NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



381 



the back-bane. Each one takes half, and the leaf 

 lard being torn out, cuts off the shoulders, and at 

 four strokes the sides are cut into the proper form. 

 The hog disappears in different directions, and in 

 about half a minute from the time he was put up- 

 on the bench, another takes his place to undergo 

 the same process. The pieces destined for mess 

 pi >rk, are salted into a barrel, headed up, filled 

 with brine, rolled into the street, put on a dray, 

 carried to the river, and the hog may be on his 

 way to New Orleans, as pork, within twenty-four 

 hours after he crossed the ferry from Kentucky. 

 Much might be said of the mode of curing, partic- 

 ularly of the celebrated sugar-cured hams ; hut at 

 pres 'nt we must omit these details. — Western Ag- 

 ricullurist. 



For the New England Fanner. 

 OXYGEN. 



BY J. D. m'maUON, M. D. 



As oxygen, in combination with heat, is found 

 to compose the portion of atmospheric air so neces- 

 sary for animal and vegetahle respiration, a due 

 consideration of its necessity and importance to 

 the productions of the earth highly becomes the 

 expert and scientific farmer. It is asserted by the 

 must experienced chemists that oxygen gas or vital 

 air cmstitutes twenty-seven-hundredth parts of 

 our atmosphere; it forms the principal parts of all 

 acids, hence, the term is derived from the Greek 

 words — oxus, which signifies sharp, and gennao, 

 to beget. None of the bases which combine with 

 oxygen are alone s iluble in water ; they cannot 

 consequently be received by the absorbent vessels 

 of plants or roots, until they become aeids, when 

 they become part of the food and nourishment of 

 plants. Oxygen and carbon are found quickly to 

 unite by a d icomp isition of vegetable substances, 

 and this c irb >nic gas. in its fluid state only, and 

 not in its guseous state, becomes the food of plants, 

 because f leir fibres consist principally of carbon 

 and their thuds of water. 



Dr. Darwin, the author of the Zoonomia, asserts 

 that, next to carbonic acid, the aqueous acid, if it 

 may be s > called, or wat^r, seems to aff >rd the 

 principal food of vegetables; as water consists of 

 oxygen and hydrogen, it is properly an acid, like all 

 other combinations of oxygen; and when absorbed 

 by vegetable roots, becomes in part decomposed in 

 the circul iti >n or secretion of their juices ; the ox- 

 ygen disappears, or contributes to form the vege- 

 table aeids; and the hydrog >n prodaces ammonia 

 by its union with azote; which may contribute to 

 vegetable nutriment by its mixture with oils, and 

 thus producing soaps, which bee ime diffusible in 

 water; and also by decomposing insoluble saline 

 earths, as gvpsum, or metallic salts, as vitriol of 

 iron ; and which forms a part of the various pro- 

 ductions of sugar, honey, wax, resin, and vari his 

 other secretions 



After thus attentively considering the power and 

 influence of atmospheric air on vegetation, the na- 

 ture of different s >ils respecting their constituent 

 parts, the latent fire contained in all created mat- 

 ter in a greater or less degree, which the ancients 

 called the animamundi, our moderns call it ca- 

 loric, or a principle of electricity, but, winch I 

 take to l>e the celestial mctliu/n, by which, at the 

 cr ation of matter, all its parts were impregnated 

 by omnific power, and consequently became the 

 elastic basis of matter ; I said after having consid- 



ered these first principles, the most proper mode 

 of ameliorating the respective soils should next, 

 in my opinion, claim all the research and ingenu- 

 ity of the industrious farmer. The Chinese, the 

 Egyptians and Romans, found means of purifying 

 certain soils by burning, as will be seen by the fol- 

 lowing : 



"Long practice has a sure improvement found, 

 With kindled tires to burn the barren ground 

 When the light stubble, to the flamed resigned, 

 Is driven along, and crackles in the wind 

 Whether from hence the hollow womb of earth 

 Is warmed with sacred strength lor better birth; 

 Or, when the latent vice is cured by lire, 

 Redundant humors through ihe pores expire. 

 Or that the warmlh distends the chinks, and makes 

 New breathings, whence new nourishment she lakes; 

 Or that the heat ihe gaping ground constrains, 

 New knits the surface and new siring-, the veins, 

 Lesl soaking showers should pierce her sacred seat. 

 Or freezing Boreas chill her genial heat, 

 Or scorching suns too violently beat." 



l)i udi n. Virg Geor. 1st. 



Granting that modern agriculturists hold differ- 

 ent opinions respecting the general good effects 

 from burning, this diversity in their opinions may 

 arise from a want of system or order in their re- 

 spective mode of management, because its good ef- 

 fects are pretty generally acknowledged. When 

 argillaceous earths are burned, they become of a 

 sandy nature, and that brick, when only moder- 

 ately heated, sticks to the tongue, which effect it 

 will not have when perfectly burned. The reason 

 of the first effect is from the humidity which it ab- 

 sorbed, but which in the latter, case it no longer 

 possessed . 



Felspar contains calcareous earth, silieious and 

 aluminous earths, together with a 6xed alkali and 

 the oxyde of iron. If reduced to an impalpable 

 powder, it will resemble the argyle, ami being 

 strongly heated, will melt; if only moderately 

 heated it forms a kind of paste, which, when 

 broken, resembles sand. The conclusion to be 

 drawn from the above effects is, that by burn- 

 ing, the s iil is rendered less compact, less tena- 

 cious and less adapted to absorb the water and hu- 

 midity of the atmosphere ; consequently, low, hu- 

 mid ami swampy s ids, in order to give uiem a tone 

 and susceptibility for vegetation, should be heated 

 and thus pulverized. Toe above reas ins seem to 

 me conclusive against the objections of those who 

 maintain that, together with destroying the vege- 

 table and animal matter, the fire, in other respects, 

 als ) serves to imp >verish the soil. With these I 

 perfectly agree in the abstract, and that is. if not 

 properly and scientifically applied to such soil as 

 requires that mode of treatment as the best ami 

 easiest mode for its amelioration. Hence cm be 

 justly appreciated the extensive use id' chemical 

 deducti his in the wide field of agriculture. In 

 truth it is the broad and s .lid b.asis on v.vich it is 

 naturally founded. But if tin; eonclusi ins carried 

 ait io any science, be found to vary m any mate- 

 rid point from the data or its first principles, there 

 will appear, either s imething defective in the sys- 

 tem itself, or a criminal deviation from its assumed 

 ami established principles. So in agriculture, the 

 ameli .ration of the different soils must be system- 

 atically followed up, according to their elementary 

 constituents or component parts, as above speci- 

 fied in one or two instances. 



We have only to look on two adj lining farms 

 (admitting no disparity of soil;) one we see to pro- 

 duce abund mt crops, and amply to recompense the 

 labor and toil of the farmer, while that of his less 



