No. 10. 



Colman's European Agricultural Re-ports. 



319 



as available for the growth of plants, as if 

 arising from the decomposition of stable 

 manure. 



To conclude, my view is, that the air as 

 well as the soil contains the elements of 

 which vegetable matters are in part formed; 

 that the living plant appropriates those ele- 

 ments to the purposes of its own growth and 

 nourishment, by its roots from the soil, and 

 by its leaves from the air — that the air al- 

 ways contains a sufficiency of carbonic acid 

 gas ; but that the soil does not, and that we 

 spread lime upon the soil to absorb the car- 

 bonic acid gas from the air, to add it to the 

 soil. A. W. Corson. 



Whitemarsh, Pa. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Colman's European Agricultural Re- 

 ports. 



Messrs. Editors, — Mr. Colman's tour to 

 Europe, will prove of vast importance to the 

 Agricultural community of both countries; 

 while for himself, there is no profession or 

 occupation so well calculated to draw forth 

 those energies, which all who know him, 

 admit that he is possessed of in an eminent 

 degree. With a head to discriminate, a 

 hand to execute, and a tongue to express 

 the feelings of a heart devotedly attached 

 to the noble profession of agriculture, it is 

 certain that his periodical reports will be 

 replete with the most interesting matter 

 that can occupy the attention of practical 

 men in both countries — the wish of English 

 farmers to know what an enlightened Ame 

 rican agriculturist will think and say of 

 them, being quite as natural as for the 

 American farmer to be desirous of knowing 

 how the English agriculturists can progress 

 at all, under a load of taxation that would 

 grind any other class of men to powder. 



On Mr. Colman's arrival in England, he 

 will be struck with surprise at the great su- 

 periority of the agricultural implements and 

 tools of this country, in variety, diversity of 

 shape and quality, in general — the plougi 

 in all its different forms and elegance of 

 finish, in particular; indeed an Englishman 

 scarcely knows how to express the difier- 

 ence which he observes in their favour in 

 this country; and it is cause of gratulation, 

 to find it is Mr. Column's intention to take 

 with him some of our ploughs for prescnta 

 tion to the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, and others of note in that country 

 and France. This will, indeed, be to open 

 a door of communication, the good results 

 arising from which are scarcely to be appre- 

 ciate:!, especially as it is known that he is 

 as competent to guide a plough as to lecture 



upon it, or to describe its parts and qualities. 

 At the same time, he will be as much struck 

 with the superiority of the husbandry* of 

 England over that of this country, and which 

 he will no doubt be candid enough to ac- 

 knowledge, particularly as it is his intention 

 to visit that remarkable spot, the island of 

 Jersey, where he will witness that virtue 

 portrayed in living characters; for assuredly, 

 there is no part of the world where, in the 

 circumference of 40 miles only, with a pop- 

 ulation of great density, will he find more 

 good management, careful prudence, or rigid 

 economy — good husbandry ; indeed, there is 

 no part of the globe that offers to the agri- 

 culturist so fair a field for contemplation, as 

 the island of Jersey. In the first place, its 

 beautiful location, soil and climate ; its al- 

 most republican form of government, which 

 to an American, must have charms indeed ; 

 its peculiar code of laws, dating as far back 

 as the time of Rollo, so lenient in criminal 

 cases, as to have given rise to the observa- 

 tion, " a man must have strong friends to 

 get hanged in Jersey," &c. And then, its 

 elegant and diminutive breed of Dairy cattle 

 of the purest blood ; the peculiar mode of 

 management, by which their owners believe 

 they can secure to themselves a very large 

 proportion of heifer calves ; their method of 

 feeding stock by tethering, by which more 

 than double the number can be maintained 

 on the same land; their excellent quality of 

 butter, although there is not a spring-house 

 on the island : their practice of trench-plough- 

 ing and spade-labour in the fields, by which 

 they raise such enormous crops of lucerne, 

 parsnips, potatoes and grain, as far surpass 

 the average yield of any of the counties of 

 England ; it being 37 bushels of wheat, and 

 29,077 lbs. of potatoes per acre. Devonshire, 

 16 bushels only, of wheat per acre. The 

 opportunity of ascertaining whether the Me- 

 diterranean wheat of this country is not 

 i identical with that, known there as the 

 Tres mois, or three months, which is a 

 spring wheat: the method of manuring with 

 the sea-weed and its ashes, and the cause of 

 freedom from rust of the wheat crop; the 

 advantage of visiting Colonel Le Couteur, 

 and examining his interesting collection of 

 wheats, of almost every variety; and the 

 chance afforded, of setting to rest the ques- 

 tion of the virtues of the Divining rod, for 

 the discovery of springs of water in the 

 earth, by investigating the subject on the 

 spot, and witnessing the operation performed 

 by the hands of a person who has pointed 

 out by these means, hundreds of springs of 



" Asriciilture, the art of raising crops. Husbandry, 

 the art of preserving and expending them." 



