THE GENESEE FARMER. 



119 



more. Ask the Jerseyraan; lie will show you a pars- 

 nip ax thick as your thigli, ami as long as your leg, 

 uiul will tell you the ad\ aiUagvs ui' fourteeu feet of 

 iliy soil. You will hear of pai'sni])s whose roots de- 

 scend to uusearchable depths. We will not appeal 

 to the Kentucky carrot, which was drawn out by its 

 roots at the antipodes ; but Mr. Mechi's, if we re- 

 member right, was a dozen teet or more. Three years 

 ago, iu a midland county, a field of good land in 

 good cultivation, and richly manured, 2^i"oduccd a 

 heavy crop of cabbages. In November of that year 

 \vc saw that a field brolcen into in several places, and 

 at the depth of four feet the soil (a tenaceous marl, 

 fully stiff enough for brick earth) was occupied t)y the 

 roots of cabbage, not s})anngly — not mere capilhc — 

 but fibers of the size of pack-thread." 



This is an important admission on the part of the 

 plaintifl" in the case before us, although what every 

 gardener knows to be true. Such being the fact, let 

 us ask how far the plow is capable of rendering land 

 fit for the vigorous growth of plants whose roots com- 

 monly penetrate the soil even two or three feet. All 

 the plow can do is to loosen a few inches of earth 

 upon the surface; what lies below it has never been 

 moved from the day when the plow was a crooked 

 stick dragged by an ox. The spade, on the contrary, 

 penetrates the soil to any depth which may be re- 

 (piired, mixes the particles thoroughly, and leaves 

 them loose, with free access for the air and water 

 upon which the deep-searching roots are nourished. 

 The depth to which a plow can go is limited by its 

 own nature; the depth to v.diich a sp;ide can operate 

 is limited by expense. 



In fact, the cjuestion is oive of cost, and of nothing- 

 else. It can not be seriously contended that the plow 

 is in reality so etficient as the spad.e ; all that can be 

 rationally insisted upon is that it is far cheaper. Into 

 that argument avc need not enter; we may 

 concede the point without injury to the ca,-^i. 

 client, who can afford to be regarded as a costly 

 operator, if liis efTiciency is unimpeathel. 



But need the spade be for evei- costly ? 

 chanical skill so low that no means can be found of 

 impelling it by other hands than those of man ? We 

 have seen the flail disappear before a small machine ; 

 we have seen the human fingers replaced iu a cotton 

 mill by joints of iron obeying the impulse of ma- 

 chinery ; we have the haml replaced by a few knives 

 in carving figures out of paper ; and can no one dis- 

 cover how to represent the thev.-s and sinews of a 

 ])easant by similar contrivances ? To say so would 

 be to liliel the mechanical skill of the age ; and we 

 confidently believe that the immense su])eriority of 

 the spade over the plow having boon once admitted 

 in the abstract, we shall at no distant period find our 

 laborers directing fire and water to execute their will, 

 instead of exhausting their own powers in an eternal 

 struggle with mother earth, ^\llenever that occurs 

 we shall know how to appreciate the real fertility of 

 our land — and not till then. — London Gardeners'' 

 Chronicle. 



indeed 

 of our 



Is me- 



SiR JoHx Sinclair says that agriculture, though 

 iu general capaljle of being reduced to simple prin- 

 ciples, yet requires on the whole a greater variety of 

 knowledge than any other art. 



GAllCET IN CO\\'S. 



At the solicitation of a friend who has saved a 

 valuable cow from the hands of the butcher, I am 

 induced to make known through your columns a 

 remedy for the garget. Some years since, I met with 

 a fine imported Durham cow on the way to the 

 butcher, the owner parting with her in consequence 

 of her being afflicted with the garget. The owner 

 had tried all the usual modes of eradicating the dis- 

 ease, after which he put her u)ider chai-ge of a distin- 

 guised veterinarian, who, after six months' attendance, 

 discharged her as incurable. 



Deeming her a good subject for a treatment with 

 iodine, and not knowing whether it had been used in 

 the case, I purchased her at what she was worth for 

 beef. At that time she gave but a few drops of milk 

 at a time from one teat, the other three having ceased 

 to yield any; the udder and teats were swollen and 

 hard. I determined to niake use of iodine iu the 

 form of hydriodate of potash, being solvent in water; 

 and if it failed to exhibit its effects on the system, I 

 would resort to an ouitmeut (20 grs. iodine to 1 oz. 

 hog's lard), applied externally to the udder and teats. 

 I commenced by giving 10 grs. of hydriodate of pot- 

 ash iu a table-spoonful of water three times a day, 

 mixed ia a mass of shorts or meal; and though the 

 dose was unusually small for a cow, still as it was 

 giving unmistakable signs of efiect,* I did not in- 

 crease the dose. In seven days she gave milk freely 

 fi'om each teat, and iu three weeks she was discharged 

 as cured. The result in the foregoing case was so fa- 

 vorable, that I advised my neighbors, who had cow's 

 afflicted with the garget, to make trial of the same 

 remedy. I have known of its trial in at least forty 

 ca.ses, and in every one the cure has been effected 

 with even the above-named small dose. A larger 

 quantity could be used at a dose with safety. 



Any one acquainted with the effect of iodine on 

 the human i-y>tem, knows its tendency to produce an 

 absorption of the manimu3. Dr. R. Coats, of Phila- 

 delphia, reports a case iu the Medical Examiner, of 

 the complete absorption of the female breast from 

 iodine; but the mammcic recovered their original de- 

 velopments after the lapse of a year. Iodine is prin- 

 cipally employed in diseases of the alisorbents and 

 glandular systems. [See U. S. Dispensatory.] 



Plydiiolate of potash can be jirocured of any 

 apothecary, and dissolved so as to allow 10 gi-ains to 

 each spoonful of water, increasing the do.-es till it 

 gives effect on testing the urine. — jGie/i JVright, in 

 the Boston CuUivator. 



OCTAGON BARNS. 



For daily purposes, and fattening neat cattle, oc- 

 tagon barns present advantages over all othors, as 

 one can have the feed for all at the center of the 

 barn. Mr. Cal^-ert, near AVashington, D. C, has a 

 barn of this kind over 100 feet in diameter, with two 

 rows of stalls for cows on the eight sides. Mr. C. 

 has an estate of three thousand acres, and few farmers 



* Hydrioilafe of pota.'sh passes quickly into ihe secretions, es- 

 pecially the urine. It may be detected in the latter by first adding 

 to tlie cold secretion a portion of starch, .and then a few drops of 

 nitric acid, when a blue color wiU be proiluced. _„,^ 



