No. 7. 



Premiums on Crops. — Attraction and Repulsion. 



207 



EXPENSE OF CULTURE. 



Potatoes. — Every farmer knows the expense of this crop. 



Parsneps, J acre. Manure, §75 00; ploughing, 

 harrowing, &c., 8 00; thinning, weeding, ga- 

 thering and topping, 30 00 $113 00 



For I acre. 



If the 4d0 bushels be worth SOcts. per bu. $240, 



The profit would be $127 00 



Carrots, } acre. Manure, $100; ploughing and 

 harrowing, 10; thinning, weeding, gathering 



topping, 45 days, 45 $155 00 



If the COO bushels be worth 50 cts. per bu. 300 00 



The profit on } acre would be $145 00 



Beets, i~ acre. Manure, $150; ploughing. Sec, 

 15: thinning, weeding, and gathering, 39 



days, 39 $e04 00 



If 830 bushels be worth 2.5 cts. per bu. 207 50 



The profit on the l\ acre would be $3 SO 



But this Clop is no criterion — 1500 bushels 

 would be a fair good crop. 

 Turnips, 6 to 7 acres. The ploughing, harrow- 

 ing, and manure were mainly for the grass 

 crop to come. But suppose we charge turnips, 

 $150; gathering and topping 75 days. $225 00 

 Then if 3000 bushels be worth 20 cts. 

 per bushel 600 00 



Profit on these 6 to 7 acres $375 00 



Assuming then that on the 1500 bushels of po- 

 tatoes would be 25 cts. profit per bushel .... $375 00 



Profit on parsneps 127 00 



" carrots 145 00 



" beets 3 50 



" turnips 375 00 



$1,025 50 



It is but fair to remark, that the working 

 of these crops was heavy and sometimes vex- 

 atious — few farmers could accomplish it, for 

 it is mainly performed about the time of hay 

 harvest — say thinning and weeding of the 

 roots. You took a fair estimate of it on your 

 visits, and I believe you feared I never would 

 accomplish all ; I did it however in good sea- 

 son, and I am sure you will be willing to 

 allow, from your former knowledge of my 

 practice, that it was well done. In addition 

 to this, I cut and housed some fifty acres of 

 hay and three acres of rye. This, with the 

 care of some 50 head of cattle, and as many 

 hogs, you will say was business enough for 

 the time being. But this is not all. I ma- 

 nured and sowed some 20 to 25 acres of rye 

 in the midst of a wood in Cheltenham town- 

 ship, Montgomery county, and sowed the five 

 acre field where the potatoes grew with 

 wheat. That is, putting in thirty acres of 

 grain, and gathering all the roots which are 

 herein described, and which you have seen 

 growing. My next ambition in farming will 

 be, if Providence spares us, to show you the 

 field of rye in the woods next summer — to 

 point out what was its condition in 1838, and 

 the practice that obtained in bringing it to 

 the perfection I hope it will present to your 

 experienced eyes, and the expense incident 

 thereto. Very respectfully and sincerely. 

 Your friend, James Gowen. 



Messrs. Isaac W. Roberts, ) „ 



Aaron Clements, \ ^'""' 

 Mount Airy, Dec. 1 1, 1841. 

 [Read before the Society, and ordered to be printed.] 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Attraction and Repulsion. 



Some years ago a friend put into my hand 

 a very small book on a most interesting sub- 

 ject; I was so struck with much of the the- 

 ory contained therein, that I was induced to 

 take extracts from portions of it, and feel a 

 desire to hand them to you for insertion in the 

 pages of the Cabinet. The title of the book, 

 of which I have never since heard or seen a 

 copy, is as follows — " A new Philosophical 

 Theory, to prove that Gravitation and Calo- 

 ric are the sole Causes of every Phenomena 

 in Nature \ with a Practical Application to 

 Vegetation and Agriculture. By John Sel- 

 lon." 



The present article is confined to the in- 

 troduction of the Theory — its application to 

 the " process of vegetation" may follow in a 

 subsequent number of your interesting work. 



V. 



" Introduction. — It has been long since de- 

 monstrated, that all the particles of matter 

 composing the universe are constantly and 

 mutually drawn each to the other by a power 

 called attraction, or gravitation. Now, if 

 there were nothing to oppose this power, the 

 universe itself would be drawn into one dead, 

 inanimate, immovable mass. It is necessary 

 then to existence that there should be some 

 antagonist to this power; and it has also 

 been discovered that attraction is uniformly 

 opposed by an agent, the nature of which has 

 been illustrated by numerous experiments, 

 and which has been termed caloric. All 

 things then are held together by attraction, 

 and caloric is the sole antagonist which op- 

 poses this power. In all the numerous expe- 

 riments which have been made on this sub- 

 ject, there has never yet been discovered one 

 exception to this general rule. 



From this fact follows the self-evident con- 

 clusion, " that the powers which thus keep in 

 existence all creation, must be the primary 

 agents employed by the Supreme Being in 

 every operation of nature; that they must be 

 the principle of vegetable and animal life, 

 and by means of caloric counteracting gra- 

 vitation, every process in nature is carried 

 on :" so that the most stupendous, the most 

 minute, the most complicated as well as the 

 most simple operations of nature are effected 

 by these two agents, and these only. 



Gravitation, — As gravitation influences all 

 the particles of matter equally, it must be ex- 

 erted in all bodies with greater or less power, 

 proportioned to their specific quantity of mat- 

 ter. And it follows, that it operates with in- 

 creasing force as the particles approach each 

 other, the power increasing in the ratio of 

 the squares of the distance ; thus, if a body 

 falls from the distance of two feet from the 



