134 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ishing and jjalafable to cattle, after they have 

 been accustomed to it.'' 



The fo!lowiri!j l>om (he Farmer's .'hsistun:, 

 will shov/ that instinct is not an infallible guide 

 for horsrs^ as rcsjjccts the food which is best 

 adapted to their nouriKhment. 



" Pumpkins arc excellent for fattin? lior3e=. 

 Thei/, lioii'cvcr, do not relish them at first ; and 

 therefore must be kept from feeding, till they 

 are hungry, before the pumpkins arc offered to 

 them ; and let a little salt be llr>t sprinkled on 

 this lood, when they ivill soon grow fond of it 

 and eat it readily, without salt." ' 



It " himger makes good sauce for horse.-',"" 

 no doubt it would an.swcr for cattle, and might 

 make the latter relish turnips as well as the 

 former pumpkins. I3ut cattle or horses fed 

 upon pumpkins, turnips, or any such succulent 

 iood, or upon green clover, i,c. should be salted 

 more liberally than those, which are confined 

 to hay or other dry food. 



Kroni the American Farmer. 

 Improvement of A'tat Cattle — Peiligrers of Im- 

 ported .htitfKtls, i-c. ^-c. 



\^ have witnessed with peculiar pleasure, 

 the persevering and praiseworthy zeal which 

 Col. Jno. H. Powell, of Pliiladelphia, continue- 

 to manifest for improvement of our breeds of 

 Neat Cattle; as well by judicious soli_'Ctions 

 from our native stock, as by the importation of 

 chosen animals from England. 



In No. G, of this Vol. page 4.1, we published 

 a list of animals, which he had collected chielly 

 from the Eastern States, for the purpo-e of ex- 

 hibiting them in Pennsylvania, and distributing 

 them at cost, amongst the Farmers of his native 

 and other states. And in No, 16, pages 12'2 — 3, 

 our readers will have noticed an oihcial account 

 of the exhibition, made b3' the same gentleman, 

 of some ot tiiose animals, and of otlirr native 

 and imported stock, before the Philadelphia 

 Agricultural Society, for nearly all of which pre- 

 miums were awarded to Col. Powell, that were 

 instantly and generously relinquished by him, 

 for the benelit of the Society. 



In the same number, the effects of this gen- 

 tlcman'.s judicious and spirited efforts, to ad- 

 vance the interests of his neighbours, may be 

 traced through the list of premiums obtained 

 by them for superior young Neat Cattle, that 

 partook of the blood of the improved breed, 

 which he had brought to their notice and plac- 

 ed at their service. 



We rejoice to learn that Col. Powi^ll has or- 

 dered some more animals from England, and 

 hope that 1 o may realize his loftiest expecta- 

 tions I'rom the enterprize. I'rnm .Mr. Wether- 

 ill, the breeder of Mr. Williams" celebrated 

 <^ Hull '-Denton," and from Mr. Champion, the 

 breeder of Colonel Lloyds' beautiful and prom- 

 ising Bull " Champion," he may justly expect to 

 receive some of the most improved cattle of 

 Great Pritain. And no where could such Stock 

 be better placed than ivithin the reach of Penn- 

 sylvania Farmers; who, like their judicious fel- 

 low c tizens of Massachusetts, will glailly em- 

 brace every opportunity to improve the breeds 

 of their Neat (.'attlo. 



And that all may hcrc.ifter avail themselves 

 of the offspring of such animals as prove to be 

 (he best of their kinil, we have pro])osed to re- 

 cord the pedigrees of imported and ci'lebratcd 



stock, which we will thankfully receive from 

 owners, or others who possess such information, 

 and carefully register it in our columns. We 

 are indebted to Col. Powell for the following 

 pedigrees of two very valuable imported ani- 

 mals, and two others of imported breeds. 



PKDlGRr.F.S. 



FLOllA, (an imported thorough bred improved 

 .Durham Short Horn Cow) was by Sampson — 

 dam was Bettj" — grandam Old Petty, who 

 came from the neighbourhood of Darlington, 

 Durham County, I'.ngland — Sampson was by 

 son of Ossian — Ossian was by Favorite — Samp- 

 son's dam was by Comet — Comet was by Fa- 

 vourite. 



ROSE is also a thorough bred improved Dur- 

 ham Short Horn Cow, and was j)urchased 

 near Darlington. 



LOTii'ARlO, a bull of 7 months, was from Rose, 

 by Oeorge^-^George was by Phenomenon — 

 dam by Favorite — grandam by M. Allison's 

 Gray — great grandam by T. Charge's Old 

 Gray — Phenomenon was by Favorite, from 

 Elvira, bred by Sir li. Vane Tempest — Elvira 

 was by Old Phenomenon, from Princess, both 

 bred by Robert Collings — Princess was by 

 Old Favourite. 



CORA, was by Mr. Williams' bull Denton, from 

 Julia — Julia was by Denton, from Mr. Wil- 

 liams' imported cow Devon — Denton was by 

 Old Denton — dam by Baronet — 'grandam by 

 Cripple — great grand dam by irishman — Old 

 Denlon was by Comet. 



almost demonstrated the infinite divisibility of matter 

 by actual experiment. If the food of vegetables was 

 reduced to an impalpable powder, as much finer thau 

 smill'as snuff is finer than grape shot, they imagined it 

 would be more easily swallowed and digested, than if 

 it remained all kneaded together, or its particles were 

 congregated in coarse lumps, which plants could neither, 

 carve into particles of a proper size for deglutition nor 

 take in and decompose or digest without division. 



Van Hrlmont and many other men, who have been 

 famous in the annals of philosophy, were confident that 

 water is the one thing luedful for tlie growth of every 

 species of vegetation, and that the soil, in which plant? 

 are fixed is no otherwise useful than as it serves to sus- 

 tain them in an upright position and to convey water 

 to thi ir roots in such quantity as may be adequate to 

 their wants. Very many able writers have adopted 

 this theory, and it would seem that even at this day it 

 is not without its advvocates.* 



THE FARMER. 



BOSTOy .—SATURDAY, .\OV. 23, 1822. 



0.\ bAVI.\G AXD 3IAU1.\G THE MOST OF MANURE. 



{Continued from page 111.) 

 It has generally been taken for granted, by those 

 who have considered themselves as adepts in the sci- 

 ence of agriculture, that the great store-house of nature 

 contained, in some corner of the apartment, a very 

 valuable substance, called/oorf for plants. 7'his they 

 supposed to be the essence of all manure, and the only 

 thing needful, in order to raise, on any soil to which it 

 might be applied, as great crops as could possibly find 

 room for their top? and footstalks. They therefore set 

 about exploring and experimenting, nimmagiug and 

 ravaging the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms 

 in search of this magical substance, this faimer's phi- 

 losopher's stone, which v*-ould metamorphose a desert 

 into a flower garden as it were l>y the wand of a nc- 

 cromanctr. At length certain philosophers verily be- 

 lieved, and told the world their opinions, that they had 

 found the identical y?«6tt/um of ve^ttalion, as they call- 

 ed it, and that agriculturists had nothing to do but to 

 manure their fields with the said pabulum in order to 

 procure the best and most profitable of all possible 

 products. But, unfortunately, it so happened that no 

 two, or at least no half dozen of these learned and in- 

 genious system-makers could agree upon the nature 

 and constituent parts of this appropriate diet for vege- 

 tables; and of course the said vegetables were obliged 

 to pick up a living as they could, while their philo- 

 sophic caterers viere preparing messes precisely adapt- 

 ed to their appetites and constitutions. 



Duhamel and TuU were of opinion that the earlli in 

 which plants grew, furnished their principal food. 

 That in order to enable their little mouths, (which 

 were ))laced in their roots) to imbibe their nourislunenl, 

 the soil ntu»t be ploughed and harrowed till you hnd 



* lAjrd Kaimes was of this belief which he fortificj 

 by the authority of Lord Bacon, who, he observes, 

 "gave his opinion, that for nourishing vegetables, wa- 

 ter was almost all in all ; and that the earth serves buf 

 to keep the plant upright, and preserve it froa too 

 much heat, or too much cold." 



Gentleman Farmer, p. 363. 



More modem writers have also given some coun- 

 tenance to this theory, as may be learned from the fol- 

 lowing note from Parkea' Chemical Catechism, p. 453, 

 10th edition. 



" That vegetables w ill grow in woollen cloth, moss, 

 and in other insoluble media, besides soils, provided 

 they be supplied with water, has been repeatedly shown 

 since the days of Van Helmont and Bnyle ; but the ex- 

 periments of a modern author, from their apparent cor- 

 rectness, seem more highly interesting and conclusive 



" Seeds of various plants were sown in purerivtr- 

 sand, in litharge, in flowers of sulphur, and even among 

 metal, or common leaden shot ; and in every instance 

 nothing employed for their nourishment but distiltid 

 welter. The plants throve, and passed through all the 

 usual gradations of growth to perfect maturity. The 

 author then proceeded to gather the entire produci , 

 the roots, stems, leaves, pods, seeds, k.c. These were 

 accurately weighed, dried, and again weighed, then 

 submitted to distillation, incineration, lixiviation, and 

 the other ordinary means used in a careful analysis. — 

 'I'hus he obtained from these vegetables all the materi- 

 als peculiar to each individual species, precisely as il it 

 had been cultivated in a natural soil, — viz. the various 

 earths, the alkalies, acids, metals, carbon, sulphur, 

 phosphorus, nitrogen, &c. He concludes this very im- 

 portant paper nearly in these extraordinary word* : 

 ■' O.rvgc" and //V'' '".?«", with the assistance of soli, 

 light, appear to be the only elementary substances eii: 

 ployed in the constitution of the whole universe ; ami 

 iVature, in her simple progress, works the most infinite- 

 ly diversified effects by the slightest modifications in 

 the means she employs.'" See " Rtclitrclies sur /.. 

 Force nisimiliitrice dans les r>g!7n«r," )iar -M. Heni. 

 Braeonnot, Anneiles lie Oiimie, Fev. et ^lars, 1808. 



" Professor Leslie has made many experiments on a 

 variety of earths and stones by means of his improved 

 hygrometers, the results of vihlch are highly dcservin; 

 the attention of all practical agriculturalists. From 

 these researches he has been induced to think it proba- ■ 

 ble, that the fi-rtility of soils depends chiefly on their 

 disposition to imbibe moisture. See his Short Account 

 of E.rperimt7its and Jn.sfriiments dependtTiff ou the lit' 

 tat ions of Air, Jhat, and J\Ioislure, octavo, pages 9-1 — 

 102." 



Notwithstanding plants can bo made to grow in pure 

 water, that circumstance does not prove that water ia 

 rxclusireli/ food for vegetables, any more than their 

 growing in air (as some vegetables will) would prove 

 that clement to be their appropriate food. It might as 

 well be said that the possibility of fatting an ox on po- 

 tatoes is an incontrovertible argument that potatoes 

 are the principal and almost the exclusive food of ani« 

 mals. Allhoxigh plant; may have power to change 



