118 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



\nn\t with the ova of flsh, which gave me infinite patis- 

 I'action, and proved conckisively to my mind the pos- 

 t^ibihty of importino- from any part of the world 

 jirepared spawn, of ahno.st any variety of fish, and 

 hatchinfic the sam?, without much posssibihty of fail- 

 ure. The expeiiment was thus : Two men were 

 ordered to draw their net in the Hudson River late 

 in the shad season, and the femali\s cautiht were g'entlv 

 stripped from the gills down, and their ova permitted 

 to fall easily in a tin \m\ one-third full of water ; tlie 

 mules M'ere then served in the same maimer, and their 

 milt alloAved to come in contact with the ova of the 

 lemales; the mass was gently stin\Hl, an<l thus impreg- 

 nated, placed in a pond a few inches under the surface 

 of the water, near the inlet, and covered partially Avith 

 gravel. In a few weeks small shad were produced 

 in great numbers. I have sent to England for the 

 ova of the barbel, carp and tench, and propose in the 

 sjjring to obtain the roe of the salmon from the east, 

 and phmt it in the creeks entering the Hudson. Al- 

 though the salmon is a sea fish, their ova can only be 

 hatched in fresh water, and the young fry can hve in 

 no other until about two yers old. It would be an 

 easy matter for gentlemen residing on the Hudson 

 River, between New York and Peekskill, to stock 

 the salt water coves, formed by the Hudson River 

 Railroad, vdth fine varieties of English flsh, by im- 

 porting impregnated spawn; for example, the famous 

 sole, turbot, mullet, whiting, brill, gray, plaice, white- 

 bait, coalfish, anchovy, &c. At "the expiration of 

 three years our coasts would produce an inexhaustible 

 al)undance of these delicious fish, many of whic-h 

 might hybridise with ours. I propose to ap]:»ly to the 

 Legislature, dm-ing its present session, for the enact- 

 ment of a law making it incuml^ent upon all ]iersons 

 in the State who derive their livelihood from the cap- 

 ture of fish, to plant each season a certain ciuantity 

 of impregnated spawn on their respective' fishing 

 grounds, under the direction of the magistrate of the 

 district in which the fishes may be situated." 



PLOAV VS. SPADE. 



Which is the better imjjlement? That is the 

 question. The rhodomontade of Gisboexe, and the 

 letter of our good correspondent '■ Sixope,"' liave be- 

 tween them brought this cause to trial. 'We appear 

 for the defendant. . 



The case of the plaintiff, as we undcM'stand it, is 

 that the plow is a reality and the spade a humbug ; 

 that the jdIow is an implement of unknown antiquity, 

 the value of which is established by usage beyond 

 the memory of man, while the spade is a poor, insig- 

 nificant modern contrivance ; that the plow always 

 beats the spade, as any country gentleman who grows 

 potatoes very well knows, because the first is more 

 elScient than the spade ; that the plow is wonderful 

 upon " cloddy" land, where the spade is powerless ; 

 and finally, that the spade led to Irish pauperism, 

 leaving the plow to remedy the mischief. Such ap- 

 pears to us to he the plaintiff's ca,se as far as it can 

 be collected from the pleadings in Gisborxe"s Essays 

 on As;rkvlture, edition of 18.i4, p]). 247 ami 248. 



To this we answer, that of all the misstatements of 

 which we have knowledge, the plaiutifi"s are the 



gTcatest ; that there is no truth in any one single al- 

 legation; and that the real diflerence between the 

 re-tpective cases of plow and spadk, a difference wc 

 are far from denying, was either unknown to him, or 

 not mentioned, and such as in no degree affects the 

 main argument. We say that in reality the plow 

 belongs to the category of barbarous implements, 

 such as hatchets and adzes, while the sj)ade is a dis- 

 tinguished member of the family of saws and planes. 

 As none but a barbarian would place a hatchet above 

 a saw, or an adze above a plane, unless in exceptional 

 c;ise?<, so nmst it still be a barbarian who would think 

 of giving precedence in rank to ri.ow over spade. 



For what is this plow, this much vaunted imple- 

 ment, really good for ? Can it break into the depths 

 of the soil, and continually bring to the surface the 

 unexltaustcd and inexhaustible elements of fertility ? 

 Can it turn up land two feet deep ? Or having so 

 turned it, can it leave behind, in a loose permeable 

 state, the earth in which roots are to penetrate ? 

 These are the results which arc attained by the spade, 

 and they are results to which the cultivator, be he 

 farmer, be he gardener, must mainly look for any 

 great improvement in his crops. But the plow can 

 do iu)thing of the kind. At the woi\st it scrapes 

 away the surface of the soil, or tunis in a little stub- 

 ble, or pretends to bury weeds; at the best it loosens 

 the staple a few inches deep, but the deeper it goes 

 the more it compresses the soil over which it travels, 

 consolidating on the one hand as much as it loosens 

 on the other. 



Deep cultivation is indispensable to complete suc- 

 cess in husbandry; the plow is but- a shalloAv operator; 

 therefore complete success in husbandry is unattaina- 

 ble by tlie plow. That is a fixed principle, the truth 

 of which all good gardeners fully understand. Their 

 whole practice is founded upon it; as is clearly pointed 

 out by Mr. Bailey, himself one of our most expe- 

 rienced horticulturists, in an excellent article published 

 in our columns a week or tAvo since. 



No where are crops so heavy as in good gardens ; 

 no where is land so fruitful. People say that this is 

 owing to manure; but many of our readers can tell a 

 very different tale ; for they know from experience 

 that the steward or farm-bailifi" takes especial care 

 th;it the gardener is not over-supplied Avith so valuable 

 an article. The reason is that the plow is not a gar- 

 den implement; the trust of a gardener is in his spade. 

 Not that Ave deny hi any degree whatsoever the im- 

 ]30i'tance of manure ; it is Avanted in a garden much 

 more than in a farm, for Avithout it heavy root crops 

 and succulent vegetables are unattainable; Avhile it is 

 as certain as any thing can be that in good land 

 cereal crops do not need manure, provided they have 

 proper tillage. We say this to preA"ent misajipi-e- 

 hension, although it is immaterial to the question now 

 before us, whicli should be strictly limited to the com- 

 parative meiits of the ploAv and the spade as imple- 

 ments for cultivating land. 



Mr. Gisborne says: "Do the roots of esculents ■ 

 Avish to penetrate into the earth, at least to the depth -fl 

 of some ieet ? We belie^•e that they do. AVe are ^ 

 sure of the Urassica tribe, grass, and cjover. All our 

 experience and observation deny the doctrine that 

 roots only ramble Avhen they are stinted for food; thai 

 six inches well manured is quite enough, better than 



