312 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



and other crops will, under favorable circumstan- 

 ces," says Prof. Johnston, "descend to a depth 

 of four or five feet." What practical farmer does 

 not know, that the best way to avoid the effects 

 of drought, is to deepen the soil ? Annually 

 many of the deeply penetrating roots would be 

 left in the soil, for they are larger, and more of 

 them, and would serve as pabulum (supplying the 

 carbonic acid) for new crops — having all the ele- 

 ments of their decomposition brought down to 

 them. Such, at least is the opinion of one, that 

 tile draining "is exhaustive." But if tile draining 

 is exhaustive, is not stone or other kinds of drain- 

 ing? And would not underdraining, by any 

 means, be exhaustive to "swamps and low lands," 

 to the draining of which S. F. seems to interpose 

 no positive objection ? 



As to the salts of the manure or soil being 

 washed away (alluding to this point once more, 

 as it stands out prominently in the communica- 

 tion under notice,) lands that are not all gravel 

 have an affinity for lime, soda, ammonia, &c., in 

 their common manurial forms, and probably ab- 

 sorb them as they are retentive in clay or vegeta- 

 ble humus ; so that little of them could be 

 washed out until the soil was sufficiently supplied 

 with them, and then if a little escaped to "the 

 ocean," it might well be spared. Urine is said to 

 be tasteless when leached through a body of soil, 

 having left its salts in the earth. 



"What we lack is bottom to our farms," said 

 the Connecticut farmer. Undoubtedly, where the 

 subsoil is a loose sand, under a few inches of sur- 

 face mould, it is too porous and of an improper 

 nature to retain the manurial agents. Neither 

 underdraining, nor perhaps any thing else would 

 improve such soil. But while some lands have 

 no bottom, others have a hard one too near the 

 surface, and still others are all bottom. Under- 

 draining would undoubtedly be of benefit to the 

 two last. The desideratum is to get the bottom 

 in the right place. 



Your industrious correspondent writes with 

 commendable feeling, though he seems to enter- 

 tain a spite against the English notion of under- 

 draining, the absurdity of which seems to him as 

 "plain as way to parish church." Some of his 

 points, however, prove too much for the harmo- 

 ny of the others — besides elaborately combatting 

 (as before observed) the idea of universal drain- 

 age, the benefit or economy of which very few 

 admit. D. w. L. 



W. Medford, April 18, 1858. 



For the New England Farmer. 



TOUJVG MEN AND "WOMEN ON THE 

 FAHM. 



Mr. Editor : — Why is it that so many of our 

 young men and women are inclined to dislike an 

 agricultural life ? Is it because the work is too 

 hard, or because there is no pleasure in it, or is 

 it because they think it degrading ? or because 

 the occupation is unhealthy? These questions 

 properly answered, would be of public conse- 

 quence. 



1. They are not brought up to take an interest 

 in that branch of industry. 2. They think they 

 can live easier in some other occupation. 



I do not say that all ought to remain upon the 



farm, but I think that if they are rightly encour 

 aged, there will be more thus inclined. Let 

 cldldren obtain a good education, for we want 

 what are called educated farmers, and the more 

 the better ; it is not the farmer only, but educa- 

 ted /arme?-*' wives that are wanted, so that they 

 can have an even yoke together. I am sorry to 

 say, that, in my opinion, there is not more than 

 one in twenty of the young women properly ed- 

 ucated for a farmer's wife. Let us hope that 

 these things will receive more attention and be 

 corrected in the future. J. E. WHITMAN. 



South Londonderry, Vt., 1858. 



LYON'S PATENT COPPER LIGHTNING 

 CONDUCTOK. 



Lightning rods constructed upon proper prin- 

 ciples and properly applied, are undoubtedly an 

 important protection to our buildings, but if they 

 do not possess these 

 qualifications they are 

 absolutely worse than 

 no rods, as they invite 

 the fluid to themselves 

 without possessing the 

 power to convey it 

 harmlessly away. 



With regard to this 

 particular rod, we pre- 

 fer to give the opinion 

 of Chester Dewey, 

 Professor of Chemistry 

 and the Natural Scien- 

 ces in the University of 

 Rochester, N. Y., to 

 giving one of our pwn. 



"The use of copper is 

 proposed for two impor- 

 tant reasons : First, its 

 high conducting power 

 of electricity, and sec- 

 ond, its less exposure to 

 oxydation in the atmosphere. It is agreed by phi- 

 losophers that the conduction of copper is from six 

 to eight times that of iron, and that in either 

 metal the conduction is dependent upon the sur- 

 face, and not upon the solid contents of the met- 

 al, or that the greatest surface conveys the elec- 

 tricity with more facility. Hence, while the flat- 

 tening of the rod increases the surface, with less 

 weight, the conduction is augmented. As cop- 

 per is a better conductor of heat than iron, the 

 larger surface of moderate thickness is the pro- 

 tection against the fusion of the rod by any dis- 

 charge of lightning. The rusting of iron dimin- 

 ishes its conducting power, but copper is far less 

 liable to rust. 



The fixings of Lyon's Rod comport with the 

 best arrangements of other rods. The part which 

 projects above the building is made adequately 

 strong, and the terminating points are to be fully 

 silvered or gilded. The passage of the rod into 

 the earth should be to a p»int of permanent mois- 

 ture. Every man who seeks this protection 

 should look to this point and be satisfied fo. him- 



