$I)C JTarmev's iltontljhj J Hsitor. 



G3 



Sicenee of Farming. 



BY LKVI BARTLBTT. 



There are four otlier elementary bodies that 

 enter into the growth and composition of plant?, 



and it is from these that the greater part or hull; 

 of plants anil animals are composed. These 

 four substances are oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, 

 and carbon. The three first of these are known 

 to us only in a gaseous form. Carbon is pure 

 charcoal, and when burned, it combines with the 

 oxygen of the air in certain and exact propor- 

 tions, forming carbonic acid. These four are 

 termed by chemists organic bodies, and they are 

 susceptible among themselves (and with the or- 

 ganic constituents of plains) of forming an in- 

 finity of chemical combinations, and yielding an 

 endless variety of products. 



The atmosphere we breathe, and in which 

 plants grow and live, is composed principally of 

 a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen gases, in the 

 proportion, very nearly, of twenty-one of the 

 former to seventy-nine of the latter. It also 

 contains, as a constituent necessary to the very 

 existence of vegetable life, a small per centage 

 of carbonic acid, on an average of about one 

 twenty-five hundredth pari, and however incred- 

 ible it my seem to those unacquainted with agri- 

 cultural chemistry, yet it is a fact, that from this 

 source is derived about one-half of the solid 

 substance of all plants that grow upon the face 

 of the whole globe. 



At the first view it would seem impossible 

 that this apparently small amount of carbonic 

 acid diffused through the atmosphere could sup- 

 ply to growing plants the carbon found in their 

 solid parts, as it amounts to from forty to fifty 

 per cent, of all trees, plants, and vegetables, in 

 fact, all the parts of plants which are cultivated 

 for the food of man or animals, and unquestion- 

 ably most of this carbon is derived directly from 

 the air, by the agency of the leaves of plants, al- 

 though there can be no doubt but a small por- 

 tion of it is taken up by the roots mixed with 

 water, and some of the inorganic matters that 

 are in solution, such as potash, lime, &c. 



When we reflect that the atmosphere not only 

 entiiely surrounds the earth, but extends in eve- 

 ry direction about forty-five miles, " and if the 

 whole acid were collected in a stratum or bed 

 occupying the lower part of the atmosphere, 

 such a stratum would have the thickness of about 

 thirteen feet," and this would be spread over the 

 entire waters of the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, 

 the deserts of sand, the frozen regions of the 

 ' poles, and, in (act, over every part and place of 

 the globe, and, by the wisdom o( the Great Con- 

 triver, this gas is, in innumerable ways, returned 

 to the air as fast as abstracted, by growing plants. 

 Here, then, our wonder ceases. 



We know, if we take a given quantity, by 

 weight, of well-seasoned wood, and distil it in a 

 close vessel, or burn it in heaps, covered over so 

 as to exclude the free access of air, wood char- 

 coal is left behind. When this process is well 

 performed, the charcoal will weigh from forty to 

 fifty per cent, as much as the wood did. The 

 ' charcoal consists of carbon, wilh a slight admix- 

 ture only of earthy matter and saline matter, 

 which remains behind when the coal or carbon 

 is burned in the open air. When the charcoal 

 or carbon is burned in the open air, it combines 

 with the oxygen of the air, to keep up the com- 

 bustion, and the whole of the coal enters into a 

 h chemical union with the oxygen, and forms car- 

 bonic acid, or in other words, carbonic acid con- 



sists of oxygen, with a definite or fixed quantity 

 or charcoal or carbon dissolved in it. This gas is 

 composed of two proportions of oxygen ami one 

 of carbon. In this state it is taken in by the 

 leaves of plants. The leaves of plants are their 

 lungs, and they possess the power of absorbing 

 from the air carbonic acid, and in daylight it is 

 decomposed, but much more rapidly in clear 

 sun light. When thus decomposed in the leal, 

 the oxygen is set free, and is again restored to 

 the atmosphere, but the carbon is retained and 

 mingled with the true sap of the plant ; and, in 

 obedience to those mysterious laws of chemical 

 combination, is made to form a moiety of the 

 endless variety of wood, fruits, seeds, &c. &c, 

 which are the results of vegetable life. 



Jt may seem a mystery bow the leaf of a plant 

 can take from the air the carbonic acid, when in 

 such apparent small quantity, and separate the 

 carbon from its oxygen. We grant it is a mys- 

 tery ; but then we know for a certainty the fact 

 of the leaves of plants possessing this power of 

 absorption and decomposition; it is the way the 

 growth of B plant has been provided for — the 

 Creator has so willed it. 



Plants take from the atmosphere, by their 

 leaves, carbonic acid, a deleterious gas, and de- 

 compose it, and restore to it the oxygen that is 

 taken into the lun»3 of animals, which combines 

 with the carbon of the food, and by the process 

 of respiration is given off to the atmosphere in 

 the form of carbonic acid, the food of plants. 



It is sometimes said that politicians and gam- 

 blers play into each other's hands for their own 

 private good. Animals and plants perform a 

 more honorable operation ; they play into each 

 other's mouths for the general good. 



go without. It is an easy matter, however, to be 

 at all times supplied with good vinegar, and that 

 without much expense. The juice of one bushel 

 of sugar beets, worth twenty-five cents, and 

 which any farmer can raise without cost, will 

 make from five to six gallons of vinegar, equal 

 to the best made of cider or wine. Grate the 

 beets, having first washed them, and express the 

 juice in a cheese press, or in many other ways 

 which a little ingenuity can suggest, and put the 

 liquor into an empty barrel ; cover the hung with 

 gauze, and set it in the sun, and in twelve or fif- 

 teen days it will be fit for use.— Farmer's Advocate. 



Marks of a gooo workint. Ox. — Mr. Asa G. 



Sheldon, of Wilmington, who has great experi- 

 ence ill cattle, particularly in working oxen, and is 



regarded as the best authority, gives the follow- 

 ing :— 



Long head, broad and oval between the eyes; 

 the eye full, keen and pleasant. Hindi marks 

 denote ability to receive instruction and a readi- 

 ness to obey. The short-faced ox starts quick 

 at the whip, and soon forgets it. The black eyed 

 ox is inclined to run away. An ox with very 

 large horns near the head is apt to be lazy, and 

 he cannot endure heat well. 



Forward legs straight ; toes straight forward; 

 hoof broad, not picked ; the distance short be- 

 tween the ankle anil knee. These properties 

 enable an ox to travel on pavement and hard 

 ground. If the ox toes out, the strain conns on 

 the inside claw, and w hen travelling on a hard 

 road, be will be lame at the joint between the 

 hoot' and the hair. When the toes turn out the 

 knees bend in. An ox with crooked knees is 

 apt to become lame by holding heavy loads down 

 hill. 



Breast full ; straight on the back ; round ribs, 

 projecting out as wide as the hip hones. These 

 are indications of strength and a good constitu- 

 tion. 



Weaving Ribbons.— Eight ribbons tire gene- 

 rally wove at once in a loom something like our 

 coach lace looms. In those countries like Eng- 

 land w here a great (leal of ribbon weaving is 

 carried on, the looms have eight shuttles, one to 

 each ribbon, and they arc: so attached that they 

 are worked as though they were but one shuttle. 

 They weave very fist. In Switzerland there is 

 considerable business done in the ribbon line, 

 mostly by females, who spend part of their lime 

 m the" fields and part ill guiding the spindle and 

 directing the shuttle. 



Vinegar.— Many families purchase their vine- 

 irar at a very considei able expense: some "make 

 do" wilh a very indifferent article; and others, 

 for want of a little knowledge and less industry, 



Rearing Lambs for Market. 



At our request, Mr. George Edwards, of Me- 

 chanicsville, Saratoga county, furnished us with 

 the following account of his mode of managing 

 sheep and rearing lambs for market: 



"As my farm is near our large market and 

 well adapted to what I call mixed husbandry, that 

 is sheep, grain and grass— the soil a loam high 

 and dry— I find the rearing of fit lambs the most 

 profitable branch of firming! The ewes have 

 generally been bought in September, always se- 

 lecting those of rather coarse woo), they being 

 larger and generally the best nurses. The rams 

 (pure South Downs) are put to them early in 

 November, and the lambs are dropped about the 

 first of April. The ewes are fed during the win- 

 ter upon cornstalks and straw, and about one 

 month before lambing', and from thence till they 

 go to pasture, they are each fed with three quarts 

 of brewers' grain per day. 



" Last year one hundred ewes raised one hun- 

 dred lambs. The wool, which was sold at Troy 

 at thirty-two cents per pound, brought $104 75. 

 Twenty-five lambs sold at S2 each, one rain 

 lamb $5, one do. $3, and the remaining seventy- 

 three at $1 75 each. They were all taken away 

 by the last of July. The ewes were sold to the 

 butcher at $2 each in October — so the hundred 

 ewes realized $-190 50. 



" It is desirable to get rid of the lambs early, 

 that the ewes may have time to fatten, so that 

 they may he sold to the bnlcherin the fall— giving 

 room for a new flock which should he In ought 

 in for the next season. 



"It is a good mode, and one which we have 

 frequently ndnpted, if we have a piece of rye 

 which has been sown on a clover sod, (or where 

 the land was- otherwise in good order,) to plough 

 the stubble the very moment the rye is off the 

 field, and sow turnips. The furrows are first 

 harrowed with a light harrow lengthwise and 

 crosswise — the seed sown broadcast, two pounds 

 per acre — ending with rolling the ground witli a 

 very light roller. The turnip called the stubble 

 turnip is preferred. A larger quantity of seed is 

 sown that some usf, in order to get a good stand 

 in spite of the ravages of the fly. I have now 

 procured one id Emery's seed-planters and shall 

 probably sow the turnips in drills henceforth — 

 the rows two feet apart, to give space to work 

 between them with a horse and small plough or 

 cultivator. As soon as the turnips are up about 

 two inches, we put on the light harrows, passing 

 both ways, keeping a strait cour»e. If the tur- 

 nips are in drills, the drag only runs across the 

 rows. About two days alter the harrows are 

 run over the turnips, they are gone over with 

 hoes and thinned where they are in bunches. 



"Ten acres of turnips, with a tojerable even 

 plant, will supply and fatten one hundred and 

 fifty sheep and will afford line keep for them 

 from the first of October to the end of Novem- 



