Vol. 1.— No. 4. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



27 



were formed. Therefore, [lie basis rock of 

 any district, which is now mouldering away, 

 and the last superimposed rock which Das just 

 passed away, must give ciiaracter to the pre- 

 sent soil. By studying rock strata then, we 

 are enabled to judge turrectly respecting the 

 causes of the defects and excellencies in soils, 

 so far as it depends on the earthy part. The 

 agriculturist, who shall have thus obtained a 

 clear Aiew of the substantial part of his soil, 

 will be enabled to prescribe the true method 

 for correcting its delects, and for perpetuating 

 the excellencies of his soil. 



I might fill many sheets with facts, now well 

 established, in proof of the great advantages 

 which geology throws into the hands of the 

 agriculturist. But I intended this outline as 

 an introductory sketch, fur the advantage of 

 those only who have not studied the general] 

 zation of rocks, nor minutely inspected their 

 debris. A. 



CARE OF IMPLEMENTS. 



Every careful farmer will lay it down as a 

 lule, frequently to inspect all his implements; 

 and when any part of them is observed in the 

 least damaged, or in danger of giving why, he 

 will take care immediately to have it repaired 

 An implement, aho, that is not longer wanted 

 during the season, should be carefully laid up ; 

 but before it is put aside, it ought to be well 

 cleaned, and rendered perfectly dry, oiled or 

 painted, if made of iron, and kept so as to be 

 ready for use, when wanted. No circum- 

 stance marks mere the character of an atten- 

 tive husbandman, than this one. Upon every 

 farm, likewise, there ought to be one or more 

 places, properly constructed for holding the 

 larger implements; aud some secure place al- 

 lotted for containing the smaller tools. Where 

 machines are necesarily exposed in the field a 

 great part of the season, they require to be 

 newly painted, at least every second year. — 

 The invention of any useful implement, by 

 which the labors of agriculture can be brought 

 to a higher degree of perfection, and the ex- 

 pense of cultivation at the same time dimin- 

 ished, must prove of the most essential ser- 

 vice to the farmer. . All such inventions 

 ought to be encouraged. — J. Sinclair. 



CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS ON THE RETARDATION 

 AND MULTIPLICATION OF WHEAT. 



On the 8th of August 1824, a single plant of 

 wheat was taken, which had been sown in 

 the June preceding, and divided into 18 oar:s, 

 and put into the ground, where it remained till 

 the latter end of September, when they were 

 again taken up and subdivided into 67 parts of 

 roots, all of which were carefully transplant- 

 ed, and allowed to remain till the end of Mai eh 

 following, when ihey were a third time taken 

 up and separated into 490 parts, and again re- 

 placed in the earth, and allowed to perfect 

 themselves and ripen, when the little harvest 

 was reaped. The oi>e single grain of wheat, 

 by this process, was found to have produced 

 21.109 ears, containing 570,000 grains, meas- 

 uring " pecks and 3 quarts. The multiplica- 

 tion of wheat by off-sens and suckers at the 

 dollar of the root, is well known, and fields 

 that are apparently bare in the spring, frequent- 

 ly increase by this mean to a very handsome 

 crop, and the retarding of vegetation can he 

 carried to almost any extent, by constant trans- 

 planting. Flowering plants and shrubs, by this 

 means, may have their periods materially chan- 

 ged, particularly the herbaceous annuals. 



Hump. Eisaijs. 



THE FARMER'S CREED. 



BY SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. 



Let this be the farmer's creed, 

 Of stock secure the choicest breed, 

 Jn peace and plenty let them feed, 

 Yoar land sow with the best of seed, 

 Let it not dung nor dressing need, 

 Inclose and drain it with all speed, 

 And yon will soon be rich indeed. 



THE SEASON. 



Where is the industrious Farmer who can- 

 not find employment enough to occupy his 

 time, during these short, cold, winter days' — 

 He should indeed now find leisure enough from 

 the usual portton of lime devoted wholly to 

 tabor in other seasons, to attend to those es- 

 sential attainments — the improvement of his 

 mind, and the education of hi.^ clildren. Then 

 the length of winter will not be found injurious 

 to the farming interest 



The Farn er's Chronicle remarks, in favour 

 of family industry, that one piece of domes- 

 tic manufacture, will go farther to establish 

 the reputation of a daughter, tnan a whole 

 winter's frolicking. 



The cultivator who is not in love with idle- 

 ness, need not be nactive even at this season 

 of the year : and by driving now, may escape 

 being driven at some future period. Is the 

 cutting, splitting and piling of wood completed? 

 Have the implements of husbandry been over- 

 hauled, repaired, and in order. Threshing, dres 

 sing flax, ti many other essential duties, should 

 he suggested to fill up every moment of other- 

 wise leisure time. — L.I. Farmer. 



FODDERING OF CATTLE. 



When cattle have been accustomed to fod- 

 der, they will not make shift with the same 

 fiod that would have served them, if they had 

 not been brought to the use of this. There- 

 fore it is essential to keep them from it as long 

 as can be done wiihont absolute damage to 

 them ; and when it is first given them, to let 

 them only feed partly on that. 



When tbo cattle find great scarcity abroad, 

 if they be offered some of the most indifferent 

 hay, they will feed gladly upon it; but if the 

 farmer begins with the best, they will not rea- 

 dily touch this afterwards. Let it be given a 

 little at a time only, and that when they are 

 sharply hungered. For if he give them a sur- 

 feit of it they never will touch it afterwards, 

 even when they are hungry. 



Cows will eat straw freely, and thrive very 

 well upon it, unless they be accustomed to 

 hay ; but in that case they will refuse the very 

 best straw afterwards ; and the farmer must 

 submit to feed them in this expensive manner, 

 cr to starve them. He must not expect cows 

 to eat after one anothei, or that one creature 

 which chews the cud, will eat what another 

 has left ; rut tire leavings are not wasted, for 

 though these will not eat them, the other kinds 

 will. A great deal of caution must be used in 

 regard to the time of turning cattle out of the 

 yard where they have been foddered, into 

 grass; for if theie be not a sufficient growth 

 for their support, ihey will decline very soon. 

 It is a common error to turn them out too ear- 

 ly. 



PECULIAR CULTIVATION OF POTATOES. 



A French soldier placed hall a dozen of po- 

 tatoes at the bottom of a cask, upon a layer of 

 sand and fresh earth, three or four inches thick 

 when the stalks had risen a few inches, he 

 bent ihem down, and covered them four or five 

 inches deep wi'h the same mixture. He con- 

 tinued this operation till the cask was full. Six 

 or seven monihs after, upon emptying the ves- 

 sel, (which stood in a court yard.) he found 

 that the half dozen potatoes had produced an 

 enormous quantity of new ones, from the por- 

 tions of the motherstenis which had been suc- 

 cessively laid down and covered. — Journal des 

 Connais. Usiults, 1829. 



AMERICAN SILll. 



A case of raw silk, from the filature of D' 

 Homergue, in Philadelphia, was put on board 

 the packet ship De Rham, which sailed from 

 New York for Havre, on the 15th insj. Simi- 

 lar shipments are said to have been made to 

 England and Mexico. 



From all that has been of the superior qual- 

 ity of American raw silk, when compared 

 with any ether, and al,o of Mr. D'H s know! 

 edge of the best raode of producing it and pre- 

 paring it for market, there can be no reasona 



bio doubt that these shipmoots are to be regar- 

 ded as important epochs in the history of A- 

 merican cultivation ;as leading the way to the 

 dcvelopement of a new and incalculably valua 

 ble source of private and publicweallh. 



DIVERSIT1T OF TEMPERATURE. 

 The following theory of the cause of the 

 difference of temperature which prevails upon 

 the Eastern and "V'estern shores of the conli-, 

 nen! of North Amerioa,is from an article byPro-. 

 lessor Mitchell id the last number of Silliman's 

 Review : 



The Rocky Mountains strelcb from the ta- 

 ble land of Mexico into the immediate vicinity 

 of the polar se3. Throughout their whole ex*. 

 lent, they nowhere descend much below the 

 region of perpetual congelation, and in many 

 places they ascend far iuto it. 



The northern extremity of these mountain, 

 lat. 70deg.,was seen by Captain Franklin, 

 covered with snow in the beginning of Au- 

 gust. The accounts obtained of intermediate 

 points, are such as to create a belief that they 

 are still more elevated. 



Over this lofty barrier, a cause 39 constant 

 as the revolution of the sun, is urging the air 

 from the west, and (if the views taken in this 

 communication of the specific manner in which 

 this cause operates are correct) urging espe- 

 cially the upper strata of the atmosphere. But 

 however this may be, it is at lea6t certain, that 

 only the upper strata can pass. I may add 

 that the lower strata do not pass, for if they 

 did they would not melt the snow. Tbe air 

 which has had a mild temperature, communi- 

 cated to it on the bosom of the Pacific, is stop- 

 ped and a deluge of air having a temperature 

 never elevated much above 3'^ deg., and often 

 depressed very far below it, is poured over up- 

 on the region on the east side of the mountains, 

 fiom ihe icy sea. quite down to Mexico. This 

 air imbibes heat from the soil of the eastern 

 part of the continent, and continuing its 

 course, carries it off over the Atlantic. This 

 country therefore communicating beat to the 

 pievaiiing winds, and receiving none from 

 thorn, has its temperature depressed. This 

 cold deluge must exist and produce the effects 

 ascribed to it, unless a law of nature, which 

 wa have shown to obtain in other parts of the 

 globe, is arrested in the case of North Ameri- 

 ca. Its existence is also proved by observa- 

 tion, made in the immediate neighborhood oi 

 the mountains, where westerly wiods aie 

 found to have a greater predominance thaD in 

 (he regions farther east 



This then is a partieular, in which the eas- 

 tern side of North America, differs widely 

 from the western coast of both America and 

 Europe, and the person who has witnessed the 

 change of temperature, produced by our N. 

 U'est winds, in a single night, or read of the 

 effects of certain winds in other countries, — of 

 the Sirocco, for instance, in Italy, — will not 

 be disposed to deny that it is fully adequate to 

 the production of the low medium temperature 

 of North America. The vast ejeyated plateaus, 

 and enormous ridges of Central Asia, stand in 

 the same relation to China, that the Reeky 

 Mountains do to the United States. It is sta- 

 ted that the greatest cold experienced at Pe- 

 kin, occurred during the prevalence of a wind 

 from the north west. In Japan " in winter 

 tiie north and north west winds are exceeding- 

 ly sharp, and bring along with them an intense 

 frost" Malle Brun. 



SAVING. 



It is related that a gentleman once called* 

 upon Guy, the Miser, for a lesson of frugality — 

 Guy, extinguishing the light, said "we can talk 

 this matter over in the dark." 



