240 



Small Stones on Arable Land. — Punctuality. Vol. VII. 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Small Stones on Arable Land. 



Messrs. Editors, — Your article on this 

 subject, in the last number of the Cabinet, 

 brings to my remembrance a fact, which 

 completely illustrates the doctrine there 

 taught, that small stones are no injury to 

 the crop on arable land ; nay, it goes farther, 

 lor it proves that on some soils they are ab- 

 solutely necessary to its well being. The 

 following account may be relied upon, as the 

 circumstance occurred within a mile of the 

 place of my then residence, and was known 

 to all the country round. 



A person by the name of Sweet, proprie- 

 tor of the beautiful farm of Alvington, in 

 the Isle of Wight, England, which lies at 

 the foot of the first chalk formation on the 

 north side of that island, was a gentleman, 

 in the best sense of the word, and cultivated 

 his lands for the pure love of the occupa- 

 tion. He was easy in his circumstances; 

 could aftbrd to make experiments, and was 

 pleased when an opportunity offered for so 

 doing. It one day struck him, that his land, 

 which was thickly covered over with small 

 flints, would be much more productive if 

 they were entirely removed ; he therefore 

 set to work, and soon collected in the corner 

 of a large field, a mountain of them, and 

 sowed the land with some kind of grain, 

 which, however, totally failed in conse- 

 quence; for the rains caused the fine chalky 

 soil to run together like soft batter, which, 

 when dry, formed a covering almost as im- 

 pervious as a sheet of tin ; so that the rain 

 could no longer penetrate the earth, but was 

 carried off* into the ditches and water-courses 

 by the hardened surface; and thus the crop 

 was literally starved to death. But, nothing 

 daunted, and careless of what his neighbours 

 would say, he set to work and carried back 

 the stones, carefully spreading them again 

 over the surface, and the land became fertile 

 as ever. This gentleman, coming afterwards 

 into possession of great wealth, loft the farm 

 and went to reside on a large estate in a 

 distant county, but soon found that active 

 occupation — the charm of life — had fled, 

 and with it its pleasures; and the firm of 

 Alvington came into possession of a family 

 by tin' name of < Iheverton, an honour to the 

 profession; who held it many years, and de- 

 rived much benefit from the above experi- 

 ment. I have there often seen the most 

 productive crops of wheat, barley, oats, and 

 even turnips, growing on a bed of flints, 

 with not a particle of earth to be perceived 

 1m) wci'ii them; and which never suffered 

 from drought in the hottest season. 



And it is the easiest thing in the world, 



to account for the fact above stated ; it is 

 but to go into a field and turn up a stone, 

 when a degree of moisture will be found 

 underneath it, in the hottest day; nay more, 

 place your hand on the shady side of a stone 

 while the sun is shining against its opposite 

 face, especially in the after part of the day, 

 and a coolness, and consequent moisture, 

 arising from condensation, will be perceived; 

 all which must be peculiarly friendly to ve- 

 getation, on a soil which would otherwise 

 be barren. Stones, therefore, are evidently 

 intended to screen such soils, as without 

 them would be sterile.* And here I must 

 be permitted to remark, there is a passage 

 in the Litany of the Church, which beauti- 

 fully shows forth the Divine appointment, 

 here and everywhere manifest: it is con- 

 tained in the simple ejaculation, "O God! 

 who hast made nothing in vain !" and embo- 

 dies in itself a whole volume of divinity — 

 sermons ever open to our perusal. With 

 this devotional feeling, accompanied by that 

 very trite but expressive maxim of general 

 application — nothing is impossible to a wilt 

 ling mind — a man may go through the world 

 with half the danger, trouble and difficulty, 

 which he would otherwise have to encoun- 

 ter, and which befall the generality of mor- 

 tals; and come out of it with a more thank- 

 ful, "humble and confiding" mind and temper 

 — a better man, and a much better farmer ! 



VlR. 



Philadelphia, Feb. 24th, 1843. 



Punctuality. — Method is the very hinge 

 of business — and there is no method without 

 punctuality. Punctuality produces calmness 

 of mind: a disorderly man is always in a 

 hurry; he has no time to speak to you, be- 

 cause he is going elsewhere, and when he 

 gets there, he is too late for his business; or 

 he must hurry away to another before he 

 can finish it. Punctuality gives weight to 

 character. "Such a man has made an ap- 

 pointment; and I know he will keep it." 

 This conviction generates punctuality in 

 you ; for, like other virtues, it propagates j 

 itself! Appointments become debts. I owe 

 you punctuality, if I have made an appoint- 

 ment with you; and have no right to throw 

 away your time, if I do my own. Punctu- 

 ality in 'paying the printer, is a shining vir- 

 tue, and is one of the requisites to the char- 

 acter of a good member of the community. 

 — Selected. 



* How constantly do we perceive, that a living 

 spring takes its rise from beneath a rock, or even a 



large BlOhe, Which may often be found to lie loosely 



mi the surface, or ;u best, be of accidental location — 

 acting then, it is presumed, on the principle of capil- 

 lary attraction. 



