1850. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



51 



13ontl)0' JDfpartment. 



AGRICTrLTURE. 



AgricClturk is the art of cultivating the soil. It is 

 the aim of all men to make their business, no matter 

 what it may be, as profitable as they can. The 

 object of the farmer in cultivating the soil is to raise 

 the largest crop at the smallest cost. When the 

 merchant, or speculator, or lawyer, increases his 

 profits, it is often done at his neighbor's expense. 

 But the farmer may increase his profits, and not only 

 himself, but his neighbors, and his country be the 

 better for it. 



The farmer should not only aim to make large 

 profits for the present, but this should be done tvith- 

 out injuring his land. You would not think 

 a carpenter made much of a speculation who had 

 spoiled a set of tools worth $fiO in making a barn- 

 door, although perhaps he made the door very quick, 

 and got twice what the job was worth. The banker 

 who boasted of the large interest his money yielded, 

 while at the same time his capital was continually 

 depreciating, would be considered a strange financier. 

 A man would be thought a downright idiot who 

 would work his team extremely hard, without giving 

 them sufficient food, — for the purpose of getting a 

 week or two of profitable labor from them — until 

 they became useless from over-work and poor 

 fare. He would lose more in the injury done his 

 team than the entire value of their labor. The 

 wisest plan would be to find out what kind of work, 

 and how much the team could endure, without injury, 

 how much ford, and what kind was necessary to keep 

 them in a good working condition, and act accord- 

 ingly. The farmer shows as little sense, who, just 

 to raise a crop or two, without much cost or 

 labor, injures his land as much or more than the value 

 of the crops raised. He should find out what his 

 land is best suited for, and vphat food it will furnish 

 his crop, and what is the best course to keep it in a 

 " good working condition." To do this he must know 

 something of the nature of the crops he raises, of 

 the land on which they grow, and of the manure or 

 food of plants which he applies to the land. A man 

 who makes up his mind to build a house or a barn, 

 will first examine the materials he has on hand, (if 

 he has any,) and procure those suitable for the 

 building which he intends to erect. Why should the 

 farmer act less wisely when he undertakes to make a 

 crop of wheat, or oats, or potatoes. We shall 

 attempt to give the youth a little lighten the subject. 



1st — Of the nature of crops.- — All vegetable 

 substances consist of two parts, called the organic, 

 and the other the inorganic. You have often seen a 

 pile of wood, perhaps a log-heap, set on fire and 

 burned. The wood was very heavy, but the greater 

 part is burned away, and the ash that is left is light. 

 The greater part which burns away is the organic 

 part, and the small part that remains — the ash — 

 the inorganic part. A stick of wood so heavy as to 

 require a strong man to lift it, could be carried by a 

 school-boy in his sachel after the m-ganic part is 

 burnt away. The 'rganic part is more than nine 

 pounds out of every ten. 



Perhaps some of our young readers are ready to 

 inquire by this time "u>hat that organic partis that 

 burns away ?" The organic part of plants consists 

 of carbon-, hydrogen, oxogen and nitrogen. Carbon 



is a solid substance, wood-charcoal, black-lead, and 

 the diamond, are varieties of carbon. 



Hydrogen is a gas or air, and the lightest of all 

 known substances. It burns in the air, but in it a 

 candle will not burn, nor an animal live. You can 

 make this gas by putting some iron filings in a tum- 

 bler, and pouring over them a small quantity of 

 sulphuric acid, diluted with twice its bulk of water, 

 and covering the glass for a few minutes. This is 

 the gas with which baloons are filled. 



Oxygen is also a kind of air, generally called gas. 

 It is heavier than hydrogen, indeed, it is heavier 

 than the air we breathe. It forms one-fifth of com- 

 mon air. A candle will burn in it with great 

 brilliancy. The properties of oxygen may be shown 

 in the following manner: take equal parts of oxide 

 of copper and chlorate of potash, and rub them 

 together in a mortar, then put the mixture into a 

 common oil flask, and place it over a lamp, as seen 



tin the figure, (fig. 1,) when a piece of 

 charcoal or sulphur introduced at the end 

 of a wire will burn brilliantly. 

 X^itrogcn is also a kind of air differing 

 from the other two. It will not burn, and 

 a lighted taper will not burn in it. It is a 

 M little lighter than common air, of which it 

 ■" forms four-fifths of the bulk. The easiest 

 method of obtaining this gas is by mixing 

 together a quantity of sal ammonia with 

 half its weight of salt-petre, both in fine 

 powder, and heating them in a retort over 

 a lamp. The gas is collected over water, 

 as shown in figure 2. 



All of these four elementary bodies, are 

 not, ^however, found in all vegetable Substances. 

 The greater number contain only oxygen, hydrogen 

 and carbon. Starch, sugar, the fibre of wood, fats, 

 and many other substances contain no nitrogen. 



^^ 1 



Fig. 2. 

 In our next number we shall speak of the inor- 

 ganic part of plants. 



A Word to Boys. — Some one has said: — "Boys, 

 did you ever think that this great world, with all its 

 wealth and woe, with all its mines and mountains, 

 its oceans, seas and rivers, with all its shipping, its 

 steamboats, railroads, and magnetic telegraphs, with 

 all its millions of men, and all the science and pro- 

 gress of ages, will soon be given over to the hands 

 of the boys of the present age — boys — like you 

 assembled in school-rooms, or playing without them, 

 on both sides the Atlantic ■? Believe it, and look 

 abroad upon your inheritance, and get ready to enter 

 upon its possession." 



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