THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



to the acre, leaving about half au ;.cie iu liu- mid- | very 

 die of the field uadressed. The difference iu tlie 

 color of the wheat was seen in the course of 10 

 days ; when nearly ripe, the straw had the ap- 

 pearance of being y or 10 inches longer than the 

 other part, and much stronger; at reaping seven 

 rods of eacli part were measured, cut, and kept 

 separate ; the nitred part produced 24 sheaves 

 containing 11 gallons of wheat and 54 lbs. of 

 straw ; and where the seven rods were not so 

 dressed, the produce was 16 sheaves, containing 

 6 1-2 gallons of wheat and 40 lbs. of straw.— 

 British Farmers^ Magazine. 



chdc 



[Our respected correspondent is riLln. iMi cli 

 of the success or otherwise of these, ;in<l riu,ii_\ 

 other manures we could name, must depend lui 

 leculiar circuuistancts ol soil i.nd se:,M)U. \\ c 

 lave Ijeard saltpetre abused one \ear, itiid Ijiul/l} 

 extolled in another; althougli tried on the same 

 soil, the same description of crop, and by the 

 ! person. — Ed.] 



From the Britisli Farmer; 



Ma 



In all our agricultural publications now issuing 

 from the press, we see many accounts of experi- 

 ments made for ascertaining the value of certain 

 substances recommended as manures, either for 

 top-dressing or ploughing in. Some of these ac- 

 coimts are elaborately, and, no doubt, faithfully 

 written ; and sometimes favorable, or, as'it may 

 happen, unfavorable. Sometimes, too, we are 

 told of the same material having contrary effects 

 on land of precisely the same character) especi- 

 ally if situated iu distant parts of the kiugdoiTi. 

 Now, these discrei)ancies may often arise from 

 ignorance or want of consideration of the pecu- 

 liar effect or action of the material employed. 



Besides the various substances which have been 

 used as mar^uresfrom time immemorial, there arc 

 others, chiefly minerals, which are brought into 

 use with various succes.s. The reports of such 

 trials are not always uniform ; and defective in 

 so far as the character of the weather or sear^on 

 ollowing the application is omitted to be .«tated. 

 I n my own practice I have used soot extensively 

 for top-dressing wheat, and have harrowed and 

 rolled it in ; but if a dry spring and sunmier Ibl- 

 lowed, the soot «as of no service. I have used 

 chalk and lime as dressings for light gravejly 

 land : but if a wet season succeeded, little or no 

 immediate effect was observable. The same re- 

 sult followed the application of salt, on the same 

 description of land, under the like circumstances 

 of season. And the reason for the non- efficiency 

 of these three last named substances was per- 

 fectly obvious : all three are ready absorbents of 

 water from the air, and in dry seasons are emi- 

 nently useful to grow ing crops ; whereas, in a 

 showery time, the crops need no such assistance. 

 Saltpetre and nitrate of soda are at present 

 fashionable top-dressings: and those best ac- 

 quainted with these substances affirm that they 

 are often injudiciously used. On wet tenacious 

 land they can never be so efficacious as on dry 

 sandy or gravelly soils ; nor in wet seasons so 

 much as they certainly must be in dry. If I be 

 not mistaken in attributing to them such effects, 

 they will always be considered as doubtful fertili 

 zers ; because they must be used before it can be 

 ascertained, except by conjecture, what sort i 

 season is to follow. 



Mr. Cuthbert Johnson observes, that "theagr 

 cultural uses of saltpetre have not been examined 

 so carefully or generally as they ought to have 

 been ;" and G. Kimberley, Esq., ofTrotsworth, 

 " regrets that it has been hastily adopted, witli 

 reference, iu many cases, to season, soil, climate 

 or quantity; and as a few fortunate experiments 

 have started into a fashion the use of these ai ti 

 cles, so one or two unseasonable or improper ap- 

 plications have at once condemned them to neglect 

 and oblivion." 



Such reports show decidedly how necessary 

 is to know correctly tlie effects of those artificial 

 manures ; whetlier as the li)od of plants, or 

 provers of the staple ; wliether as exciters of 

 vegetation or solvents of the nutritive matters al 

 ready in the soil ; and also under what circum 

 stances of weather or season they are most active 

 or altogetlier neutral. These are questions for 

 the agricultural chemist to prosecute ; so that 

 farmer need work in the twilight, or be in doubt 

 concerning the direct effects of any manure 

 which comes recommended from competent au 

 thorities. 



And in all future reports of experiments made 

 with any of those uncommon articles of manure 

 the reporter .should not omit to state what kind of 

 weather has prevailed during the experiments , 

 for the effects, especially nf saline substances, are 



J. -Si.- 



'J he 

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From the Fiireign Quarterly Review. 

 Siberian Dogs. 

 The best friend of man in almost every clime 

 the dog, but in Nortliern Siberia existence 

 would scarcely be possible without the aidof tliis 

 invaluable animal. All along the Arctic Ocean 

 the dog is almost the only beast of burden. He 

 is harnessed to the light sledge, or 7iarte, which 

 will carry no inconsiderable load, and in which, 

 during w"inter, the natives perlbrin journeys of 

 incredible lengtti. The Siberian dog bears a 

 strong resemblance to the wolf! He has a long 

 pointed snout, sharp upright ears, and a long 

 bushy tail. Some of them have short hair, oth- 

 ers a tolerably thick fur, and they are met witli 

 of all imaginable colors. Their size also dif}<M> 

 very much, but a dog is not thought fit for the 

 sledge if less than one arsliin and two wershok 

 high, and one arshin and five wershok long.* 

 Their barking resembles the hosvling of a wolf. 

 They always remain in the spen air. In summer 

 they dig holes in the frozen earth to cool them- 

 selves, and sometimes they will spend the whole 

 day in the water to escape from the persecution 

 of the gnats. .Vgainst the intense cold of winter 

 ek shelter bv burviii- tbcmsrlves .ni.l.T 

 the snow, wlHMvth.-; lie rollrd iipwiili the sm.ut 

 bvlhel.ii>l,v' tail. Otthc .■iilis,tlH-nial(s 

 "'usually kei.t, thi> li-majcs an- iikimIv 

 drowned, only one or two being entertained by 

 ach father of a famijy to preserve the breed. 

 The rearing of these dogs forms an important 

 cupation, and requires no little skill and judg- 

 ent, A dog iriay be |)ut to the sledge when a 

 year old, but cannot be sidjjccted to hard work 

 before his third winter. The team of a sledge 

 seldom consists of less than twelve of these dogs, 

 bom one is used as leader, upon wlio.^ic 

 breeding and docility the safety of the whole 

 puny depends. No dog rnust be used as a leader 

 uidess he be perfectly obedient to the voice of 

 his master, nor unless the latter be certain that the 

 mal will not be diverted one moment from his 

 use by the scent of any kind of game. This 

 last point is one of the highest imjiortance, and if 

 the dog has nol been well broken in, but turns to 

 the right or left, the rest of the dogs will imme- 

 xliately join in the pursuit, when the sledge is of 

 course overturned, and the w hole pack continue 

 the chase until some natural obstacle intervene to 

 arrest their course. A well taught leader, on the 

 other hand, \wt only \:ill not allow himself to be 

 seduced from his duty, but will often display the 

 most astonishing tact in preventing the rest nf the 

 team from yielding tp their natural instinct. On 

 the boundless tundra, during a dark niglit, while 

 the surrounding atmosphere is obscureil by !!:<■ 

 falling snow, it is to the intelligence of his leail- 

 ing dog that the traveller is constantly indebted 

 for his preservation. L" the animal has once been 

 the same road before, he never fails to discover 

 the customary halting-place, though the hut may 

 have been completely buried under the drifting 

 snow. Suddenly the dog will remain niotionle.s.-i 

 ui:on the trackless and unbroken surfiice, and bv 

 the friendly wagging of his tail announce to lii.^ 

 master that lie need only fall to woik with lij.-; 

 snow-shovel to find the door of the hut that offers 

 him a warm lodging for the niglit. The snow- 

 shovel on these winter excursions appears to be 

 an appendage without which no traveller ven- 

 tures upon a journey. 



In summer the dog is no less serviceable than 

 iu winter As in the oij.e season he is ypjced to 

 the sledge, so in the other he is employed to draw 

 the canoe up against the stream, and here they 

 display their sagacity in an equally surprising 

 manner. At a word they halt, or where au op- 

 posing rock bars their progress on the one side, 

 they will plunge into the water, swim across the 

 river, and resume their course along the opposite 

 bank. In sliort, the dog is as indispensable to 



• uiu^lattucliiiBUt between tlie 

 log is in proportion to their 

 niuii:iii (Icjiendcncc on each other. M. Von Wrau- 

 i:el rclalfs nil;; rkjil.le inst;ince.s of the extent to 

 uliicli lie li.;s sii II siiiiie of the people carry their 

 f.iiuliii s> li,,- ilirii- doi:s. In 1«2] an epidemic 

 disease broke out among the dogs in Siberia, and 

 carried off many thousands of them. [l\r says] 

 " A Yukaheer iamily had lost the w hole of the 

 twenty dogs of which they had recently been |)OS- 

 se-ssed, and two newly-born cubs were all that re- 

 mained. As these animals were still blind, and 

 without a mother's care, it scarcely appeared pos- 

 sible to preserve them. The Yukaheer's wile, to 

 save the last remnant of the wealth of her house, 

 resolved that the two dogs should share the milk 

 of her breast with her own child. Siie was re- 

 wai-ded. The two adopted sucklings throve won- 

 derlidly, and became the ancestors of a new and 

 vigorous race of dogs." 



The sufferings of the poor inhabitants, in con- 

 sequence of the loss of the dogs, through the 

 epidetnic malady that raged in 1821 and 1822, 

 were dreadful inthe extreme. Yet will it be be- 

 lieved, that an order was once actually issued by 

 the government at St. Petersburg, to "destroy all 

 the 'd()j;s throughout liic norlli of Siberia, "on 

 account of their consuming such i[Uantities of 

 |)rovisions, and thereby occasioning such frequent 

 liimine.o." The order was not executed, because 

 it woidd have required the whole Russian army 

 to enforce the cominand, and alter a while means 

 were ti:>und to enlighten the rulers upon the ab- 

 surd tyranny of th'-ir proposed " refoiin." 



We 



roiid 



of I 



('(.lloiinnlhct.'nal IVedee in Soulli Carolina from 

 the S.iiiiliirM Cihlni'l : il is Iniin a desrripliou of 

 the .•iiltiv.-ilion of Col Williams' plaulation : 



Cotton, preprmdiun of the land for, and culture 

 of. — About one-half of the laiid intended for cot- 

 ton is manured v. ith compost taken from the cat- 

 tle-pens, stables, &:c. 'Ihe balance required to 

 make oiu the quantity needed, is taken from new- 

 ly cleared groimds, or fields which have been 

 rested one year, and the growth turned under, or 

 Avhich liavc" been maunred by tlie turning under 

 of a crop of green outs. The oats sown liir this 

 purpose arc put in, in the nionllisol' October and 

 November, at the rate of one bushel and a half 

 per acre, and the ground thrown into ridges of 

 the width intended for cotton the succeeding year. 

 Hy this oi)eration the oats are covered. In July, 

 (or as soon after, as other work necessary to be 

 done will permit, sometimes not until late in Au- 

 gust,) the oats are turned under, reversing the 

 ridges, and binyiug them cornjletely. Iu the 

 spring I'lillowing the ridges are again reversed, 

 (at w hich time ihe oats are fouud to have entirely 

 rolled, ) and the beds formed. Occasionally, ma- 

 nure is used in addition to the green crop turned 

 under, but this is not often (lone. When the 

 oats are turned under late, the seeds having ma- 

 tured, there is another growth of oats, which, 

 with the weeds, form sometimes a pretty thick 

 coating, all of which is of course turned under, 

 or, as is sometimes the case, listed down previoiis 

 to reversing the beds. When the fields have 

 been rested, all the growth, which is considera- 

 ble, (for no cattle are iiermittcil to pasture on 

 them,) is listed under as early in the fall as prac- 

 ticalile. If not done eurly it is preferred to turn 

 it all undtr with the plough, so as to mix it more 

 iiilimalily with the soil. Gypsum luis also been 

 tried wilh d(<-iclcd success, the .seeds merely 

 welted, rolled iu it, and planted. 



Those fields which the year previous were in 

 cotton, and which it is intcniled to plant again 

 with the same crop, are prepared by running a 

 mould board plough twice in the centre of the 

 alleys and Ibrming as deep a furrow hs possible, 

 the bull-tongue follows breaking up the .soil .still 

 deeper. These furrows are then filled with ma- 

 iiure from the various pens. The beds are form- 

 ed by the plough and dressed over wilh the hoe. 

 The trenching plough (already described) is run 

 on the top of the beds, making them smooth and 

 forming the trenches, into which the seeds are 

 scattered at the rate of two bushels per acre, and 

 covered by the horse-rake. Thp befls are fortned 

 from four to six feet apart, and very wide at the 

 base, nearly meeting in the alleys. 



Tha first working is done wilh the hoes going 

 over and lifhtlv sliavins down the beds. This 



