NO. 4. 



THE FARMEKS' fABIXET. 



61 



Mix a little fine salt with tar, just enonjrh 

 to make the tar an^reeable to the animal, 

 and place the mixture under cover, where 

 the sheep can have access to it, and they 

 will keep their noses sufficiently smeared tc 

 prevent the insect from attacking them. — 3'. 

 I^, Farmer, 



FOR THE farmers' CABINET. 



Root Culture. 



No crop is so important to the farmer as 

 roots, and yet they are seldom appreciated, 

 either as a means of enrichinjr the soil or ot 

 supportinir stock. The produce of an acre of 

 roots with the hay that may be cut off the 

 ground previous to sowing the crop, will feed 

 six or seven cows during the winter season, 

 which with a reasonable allowance of Utter, 

 will make thirty cart loads of manure. To 

 try this experiment, we sowed an acre of 

 ruta baga turneps, last season in the follow- 

 ing manner. The ground had been laid in 

 clover the previous season, which we mow- 

 ed the 20th of June, and yielded two tons of 

 the first quality liay. We then ploughed it 

 down immediately and spread upon it sixty 

 bushels of lime. In a few days we harrow- 

 ed it and spread over it 30 loads of compost, 

 which had been collected through the win- 

 ter, and turned twice ; the consistency and 

 cost of which were as follows : 

 2 loads of bone dust, say 50 bush- 

 els at 30cts. $15 00 

 2 do. ground oyster shells, 50 bush- 

 els at 10 cts. 5 00 

 2 do. leached ashes, 50 bush. 8 cts. 4 00 

 2 do. glue makers' offal, 4 00 

 4 do. well rotted stable manure, at 



$1 50, 6 00 



18 do. shovellings from under fences 



and old houses, 75 cts. 13 00 



60 do. lime at 18 cts. 10 80 



30 bushels. 



Total for manure 



To ploughing the ground, 



do. harrowing several times, 



do. sowing the seed, 



do. half bushel seed, 



do. 20 days work clearing, thinning 



and hoeing three times through 



the summer, 62^ cts. 

 do. 6 days gathering, drawing and 



covering, 

 do. interest on the value of an acre 



of land, 



12 50 



4 50 



3 00 



Cost of the crop, $83 55 



There were over 850 bushels of turneps at 

 5G lbs. to the bushel, and 4 tons of tops. — 

 Several cartloads of the turneps were sold in 

 the market at 16 cts. per bushel, but the 

 principal part of these was consumed upon 

 the farm in feeding milch cows. The hay 

 was sold for $20 per ton, which, after allow- 

 ing $6 for expenses of mowing, making and 



takino- to market, leaves for 2 ton, $34 00 

 13y 850 bushels of turneps, at 16 c. 136 00 

 do. 1 tons tops at $2 per ton, 8 00 



Total value for the produce, $178 00 



From which deduct the expense, 83 55 



I-eavea the nett proceeds, $94 45 



'I'lis nround last spring was in a fine con- 

 dition, one half of which we put in with the 

 Mangii! Wurtzel beet, the other part with 

 the parsncp. The crop was put in with very 

 little manure — the beets look in avery flour- 

 ishing condition, but the parsneps are poor, 

 they did not come up in time to make a crop. 



We have this season about 4 acres of the 

 ruta baga, but ])lanted in a dififerent manner; 

 the particulars of which I will reserve for 

 future. A Communication. 



Wilmington, Del., 8 mo. 20, 1836. 



?2iortf culture autJ Jjotan]). 



See various trees their various fruits produce, 



Some fur (If linlitlul taste, .iml some for use ; 

 Sfc, sproMtitiL' plants enrich the [:iain and wood, 

 Fur |ilivsic siiirie. and smiie dis,fin d foi I'ood ; 

 Sf-e, lia;;raiit tliiWMiB, with dillerent colcrs dy'd 

 Oil smiling uieads untold tlieir gaudy prid(.'. 



Blavknort. 



VcgJable Vitality. 



No. I. 



The vitality o^ vegetable, as well as animal 

 substances, has been admitted in every age 

 and country. But as to its source or nature, 

 a great variety of notions have been entertain- 

 ed at different periods. Some writers have 

 supposed that fire, and this principle, are de- 

 rived from the same source, and are of a simi- 

 lar nature. Others have supposed it to be de- 

 rived from the sun. The principle of vitality- 

 has also been supposed to be a humid va- 

 por, and that humidity was the active prin- 

 ciple of all things. Other authors have ima- 

 gined this vital energy to be the same as the 

 soul, and derived from the air. Several mod- 

 ern physiologists have considered the nervous 

 fluid as the source whence it is derived ; and 

 some have identified it with the electric and 

 galvanic fluids ; while others have concluded 

 that it is nothing more than the mere organi- 

 zation or modification of matter. 



When the seed of a plant is placed in a fa- 

 vorable soil, and supplied with a proper 

 quantity of heat, light and water, it will 

 gradually unfold itself, until it becomes simi- 

 lar to the parent plant. But this increase 

 and unfolding of its vegetable character, are 

 results completely independent of any direct 

 parental succor; nor can we comprehend 

 the nature of these changes by referring them 

 to the oreneral properties of unorganized mat- 

 ter. We must, therefore, seek for a solution 

 among other principles than those which be- 



