AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NOllTH MARKET STREET, (Aqricoitohai. Warehou8E.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL. XXI.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, l-'EBRUARY 22, 1843. 



CNO. 34. 



N. E. FARMER, 



TRANSACTIONS Off THE HARTFORD CO. 

 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY— 1842. 



We tliink that all those Societies do wisely, who 

 embody their annual doings in a distinct pamphlet. 

 The beneficial influences of their labors are by 

 this course vastly increased. It has been matter 

 of surprise to us that some of the largest County 

 Societies of this Commonwealth, have never taken 

 measures to put their addresses and reports into 

 such form that all members and others who may 

 wish to do it, can conveniently recur to them at 

 any moment. The funds appropriated by the Es- 

 sex county Society for their publication, are, we 

 judge, as profitably e.\-pended as any portion of 

 their outlay. Others would find great advantages 

 and e.i£tend their usefulness by taking the same 

 course. 



The pamphlet from Hartford makes a book of 

 90 pages. The first 20 are occupied by an address 

 from S. H. Huntington. This sets forth clearly 

 and well the importance of cultivating well, and 

 improving highly, whatever land we undertake to 

 ■work upon : also the importance of a better educa- 

 tion among farmers. 



The next 20 pages give us the report upon farms. 

 The premises of nine farmers were visited by the 

 committee. The result of their observations and 

 inquiries are given in an unusual form. An esti- 

 mate of " the cn;ji(ai which each competitor em- 

 ploys, as well as his crops and expenses," is fur- 

 nished. Land, barns, slock and tools — but not 

 houses — conjpose the capital. The amount of 

 produce generally, is given, and the worth of the 

 articles is not rated extravagantly high : corn is 

 put at 70 cts. ; oats 33 ; potatoes 25 ; hay at .$7 

 per ton ; pasturing Sfi per head, &c. But in the 

 estimate of expenses, there seem to us some impor- 

 tant omissions. We find no charges for work done 

 by teams of any kind ; no charges for manure ; 

 none for taxes ; none for blacksmiths' bills ; none 

 for wear and tear of tools, &c. ; but the cost, gen- 

 erally, is made to consist almost entirely of the 

 wages and board of men for about seven months 

 of the year. The course taken by this committee 

 may be a very good one by which to get at the 

 comparative merits of the several farms and far- 

 mers ; but as it leads to the conclusion that the 

 least Buccess'ul among the nine competitors obtain- 

 ed 10 per cent, profit on his capital, and the most 

 successful, 13 3-4 per cent., they will cause many 

 who know but little about farming, to regard the 

 business as more profitable than it is in fact. We 

 have little faith that when the farming accounts are 

 lairiy adjusted, the following gentlemen, on the 

 cip>tal set against their names, will find that they 

 liavc made the net profit annexed : 



Capital, Net proft. 

 Ezra Dooliltle, Hartland, $6,290 $752 



VVm. G. Rowe, Farmington, 6,470 797 



Samuel Doming, do. 10,175 1267 



Simeon Hart, do. 3,012 414 



Henry Thompson, do. 5,365 533 



ZephaniahAlden, West Hartford, 9,294 1370 



Wm. W. Tudor, East Windsor, 3,820 457 



Samuel llartlett, do. 3,700 423 



Geo. G. Peck, Bloomfield, 2,843 300 



In the preceding estimates, from I 1-2 to 3 1-2 

 per cent, is allowed for permanent improvements. 

 This allowance may be entirely proper ; but we 

 arc unable to imagine how it could be cfiected 

 without wear of tools and cost for keeping teams. 

 We presume the committee have shown us fairly 

 the comparative profits on the farms, and have done 

 their business well ; but if those nine farmers in 

 Hartford county have made out of their farming in 

 1842, the net profits allowed, and if this is a spe- 

 cimen of the results of an average of years, we 

 must move on there and go to school. 



The next report is on " Reclaimed Land." 

 Four diflerent pieces were examined. There is 

 nothing peculiar in processes and results develop- 

 ed in the report, excepting that one man, Mr Dem- 

 ing, of Farmington, merely cut off bogs, or has- 

 socks, sowed herds grass, and clover, and manured 

 a part of the piece with barn-yard manure, which 

 produced a large burden, of good quality, while 

 that not manured, produced little, and that of little 

 value. The next season he manured the remain- 

 der with like success. We predict, that, if the 

 land be wet, the wild meadow grasses will soon 

 supplant the better kinds, if he does not ditch. 



The reports on cattle are little more than lists 

 of the names of successful competitors for premi- 

 ums. 



The sheep and swine seem to have been nume- 

 rously represented at the annual Fair of the Soci- 

 ety ; and the latter gave a silent rebuke to the pigs 

 of Worcester, and members of Congress, by re- 

 fraining from duels. 



Ten teams were entered for plowing ; the 

 ground, " a very deep soil and strong sward ;" quan- 

 tity, 30 rods ; the teams generally, two yoke of ox- 

 en ; time taken varied from 24 to 40 minutes; 

 depth, 7 inches. From the report on plows, we 

 infer that the Hartford farmers take very wide fur- 

 rows. 



In the report on agricultural products, we find 

 the following: "The committee would particular- 

 ly notice the new variety of potato, called the 

 ' White Stone,' exhibited by Geo. Wells, of Weth- 

 ersfield: it was decidedly the favorite potato." 



The report on Fruits represents the quantity as 

 abundant and the quality excellent. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 



REPORT OF DR. PLAYFAIR'S LECTURE 

 Before the Royal .Agricultural Society of England. 



Dr. Playfair stated that the object of the lecture 

 was, to point out in what manner the principles of 

 physiology, (especially those which had been late- 

 ly developed by the chemical researches of Liebig,) 

 might be applied to the grazing and fattening of 

 cattle. In the first place, he should endeavor to 

 give a clear conception of wliat the principles of 

 physiology were, lh.it were involved in the feeding 

 and growth of animals. 



Vegetables, in their growth, derive all their food 

 from the mineral kingdom — principally from the 

 air — which had been called a gaseous mineral ; 

 whilst animals derived their principal nutriment di- 

 rectly from the vegetable kingdom. Vegetables 

 effected many chemical changes in the food they 

 took up — animals, few. 



Gluten and albumen are the nutrient principles 

 of plants, and in chemical composition they are 

 identical with the albumen of the white of an egg, 

 of the muscle of an ox, or the blood of a sheep. 

 By identity was not meant similarity, but positive- 

 ly the same thing. The albumen of blood, of mus- 

 cle, and of an egg, difiTered in physical but not in 

 chemical characters. The composition of these 

 substances, as analysed by various chemists from 

 the animal and vegetable kingdom, as seen in tho 

 following table, prove their identity : 



Gtiticn. 

 Boussin 

 gnult. 

 Carbon, 54.2 

 Hydrogen, 7.5 

 Nitrogen, 1.4 

 Oxygen, 24.4 



Casein. Jilbu 

 Soberer. Joi 



54.1 

 7.1 

 13.6 

 2:!.2 



5.5 



7. 



15.7 

 22.1 



Oxblood Oz-fiesh. 

 Playfair Playfair. 



54.19 

 7.5 

 15.72 



22.59 



1571 



21 J>6 



Dressing for Vineyards On the manuring of 



the soil in vineyards, I cannot omit the opportuni- 

 ty of again calling the public attention to the fact, 

 that nothing more is necessary for the manure of 

 tho vineyard, than the branches which are cut from 

 the vines themselves. My vineyard has been ma- 

 nured in this way for eight years, without any other 

 kind of manure, and yet more beautiful and richly 

 laden vines could scarcely be pointed out. I for- 

 merly followed the method usually practiced in 

 this district, and was obliged in consequence to 

 purchase manure to a large amount. This is now 

 entirely saved. — Liehig. 



These analyses do not differ more than the anal- 

 ysis of the same substance. Plants, in fact, con- 

 tain within them the flesh of animals, and all the 

 animal organization does in nutrition is, to put this 

 flesh in the right place. But animals take up with 

 their food other constituents of plants which con. 

 tain no nitrogen; such are starch, sugar, gum, die. 

 These are not nutritive principles ; they do not as- 

 sist in making the flesh of animals ; and when ani- 

 mals are fed on these alone, they die. But ani- 

 mals possess a certain degree of heat, and their 

 bodies have generally a temperature above that of 

 the atmosphere — about 100 degrees of Fahrenheit's 

 thermometer. 



Whence then comes this heat .' From the burn- 

 ing of the sugar, starch, gum, &c. The air that 

 animals expire is carbonic acid, the very gas that 

 is produced by the burning of wood or charcoal in 

 a fire. Charcoal is carbon, and animals take in 

 daily a large quantity of carbon in their food. It 

 is the burning or combustion of this substance in 

 the body, that produces animal heat. In hot coun- 

 tries, animals on this account, take less carbon. 

 The food of the East Indian contains only about 

 12 per cent, of carbon, whilst that of the Green- 

 lander contains 70 per cent. The depraved taste 

 of the Grecnlander, who drinks train-oil and eata 



