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PUIILISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MiRlfPT STnB'PT ,a „, 



, iw 5- iNUttiM M.\RKb.T bTREET, (AonicuLTDnAL Wai.ehouse.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL. MX.l 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVf^NTNG, MARCH 10, 1841. 



N. E. FARMER, 



SEVENTH AGRICULTURAL MEETING AT 

 THE STATE HOUSE. 

 We had not space last week for iiisertinjr our 

 notes of the sayings and doings of the rneetin'g in 

 full. We now su|,ply the oinis.sion in part. Many 

 of Dr. .Tackson's remarks we do not retain. All 

 that ive shall add from him is contained in the fol- 

 lowing' paragraph. 



It has been maintained (originally by Berzellins) 

 that there is in the soil a pecnliar substance, which 

 he called geine. But it is now ascertained that 

 this geine contains several substances, varying in 

 their proportions in different soils. Dr. Jacirson, 

 some time since ascertained this by his own analy- 

 sis, (and if we are correct i:i our recollection, an- 

 nounced the discovery last year.) The last steam 

 ship from England brought a work in which Ber- 

 zellius states that he has himself found in what he 

 had called geine, the very substances which Dr. J. 

 had discovered. One of these substances is called 

 apocrenic acid, which forms with lime an almost 

 insoluble salts. But there are five organic matters 

 found in all soils, which form with" lime soluble 

 combinations, and thus furni-sh food for plants. 



Mr Colrnan exhibited several specimens of corn 

 received from New Haven, where, as he informed 

 us, the Inhibition of this product, at their show last 

 autumn, was extensive and rich. We saw nothing 

 in the specimens indicating any variety that is new 

 to this section of the country. These corns were 

 distributed among the gentlemen present. 



Mr Teschemacher exhibited several geraniums 

 which had been subjected to a new mode of treat- 

 ment for promoting their growlli. The foliage was 

 lu.xuriant; the leaves were 6 1-2 inches in diame- 

 ter, while those on a plant treated in the ordinary 

 way were but 4 1-2 inches broad. The process he 

 chose not to describe until the experiment had been 

 extended far enough to determine its effects upon 

 the flower. Since the commencement of this pro- 

 cess, a work of Prof. Liebig has been received, 

 which contains an hypothesis in relation to vegeta- 

 ble growth similar to that upon which Mr Tesche- 

 macher has been acting. The value of Liebig's 

 work, time and experiments must determine. 



[If we correctly understand the matter, Liebig's 

 view i.s, that vegetation is mainly promoted by the 

 absorption of carbonic acid and ammonin from the 

 atmosphere ; and that the great use of manures is 

 to furnish carbonic acid and amn.onia in the atmos- 

 phere, around the leaves.] 



"Hubback," into his herd of Teeswater caltlo, about 

 the year 1778. " It may be asserted that we have 

 no superior Short-Horns which do not claim descent 

 nearly or remotely from "Hubback." 



My object more particularly at this time is to re- 

 quest your worthy Commissioner, Mr Colmau, to 

 publish a particular account of the "three pure 

 bloods" which he once owned : by doing it lie will 

 confer a favor on all breeders of the improved Dur- 

 ham Short Horned cattle in this country. I wish 

 the breeder's name of his "three pure bloods," the 

 name of their sire, grand sire, &c., the sire of their 

 dams, grand dams, &c., and as full and particular a 

 pedigree as can be given, that all breeders may 

 know what strain of blood to avoid. 



For a history of this breed of cattle, I refer for a 

 full account to Yoiiatt's Treatise on Cattle, publish- 

 ed in London, in 1834, under the superintendance 

 of the Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge, 

 and republished in this country. 



HERD BOOK. 

 Connecticut, Feb. 21s<, 1841. 



tSrO. 36. 



For the New Eiigliiiid Farmer. 



For the New England Farmer. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



ORIGIN OF THEIMPr'ovED SHORTHORNS. 

 Ai.LF.v Putnam, Esq.— Sir— I noticed with sur- 

 prise the remarks made at the 4th and .5th Agricul- 

 :ural Meetings, published in the two last numbers 

 )f your highly valuable paper, regarding the origin 

 )f the improved Durham Short-Horned race of cat- 

 .le. Mr Charles Colling was the successful foun- n, .= 

 ler of that breed, by the introduction of the bull I born so. 



ERRORS CORRECTED. 

 Allen Putnam, Esq. — Dear Sir — When gen- 

 tlemen of the legal profession file bills in e<|^ity, 

 they are occasionally compelled to abandon them 

 and file new bills ; but it is more usual to beg 

 leave to make the proper amendment. 1 am in the 

 latter position, and desire to correct two errors 

 which I committed in the few remarks 1 made at 

 the Fifth Agricultural Meeting. 



I slated that the improvement of the Short Horns 

 by Mr Charles Colling commenced by a cross with 

 a polled Galloway cow. Such I find is not the 

 fact ; yet according to Youatt, it seems quite cer- 

 tain that this cross was calculated to reduce the 

 size and improve the symmetry of Mr Colling's herd. 

 He also says of Colling's sale made in 1810, " In a 

 sale of 48 lots realizing £7,115 I7s., Lady and her 

 descendants sold for a larger sum than any other 

 family obtained." Lady was of the " alloy," and 

 this fact clearly establishes the high estimate put 

 upon this cross at that period. 



It was with the bull Hubback that Mr Colling 

 commenced his successful career as a breeder.— 

 This bull, it seems, was smaller than the Teeswa- 

 ter, and that he first commenced his reduction of 

 the size of the animal by the use of this bull, and 

 that his herd were in high repute prior to his cross 

 with the Galloway cow. 



1 stated that we have two cows whose dam was 

 sired by Comet (15,5.) 1 should have said grand 

 dam. 



By giving this a place in the next number of the 

 Farmer, you will confer a favor. 

 Yours, very respectfully, 



WELLS LATHROP. 

 Springfield, Feb. 261^. 



It is much more honorable to be noble than to be 



LIEBIG'S AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 

 Mr Putnam— I was much pleased to hear from 

 the Agricultural Commissioner on Thursday even 

 ing, that a reprint of Liebig's new work on Acrri- 

 cultural Chemistry was being prepared here and I 

 trust it will be sold at such a price as will place it 

 in the hands of all to whom the subject of the cul- 

 tivation of the soil is interesting. ihis chiefly be 

 cause it contains facts and their application which 

 however known to the few, have not been hitherto 

 widely disseminated. Thus those who have waded 

 through the scientific periodicals of Europe for the 

 last two years, cannot fail to have observed the 

 clear indications of the discovery of the existence 

 of large portions of nitrogen in seeds and plants- 

 and I believe it has been known to some even in 

 this country that ammonia, from which vec-etation 

 receives its chief supply of this substance (nitr.xren ) 

 exists in rain and snow water. The great practi- 

 cal discovery of Liebig unquestionably is, that 

 plants derive a portion of the large quantity of ni- 

 trogen so necessary for their existence, from the 

 ammonia which is carried down to the roots by the 

 rain— which rain in.bibes this ammonia from the 

 atmosphere, in which it is disseminated by the pu. 

 trefaction of various organic substances. Thus 

 the old saying that the rain clears the air, is more 

 true than has been usually supposed. 



So also, the action of the decomposition of car- 

 bonic acid into solid carbon and oxygen by plants 

 has been long known, and the decomposition of wa- 

 ter by seeds into oxygen and hydrogen, has been 

 likewise considered as proved by later experiments. 

 In this work of Liebig, who has already earned 

 well merited fame as an analyst of organic sub- 

 stances, these and many other facts are arranged 

 and properly applied to agriculture. The conside- 

 ration of them by the farmer must be of advantage 

 to him, and will, no doubt, excite that attention "to 

 the subject which is so much desired both by the 

 scientific and the practical man. 



Some ot the decompositions above alluded to 

 are operations of frequent occurrence in laboratories' 

 — the detail of the methods by which they are per- 

 formed, is familiar to every chemist ; and yet the 

 vegetable physiologist wishes to refer them to a 



mysterious cause which he calls vitality a cause 



which if once admitted and settled, places a bar to 

 farther examination into the operations of nature. 

 I had much rather consider the arrangement of the 



cells and vessels of a vegetable as a voltaic pile 



the hairs, some of which are pointed, others tipped 

 with knobs, called, for want of a better name or 

 more knowledge, glands, as collectors of the elec- 

 tric fluid. These decompositions then by which 

 ammonia surrendersits nitrogen, carbonic acid its 

 solid carbon and oxygen, and water its oxygen and 

 hydrogen, would be perfectly simple and understood ; 

 as would also the cause why moisture or dampness 

 often impedes the experiments of the electrical phi- 

 losopher—the fluid being conveyed away for the use 

 of vegetation. ' 



Whatever may be my ideas on this subject, I am 



