182 



^l)c jTarmcr's illciiitl)hj llisitor. 



tained or the nninial will perish. As carhon is 

 the only material by which this hem can be fur- 

 nished, that substniK-e must either be su|i|)lied to 

 the blood from the (at and muscle already formed, 

 or the blood must obtain it through the tnediiim 

 of food. If the food is deficient, the supply must 

 be made up from a waste of the bodily" parts; 

 and tlie consequence will be loss of flesh ami 

 weight, which if long continued may cause the 

 death of the anitiial, cither by finally cutting off 

 the source of beat, or so weakening the system 

 that it yields to the attack of some njalady. To 

 sustain the animal in proper coixliiion, then, re- 

 quires a supply of food proportioned to the degree 

 of cold to wliicb it is exposed ; and it is there- 

 fore obvious that by avoiding exposure to cold, 

 we save food. — Albany Cultivalor. 



From the Maine Cultivator. 

 Does Buck Wheat Improve the .Soil 1 



Messrs. Editors: — Some years since while I 

 was a subscriber to the Yankee Fartnej-, 1 was 

 occasionally struck with the remark that buck- 

 wheat would imjirove the soil ; in other words, 

 that light, areuacioiis lanils in which the defect 

 of a due cohesion among the constituent parti- 

 cles was obvious, while at the same time (as is 

 usually the case with the soils of this description) 

 there is a siipcrabinidance of acid maiiilbstly 

 present in its texture, would be regenerated 

 siinply by sowing this grain, the only manure or 

 stimuli required to seciue this result being lime. 

 Now I have trietl this plan till ! am confidently 

 persuaded it is all whim and theory, — that buck- 

 wheat is an exhausting crop, and furthermore 

 that it takesyi;/- moce from the soil than it returns 

 to it, unless yoii plough in the whole crop. In this 

 way, ivith the lime, the action of which is durable 

 and lasting, you may possibly, in lime, effect sortie 

 degree of improvement; but by sowing buck- 

 wheat, simply, if the crop be harvested, you are cer- 

 tain to effect the deterioration of the soil more 

 rapidly than in any other way with which 1 am 

 acquainted— the cultivation of P^ax not excepted. 

 Yours, P. G. s. 



Remarks: — The amelioration of a poor soil 

 through the agency above alluded to, depends 

 upon many concurring circumstances which, or 

 most of which, om- correspondent seems not to 

 have taken into the estimate. It should ever be 

 regarded as a fimdamcntal and incontrovertible 

 axiom in agricidlin-e, that a crop growing and 

 maturing its seed on the soil, necessarily dimin- 

 ishes its fertility. Even those plants denomin- 

 ated aerial, and which doubtless derive a large 

 j)roportion of their nutriment from the atmos- 

 phere, draw largely upon the mineral resources 

 of the soil. This fact is clearly demonstrated by 

 the following ex()eriment: 



If we take a plant of buck-wheat, including of 

 course the entire structure, roots, haulm, leaves 

 and seed, and dry it in an oven healed to the 

 temperature of eighty-six degrees, Fahrenheit, 

 we shall find that it will yield about fom- [)er 

 cent, of ashe.s. These ashes submitted to the 

 operation of the analytical chemist will be fbunii 

 to be composed of twenty-nine i)arls of potass 

 salts, forty-five parts of lime and magnesia salts, 

 and twenty-six parts of silic.i, or sand. Now it 

 is an established principle in vegetable physiol- 

 ogy that a soil to be fertile in the pi(}duction of 

 any given product, must contoin the mineral 

 matters found in the ashes of that product, 

 whether it be root or grain. By the idiove ex- ' 

 perimentthe reader will perceive that buck wheat 

 though ordinarily classed by praclical nurnfrs as 

 a non-exhansler, di^prives the soil chiefly of its 

 lime and magnesia salts. 



These are valuable constituent.s, and are oper- 

 ative in some di.'gree, either directly or collater- 

 ally, in the sustenance of a variety of crops; thr 

 in wheat we find that in one hundred pints there 

 is no less than twelve per cent, of lime, and fifty- 

 one per cent, of silica or sand; so that in the 

 grain of wheat, to say nothing of other constilu 

 ents, we have two of the constituent elements 

 of buck wheat, both of which arc derived ex- 

 pressly from the soil. Our correspondent is 

 right in bis corollary respecting the "turning in" 

 of this crop. On nmsl s(iils Jio method of speedy 

 im|irovetncnt has hetMi fomiil more snccessfnl 

 than this. We do not know as we have ever 

 been brought ,-iC(pininti',d vvilli im experiment ijj 

 which Ihi; rcsidt has not amply realized the ex- 

 pectations of the oxperimenter. On old fields, 



the productive energies of which have been re- 

 duced by injudicious cro|)ping. its operations have 

 been wonderful. 



Wheat — heavv crop. — S. M. Brown, of El- 

 bridge, Onondaga Co. New York, harvested over 

 400 bushels of fine white flint wheat, fiom eight 

 acres, the present season, lie ascribes a pait of 

 his success to a dressing of three bushels of salt 

 per acre. Single experiments, however, are as a 

 matter of course, insiifScient to deteriiiinej)ointB 

 of this nature. 



Sdccessfiti- experiment with grass seed- 

 ing. — A New Jersey correspondent of the New 

 York Farmer and Mechanic, states the following 

 experiment :— lie first procured, fiom ditterent 

 sources,sixty loads of muck,and rotted leaves from 

 the woods; it was exposed to the fiiist of winter, 

 and the rain and sun of summer, till after mid- 

 summer, when three hogsheads of unslacked 

 lime were mixed with it. When properly healed, 

 it was put on three acres of turf ground, which 

 had been newly turned over, and rolled down. 

 The manure was well harrowed in, rye and grass 

 seed were sown, and the land again well har- 

 rowed and rolled. The siihsequenl product was 

 two tons of hay to the acre, where previously not 

 half a tim was cut. This affords anollicr proof 

 of the great advantage of the thorough intermix- 

 tiu-e of the manure with the soil. Thorough and 

 repeated harrowing should always be given im- 

 rnedialdy after spreading manure, even where 

 it is intended to turn it under with the plow. 



Grinding horse food. — The London Agri- 

 cnltiu-al Ga7,elte states that two horses, every way 

 equal, were allowed each ,5 lbs. of oats daily, and 

 enough hay, amounting to about 17 lbs. per day. 

 For one horse the oats were crushed, for the other 

 not. 100 parts of the dung of each horse were 

 examined chemically on the fourth day; that 

 from the horse fed on cinshed oats contained no 

 nutritive matter, but merely woody fibre, mixed 

 w itb secretions and salts. In that fiom the other 

 horse, one quarter per cent of nutritive matter, 

 consisting of starch and gluten was foimd — 

 arising from the inability of the horse to perform 

 perfect mastication, and which must vary with 

 age and rapidity of feeding. No diflerence was 

 found in the dung from chopped and uncliopped 

 hay, though the ease of eating the latter and 

 consequently greater rest obtained, was a decided 

 advantage. 



Fatting Swine.— There is sound sense in the 

 the following, taken from an old work, called 

 "Countrie Farm." The more quiet and com- 

 forlable hogs are ke|it, the more rapidly will they 

 take on fat: — "The hogs which you intend to 

 keep in and to fat, shall not come forth at their 

 stye, being alone and fiee fiom others, neither 

 shall they have any light but at the door, which 

 is made to go in at, for to dress them. The care 

 about these is not so great as other cattle, except- 

 ed only the keeping of them clean, and knowing 

 how to make them good meat, so long as until 

 they are fill, lor after that they will lose every 

 day some of iheir meat, for they are sometimes 

 seen to heap such quantiiies of fat upon their 

 liv(; flesh, as ihat there are some hogs fuund a 

 foot and a half thick of lard." 



Potatok Rot. — In this section we have heard 

 but little cturipla'.nt in referenc^e to th(^ disease or 

 rot in the potatoe, this year, till since the crop 

 was harvested. In some other neighborhoods 

 Ino, wi: hav(^ lipard that heavy losses have been 

 sustained by the polalocs having rotted .-iiice they 

 WfV: dug, though "liile the crop was gnmingit 

 exhibited generally a healthy a|ipcaranci'. The 

 Boston ]>apeis make complainis ol' polatiies jot- 

 ting nuich in the cellar.s, and williiu a lew days 

 we have heard of m.iny having rotted in this 

 vicinity. .Some kinds seems to have sulVercd 

 more than others — the very excellent kind cidled 

 Carters ap)iear, from slatements we have heard, 

 to be more inclined to rot than olher.s, A 

 gentleman in this vicinity who raised this kiml 

 quite largely, has lost half his crop since they 

 were put in the cellar. The Shakers, located at 

 Watervli('t, also raise the Carters largely. They 

 infbnned us a few days since lhat they had lost 

 from *(!00 to .<<I000 wditli nf this kind "since llicy 

 wen; dug. A.s. to pnni;nlives, it is agreed th.-it 

 they should be carefully sorted over, rejecting all 

 that show the least unsoiiiidness, as soon us they 



are discovered to be rotting. The Shakers in- 

 form us that the best remedy which they have 

 iliscovered, (and they have tried many,) is to dry 

 them thoroughly by spreading them expo3e<l to the 

 air. This they say will stop the progress of de- 

 cay, and it is the only way they know by which 

 it can be slopped. — .'llbuiiy Cultivator. 



A Death from Fright. — The (bllowing ex- 

 traordinary circumstance related by Galignani in 

 \i\s omnium gatherum of strange events, well illus- 

 trates the danger of trying tricks upon the sen- 

 sibility or imagination : 



" Two young men, the Count de Brechtenslein 

 and Baron Lieftern, lately lived together at Perth, 

 in Ilimgary, on intimate lerms. The former id- 

 ways boasted of bis intrepidity, and declared that 

 nothing could fiighlen him. 'What! not even 

 snpernatnr.-d thing.- '■'' said fll. de Lieftein. — 

 'Kvcn less than others,' said his friend, ' since 

 they do not exist.' The upshot of the affair wa.s, 

 that a bet of 100 dmats was made by IM. de 

 Lieftern that be should be able to terrify bis 

 friend. Four mouths p.issed over, and nothing 

 was hearil ol' the wagi'r, when one evening M. 

 de Lieftern persuaded his friend's valet to per- 

 mit him to hide himself under his master's bed. 

 He took care to draw ihe halls from a pair of 

 pistols that always hung at the head of the bed. 

 M. de Brechtenstein returned home as usual, and 

 went to bed. As soon as he had fallen asleep, 

 M. de Sieftern came out fiom under the bpd, 

 threw a sheet around him, and put on a mask 

 representing a skull. He then drew the quilt to 

 awake his friend, who, on seeing the spectre, 

 cried out, ' Be off and leave me quiet!' .Scfing 

 that the figure still remained, he look down one 

 of the pistols and fired at him. M. de Lieftern 

 then rolled on the bed one of the balls which he 

 had taken Iroin the pistols. M. de Brechtenstein, 

 who was silting np, on 'ceing this, fell back in 

 the bed. His friend immediately ran froward to 

 assure him that it was all a trick, hut iM. de 

 Brechtenstein was dead — he had been sirnck 

 with a|)0|ilexy. M. de Lieftern immediately gave 

 himself into custody. The valet has been arrest- 

 ed, and both will be tried i'l the course of next 

 month," 



Wages of labor. — From an instructive arti- 

 cle on the subject of iigi icultural labor in iliffer- 

 ent countries, its wages, and the comparilive con- 

 dition of the laborer, in the London Mark Lane 

 Express, we condense the fidlouing lacls. In 

 our estimates we have called the shilling sterling 

 22 cents, though its value is a trifle less; ami Ihe 

 comparison, though insliliitcd with the English 

 laborer, can be easily made wilh those of ibis 

 country. 



In England, the average rate of agricnltural 

 wages for an able man with a family, is 9 shil- 

 lings, or .*1,9S cents per week. Fnnn this is lo be 

 deducted cottage rent al 3:? cents per wt^ek, leav- 

 ing §1,63 per week to provide himself with the 

 necessaries of life. Iii Fiance, a laborer in the 

 same situation receives ¥1,04 per \Ncek ; in I'liis- 

 sia, (IG cents ; in Germany, .¥1,02 per week; in 

 Holland ami Belgium, 81,20; in Italy, and the 

 .Austrian stales, .$1,15 cents. It will be remem- 

 bered that these averages are those of the com- 

 mon laborer, shepherds, carmen, and mechanics, 

 receiving ralher more. Tin; fond which the 

 wages named above will purchast' in the several 

 countries, is slated in the Express as follows : 



In Enghind the laborer can obtain for his ltj3 

 cents, or his week's wjil'cs, eilher 3i' lbs. ol bread, 

 or Hi lbs. of meal; 7.1 lbs. of biiilci ; 12^ lbs. 

 cheese; or 174 lbs. potatoes. 



In France, wilh bis 104 cenl.s, he can buy 

 either 4(i lbs. of bread ; 13^ lbs. of meat : or 

 261 lbs. of poiatoi's. 



In Prussia wilh bis M cents per wi'ck, the 

 laborer can buy eilher 36 lbs. of bread ; 16 lbs. 

 of meat; or 8.^ lbs. of bnller. 



In (iermany, wilh 102 cents he obtnins cither 43^ 

 Ih.-J. of bread ; 18 Ib.s. of meat; lli lbs. of but- 

 ter ; 21 lbs. cheese ; or 54 quarts of beer. 



In Holland and Belgium, 120 cents will biiv 

 either, ;")8 Ih.s. of bread ; 22 lbs. beef; or 460 Ih.s. 

 of potatoes. 



In Italy and the Anslriaii states, the laborer 

 w iih his I 15 cents, can buy eilher 50 lbs. of bread ; 

 22 Ihs. of beef; 8 lbs. of butter; 8 lbs. cheese; 

 or 168 Ihs. of potatoes. 



This table is interesting as showing not only 



