54 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



niitted to use, iind which may be valued for 

 tlieir practical beariug as for their scientific elu- 

 cidations, we shall close what we have now to 

 say on Electricity apphcd to Ag^cnlture. 



The letter, says Mr. S., which calls forth these 

 observations concludes : 



45. "It was at first expected that manure 

 would he of no fnrther use, hut it is now said 

 that its action will be more powerful with the 

 }ielp of this nere allr/." 



It was indeed a fallacy to have supposed tliat 

 exciting the frame would feed it. No living 

 organization ever created oiic atom of its struc- 

 ture. It does but transform its elements ; the 

 vegetable those which nature or art have placed 

 within the reach of its roots or leaves. These 

 elements placed there, are as spontaneously 

 sought and procured by it, however minute in 

 the "atom tliey may be, through the roots, or 

 leaves, as would be similar by the animal who 

 sees a'hay-stack ; and they are equally indis- 

 pensable to both. If previous vegetation has 

 taken up the food of the soil, and the crop has 

 ijeeu can-ied to a market, it should be recollect- 

 ed that that act is the act of man in his political 

 and social relations ; that Nature knoivs nothing 

 of it and does not provide against it ; what she 

 takes up she git^es back again to vegetation — 

 because, under her administration it generally 

 perishes on the spot, and in so doing restores 

 the elements of organization back to the soil 

 again, with the accumulations from the atmo- 

 sphere, and the water and ammonia of the air, 

 by decay, equally fitted in ten thousand suc- 

 cessions, for as many renewed appropriations to 

 the same uses. If it has been earned oS" by the 

 cultivator, he should remember that in selling 

 tlie crop he is called on, as he values the capital 

 invested in the price of his land, to restore it, 

 in so far as he stands indebted to the soil for it ; 

 that all of the price he obtains beyond what will 

 replace the fertility of his soil is his gain and 

 no more. To appropriate more is literally sell- 

 ing (or lessening the value, which is the same 

 thing,) of his land. 



46. "When he seeks, through electricity, to 

 force the vegetable, he is merely caUing on the 

 functions of the structure to take up more of the 

 elements contained in the soil or the atmosphere, 

 and, referably to the products realized, they 

 must be found there either at the hands of na- 

 tnre, or of his art. Without this his electri- 

 city will do him no good ; but he may justly 

 anticipate that in vitalizing and energizing the 

 functions of the vegetable frame (as he thus may 

 do with the aid of electricity) through the ma- 

 nuring elements of the soil, he rateahly, but no 

 further, enables the organization, through this 

 augmented vitally electric force, to seize upon, 

 and, through decomposition, accrete the hydro- 

 gen of the water — the elements of the soluble 

 ammonia, and cai'bonic acid of tlie soil, of the 

 aeriform carbonic acid of the air, and v/hat else 

 of the pi*imitive rock in its disintegrated and 

 soluble state may be there. Thus Nature re- 

 ferably will assist the vegetable with elements 

 for his gain ; and, as he forces the structure, 

 through accumulated hydrogen, carbon and am- 

 monia at the roots, hack toirards the luxuriance 

 of the carboniferous era he may also conceive 

 that he may, referably to seedless and flowerless 

 vegetation, and, to a given extent also, as to the 

 flowering and seed bearing races, apply accu- 

 mulated Electricity. 



It is an undoubted fact, which may bo shown 

 by a hundred fac-simile plates in my possession, 

 that the vegetation of that era was, not only as 

 luxuriant as I stated in my previous lecture, but 

 that it was then twenty fold what it now is. 



48. The question, and the only one, then, is — 

 Hydrogen and carbon, with the other requisite."?, 

 being no/ n rally or artificially, and rateahly 

 supplied, \ww far \vill Electricity, in connection 

 with them, safely and profitably assist in the 

 operation, in one or both of the ranges of the 

 vegetable existence to which I have adverted. 

 This, as I have before said, can only, as I ap- 

 prehend, be determined by practical obsen'a- 

 tion and experiment. It may, as a matter of 

 pleasing in.structiou, be as ^vell essayed in any 

 part of the city, as in the countiy, m the ordina- 

 ry plants of a family. 



It is what they seem to be trying in Europe. 

 It is what we should try here too, if we mean 

 to place and keep our intellects on a par with 

 theirs. W. A. SEELY. 



New- York, March 3, 1845. 



DURHAM OXEN. 



To the Editor of the Mark-Lane Expres.? : 



Sir: It may be new to many of the readers 

 of your valuable journal, to learn the particu- 

 lars of the best ox ever bred in England. This 

 "wonderful animal, commonly called the Dur- 

 ham Ox, or Day's Ox, I saw several times, and 

 knew the owner, Mr. John Day, well. The 

 said Durham Ox was sold to Mr. Buhner, of 

 Harnley, near Bedale, for public exhibition, at 

 the price of £140 ; this was in Eebruarj', 1801 ; 

 he was at that time computed to weigh 168 .stone 

 of 14 lbs., his live weight being 2.52 stones. Mr. 

 Bulmer having obtained a carriage for his con- 

 vej'ance, traveled with him five week.s, and 

 then sold him and the caniage at Rotherham, to 

 Mr. John Day, on the 15th May, 1801, at ±250. 



On the 21st of May Mr. Day could have sold 

 him for 500 guineas, on the 13th of June for 1,000 

 guineas, and on the 8th of July for 2,000 guineas. 

 Mr. Day traveled with him six years through 

 the principal parts of England and Scotland, till 

 at Oxford, on the 19th of Februarv, 1807, the ox 

 dislocated his hip bone, and continued in that 

 state till the 15th of April, when he was slaught- 

 ered, and notwithstanding he must have lost 

 considerably in weight during those eight weeks 

 of great pain and illness, his carcass weighed, 

 at 14 lbs. to the stone, four quarters, 165 stone, 12 

 lbs.; tallow, 11 stone 2 lbs.; hide, 10 .stone, 2 lbs. 

 At eight years old this wonderful animal weigh- 

 ed, alive, 83 cwt. 3 qrs., the greatest weight 

 ever known ; he girthed in the least place, be- 

 hind his shoulders, 11 feet 1 inch. 



This large, handsome ox, brought the Durham 

 cattle into such a high repute ; nay, this ox 

 speaks volumes in favor of even a single cross 

 of this blood, for the ox was the produce of a 

 common co^^', which had been put to Favorite, 

 at five years old. This single cross striking the 

 admirers with amazement, -what a great mis- 

 take there has been in not crossing all coarse 

 beasts in Great Britain and Ireland with the 

 pure Durhams ! I have no doubt but the Dutch 

 cattle, and most otlier foreign beasts, w^ill be 

 cros.sed with them, which vv'ill not only put some 

 fat on their back.s, hut will marble tlieir lean 

 meat with fat, and make them more suitabh; for 

 our roast-bcef-cating metropolis, London, the 

 best and greatest mart in the world. 



