&l)e .farmer's iHontljln bisitor. 



157 



lent is entirely overlooked. That the parsnip 

 contains more saccharine matter than the carrot, 

 or even any of the beets, we are satisfied. A 

 very excellent wine is made of it, which we ven- 

 ture to assert cannot be made from any other of 

 the whole root crop. Its estimation as an edible 

 for the tabic also tells in its favor. And a herd 

 of hogs turned into a field containing bagas, 

 beets, carrots, and parsnips, would not be long 

 in settling the question which they like the best ; 

 and as they cannot read the Genesee Farmer, 

 and ure not influenced by any of our blundering 

 theories, and trust alone to experience, and that 

 unerring guide that nature has provided them in 

 the place of reason, we are disposed to give 

 them the credit of being very capable jndges — 

 very. — Genesee Farmer. 



From the Boston Courier. 

 Bartlett's Doable Plough. 



Being at Worcester, a few days ago, I was in- 

 vited to examine the Double Plough, recently 

 patented by W. O. Bartlett, Esq. of that city, and 

 to see its operation. It is a very simple machine. 

 It is, in fact, two single ploughs yoked together, 

 and, like a well-trained yoke of oxen, that will 

 do their work without a driver, seems as if en- 

 dowed with sufficient intelligence to perform its 

 office without much labor on the part of the 

 ploughman. The machinery, by which the two 

 ploughs arc connected, is so contrived, that they 

 accommodate themselves to the ground. I never 

 saw a more beautiful agricultural operation. It 

 was in a field where corn had been raised the 

 past summer, and which, though not stony, had 

 rather a diversified surface, of plain and valley. 

 The plough was drawn by a single team of ox- 

 en, attended by one man, whose attention seem- 

 ed to be necessary only when be came to the 

 end of his furrow, to turn the plough into its 

 proper position for another. He walked gene- 

 rally by the side of his team. The man, the 

 team and the plough seemed to be so many parts 

 of a well-adjusted, self-moving machine, that 

 only required winding up to keep it in constant 

 motion. If anyone should have occasion or in- 

 clination to write a lecture on the Poetry of Hus- 

 bandry, let him first go to Mr. Bartlett's farm, 

 where he may get inspiration from the Double 

 Plough, and learn wisdom from various improve- 

 ments, which are there in progress. 



1 think that no one, who has seen the opera- 

 lion of this plough, can, for a moment, doubt its 

 superiority over every oilier instrument that has 

 ever been invented for tilling the ground. On 

 some soils, it may require more draught than the 

 common single plough, (though I am not certain 

 of that,) but if it should, this requirement is im- 

 mensely over-balanced by the amount of work 

 performed. It requires no uncommon sagacity 

 in a farmer to perceive that he is in all respects 

 a gainer, when he can perform in a single day 

 the labor that bad formerly occupied two or 

 three. There, is no doubt that a good team, 

 eilher oxen or horses, would plough four acres 

 in a day, with this simple machine, and the 

 ploughman would have the pleasure of seeing, 

 at its close, his field with a new surface, beauti- 

 fully turned up in furrows of uniform width and 

 depth, and in parallel lines, almost as straight as 

 if drawn by a strict mathematical process. 



Mr. Bartlett — a young man, and engaged in 

 business as a lawyer in the city of Worcester — 

 is pursuing the practice of husbandry, on a scale 

 that would terrify, and in a stylo that would as- 

 tonish some of our respectable farmers, who 



consider every improvement as an innovation, 

 and are afraid to do any thing in a manner dif- 

 ferent from that of their fathers, lest they should 

 be suspected of hook-farming. He has two 

 hundred acres, purchased about three years 

 ago, in a state of great impoverishment. Many 

 of its acres were in too poor a condition to pro- 

 duce 60rrel, and were covered with dry moss. 

 The past season he raised wheat at the rate of 

 twenty-five bushels to the acre, and his rye (I 

 think he told me) yielded thirty bushels. He 

 had just harvested corn from fourteen acres, on 

 which a hoe had not been used during the whole 

 season — the labor having been performed by 

 means of the plough, the corn-planter, and the 

 cultivator. The amount of the products was not 

 mentioned — perhaps not known, as the process 

 of husking was going on — but it was such as 

 will afford a rich compensation for the labor and 

 capital expended. Mr. Bartlett's prime object is 

 to make manure, and with it to make this old 

 and worn-out soil a source of profit and of 

 wealth. There is a plentiful supply of muck 

 and peat on his land, which is daily undergoing 

 a scientific process of conversion to manure of 

 the fiist quality. His domestic animals are high- 

 ly fed, and are, consequently, well fitted to co- 

 operate with their owner in effecting his pur- 

 pose of enriching his land, by returning to it in 

 the shape of manure, the greater part of what it 

 produces. 



If there should be any young man, son of a 

 farmer, living within twenty miles of Mr. Bart- 

 lett's premises, who has a notion of going to 

 Boston in search of any kind of employment, 

 which that city can supply, let him first make a 

 visit to Mr. Bartlett, see his operations, examine 

 his theory, and ascertain its practical results ; if 

 such a young man has common sense, and ordi- 

 nary sagacity, he will, at once, give up his Boston 

 notion, and stick to the country, where an acre 

 of ground is a better capital than a note dis- 

 counted at the bank, with the proudest merchant 

 in the city for an endorser. 



J. T. B. 



From the Philadelphia Dollar .Newspaper. 

 On the Nature of Soils. 

 An all-wise Creator, for some all-wise purpose, 

 decreed that plants and animals should derive 

 their subsistence from the soil ; hence we find 

 all the elements of vegetable and animated na- 

 ture in the soil. For instance, in most soils we 

 find iron abundant; then, if we look into the an- 

 imal economy, we find iron in the blood and 

 muscles of both man and the lower orders of 

 brute creation. And the wonder-working chem- 

 ist detects nature in using the same ingredient 

 in coloring all the fruits and flowers. All things 

 having once been created, the making principle 

 stopped, and a changing one immediately took 

 its place, and has never ceased to act since mu- 

 tability was indelibly stamped upon all creation. 

 In the formation of plants and animals, Naturei 

 gradually collecting her materials, slowly forms 

 her most perfect specimens ; but like a human 

 mechanic, inasmuch as she lacks one or more of 

 the materials, in the same degree is her fabric 

 imperfect. Thus we see that if the soil in the 

 field lacks one or more ingredients in the forma- 

 tion of a vegetable, the plant assumes a dwarf- 

 ish, sickly appearance, like an animal robbed of 

 its food. Now, the farmer, to be a good hus- 

 bandman, must plant the germ, and place around 

 it all the materials of which it should he com- 

 uos< il : then Nature, the hatidyrworkmun, soon 

 rears the perfect plant. 



The question now arises, what those ingredi- 

 ents and materials are. The chemist has given 

 us all the knowledge he has on the subject: the 

 air and the water, the f-oil and the subsoil, have 

 each a part in their possession, and should each 

 be made to contribute a share. Nature, in the 

 production of a perfect plant, does not restrict 

 herself to the animal, vegetable, or mineral 

 world. The opinion so generally prevalent that 

 the soil, two or three feet below the surface, 

 must consequently be entirely barren and use- 

 less, may be, and doubtless is, erroneous in 

 many instances, especially in that called hard pan. 

 If, in producing the perfect plant, nature needs 

 twenty ingredients, nineteen may possibly be 

 found in the surface soil, while the twentieth 

 may be found in the subsoil. Instances have 

 occurred where a good dressing from soil ten 

 feet deep, entirely destitute, to all appearance, of 

 vegetable matter, have had equally as good, or 

 the same beneficial effect, as a good dressing of 

 gypsum. This is truly an age of improvement. 

 Many a farmer has found, while others have yet 

 to find, a mine of wealth below the reach of his 

 plough, of which he was as unconscious as the 

 mountain of its ore. It is very reasonable to 

 suppose, that the newly-created world was at 

 first entirely a mineral mass of matter, from 

 which vegetables soon grew abundantly enough 

 to support all animated nature. Geologists gen. 

 erally suppose the action of the elements, for an 

 indefinite length of time, was necessary to fit it 

 for the abode of plants and animals ; but be that 

 as it may, I believe the action of frost upon 

 ploughed fields, with the winter's rain and snow, 

 to be a powerful fertilizer in this climate. Hence, 

 fall ploughing and deep ploughing should go to- 

 gether, and be followed by heavy dressings of 

 manure, and particularly such as the soil lacks, 

 is my creed, derived from experience, and as 

 such, 1 firmly believe it true. 



LABORER. 



Abington, Centre County, Pa., 1S49. 



-^ 



Tolls on Manures. 

 Much would be added to the wealth of our 

 country if turnpike companies would permit 

 manures to pass over their roads without the 

 payment of toll and when the transportation of 

 increased production is taken into account, the 

 companies themselves would be the gainers by 

 the reform. Every inducement should be offer- 

 ed to farmers calculated to make a market for 

 the refuse of factories, &c, which are now lost, 

 but might be rendered productive of real wealth 

 to the country, if brought into use. Untold 

 amounts of waste at the salt works of our State, 

 would be used as manures, if the canal toll on 

 this article, when required as manure, could he 

 lessened so as to deliver the dirty or unmer- 

 chantable salt along the line of the Hudson riv- 

 er. The English farmers pay neither tolls nor 

 duty on salt for agricultural purposes, and the 

 wealth of the nation has in consequence been 

 permanently increased to a much larger amount 

 than all the duties ever collected on salt, under 

 the old law. One hundred thousand dollars 

 worth of dirty salt could be sold annually at the 

 city of New York for twelve and a half cents 

 per bushel, which is now wasted for want of a 

 practicable market, and the increased annual 

 product in vegetable results, would be many 

 times that amount. — (forking Farmer. 



Florida is said to grow the pineapple of the 

 first quality. A single acre of good soil will 

 produce, with little culture, §800 to $1000 worth 

 per year. When the Florida everglades are 

 drained, there will nol He i finer country in the 

 world for every species of tropical fruit. 



