28 



Run n ins Commentaries. 



Vol. VII. 



sufficient fools who think they have nothing 

 to learn, and therefore deal in dogmas and 

 maintain vehemently that so it is — because 

 it is so! With such wiseacres I make it a 

 point never to " argufy and 'spute a point !" 

 If they say it's a whale, I say it's very like 

 a whale. So with some men who happen to 

 have a big bull or a fat hog ; they say no 

 other breed is fit for anything, and I say, yes 

 — it's a cloud, or it's smoke — just as you 

 please. 



Next stands before us The Kerry Cow. 

 Be not cow'd, reader, at the fear of encoun- 

 tering here a dissertation on a new breed of 

 Cows. We have already the short horn Dur- 

 ham, the long horn Irish, the middling horn 

 Devon, and the no horn muley cow, to dis- 

 pute about and choose from. By the bye, 

 there is perhaps no community whose diet 

 is more lactiferous than is that of the good 

 people of Washington. The vast commons 

 belonging to the corporation and to Uncle 

 Sam, are divided into 6 or 8 ranges, pastured 

 by from 70 to 100 cows each. The same lot 

 of cows graze every day in their own pas- 

 ture. It's curious to see these herds of 100 

 cows come slowly concentrating upon the 

 city from their various ranges in the after- 

 noon — " the lowing herd winds slowly o'er 

 the lee" — with always the same leaders in 

 the van. Mem, — Those who keep cows 

 begin to learn that the best way is to look 

 out for the small, thrifty, ill-fed cow, from 

 the lower counties — or, as they class them 

 all, " St. Mary's county" — rather than buy a 

 large, fat, high-fed Lancaster or Loudon- 

 county cow, that soon falls off here, on our 

 short commons and shorter appropriations! 

 Tn buying a cow for his own use, a poor man 

 should always seek to get one that has been 

 not quite so well kept as he can keep her, 

 and then she improves instead of fulling off.' 



The next three articles do not suggest, or 

 will not admit of, comment or abbreviation. 

 They are headed Agricultural Chemistry, 

 from Leibig — Germination of Seeds — and 

 Shoeing Horses, by J. S. All these arti- 

 cles are good. J. S. might have added about 

 shoeing, in the way of advice, that every 

 owner of a horse should stand by and see his 

 horse shod the first time at least, if it be 

 only in kindness, to see that the fright which 

 is natural to a young horse under such an 

 operation, is not followed by violence and 

 harsh treatment from the smith — which u ill 

 ever after make him apprehensive, and dif- 

 ficult to be shod. 



Having no time, even if there be room, for 

 comment on the remainder of your last num- 

 ber, I remain, Mr. Editor, your friend and 

 obedient servant, S. S. I. 



Washington, July 20, 1842. 



Influence of Water upon Nutrition. 



Water influences vegetation not only by 

 the nutritive principles furnished to plants 

 by its decomposition, but by means wholly 

 physical, and which we shall first consider. 



The first effect of water upon a soil appro- 

 priated to vegetation is, to moisten and divide 

 the earth, and consequently to favour the ex- 

 tension of roots, the introduction of air, and 

 the developement of seeds. 



The second is that of conveying to the 

 seed the first aliment required by it, oxygen, 

 which that liquid always holds in solution, in 

 a greater or less degree, and which is, as I 

 have already observed, the principal agent 

 in crermination. 



The third office performed by water is that 

 of dividing the manure applied to the soil, of 

 dissolving some portions of it, and conveying 

 them to the organs of the plants in a state 

 fitted for their digestion and nourishment. 



All kinds of water are not equally suitable 

 for this purpose; rain water, which is the 

 purest, and contains the most air of any, is 

 also the best for supplying the wants of 

 plants. Generally speaking, those streams 

 which have their rise in granite or primitive 

 calcareous mountains, are favourable to vege- 

 tation ; but it is necessary that they should 

 flow through soils free from metallic salts or 

 earths; and that they should have traversed, 

 before being used in agriculture, a sufficient 

 space to have become impregnated with a 

 due portion of atmospheric air. 



Streams may not be pure, and yet may be 

 very serviceable for watering the soil, espe- 

 cially if they carry, or hold in solution, cer- 

 tain salts favourable to plants, and some 

 vegetable or animal substances. 



When plants have yielded to water all 

 their soluble portions, the subsequent decom- 

 position of their insoluble fibres furnishes 

 new soluble products, which serve for nou- 

 rishment; water imbibes these as fast as "% 

 they are formed, and transmits them to the 

 plants with which it comes in contact. In 

 this manner dead plants supply food to the 

 living, and all the elements composing the 

 first are found differently combined in the 

 last. — Chap taF s Chemistry. 



There is an old saying, that "if children 

 are fed upon roast beef, they will require a 

 good deal of physic." The English of this 

 is, that simple diet, and plenty of exercise in 

 the open air, will be far more likely to lay a 

 foundation for sound health, and a good con- 

 stitution, than high living and over-much 

 carefulness. And what, of outward bless- 

 ings, is more desirable, or more intrinsically 

 valuable, than "a sound mind, in a sound 

 body ?" 



