No, 8. Philosophy of Farming. — Value of Old Rope, SfC. 



261 



requested customers to measure tlieir own 

 milk, and return the vessels; and the ass 

 went off witli his load. He returned in due 

 time with empty canisters, and thus he con- 

 tmned to go to and fro for several days. In 

 Madrid, the house-bells usually pull down- 

 wards, and the ass stopped before the door of 

 every customer, and, after waiting a rea- 

 sonable time, pulled the bell with his mouth. 

 — Blackwood's Magazine. 



Philosophy of Farming. 



Here is the secret of good farming. You 

 cannot take from the land more than you re- 

 store to it, in some shape or other, without 

 ruining it, and so destroying your capital. 

 Different soils may require different modes 

 of treatment and cropping, but in every va- 

 riety of soil these are the golden rules to at- 

 tend to: Drain until you l^nd that the water 

 that falls from heaven does not stagnate in 

 the soil but runs through it and off it freely. 

 Turn up and till the land until your foot 

 sinks into a loose, powdery loam, that the 

 sun and air readily pass through. Let no 

 weed occupy the place where a useful plant 

 could possibly grow. Collect every particle 

 of manure that you can, whether liquid or 

 solid. Let nothing on the farm go to waste. 

 Put in your crops in that course which ex- 

 perience has shown to lead to success in 

 their growth, and to an enrichment and not 

 impoverishment of the land. Give every 

 plant room to spread its roots in the soil, and 

 its leaves in the air. — Agriculturist, 



Value of old Rope. — Among the nu- 

 merous worn out, and ot\en considered worth- 

 less, materials, which the ingenuity of man 

 has discovered means of remanufacturing, and 

 rendering of equal value to its original sub- 

 stances, are old tarred ropes which have long 

 been in use at coal pits. Our readers will 

 be surprised when we inform them that out 

 of this dirty and apparently unbleachable 

 substance, is produced a tissue paper of the 

 most beautiful fabric, evenness of surface, 

 and delicacy of colour, a ream of which, with 

 wrapper and string, weighs 2 1-2 lbs. It is 

 principally used in the potteries for trans- 

 ferring the various patterns to the earthen- 

 ware, and is found superior to any other 

 substance yet known for that purpose ; it is 

 so tenacious that a sheet of it, if twisted by 

 hand in the form of a rope, will support 

 upwards of one cwt. Truly we live in an 

 acre of invention. — Farmer and Mechanic. 



Remarkable Instance op the Vegeta- 

 tion OF Maize, or Indian Corn. — In the 



year 1754, a member of the Bath Society, 

 England, obtained while in Strasburg, an ear 

 of Indian corn, which was preserved with 

 the husks on until the 28th of February, 

 1788, when six grains were taken from it, 

 soaked in water fifty-four hours, and planted 

 in earthen pots, in a hothouse. In about 

 twenty days they began to appear, ami four 

 out of the six grew to about the height of 

 three feet, and two produced ears completely 

 formed. The pots were taken out of the 

 hothouse the latter part of June,and the ears 

 were gathered the beginning of October. 

 Six other grains taken from the same ear 

 were planted in a garden without soaking, 

 but showed no signs of vegetation. — Ex- 

 change paper. 



Pickled Eggs. — In some parts of Eng- 

 land, pickled eggs constitute a very promi- 

 nent feature in the farm-house store-rooms. 

 The mode in which the good dames pickle 

 them is simply thus: at the season of the 

 year when their stock of eggs is plentiful, 

 they boil some few dozens in a capacious 

 saucepan until they become quite hard. 

 They then, after removing the shells, lay 

 them carefully in large mouthed jars, and 

 pour over them scalding vinegar, well sea- 

 soned with whole peppers, allspice, a few 

 pieces of ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. 

 When cold, they a re bunged down close, and 

 in a month are fit for use. Where eggs are 

 plentiful the above pickle is by no means 

 expensive, and is a relishing accoropanimeni 

 to cold meat. 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



Philadelphia, Third Month, 1648, 



The Editor of the Farmer's Cabinet will relinquish 

 its publication at the close of the current volume in 

 the seventh month next. He wiM dispose of the con- 

 cern upon terms that may be advantageous to anyone 

 who may incline to continue it. 



An advertisement in the present number of the Cab- 

 inet, win show that John Wilkinson, of the Duchess 

 Agricultural Institute of Duchess county, New York 

 is about to remove his eslablishtnent to Mount Airy, 

 the well known residence of James Gowen, one of our 

 most enterprising and successful farmers. The high 

 character of those to whom the advertiser refers 

 teaves no room to doubt &i8 thorough qualification for 

 the responsible duties he is about to assume in our vi. 

 cinity. We presume further, that ou? friend J. 6- 



