86 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



drop of " ignoble blood," is not more productive, so 

 far as the dairy is concerned, than it is generally 

 reported to be, it is better adapted to a royal than a 

 republican territory. In conclusion, we hesitate not 

 to say, that we have the elements of as good milch 

 cows, as there are any where, and that if men M'ho 

 have the means, will apply science and enlightened 

 judgment to their developcmcnt, instead of going 

 abroad lor cows, we can furnish better of our own, 

 than can be found elsewhere in the wide world. 



ONIONS FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL. 



To give some idea to those who have not thought 

 on the subject of the effects of age upon a cultivated 

 soil, I shall here mention a fact that struck me as 

 being not a little singular at the time it occurred. 

 At Dunstaffnage, near Oban, in Argyleshire, Scol;- 

 land, which is a mountainous country, and naturally 

 a barren soil, a small garden was pointed out to me, 

 on which was growing at the time one of the finest 

 crops of onions I had ever seen. I took notice of it 

 with some degree of surprise, because I had seen no 

 other crop of onions in that district that was toler- 

 able ; but my surprise was a good deal augmented on 

 being told, that the present crop in that garden was 

 by no means remarkable ; that it had been cropped 

 with onions, year after year, from time immemo- 

 rial ; that the present owner of it, who was a man 

 above eighty years of age, had never seen any other 

 crop than onions upon that ground; and that the 

 oldest person alive, when he was a boy, had told him 

 the same thing, and the crop was always an excellent 

 one. Dunstatfnage was a royal palace, belonging to 

 the kings of Scotland at an early period of their his- 

 tory, almost beyond record ; and there can be little 

 reason to doubt that this garden was brought under 

 cultivation at that time, so that it cannot now be less 

 than five hundred years old, and probably several 

 hundred years more. I question much if the soil 

 could have been rendered capable of producing suc- 

 cessive crops of such fine onions, for a great many 

 years after it was first turned up from the waste, by 

 any device that the ingenuity of man could have 

 suggested. To judge, then, of the most profitable 

 mode of cropping such old soils, by the same rules 

 that would apply to those which had not had time to 

 be fully inatured, would be very absurd. Many cases 

 of this sort would no doubt occur on our survey of 

 the Netherlands, could it be properly efi'ected, — Dr. 

 Anderson. 



MANURES. 



I apprehend that all are fully aware, that the prin- 

 cipal source of vegetation is that of putrescent mat- 

 ter; hence the importance of attention to the collec- 

 tion of as much vegetable and animal substances, as 

 can possibly be accumulated during the less busy 

 part of the season. The bottom of the barn-yard 

 should bo so enclosed, as that the extracts from the 

 manures, produced by rains, could be retained, and 

 absorbed by a layer of earth previously jjut in, say 

 from four to ton inches in depth ; this under stra- 

 tum is designed as an absorbent to retain all the ex- 

 tractive matter produced ; and it will be found to 

 contain a large quantity of fertilizing material thus 

 secured, in addUiou to the araoiint of manure pro- 

 duced in the usual way barn-yards are generally 

 managed. This a^Ulitional compost may be used 

 with decided benefit for the corn crop ; or it may be 

 rcmov(!d in common with the vegetable manure of 

 the yard for the winter crops. If intended for the 

 latter crops, the whole ma.is should be well mixed 

 together, and a most valuable mantiro Mill be the 

 '■e&ult. 



The great object in the application of manures 

 should be to make it afford as much soluble matter 

 as possible to the roots of the plants, and that in a 

 slow and gradual manner, so that it may be entiiely 

 consumed in forming its organized parts. Manures 

 from animal substances, in general, do not require a 

 chemical preparation to fit them for a judicious 

 application for the soil. They need only to be 

 blended with earthly constituents, in a proper state 

 of proportions, thereby preventing their too rapid 

 decomposition. Agricultural chemistry teaches that 

 all manures from organized substances contain the 

 elements of vegetable matter, which, during putre- 

 faction, are rendered cither soluble iu water, or 

 aeriform ; and in this condition they are capable of 

 being assimilated to the vegetable organs. Plants 

 can grow only in places where they arc supplied 

 with nourishment, and the soil is equally necessary 

 to their existence, both as aflbrding them sujiport 

 to a certain extent, and enabling them to obey those 

 mechanical laws by which nature develops their 

 perfection. A. S. 



Montgomery Co., Pa., 1850. 

 — Dollar Newsjiapcr. 



ELECTRICITY. 



The earth is the great reservoir of electricity, from 

 which the atmosphere and clouds receive their por- 

 tion of the fluid. It is during the process of evap- 

 oration that it is principally excited, and silently con- 

 voyed to the regions above ; and also during the 

 condensation of this same vapor, the grand and ter- 

 rific phenomena of thunder and lightning are made 

 maniJcst to our senses. 



In order to form a correct estimate of the immense 

 power of this agent in the production of electricity, 

 we must bring to our view the quantity of water 

 evaporated from the surface of the earth, and also 

 the amount of electi-icity that may be developed from 

 a grain of this liquid. According to the calculation 

 of Carvallo, about five thousand two hundred and 

 eighty million tons of water are probably evaporated 

 from the Mediterranean Sea in a single summer's day. 

 To obtain some idea of the vast volume of water 

 thus daily taken up by the thirsty heavens, let us 

 compare it with something rendered more apparent 

 than this invisible process. President Dwight and 

 I'rofessor Darby have both estimated the quantity of 

 water precipitated over the Falls of Niagara at more 

 than eleven million tons per hour. Yet all the water 

 passing over the cataract in twenty days would 

 amount only to that ascending from the Mediter- 

 ranean in one day. More recent estimates make the 

 mean cvai)oration from the whole earth as equal to a 

 column of thirty-five inches from every inch of its 

 surface in a year, which gives ninety-four thousand 

 and fifty cubic miles as the quantity annually circu- 

 lating through the atmosphere. 'I'hus wo see the 

 magnificent scale on which the great raachhie works. 



\)y. Fanaday has shown that a single drop of 

 water contains as much electricity as an ordinary 

 flash of lightning — enough at least to destroy the 

 life of an elephant. Thus the little dcwdrop, from 

 which the poet has derived such sweet images, may 

 su"-<TCst to us ideas of a more sublime nature. 



HARROV/ING WHEAT IN SPRING. 



In none of the improvements in agriculture do I 

 find farmers so sl-iw to believe as in lutrrowing wheat 

 after the ground has settled in the spring. Some ten 

 or fifteen years ago much was said on tliiii subject in 

 the Genesee Farmer, showing the result; of exper- 

 iments, and explaining the reasons why it should 

 operate beneficially upon the crop. 



