182 



GraftSy 6cc. 



Vol. II. 



lioration of the condition of man or beast, 

 should be publicly known, I send you the fol- 

 lowing : 



Directions. — Bake a cake of chopped rye 

 about an inch and a half thick, and of length 

 and breadth sufficient to cover the ring bone. 

 Moisten the ring bone completely with aqua- 

 fortis of the best quality, (this may be done 

 with a feather,) and then rub it over with 

 hog's lard. Take the cake as hot as nan be 

 handled, split it in two, and pour a little of 

 the aqua-fortis on the inner side of one of the 

 halves, and tie it on while hot, with the inner 

 side on the lump. Let this remain on for 

 about twelve hours, and when taken off rub 

 it over again with hog's lard. It will be ne- 

 cessary while the application is on the foot, 

 that the horse be tied up to prevent him 

 from biting it off. The first application to 

 be made on the first day of last quarter of the 

 moon, and repeated every other day till three 

 applications are made. This seldom fails of 

 effecting a cure, but if necessary repeat it 

 again at the succeeding last quarter. 



A German. 

 Chester County, January 9th, 1838. 



For the Farniors' Cabinet. 

 Remarks on the influence of age upon 

 Grafts and Cuttings and other Vej^tta- 

 hies which are cultivated otherwise 

 than from seed>»Dcpredators^ &,c» 



The correct system of advancing useful 

 knowledge, not only in relation to agriculture, 

 but upon all subjects, is to proceed from the 

 known to the unknown, and as the Cabinet 

 is intended to be a vehicle to convey infor- 

 mation from one section of country to ano- 

 ther, which will either directly or indirectly 

 augment the number of established fads and 

 diminish the number oi' conjectures upon the 

 subject of agriculture in all of its departments, 

 a subject wherein the whole human race is 

 interested; I shall make a few remarks re- 

 lating to the natural decay of vegetables, and 

 upon the subject of the rotation of crops, show- 

 ing the supposed influence which one crop 

 has upon the growth of the immediate suc- 

 ceeding one, and also the influence upon the 

 depredators which may have come into exist- 

 ence during that period. 



If the theory here advanced be incorrect, 

 no one will be more pleased than myself to 

 see the error pointed out ; and if correct, I 

 should be equally pleased to see the subject 

 extended and illustrated by a statement of 

 experiments from persons better qualified for 

 the task. All are interested in each advanc- 

 ing step toward making agriculture a com- 

 plete science. 



1st. Vegetables are limited in the duration 

 of life, and a graft or slip partakes of the na- 

 tural decay arising from age in the parent 

 tree ; the same remark as regards deprecia- 



tion will apply to other vegetables which are 

 cultivated both from the seed and otherwise, 

 such as the potato, onion, &,c. ; therefore, 

 grafts, slips, (or cuttings,) potatoes, onions, 

 and other vegetables which are thus culti- 

 vated, should be extended from the best kinds 

 which have passed through but a small por- 

 tion of the supposed natural duration of life. 

 2nd. A leading object in all agricultu- 

 ral and horticultural societies should be to 

 cultivate annually from seed of the best qual- 

 ity (the first matured large seeds) all the va- 

 riety of vegetable plants beneficial to man, 

 and in a quantity that will reasonably ensure 

 a new kind sufficiently valuable to be extend- 

 ed afterwards at pleasure. A memorandum 

 should be faithfully kept showing the length 

 of time which may have passed since each 

 variety had been continued from the seed. 

 In this way no one would be deceived, and 

 the improved kind would probably command 

 a price ten times greater than the expense of 

 producing it. 



3rd. The roots of a crop while undergoing 

 decomposition in the earth furnishes food for 

 the succeeding crop, and a repetition of the 

 same kind of crop for several succeeding 

 years serves to increase certain kinds of de- 

 predators, such as flies, worms, &c., but when 

 vegetables of a different ckaracter, alternate 

 with each other, the depredators themselves 

 die for want of support, and furnish food for 

 vegetables; therefore plantsof a similar char- 

 acter should never follow each other without 

 a sufficient interval to cause the death of such 

 depredators as feed upon them, unless these 

 depredators can be destroyed by other means. 

 The other means which are naturally pre- 

 sented to the mind, when investigating the 

 subject, are temperature and such substances 

 as will destroy animal life without injury to 

 vegetables; thus we have a variety of means 

 to increase the fertility of soil by such vege- 

 tables as draw nourishment from the atmos- 

 phere, the roots of which afterwards become 

 decomposed in the earth, and furnish food 

 for the succeeding crop, such as the red clo- 

 ver, beets, turneps, parsneps, carrots, and other 

 plants with tap-roots and broad leaves ; also, 

 the onion, potato, and artichoke, the cabbage, 

 pumpkin, melion, squash, bean, pea, &c., 

 may also, to a considerable extent, combine 

 these properties when the fruit, leaf, stalk, 

 and root are all returned to the earth decom- 

 posed. 



We also have a variety of means to de- 

 stroy depredators and convert them into food 

 for vegetables, such as the frost of winter 

 upon the embryo of the cut- worm, as exem- 

 plified by the benefit arising from autumn 

 and winter ploughing. The destruction of 

 the peach-worm by warm water and a varie- 

 ty of other cases. 



