the yarns must be reduced according to the rela- tive proportions of the materials employed, thus extending the mai-kets, and giving increased employment to the operatives. That, by M. Claussen's plan of bleaching, any useless flax can be converted into a first- rate article for the paper maker, at a less price than the paper maker is now paying for white rags; and suitable for the manufacture of first class papers. [We hope this last suggestion will be borne in mind by our paper makers at Delaware and elsewhere, and be the means of effecting some improvement in the durability and strength of our piinting paper.] The unlimited demand for the material is another strong reason in favor of this new discovery. The quantity of cotton required for the English manu- facturers alone is stated at 777,000,000 lbs. per annum — or a thousand tons per day ! Of flax, the amount now used annually in Great Britain is about 100,000 tons, not more than one fourth of which is of home produce. For the past two years it is stated that the supply of cotton produced in the world has not near equalled the demand, and it is believed that the growth of this article in the United States has reached its maximum ; hence the manufac- turers of England are casting about to discover some new material, or new source of supply, and even if the flax cotton should form but a small relative proportion of that supply, it is easy to see that the demand would at once become so great that no farmers need ever to apprehend a glutting of the market. Nor will it be possible for a supply of flax to be produced by the farmers of Great Britain or the adjoining countries of Europe, without serious detriment to their agricultural interests. It is obvious, therefore, to our mind at least, that this discovery will soon lead to very important results to the farm- ers of the United States. THE TENDENCY OF THE TARIFF OF 1846. "We take the following from a speech recently delivered at Reading, Pa., in defense of our present commercial policy ; and we do so because we feel satisfied that it depicts clearly the result towards which we are now most rapidly tending, and because we desire to ask our agi-icultural friends to reflect how it is that they are to be benefited by con- verting all the present makers of iron and cloth, and all the j^resent miners of coal and ore, into producers of food, instead of remaining as they are, consumers of food — rivals instead of customers? The annual growth of population is now more than 800,000, and a large portion of these would, if permitted, emjjloy themselves in building furnaces and mills, and opening mines, and in making cloth and iron, while consuming food ; but if driven to it, they must become producers of food. We pray our farmers to look at the present price of wheat, and to reflect what is likely to be the price when the events here predicted shall have occurred, as they must occur if our present policy be continued. The speaker said, that "The keen and fer-seeing statesman of the South understood and com- prehended the science and true policy of this Government much better than the Northern speculators and capitalists, and consequently fought the question of protection most manfully for upwards of twenty years; that the heart of the Democratic party in the free States always had and always Avould beat in unison with the Democratic free trade of the South, of which the lamented Calhoun was the head and front ; that the greatest difliculty in the Demo- cratic pni'ty of the free States consisted in the fact, that a portion of the party (the laboring men) inclined strongly towards the protective system, which had THE PICKMAN FARM. 215 heretofore prevented the party from inqprporating the system of free trade as a cardinal j^nnciple of their faith, and which was neither more nor less than the total abolition of the custom houses and the revenue officers, and a resort to direct taxation for Government expenses, and to that it would and must sooner or later come ; and if by it all the iron works, coal mines, and factories would be closed up and abandoned, cind the laborers thrown out of that kind of employment, still the country would be benefited by it, and it would enable the foreign manufacturers, with their cheaj) labor and superior skill, to fur- nish the consumers with the article at low j^'f'ices, and thereby prevent the acquisition of wealth and the consequent growth of home aristocracy — in other words, it would equalize the people in point of property to a greater degree than under the operation of the protective policy ; in fact, it would make and keep the people more democratic.''^ It ^vould certainly equalize them, not only among themselves, but with the world, for the farmers and artisans of this country would become as poor as those of Europe. For the Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, THE PICKMAN' FARM, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS. Messrs. Editors : — I know not how I can, at the present moment, better respond to your request, to furnish facts of a practical character, useful to the farmer, than by stating some of the impressions derived from a recent visit to Mr. Horace Ware, jr., the tenant of the Pickman farm, in Salem. This farm — situate on the south-westerly borders of the city, adjoining Mar- blehead and Lynn — contains upwards of four hundred acres. It borders on Forest river, from the marshes of which much of the best mowing land on the farm has been reclaimed. About half of the whole is rough pasture, of which no use has been made, except to feed the numerous stock of cows kept on the farm — generally from thii'ty to fifty : at the present time Mr. Ware said he had thirty-four. In answer to an inquiry as to their produce, I was surprised to hear him say, one gallon per day for each cow through the year. I should have guessed that good cows, running in good pastures like these, under good management like Mr. Ware's, would have yielded much more than this ; but I remember to have learned, twenty years since, on a visit to the farm of Mr. J. Nichols, of Salem, then one of the best managed milk farms in the vicinity, that the average produce of the cows was five quarts, or one and a quarter gallons, per day for each cow, through the year. I have seen it stated recently, that on a celebrated milk farm in the vicinity of Boston, the average produce to each cow per day was eight quarts, or two gallons. I think this must have been for the season of 'milking, and not through the year. I can- not understand why the amount should be so much greater at Boston than at Salem, unless their famous water-works help the quantity. This leads me to speak of the supply of water on the Pickman farm. It is obtained by means of an hydraulic ram, from a small pond, situate in the pastures, at a distance of half a mile or more from the buildings. This pond is about twenty fegt above tide-water. A fall of fifteen feet is used for the purpose of forcing tne water. The click of this machinery has been constant for the last two years, requiring no superintending care whatever. The water is conveyed through pipes, across the channel of Forest river, and distributed at such points on the farm and about the buildings as most needed. I noticed in the cow-yard a ,long trough, filled with clear water, at one end of which 216 THE PICKMAN FARM. bubbles were constantly rising on the.«surface. I learned this was where the supply came in, through the aperture of a lyijie-stem of smallest dimensions ; and in this way there was a sufficiency for the supply of the entire stock of cattle. I could not but admire the simplicity, the neatness, and the conven- ience of this arrangement. AVhen I called to mind how many hours I had labored when a boy, to pump water for a stock of a dozen cows, and convey it, by means of temporarily-placed conductors, to the cow-yard, I could not but think that the daily saving in this item of labor would go far towards balancing all the outlay of expenditure. Then the purity of the water, and the constancy of the supply, are considerations of great importance. To the min- gling of the water with the milk after it is taken from the cow, as is sometimes done, there are decided objections, which do not apply to a full supply before it is taken. On the contrary, I have ever considered a full supply of pure water to milch cows, just when they want it, one of the most important things to be regarded in taking care of cows. I have always found the best products of the dairy to be obtained from cows that feed in pastures fully supplied with pure water. Spring or running brook is preferable to pond water. That which is best for man to drink is best for cows also, provided it is not too cold. And it may be doubted whether the health of men is benefited by the reduction of temperature or the addition of stimulants. Nature understands very well what she is about in her order of arrangements. I learned from Ml-. Ware, that the entire expense of material and preparations, for thus bring- ing the water 2,500 feet, was $225. It is now conveyed through leaden pipes. I should prefer block tin, which can be had at about the same cost; as I have DO fancy for lead on the stomach, either cold or hot, or in any other manner ; and am by no means satisfied that it is any better adapted to the stomachs of the cows. At all events, if the water is once impregnated with lead, I am not quite sure it will be entirely purified by passing through the cow's laboratory in being converted into milk. This is a consideration I leave to be determined by scientific gentlemen; I make no pretension beyond practical observation.- This supply of water for all the purposes of the farm, struck me as one of the most simple, economical, and useful applications of scientific principles to ordinary purposes, that I have ever witnessed. It does on a small scale, what the power of the Schuylkill does on a large scale for the comfort and conven- ience of the city of Philadelphia. From the same pond Mr. Ware obtains annually two hundred tons of ice, which he uses for the purposes of the farm ; to wit, the keeping of the milk and products of the dairy in best condition. To my astonishment Mr. W. said he could cut and house the ice on the margin of the pond, at an expense not exceeding six cents j^cr ton ; and it could be taken home as they had oc- casion to use it. Here, then, from a little pond of one quarter of an acre, in an obscure pasture, surrounded by hills and hedges as rough as can be ima- gined, is drawn an inexhaustible supply of j'JM/'e water and coolinf/ ice, for a dozen men and sixty cattle through the year, at a cost not exceeding thirtt/ dollars. This is a luxury that any common farmer, even on a small farm, could command, who has a spring or pond near his premises ; for from a spring a pond could be filled. Did our farmers know the comforts at their command, so many of them would not drudge on from year to year in the paths their fixthers trod before them, without any effort at^ improvement ; but they w(juld arouse from their lethargy and embrace their privileges. This Pickman f^irm has been distinguished for the products of the orchards upon it ; but Mr. Ware stated that these products have fallen off very much for the last half dozen years. There htvs been no want of care in " digging THE PICKMAN FARM. 217 round and dunging" the trees, and tlieir growth and appearance are hixuriant but still the fruit is not forthcoming, or comparatively speaking, nothing to ■what it used to be, Ilere is another field for the speculation of gentlemen of science. The understanding has been, that when trees are well taken cai'e of, the laborer will be rewarded for his toil ; but the rule is not universal, no man being more thorough and persevering in what he undertakes to do than Mr. Ware. Possibly that element in the soil which feeds the growth of fruit has been exhausted by an over product, and something should be applied to replen- ish it. What that something is, is the question. Heretofore more than one thousand barrels of the first quality of apples have been gathered in a single year, on this farm ; now it would be difficult to find one hundred barrels, al- though this is the bearing year for the Pickman apple, which has long been celebrated. In my glance at the premises, I have felt it to be a duty to speak of things as they are, w'hether for or against, as presented to observation. Mr. Ware is now engaged in reclaiming about sixteen acres of wet meadow land, for which he is to have when complete fifty dollars an acre for his labor. He thinks the land will then be worth two hundred dollars an acre. It is situ- ate alongside of the Eastern Railroad, for the space of a quarter of a mile, by which manure can be taken from the city of Boston, at an expense of three dollars per cord. Mr. AVare has had much experience in reclaiming wet mea- dow lands on his own and his father's form in Marblehead, an account of which it was my intention to give when I took my pen in hand, but I find my paper filled. One thing should not be omitted in relation to the Pickman farm. It has been under the care of tenants iov fifty years or more, and has constantly grown better. This is so difierent from the ordinary operations of tenancies, that it should be marked to the credit of the owner and the occupant. None but judicious owners and faithful laborers could bring about such a state of things. It was my privilege to make the acquaintance of the late Col. Skinner, the senior Editor of the Plough, Loom, and Anvil, on his last visit to New-Eng- land, in September, 1850. By his politeness, I have since been favored with the perusal of his journal, by which I have been much instructed. I was deeply grieved by his sudden departure from life, at a time when the public were ex- pecting many years more of useful labor. Science lost in him an ardent friend ; agriculture lost a devoted admirer. Few men have done more to advance the best interests of the industrial classes of our country than he. At all times, early and late, he was content to labor for their good, regardless of self. While others were striving to benefit themselves, he was best pleased when he most benefited his country. I shall never forget the point and power of his remarks, at a meeting of the farmers of Essex, when I had the honor to introduce him at their annual Festival. Little did i think, then, that I should see his face or hear his voice no more for ever. But although he so soon departed, his words and works remain a monument to his industry, more valuable than gold, more durable than marble. With great regard, I am your obedient servant, J. W. Proctor. Danvcrs, Mass., September 8, 1851. A TnuiviNG Animal. — Mr. A. A. Knowles, of North New-Portland, says that a calf belonging to liim, wliich weighed one hundred and twenty-six pounds at the age of four days, weighed iu four weeks from that time two hundred and thirty pounds, being a gain of one hundred and four pounds in just four weeks. 218 EFFECT OF A HOME MARKET. EFFECT OF BRINGING THE CONSUMER TO THE SIDE OF THE FRODUCER. "We republish the following account of a Vermont farm, because desirous to show to some of our Southern and Western friends how it is that Northern men grow rich, and ■why it is that so many of themselves remain poor. Tlie great secret is to be found in the fact that the Nortliern man can almost always, when he will, return to the land as much as he takes out of it, while both the planters of the South and the farmers of the AVest are perpetually engaged in extracting from their lands all the soil capable of afifording nourishment to vegetation, and sending it abroad to be wasted in distant markets, and expending half the labor of themselves and their horses in the work of carrying it there. The Northern man makes a mai'ket on the land for potatoes and turnips, milk and fresh meat; and he can afford to cultivate those things of which the earth yields by tons, because transportation is not needed, and the more he takes out of the land, the more he can return to it. The Southern man, on the contrary, raises a commodity of which the earth yields by pounds ; and he exhausts his land, because of the little he^ takes out he returns nothing whatever back to it. Always taking out of the naeal-bag, and never putting any thing back, it is not a matter of surprise that he finds the bottom, and has then to run away himself: — Mr. Bradley's farm is situated on the southern bank of Onion river, about two miles from its confluence with Lake Champlaiii, and about tiie same dis- tance from Burlington Village. It contains four hundred acres, more than half of which is rich intervale land, whose crop of grass never fails, and the remainder is upland, once covered with majestic pines, stately maples, birch, and other hardwood growth. The river forms a gentle curve, and makes more than half the fence necessary to inclose the farm. The prospect from the firm- house over the rich intervale is truly romantic and picturesque, and makes one love the country. Soon as you rise from the intervale, you stand on a rich, highlj'-cultivated soil, with a twenty-acre field of wheat before you, whose heads reach above the top of the fence, and thick as they can stand. This is spring wheat, and the finest growth I have ever seen. No fields in the fertile West beat it. Standing erect, tall, even, heavily headed and thick, it makes one feel the comfort and glory of farming. On these twenty acres there will be harvested, at the least calculation, five hundred bushels of good, plump wheat, a crop that will fill many hungry stomachs, and give the cultivator a very handsome profit for his toil and labor. Near by stands one field of corn containing fourteen acres. This is rank and luxuriant, promising a heavy yield. A portion of this field was manured by muck taken from low ground close at hand, and without previous prepa- ration put upon the land. The corn on this part thus manured is even stouter than that enriched by barnyard dressing. The soil is light, loamy, and well calculated for the growth of such a crop, especially in seasons so wet and cold as this has been. Close beside the county road which runs through this farm I saw twenty-six young, handsome, sleek cows, in a field of clover up to their eyes. I verily thought the animals liad broken into a hay-field, so tall, fresh, and green was the clover, and suggested to the owner the propriety of driving them out, but he assured me with a smile that the creatures were rightfully there. It was new ground, and the grass very rank and stout. I did not suppose any good, economical farmer would turn his cows into a clover field like that, but he told mo they " hayed it" on the intervale until they got fairly sick of it, and let the cows and other animals eat the grass on the uplands. Considering the number of acres, this is unquestionably one of the best farms WHO PAYS THE DUTY ? 219 in this or any other State of our Union. The potato crop, as well as the others, promises an abundant harvest. The intervale, with the river winding round it upon the eastern and northern side, and its few stable elms left for shade, is a ])erfect picture, such as the painter would love to sketch. There will be a heavy crop of wheat in Vermont, considering the amount sown. Neither rust nor the weevil has troubled it this season ; and we may fairly conclude that next season much more will l>e sown. The people on the west side of the Green Mountains can raise their own flour as well as other crops, and now that the destructive insects have ceased their operations, it is reasonable to expect that growing wheat will be more generally attended to than it has been in years past. Winter wheat will now be sown, and abun- dant crops may be expected. All crops in this region will be good this sea- son, with the exception, perhaps, of corn, and that looks fine in many places. Who would not be a farmer ? Old Vermont can feed her own sons with flour, as well as clothe others with the wool of her sheep. WHO PATS THE DUTY? Five years since, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Walker, made a report to the Senate, in Avhich he showed clearly that the price of coal to the consumer was greater by the whole aniQunt of the duty, $1 60 per ton, than it would be if there were no duty, although the actual selHng price of coal at Pittsbm'g, Pottsville, Wilkesbarre, Mauch Chunk, and the other places of production, did not average even a dollar and a half. In this way he demonstrated that a tax Avas imposed upon the people of the Union to the extent of six or eight millions of dollars, and that thus the consumption of this most important commodity was greatly lessened. With a view to increase consumption of domestic and foreign coal, and encourage navigation, the duty was reduced to about fifty cents per ton, and by the same law the consumers of coal— ihe manufacturers of cotton and woollen goods, and the producers of iron — ivere deprived of protection, the conse- quence of which is seen in the closing oi mills and furnaces throughout the Union. How far this has served to aid foreign commerce, may be seen by the following, to which we invite the careful attention of our readers : — Our Trade With Nova Scotia. — The Pictou Chronicle says : "We have received from the American Consul at this port, the following statement of arrivals of American vessels for the six months ending 30th July, in the years 1849, 1850, and 1851, by which it will be perceived that there is a great falling off" in the trade carried on in American vessels : — 1849. 1850. 1851. No. of Vessels. No. of Vessels. No. of Vessels. May, 14 4 1 June, 21 19 4 July, 54 25 9 Total, 89 48 14 " The quantity of coal shipped to the United States is much less this year, up to July 5th, than for many years previous. We give the following com- parative statement with last year : — 1850, American vessels, 3,186 chaldrons. 1851, do. do. 672 do. 1850, British vessels, 12,585 do. 1851, do. do. 6,654 do. " This great disparity in the demand for our great staple is to be attributed 220 AI^ERICAN POMOLOGICAL CONGRESS. to many causes, but more particularly to the opening of valuable coal mines in the tjnited States, and the heavy duty imposed on the coal from Nova Scotia." Re-establish the tariff of 1842, and the trade with Nova Scotia will at once increase, because the power to consume coal will at once be doubled. In the fiscal year 1842-3, we imported but 55,000 tons, whereas in that of 1845-6 we imported 156,000, upon which the producer paid a duty of $1 60 per ton ; whereas from present appearances we will this year import less than fifty thousand tons, at a duty of about fifty cents, and yet " the heavy duty" is, we are here informed, the cause of the diminution. AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL CONGRESS. Below we publish the proceedings of the Congress held in Cincinnati, October 2d, 8d and 4th, 1850 — as a guide only to such of our readers as may be located between the Ohio and the Lakes. "We are every day finding out that a few degrees of latitude or longitude make a great difference in the quality of the same variety of fruit ; thus some of the favorite varieties of New-England apjjles and pears are reported as inferior by this Congress : — Dr. W. D. Brinckle, of Philadelphia, was chosen President ; F. R. Elliott, Ohio, P. Barry, N. Y., and I. A. Warder, Ohio, were chosen Secretaries. A motion was made and carried, that a committee be appointed to report upon the expediency of establishing American Pomological and Botanical Gardens. After deliberation, the committee reported as follows : " That it is expedient to cuter upon the enterprise suggested in the resolu- tions, and to carry it out. The spirit of the age favors the project, and this project needs only a jSTorthern, a Southern, an Eastern and a Western establish- ment of the kind, to become one of the most important and most useful bodies of promoters of the pleasure and profit of mankind. The committee beg leave to be allowed time till the next meeting of the Congress to report further." Dr. J. A. Kennicot, of Illinois, desired to introduce the subject of the culture of the grape and the apple, as connected, in the noanufacture of wine and cider, with the cause of temperance. The remarks were to the effect that he considered the cause of temperance advanced by the introduction of native wines at a cheap rate — that they m:iy take the place of distilled liquors. List of Pears Rejected. Spanish Bon Crieton, True Gold of Summer, Hessel Summer Rose, Petit Muscat, Roussellet of Rheims, Princess of Orange, Ah ! Mon Dieu, Bleecker's Meadow, Huguenot, Slichaux, Beurre Knox, Franc Real d'Hiver, Clinton. The " Belle of Brussels" was proposed to be placed on the rejected list, but several gentlemen seeming inchned to give it further trial, it was not entered then. List of Pears that promise well. Paradise d'Automne, Stevens Genesee, Onondaga or Swan's Oranges, Doy- enne Gabault, Nouveau Poiteau. List of Apples rejected. Egg Top, Cheeseboro' Russet. List of Apples that 2^'>'0inise well. Korthern Spy, Melon, Mother, Ilawley. The, Stevens Genesee Pear was regarded by many of the Congress as wor- SCRAPINGS OF THE BARN-YARD FOR WHEAT, ETC. 221 thy general cultivation, but there being one or two objections made, it was put on the list as promising well. Mr. Saul then introduced the Belmont or Gate Apj)le for remarks, Mr. Wood spoke in favor of it ; so, also, Mr. Mcintosh. Mr. Saul spoke of the following apples as promising well, and worthy of cul- ture, viz. : Eustis or Ben Apple, Monmouth Pippin, Peach Pond Sweet, and Sturner Pippin. A resolution was passed, " That when this Congress adjourn, we do so to meet in the city of Philadelphia, on such a day in the month of September, 1852, as shall be hereafter designated by the President of this Congress." For the Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil. SCRAPINGS OF THE BARN-YARD FOR WHEAT, &.c Could negligent farmers appreciate the intrinsic value of tko dust of barn-yards and lanes — could they know the effect that it produces, and know that a single load, judiciously applied, is worth dollaiis, they could not but exercise some of their muscular strength towards accumulating and ap- plying it. The plain truth is, many farmers do not put that value to the scrapings of farm-yards which they are entitled to, and hence the loss of so much valuable fertilizing matter. In fact, there is a certain class of agricul- turists who have no more reason about them than to get angry even if you talk to them about scraping and digging out the nooks and corners of their yards with a hoe. Such farmers most invariably adopt the skimming system — that is, take the mulch and leave the most valuable manure their yards afford. Examine their yards, after they have " finished," and you find the very strata that are most essential to promote the productiveness of soil. The accumulation of these strata of manure is attributable, doubtless, to a slug- gish propensity relative to the real worth of the substance. Most certainly, if two hands, with wagon and horses, can collect and scatter five loads of the dust in a day, it cannot be considered otherwise than a profitable business; for, from observation and trial, I verily believe that each load would produce three bushels of wheat — that is, when strewed on ground of a sandy and light nature. Then, allowing that such is the fact, no one can urge a reason for not getting out every pound of manure to be found within the precincts of yards and lanes. To speak practically in reference to the application of the scrapings — the best way, perhaps, is to arrange the bottom boards of your wagon in such a way that shovelling will "go off" easil}?-, and then strew the manure — the dust — as far each side of the vehicle as possible without causing an extra amount of labor. It should be S23read evenly and nicely over the surface of the ground, as a matter of course, so that the wheat will not come up in " bunches," as it does many times, when the dust is thrown on inadvert- ently. I have frequently seen it used heedlessly, and the consequence was that the wheat looked spotted and disagreeable. Relative to the effect of the scrapings of barn-yards on sandy loam, oak and chestnut soils, us mentions the death of many cattle from feeding, in early spring, upon the water-hemlock, (cicu- ta virosa -J^ and, more recently, Mr. Edwin Lees has recorded the death of several fine cows from eating the roots of a poisonous umbellifer- ous plant which had been carele8.sl3- su&ered to grow about the sides of a ditch. Natural Histoiy, in its most extensive sense, being inseparably connected with all the arts of life, ought to form a part of the education of those who wish to promote them and to benefit by them. In every school in the kingdom, ■vy-hether intended for males or females, for the rich or for the poor. Natural Historj- should find a foremost place as an elegant and useful ao comphshment. There is hardly a common ani- mal or plant concerning which some egregious error may not be detected in the minds of the generality of what are tenned well-educated people, who pride themselves on possessing a Jinished education — finished, indeed, before it had fairly commenced ; for they who have leanit anything know that neither man's nor woman's education can ever be complete, as every day of crar Kves may be made to yield an improvement upon the lessons of our youth. No one will rest content with what he knows to-day, unless he ■wishes to be a dunce to-morrow. The wi.sest men love to call themselves students and labor- ers in the mines of Knowledge, seeking for new facts and even for new sciences that are yet in concealment, and which are destined to improve tlie earthly condition of man, and to impress him Btill more stronglj- ■with an incessant conviction of the care which God has taken to provide in- numerable blessings for His industrious and grateful people — blessings which He has but temporarily hidden from as, so tliat we have the advantages of labor, healdi, and hope, in seeking for tlicm. All the world was simply Nature when God completed it ; and Natural History, in its widest meaning, is the history of ■ thax world of Nature ; and, therefore, ignorance of Natural History is ignorance of God's world, which presents the mo-st sublime and useful Btudy man can pursue. How general the existence of ignorance is on the .subject of Natural Hi.story may be easily conceived from tlie absurdities relative thereto ■which may bo found in the writings of even the most popular essayists, novcli.sts, critics, and others who arc more literary than scientific. — * A eiinilnr plnnt, cenanthe croaua, has Intely been discovered by Prof. Chriftison to be innocuous to man nnd animaU in Scotland, though in the south of Eng- hmd, imd aUo in France and Spain, it has proved it- eolf an active poison. [Editor. Latin, Greek, and Heathen mythology have been too frequently leanied, to the entire excln- sion of any knowledge of those divine works by which we are surrounded, and whereby we may practically benefit ounselves and fellow- creatures. In Sweden, Natural Hi.story is the .study of the schools by which men rise to pre- fennent ; and we are a.ssured by the celebrated botanist. Sir J. E. Smidi, that there are no men with more acute or better regulated minds than the Swedes. In the forests of Germany, espe- cially in the small States of the interior — the Hartz, Thuringia, &c. — there are schools in which are taught Surveying and Planting, to- gether with the Zoolog>-, Botany, and Mineral- ogy of the forest. At one of the most celebra- ted schools in the world — namely, that of M. De Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, in Switzerland — it is the chief aim of the instructor to inculcate in his nu- merous pupils the importance of closely exam- ining such suiTounding objects of Nature as will most conceni them when pursuing the particu- lar professions and trades for whicli diey are in- tended. The- school contains about 450 schol- ars, among whom are many peasant boys ; and no opportunity is lost of directing the attention of all, but especially of the latter, to Nature's works; which are eagerly .sought after, atten- tively studied, and most carefully perused for future reference and instruction. The collecting of these objects atibrds an employment which is not only amusing and n.seful, but healthy. The museum thus formed is constantly increasing, both in variety and utility. The plants it con- tains are not cla.ssified scientifically, but accord- ing to their properties, uses, and localities. — Seeds and specimens of u.seful sorts of wood en- rich this botanical collection. Quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and insects are also studied and preserved by the pupils. The winter evenings are instructively spent in this room by the poor children with their master ; and on Sundays, after church, they go forth to the hills and woods, seeking fresh treasures for their museum. At Can-a, in the neighborhood of Geneva, there is also an agricultural school, where the children are taught the economic Botany of their native country, besides a variety of other useful sub- jects. They amuse themselves with botanical excursions, and the little students carefully bring home and preserve all the plants which tliey collect. Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, declares diat those writers speak falsely who assert that our laborers, herdsmen, and peasants in general, have little or no feeling of the beauty of Nature ; and he might have added that they are frequent- ly close observers of her ■works. This fact in- duces me to believe that much benefit would arise by giving a more scientific aim to their habit of observation. How readily the shepherd notices slight external differences, even in ob- jects of tlie same species, is exhibited in his ready discrimination of any one sheep in a flock consisting of even many hundreds, though to the casual observer all the sheep seem exactly alike. Without some nice study of Nature's min,ute distinctions, the shepherd could not so easily detect any sheep in a large flock. The aptitude of peasants to receive scientific trutlia, when their curiosity is properly awaken- ed, might be illustrated by mentioning a glorious list of eminent philosophers who have arisen from the ranks of shepherds, plowmen, <5cc. — Wc shall, however, mention but two examples. At Bagis-Beost, near tlio hot springs of the Py»- NATURAL SCIENCES. 227 enees, lives Gaston Sacaze, whose name has been well known for the last twelve years to philosophical travelers in those parts. AVithout even quitting his native mountain, or neglecting the care of his flock and the cultivation of his fields, he has found sufficient time to acquire a food systematic knowledge of the Mineralogy, otauy, and Entomology of his native district, entirely unassisted by any teacher except his own eyes and a few books. That he might read the works of Linnwus, he has taught himself Latin. Besides .sy.stematically classifying all the mountain plants, he has drawn and colored them, so as to form a rich herbal. At his hum- ble home he has also formed a collection of min- erals, .iLones, in.sects, &c. ; and, when tcndincr bis flock, he amuses himself with a violin of his own constructing, and songs of his own com- posing. So much notice have his talents at- tracted, that his portrait has lately been taken by the celebrated painter, Deveria. This peas- ant naturalist calls to mind the instance of John Bertram, the famous Pennsylvanian botanist, who was originally an agricultural laborer, but having his intellectual curiosity excited by an attentive contemplation of a violet, and then dreaming about its beauty and structure, imme- diately set about learning all the Latin that was requisite to read botanical works. Great Britain abounds in grammar .schools for the poor, but where can it .show anything like the forest schools of Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany ? Where are the instructors to teach our peasantry those .sciences which they v\'ould be practically benefited by understanding ? — We want to see a full consummation of t'.ie be- nevolent wish of Dr. Drummond, that a lecture- room, a museum, and a useful library should be attached to every village, as regularly as its church or chapel ; and that a portion of time should be appropriated to teaching Natural His- tory, and even Natural Thcoloery, to the peas- antry. Geologj'' and Agricultural Chemistry should also be made to throw their light upon tlie laborer's mind, and his children should be taught something about these subjects, as well aa grammar and ciphering. Agriculture would more rapidly attain to perfection, if all, without exception, wbo are concerned in it, were made clearly to understand the processes on which its fullest success depends. The laborer could not fail to become more skillful and more inter- ested in his employment, if Jie were taught to practice it as a science, and not merely as a toil. The culture of plants ^vill become a compara- tively easy process ^vhen we are better ac- quainted with their peculiar functions, and with the chemical elements which they require for their growth and maturation. We must not be content with knowing -what are their respective natural localities, climates, and seasons, but must learn what chemical gases each species imbibes from tlie atmosphere, through itsleave.s, and what substances from the soil, through its roots. " If a plant be distinguished by its con- taining a notable proportion of soda, silica, i5cc. the aoil in \vhich it is to be grown mn.st." as a •writer in the Edinburgh Journal justly ob- serves, '• contain these elements, otherwise the attempt will be abortive;" for a plant can no more create soda or silica within itself than it con form water for its support, independent of the soil or atmosphere. From a knowledge of the principles, therefore, a rational theory of Agriculture may be formed ; and what has hith- erto been little better than an expensive and often distressing system of trial and error, be- comes a science guided by fixed law.s. Agri- culture will always have to contend with the fluctuations of season and climate; but it is for human ingenuity to modify their influence, and this can only be eficctcd by rational and scien- tific procedure._ As yet, the science of Agricul- ture is only in its infancy ; but the time "is not far di.stant when it will rank with other maturer branches of knowledge — when ever^' soil will be systematicallj' treated for the species of crop to be raised upon it — when manures will be manufactured as we now manufacture soda and sulphuric acid — when plants will be fed and stimulated as we now treat animal.s — in short, when the farmer ^^•ill sow and reap with as nmch security as the di.stiller produces his spirit The value of the science of Chemistry to the agriculturist may be judged from the fact that, when the great French chemist, Lavoisier, took a quantity of land into hi.s own cultivation, he very soon succeeded in doubling its produce. , If the proprietor of land would explore its mineral productions with a view to speculation in them, he ought previously to obtain some knowledge of Geology. To an ignorance of this subject may be ti-aced the lavish expendi- ture of money in many futile attempts to find coal in situations where the slightest regard to the principles that have been e.stabli.shed, and the rules that have been discovered, relative t' the as.sociation of coal with certaia etratifiei, rocks, would have saved those individuals from ruin and misery. As a .striking example of the serious consequences that have ensued from seeking coal withont acting under tlie guidance of geological principles. Sir John Herschel re- lates that an attempt was made, not many years since, to establish a colliery at Bexhill, "in Sus- sex—the appearance of thin seams and .sheets of fossil wood and wood coal, with some other indications similar to what occur in the neigh- borhood of the great coal beds in the north of England, having led to the sinking of a shaft, and the erection of machinery on a scale of vast expense. Not less than £800,000 are said to have been expended in this project, which, it is almost needless to add, proved completely abor- tive, as every geologist would at once have de- clared it mu.st— the whole assemblage of geolo- gical facts being adverse to tl>e existence of a regular coal bed in the Hastings strata; while this, on which Bexhill is situated, is separated from the coal measures by a series of interpo.sed beds, of such enormous thickness as to render all idea of penetrating through them absurd.— The history of mining operations is full of simi- lar cases, where a very moderate acquaintance with the u.sual order of Nature, to say nothing of theoretical views, would have saved many a sanguine adventurer from utter ruin. In learning the nature of the underlj-ing soils, and the character of the surface soil, which in many instances depends upon the decompo.si- tion of the subterraneous strata. Geology affords most valuable assistance. From the mere de- scription of the character of any line of country, the geological agriculturist might form a tolera- bly accurate notion as to what must be the pro- ductions, pursuits, wants, and even the general constitutions of the inhabitants ; and, if he pos- sessed a knowledge of Geological Botany and Geological Entomology, he would also be abJe to predict what genera of plants and insects were there most plentiful. Geology could point out to him stores of lime and mineral manure ia 228 THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY. places where they were not generally known to exist. ^Vithout an ample supply of water, no fanning: can be prosperously conducted ; and here again (^eoloiry conies to our aid, and sug- gests tlic Ibnnation of those Artesian wells which have given the precious blessing of water to many previously di-y districts, as in France and various j)arts of England. Observation on the surface of tlie eartli detects the deep reservoirs below. "Search and ye shall find;" for wher- ever depo.sits of a light and porous nature occur in bollov\s and depressions of firmer and oldel- rocks, water v>-ill penetrate until it has accumu- lated into immense subterranean pools — the pressure of the superior strata preventing the fluid from exhibiting itself to the eye, except in slight oozings at the indented parts of the sur- face. When proper borings are made through the strata, the water is relca.sed from its confine- ment, and rushes up copiously from the valley or hollow. Beneath those .spots of ground over which swarms of gnats are continually seen dancing in the air, tlie existence of wells may be suspected ; for these insects disport them- selves always where there is the greatest evap- oration. It was by a secret knowledge of this fact that the professors of the divining rod de- tected hidden wells. Slight .superficial observa- tion may also detect concealed mineral springs, which may add to the value of an estate. Thus the discovery of the chalybeate spa at Dorton, LQ Buckinghamshire, originated from some vil- lager's attention being attracted to the ciroura- stancc that a little stream, which issued from a small orifice, destroyed the plants that came within its course ; the few blades of grass that were spared bore a thick incrustation of oxide of iron ; and the suriace of the ground, which, for a few yards on either side of its channel, as- sumed a yellow and scorched appearance, was covered with a similar metallic deposit. The peasants called it the Ahim Well — the taste of that substance being most apparent to them. It was also observed here, as at the Bath waters, that disea.sed cattle voluntarily and repeatedly repaired to the little stream, and rapidly recov- ered from their maladies. It was noticed that it afforded great relief to horses suffering from that very obstinate and almost incurable disor- der, the mange. Owing to the powerful chaly- beate qualities of this water, the manure of the cattle that drink of it ■will burn to a cinder, arxl is collected for fuel, in the same way that the Peruvian miners and mountaineers make bright and clear fires of the dung of the llamas and al- paccas. These several facts will, I trust, suffice to show to every reader the policy of the agricul- turist greatly enlarging his present sphere ot knowledge, and the frequent advantages that would result from his practicing a habit of orig- inal observation, with a view of deriving impor- tant suggestions from apparently trifling facts. [Jour, of High, and Agii. Soc. of Scotland. THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY, We have heretofore alluded, but only inci- dentally and scarcely in a way to make our- selves understood, to the various studies which, (although tlie connexion is not at first apparent,) are yet necessary to the most efficient practice of the Agricultural art. Among these, the gen- eral principle of Mechanics should be esteemed as of the highest importance. We will suppose them to be inculcated in Common Schools, by means of lectures and illustrations, clear and eimplc as we find the following, for instance, in Fig. T'— v.. part of on6 oi Dr. Lardiier's Lectures on the Centre of Gravity; and who docs not see how useful through life would be tuition of this sort: When the line of direction falls within the base, bodies will always stand finn, butnot with the same degree of stability. In general, the stability depends on the hight which the centre of gravity must be elevated before the body can be overthrown. The greater this hight is, the gi-cater in the 6am£ proportion will be the st* bility. , Let BAG, fig. 23, bo a pyramid, the centre of gravity being at G. To turn tliis over the edge B, the centre of gravity must be carried over the arch G K, and must therefore be raised through the hight II E. If, however, the p>T- amid were taller relatively to its base, as in tig. 24, the hight II E would be proportionally less ; and if the base were very small in reference to the hight, as in fig. 25, the hight H E would be very small, and a slight force would throw it over the edge B. It is obvious that tlic same observations may be applied to all figures whatever, the conclu- sions just deduced depending only on tlie dis- tance of the line of direction from tlie edge of the base, and the hight of the centre of gravity above it. Hence we may perceive the principle on THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY. 229 ■whicli the stability of loaded cannages depends. W hen the load is placed at a considerable ele- vation above the wheels, tlie centre of gravity is elevated, and the carriage becomes proportion- ally insecure. In coaches for the convej-auce of passengers, the luggage is therefore some- times placed below the body of the coach ; light parcels of large bulk may be placed on the top with impunity. When the centre of gravity of a carriage is much elevated, there is considerable danger of overthrow, if a corner be turned sharply and with a rapid pace ; for the centrifugal force tlien acting on the centre of gravity will easily raise 24. it through the small hight which is necessary to turn the carriage over the external wheels. The same wagon will have greater sta- bility when loaded with a heavy substance which occupies a small space, such as metal, than when it carries the same weight of a ligliter substance, such as liay; because the centre of gravity in the latter ca.sc will be much more elevated. If a large table be placed upon a single leg in its centre, it will be impracticable to make it stand fimi ; but if the pillar on v."liich it rests termi- nate in a tripod, it will have the same stabili- ty as if it had three legs attached to the points directly over the places %vhere the feet of the tripod rest. When a solid body is supported by more Fig. points than one, it is not necessary for its sta- bility that the line of direction should fall on one of those points. If there be only two points of sup- port, the line direction must fall between them. The body is in this case supported as eifectually as if it rested on an edge coinciding with a straight line drawn from one point of support to the other. If there be throe points of support, which are not ranged in the same straight line, the body will be supported in the same manner as it would be by a base coinciding with the triangle formed by straiglit lines joining the three points of support. In the same manner, whatever be the number of points on which the body may rest, its virtual base will be found by supposing straight lines drawn, joining the sev- eral points successively. When the line of di- rection falls within this base, the body will al- ■ways stand firm, and othei-wise not. . The de- gree of stability is determined in the same man- ner as if the base were a continued surface. Necessity and experience teach an animal to adapt its po.'rtures and motions to the position of the centre of gravity of his body. When a man stands, the line of direction of his weight must fall witliin the base formed by his feet. If A B C I), fig. 2(J, be the feet, this base is the space A BCD. It is evident that the more his toes are turned outward, the more contracted the base » G-. — J will be in the direction E F, and the more lia- | H. and the more liable he will be to fall toward ble he will be to fall backward or forward. — I cither side. Also die closer his feet are togethei-, tiie more When a man walks, the legs are alternately contracted the ba.se will be in the direction Ct | lifted from tlie ground, and the Centre of gravi- 230 THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY. ty is either unsupp(«rlfd or thrown from oue side to the other. The body is also thrown a little forward, in order that the tendency of the centre of gra% .ty to fall in the direction of the toes may assist the muscular action in propelling the body. Thi.s forward inclination of the body increases with tlie speed of the motion. But for the iiexibility of the knee-joint, the labor of walkiuc,' would" be much greater than it is; for the centre of gravity would be more elevated by each step. The" line of motion of the centre of gravity in walking is represented by fig. 27, and deviates but httle from a regular horizontal line, so that the elevation of die cea- Fig. 27. tre of gravity is subject to very slight variation. But if there were no knee-joint, as when a man has wooden legs, the centre of gravity would move as in fig. 28, so that at each step the weight of the body would be lifted through a consider- able hight, and therefore the labor of \valkiug would be much increased. If a man stand on one leg, the line of direo- tion of his weight must fall within the space on \vhieh his loot treads. The smallness of this space, compared \vith the hight of the centre of gravity, accounts for the difficulty of this feat. The position of the centre of gravity of the body changes with the jiosture and position of the limbs. If the arm be extended from one side, the centre of gravity is brought nearer to that side than it was when the arm hung per- pendicularly. When danc(!rs, standing on one leg. extend the other at right angles to it, they mn.st incline the body in the direction opposite to that in whicli the leg is extended, in order to bring tlie centre of gravity over the foot which supports them. When a porter carries a load, his position must be regulated by the centre of gi-avity of his body and the load taken together. If ho bore the load on his back, fig. 29, the line of direction \vould pass beyond his heels, and he would fall backward. To bring the centre of gravity over his feet, he accordingly leans forward, fig. 30. If a nurse carry a child in her arms, she leans back lor a like reason. When a load is carried .^^^ on the head, tlic bearer stands iipright, that the cen- -Fig. 30. tre of gravity may be over his feet. In ascending a hill, we appear to incline for- ward, and in descending, to lean backward ; but in truth ■we are standing upright with respect to a level plane. This is necessary to keep the line of direction between the feet, as is evi- dent from fig. 31. A per.^on sitting on a chair which has no back, cannot ri.se from it without either stooping fonvard to bring the centre of gravity over the feet, or drawing back the feet to bring tliem under the centre of gravity. A quadruped never raises both feet on the same side simultaneou.sly, for the centre of grav- ity would tlien be unsupported. Let A B C D, fig. 32, be the feet. The base on which it stands is A B C D, and the centre of gravity is nearly over the point O. where the diagonals cross each other. The logs A and C being raised to- gether, the centre of gravity is supported by the IciTs B and D, since it fall.s between them;" and when B and I) are rai.seil, it is, in like manner, supported by the feet A and C. The centre of gravity, hov.-ever, is often unsupj)orled for a moment ; for the legB is raised from the ground LIEBIG S MANURES. 231 Fig. 31. before A comes Fig. 32. to it, as is plain -p from observing ^ the track of a horse's feet, the mark of A being npon or before that of B. luthe more rapid paces of all animals the centre of gravity is at intervals uu- Bupported. The feats of rope-dancers are experiments on the manatrement of the centre of gravity. The evolutions of the performer are found to be facilitated by holding in his hand a heavy pole. His security in this case depends, not on the centre of gravity of his body, but on that of his body and the pole taken together. — This point is near the centre of the pole, so that, in fact, he may be said to hold in his hands the point on the position of which the facility of his feats depends. Without the aid of the pole, tlic centre of gravity would be within the trank of the body, and its position could not be adapted to circum.stances with the same ea.sc and rapid- ity. The centre of gravity of a mass of fluid is that point which would have the properties which have been proved to belong to the centre of gravity of a solid, if tlie iluid were solidified without changing in any respect the (juantity or arrangement of its parts. i THE PRINCIPLES OF ARTIFICIAL MANURING. BY PROFESSOU JUSTUS LIEBIG. If we compare the experience of ftirmers regarding the fertility' of the soil and the quantity of its productions, we arc surpri.sed by a result which surpasses all others in gen- eral application and uniformity'. It has been observed, that in every part of the globe where Agriculture is earned on, in all varieties of soil, and with the most different plants and modes of cultivation, the produce of a field on which the same or different plants have been cviltivated dining a certain nimiber of years, decreases more or less in quantity, and that it agaui obtains its fertility by a sup ply of excrements of man and animals, which generally are called manure; that the produce ol the fields caa be increased by the same matters, and that the quantity of the crop is in direct proporrion to the quantity of the nuniure. In former times scarcely any attempt was made to account for the caTise of this ciuious property of the e.xcrements of man and ani- mal.s. Without taking into consideration the origui of the excrements and the relation they bear to the food, it is not astonishing that their effect was ascribed to a remnant of vita! power which should qualify them to increase the vitaLit\- in plants. Asciibing their hiflu- ence on the fertility of the fields to an incom- prehensible occult cause, it was forgot*^!! that every force has its material substi ■''^™ i that with a lever, iu a mathematie^ sense, 232 LIEBIG S MANURES. which possesses no extension and gi'avity, no efl'ect can be prodticeJ, no burden raised. Gnided by experience, whicli is the funda- mental basis of all indiictivo science, and which teaches us that for eveiy etfect there ia a cause, lliat every quality, as, for instance, the fertility of a field, the nourishing quality of a vegetiible, or the effect of a manure, is intunately connected with and occasioned by something which can be ascertained by weight and measure ; modern science has succeeded in enlightening us on the cause of the fertiUty of the fields and on the effects which are exercised on them by manure. Cliemistry has shown that these properties are produced by the composition of the fields ; that theii' fitness for producing wheat or any other kind of plant bears a direct proportion to certiiin elements contained in the soil, which are absorbed by the plants. It has Hkewiso shown that two fields, of unequal fertility, contain unequal quantities of these elements ; or that a fertile soil contains them in a different fbnn or state from another, which is less fertile. If the elements are contained in the soil in Bufficieut quantities, it produces a rich crop ; if it be detective even in one of them only, this is shown veiy soon, by the impossibility of gi'ovviug on it certain kuids of plants. Moreover, it has proved with certaint}' what relations these elements of the soil bear to the development of the plants. Chemical analy- sis has demonsti-ated that a certain class of these elements is contained in the seeds ; others, in different proportions, in tlie leaves, roots, tubers, stjilks. They are mineral sub- stances, and as such, are indestnictible by fire, and consequently lemain as ashes after the mcineration of the plants or of their parts. Many of these elements are soluble m ])ure water, others only in water containing car- bonic acid, as rain-water ; all were absorbed from the soil by the roots of the plants in a dissolved condition. It has been sliovvn that, in a field, those elements which remain after the mcineration of the grain or seeds, aie not present in a sufficient quautity, no wheat, no barley, no peas — in a word, none of those plants can be cultivated on that fi(;ld whicli are grown on account of their seeds. The plants which grow on such a field jtroduce stalks and leaves; they blossom, but do not bear fniit. The same has been observed re- garding the development of leaves, roots and tubers, and the mineral elements which they leave behind after their mcineration. If, in a soil in which tunilps or potatoes are to Ije cultivatfxl, the elements of the ashes of these roots are wanting, the phuits bring it)rlh leaves, stalks, blossoms and seeds, but the roots and tubercles are imperfect. Everj' one of the elements which the soil gives up to tho plants *■ in a direct quantitative propoition to the Pi'*^' action of the sej)arate elements of the plants. 'i\vu fields, wliioh, mider otherwise 'iqual I'l'MijiistajiQes^ ^^^■Q unecpially rich in uuiiefiil elDi..cQt8 of the gram, produce une- qual crops. One containing them in larger quantify produces more than another con- taining them in less. In the same manner, the capacity of a soil to produce tuberculous plants, or such as have many leaves, depends upon its amoimt of those elements which are feund in the ashes of such plants. It results from this with certainty, that the mineral substances which are furnished by the soil, and which are found again m the ashes of plants, are their true food ; that they are the conditions of vegetable life. It is evident, that from a field in which dif fereut plants are cultivated, we remove vdth the croj) a certain quantity of these elements ; ui the seeds those mineral parts which the soil had to provide for their development, and in the roots, tulsercles, stalks and leaves tliose elements which are necessary for their pro- duction. However rich the field may be in these elements, there can be no doubt that, by several cultures, it becomes more and more intpoverished ; that for every plant a time must arrive when the soil will cease to furnisli, in sufficient quantity, those elements wliich are necessary for a perfect growth. Even if such a field, during many years, had produced twentj'-five or thiity fold the amount of the seed, for instance, of wheat, experience shows that the crop gradually decreases, imtil at last the amount will be so small as to approach the i>lant in its wild state, and not repay the cost of culUvation. According lo the unequal quantity m wliich the mineral elements of gi'am, tubercles, roots, seeds, leaves, are contained in a soil, or ac- cording to the proportions in which they have been removed m tho crop, the land may have ceased to be fertile for roots and tubercles, but it may yet produce good crops of wheat. Another may not produce wheat, but potatoes and turnips may thrive well in it. The mineral substances contained m a fertile soil, and serving as food to the plants, are taken up by them with the water, in whi(;h they are soluble. In a fertile field they are contained in a state which allows of their being absorbed by the plant and taken lip by the roots. There are fields which are rich in these elements, witlioul being fertile in an e(]ual proportion ; in the latter case they are united with other elements into chemi- cal compounds, which counteract the dissolv- ing power of" water. By the contemporane- ous action of water and air — of the oxygen and carbonic acid of the atmosphei'o — these compounds are decomposed, and tliose of their constituent elements, which are soluble in water, but which had been insoluble by the chemical aftinity of other other mineral sub- stances, reobtain the property of being ab- sorbed by the roots of the plants. The duration of the fertility of a field de- pends on the amount of the mineral aliments of plants contained in it, and its productive power for a given time is in a direct propor- tion to ihat part of its composition which pos- I sesscs the capacity of beuig taken up by the liebig's manures. 233 plant. A number of the most important ag- riculturaJ operations, especially the mechan- ical, exercise an influence on the fertility of the fields only thus far, that they remove the impediments which are opposed to the assimilation of the minei'al food into the veg- etable organism. By plow-in", for instance, the surface of the field is made accessible to air and moisture. The nuti-itious elements contained in the soil in a latent state, acquire, by these operations, tlie properties necessary for their transmission into the plants. It is easy to conceive the useful influence which, in this respect, is exercised on the produce of the fields by the care and industry of the farmer. But all these labors and efforts do not increase the amount of mineral elements m the field : in rendeiing soluble in a given time a larger quantity of the insoluble sub- stances, and obtaining by these means a riclier crop — the time is merely hastened in which the soil becomes exhausted. The experience of centuries has shown that, with the aid of manure, of the excre- ments of animals and man, with which we supply those fields which have ceased to pro- duce crops of gi'ain, fcc., serving as food for man and animids, in a sufficient quantity, the original fertility can again be restored ; an exhausted field, which scarcely yielded back the seed, is made to produce a twenty and more fold crop, according to the proportion of the manure provided. Regarding the mode of action of manures, it has been observed that all excrements do not exercise an equal influence on plants. The excrements of sheep and cattle, for in- stance, increase in most fields the crop of roots and herbaceous plants to a far gi'eater degi'ee than those of man and birds, (guano.) The latter act f;u' more favorably on the pro- duction of grain crops, especially if they are added to the anunal excrements, and are given to the fields at the same time. A field, ibr example, which has lost its fer- tility for potatoes and turnips, but on which peas and beans still thrive, becomes far more teiiile, by a supply of the excrements of horses and cows, for a ne^v crop of potatoes ftud turnips, than by manuring it with the excrements of man or with guano. The most accurate experiments and analyses have pointed out that the excrements of man and animals contain those substances to the presence of which the fertility of the soil is due. The fertilizingpower of manure can be deter- mined by weight, as its eftect is in a direct ratio to its amount ui the mi^ieral elements of the food of plants. The truth of the result of these chemical analyses must be evident to eveiy one who inquires into the origin of ex- crements. All the excrements of man and animals are derived fi-om the plants of our fields ; in the oats and hay which serve as food for the horse, in the roots which are consumed by a cow, there is a certain qitantity of mineral ingredients. A horse, in consuming 15 lbs. of hay and 4^ lbs. of oats per day, consttmes 21 ounces of those substances which the hay and the oats took froD/ the fields ; lie con- sumes annually 480 lbs. of these constituent elements of tlie soil, but only a very small portion of them remams in his body. If a horse, during one year, increases 100 lbs. in weight, this increase contauts only 7 lbs. of those mineral substances which were con- tained in the food. But what has become of the 473 lbs. which we cannot detect in his body? The analysis of the flltiid and solid excre- ments which the horse gives out daily, shows that the ingredients of the soil which do not remain in the body of the anunal are con- tained in its excrements ; it shows that ift an adult animal, which from day to day neither increases nor decreases in weight, the amount of the mineral ingredients of the excrements is equal in weight to tlie mineral ingredients of the food. As with the horse, so it is with all animals. In all adult animals the excrements contain the ingredients of the soil according to the quantities and relative froportions in xchich they are contained in their food. The mineral substances of the food which have remained in the body of the animals, and served to increase then- weight, are ibund again in the bones and excrements of man, who consumes the flesh of these animals. The excrements of man contain the ele- ments of the soil, of bread or of grain, of vegetables and meat. These discoveries explain, in a most simple and satisfactoiy manner, the fertilizing effect which manure produces on our fields. It is now obvious why manure renders again fertile the exhausted fields ; why, by its means, their productiveness can be aug- mented ; why the latter is in a direct ratio to the quantity of manin-e administered. The exhaustion of ihe soil by subseqtient crops, its decrease in fertility, is produced by the gradual removal of the mineral elements, in a soluble state, which are necessary for the development of our culiivated plants. By a supply of manure they ai"e again restored to the state siuted to serve as nouiishment to a new vegetation. If the supply of the removed elements of the soil, by means of manure, be sufficient, if the quantity taken away be restored, the original fertility reappears ; if the supply be greater, the prodtice increases ; a defective supply gives a smaller produce. It is now explained why the different kinds of manure exercise an unequal effect upon the fields. The excrements of man and gnano, contain- ing especially the mineral ingredients of grain and of meat, exercise far greater influence on the amount of produce of grain in a field in ^vllich these ingrecUents are wanting, e\en if those of the leaves and stalks are present in sufficient quantit)-, than the excrements of an animal which feeds on roots or green fodder. 234 LIEBIG S MANURES. The excrements of tlie latter contain the min- eral elements of the leaves, stalks, and roots in prevailing quantity, and have a greater value for the production of roots ;uid foliaceous plants tiian those of man or of liirds, whicli contain only a snudl cpiantity of those mineral substances which they requii-e for their de- velopment. If we compare, for instance, the composi- tion of guano with the excrements of the cow — solid ;uid tluid excrements in the same state of dryness — it Ls found, that ui an equal ■weight, the latter contain five to seven times more of the mineral ingi-edients of tm"nips and potatoes than the former. If, in a soil \vhich is deprived of all those mineral sub- stances, we wish to force a crop of turnips by means of guano, we require at least live times more of giuuio than dimg of cattle. The same thuig happens, though vice versa, if we wish to produce a rich crop of gi-am by means of anim;il excrements ; in this case, one part of guano and live parts of animal ex- crements, produce the same etfect as tliirteeu to fifteen parts of animal excrements. To underst;ind the proper meaning of these numerical proportions, it is sufhuient to men- tion that 400 lbs. of bones contain as much phosphoric acid as 1,000 lbs. of wheat; these 400 lbs. of bones can furnish sufficient phos- phoric acid to eight acres. If we take the importation of bones into Great Britain in the last ten years to amount to 1,000,000 of tons, enough phosphoric acid has been supplied to the fields for 25,000,000 tons of wheat ; but only a small propoi-tion of the phosj)horic acid of the bones is in a state to be assimilated by the plants and ap- plied to the fonnation of grain. The plants, in order to apply the other far greater part of the phosphoric acid to their formation, must find a certain quantity of alkaline bases beside the bone-earth, which are not given to the plants in the bones, because tliey contain neither potash nor soda. To have increased the fertility of the fields in the right proportion, 800.000 tons of pofcish ought to have been added to the 1,000,000 tons of bones, in a suitable form. The same is the case vv-ith guano: (iU to 100 lbs. of it are suflicient to tiirni.sh phos- !)horic acid to one acre of timiips ; but the bur to eightfold quantity is required to fur- nish the turnijjs with the neces.sary alkaline bases, and it is still douI)t1ul whether ihey can be at all provided with the latter, ])y means of the salts with the alkaline bases, wliich the guano contains. At a time when the necessity of the mineral substances for the growth ;uid development of plants, and the direct relation which the clFect of manure has to its amount of the same sulistances, had not been ascertained, a prom- inent value \v:ls ascribed to the orgimic mat- ters which it contains. For a long time it was thought that the produce of a field of those substances containing niti-ogen, which serve as food for man and auunals, stood in a direct proportion to the nitrogen con- tained in manure. It was believed that its commercial value, or its value as manm-e, might be expressed m per cents, by its pro- portion of nitrogen, but later and more con- vincmg observations have uiduced me to con- tradict this opinion. If the nitrogen and carbonic acid formed by the decay and decomposition of the vegetable ingredients of manure were the cause of its fertilizing ]>ower, this ought also to be seen if the mineral substances were excluded. Di- rect e.xperiments have shown that the nitro- gen of the excrements can be assimilated by the plants in the form of ammonia, but that ammonia, as well as carbonic acid, although it is indispensable for the development of all plants, can accelerate the growth of plants and increase the produce of a field of grain, roots and tubercles on!.!/, if, at the same time, the mineral ingi'edients contained in the ma niire which is applied, are in a state in wliich they are suited for assimilation. If the latter are excluded, cai'bonic acid and ammonia have no effect on vegetation. On the other hand, experience has shown that on many fields produce which is rich in carbon and ammonia, can be increased to an extraordinary amount, without any supply of such matters as fm-nish these substances. On fields which are provided with a cer- tain quantity of marl or slaked lime, or with bone-earth and gypsum — substances which cannot give up to the plants either carbon or nitrogen — rich crops of grain, tubers and roots are obtained m many places, entirely in con- tradiction \\'ith the view which ascribes the effect of the manure to its amount of ingre- dients containing nitrogen or carbonic acid. To explaui this process, which is so oppo- site to the common opinion, the marl, the lime, the gj'psum, the alkalies and the bone- earth were regarded as stimulants, wliich act- ed on the plants like spices on the food of man, of which it was believed that they in- creased the power of assimilation, and allowed the individuals to consume larger quantities of food. Tliis view is contradicted, if wo consider that Gtlmulants mean such subsbmces as do not serve for the nourishment of the organism or for the formation of organic elements, and can only increase the weight of the body, if at the same time a certiiin increase of food is given. In snpplying the fields with the above mentioned substances, the weight of the plants became inci'eased in all then' separate parts, without their having been provided witii the quantity of food which according to theoiy, was necessary to this extraordinary increase — viz., with carbonic acid and am- monia. Chemical ;inalysis shows that these so-called stimuhuits ai-e either actual ingr-edients of manure, as gypsum, bone-earth ;uid the active substjinces of the marl, or that they are the means by which the mineral elements con- tained in the soil are resolved into a state LIE BIG S MANURES. 235 ndapted Ibr being assimilated by the plants ; this is generally effected by the application of slaked lime. They conserpiently exercise on the vital process of the plants not a n^ere stimulus like the spices, but aie consumed for tlie development of the leaves, seeds, roots, &.C., they become constituent parts of them, as can be shown with certainty by chemical analysis. The success which lias followed the appli- cation of these substances to the fields has explained, iu a most striking manner, the ori- gin of the carbon and uiti-ogen in the plants. In the marl, in the bone-earth, in the gyp- Rum, ui the nitrate of soda, no carbon is pro- vided to the fields ; and yet, in many cases, the same j)roduce, in some even a higher one, is obtained, than by the application of a ma- nure containing caibon and nitrogen. As the soil, after the crop, does not contain less car- bonaceous or nitrogenous substances, it is evi- dent that these products, which had been obtained without any carbonic or azotic ma- nures, must have got the carbon and nitrogen of their leaves, i-oots and stalks from the at- mosphere ; it follovv's, theretbre, that the pro- ductiveness of the fields cannot be increased iu proportion with a supply of carbonaceous and azotic substances, but that the fertility depends only on the supply of those ingre- dients which should be provided by tlie soil. The soil not only serves the purpose of fix- ing the plants and their roots ; it participates in vegetable life thi-ough the absorption of certain of its elements. If theso elements are present in sufficient quantit}% and in appropri- ate proportions, tlie soil contains the condi- tions wliich render the plant capable of ab- sorbing carbonic acid and ammonia from the ail", which is an inexhaustible storehouse for them, and renders their elements capable of being assimilated by their organism. The agriculturist must, therefore, confine himself to giving to the field the composition liecessaiy to the development of the plants wliich he intends to grow; it must be his principal tafk to supply and restore all the elements required in the soil, and not only one, as is so frequently done ; the ingredients of the ail", carbonic acid and animonia, the plants can, in most cases, procui'e without man's in- terference ; he must take care to give to his field that physical condition which renders possible and hicreases the assimilation of these ingredients by the plant ; he must remove the impediments which diminish their effect. The favorable influence which bone-earth, gj'psum, nitrate of soda, exercise on the fields has induced many farmers to the belief, that iii applying them they can dispense with ma- nure or w-ith the other elements of the soil ; it requires, however, only little attention to see the gi-eat error of this opinion. We ob- sers-e that the effect of these substances is not equal on all fields ; in one place the amount of produce is increased l>y the lime, by the bone-earth, and by gj^psura ; m another coun- Uy, or on other fields, these substances in no way favor vegetation. From this arise the contradictory views of fanners regarding these matters as manm-es. If one iiinner thinks the liming of his fields quite indispen- sable for rendering them fertile — another de- clares that lime produces no effect at all. The reason of this difference is veiy sim- ple. The examination of a soil upon which lime has had no effect, shows that it was al- ready lich in this s?»bstance : it I'arther shows that its effect extends only to those kinds of soil in which lime is wanting, or iu which it is found in too small a quantity, or in a condition which is not suited to its assimilation by the plant. Lime especially sei-ves for resolving the silicates of alumina (clay) and consequently it cannot fertilize soils in which clay is wanting, for instance, sandy soils. It must be apparent to every one, that on the calcareous and gyp- seous fields of France and England one-li;ilf per cent, of gj'psum or lime can have no in- fluence at all on vegetation. This can be said with equal justice of bone ashes, and of every other mineral substance sei-viiig for the nourishment of plants. If these substances exercise a favorable ef- fect, some of the constituents of the soil or manure are restored, which are indispensable to the nourishment of plants, and which liave been wanting in the soil. If this be the case the other bodies, equally necessary, must be present in sufficient quantity. On a field m which sulphate of lime has acted favorably, but in v^hicli clover had been cultivated without it, the crop was 2,200 pounds of clo- ver-hay, iu which 5? pomids of potash were removed. On the same field, after it had been dressed with gj'psum, 8,000 pounds of hay were produced, which contained 191 pounds of potash. If this potash had not been present in the soil, the gj^psum would have had no effect — the crop would not have been increased. On fields which are richly proNaded with all other muieral ingi-edients, with the exception of gypsum, the latter is applied with the greatest success. But if gj'psum is present in the soil, the same effects aie produced by ashes and lime, as is the case in Flanders. On fields in which phos- phate of lime is wanting, bone ashes increase the produce of giain, clover, or grass, and on argillaceous soil, hme produces a decided im- provement. All these substances act only on those fields which are defective in them, and if the other elements of the soil ai-e present. The latter cause the former to come into ac- tion, and vice versa. The fanners who thought that by using lime, gypsum, bone- earth, &c., they might dispense with animal manure,vei-y soon observed that their fields de- teriorated. They obscrv-ed that after a third or fonilh successive manuring with those sniiple substances the produce decreased ; that, as is the common expression, the soil became tii-ed of the manure, that at last the field scarcely produced the seed. It is evident from this, what is the action ol the mineral elements in the soil. If iu i'act 236 LIEBIG S MANURES. in the first years, the proJuco of the soil had increased by the application of bone ashes, or by a single element of the mantu'e — if this iacreaso was dependent on the amount in the soil of the other mineral elements, a certain quantity of those was annually taken up by the plauts and removed in the harvest, and a time must at last arrive in which it is exhaust- ed by the repeated removal ; the soil must become barren, because of all removed ele- ments only one or the other, and not all of them in a right proportion, have been re- stored. The right proportion of the siipply is, however, the only true scientific basis of Ag- riculture. If we subject the fluid and solid excre- ments of meu and annuals to an exact analy- sis, and compare the elements of them ac- cording to their weight, some constant rela- tions between these elements impress them- selves upon the mind, the knowledge of which is of some importance. If the excrements of au animal are collect- ed with some care and left to themselves for some days, their nitrogen appears to have been converted more or less p?rfectly into ammonia. In the fluid excrements, iu the urine, the salts of the food, which are soluble in water, are found iu the fonn of alkaline carbonates, or of sulphates, phosphates, and other salts, with alkaline bases. In the solid excrements or feces, silica, if it was contain- ed iu the food, earthy carbonates, and phos- phates are the principal ingi'edients. The quantity of alkaline carbonates bears a certain proportion to tlie arnylum, sugar, pectine, or gum of the food. The urine ot an animal wliich has been fed with potatoes or turnips, is rich in alkaline carbonates ; the potatoes, however, consist principally of arny- lum ; the chief ingi'edients of the turnips are sugar and pectine. The urine of a horse wiiich has been fed with hay and oats, is com- paratively poor in alkalies, if compared with the lijiTner. It is i'arther shown that the ammonia or the nitrogen of the e.^crcments bears a cer- tain proportion to the pliosphates ; the azote incre;ises or decreases with the quantity of the phosphates m a manner that both can serve as a measure for each other, although not quite as an accurate one. It is not (piite accurate, because the g;im and the amylum also contain a certain, although small, quanti- ty of [)hosphate of lime, as has been proved in my laboratory. The ammonia of the excrements is of course derived from the nitrogenous sub- st^mces in the food : the phosphates are like- wise constituents of tho latter. In the com- position of the food an equidly constant pro- portion exists between both. A given weight of gluten or casein iu peas or in grain always corresponds with a cert;iin weight of phos- phates ; if the grain or tho veget:ible is rich m these nitrog(!noas products of vegetable life, it ia also nch in phosphates ; if it is defi- cient in them the quantity of the latter de- creases in an equal ratio. As the amount of niti-ogen in manure is a measure for its amount of phosphates, and as the manure contains besides these the other ingi-edients of the soil which are required by the grain or by the other vegetables for their development, and taken up by them from the soil, it is easily conceived what was the cause of the error in regarding the niti'ogen of the manure as the principal cause of its efficacy. The reason was, that the ammonia of the manure is always accompanied by the mineral elements which affect its nourishing qualities, because they render its assimilation into the organism of the plant, and its transi- tion into a nitrogenous constituent, possible Without phosphates, and without the other mineral elements of the food of plants, the am- monia exercises no influence whatever upon vegetable life If it has been shown that the fertility of the soil depends on certain mineral sub- stances ; if the restoration of the fertility of e.xhausted fields by means of the excrements of man and animals depends on their propor- tions of these matters ; if the effect of the manures accelerating the vegetation depends upon their proportions of ammonia, it is clear that we can only dispense with the latter when we provide all efficacious elements ex- actly in those proportions' and in that form most proper for assimilation by the vegetable organism in which they are found, in the most fertile soil or in the most efficacious ma- nure. According to our present knowledge of the effect of the constituent parts of manure, I leel convinced that it is indifferent to the plants from which source they are derived. The dissolved apatite (phosphate of lime) from Spain, the potash derived trom felspar, the ammonia from the gas-works, must ex ercise the same effects on vegetable life as the bone-earth, the potash, or ammonia, which we provide in manure. We live in a time when llils cuuulusiou ia to be subjected to a comprehensive and ac- curate trial, and if the result corresponds with the expectations which we are entitled to form, if the animal excrements can be re- placed by their efficacious elements, a new era of Agriculture must begin. I invite the enlightened farmers of England to unite with me f )r that purpose, and to lend me their aid. Whatever may be the result of these experiments, it is Hecessary for the future prosperity of Agriculture that they shoidd be made. They will enrich us with a number of valuable facts — we shall ascer- tain where we have wasted efficacious mat- ters in the common coiirse of farming — we shall acquire an exact knowledge of tliose substances which are necessary and of those which are dispensable. For a number of years myself and many talented young chemists have been occupied with the analysis of those mineral substances LIEBIG S MANURES. 237 ■which are constituent elements of our plants of culture, and -with the examination of the excrements of man and animals, as well as of a great number of soils acknowledged as fer- tile. These labors have been before the scientific world long since, but only a very confined application has been made of them in agriculture. The farmer is by his position not in the condition to procure and command the effica- cious elements necessary for the restoration and increase of the fertility of his fields in a right proportion and suitable form. For this purpose, science and industry must combine their aid. I have been so fortunate as to remove the difficulties which are oppofeed to the applica- tion of a mere mixture of the elements of manure. If we employ the different elements of manure exactly in those proportions in which they are necessary according to expe- rience, for a rich crop of wheat, peas, turnips, potatoes, (fee, and if, at the same time, we leave them in their common state, they do not produce that effect which we might have expected. The cause of this is that the different elements of nature possess a very unequal stability ; the ammonia evaporates, the soluble elements are carried off by the rain, and the effect is more in proportion with the amount of those ingredients of the ma- nure which are less soluble. I have found means to give every soluble ingredient of manure, by its combination with others, any degree of solubility, without altering its effect on vegetation. I give, for instance, the alkalies in such a state as not to be more soluble than gypsum, which, as is well known, acts through many years, even as long as a particle of it remains in the soil. The mixture of the manures has been adapted to the mean quantity of rain in this country ; the manure which is used in sum- mer has a greater degree of solubility than that used in Avinter, Experience must lead to farther results, and in future the f^irmer will be able to calculate the amount of pro- duce of his fields, if temperature, want of rain, (fee, do not oppose the manures coming lairly into action. I must, however, observe that the artificial manures in no way alter the mechanical con- dition of the field* ; that they do not render a heavy soil more accessible to air and mois- ture. For such fields, the porous stable manure will always have its great value ; it can be given together with the artificial maniu-e. Messrs. Muspratt and Co. have undertaken to execute my prescriptions on a large scale, and they are prepared to have ready a quan- tity of manure iu autumn, for wheat, clover, (fee, to satisfy the orders of the farmers. One of my former pupils, now Professor of Chem- istry as applied to arts and manufactures, in this University, is to superintend the fabrica- tion of these different manures. All necessary guarantees are therefore given as regards their composition. To prepare for the coming autumn a suffi- cient quantity of manures, it is necessary that the orders be givten at the earliest possible time. It would be very expedient in case that different kinds of soil are cultivated in a farm, to acquaint Messrs. Muspratt and Co. with the fact, as the proportions regarding silica are different for clayey and calcareous soils, to which latter, in order to render them fertile for grain, more of an easily dissolving silicate must be added. All manure which is to be used during next winter contains a quantity of ammonia corresponding with the amount of nitrogen in the grain and crops which are to be grown. Experiments, in which I am at present en- gaged, will show whether in future times the cost of this manure can be greatly lessened by excluding half or the whole amount of ammonia. I believe that this can be accom- plished for many plants, as for clover and all very foliaceous vegetables, and for peas and beans ; but my trials are not so far advanced as to prove the fact with certainty. (Signed) DR. JUSTUS LIEBIG. Giessen Vniversitj/, 1845. To CcRE A Good Ham. — Take twelve hams of common size, eight pounds of brown sugar, crystallized saltpetre half a pound, and five pounds fine Liverpool salt. Rub the hams well with mixture, and lay them in a cask, with the skin down, where they should remain for a week. Then make a brine strong enough to bear an egg, add two or three quarts of ley from hickory ashes, and refine the whole by boiling and skimming. Cover yom- hams with the brine ; let them remain three or four weeks ; then hang them up in a smoke house, and smoke well with hickory wood. Winter Herbs. — The best time for gather- ing herbs for winter use is when they are in blossom. If left till they are in seed, the strength goes to the seed. They are best picked from the stalks, dried quickly (but not burnt) before the fixe, and rubbed into powder ; then bottled. Wash for the Mouth. — An excellent wash for the mouth is made of half an ounce of tincture of myrrh and two ounces of Pe- ruvian bark. Keep in a phial for use. A few drops in a glass of water are sufficient. 233 NUTRITION IN VARIOUS GRAINS. XUTRITION IN VARIOUS GRAINS. BT PROF. NORTON'. Wheat is one of tlie most important of our crops. The grain contains from fifty to seventy per cent, of starch, from ten to twenty per cent, of gluten, and from three to five per cent, of fatty matter. The proportion of ghiten is said to be the hirgest in the grain of quite warm countries. It is a singuUir fiict, that in all the seed of wheat and other grains, the principal part of the oil hes near or in the skin, as also does a large portion of the gluten. The bran owes to this much of its mitritive and tattening qualities. Thus ia refining our flour to the utmost possible extent, we diminish somewhat its value for food. The phosphates of the ash also lie to a great degree in the skin. The best fine flour contains above seventy pounds of starch to each hundred. The residue of one hundred pounds consists of ten or twelve pounds of gluten, six to eight pounds of sugar and gum, and ten to fourteen pounds of water and a little oil. Eye flour more nearly resembles wheaten flour in its composition than any other; it has, however, more of certain gummy and sugary substances, Avhich make it tenacious, and also impart a sweetish taste. In baking all grains and roots which have much f.tarch in them, a certain change takes place in their chemical composition. By baking, flour becomes more nutritious, and more easily digestible, because more soluble. Barley coritains rather less starch than wheat, also less sugar and gum. Tliere is little gluten, but a substance somewhat like it, and containing about the same amount of nitrogen. Oatmeal is little used as food in this country, but it is equal, if not superior in its nutritious qualities, to flour from any of the other grains ; superior, I have no doubt, to most of the fine wheaten flour of the northern latitudes. It contains from ten to eighteen per cent, of a body having about the same amount of nitrogen as gluten. Besides this, there is a considerable quantity of sugar and gum, and from five to six per cent, of oil or fatty matter, which may be obtained in the form of a clear, fragrant liquid. Oatmeal, then, has not only abundance of substance containing nitrogen, but is also quite fatten- ing. It is, in short, an excellent food for working animals, and, as has been abundantly proved in Scotland, for working men also. Buckwheat is less nutritious than the other grains which we have noticed. Its flour has from six to ten per cent, of nitrogenous compounds, about fifty per cent, of starch, and from five to eight of sugar and gum. In speaking of buckwheat or of oats, we of coui-se mean without husks. llice was formerly supposed to contain little nitrogen ; but recent examina- tions have shown that there is a considerable portion, some six or eight per cent, of a substance like gluten. I'he percentage of fatty matter and of sugar is quite small, but that of starch much larger than any grain yet mentioned, being between eighty and ninety per cent., usually aliout eighty-two. Indian corn contains about sixty per cent, of starch, nearly the same as oat.s. The proportion of oil and gum is large, about ten per cent.; this ex- plains the fattening properties of Indian meal, so well known to practical men. There is, besides these, a good portion of sugar. The nitrogenous substances are also considerable in quantity, some twelve to sixteen per cent. Sweet corn differs from all other varieties, containing only about eighteen per cent, of starch. The amount of sugar is, of course, very large, and the nitrogenoas substance amounts to the very large proportion of twenty per THE CORN TRADE OF EUROPE. 239 cent. ; of gmn to thirteen or fourteen ; and of oil, to aljout eleven. This,, from the above results, is one of the most nourishinu; crops grown. If it can he made to yield as much per acre as the harder varieties, it is well worth a trial on a larire scale. THE CORN TRADE OF EUROPE. By tlie kt«st advices from Englaml, we learn that the price of American flour, freight, duty, and all other charges paid, was about IBs. or ?4.32 per barrel; and what was the prospect of improvement may be judged by our farmers after a pernsal of the an- nexed report, which we take from the London Gazette of Sept. 11. We beg them now to recollect that the market for the products of the earth among the producers of coal, cloth, and iron, increased to the extent of more than a hundred millions a year under the tariff of 18-12, and that it would have grown b}' this time to two Jmndrcd millions ; whereas under the operation of the tariff of 1846, instead of increasing anotlier hundred millions it has fixllen off fifty millions, and all this great domestic market lias been sacri- ficed with a view to obtain the market described in the following article — a market in which the best wheat, freight and duty paid, will command from 90 cents to a dollar a bushel ! How long will it be before our farmers will learn that they are to be enriched by making a market on the land fur the products of the land ? The harvest in England may now be considered as finished, for though some quantity of corn still remains out in mountainous and backward dis- tricts, the great bulk of the crops has been secured. The splendid weather with which we have been favored since our last, has enabled formers in Scot- land and the north of Ireland to make rapid progress with cutting and carry- ing, and all apprehension as to the result of the harvest has been set at rest; the tone of the corn trade will, therefore, now be less influenced by atmospher- ical changes. It is yet, perhaps, somewliat early to speak positively as to the general yield of the United Kingdom, but in respect to the quality of this year's growth of corn there can be no doubt. Wheat especially may be de- scribed as extraordinarily fine, and of very heavy weight; the average per bushel will probably range fiom 63 to 64 lbs., which circumstance is a guar- antee as to the excellent condition in which the crop has been saved. Barley is not so universally well spoken of, and the samples will vary materially. Oats have given a good return, more particularly in Ireland, and beans and peas are generally fine in quality, and good in quantity. With regard to the main crop of potatoes, the accounts continue somewhat conflicting, but after a care- ful consideration of the information which has reached us from different quarters, we are inclined to think that, in the majority of cases in which the leaves and haulm have been attacked, the mischief has not extended to the root. The planting took place earlier this spring than usual, and the plant was well advanced towards maturity before the disorder exhibited itself, to which we are inclined to attribute the comparatively triflii;g nature of the mischief done. What has since transpired ha5 tended to confirm and strengthen the opinion we ventured to express last Aveek, viz. : that the total produce of food grown in the British Inlands in 1851 will prove larger than Ims been gathered in any lyreceding year for several seasons past. This being our conviction, we naturally anticipate low prices for agricultural produce^ as, in addition to an abundance of home-grown grain, considerable supplies from abroad must be calculated on. The free admission of foreign corn will, Under the circumstances, be severely felt by our farmers, and we fear that the «tdvantages which they would have derived from so bountiful a harvest will be counteracted by undue foreign competition. In the first instance, the imports 240 THE CORN TRADE OF EUROPE. wll be principally in the shape of flour from America, but before winter sets in we may reckon on large receipts of wheat from the continent of Europe, and it would therefore be vain to expect better prices than those now current. We are, however, disposed to believe that growers will not thresh very freely, the unusually fine quality and excellent condition of this year's produce being strong inducements to hold. Nearly all the new Avheat hitherto brought for- ward at the provincial as well as the metropolitan markets has met a some- what ready sale, the red at prices varying from 36s. to 38s., and the white at from 40s. to 45s. per quarter. These rates are so moderate that we can scarcely believe that any further decline of importance can take place, xit Mai'k Lane on Monday, there was a good show of wheat by land carriage samples from Essex and Kent, with a few offers from Lincolnshire, Cambridge- shire, and that neighborhood. Nearly the entire supply was of this year's gi'owth, and the millers agreeing to pay previous prices, the stands were cleared at an early hour. Since then the desire to purchase has apparently fallen oft', but as there was not much fresh up, either on Wednesday or this morning, factors have refused to make any concession, and the business done has been on former terms. The arrivals from abroad, without being large, have proved amply sufficient to satisfy the demand. We rarely remember so complete a cessation of inquiry for old wheat at this period of the year ; hard- ly any country pm-chasers visit our market, and the large town millers seem to be in no want of foreign wheat ; the transactions have, consequently, been on quite a retail scale throughout the week, and though prices ha\'e not been quoted lower, the turn has certainly been in favor of the buyer. The late ar- rivals have consisted of good qualities from Dantzic, Eostock, &c., but they have met with little attention, and importers will, probably, have to incur landing expenses, or force sales, at even lower terms than those now current. In floating cargoes nothing of the slightest interest has occurred ; the last sales reported to have been made of Polish Odessa wheat were at 31s. to 31s. 6d. per quarter, cost, freight, and insurrance. The bakers have not much flour on hand, and notwithstanding the depressed state of the wheat trade, the value of the manufactured article has been well supported. This may be partly ac- counted for by the smalhiess of the supplies of flour from France for some weeks past, and the diminished competition which our millers have conse- quently had to contend ^^'ith. Hitherto little new barley has been threshed, and the quantity brought forward at Mark Lane has been so small this week that sellers have experienced no difficulty in obtaining former prices. Moder- ately good malting samples have realized 29s. to 30s., and really choice lots Is. to 2s. per quarter more. The demand for foreign, suitable for grinding, has also been tolerably active; thin light qualities have sold at 22s, to 23s., and hea\T samples at 24s. per quarter. In malt, there has not been much passing, and prices have undergone no change requiring notice. The arrivals of oats, coastwise and from Ireland, ha^•e been scanty ; but we have again to report a large supply from abroad, principally from Archangel. It being, however, the prevailing opinion that the llussian supplies will soon fall oft', factors have refrained from pressing sales, and though the trade has been far fi-om lively, former terms have been maintained. The sales made on Mon- day were at rates precisely similar to those current on that day se'nnight, and neither on Wednesday nor this morning could good corn be bought cheaper than in the beginning of the week. Beans have come rather sparingly to hand, and have not been sold lower than before. Peas have rather crept up in value, but not so much as to render it necessary to alter quotations. We have heard of no sales of Indian corn. THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 241 THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. BY JOHN B. NEWMAN, M. D., [Popular Lecturer on the Institutes of Medicine.] It was remarked by a philosopher, some years ago, that it was scarcely possible to tell the difterence between a dog and a rose. This statement, to the greater number of my readers who have not reflected on the subject, will appear hardly probable. Anecdotes of the sagacity and faithfulness of dogs are known to all ; and I doubt not many of them in our cities are possessed of more knowledge and practical information, and are better members of society, than the swarms of idle and vicious youth who crowd the streets. How then, with such facts before him, could Boret make such an assertion ? I will tell you. Our ideas of the intelligence of animals are derived from the proofs of design we see them exhibit. Having a certain end in view, they will choose, with the most astonishing discrimination, out of a number of means, the ones best adapted to their purposes, and contrive to use these in such a way as to be almost uniformly successful. Natural history is made up of facts in support of this position. Our next inquiry will be to tind out whether plants ever show such instances of choice and foresight ; and a little examination will prove that most unquestionably thej^ do. Strawberries planted on moist grounds give out no runners ; but, on placing them in a dry soil with water at some distance, we find runners travelling around until they discover it, and then remaining a living aqueduct to supply the plant. If these runners are moved round to the other side, they will soon regain their original position with unerring certainty. If you turn the under surface of a rose leaf upwards, it will in a little while commence a return movement, gently twisting with a kind of effort on its peduncle, as on a sort of pivot. The Abbe Marten transplanted a rose tree from one part of his garden to another for the purpose of experiment. To the right of the new position, the soil was hard, dry, and sterile ; to the left, moist, rich, and tender. The roots at first radiated alike to the right and left. But he soon discovered that the roots which had advanced to the right bent backward toward the fertile and mellow earth, as if divining that their companions at the left had found better pasture. To prevent their intercepting nourishment intended for other plants, he dug a ditch to stop the further advancement of the roots. Arrived at the ditch, they plunged perpendicularly beloAV its bottom, ran around, and advanced anew toward the point whence they had discovered the rich soil. Instances of their foresight in guarding against excessive heat, wind, and rain, are equally numerous. In France, the peasants train the carbine by their doors to serve as a barometer; its open flowers show clear weather, but closed, an abundance of rain. The shepherd's weather-glass has the same property ; if it does not show its face to greet the sun on his ascension, the sheep remain in the fold on that day. The " four o'clock" opens its flowers regularly every afternoon at that hour, to show the laborer that if he cannot aftbrd a watch, nature will provide him with the means of knowing the hour without expense. Such examples certainly prove a faculty of judg- ing according to the sense of plants. And now the inquirer asks, what is the nature of this principle, and in what does it difter from chemical affinity or attraction ? A perfect exemplification of this difference is given in the history of its creation. " And God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." Dry land and seas by this VOL. IV. — 16. 242 THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. time -were divided, and the forces of the inorganic world in full operation. These forces are called the pullers-down of nature. Exposed to their influence, mountain and hill crumble into dust ; and it is owing to their agency that volcanoes and earthquakes destroy cities and swallow up nations. This is due probably to the shape of the ultimate atoms, which, fitting into each other in different ways, occasion perpetual change. But on the third day, a controlling influence, a new set of powers, the builders of nature, appear; created in kind and degree different from matter, yet only manifesting their presence to us in connection with it. So far from allowing these atoms to unite according to their affinities, which would soon destroy nature, they exercise the most despotic sway, con- trolling them to the last. The chemical forces are in perfect subjection while life remains ; but the moment it departs, and dust returns to dust, the work of destruction begins and the body vanishes into air. A beautiful example of this opposition is shown by seeds, which are the simplest independent forms of the union of the life-power with matter. Take two of these, and having destroyed the vitality of one of them by passing an electric spark through it, place both in warm and moist earth. The dead seed, surrounded by all the conditions favorable to its decomposition, is speedily resolved into its native elements, Avhile the living one makes slaves of its enemies, rapidly sprouts up amid the surrounding desolation, and hangs out its flowery banners, as tokens of victory. Seeds retain life almost any length of time. I once noticed an account of an abundant harvest reaped from the growth of seeds found in an Egyptian mummy, over two thousand years old. A seed, finding itself in a warm, moist place, suddenly becomes aware that it has work to do, and sets about it without delay. The seed case bursts, a stalk and leaves ap- pear abov^e, while the root, sending off filaments, remains below. At the end of each of these little filaments is a spongiole, or bundle of leech-like mouths. These suck from the soil whatever they require, and then act the part of a stomach in instantly digesting it. A series of ascending vessels or veins are ready to carry it to the leaves to be further elaborated ; when it arrives there its oxygen is given oft', and a supply of carbonic acid obtained from the air is combined with it ; and the pure blood or sap is carried by the arteries to every part to supply its necessities and form compounds. Plants are manufacturing establishments : some make the essential oils, as the cinnamon, sassafras and rose ; others salts, as the sorrel, oxalic acid ; the bark-tree, quinine ; and the willow, salaxy. Many a despised shrub has properties more deadly and dangerous than a powder-magazine ; the laurel and peach yield prussic acid, one drop of which will destroy life ; and travel- lers tell us that the atmosphere of the Upas is fatal for miles around it. The A^tal principle of each plant being separate and independent in itself, explains the reason why two of them, the one a virulent poison, the other a table vegetable, will grow side by side, and draw their nourishment from the same source. It also shows the error of our modern agriculturists, who treat these living existences endowed with a power of choice and foresight as if they were tubes imbibing whatever was placed near them by capillary attraction. Man resembles a torch, in requiring oxygen to keep him burning or alive ; in return for this he throws out carbonic acid, which is to him a virulent poison. Now what prevents this gas accumulating in the air and destroying the animal kingdom ? And from what source shall the supply of oxygen be derived to answer our continual demand ? Only from the respiration of plants ; ■which we can now see not only supply us with food, but are absolutely necessary for our daily existence. THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. ' 243 When the Custom House and Merchant's Exchange were erecting in New- York, they were the daily resort of thousands who flocked to witness their gradual progress ; yet how much more wonderful is the building of a vegetable palace ! Unseen workmen are urging it forward with imtiring industry ; column after column forms ; story after story rises ; stjiircase and hall and gallery are soon fixed in their positions. "We think it a great thing to have the Croton water brought into our houses ; yet in every one of these little chambei-s, there are pipes to carry food and water and take away the residue. It is made of the finest material, elastic, capable of bending to the breeze, and, to defend it from the rain, covered either with water-proof varnish, or stuccoed over with the rarest porcelain. And all this time the spectator is not dis- turbed by noise or dust, the greater part of the work being carried on under ground. When all is completed, no monarch on earth could obtain such a residence. The very paint of its walls, though exposed to all kinds of im- purity, is of such quality that the king's stateliest robes cannot match it. " Consider the lilies of the field : they toil not, neither do they spin ; yet Solomon in all bis glory was not arrayed like one of these." Nay, they are even glad to obtain its essences at second hand, to perfume themselves. The name of the inhabitant who owns the house is written on a broad door-plate of surpassing beauty, so that we can tell one from another. Books have been written on the language of these door-plates, or flowers, and it is said that angels by their means write mysterious truths on hill and field. The poet from the earliest ages has held the most sweet and loving converse with them. But to the physician, the priest of nature, they speak in a higher and more exalted strain. In them he reads the success of his mission. By their means he can conquer the most obstinate diseases. As nothing has ever been formed for show alone, the truly useful will always be the truly beautiful. When the uses are perfectly understood, the fond dream of the Rosicrucian shall not want verification. The bone shall continue firm and the muscle strong ; the eye of youth retain its lustre ; and as century after cen- tury passes away, the lapse of time shall but witness our triumph over the pullers-down of nature, and our increase in wisdom and love. The happy children of Flora, that have retained undimmed the influence of their Creator's smile when first he pronounced his work good in Eden, shall receive added ' radiance and more dazzling glory, as they again behold His face in the dawn- ing morn of the Millennium. Teeth Set on Edge. — All acid foods, drinks, medicines, and tooth washes and powders, are very injurious to the teeth. If a tooth is put in cider, vinegar, lemon juice, or tartaric acid, in a few hours the enamel will be com- pletely destroyed, so that it can be removed by the finger nail as if it were chalk. Most have experienced what is commonly called teeth set on edge. The explanation of it is, the acid of the fruit that has been eaten has so_ soft- ened the enamel of the tooth that the least pressure is felt by the exceedingly small nerves which pervade the thin membrane which connects the enamel and the bony part of the tooth. Such an efiect cannot be produced without injuring the enamel. True, it will become hard again, when the acid has been removed by the fluids of the mouth, just as an agg shell that has been softened in this way becomes hard again by being put in the water. When the effect of sour fruit on the teeth subsides, they feel as well as ever, but they are not as well. And the oftener it is repeated, the sooner the disas- trous consequences are manifested* 244 ABSURDITIES AND THEIR AUTHORS. ABSURDITIES AND THEIR AUTHORS. " It is nonsense to say, with the Evening Journal, that where we import the value of ten thousand banrels of flour which we have sent abroad, we bring the ten thousand bar- rels back again. But the defense of the protective system leads people to all manner of absurdities" Such is the answer that the New- York Evening Post offers to what it styles a gastronomic \'iev/ of the tariff. The Post is a witty paper, and relies upon the effect of its humor much more than upon sober argument. But the power of fun depends very much upon whom it is poked at. Let us see then who it is that is responsible for the absurdity of the Evening Journal. The fii-st numskull who suggested the idea is a gentleman in a big wig and enormous pair of spectacles, whose bust for many years stood over the door of the Evening Post printing office. He ^vas thought to be rather a sensible man in his day, but that was a good while ago. His name was Benjamin Frank- lin. On the fourth day f April, 1769, that absurd old noodle wrote as follows : — " Manufactures are only another shape into which so much provisions and subsistence are turned as were equal in value to tlie manufactures produced. This appears from hence, that the manufacturer docs not, in fact, obtain from the employer for his labor morf^ than a mere suhsistencc, including raiment, fuel, and shelter, all of which derive their value from the provisions consmned in procuring them." In the same paper he says : " The advantage of manufactures is, that under their shape provisions may be more easily carried to a foreign market." This Benjamin Franklin was in the habit of corresponding with a man in ■Scotland, who afterwaiKls wrote a book, and made himself quite notorious. The Evening Post has a thousand times mentioned him as the person who utterly exploded ihe absurdities of the protective system. His name was Adam Smith, and the title of his book is the "Wealth of Nations." He got from Franklin the absurd notion that manufactures are only food in another shape, and taught it to others in these words : — " A piece of fine cloth which weighs only eighty pound«, contains in it tbe price not only of eighty ponnds of wool, but «onietimes of several thousand weight of corn, the maintenance of the different working people and their immediate employers. The corn, which could with difficulty have been carried abroad in its own shape, is in this manner virtually exported in that of the complete manufacture, and may easily be sent to the remotest corners of the world." The difference between Adam Smith and those who, like the Evening Post, deny his principles, while stealing his name, is, that Smith thinks it best to export what may be " easily sent," while they want our farmers to content themselves with raising what can only " with difficulty be carried abroad." But when we come down to modern times, we lind men who have fallen into the same absurdity, and yet stand high in the esteem of the Post, as sound teachers of the philosophy of nationalwealth. Thus, William Brown, Esq., a free-trade member of the British Parliament from Lanca.-^ter, whose strictures on Mr. Meredith's Report the Evening Post has highly commended, «aid in one of iiis speeches that "Oreat Britian is the largest grain-exjwrting country in the world," because she sends abroad her grain " boiled down " (to use the phrase of another free-trade writer) into calico, and broadcloth, and cutleiy. Mr. Kettell, who edits the Democratic Review, and is a regular contributor URINE AS A FERTILIZER. 245 of free-trade articles to the Washington Union and other papers, is infatuated with the same wild idea|. lie says : — " What a strange absurdity it is to see silk going from China and France, cotton from the Southern United States, wool from Australia, coffee ami sugar from Brazil, wheat from New-York, Michigan, Odessa, and Poland, hemp and flax from St. Petersburg, pork and lard from Ohio and Illinois, concentrating in Lancashire, to be returned in goods to the localities whence they came." We hope th-e Evening Pest will have the grace to apologize to Messre. Brown and Kettell, for brethren ought not to fall out. As for Benjamin Frauklin and Adam Smith, they are dead, but then- survifing friends will deem it an ample atonement if the Evening Post will not hereafter pretend to be of their company. — Rochester Democrat. TJRINE AS A FERTILIZER. " A Practical Farmejk," in the Germantown Telegrcqyh, says, that the very high degree of value that urine possesses ought to recommend it to every one. Of the fertilizing eliects of urine in a putrid or semi-putrid state, experience has sujiplied us with the most distinct and positive proof. In this condition, the alimentary properties with which it is endowed must all result exclusively from the amount of salts it contains. Besides these, it also con- tains a considerable amount of organic nitrogenous parts, which, by decom- position, produce the formation of ammonia, which is the source of the " ni- trogenous proximate constituents of plants." The question has been frequently propounded, " whether we are to ascribe the known value of urine as a manure to its nitrogenous constituents, or solely and exclusively to its amount of salts, and, therefore, to its j)hosphates V This inquiry may be one of interest to the speculatist and the philosopher, but for the more practical farmer it is enough that the evidences of its fertilizing effects are obvious and incontrovertible. If it will confer fertility upon the soil, and realize the great object of all experi- mental cultivation — causing "two blades of grass to grow where but one grew before," — the object of the culturist will be accomplished, and the question as to the origin of its fertilizing energies may be left to the chemist and philoso- pher to decide. In the summer of 1842, I applied to twenty hills of Indian corn, when just stalling from the soil, one gallon of putrid urine per hill. After the first hoe- ing another gallon was applied, and after the second a third. This corn was planted on a thin, poor soil, which had been emasculated by long and severe cropping, and had become so far exhausted of humus as not to produce even a fair crop of indigenous weeds. The growth of the corn was rapid and lux- uriant. Ko other stimulus was applied, and two hoeings were all that I allowed. On a patch of cucumbers, melons and squashes, I also applied the same with similar success. One great advantage attending the use of this liquid as a fertilizer is, it does not promote the growth of weeds. Solid ex- crement, and most, if not all the compounded fertilizers, contain innumerable seeds which, take early root, and by gaining so much upon the more tardy- cultivated crops, greatly perplex the farmer ; but urine is free from this evil. It will, it is true, invigorate equally with the cultivated plants all such spurious productions as may have previously taken root, but its application will never foul the soil, if pure before it is applied. For irrigating grass land, it is probably the most enei'getic, fructifying and salutary agent known. In its perfectly fresh state, urine does not act so energetically, and is rather 246 FRUITS OF THE TARIFF OF 1846. harmful than otherwise to most species of vegetation. I have applied it in this condition, and have never witnessed any good from it on any crop. Putrefaction is indispensable to give to it those highly fructifying properties ■which, in this state, it is so well knoAvn to possess. Petzholdt, in his " Agri- cultural Chemistry^'' explains the rationale of this, in the following manner : " Now," says he, " if you consider that during the putrefaction of urine, its nitrogenous compounds, such as virea and lu'ic acid, are transformed into car- bonate of ammonia, a volatile substance, which escapes into the air, it will be seen that, unless it is applied before the process has become too far advanced, the principal fertilizing constituents will be lost, for it is to these that its effi- cacy as a stimulus of vegetable life principally belongs." When circumstances render it necessary to preserve this liquid for a length of time on hand, before applying it, it is a good plan to mix gypsum with it, to attract and fix this fertilizing but volatile constituent. The urine of cattle should be conducted by a system of spouts or tubes to the manure heap, or to deposits of muck, loam, or some other absorbent substance, which will take it up and retain it, by the assistance of gypsum, or some other " fixer," till wanted for the benefit of the crops. That urine contains a large amount of animal matter, may be proved by the fact, that, of all the solid portions of the human system, there is a complete exhaustion and renewal once in every seven years. That is, to be more definite, the man, woman or child of to-day, has not in his physical structure one particle which constituted his frame seven years ago. The old, worn and abraded particles, as they become use- less and detached, are passed from the constantly renovating organism, and are mostly to be found in the urine. These constitute a very fertilizing agent, and to them, principally, are we to refer the surprising results which attend the application of this substance as a manure, or stimulus of vegetable life. As to its eftects when used for irrigating grass lands, allow me to present the following extract from an English work : "From a meadow, which had not been manured, 8,000 lbs. of hay were obtained. The same surface, after irrigation with urine, yielded 11,432 lbs. of hay; that is, 3,432 lbs. more. In this country, equally beneficial results have followed the application, and in one or two instances the increase of product considerably exceeded that above given. To every one, therefore, I say — economize your liquid manures ; it is an article far too valuable to be over- looked or lost." FRUITS OF THE TARIFF OF 1846. We see in the last Clarion Register a very beautiful commentary on the free-trade tariff of 1846. It is to be found in the advertisement of '• John Khngelsmith, Sheriff," and successor of Seth Clover, of no less than six fur- naces, ALL advertised to be sold at the "court-house in the borough of Cla- rion, on Monday, the 1st day of September next." We do not know the yeai"s in which Seth Clover was sheriff, or how many he may have brought to the hammer. We only know that he and his party have brouglit thera all. We know that up to 1842 a good many were in existence; that from 1842 to 184G a great number of new ones were built, and not one sold by the sheriff; that during this time they went on prospering and to prosper; that from this last date not one new one has been built; and that now, at every term of the County Court, they are advertised for sale by the half-dozen, as property no longer in request or of value sufficient to support themselves or ownei-s. — Pittsburg Aiyierican. Floiu- now sells in New- York at less than four dollars a barrel. Chicago spring wheat SMOKE-HOUSES. 247 8old there but recently at sixty cents a bushel. Why is this ? "Why is it that prices are gradually settling down to a point lower than any we have seen for many years, and likely to touch a point lower tlian any we have ever yet seen ? If our readers desire an answer to this question, they may, we think, find the true one in the paragraph above given. The rolling-mills of the country are nearly all closed. Furnaces that made in 1847 four hundred thousand tons of iron, worth in the various forms of stoves, axes, nails, railroad iron, (fee, &c., at least forty millions of dollars, and making a market for that amount of the raw products of the earth, are already closed, and each day adds to the number. Ships, we were told, were more productive than furnaces, or cotton and woollen mills, but from the following paragraph, which we give on high free-trade au- thority, it would seem that the inducement to expend capital in ships is but Uttle greater than to invest it in mills and furnaces : — THE SHIP-YARDS. The present appearance of most of the ship-yards of this city could not fail to arrest the attention of any one who had not visited them since the spring. The large yards located between Stanton and Twelfth streets have now not more than one third of the number of vessels in hand they had at the commencement of the year. Large spaces of ground which were then covered by huge frames of splendid ships, swarming with workmen, like bees clinging round a hive, have now a bare and desolate look. The impetus given to this branch of industry by the demand for vessels for the California busi- ness having somewhat subsided, together luith the loio rates of freight which have XJTCvailed for some time back, have caused the falling ofl" in the business of the ship-yards. — Ne^u- York Herald. We are gradually closing the mills and furnaces of the Union, and with each step in that direction there is, and must continue to be, a diminished necessity for ships ; a truth that will at some time become obvious to those who are yet disciples of British free trade. The Harmony of Interests between Agriculture, Mauufactm-es, and Commerce is so perfect that one cannot profit without profit to all, nor can one of them suS'er without injury to all. When will our political economists open their eyes to this great truth? When will our farmers awake to the fact that a great external trade cannot exist with- out a great internal one, and that the larger the latter the larger must be the former ? We are now destroying the internal trade in hopes to build up the foreign one, and the result must be failure. SMOKE-HOUSES. Many persons commit great errors in building smoke-houses. To be nice, and be a handsome and respectable appurtenance to a farm, it must, forsooth, be built of brick or stone, with close-fitting doors, and a single aperture for the egress of the smoke. The consequence is, the meat is black and bitter, and might as well have been put in a pickle of pyroligneous acid ; having lost all its fine flavor, smelling of soot like a chimney-sweep. The walls are so close and cold, that the smoke condenses and settles on the hams or bacon ; and instead of drying, it becomes flabby and ill-colored. A smoke-house can hardly be too open. It takes longer, to be sure, to perfect the process ; but when completed, the meat is dry, of a fine, chestnut color, and a delicate flavor of smoke penetrating the whole mass. The best houses we have seen are built with a stone wall three feet high, flagged bottom, and a wooden structure built on top of the wall. Common siding is tight enough, or boards endwise, like boarding a barn, is sufficient, with a tight board or shingle roof. The bottom is used for an ash-house, and the smoke fire is built on the ashes. It is safe for both purposes, and -will 248 AMERICAN SCIENCE. produce a much finer article for those who have a sweet tooth for that deli- cious treat — a nice-flavored ham. — Guernsey Times. "WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH THE SURPLUS WHEAT OF THE UNITED STATES ? The European markets give us no encouragement for shipments to any extent there, and if England should require a few millions of bushels, we have got to compete with several grain-growing governments in that market. Flour in Liverpool, at the latest advices, was twenty shillings, or four dollars and fifty cents. Let us cipher and see the prospect of Michigan sending any of her sur- plus there to pay for the immense quantities of Enghsh goods we are con- suming : Flour per bbl, at Detroit, - - - 7 - - $3 81 Wharfage, 0 03 Freight to Buffiilo, - - - - - - -0 15 Wharfage and cartage to canal, - - - - - 0 06 Buffalo to New- York, - - - - - - - 0 15 Wharfage and cartage at New York, - - - - 0 06 New- York to Liverpool, - - - - - -0 40 Commissions, insurances, wharfage, (fee, at Liverpool, - - 0 50 Total, - - - - - - - - - $5 25 Worth in Liverpool, - - - - - - §4 50 Here is evidence that nobody will go into that business. What, then, is to be done ? We know of but one wa3^ We must extend the home market. How can that be accomplished ? Let Congress revise the present taritf, pro- tect American industry, raise the duties on foreign manufactures, and save the eighty millions of dollars balance that is actually accruing against us, which goes to a people we do not feed. Then you will see manufacturing establish- ments of every kind fitting up — ^those already in operation making additions, and thousands of families who are now growing what they use will become consumers of your breadstuffs. That's the way to get good prices and make every section of the country flourishing. — Detroit Tribune. AMERICAN SCIENCE. American science has already acquired a name that is respected through- out the civilized world. It has given man the four most precious boons he has received for two centuries — the cotton gin, the steamboat, the electric telegraph, and chloroform. No European researches into the laws of winds and storms have been attended with half the success that has marked the labors of Maury, and Espy, and Redfield. Our Nautical Almanac, espe- cially that part of it relating to longitudes, founded upon the tabular for- mula of Mr. Longstreth, a merchant of Philadelphia, by unequalled exacti- tude has excited the astonishment of the scientific men of Europe. The new method of recording right ascensions and declinations, discovered by Prof. Mitchel, of Cinciimati, is of the utmost value to astronomical science ; its permanent adoption at Greenwich is the best of all testimonials to its worth. Our country indeed need not be ashamed of her position in the scientific wo)ld while she is honored with such names as those that adorned the long roll of the Albany meeting last week — Agassiz, Pierce, Henry, Mitchel, Bache, Maur}', Olmsted, Hitchcock, Horsford, Haie, Rogers, Loomis,'Wilkes, Hall, and scores of others in whose fame every intelligent American will feel a just pride. EDITORIAL. 249 CMtiirifll. RENOVATING LAWNS. We Lave received a communication from a correspondent on this subject, which, how- ever, is simply in general terms, and not sufficiently definite to enable us satisfactorily to answer his query. He desires information in regard to the " best method of renovating lawns," and proposes to turn in sheep on his for that purpose. Now, in order to make such suggestions as would be most conducive to his benefit, it would be necessary to be informed what is its situation ; what the nature of the soil ; how long the surface has been undisturbed ; what has been its former treatment; its size, locality, etc., etc. But without a knowledge of these somewhat important particulars, we will venture a few bints of general application. In the first place, if the soil is moist clay, or loam, a generous top-dressing of fine stable manure or compost should be employed, and, if necessary, repeated the following season. The month of ]March would be the best time for doing tliis. Should the soil be of a light gravelly nature, abounding in silex, either dry or leached wood-ashes applied liberally to the surface would be an excellent fertilizer, and bring forward an abundant and beautiful covering of small white clover, (trefoil,) a most fragrant and delightful production for lawn purposes. If the soil has become " sod," or " sward-bound," a toothed roller would be of essential service in its renovation. An occasional watering (if not too extensive) from a garden engine, Avith a solution of guano, would doubtless prove beneficial to lawns which have become sterile. The plan of turning sheep on a lawn may not be a bad one, but great care should be observed that they do not injure the young shoots and lender buds of the shrubbery, which they are sometimes inclined to do ; and we should prefer to dis- pense with their service, unless, by long neglect, coarse wild grasses, running briers, etc., might have made their appearance. In the latter case sheep would be a benefit, as they frequently eat them with avidity when young. A top-drossing of well decomposed muck, on which sheep have been hurdled, is an excellent renovator for lawns having a light, sandy soil. PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY C. CAREY, Esq. The following is an extract from a letter received at this office, containing five new sutt^scribers for The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, with ten dollars, dated "Clintox, Miss., August 2.5, 1851. " I would like much for yon to send the ' Harmony of Interests' to the first-named gentleman. Four of us are anti-tariff Democrats, and I among them; but I have be- come convinced, by reading Mr. Carey's ' Harmony of Interests,' that the doctrine con- tended for by him, to wit, perfect protection against the pauper labor of England, is the true doctrine, and its adoption indispensable to our prosperity as an agricultural and a planting community. " I consider Mr. Henry C. Carey as one of the clearest and ablest writers of the day. Upon the subject of protection, his writings are calculated to exert a much greater influ- ence than those of any other man in the nation, Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster not excepted. Mr. Carey has become so interesting a character to many of your subscribers, that a sliort biography of him would be exceedingly gratifying to them. I have frequently been asked who Mr. Carey was. " Though not a subscriber, I have been a constant reader of your journal for twelve 250 EDITORIAL. months, and intend to be through life. It is to be hoped that Mr. Carey will continue his contributions. " Yours respectfully, ." In accordance witli the -wish expressed in the foregoing letter, we shall embellish the January number of The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil with a beautifully engraved Portrait, accompanied with a biographical sketch, of Mr. Carey. We are happy to be able to assure the writer, as well as all our readers, that Mr. Carey's contributions will continue to enrich our pages. PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. The annual exliibition of this Society commenced on the Hth of September, and closed on the 19th. Taking the exhibition altogether, it was a very good one ; much better than could have been expected on account of the very dry season. The floricul- tural department Avas not as full or as rich in display as usual, but some of the fruits, particularly the pears and apples, were much more so. The prominent feature of the exhibition was the " Victoria Jiegia," deposited by Caleb Cope, Esq., of Philadelphia. We believe it is the first of the kind brought into this country. It is a species of water- lily, and the leaf when expanded measures six feet in diameter. The flower, when fully blown, measures about twelve inches, and is certainly as curious as it is beautiful. The vegetables were uncommonly fine, and there were a great many of them. On the whole, the display was very good, and the exhibition reflects gi-eat credit on the gentlemanly managers. THE ROCHESTER FAIR. The New- York State Agricultural Fair, which was held last month at Rochester, ap- pears to have been one of the most successful they have ever had. The city was com- pletely crowded with strangers, including some of the most distinguished men, and the exhibition, which covered some 29 acres of ground, was highly creditable in every de- partment. This Fair is said to have produced some $3,000 more receipts than any that have preceded it. The receipts from admission were §14,000, while the premiums amounted to about §5,000. The Annual Address was delivered by the Hon. S. A. Douglas, who discussed at much length the importance of Agriculture, and its influence upon the growth of our country, its tendency to develop the mind and body of the peo- ple. He noticed the leading crops, such as cotton, tobacco, breadstufFs, sugar, rice, silk, wine, woollen, &c. He alluded also to our mineral resources, and suggested the propriety of establishing a great National Agricultural Society, to collect information from the dif- ferent States, and diffuse it among the people in an annual report, thus presenting a view of the agricultural condition of our whole country. Judge Douglas' address smacked strongly of free trade ; aside from which it was a very interesting and highly finished production. " CoMSTOCKiNG." — This is a term applied to a system of agriculture, horticulture, fruit- growing, etc. ^„ steam jacket b ; o o are caps or TjC covers to the cylinder, c', c*^, c', ai'e a set of partitions, by which A-is divided into four compartments or channels, d\ d^^, d^, d< ; and each of these par- titions is turned up at one end, so as to allow the water to flow along them towaids the opposite end only. At one end the cylmder a is connected by a pipe e, with a condens- ing and aerating vessel f, which is contained within a closed tank f^. At the other end of the cyhnder A communicates by a pipe o with a box h, into which the water to be purified is fiist introduced fiom some source of supply connected with the.tap i. k is a AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. 275 pipe, by -which the steam from some steam-generator is admitted into the steam jacket b, so as to heat the cyUnder a. (For steam, hot aii' may be substituted.) While steam is thus being supplied to the steam jacket, the water to be ojiera- ted upon (whether salt or other uiipm'e water) is allowed to flow from the tap i into the box H, and down the pipe g into the cyhnder a, where it falls upon the upper surface of the plate o' ; but to prevent auy of the water retm-ning in a state of vapor through the pipe G, the upper end of that pipe is sealed by a hood l, by which free commiuiication fi'om the interior of the cylinder a with the external atmosphere is enthely cut off in that direction. The water which falls upon the plate c^ after running along the channel D^, falls down upon the next plate c-, by which it is conveyed back again to the other end of the chamber, where it falls upon the plate c', along which it flows in a similar manner till it fells into the compartment d*. While the water is thus conveyed succes- sively from one end of the chamber to the other, it gets heated, and a portion becomes vaporized, and goes off by the pipe e, into the condenser f, where it gets mixed with the atmospheric air admitted by the pipe m, and is finally condensed by coming in contact Tvith the sides of the condenser, when it is run off by the inverted syphon-pipe n and col- lected for use. o is another inverted syphon from which the condensed steam which has been employed in heating the cylinder a is collected. The water obtained from this pipe, not being aerated, may be employed for washing, p is a pipe for supplying cold water to the condenser, and r another pipe by which the water as it gets heated escapes, b is an inverted syphon, by which the residuum of the impure or salt water operated upon escapes from the cylinder a. This is an Enghsh invention, which was patented last August by the inventors, and is considered one of considerable utility. AGRICULTURE OF NOTTmGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. [Continued from p. 209.] LIMESTONE DISTRICT. The Western Division includes a district of limestone soil forming a narrow slip of land adjoining the county of Derby, to which it more properly belongs fi-om the greater resemblance it bears to the soil of that county. It is described by Mr. Lowe as a "hungry limestone;" and although some parts of it have been much improved by drainage and by the use of bone-manure, it is still wanting in that natural productiveness which distinguishes some limestone soils. The hmestone contains a large amount of magnesia, which is alone suflBcient to account for the want of natural fertiUty. The com'se of cropping on the dry and sound parts is : 1st year, turnips. 2d year, barley. 3d year, clover or peas. 4th year, wheat. Sometimes oats are sown after the wheat, but this is a practice which is decidedly objected to by the best farmers of the district. This dry and sound land may be cultivated with a prospect of remuneration to the occupier, which can scarcely be said of the wet and cold parts still requiring drainfige. On these soils, instead of the turnip crop, the farmer must have a naked fallow for wheat or barley, which is succeeded by clover in the third year, and afterwards ploughed up for wheat or oats. Where dra^age is wanting, it is a precarious district to farm, and one but 276 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. little sought after ; neither can the tenant be expected to iraprove materially a soil lying under such natural disadvantages, unless the landlord comes forward to his aid by giving drain-tiles, and otherwise assisting him. Some landlords have shown themselves willing to do so, on the tenant being at the expense of laying them ; in other instances the whole expense is incurred by the landlord, he charging the tenant a reasonable percentage on the capital expended. THE SOUTH-EASTERN, OR CLAY DISTRICT. *Mr. Lowe has divided this district into — " 1st, the clays north of the Trent, consistlno- of the North and South Clay Divisions, (of the hundred of Basset- law,) and part of the hundred of Thurgarton ; 2dly, those south of the Trent, comprehending the Vale of Belvoir and the Notts Wolds." In speaking of the clays north of the Trent, he says, " I must observe that the clays north of the Trent are in general not of so tenacious a nature as in many counties, being much more friable from containing a portion of sand, and falling more readily by the weather ; particularly the red clay, of which there is a great deal in the country round Tuxford and in the hundred of Thurgarton, which might be more properly called a clayey loam, and a black- ish clay soil commonly called a woodland soil, in which there is plainly a mixture of sand." Mr. Lowe then remarks, " There is a great intermixture of open fields and inclosed townships ;" and he shows in his Appendix, that north of the Trent, at the time he wrote, the proportion of townships was as 31 uninclosed to 21 inclosed: of the 31 then uninclosed, there are now not more than 3 or 4 open, and these will doubtless, by inclosure, soon be assimilated to the rest. Of the mode of cultivation then adopted, Mr. Lowe remarks: "In the open field the common course of husbandry is : 1st. Fallow. 2d. Wheat or barley. 3d. Beans, peas, or both mixed. The latter crop is very common in this county; the reason given for it is its smothering the weeds ; but I have always observed the crops to be very foul." It is almost unnecessary to state that since inclosures have become general, which has been effected gradually, the above limited and imperfect coui-se of cropping has been abandoned for one more extended — one which, at the same time that it gives greater change to the soil, secures also to the occupier a more reasonable prospect of farming with advantage to himself. The system of cropping in the clays, now more generally adopted than any other, is the following : 1st year, fallow. 2d year, barley or wheat. 3d year, red clover or grass-seeds. 4th year, wheat. 5th year, beans. 6 th year, wheat, or occasionally oats. So many, however, are the modes of different individuals in this district, arising from the various sizes of their farms, the dift'erent character of the soils upon them, not less than through the variety of condition in which they are at the present day from some having been drained and others still wanting that necessary preliminary to good farming on the generality of strong soils, with many other differences, that it is impossible to point out any one particu- AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. 277 lar system of which it may be said, at least in the northern part of the county, " this is the general practice." To omit altogether the 7Hodus ojyerandi of the farming in this district would be to leave imperfect an attempt to communicate all necessary information ; it is however proposed to treat of mere operations more briefly than has been done in the foregoing part of this Essay. Besides, as many of the details there alluded to are the same in practice throughout the county, irrespective of the character of the soil, it will be less incumbent on us to repeat them. The ploughing of some of the heavy orders on the strong soils is still per- formed, by single ploughs ; by which it is to be understood that the horses walk in a line down the furrow, the team mostly consisting of three or four horses, which require a driver in addition to the ploughman. It is more than doubtful whether in all cases these soils, in their present defective state of drainage, could be sufficiently deep ploughed by two horses abreast. One thing, however, is clear, that where four horses are necessary they would act far more advantageously, as regards draught, by harnessing them in pairs abreast. We are aware that it will be answered, that, by so doing, the land would suffer more from the treading of the horses ; but we still think that, in many cases, a great advantage would be gained from the horses being nearer to their work. The lighter orders are now more frequently ploughed by two horses abreast, attached to a common swing-plough, for the wheel-plough is but little used in this county, except perhaps on the borders of Leicestershire. First year, Falloivs. — As this operation extends over at least nine months of the year, inclusive of the summer season, when by simply exposing the roots of weeds to the sun they are destroyed, it is in most cases a mere succession of ploughings, consisting usually of five. Where the land is liable to the growth of quitch-grass, the working it with light and heavy harrows is of little service ; it requires the more efl'ectual operation of being forked. Second year, Barley or Wheat. — Although wheat is more commonly- sown on the fallows than barley, we think the practice objectionable, and shall state our reasons for holding an opinion so directly opposed to the custom of the district. Wheat after fallows is seldom a yielding crop ; it is too frequently lodged before it is shot fully into ear, and in consequence is more productive of straw than corn. It is, moreover, questionable whether, by the application of farm-yard manure to the fallows, the evil is not increased, as, by so doing, the nutriment of young plants is supplied in quantity greater than necessary, and by such means an exuberant growth is fostered in the early stages of the plant without the soil possessing in itself, or having supplied to it, those properties which might serve as a counter-check. Mr. Topham, in his " Chemistry made Easy," has well illustrated this where he observes, " that if wheat be sown upon a soil composed in a great measure of decayed vegetation, the plant will flourish in a most extraordinary manner for a period, and by its luxuriant appearance promise the farmer an abundant return in harvest ; and could it but fortunately sustain the exuberance of its germination, no doubt the produce would be equal to his fondest anticipations. But to insure this most desirable result, it is necessary that the stalk should be encased in a cylinder of flint ; and if sand is not present, and an alkali to aid in its solution, the plant will bend and fall under the load which its well-gorged organs shall have accumulated, and the cultivator be disappointed of the rich remuneration it promised him." Such is the opinion of a gentleman who has sought to serve agriculture scieniijically ; let us now turn to one who has done so practically, for upwards of thirty years, by cultivating extensively strong soils ; and, after so long an experience, has published, for the benefit of 278 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. others, the results. We allude to an " Essay on the Rotation of Crops best suited to Heavy Lands," published in 1842, by Mr. Richard Parkinson, of Knapthorpe, near Newark. This pamphlet, from its thoroughly practical character, is eminently calculated to serve the purpose for which it was written. On the subject before us the author says : " Wheat should not be sown after summer fallows on inclosed clay-lands ; I have found that it is impossible to keep the land in condition and in a profitable course under that system. If the ti-ade in barley was much depressed, and prices low, I would substitute oats occasionally after fellows." We shall leave the reader to draw his own conclusions, whether it may not be highly probable — the results of science and practice being the same — that the cases may be analogous throughout, and traced up to one cause : if so, it will go fixr to establish the principle we have laid down. As the practice of sowing wheat upon fallows is very general in the north and south clays, and failure and disappointment in point of yield often attend it, we have been induced thus to allude to the subject in the hope of leading those more immediately interested to trace tlie effect up to the true cause, and to apply or not a remedy as they may deem it better or worse than the disease. When wheat is sown upon fallows, 9 pecks to the acre is sufficient, if drilled; but if sown by the hand, 1 or 2 pecks in addition may be necessary. If barley is substituted, twelve pecks will be found enough when drilled, although 14 are oftener sown by hand. Third year, Clover. — For the respective quantities of seed-clover necessary, red or white, vide suj)ra. The red clover will be liable to fail if sown oftener than every alternate course, or once in twelve or thirteen years, according as the white clover remains down one or two years. Red clover is mostly mown for fodder for the horses, and the after-crop is used for soiling them during the summer and autumn, or allowed to remain for seed, in which case it ought to be mown the first time as early as practicable, so as to allow the seed crop an opportunity to ripen early. The Italian rye- grass is grown by some with great success in this district, and forms, in case of failure of the red clover crop, a most valuable substitute, from the abundant produce it generally yields. Fourth year, Wheat. — The practice of ploughing and pressing the clover- ley for wheat is common in the loams of the southern part of the county, where it succeeds well ; but on the' strong soils, where wheat is intended to be sown after grass-seeds, it will amplj- repay the extra trouble of breaking up the ley during the summer, or as early in the autumn as it can be done, working it to a fine mould, and afterwards ploughing and drilling in the wheat. The roots of the wheat-plant can thus extend themselves more freely in the more permeable soil, and the slugs and snails being thereby brought to the sui-face, and becoming a prey to the various birds whose habits lead them to feed upon them, are prevented from doing the serious injury during the winter which they so often effect. Mr. Parkinson, in the Essay to which we have alluded, recommends shallow drilling or sowing by the hand on the common furrow, so as to keep the seed near the surface, as the best preservative against the ravages of the slug or snail. The wheat, after being hoed in the month of April, is gone over by womcia, at wages from Qd. to 10c?. a-day, who take out any weeds which may remaiu after the hoeing. The harvesting of the crop is performed similarly to that of the sand dis- trict, as already described, the scythe having almost entirely superseded the sickle. AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. 279 Fifth year, Beans. — No crop cultivated in this country offers so great a difference as regards value at the time of harvest as this does. Those who still persist in sowing, every third year, beans and peas without the aid of manure, and then leave them to their fate, without either hoeing or cleaning, till they are reaped, receive back in many instances little more than seed again. But such have been the frequent failures in this crop on the clays, that other crops, such as peas or winter tares, have been of late substituted ; and, by affording a change to the land, have also been more remunerative to the grower. The most common practice is to dibble about 3 bushels of beans an. acre on a common furrow, which has been exposed to the frosts previously. With this method the hand-hoe only can be made use of; but we think a superior mode is that recommended by Mr. Parkinson, which we cannot do better than give in his own words : — " The land is ploughed into ridges 20 inches apart, in November or December, in the same manner as for tm-nips, being previously manured with seven or eight two-horse cart-loads per acre. The beans are sown as early in the spring as the land is dry enough, in the following manner : A single-horse plough opens a level furrow in the frosted mould of the hollows between each ridge ; this is followed by a man with a drill-barrow, which deposits about 3 bushels of seed per acre. The harrows are then taken two or three times over the laud, and once across. It may be necessary in some seasons to go over the land once with a powerful harrow after the beans are sown, to break up the middle of the ridges. The land by this mode is left remarkably light, and in fine order for hoeing in the spring and summer. It retains its lightness in a considerable degree until the autumn, which much facilitates the putting in the ensuing crop of wheat, especially in dry weather. The beans are hoed by hand when about 2 inches high, and the land afterwards receives one deep order with the horse-hoe ; another hoe- ing by hand, at least, is always necessary during the summer to cut up the charlock and thistles." Mr. Watson, of Walkeringham, has grown beans with great success, by opening drills in a similar manner, but at a greater distance — even as wide as 36 inches between the drills; but that is on a deep loam of very good soil at Beckingham, where he has grown upwards of 60 bushels an acre. We have heard him express an opinion that a frequent cause of failure in this crop arises from sowing too much seed, and thereby preventing the free access of sun and air to the plants, which is necessary to their successful growth and after- productiveness. During the last two years he has, previously to the last hoeing which the beans received, sown about 2 lbs. of white turnip seed to the acre, which by the hoeing receives a cover, and thus two crops are growing on the same ground simultaneously until the beans are reaped. This double crop has so far proved satisfactory, and the practice will no doubt obtain notice from others in the neighborhood. The land upon which the experi- ment has been made is a strong but deep clay, in high condition ; and has been furrow-drained and subsoil-ploughed. The Uley cultivator can now be used on the farm to great advantage in the driest season, in preparing the stubbles for wheat; when, perhaps, some of the adjoining occupiers are obliged to content themselves with remaining patient spectators. ^ixth year, Wheat.— HhQ usual preparation for this crop is to plough the land with a thin furrow as soon after the removal of the beans as it can be done. The harrows are then put upon the land, and it is worked to a fine mould ; it is then allowed to lie some time to encourage the growth of weeds, so that they may be destroyed by the following ploughing, which forms the seed-furrow, on which the seed is sown by the hand, or upon which it is drilled. 280 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. Where the cultivator can be used in the first instance, one ploughing is suffi- cient. The quantity of seed sown upon bean-stubbles is 10 or 11 pecks an acre. In other respects, the crop is managed as described under the head of wheat in the fourth year. It has been observed that oats are occasionally substituted in this year for "wheat ; the low price of horse-corn has, however, of late years made the prac- tice comparatively rare. Instead of the six years' course described here, some prefer (particularly in the north clays) a four years' course, viz. : 1st year, fallows. 2d year, barley or wheat. 3d year, clover. 4th year, wheat. To which the foregoing remarks made on the four first years of the six years' course apply. When this course is adopted, the clover in the third year is exchanged in every alternate course for beans, beans and peas, or some- times vetches. It is almost superfluous to observe that the advantage proposed in this shorter course arises from thet fallows recurring oftener, so that the land is easier kept clean. The farms throughout the county are held in general by tenants-at-will ; and we are not aware of any desire amongst the occupiers, as a class, to exchange such tenures for leases. Our reason for offering this opinion is, that confidence so generally exists between landlord and tenant, and especially so between the large landowners and their tenantry, in whose hands the principal part of the land in the county is, as to make the tenantry satisfied with the matter as it stands ; for as, on the one hand, they may be exposed to a disadvantage through the caprice of their landlord, so, on the other, tliey cannot but be aware that, in these changeful times, when prices are constantly lowering, they have an advantage in being able to relinquish their ftirms at their own discretion. This advan- tage would, in our opinion, be strengthened by the more general adoption of a practice which now prevails in but very few instances — viz., that of the corn- rent. The size of the farms is on the average much smaller in the clay district than in the sands, which is a great disadvantage, as we conceive, and one calculated to operate against an improved cultivation. The most common size is from 70 to 150 acres, containing in most cases a portion of permanent grass-land, which, it may be easily perceived,' tends to prevent the occupiers of such farms from pasturing much of the arable land with sheep, as might be done if the farms were larger. They are driven of necessity, in order to make their rent and provide subsistence for a family, to keep an undue projjortion of their land in corn, which has the effect of impoverishing their farms, not less than themselves. Household and many other expenses, moreover, press more heavily, in comparison, on small than on large farms. In making these remarks, we would by no means be imderstood to argue in favor of farms of such magnitude as are held in some counties : at the same time, we are con- vinced by observation, that the instances are few where men, as capitalists, succeed on farms of less than 300 acres; and few farm really well more than 500 acres : but where capital is plentiful, farms of about the latter size seem most desirable ; and this we know to be the opinion of such occupiers as are AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINaHAMSHIRE. ENGLAND. 281 of considerable intelligence, in counties where the largest farms are frequently- held. On the subject of drainage, which will in this district demand attention, Mr. Lowe, in his report, is very brief ; neither, perhaps, ought we to feel sur- prise when we consider that half a century has elapsed since he wrote. It is not a subject, we presume, on which he would at that time have much oppor- tunity of giving information. Of draining by tiles he makes no mention what- ever. Of late years efforts have been made in this way by individuals which have been attended with the most complete success, which it is our intention to describe. In many instances, however, the work has been performed by those who did not understand the first principles of the art, and who have in conse- quence failed to give satisfaction to their employers, the work when done being found incomplete. We allude in particular to various attempts that have been made to over- strain Elkington's principle of deep-draining, the object of which was more especially the interception of spring-water and the conveying it away before it had occasioned injury to the land lying below. To effect by the same means the removal of surface-water is where those individuals have erred : the latter can only be done where the evil is in a soil of an adhesive natin-e, by making a sufficient number of surface-drains in addition to deep drains for the removal of the spring-water. We will exemplify, by reference to an individual case, what we consider the only efficient means of draining strong land, and which we do with the greater confidence from our knowledge of the results having proved highly satisfactory. The instance we allude to is upon the farm of Mr. Parkinson, of Leyfields, where may be seen the principles of drainage carried out to the greatest perfection. As it is a subject of paramount import- ance, we shall attempt in a few words to show what his system has been, at the same time remarking on other improvements which have been gone into there. About a year and a half ago we were much gratified by an inspection of every part of the farm, and the conclusion we then came to was, that taking into consideration the difficulties that have been overcome, and the success which has been attained, it offered the highest example of first-rate farm- ing we had ever seen, — an opinion which remains to the present time unchanged. The soil varies from a heavy sand to a strong loam, the whole lying on a substratum of cold clay. The spring-water has been drawn off by deep drains, some of which are not less than fifteen feet in depth, and are in most cases independent of the surface drains. These deep drains are made subservient to furnishing water for the use of the stock upon the whole farm, by convey- ing it into troughs, all neatly paved around and kept perfectly clean. The drains are formed of large tiles, and overlaid with stones when needful. Those for taking away the surface-water are laid about twenty-four inches deep, in some places more, and are formed of smaller tiles laid on flat bottoms, where necessary, at distances from eighteen to twenty-four feet apart. The old ridges where requisite are still slightly preserved, the drains in such case being laid down the furrows ; otherwise the drains run parallel with the fences. The fences deserve especial notice. They are of hawthorn, and nearly the whole of them have been replanted by Mr. Parkinson, and have grown up under his eye. They are of splendid growth, and form an invaluable shelter to his short-horn beasts, being allowed to rise for that purpose on the grass-land. When they are cut it is in the Scotch mode, which is becoming general throughout the northern part of the county. This work is performed by very sharp knives made expressly for the purpose, light to hand, but very eftective 282 AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND. from their high temper. The stems are cut from the ground obliquely, and care is taken that they are all cut uj)wards, so as not to shatter the top of the stems which are,, left. If a brush is left on the further side, no other guard is necessary ; but on the side from which the operation is performed, when there are cattle, it is necessary to guard it by a dead fence for about two years. The grass and weeds are at the same time cleared from the roots of the stems, and a perfectly new fence springs up, which is thick fi-om the bottom, making shoots in a single year of surprising growth. The course of cropping followed is similar to the one already described as common throughout the district, but with one very material improvement ; namely, that instead of a bare fallow very heavy cro]3s of turnips are grown on the whole farm. These are produced, without any artificial manure, in the following manner: — During the winter months, men are employed in burning the soil from the hedge sides into ashes ; these are mixed with night-soil dried until it will admit of being riddled, so that it can be drilled as a compost. The seed is thereby quickened into vegetation, and plants are obtained which, soon bid defiance to the fly. The heaviest crops of Swedes are thus grown, which could never have had an existence but for a perfect drainage. The stock kept on the farm has been increased more than five-fold, and the produce of grain has advanced in the same ratio. It is almost unnecessary to observe that the manure is here an object of especial care. The liquid manure, when such is practicable, is conveyed by drains to the nearest grass- land lying on a lower level, and by zigzag cuttings serves to irrigate and enrich it. When that cannot be done, it drains into tanks, and is carted upon the higher grass-land, which has been thereby converted into grazing-land of the ' best quality, whereas it is by nature a poor, cold soil. Such are a few of the improvements, very imperfectly sketched, which have been carried out at Leyfields by Mr. Parkinson, a ggnlleman of great experi- ence and of no ordinary enterprise. These improvements, we may observe in conclusion, are being repeated by him on an estate which he purchased lately at Drayton ; from which circumstance we think it fair to infer that that gen- tleman, after his long experience, supposes high farming not to be incompat- ible with profitable farming. In this division th6 district south of the Trent is composed of a variety of soils, — from heavy sand to a rich loam, and even strong clay. From Notting- ham to Newark, the high ground is chiefly a red soil, between sand and loam, lying upon a substratum of marl, and comprising one of the most naturally productive districts in the county. It is well calculated for sheep, and some excellent flocks may be seen upon it. These farms are many of them much improved by abutting on the Trent, which furnishes to them a proportion of good grazing-land as well as meadow ; the former of which is made available in some cases for dairy ])urposes, and in otiiers for grazing beasts for the Newark and Nottingham fat stock markets. The mode of husbandry most common is the six years' course, resembling that north of the Trent ; substi- tuting, however, always when practicable, a turnip crop for a bare fallow. Much of the district has been drained with tiles, and is on the whole very well cultivated, producing heavier crops at much less expense than on the sands of the western division. A stranger must be struck with the superior character of the farm buildings, which are, moreover, kept in extremely good condition, presenting a neatness in the highest degree creditable to the occupiers. The fences ;ire not always so well kept, and might be improved upon. In the neighborhood of Nottingham, potatoes are planted in considerable breadth, as a supply for that market, and most excellent crops are obtained. THE FIRST AND GREATEST TAX ON LAND. 283 Adjoining the county of Leicester the soil assumes a more tenacious nature, and comprises the districts distinguished by Mi-. Lowe as the " Vale of Bel- voir " and the " Nottinghamshire Wolds." Improvements have been here, as in other parts of the county, effected to a considerable extent during the last half century. Not only have the inclo- sures, which were then open, been completed, but drainage has made great advances, although it is by no means as yet perfect. When a thorough drainage is wanting, no course of cropping can be suggested which is not hable in adverse seasons to be frustrated. Whatever mode of husbandry may be proposed by the occupier of strong soils, experience has taught him that where that foundation of all good farming has not been laid, he must in consequence yield, to circumstances of which otherwise he would in the main be independ- ent. Experience will better teach him than any covenant by which he might be bound that the growing of two white corn crops in succession is not pro- fitable, that he cannot by such a system keep his farm clean or in good con- dition. He will therefore, in alternate years, substitute leguminous ones ; and the low prices with which he has now to contend will impel him to strain every nerve in protracting as long as ^Jossible the period between those years of naked and profitless fallows. The live stock throughout the whole of the South-Eastern Division has undergone a similar improvement to that described in the western. As, how- evei-, in the latter district sheep are the prevailing stock, so may, perhaps, beasts be said to be in the former, from the heavier character of the soil in general, and the larger proportion of permanent grass-land. The repeated supplies of the improved Durham breed, which have been crossed again by the best short-horn bulls, have raised the cattle to a standard of great excellence. We have already had occasion to notice the superior flocks of pure Leicester sheep, which had gained for themselves a name when Mr. Lowe wrote of this district, and which we have every reason for supposing is in point of merit progressing ; as a general remark, decidedly so. The necessity of a quick return, through an improved breed both of beasts and sheep, has forced itself on the attention of farmers in general ; and the correctness of our remarks may be best ascertained by referring to the general appearance of the fat stock brought into Newark and Nottingham markets, which will bear comparison with any in the kingdom. iTo be concluded in next number. ] THE FIRST AND GREATEST TAX ON LAND. That transportation is the first and heaviest tax on labor and land, we have endeavored to satisfy our readers; and we have done so with a view to convince them that it is a self-imposed tax, the payment of which will cease to be required so soon as they shall have arrived at the conclusion that the farmers and planters of the Union need protec- tion for themselves, and that in perfect protection is to be found the short and profitable road to perfect freedom of trade. We liave now before us some facts in relation to the sugar trade, illustrating so forci- bly the extent of taxation resulting from distance from market and the heavy burthen of transportation, that we cannot omit to lay them before our readers. An acre of good land, when well cultivated, will produce, in the West Indies, thirty tons of plant cane, prepared for the mill, and these will produce sixty hundred weight of muscovado sugar; while an acre of beet-root will yield but eighteen tons, producing twenty-one and two 284 BUCKWHEAT. fifths hundred weight — a difference that would seem to defy competition, and to require protection to enable the beet-root sugar producer to live by his labor. Nevertheless, so great are the advantages resulting from proximiti/ to market, that sugar made from the beet-root is gradually driving out of lifee continental markets that produced in the West Indies. The production of domestic «ugar in France already ex- ceeds, as we are told, by one third the amount imported from the colonies of Martinique, Guadaloupe, Bourbon and Cayerme, although the duty is the same on all French sugar & whether exotic or indigenous ; and so strong is the tendency in that direction, that the financial returns in France for last year, as compared with the i^revious one, show an increase of duties on domestic sugar of 6,581,000 francs, and a decrease on colonial of 6,917,000 francs. The whole amount of duty collected was as follows : — On French domestic sugar, 30,526,000 francs. colonial " 32,853,000 " On raw foreign " 17,863,000 " From this it follows that whereas in 1849 the consumption of domestic was only three parts out of seven, it is now four parts out of seven, having increased almost one third ', while that of colonial has diminished one fourth — and all this change in a single year ! The necessary effect of this must be a diminution in the value of colonial property, because of its distance from market ; and that effect must continue to be felt in a daily increasing degree, until the colonists shall exert themselves to make a market on the land for the products of the land. For The Plough^ the Loom^ and the Anvil. BUCKWHEAT. iJntil witliiu a few years past, this has been considered almost a valueless crop by many who were considered our most discerning and successful farm- ers. Indeed, many carried their prejudices so far, that they would not, under any cireumstances,.allow it to be grown upon their lands, supposing it so ex- hausting to the soil. Others, more tolerant in their feelings, would sometimes raise a small field, but it must be sown on the poorest corner of the farm, where no other crop would grow, and but an ordinary one of this grain. Then the farmer who was in the yearly habit of raising it was considered a slim affair ; one bent on the irrecoverable ruin of his farm. In late years, however, the value of the crop has been more justly appre- ciated, so that now the number of those who do not raise it is like that of those who formerly cultivated it, very small. The advantages attending its culture are numerous, and among them the following stand prominent. Its .quick maturity, and consequently the delay that may attend tilling tlie land and sowing the seed, which, latter always takes place at the North after all other crops are sown and planted, and from the 20th to the last of June, or between the time of the first and second dressing of the corn field ; a season of comparative leisure to the farmer. Then its maturity is at a time when no other crop requires immediate attention, it ripening in September, between the ingathering of the summer and common fall crops. It is a crop that will succeed with tolerable certainly when other ci-ops will fail. Low, cool, moist, mucky lands, which are seldom dry enough for ploughing in early spring, and which are liable to suffer from drought at the very time when early-sown grain requires moisture, are admirably adapted to this crop. It germinates quickly, and the young plants soon throw their branches abroad so as to shelter the earth from scorching sunbeams, and BEAUTIES OF THE COLONIAL SYSTE.M. 285 enable it to retain its moisture, to be given out as the growing wants of the plant require. Buckwheat is a cleansing crop to the soil. In many of the old fields^in the longer cultivated portion of the country, weeds of various kinds have crept in, as stealthy bushes or loose wild grass, and usurped the place of the more tender and dehcious herbage. Wherever this is the case, it is decidedly the best crop to restore fertihty and healthful cleanliness to the soil, after the bushes are removed and the sward well inverted, that can be cultivated. Its roots penetrate deep into the soil, which tends to its pulverization, and its shadowing qualities almost forbid any other plant, however strong may have been its foothold, to start beneath its branches. We have in our minds now 'vrhole fields which a few years since were covered with a vexatious, overspread- ing variety of potentilla, which, by cultivating with buckwheat for one or two successive years after the bushes were removed, were transformed into beauti- ful and productive meadows, free from the unseemly blemishes which but a short time ago disfigured and concealed their surface. It is a good crop to stock with. It always leaves the ground in a loose friable condition, so that the roots of grass spread rapidly and freely. Although from its shading propensities, grass seed sown with it will not show much progress while the crop of buckwheat is on, yet the harvest is so early, the grass which is to follow has an opportunity to become well set in roots before the coming of winter, and thus be enabled to withstand the vicissitudes that winter brings. It is an article that farmers are prone to leave to nature and its own resources, but there is no crop that shows the benefits of manure, plaster, and ashes, more than this. Its uses are too well known to be dwelt upon. The straw, which by many is considered valueless, is an excellent manure for potatoes, and is highly valuable as a litter to place around fruit trees, its tendency being to rapid decay, and its effect to loosen the soil and leave a light and wholesome mould for its benefit. W. Bacon. Richmond, Mass., Sept. 5, 1851. BEAUTIES OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM. In a recent British journal we find a statement of the salaries of the principal oificers employed by the East India Company in collecting their taxes from the unfortunate Hindi IDS, a people reduced by British free-trade to depend upon agriculture alone, and among whom a constant succession of famines and pestilences is required to keep the population down to the level of subsistence. For more than a century past has that unfortunate country been taxed for the maintenance of British armies and British tax- gather' rs employed in inflicting upon it the blessings of the British colonial system, and the result is seen in the total destruction of the great cotton manufacture, followed by a scene of suffering "scarcely to be paralleled in the history of commerce." How liberally these people are forced to pay their task-masters, will be seen on perusal of the following scale of salaries and allowances : The Governor-Gene>al, 240,000 rupees, or $120,000, per annum, and an outfit of £5,000, or $24,000. To each ordinary Member of Council, 96,000 rupees, or $48,000, per annum, and an outfit of £1,200, or $5,760. To each Governor, 120,000 rupees, or $60,000, per annum, and an outfit of £2,500, or $12,000. Such are the salaries of officials paid out of taxes imposed upon a people whose wages are but a dollar per month, without either food or cloihing. We beg our readers now to remark that the largest contributors for the maintenance 286 SEPAB.ATING THE CONSUMER AND PRODUCER. of the fleets and armies employed In the devastation of Ireland and India, and the destruction of the happiness and the hopes of the almost countless miUions of the unfor- tunate people of those countries, are the farmers and planters of the American Union. But for the power to collect taxes among the people of the world, resulting from the exist- ing monopoly of machinery for the manufacture of cloth and iron, the colonial system could not be maintained even for a single hour. In determining to make a market on the land for all the products of the land, the planter and the farmer will not only enrich himself, but he will do more for the cause of liberty throughout the world than could be done by the largest fleets and armies; and instead of taxing himself for the maintenance of sol- diers and sailors, he will be enriching both the land and himself The true road to power, peace and freedom, lies through perfect protection to themselves in their efforts to brino- the loom and the anvil to take their natural places by the side of the plough and the harrow. EFFECT OF SEPARATING THE CONSUMER AND PRODUCER. It has been at all times the policy of England to compel the people of the world to make their exchanges in her ports, and to have their raw materials carried in her ships, to be converted in her looms, and retm-ned again in her ships to the place at which they were to be consumed ; and in every single instance in which she has been enabled to enforce compliance with her willj the effect has been the same — the ahnost total destruction of the value of labor and land. In India, labor is valueless, and the most fertile lands are abandoned, while the whole class of small landhohlers has disappeared from the face of the earth. In Ireland, labor is of little value, and of three hundred thousand occupants of land, two hundred thousand have akeady disappeared — and the land itself is now beinc sold out under a government commission, to those of the people of England who have accumulated fortunes by acting as the middlemen between the consumers and producers of Ireland and of India. In her American possessions the same result is every where visible. The land-owners of the West Indies have been ruined and their estates are gradually passing into the hands of strangers, at prices almost inconceivably low, as will be seen by the following article from the London Times : — " Oq the 22d ult., the extensive property on the Demerara river, known as Loo, and containing fifteen thousand acres of land, was sold at execution for two thousand dollars. ' The sale of this large tract of land,' says the Royal Gazette, ' which is situated at an easy distance from George Town, and sur- rounded by numerous settlers and small freeholders, is another forcible proof of the extreme depreciation of landed property in this colony. The lowest upset price, fi.xed some years since, for Crown lands in this country, was one pound sterling (|4.80) per acre, nor at the time when this rate was established was it considered by any means high for even the wild and remote wood lands of which the Crown pro])erty in Guiana mainly consists. Yet here we see an estate of 15,000 acres, eligibly situated on the banks of our most valuable river, with abundance of labor on hand presenting itself for emj)loy- ment, realizing at a public sale, and at a credit of 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, only sixpence two thirds sterling per acre ! ' " The tendency of the whole British monopoly system is to destroy every where the power of association — to compel the people every where to impoverish their land and themselves — to diminish the productiveness of land and of labor — to enslave the laborer and then to ruin the land-owner — and yet we find the laborers and land-owners of the Union combining their efforts for the maintenance of this most destructive system, when it needs but the slightest effort to terminate its existence, and thereafter to be enabled to enrich their land and themselves — making a market on the land for its pro- ducts, and retui-ning to it aU the manure now wasted on the road and in distant markets. HOME SONG OF THE AMERICAN PRODUCER. 287 For The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil. HOME SONG OF THE AMERICAN PRODUCER. BY WM. OLAND BOUKNE. Give me the blue of the bending sky O'er the land of the freeman hung, And the bright full beams of the sun on high, While the hymn of the free is sung : Oh, ne'er has the sky o'er a land like ours Bent down with its arch of blue, Or joyfully wept in its crystal showers, Or gemmed the glad earth with dew. Give me the land where a tyrant strong Ne'er trod with his iron heel, But the land where the shouting, working throng Exult in a sounding peal ; Where the strong man looks to his Maker, God, As he falls on his beuded knee, Then thrusting the blade in the uncursed sod, Thanks Heaven that he is free. Give me the land where the plough's bright share Turns wealth from the virgin soil. Nor melts in the forge whence the Vulcans bear A sword for the warrior's spoil ; Not the song of the soldier's bloody trade, Nor the trumpet's startling twang, But the vow of peace on the altar laid Round the heai-th-stone fondly sang. Oh, bright is the land where the golden gi-ain Waves ovei" the fertile fields, And the tall ripe corn on the spreading plain Its harvest of bounties yields ; Where the sounding flail, as it swings in air, Falls fast on the threshing-floor. And the autumn sun shows the toilers there With the gold dust covered o'er. Weave out, from the threads of the busy loom, A story of meaning high, While the workers thi-ong in the lighted I'oom, And in labor proudly vie ; Weave out, by the hands of the maidens fair. As they sing mid the shuttle's sound. The fabrics of home-made cloth to wear. As fine as ever were found 1 Let the hammer vast on the anvil ling, As it moulds the massive shaft, And the workers bold all their forces biing In the skill of their handicraft. Let the iron rest ! Let the hammer groan t Let the labor harp be strung ! While the mighty tone of that sti'ing alone With its joy around is ning. Kindle the flames in the furnace fire, In the smoky, belching forge. While the red flames leap in theii- earnest higher, From the pit the toilers gorge ; 288 HOME SONG OF THE AMERICAN PRODUCER. Let on the blast of the bellows vast, Till the ore with its fiery breath To a molten sea is resolved at last, Like a crater filled with death. Delve down in the deep and gloomy mine, And bring out your treasures thence ; Where tlie richest ores in their beauty shine, The bounties of Providence ; They are given for use by the freeman's hand, In the glorious arts of Peace, Till lis voice shall cry in each older land That the despot's power shall cease. Leave not in the earth, or the mountain side, The wealth which is freely given ; Go, sharpen your drills, aud your task abide. Till the solid rock is riven: There is gold in that mass of iron ore ! There is gold in that gUttering pile ! ' Which freemen may win from the ample store, And sing of then- joys the while. Send forth on the broadly rolling stream. And the river's flowing tide, With the miud of man, aud the might of steam, The vessels that swiftly glide ; Pile them up high with the countless stores Well earned by the freemsui's liand, While they bear to the isles and the distant shores Their blessings to every land. The iron horse send with his heart of fire, Aud the lightning speed he hath, While his feet in theu- ardor never tire, Rotating upon his path ; PUe up the burden vast and high ! For a wondrous steed is he, In the mighty strength of his forge-cast thigh. And the might of his pliant knee 1 Let the broad land wake in its proudest bloom. In the light of our broader skies ! Let the Anvil, Plough, and the busy Loom In their power and grandeur rise ; Let the workers all, in their well-paid toil. Rejoice with a labor song, And the blessing of God on the uncursed soil Be sought by the trusting throng. Let the yeoman sing as he tills the land, And follows the shining ploiigh ! Let the toiler sing, as he lifts his hand, Oft wiping his sweating brow 1 Let the maiden sing ! Let the Anvil ling! And the radiant tj'uth be told — That the labor of home, in its fruits, shall bring A truer wealth than Gold 1 Then, give me the blue of the bending sky, O'er the land of the freeman hung, And the bright, full beams of the sun on high. While the hymn of the free is sung : Oh, ne'er has the sky o'er a land like ours Bent down witli its arch of blue, Or joyfully wept in its crystal showers, Or gemmed the glad earth with dew I EXTRAORDINARY CHANGE OF POSITION. 289 LIGHT IN THE NORTH-WEST. In our last we laid before our readers a letter from the South-West, that had brought us the subscrijjtions of four anti-tariff Democrats, ■who had been converted to the true faith by studying the arguments which had been furnished in this journal in support of the great truth, that the planters and farmers who would grow lich must make a mar- ket on the land for all the products of the land, and thus enable themselves to restore to the land the refuse of its products ; and we are happy now to lay before them unmis- takable evidence that the same great truth is now making its way in the North- West, as it must speedily do in every portion of the Union, North, South, East, and West. The citizens of Wisconsin, of German birth, have generally voted the same descrip- tion of ticket that has heretofore been voted by our anti-tariff friends in Mississippi, because it bore the label of " Democratic," and the counties that they have chiefly occu- pied have given overwhelming majorities in favor of the men whose policy looked to the prostration of the American laborer, and the maintenance of British supremacy over the commerce of the world. They are, however, a people who read and reflect, and they are now discussing the great question of protection to the farmer and planter in their effort to draw to their side the men who drive the shuttle and strike the hammer, the result of which is seen in tlie following, from the Green Bay Spectator of the 2'7th ult:— The German Platform of Brown County. — Our German fellow-citi- zens in this county have been holding a series of meetings at the Town Hall, in this place, for the investigation and discussion of the great political ques- tions which interest or affect the people of Wisconsin. These meetings have been largely attended, and their proceedings manifested the utmost harmony and good feehng, and a desire fully to investigate every subject of any pohtical importance, and to act understandingly in voting at the polls. Among the resolutions that have been adopted are the following : They resolved that they were Democrats, but that they should support principles instead of party, and vote only for the men who were pledged to sustain the measures which they deemed the most judicious. They resolved that they are in favor of a Protective Tariff. It is time that the planters and farmers of the whole country should meet together and follow the example thus set them by these intelligent foreigners. They have long enough been hoodwinked and deceived by the advocates of the great British monopoly, ■who would have them believe that they were to be enriched by a process that exhausts their soil and ruins themselves, and the sooner they shall awake to the fact that such is the tendency of British free-trade— and that it is by that process that Ireland, India, Portugal, and the West Indies have been ruined, and Canada has been paralyzed, the sooner wiU they begis to increase in wealth, and the sooner and more rapidly will the natiofa of which they are part increase in power. EXTRAORDINARY CHANGE OF POSITION. In the debate on the question of a non- exportation agreement, in the Congress of 1'7'75, the following was the ground taken by Mr. E. Rutledge, one of the members from South Carolina, as given in the report contained in the recently published works of Mr. Adams : — " E. Rutledge differs with all who think the non-exportation agreement should be broke, or that any trade at all should be carried on. When a com- modity is out of port, the master may carry it where he pleases. My colony \n\\ receive your determination upon a general non-exportation ; the people will not be restless. Proposes a general non-exportation until next Congress. VOL. IV. — 19. 290 ANALYSIS OF THE TURNIP BEET. Our people will go to manufacturing, which is a source of riches to a country. We can take our men from agriculture and employ them in manufactures. Agriculture and manufactures cannot be lost ; trade is precarious P Had such continued to be the policy of South Carolina, how different would now ba her position ! Instead of having continued, for the whole period that has since elapsed, to exhaust her soil, she would have been steadily improving it, with vast increase of both wealth and population, and she would now export cotton cloth to all the world, and Charleston would be a great seaport, occupied by extensive shipowners, whereas she maintains little commerce except with England, and most of that carried on through northern ports, in northern and foreign ships ! She insists on continuing to maintain the colonial system, which looked to compeling the world to perform all their exchanges in British ports ; and she is almost ready to separate from the rest of -the Union, rather than follow the course indicated by her representative in the Congress of 17'75. For The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil. ANALYSIS OF THE TURNIP BEET. BY J. H. SALISBDRY, M.D., CHEMIST TO THE NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. The beet has been cultivated about two centuries. During its cultivation the varieties have become somewhat numerous. The one here examined is the variety which goes by the name of turnip beet. For the specimens analyzed I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Douw, of Greenbush. They were large, fleshy and crisp, and contained about the average amount of woody fibre. The widest average diameter of the roots of the four specimens analyzed was 5^ inches; average length, 9 inches; average length of tops, 14 inches; average weight of each plant, Ij lbs. PERCENTAGE OF WATEE, DRY MATTER, AND INORGANIC MATTER. Fresli Root. ^ Fresh Tops. Percentage of water, ..... 92.845 88.907 « " dry matter, .... 7.155 11.025 ". " inorganic matter, . . . I.113 1.530 " " " " in dry matter, . 15.556 13.876 The above results show this variety of beet to be more highly charged with water than the artichoke, parsnip, or carrot. The root, as will be seen, con- tains almost 93 per cent, of pure water ; the tops nearly 89 per cent.; leaving of dry matter but little over 7 lbs. to the hundred in the root, and 1 1 Ib.^. iu the tops. The fresh roots contain but little over 1 lb. of inorganic matter to the hundred, the dry roots about 15.J lbs. ; the fresh tops 1^ lbs., the dry tops nearly 14 lbs. In round numbers, 8,994 lbs. of the fresh roots of the turnip beet give 100 lbs. of inorganic matter; and 6,530 lbs. of the fresh tops, 100 lbs. of inorganic matter. COMPOSITION OF THE INORGANIC MATTER OF THE ROOT AND TOPS. C.irbonic acid, Silicic acid, .... Phosphoric acid, Pliosphate of iron, Lime, .... Miignesia, .... Potash, .... Soda, ..... Clilorine, .... Sulphuric acid, .... Organic matter, By good management, twenty tons of the roots can be easily raised to the lOU Mis. Inorg.uiic 100 lbs. Innr^nhf Malter of Kuots. Matte- i.r Tope. 21.90 19.61 1.15 143 10.55 8.32 1.90 3.51 8.80 5.62 1.75 8.11 8.05 8 34 42.35 36.33 0.80 2 91 1.90 5.12 trace. trace. EVILS OF DISPERSION. 291 acre. Twenty tons of the roots of the turnip beet contain of inorganic matter 445 lbs. These 445 lbs. are made up of — Carbonic acid, . Silicic acid, . Phosphoric acid, Phosphate of iron, . Lime, .... Magnesia, . Potash, .... Soda, Chlorine, Sulphuric acid, The following materials, in the proportions given below, furnish in sufficrent quantity all the bodies removed by twenty tons of beet roots, and even more of some of them than is required : — 300 lbs. of ashes, 200 lbs. of common salt, and 6 tons of good barn-yard manure. The tops are generally left upon the ground ; hence it is not necessary to include these in the materials removed from the soil. 98 lbs. 5 " 48 « H" 40 « 8 " 36 " 189 " 4 " 8h" PKOXIMATE OEGANIC COMPOSITION OF ROOTS. g 100 lbs. Fresh Roots. - " ■ 100 lbs; Dry Roots. Water, . 92.845 Fibre, 2.173 29.975 Sugar, 3,120 43.039 Dextrine, 1.025 14.134 Casein, . 0.142 1.965 Albumen, 0.445 6.138 Starch, . 0.195 2.690 Resin, 0.080 1.103 Gluten, . 0.033 0.448 Eed coloring matter,. . . . 0.027 0.380 Fat, 0.010 0.138 In the above analysis we see the nutritive powers of the beet root. The average amount of dry matter in the fresh mature roots ranges from 8 to 10 per cent. One ton of the fresh roots of the turnip beet contains, of sugar, 62^ lbs. ; of dextrine, 20j lbs, ; of albumen, casein, and gluten, 12 J lbs, ; of water, 1856,9 lbs. ULTIMATE ORGANIC ANALYSIS OF ROOTS. One hundred parts of dry root gave of — Nitrogen, ...,., Carbon, ....... Oxygen, ....... Hydrogen, ....... Inorganic matter, . .... 1.270 38.610 39.240 6.054 15.556 EVILS OF DISPERSION. " The emigrant road over the desert, beyond Humboldt river, is literally strewed with dead carcasses. A gentleman who reached Sacramento City about the middle of July, counted twenty head of cattle in as many feet square; for forty miles they average one to every ten feet, making a total of twenty thousand. The wagons are one to every rod. Of eleven thousand that started for California last year, not one half reached their destination." Such are the effects of a system that tends every where to prevent the farmer or planter from making a market on the land for the products of the land. Forbidden, by 292 IRRIGATION gF SMALL PLOTS OF GRASS LAND. the absence of markets, from raising potatoes, turnips and cabbages, commodities of ■which the earth yields by tons, he raises wheat, cotton, or tobacco, to be consumed at a dis- tance ; and then, having exhausted his land and impoverished himself, he flies for Oregon or California, and perishes on the way. Such is every where the tendency of British free-trade. It has exhausted Ireland, India, Portugal, and the West Indies, and but for even the little protection here afforded to the farmer and planter, it would have exhausted them. THE IRRIGATION OF SMALL PLOTS OF GRASS LAND. BV CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON ESQ., F.E.S. As the importance of irrigation becomes more generally understood, several minor questions arise well worthy of even the farmer's consideration. The word " irrigation " naturally induces the cultivator to think of meadow lands lying by the banks of copious streams ; or if he extends his views to the far more valuable system of sewerage irrigation, he as naturally thinks of those favored meads adjoining populous places — towns whose sewerage is available in copious supplies. This, however, is taking a very limited view of the value of sewerage irrigation, even on a small plot of ground to a farm. There are very many situations where the farm house is situated at such an elevation as to admit of its sewerage being carried by its own gravity on to desirable lands adapted for the formation of watered plots of grass ; and although the plots which are thus watered must be of limited extent if they have to rely upon the house sewerage onli/, yet where there is an available spring of water to dilute the sewerage, in that case plots of grass may be readily watered to an extent worthy of most farmers' attention ; for not only is one rood of such a mead fully equal in produce to three of ordinary pasture land, but it fur- nishes grass for the purpose of soiling, not only early in the spring, but late in the autumn — periods when it is not procurable from any other source. As I observed on another occasion, {^Cottage Gardener, vol. v., p. 39,) the advantage of applying house sewerage to grass has long been known to be very considerable. For the purpose of testing the various little points of detail which might arise when carried on on a small scale by small landholdei'S, I laid down the turf on a plot of grass in my garden, near Croydon, in Feb- ruary and March, 1850. This was' only 16 yards long, and 13 yards broad. The bed, therefore, contains only about 208 square yards, and is surrounded by a raised border of turf about two inches high, to prevent the escape of the irrigating sewerage ; and for a similar purpose the bed is divided by two turfed ridges of about the same size into three compartments. These ridges would have been repeated crosswise, so as to divide the bed into nine com- partments, (to suit the size of our beds to the bulk of our sewerage,) had we not wished to avoid impeding the action of the scythe, the whole produce being intended for the soiling of a pony. Soon after the bed was formed, earthenware pipes of about two inches bore were laid down, extending from a tank constructed on some higher ground than the grass-plot, the contents of which, whenever the tank is sufficiently tilled, is allowed (by the lifting of a plug) to flow on to the grass ; the orifice of the pipe from whence the sewerage Issues being about eight or nine inches above the level of the tuif. From this pipe the sewerage is distributed, by means of an open wooden trough, to any part of the plot that is just cleared. Our practice has been to cut sufficient grass for two days' consumption, and then immediately the grass is removed, to direct on to the cleared space all the sewerage which has accumulated since the last cutting, occasionally adding to its bulk by allowing IRRIGATION OF SMALL PLOTS OF GRASS LAND. 293 some pumj) water to flow for a minute or two from the sink througli the house-pipe draiu into the tank. By this plan the collateral advantage has arisen that the sewer- pipe, tank, and delivery pipe, as well as the house sewerage itself, by being so constantly cleansed or removed, has not time to undergo putrefaction. The plan, therefore, is carried out (generally the firet thing in the morning) without any of the inmates or visitors to the house being aware that such a manuring is systematically going on. The result, in fact, shows that the noxious effluvia from sewers arises, not as a necessary result of the matter conveyed in them, but from their ill construction, and the barbarous practice of allowing the long accumulating contents of over- flowing cess-pools and choked drains to flow into them. The general result of this httle experiment has been such as to induce me to confidently and warmly recommend the repetition of the plan to such of my readers who are so situated that the contents of their house-tanks can be directed by its own gravity on to a conveniently placed grass-plot. The herb- age produced by this mode is not only exceedingly luxuriant, but the pony and some goats we notice decidedly prefer it to either lucern or meadow grass, produced without irrigation ; and the same remark is made by one of my neighbors, who has a field irrigated with the water of the river Wandle, wbich contains occasionally a notable portion of the drainage of the town of Croydon. It is perhaps of little use (as our turf was only laid in March) to report one season's produce of grass ; still, as we have kept an account of it, it may be cheering to the reader to have the account. The grass was not ready to cut the first time until May 25th, since the turf had to establish itself, and to contend with dry weather. The weight and the days of cutting were as pounds. follows : — May 25, - - 28 pounds. June 8, - - 65 « 27, 40 " " 10, 50 " 30, - - 42 " " 12, - - 50 June 1, 50 " " 15, 50 3, - - 60 « Total, - . - 485 The ground was then irrigated as I before described, only once. It began to grow again immediately, and kept on in spite of a very dry season, which parched tip all the surrounding grass lands. By July 27th it was ready to cut again — the produce being evidently better than before. The days of cutting and the weight of this second crop were then — July 27, - - - 75 pounds. Aug. 5, - - - 60 pounds. " 30, - - 65 " " 7, - - 50 Aug. 1, - - - 55 " « 8, - - - 40 3, - - 40 " " 10, - - 75 " Total, 460 " The same plan was a third time carried on of cutting and irrigating; the same dry weather still attended us, and the same growth of grass took place. On the first of October the cutting of our third crop of grass was commenced. The produce was as follows : — October 1, - - - 70 pounds. October 11, - - - 50 pounds. 5, - -, 50 " " 14, - - 45 " « 7, - . * . 50 " " 16, - - - 45 9, - - 50 " " 18, - - 45 " Total, 400 " The same immediate irrigation was applied to the land, and the same rapid 294 IRRIGATION OF SMALL PLOTS OF GRASS LAND. shooting of the grass for the fourth time took place. The reader will remark that we have thus secured three crops, and lost the time (in February and March) sufficient for the growth of a fourth ; but, omitting that from our calculations, we have mown 1,295 lbs. of grass off 208 square yards of land since the turf was first laid in March, or at the rate of 13| tons per acre. The sewer-irrigated meads of Edinburgh always produce four or five crops annually, and I see no reason why we cannot do the same in future seasons, for the soil is evidently improved as well as its produce by the irrigation. By the term house-sewerage, I mean the term to comprehend the entire house di'ainage in its most extensive sense. It is fortunate that we are able (in spite of the distastefulness of the in- quiry) to ascertain not only the bulk of the sewerage flowing from a house, but its chemical composition. Its bulk may be regarded, in the case of houses well supplied with water and water-closets, to amount to about ten to fifteen gallons per day for each membfer of the establishment ; and yet notwithstand- ing its necessary mixture with water, it still may be very advantageously di- luted with several times its bulk before it is allowed to flow on to the grass. Its composition has been recently examined by Dr. Anderson [Trans. High. Soc, 1850, p. 3 70). This report is the more valuable because it contains the analysis of not only the sewerage of a city drain at Edinburgh, but ako that from a tank belonging to a public establishment. As the Professor re- marks, the sewerage water of Edinburgh was taken from the mouth oi the sewer just as it enters the irrigated meadows near Lochend. It contained a considerable quantity of solid matter in mechanical suspension, which was carefully mixed up with the water by agitation, and the whole employed for analysis. This, which was made with great care, by Mr. Hugh Taylor, gave the following results in an imperial gallon : — Grains. Grains. Organic matter soluble in water, 21.90 Phosphoric acid, - - - 6.14 Organic matter insoluble iu water, 2 l.'ZO Chlorine, - - . - 12.20 Peroxide of iron and alumina, - 2.01 Potash, 2.89 Lime, . - - - 10.50 Soda, 13.21 Magnesia, . - - - 2.00 Silica, 6.50 Sulphuric acid, - - - 6.09 — ■ Total, 105.20 Whnt is here called organic matter is the whole amount of volatile matter expelled by a red heat. It contains, however, a very large quantity of am- monia, amounting to not less than 7.7 grains in a gallon, in addition to which the organic matter contained 5.93 grains of nitrogen in the form of nitro- genous compounds. The Morningside sewerage was taken from the tank at the Morningside Lu- natic Asylum, in which the whole sewerage water of the establishment is col- lected. The analysis, which was made by Mr. Rowney, includes the whole of the matter mechanically suspended in the water : — Grains. Grains. Organic matter, - - - 51.77 Soda, 3.00 Alumina, ... - 4.93 Potash, - . - - 2.66 Protoxide of iron, - - - 10.34 Carbonic acid, - - - 11-22 Lime, 11-99 Sulplmric acid, - - - 3.12 Magnesia, .... 2.84 Pliosphoric acid, - - - 1.32 Common salt, - - - 4.49 Silica, - - ^ - - - 25.02 Total, - 132.71 Ammonia, 3.18 From the result of these examinations it would appear that, of the speci- mens examined, the town water is richer in all the valuable constituents of a COMPETITION WITH CHEAP LABOR. 295 manure than that of Morningside. At the "same time, concludes Dr. Ander- son, I consider the latter as in all probability giving a better general idea of the value of sewerage water than the former. It is easy to compare the value of sewer water with that of any other manure, by calculating how much of it will contain the same amount of valuable matter as any quantity of the manure in question. Selecting ammonia as the most im2)ortant constituent, I find by calculation that in round numbers 10,000 gallons of the Edinburgh, and 36,000 gallons of the Morningside sewerage water will contain about the same weight of that substance as 100 lbs. of Peruvian guano. These results afford ample materials for the useful consideration of the owners of every farm — nay, of every rural garden. And when the citizen reads this, he too may make an inquiry, and place upon paper a few figui-es well worthy of his profitable consideration. Let him take the sewerage of London, daily amounting to more than 40,000,000 gallons ; let him calcu- late the value of only the ammonia and phosphate of lime of each 36,000 gallons of this vast bulk to be equal to that of 1 cwt. of Peruvian guano, viz., £9 per ton. Having taken these data, let him multiply its daily value by 365, and then let such an inquirer coolly ponder over the results. It wiU amount in annual value, he will find on these data, to about £210,000. In making such an inquiry, too, he will probably afterwards remember, after a little reflection, that this huge mass of valuable matter is at present not only merely wasted, but that it is allowed to be actually injurious to mankind, by coriupting the waters of the river from whence they are suj^plied, and the atmosphere in which they exist. — London Farmer^s Magazine. COMPETITION WITH CHEAP LABOR. " The more cheap labor you purchase, the richer you will grow," says our late Secre- tary, Mr. Walker. " If you obtain t-svo days' labor for that of one day, you make a good exchange." Such is the doctrine upon which is built the whole modem system of British free-trade ; and yet we every where find the Englishman himself flying from the com- petition of cheap labor. In a recent British journal, the special advocate of the colonial system, we find the following passage, which we recommend to the careful consideration of all those who tliink it better to compete with England in the effort to underwork the half-starved Wshman and the perishing Hindoo, than to combine their efibrts with those of the people of Germany, of Belgium, and of France, for the annihilation of the monop- oly by means of which the people of Ireland and of India have been prevented from bringing the loom and the anvil to take their places by the side of the plough and the barrow. Speaking of Van Diemen's Land, the writer says : — " The higher class of emigrants, on the other hand, naturally avoided a colony where nearly a half of the inhabitants were criminals undergoing punishment ; while in the towns, the artisans and tradesmen were continually exposed to the ruinous competition of convict labor. The consequences have at length proved detrimental in the highest degree. Owing to the scarcity of free emigrants, land, during the last few years, has seriously declined in value. The commerce and trade of the island have languished from the same cause; and unless speedy measures are taken to arrest the downward progress of this once flourishing colony, we may expect to see a still more rapid period of decay." — Colonial Magazine, Great Britain and Ireland, under the system denounced by Adam Smith, but now 296 CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. known by the name of British free-trade, have become one vast prison, in ■wliich the con- dition of the people is so much worse than that of convicts, that it is now taught in books of the liighest authority among free-traders that labor is a commodity like all others, and that the man who, however able and willing to work, cannot find sale for his com- modity, has no right to claim a seat at the table provided by the Giver of all good things for the benefit of all mankind. He must starve. If, then, competition with the convict labor of Van Diemen's Land, who must be fed, be found destructive of the value of labor and land, how much worse for the laborer and the land-owner must be competi- tion with the labor of the man who is kept in a great prison, with no right to claim even food, unless he can find some one willing to grant hhu a modicum of subsistence in exchange for his labor. "We beg our farmers to remark the fact, that the greater the necessity for competition with the cheap labor of Europe — the larger the quantity of food for which they have needed to seek a market abroad — the lower, invariably, has been the price of grain ; and we beg our planters to remark the fact, that the more their neces- sity for competing with the cheap labor of India — the larger the quantity of cotton for which they have been compelled to seek a market abroad — the lower has been the price of cotton. If they wish then to raise the value of theii- own labor and their own land, the true and only road to the accomplishment of that object is that of making a market on the land for the products of the land, and thus diminishing the necessity for competing with the occupants of the vast prison of the Eastern Hemisphere. It is here said that, " owing to the scarcity of free emigrants, land has seriously de- clined in value." Such decline has taken place in all the Southern States, because men have not only not come into those States, but have been steadily flying from them, be- cause of the unceasing exhaustion of the land and waste of the planter's capital. To avert this decline, it is essential that population should be retained by making a market on the land for the products of the land. CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE— DR. ANDERSON. BY A FARMER. The peculiarity of Dr, Anderson's style of treating questions connected with agriculture is, that he is the first and only one, of the numerous writers which have passed under our notice, who admits that he has any thing to learn from practical men. This peculiarity is the more striking as it is the very anti- podes of the opiaions expressed by more than one of his predecessors. As remarked in a previous paper, the writers on agricultural chemistry were pre- pared with an answer to everij question proposed to them ; they knew the value of a manure, or of a hitherto untried article of food, whether foi" man or beast ; they knew, by the aid of analysis, what a soil required to make it fertile for sugar-cane or cabbage, potatoes or palm-trees — no matter whether the soil examined might be from Demerara or Greenland. As the very reverse to such ignorant presumption — for we can call it nothing else — Dr. Anderson, in his lecture delivered at Glasgow, acknowledges that he has "questions constantly presented to him, on which he jwssesses no information at all." In the present days of quacks and quackery in matters bearing on agricultural chemistry, when the agricultural world is in a state of nervous anxiety for information, bold indeed must that man be who makes such aa acknowledgment. It is a more cutting reproof to tiiose who thought they had a " solution in their laboratory to every question proposed to them " than we dared to administer. Nor does Dr. Anderson think we shall ever arrive at an answer to these " questions" by the maiden efforts of science. No ; " we CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 297 must depend for their solution on the mutual aid of science and practice ; the two must go togetner." A correspondent of the Times criticises this address very severely, and com- plains that it contains nothing new. We uphold, on the contrary, that it is entirely new, but more especially in modesty. By the way, we are at a loss to know why the Times should have been selected as the medium for criti- cising Dr. Anderson's lecture, instead of any of the numerous papei-s and magazines exclusively devoted to agricultural subjects. "Whether such an avowal be complimentary to Dr. Anderson or not, we confess to have derived great pleasure from this lecture, containing, as it does, a clear summary of the views we have in this series of papers endeavored to maintain. We have, therefore, nothing to criticise or find fault with, but gladly embrace the opportunity thus afforded to gather up the scattered frag- ments of good sense we have met with in the course of our labors. The object of the lecture is to explain the principles of manure ; or, in other words, why they act beneficially, and how we can improve them. When any plant is burnt, a large portion of it disappears, and the residue is called the ash of the plant. With regard to the first of these two portions, namely, that which disappears in the fire, or as they are commonly called, the organic constituents, we have a two-fold source from which they may be de- rived. " The plant may, and in some instances does, obtain the whole of its organic constituents from the air, but this is far from being the only source from which it obtains them ; for in all soils there is found a large quantity of organic matter, containing the whole of the organic elements (carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen) in such a condition as admits of their passing into a state in which they may be assimilated by the plant." It will be observed that Dr. Anderson does not enter into a discussion on the merits of the theory proposed by Johnston, that plants extract their nourishment from the soil as humic, 4:renic, apocrenic, glic, and ulmic acids, or in the form of ulmin and humin. Nor does he discuss the opinion of Liebig, that plants are fed by the carbonic acid of the atmosphere. " Some of the facts of the case have been determined in the laboratory ;" but as long as science and practice work sepa- rately, the only result has been mere speculations like the above, of which sci- ence has supplied " one set, and practice the other." Dr. Anderson has con- tented himself with stating the fact that the organic matter present in the soil is useful to vegetation, as proved by its removal by certain crops : how it acts is one of the matters on which we require further information. With regard to the ash, or inorganic portion of the plant. Dr. Anderson states that "every fertile soil must contain all the constituents of the plants which grow upon it, and that, too, in a sufficient quantity to supply many successive crops." But the mere presence of these substances does not insure the fertility of the soil : it is necessary that the state of combination in which they exist be such as admits of their becoming readily available for the growth of the plant. In the fii-st place, they must be presented to it in a soluble con- dition. At the same time they must not be too readily soluble, or the rains would SQon carry off the valuable matter. In soils, and what we may call natu- ral manures, as the dung of animals, this risk is avoided by the arrangement that the ingredients required by the plants are, in the soil and in fresh dung, in the state of insoluble compounds, which are only rendered available to vege- tation by very slow decomposition. The whole principle of agriculture, says Dr. Anderson, is to obtain by proper management, from a given surface of land, a greater amount of vegetation than it is capable of yielding in a state of nature. This is effected by two methods : the first is by tillage, which by breaking up the land and exposing it to the atmosphere facilitates the dtcom- 298 CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. position of the insoluble mattei-s in the soil, and rendei*s them available to vegetation ; the other method of increasing the fertility of the soil is by sup- plying to it those substances which the plant requires, — in other words, by the use of manures. I>r. Anderson gives as his opinion that a fertile soil must contain all that the plant requiies : so a good manure, or one which is to be generally useful, must also contain " all the substances requisite to vegetation," that is, those which are present in the ash. In the course of these papers we have occasionally had to dispute the extravagant estimates which some writers have formed of the value of a single substance as a manure. For instance, a French chemist asserted that the value of a manure might be calculated by the amount of nitrogen it contained ; othei's again have lauded the phosphates, and alleged that with a plentiful supply of them the plant required nothing more. Dr. Anderson's opinion, as above quoted, and in which we cordially agree, strikes at the root of such crude opinions. He arranges the ingredients of a good manure, as regards their comparative value, as Ibllows : — first, ammonia ; next, phosphoric acid ; and then potash. Those substances — as nitre, the salts of ammonia, superphosphate of lime, and some others — which are capable of supplying separately only one of these throe important ingredients, can only be "advantageously used in those cases where the soil is deficient in the single ingredient they contain." As such instances are, however, very rare, the safest })lan the farmer can pursue is to use those manures which contain all the substances required by vegetation. The first of these is farm-yard manure, which must always be the farmer's mainstay ; every thing else ought only to be considered as an assistant to it. Farm-yard manure will always contain more or less of the ingredients present in our crops ; whereas, the artificial manures, as commonly applied, will only contain one or two of them : their chief advantage being that they contain the valuable constituents in a " more concentrated form, more free from foreign and worthless ingredients, and consequently in a state in which they may be carried to the farm at less cost than the deficiency could be supplied by bring- ing farm-yard manure from a distance." It is these properties which consti- tute the chief value of artificial manures, and when they are used along with a portion of farm-yard manure, the farmer by this combination secures the best possible mixture for his crops. Dr. Anderson acknowledges that we are as yet unable to decide as to the best method of managing farm-yard manure. By too much fermentation the risk of losing the ammonia is greatly enhanced, and by too little the inorganic matter remains insoluble, and consequently unfit for immediate use. The ap- plication of small quantities of gypsum remedies the former evil, and the latter the farmer has to some extent under his own control. There are several other disputed points on which Dr. Anderson treats in the lecture in a very clear, intelligible manner, removing the prejudices with which some manuring substances are viewed, and correcting the artificial value some of them have obtained. Amongst otliers, he shows that bones in their natural state are richer as manure than boiled bones, and much more likely to be useful than burnt bones — some ])ractical men being dis'posed to estimate the latter as highly as either of the other kinds. Dr. Anderson justly considers guano to be the best of all these artificial manures, because it combines in itself, to some extent, all qualifications which have been assigned to a good manure. It contains ammonia, phosphoric acid, and potash or soda, Such is a brief summary of the views advocated by Dr. Anderson ; and however they may have suffered in our hands, in the lecture they are explained with clearness and delivered with modesty. — London Farmer's Maijazine. PHOSPHATE OF LIME AS A MANURE. 299 PHOSPHATE OF LIME AS A MANURE. • The following article will interest many of our agricultural readers. Of all of tLem we would direct the attention with special reference to the fact that English farmers are willing to pay for this substance £5 or $24 per ton, while American farmers waste millions upon millions of tons of manure, because of their determination not to make a market on the land for the products of the land. The Mark Lane Express of the 18th of August gives the annexed account of proceedings in the Royal Agricultural Society of England, in relation to the " American Phosphate of Lime :" — The Secretary having been directed by the Council to make special inquiries on the subject of the occurrence of mineral phosphate of lime in the United States, and in reference to the specimen of that substance which Dr. Daubeny had forwarded to the Duke of Kichmond, replies were received from His Ex- cellency, the American Minister, Dr. Daubeny, Sir R. I, Murchison, Sir Charles Lyell, Capt. W. H. Smyth, Dr. Shawe, Prof. Johnston, of Durham, Mr. Johnson, Secretary of tlie New- York State Agricultural Society, and Dr. Cooke, Professor of Mineralogy in Harvard University, and laid before the Council on the 25th of June last. The following results may be deduced from this correspond- ence : — 1. That mineral phosphate of lime has been found in the American States of New-Jersey and New- York ; and there is a great probability that it will be discovered in other States of the Union, as well as in Canada ; it is also not improbable, from analogical considerations, that this crystalline substance may be foiind to exist among the raetamorphic masses of the High- lands of Scotland and elsewhere. 2. The specimen from New-Jersey, forwarded by Dr. Daubeny to the Duke of Richmond, had the appearance of a remarkable variety of crystalline rock ; but the formation in which it occurred was not stated. It was found by Prof. Maskelyne to contain 95 per cent, of the phosphates of lime, iron, and alu- mina. Its importation was made by Messrs. Jevons, of Stamford place, Liver- pool. One vein alone, discovered in New-Jersey, would supply the English market for many years. 3. In t\\e State of New- York a great mass of this mineral has been dis- covere d, and a shaft had already been sunk to the depth of nearly thirty feet. This ve\iD. occurred at Crown Point, near Lake Champlain, in Essex county, and t he abundance of the mineral was so great as to lead to the conclusion that this mine contained an inexhaustible supply; the locality was also favor- able for facility of transport and ready shipment. This vein consisted of grains and crystals ; and on analysis, in America, has been found to contain a much larger proportion than the Jersey mineral, of which some specimens yielded only about forty per cent, of the phosphate of lime, while the Crown Point mineral gives eighty per cent, of that substance, free from chalk, con- taining only a small amount of quartz in grains, and of the fluoride and chloride of lime. It is very soft, and pulverizes easily, and is more readily dissolved than the Jersey variety. It can be delivered in London, in the rough state, or powdered ready for use, as may be thought most desirable. By single- horse power two tons a day may easily be ground. 4. The price at which the Jersey phosphate was first oflfered was five gui- neas per ton ; but its interest immediately ceased, in a commercial point of view, when the importers, on fallacious grounds of supply and demand, inju- diciously raised the price to £7, forgetting that there were already other forms of phosphate of lime in this country available to the English farmer. It is 300 WHAT GIVES VALUE TO THE LAND OF ENGLAND? now fully believed, by moderate and intelligent Americans, tliat tbe United States phosphate can be afforded in the English market at such a price as will render it a cheap fertilizer ; and, as it can easily be reduced to powder, its value cannot be doubted, provided it be treated with sulphuric acid, and thiis rendered suitable as a manure for those crops for which phosphate of lime has been found, by experience, to be advantageous. 5. Professor Johnston, of Durham, to whose personal visit to the United States we probably owe the attention thus paid to this mineral, occurring so abundantly in that part of the world, remarks : — "American farmers in general have not the knowledge to appreciate the value of such a manuring substance as this, nor the ability to purchase it when manufactured into super-phosphate of lime ; the discovery, therefore, will be a boon, for the present, to both coun- tries. It will make more abundant and cheap the means of fertility which our soils ^-equire ; while by supplying a new article of traffic only saleable in Great Britain, it will form a new bond of connection between our kindred nations." WHAT GIVES VALUE TO THE LAND OF ENGLAND? Such is the question asked by an intelligent correspondent in one of the late English journals ; and as most of our readers are land owners, and therefore directly interested ^in understanding what it is that gives value to land, we think we cannot do better than ay before them the answer that is given to the question : — " Why, I ask again, is the price of land high in England generally ? Why, evidently, not because the land itself is better than in other countries, but because a ready market for all sorts of j)roduce is within reach, by means of roads, canals, railroads ; that labor is cheap and abundant ; that life and property are secure ; that we have close at hand the means of grace, and education, and improvement ; in short, that circumstances are favorable for such a life as shall be convenient and desirable here below, and shall prepare us for eternity hereafter. Thus the same land may be almost worthless or very valuable, according as it is well or ill provided with these things." By some of our readers it ntay be said that there is here one requisite that cannot be obtained by them — that labor cannot in this country be " cheap and abundant." Directly the reverse is the fiict. High-priced labor is cheap labor, while low-priced labor is dear labor. The Hindoo who works for a dollar a month, out of which he finds himself, cannot compete with the well-fed laborer of Alabama, nor the well-fed, well-clothed and well-edu- cated workman of Lowell. It is when the labor is largely productive that the laborer is well paid ; and high as may be his wages, his labor is cheap by comparison with the unproductive labor of other countries. It is, too, when labor is largely productive that labor is abundant, because to render it thus productive it must be aided by machinery ; and we know well that a single steam-engine will do more work than a hundred, or even five hundred men. The reaping machine enables one man to do the work of ten ; and the threshing machine and the grist-mill dispense with labor the performance of which would require armies for its execution. With each such machine labor-power becomes more abundant, labor becomes more productive, and land becomes more valuable. An acre of flax land in Belgium commands as much rent as would purchase eight or ten acres of cotton land in Alabama. Why ? Because the flax land has a " ready market for all sorts of produce within reach," and the cotton land has no such market. An acre of wheat land in England rents for as much as would purchase five, six, or eight acres of as good land in Wisconsin. Why ? Because the former is near market, and the latter is distant from it ; and the farmer knows and feels that he it is that must pay the cost of going to market. Thb ^ A VISIT TO THE COAL REGIONS. 301 " ; ■ — I FIRST TAX TO BE PAID BY LAND AND LABOR IS TRANSPORTATION. How lODg will OUT farmerg and planters idsist upon paying the enormous amount of taxation tliat they impose upon themselves, by foiling to make a market on the land for the products of the land ? How long -will they continue to exhaust their land and themselves, and deprive themselves of "the means of grace, education and improvement," that are so difficult to obtain when men are widely scattered, and so easily obtained when they are enabled to combine their efforts for obtaining them ? A VISIT TO THE COAL REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA. A CORRESPONDENT in Philadelphia furnishes The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil with an exceedingly interesting sketch of a " Week's Recreation " in the coal region. We almost regret, when such matters offer, that our design will not admit the insertion occasionally of articles wandering slightly from the great objects to the advancement of which we are pledged. Like Ulysses, it would be agreeable to lose ourselves momen- tarily in the isle of Circe, or to taste the fiiscinating lotos ; but life is in earnest, and it will not do to be drawn away from its practical purposes by the charms of inactive relaxation. We are consequently obliged to confine the extracts we propose to make from our cor- respondent's diary to those portions which have more dii-ect reference to the mining interests of our land : — "PoTTSViLLE. — We ascended, on the day after our arrival, a hill on the north side of the town, and examined the new Court House and the rising walls of the new Jail. Pottsville, it seems, is in future to be the county town, as it should have been in the first instance. The first mine which we visited we found on this hill, with a simple crank for two horses, and a windlass, to draw up the coal from the mine. This, perhaps, is the simplest form of power applied to get out the coal. The next is the direct power of mules or other animals, or men, to draw it out ; and the next is doubtless the stationary steam-engine, which we afterwards found at every mine in Schuylkill and Carbon counties. The view from the top of this hill is very fine, but the one from the hill directly opposite, on the south side of the town, is still better. In fact, there is nothing more varied than the prospect of hill after hill and dale after dale (they scarcely amount to valleys) which compose the surface of the region. The Hogarthian curve of grace and beauty is finely illustrated in the belle scene of this variegated country. It has much the physical ap- pearance of portions of South Wales, except that the valleys are not large enough, nor the land suflSciently cultivated." Our traveller finds ample room for moral education among the mining population, and suggests the establishment of " reading rooms, lyceums, circulating libraries, and tem- perance societies" in their midst. A capital idea, but who is to carry it out ? He states, however : " It is very true that a comparatively great change has taken place in the practices and habits of the contractors and miners since the visit, many years ago, of the renowned Graham, who taught not only abstinence from alcohol but from all animal food. At that time, as we were informed by an intelli- gent gentleman at Summit Hill, they were in the habit of dealing out, per order of the contractors, ' six nippers ' a day. The rule now is, that no rum shall enter the mines. We believe this rule is nearly universal, though very often evaded by the workmen." Of the machinery and modes of transporting coal from one point to another, we have the following description : — " The whole range of the mining operations, as well as the character of the 302 A VISIT TO THE COAL REGIONS. coal, in Scliuylkill county differ very materially from those in Carbon. In the latter, especially at the Lehigh mines, the locomotive power is gravity, aciincr by means of inclined planes. Loaded cars move off majestically and gracefully from the mines, and run the distance of six or seven miles with no other power to propel them. The grade is adapted to moderate motion, say- ten miles an hour. A man accomi)anies a long train of cars, and, by means of the brake, controls very effectually the velocity of their motion. Empty- ears which leave Mauch Chunk are drawn up what is said to be the longest inclined plane in the world — 2,462 feet, we believe — by means of a steam- eno-ine stationed at the top. Bands of steel, three eighths of an inch in thick- ness, and eight inches wide, extend down the plane, and are wound at the upper end around 30 feet cylinders by means of the steam-engine. A car attached to the lower end is placed behind a long train of cars, and literally pushes them up. Passengers are in this way driven up to 'Mount Pisgah,' where they enjoy one of the finest panoramic views in the county. The Delaware Water Gap, between which is Schooley's Mountain in the distance with Mauch Chunk lying cozily at your feet, the blue mountains opposite, and a beautiful valley, along whose side you glide from Mount Pisgah to the mines by an unseen and apparently spiritual power, form a combination of circum- stances calculated to make one feel that he is in fairy land. Another summit, however, has to be mounted before you arrive at the .town that bears that name. The whole of the movements of cars, loaded or empty, except the mere drawing them out of the mines, and up these two planes, is obtained by these gentle grades. These grades, by the way, forcibly illustrate the facility with whicli jnen do their duty when the will responds to it. These grades act like the will upon man, and gravity moves the cars, when immense power would otherwise be necessary, as is the case in other districts, to move the coal towards its various points of destination. One hill in this region has been literally uncapped. Hundreds of feet of earth have been removed from its mighty top, and the coal vein laid entirely bare. It is now, and has long been, quarried in open day-light. This also distinguishes the Lehigh region from the Schuylkill and other localities. In those places the rule is to begin to work the vein at the foot of the hill, and drive upwards. For this purpose, long shafts have frequently to be dug, in order to strike the vein, care being taken, if possible, not to go below the level of the ground in the valley, that the water in the mine may run out ; otherwise expensive machinery will be necessary to pump up the water. Mines, indeed, some- times become valueless on account of the expense necessary to keep them dry. In some cases, long tunnels are dug to carry off the water at a lower point. " It is a remarkable fact, in reference to these immense veins of coal, whose thickness varies from three or four feet up to fifty, that those on the northern side of the hills are generally defective, while those on the southern side Iiave the best coal, and are more profitable. They appear to form in the Lehigh region what is called a saddle, and rise from the valleys, which they cross, towards the tops of the hills, when they either pass over and join others on the opi)osite side, or, as is the'case at the Summit, ' crop out' on the top of the hill. The vein, however, will be found on the other side just the same. There are sometimes four veins, one below the other, at distances varying from ten to several hundred feet. " The process of breaking the coal is a little curious. It passes between two large cylinders, on one of which there are teeth, and on the other correspond- ing depressions. By a single passage through, the coal is broken into all MANUFACTURES AND AGRICULTURE. 303 possible sizes. It then passes through screens formed in cylinders, like the screens at grist mills through which flour is bolted. The coarser screens allow the largest and the finer only the smallest coal to pass through. The sizes are thus accurately graduated. Boys sit at the embouchures of these screens and pick out the slaty portions, while men are continually wheeling away the finest part of the screenings, which have no value, and constitute large hills of refuse dirt, which, however, will doubtless some day, by some enterprising Yankee, be found to be useful. It does not pay at present to carry this fine coal to market. " In Europe, particularly in Wales, the land around the coal and iron mines is in a high state of cultivation, and the Vale of Glamorgan is the most cele- brated in the world for its beauty and the extent of its agricultural products. In our coal region, on the contrary, nature's majestic forests, or the small growth which follows the taking ofi:' of the large timber, are seen up to the hill- tops as well as in the vales. Wood is, in fact, in great demand for the mines as supports, and is daily becoming dearer in all this region. The wood, while standing, will now sell for from $60 to $120 per acre for purposes connected with mining ; and as there are no provisions for its reproduction, it will in a few years become very scarce and dear. In the mean time, resort will probably be had to iron bars and plates for the same purposes as wood is now used ; in fact, iron plates are now used in the slides and tunnels of the coal, both in and out of the mines. " There is a prevalent opinion, both in our coal region and in Europe, that coal lands are unproductive. In speaking with an intelligent gentleman at the Summit, he remarked that the lands will produce nothing, on account of the presence of the coal, and added, on seeing some potato patches in a good state of cultivation, ' except potatoes.' These the Irish laborer will cultivate wher- ever he is found. Now it is well known that the potato requires the richest land, — land in which wheat and all the cerealia will grow, — and is itself one of the most nutritious of vegetables. The Irish laborer is M'ise, and produces an article that is more nourishing than any other which can be produced on the same space of ground. Besides, the presence of large timber is proof positive of the richness of the soil, and its ability to produce both corn, wheat, rye, potatoes and other important agricultural products. Indeed, several farms in a good state of cultivation prove that the land is good. Why should it not be cultivated, and the food consumed by the miners in their under- ground work be produced on the surface of the same land ? In this way the producer and consumer would be brought together, and the products of both mines and farms would assume a higher value. Cato." HOW MANUFACTURES TEND TO INCREASE THE PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURAL LABOR. Wk invite to the following paper the attention of our agricultural readers, and beg at the same time to remind them that the consumption of iron for the preparation of ma- chinery for the production, conversion, or transportation of the products of the earth, is now less by about two hundred thousand tons than it was four years since, although the population has increased in that time not less than three millions : — " I was pleased to find here a cheap Steam Engine on wheels, (four-horse, costing $325, all appliances included,) from the manufactory of Hoard