1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



113 



trivinl, contrasted with its utility, and would be use 

 ful for other purposes when not required for the 



ORGANIC AND INORGANIC. 



An organized body is one having organs to secure 



protection of tools. Many of our farmers are sin- the purpose of its being. An animal has arteries, 

 gularly remiss in the matter of protecting their ag-l^^ins, nerves, and glands, a heart, lungs, stomach, 

 • u 1 • 1 . ri i 1 1 u 1 1 i&c, — organs having functions in the economy of 



nculturalmiplements. Carts, sleds, wheels, plows, i-r- . ,°,. , *' , ,. , •' 



J , , o ^ ^' ^ plfiiit has sap-vessels, secretmg organs, leaves, 



harrows, spades, shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, &c.,,buds and flowers. Crystals of the metals and min- 

 are costly articles, and should by no means be ex- erals have their parts arranged by a law as definite 

 posed to the wearing effects of the atmosphere dur- and inflexible as the bodies themselves, — a kind of 



ing those seasons when they are not in use. 



I'or the New England Farmer. 



METEOROLOGY, AS APPLIED TO 

 CULTURE. 



Mr. Editor : — It was long ago said, that "snow 

 was the poor man's manure ;" — this being so 

 prospect is, that his grounds will be Uberally fertil- 

 ized the coming season. Never have 1 known so 

 continuous and substantial a coating of snow as has 

 been for two months last past — say since the begin- 

 ning of January. From all quarters, I learn that 

 the depth has varied from two to three feet — so that 

 it is is fair to estimate the average depth, at least, 

 thirty inches. It has been solid and impenetrable 

 to an unusual degree. Directly opposite the win- 

 dow of my morning room, it was blown into a drift, 



organization. A gathering of citizens becomes an 

 organized body by the choice of moderator and 

 clerk. A Legislature is organized by appointing 

 speaker and clerk. These officers are organs by 

 which the design of assembling is to be accomplish- 

 ed. But the terms organic and inorganic, as tech- 

 nically used in agriculture, have nothing to do with 

 "^^jthe object, design or arrangement of parts, but 

 , me fay oimnlv t,n thp plpmpnt. or plfimpnts nf wyiinVi 



fer simply to the element or elements of which the 

 body is composed. The terms, thus used, may be 

 convenient, and are easily understood. If we burn 

 a body, those portions wliich become gases and fly 

 ofi" we call organic ; those to which the fire gives no 

 wings, we call morganic. If we take a piece of hick- 

 ory, for example, and burn, oxygen, carbon and hy- 

 drogen will fly otf, and silix, magnesia, potash, &c., 

 will remain. If you burn a cabbage stump, nitro- 

 gen will be added to the winged products by burn- 

 ing:. If you burn a fresh bone, oxygen, hydrogen, 



four feet deep, on babbath mormng, Jan. oth, and. ^^ ^^ ^^^ carbon will fly off", and'Ume, phosphor- 

 has so remamed ever smce, not settling mo^^^^ ^jll j.g„^^i„_ Tj^g ^^QQ^^ the cab- 



nine inches. I mention this to show the little influ- 

 ence of the sun upon the drifts during the winter. 



The same philosophy that prompts Lt. Maury to 

 note the variations of temperature, in different 

 parts of the country, should prompt the cultivators 

 of fields and gardens to note the quantity and posi- 

 tion of snow upon their ground. I remember the 

 finest peaches I saw the last autumn were exhibited 

 at the Rockingham Fair at Exeter, and were said 

 to have grown in one of the shore towns, in the 

 eastern part of New Hampshire, Kensington or 

 Hampton, I believe. On inquiry why they should 

 have grown so perfectly there, it was said the limbs 

 that bore them were covered for months with a 

 drift of snow. Here there was a fertilizing or pro- 

 tecting influence exerted by the snow drift, worthy 

 of note — such a one as secured the first premium 

 for the specimen, of the most dehcious of fruits — 

 the thoroughly ripened peach — even on the verge 

 of perpetual frost. 



My purpose is not so much to give a philosophical 

 explanation of how these phenomena operate on 

 culture — as to induce you, Mr. Editor, to gather in 

 from your friends and correspondents, in difierent 

 sections, such facts as have come to their oljserva- 

 tion and knowledge ; and to enter them for record 

 in your useful journal, so that those who come af- 

 ter us may understand for a certainty what were the 

 peculiarities of 1856. Pardon the suggestion, that 

 well observed and recorded facts are the only reha- 

 able basis of knowledge in culture — however other- 

 wise it may be in political management, know-noih- 

 ingism may succeed in this for a time — but not in 

 the culture of the field and garden. In these, he 

 that knows most, will as certainly succeed best. 



I have often heard the remark — "this winter 

 seems like the olden time" — but when you come to 

 pin the speaker down to the particular time referred 

 to, there is not one in a hundred that can give you 

 any reliable information whatever. Esstix. 



Feb. 29, 1856. 



bage and the bone are organized bodies, composed 

 of organic and inorganic substances, and, so iar as 

 we know, the inorganic potash and Hme are as es- 

 sential to organization as the oxygen and hydrogen. 

 The fact that when you destroy the organization 

 by fire, one part flies away, certainly proves nothing 

 on this point. The inorganic are frequently called 

 mineral elements. 



Were we to apply scientific accuracy to the terms 

 organic and inorganic, we should find them, in their 

 best agricultural use, very indefinite and faulty. All 

 would call a piece of chalk inorganic, and yet if you 

 burn or heat it, almost half of it flies otf in this 

 same oxygen and carbon, and the remainder is lime ; 

 and even this lime, when subjected to a higher heat, 

 is shown to be, in par,t a metal called calcium, in 

 part this same winged oxygen. Inorganic water is 

 composed wholly of the winged spirits, oxygen and 

 hydrogen. So that chemistry soon brings us to el- 

 ements, and of these, one is just as much organic, 

 for ought we can see, as another. But in the agri- 

 cultural use of the terms, if you burn an organized 

 body, those substances which pass ofl' are called or- 

 ganic, those which remain in the form of ashes, in- 

 organic. — Culturist and Gazette, Pittsfeld. 



A REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENT. 



The second volume of Irving's life of Washington 

 has just been pubhshed. From it we cull the fol- 

 lowing anecdote. At the time Gen. Washington 

 had his head-quartei's in Cambridge : 



"A large jjarty of Virginia riflemen, who had re- 

 cently arrived in camp, were strolling about Cam- 

 bridge, and viewing the collegiate buildings, now 

 turned into barracks. Their half-Indian equipments 

 and fringed and ruflled hunting garbs provoked 

 the merriment of some troops from Marblehead, 

 chiefly fishermen and sailors, who thought nothing 

 equal to the round jacket and trowcrs. A banter- 

 ing ensued between them. There was snow upon 



