364 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



lime and iron are the most coniniou impurities in 

 Onondaga and Virginia salts used lor domestic pur- 

 poses. WTiether farmers should undertake to purify 

 these before salting meat, Imtter and cliecse, is a 

 question for each one to settle for himself. No one 

 doubts that manufacturers ought to be |»unis]ied f jr 

 putti!ig up a bad article and selling it fur a good one. 



Every one ivho keeps live slock knows that cutting 

 hay, straw and corn-stalks greatly facilitates their di- 

 gestion in the stomachs of the animals that consume 

 such forage. This idea ol" aiding the digestive pro- 

 cess is now carried still further in France, by grinding 

 straw, and converting it into a kind of farina or 

 starch by scalding, and perhap; developing grape 

 sugar by the use of a httle oil of vitriol. Common 

 saw-dust may he changed into a kind of sugar ; and 

 the woody tiber in straw, corn-stalks, &c., may be 

 transformed into a soluble mass; but how nourishing 

 the new product may be, we will not say. There is 

 nothing in the mechanical operation of cutting straw 

 that is not greatly improved by grinding it ; nor will 

 it yield blood to neat stock without first being dis- 

 solved in the organs of digestion. Man cooks his 

 own food to increase its solubility ; and steam-driven 

 teeth will yet masticate, as steam will hidf digest, all 

 the food of his domestic animals. Digesticm, with 

 ita genial heat, its hydrochloric acid, its alkaline bile 

 to precipitate the fecal part of alimentary substances, 

 is becoming much better understood by scientific 

 husbandmen. 



The Science of Wintering Stock will be discussed 

 at length in the January number of the Farmer. 

 Our pi-esent purpose is to make a few suggestions as 

 hints for the month — nothing more. "And these 

 would be incomplete if we failed to urge the reading 

 of good agricultural books as an agreeable and 

 profitable occupation dm-ing long winter evenings. 

 Johnstons Agricnltinal Chemistry should be studied 

 by every youth. 



The engraving on the preceding page is intended 

 to illustrate the mythological fable connected with 

 the constellation Capricoruus, which is a follows : 



Pan, or Bacchus, fleeing from the giant Typluneus 

 into the river Nile, transformed himself into a sea- 

 goat, and Jupiter made him a constellation. Or, 

 Amaltba^a, daughter of Melissus, king of Crete, 

 nourished the infant Jupiter with goats' milk and 

 honey ; for which service she was translated ta the 

 heavens, in the constellation Capricornus. 



The character of this sign is supposed to have 

 some resemblance to the tail of a goat ; but it is 

 more probably an ancient mark for the name. The 

 figure is sometimes that of a monster, partly a goat 

 and partly a fish; but sometimes like a common goat, 

 an animal fond of mounting, and therefore emble- 

 matical of the sun, which, having in this sign reached 

 his greatest southern declination, begins to re-ascend 

 toward the north. 



In the Egyptian zodiac, the sea-goat is held in a 

 string by Auul)is. In the Indian zodiac, this sign is 

 represented by a goat passant, traversed by a fish ; 

 on the Oriental zodiac of Sir W. Jones, it is a fish 

 swallowing an antelope, and surrounded by aquatic 

 birds; and in Moor's Hindoo Pantheon, Cipricornus 

 is represented by an antelope. The sua enters Cap- 

 ricornus about the 21st of December. 



MOISTURE IN SOILS. 



The goodness of a soil consists in an eminent de- 

 gree i)i the power it has of maintaining a certain 

 degree of moisture; for witlujiit this the ])lant can 

 not possibly imbibe aliment, no luatler how abiuidant. 

 Standing in a dunghill, without mnistnre, the ))laiit 

 will starve. In supplying soils with a d>ie aniouivt 

 of water, it is indispensable that the earth to a con- 

 siderable depth be in a condition to permit tlie 

 tolerably free descent and ascent of rain water that 

 may fall on the surface of the ground in the course 

 of a year. By this mechanical arrangement, the earth 

 to the depth of twenty or more feet becomes an en- 

 during reservoir to hold water for the benefit of vege- 

 tation. The more protracted the drouth, from a 

 lower point in the earth will water ascend to meet 

 the urgent wants of suffering plants. The supply 

 may be insufficient, for the daily evaporation of wa- 

 ter from the numerous leaves of large plants is esti- 

 mated in gallons ; but that fact does not invalidate 

 the importance of the principle under discussion. 



Without being saturated, a cubic foot of good 

 wheat or meado^v land will hold irom twenty-five to 

 thirty })ounds of water ; and a cubic yard (which ia 

 less than is usually allowed to a hill of corn) will 

 hold from si.\ bundled to eight hundred pounds of 

 water. 



Those who may take a special interest in the ca- 

 pacity of different soils to hold water, will find many 

 facts bearing on llie subject in an extended Essay on 

 the "Study of the Soils," publisheu in the Patent 

 Office Report for IS.iO, and from the pen of the pro- 

 prietor of the (i^NKSEE Fakjier. Schubler haa 

 investigated this interesting subject with equal skill, 

 industry and success. 



Soils incapable of holding much water below the 

 point of saturation, are hardly worth cultivating in 

 this country-lhat abounds in cheap and fertile lands. 

 Open, loose gravel and sand, form soils of this hungry, 

 worthless character. 'I'hey need a good dressing oi 

 clay, if one would make ihe.u retentive of moisture 

 and manure. Soils of the right ph_ysical constitution 

 have the power to . draw largely on the atmosphere 

 for the elements of fertility ; those which are either 

 too compact and solid, or too pervious and open, are 

 almost always barren — drawing nothing from the air, 

 but giving to drying winds and washing rains all the 

 food of [ilants they naturally possess in their virgin 

 state, if too loose, and locking up such food forever, 

 ;f too hard. 



LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



Leguminous plants are those of the pulse tribe, 

 and include peas, beans, tares, clover, lucerne, sain- 

 foin, etc., of the class diadelphia and order decandria. 



The formation of the roots of leguminous veg. ta- 

 bles varies much. The pea, for in.stance, has nu- 

 merous small roots, all issuing from the seed, like the 

 under-set of the roots of culmiferous plants (wheat, 

 barley, oats, &c.) ; the red clover has a strong tap- 

 root. 



The essential difference — as regards the otTect upon 

 the soil — between leguminous and culmiferous plants, 

 13 that the former derive much of their aliment fpMH 



