XX. NO. 33 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



277 



4ipr.>rossioiial sclioots do to itio Icarnod profea- i 

 I. It would bo oa»y to nuoto tho opiiiiona of^ 

 f experienced Tanncni and men of practical | 



Iom, in confirnialion of tho views here suggest- > 

 \Tt would be intorostinj to point out e.TampIcs : 

 success iif similar institutions in other coun- 

 It would be profitable to sketch the plan of 

 an inslilMtiun here ; but our limits forbid. i 



The cslablishment of such institutions will fur- i 

 the best means of difTusini; a correct knowl- 

 of agriculture through the farming communi- 

 Tlio sons of farmers, educated into the princi- i 

 of the art, would carry them home, and teach 

 to thuir fathers, who would thug ba induced 

 >ply them to practical use ; or as they left 

 I institutions and engaged in the practice of 

 profession, they would be the means of awak- 

 r an interest in the comnmnitics where (hey 

 chance to be placed, which would soon be 

 [fesl by a demand for more general attention 

 e subject in all our literary institutions. JJy 

 multiplying examples, tho utility of the sub- 

 will be felt, and the most prejudiced farmers 

 ig us will send their sons to the institutions to 

 I tho secret of that art whose magic touch con- 

 I their barren wastes into fruitful fields ; to be- 

 t possessed with the knowledge of those natu- 

 lowers, which like the rains and the dews of 

 en, cause their paths to drop with fatness, and 

 storehouses to overflow with abundanca. 

 Suppose an institution of the kind established 

 his county, furnished with the best facilities 

 h money can procure, and suppose ten young 

 from each town were to receive there a tho- 

 h education in all the common and higher 

 ches of English literature and the sciences, 

 a professional knowledge of agriculture. How 

 would it be, after they had engaged in their 

 ;8sion, before their influence would be felt in 

 Icliberationa of these annual gatherings ? how 

 would it be before they would present so many 

 r examples of the utility of the plan, as to 

 lutionize the whole subject, and lead all to 

 it more scientific and profitable modes of cul- 



Supposo one of your eons, having acquired the 



ents of an agricultural education, should go 



into the wef^t, and settle on the fertile prairies 



linois. The application of his knowledge to 



almost inexhaustible soil, would soon produce 



reat a difference betiveen his own farm and 



of his less scientific neighbors, that an intc- 



would be excited there, and efforts would be 



e by all around to found their system of cul- 



on more productive principles. And not only 



but he would possess an immense advantage 



others in the selection of his farm. How 



y men, within the last few years, have invest- 



funds in western lands, without any further 



wledge of the location and character of tho 



than what is obtained by the paper cities which 



ingenuity of speculators has created ; and now, 



over that country are to be seen the remains of 



-built towns, on which thousands have been 



andered, deserted for more favorable locations. 



3ut especially, if he settles down in New Eng- 



d, and expects to gain his bread from granite 



s, and sterile sand hills, will he need the aids 



icb such an education will afford, that he may have 



oething to lighten his labors ; something to reward 



toils. Your sons will many of them soon take the 



ce which you now hold, soothing and sustain- 



log you in your passage to the tomb, as you liavo 

 suHiainod your parents, assuming your responsibili- 

 ties, tilling tho same soil on which you iiavo spent 

 tho vigor and manhood of life. This subject will 

 then be to them one of vital importance. The 

 green forests are gone, the soil hiis become ox- 

 h.iustcd, and something mu.st bo done to bring it 

 back to its ancient fertility. They muvt compete 

 with the western farmer by the superiority of their 

 knowledge, by the skill which they can bring to 

 their aid, or in a few yAirs they must cither become 

 miserably poor, or leave the home of their child- 

 hood to settle on more fertile lands in the far west. 



" It is not expected that sudden aflluence can 

 be obtained by cultivating the soil, whatever im- 

 provements, or system of culture may be introduc- 

 ed ; but the history of agriculture in England, 

 Scotland, and on the continent of Europe, conclu- 

 sively proves, that the productions of the soil may 

 be doubled, trebled ond quadrupled by the applica- 

 tion of scientific principles and the adoption of cor- 

 rect modes of culture. Its history in our own 

 country shows, that the resources already develop- 

 ed ore but just beginning to be understood and ap- 

 plied. The productions of our soil havo been 

 doubled within the last twenty years, and yet, 

 when we compare our own fields with those of old- 

 er countries, we need not hesitate to believe that 

 by the application of science and proper skill, the 

 productions of our rocky soil may be easily doubled, 

 with no greater amount of labor and c.ipital tlian 

 are now employed. From what little e.xiimination 

 I have been able to make, we have lands in this 

 county and throughout other parts of the State, 

 which are now entirely unreclaimed, in the form 

 of peat swamps and meadows, capable, I verily be- 

 lieve, of yielding a greater amount of productions 

 than are now obtained from that which is cultiva- 

 ted. At least, we have in these swamps and low 

 lands, invaluable sources of fertility, sources which 

 are inexhaustible, because supplied with food for 

 the plants of a thousand generations. 



" I asked a farmer in this county some time 

 since, why do you not improve your waste lands, 

 such as peat swamps and meadows ? Why, says 

 he, we cannot obtain manure enough for our up- 

 lands : five dollars a cord is too high'a price to 

 pay and get a living by it. The idea of a want of 

 manure here, was to me, I mu.it confess, no loss 

 astonishing than ridiculous, when I called to mind 

 that these same 'unimprovable lands,' as they are 

 styled upon the records of the town, contained ma- 

 nure enough in some sections to cover all your 

 tilled lands a foot deep ; manure enough to render 

 every acre of soil as fertile as the prairies of the 

 West ; manure enough to cause two tons of hay to 

 grow where now grows but one, and an equal in- 

 crease iu all the other productions of the farm. 

 There are few portions of the Slate where the 

 sources of fertility are more abundant than they are 

 in this county. Let it be granted, if you please, 

 that these lands are unimprovable as soils, (ivhich 

 is by no means true, many of them being tho most 

 valuable for this purpose,) still, they are vast re- 

 positories of vegetable food, which, by the appliea- 

 tion of science and skill, may easily be converted 

 into manure, and placed upon the neighboring sand 

 hills, thus changing the whole county into a fertile 

 garden. Wore strict justice done, the owner of 

 peat meadow and swamp muck, instead of being 

 assessed for thirty or forty acres of ' unimprovable 

 land,' considered valueless on the town records, 

 should be taxed for forty acres of manure, from one 



to fillccn feel in (le|ilh, and «„rth five dollars per 

 I cord ad soon as cunvcrtcd into the food of plants. 

 I Uy making agriciilliiro a stiidy, a profession, and 

 diffusing its principles abroad, those and other 

 means of fertility will necessarily be developed and 

 applied. Tho hiliura of the former will bo moro 

 bouiilifully rewarded, and a motive furnished for 

 the investment of capital in farming operations." 



STABLING HORSES. 



Wo make the foll.jwing extract from a lotl«r 

 written by L. Durand, of Derby, Ct. 



" A few evenings since wo were in conversa- 

 tion with an old veteran former and gardener nf 

 this place, Leman Stone, Esq. He says there ia 

 nothing so injurious to horse's hoofs, as the urino 

 and dung fur the aniii.al to stand in. And he told 

 me the way he had practised for several years. It 

 was to rub the hoofs of his horses wjtli livor oil, 

 such aa tanners use in preparing leather, once or 

 twico a week, and this serves to keep them flexible 

 and moist. Since lie adopted this course, ho has 

 never known his horses to suffer from the disease 

 called 'hoof-bound,' a disease known by the swell- 

 ing of the top of the hoof, causing matter to gath- 

 er under the hoof, and producing lameness. Mr 

 Stone prefers plank to earth floors, for the horses ; 

 and thinks they will stand with as much ease on a 

 chesnut plank floor, as on one of earth. Mr Stone's 

 stables are as nearly perfect as any we ever saw, 

 particularly for saving manure, and are on the same 

 plan we noticed in the Cultivator. The floor is 

 made tight, with a descent of two or three inches, 

 with a trough at the bottom of the floor, and every 

 thing the animal drops is saved. The straw for 

 littering is cut to about an inch in length, and eve- 

 ry morning the dung is hoed down into the trough, 

 and together with the horse manure is mixed up 

 with the urine, and thus nothing is lost Mr Stone 

 keeps but one horse and two cows, and the cows 

 are otabled every night, summer and winter, and I 

 venture to say that he makes moro manure than 

 some careless farmers do with three times that num- 

 ber of animals. We are aware that every one 

 will have a way of liis own; but all must agree iu 

 one thing, and that is to have their stables made so 

 as to save all the manure, and be comfortable to 

 their animals. A neighbor of mine has been build- 

 ing a barn with a basemenl story the past season. 

 Instead of laying a floor for the stables in this 

 part, he has covered them with a layer of tan bark, 

 as an experiment. It will make a soft bed for his 

 cattle to stand on, and in the spring it can bo 

 thrown out, and will make good manure." — Albaity 

 Cult. 



Important Suggestion at this lime of the Year 



According to Liebig, (and the evidence of our sen- 

 ses, too,) a large portion of the valuable part of 

 manure, escapes from stables and other places of 

 collection, in the form of gaseous ammonia. Now 

 by strewing the floors of stables with gypsum, this 

 gaseous manure immediately combines with the 

 sulphuric acid of the gypsum, forming a solid com- 

 pound, destitute of smell, and of great value as 

 manure. The offensive odor is destroyed and the 

 manure is retained. Those who have tight stables 

 may successfully try this with great ease — Otne- 

 see Far. 



No metaphysician ever felt the deficiency of lan- 

 guage so much as the grateful. — Lacon. 



