188 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 5, ]8:i7.. 



J''ro7n ilie JVational Gazette. 



rHILADELPHlA SOCIETY FOn PROMOTING AGRI- 

 CULTURfc. , 



Stated Meeting, December 19, 1620 — Dr Mease, 

 Vice President, in the chair. The following com- 

 munications were read. 



On brewer's grains as a food for store pigs. — 

 The advantage stated to attend this food, is its 

 being sufficiently nourishing to promote the devel- 

 opement of the frame, without too great a tenden- 

 cy to fatten: it is also cheap. Mr Botton, of the 



i 



It was upon this principle that "The Philadelphia pole-axe, and then cutting their throats to b] 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture" proposed at ; tliem. But this method is cruel and not free { 

 the last annual meeting " a premium for the besti danger. The animal is not always brought di 

 potatoes tlie growth of the seeds of the apple." — by the first blow, and the repetition is difficult 

 The highly farinaceous " Foxite" potatoes are uncertain, and if the animal be not very well 

 said to bo the result of this process. cured, accidents may happen. Lord Somer™ 



The chairman mentioned that Messrs Mayland (lienera! Survey of the Agriculture of Stropsl 

 & Sen, Tobacconists, of Philadelphia, had receiv- ' by Joseph Plymley, M. A. 8vo. LonJon, 180! 

 ed fiom Cuba a quantity of the seed of the first I 243), therefore, endeavored to introduce the ra 

 quality tobacco produced in that island, called i od of pithing or laying cattle, by dividing the 

 " Buetta Abtixo.'^ This informatii n is here given ' nal marrow above the origin of the phrenic ue 

 for the benefit of the cultivators o t .bacco. The as is commonly practised in Barbary, Spain, P 

 Germantown brewery, put up forty bushels in the j exportation of this seed, or of the tobacco produc- gal, Jamaica, aud in some parts of England; 

 year 1823, and used them during the summer fol- ed from it, is prohibited, except on the liing's ac- j Jackson says, that the " best method of killi] 

 lowing. In Sept. last, one of the casks containing count. bullock, is by thrusting a sharp pointed knife 



grains was opened, which had been filled in De- The following donations were received — I the spinal marrow, when the bull.ick will imn 



ceniber, 1895, and with the exception of a few on ! From Robert Barclay, Esq. of Berry Hill, Eng., ' al.dy fall without any strtiogle, then cut the 

 the top, (which, however, were eagerly devoured j through the President of the Society, Loudon's lies about the heart." (Reflections on the 



Encyclopedia of Agriculture, and a translation in merce of the Mediterranean, by John J:;c 

 blank verse of the first book of the Georgics of Esq. F. S. A. 8vo. London, 18li4. p. iU.) Aith: 

 Virgil, with valusble notes, by the Rev. Robert the operation of pithing is not so dilllcult I 

 Hoblyn, of Cornwall. — The three first numbers of may, with some practice, be performed with toft 

 a New Horticultural iMagai.ine, from the editor, able certainty ; and although Lord Somerjii 



*a 



by the pigs,) the grains were found as fresh as if 

 they had been mashed the preceding day. Mr B. 

 sinks a pipe or cask in the earth, so deep that its 

 top is level with the surface ; the grains are thea 

 put in, and well trodden : salt, in the proportion of 

 one peck to twenty bushels, is sprin'Kled through 

 the mass: the head of the cask is let into it about 

 six inches and covered to the level of the chimes 

 with clay ; a loose board cover is tlien thrown 

 over the cask, rnd the contents are ready for use, 

 in one, or twelve months, as m?.y u5 required. 

 2. A letter from Thomas Appleton, United 



J. C. Loudon, of London. 



[PREP.IRED FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER.] 



took a man with him to Portugal to be instriip|i , 

 j in the method, and made it a condition thalj 

 I prij.e cattle at his exhibitions should be pit-.ed; 

 1 stead of being knocked down, still pithinL' is i 



becoming general in Britain. This mav bi: par 



AGRICULTURAL AXIOMS. 



Agriculture, in common with other arts, may be ^ owing to piejudice ; but we have been toUi tl 

 prac'tised without any knowledge of its theory ;— \ the flesh of the cattle killed in this way in Port 

 States Consul at Leghorn, to the 'Ciiairman, en- i that is, established practices may be imitated ; but gal is very dark, and becomes soon putrid, prol 

 closing an abridged prose translation of the admir-, in this case it must ever remain stationary. The bly from the animal not bleeding well, m < on! 

 ed Italian poem, '^ It Capello di Po^/ /a," or the mere routine-practitioner cannot advance beyond quence of the action of the heart being int. rru 

 Straw Hat, by Signor Marco Lastri, latfi President ! the limits of his own particular experience, and ed before the vessels of the neck are dr i ,:• 1. 

 of the Academy of Agriculture at Florence ; con- 1 can neither derive instruction from such accidents therefore stems preferable to bleed the r.niiual 

 taining details of sowitir- the seed, gatheriuff, pre! as ^re favourable to his objects, nor guard against death directly, as is practised by th.^ Jew tv.t he 

 serving and separating the straws and the various I the re-occurrence of such as are unfavourable.— ; ^n Card's observation on pithing deserv,- :.tti 

 preparatory onerations to fit them for use in the ; He can have no .resource for unforeseen events, tioii. This gentleman, a surgeon of the .-i,ro\ 

 mannfactorv of Leghorn hats. ! but ordinary expedients ; while the man of science bury Infirmary, after mature con.sider..tion, j 



It is pleasing to see the various products of the \ resorts to general principles, refers events to their against the practice as causing more- paiu thai | 

 soil call forth the muse. Dr Granger in his poem 1 true causes, and adapts his measures to meet every is-intended to avoid. He says, " Pain and act 

 " Tlie Sugar Cane," has given the whole agricul- \ case. "^ «° g'enerally joined, that we measure the 



ture of that plant, and the manufacture of sng.ir. | The object of the art of agriculture is to increase gree of pain by the loudness ot theories, iind ^ 

 Phillips details the culture of the apple, and the , the quantity and improve the quality of such veg- lence of the consequent exertion : and thorol 

 conversion of its juice into a delicious drink.— etablc and animal productions of the earth as are conclude, on seeing two animals killed, ;ir,t 

 Dyer, in " The Fleece," gives the management of! used by civilised man; and the object of the agri- one which makes scarcely a struggle, ti. iiii 

 sheep and of wool. The culture of tobacco has ! culturist is to do this with the least expenditure of may continue to breathe, sufters less i 

 been described in classical Latin by Prudentius means ; or in other words with profit. The r.^sult which is more violently convulsed, aijd 

 Apiaralius, a poet of the Bra-ils; and Signor of the experience of mankind as to otiier objects till life is exhausted. It appears, hov.c r, 

 Lastri pow shows how an important and valuable may be conveyed to an inquiring mind in two ilitfe- there may be acute pain without exertion, pcili 

 manufacture may be produced from the skilful rent ways : he may be instructed in the practical as certainly as there is action without pan. ; oi 

 working of a ci.eap raw material. It is to be operations of the art, and their theory, or the rea- distortions that are the first glance would seen 

 wished that some Am.orican would favor us with a sons on which they are founded, laid down and proceed from pain, are not always really acct 

 verbified translation of lu=-< fine poem. explained to him as he goes along ; or ho may be panied with sensation. To constitute pain th 



3~ A letter from Mr John Griggs, of Charles- first instructed in general principles, and then in must be a communication between the injured 

 town, Jefi'erson County, Virginia, 'to the chairman, practices which flow from them. The former mode gan and the brain " 

 with a specimen of very long red potatoes, of a is the natural or actual mode in which overy art is 

 most prolific nature. Three pecks produced forty- acquired- (in so far as its acquirement is made) by 

 two bushels ! Their origin is unknown. Mr such as have no recourse to books, and may be 



Gricgs purchased them ofi" a raft which came compared to t!,e natural mode of acquiring the . , , , , • , 



down the Potomac. Some members presenf.recol- language without the study of its grammar. The and more violent than when the spinal marron 

 leeted having planted potatoes apparently similar latter mode is by much the most correct and effect- divided, yet the re^is, Uhnik. reason to bel,. 

 to those sent by Mr G., some years since r the ual, and is calculated to enable an instructed agn- 

 prodr.ce was great, but the quality not sufficiei>tly culturist to proceed with th» same kind of confi- 

 fkrinaccous for the table. For hogs, or cattle, dencc and satisfaction in Ins practice that a gram- 

 Ihey would be found a profitable winter fooil. i marian does in the use of language. 



4. Dr Tidyman, of South Carolina, an honorary | ^^, _^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ killing animals. 



member of the Society, sent to the chairman, with I ,,..., , l, j r„, f„„^ „,«> oiti.o, 



, 1 f .u * « *„„ ,.,l;„k Most of those slaughtered for food are either 



a letter, some seeds or the sweet potatoe, wnicn : '^ r i ■ r . i 



' , .^ , , ,[,.„ ,, „,^,, „f cj r fi„Hin,r"jled to death or are bled profusely immediately 



were distributed. 1 he planters ot r?. u nnoing , , , . , • , r v.- ■ „ti 



, . ,,. ^. ' r .1. • t„ „f after beinT' deprived of hie in some other way. — 



that from long cultivation of the same varieties of j^'^'=' •=' ^ I „f i,;ii;„„ „„t.lo in H,;,. 1-in 



5. ,.u 1 t„j i,„„n ,i„ The common mode ot killing cattle in this kin 



the sweet potatoe, they are degenerated, have de ' -"'^ " 



tormined to improve them by sowing the seeds.— 



dom., is, by striking them on the forehead with a 



In the old method of slaughtering, a concuss 

 of the brain takes place, and therefore the pov 

 of feeling is destroyed. The animal drops, and 

 though convulsions take place generally Ion 



that the animal suffers less pain. The imm>'di 

 consequence of the blow is the dilatation of ' 

 pupil of the eye, without any expression of c 

 sciousness or fear on the approach of the hand. 

 From all these circumstances, DuGard conclu 

 that the new method of slaughtering cattle is m 

 painful than the old. The puncture of the mei 

 la spinalis does not destroy feeling, though it r 

 ders the body quiescent, and in .!iis state the ! 

 mal both endures pain at the punctured part, ! 

 suffers, as it were, a second death, from the p 



