in 



rs£\V ENGLAND FARMER. 



very few with wide hips, and the hair of almost 

 all was very short and harsh. 



These, Sir, appoar to tne, upon a careful ex- 

 amination, to he the distinctions betiveen the 

 two rival breeds. I need scarcely add that I 

 think there is a decided superiority in the Short- 

 horns. 



I have every reason to believe that on the 

 same food, and in the same relative circumstan- 

 ces, the Short-horns would he as good at two 

 years old, as the Horefords arc at three. If, 

 however, half a dozen of each were committed 

 to the care of the same per.«on, and brought up 

 precisely in the same manner, the result would 

 be highly intercstin";; and if they were hroug-ht 

 up here, I would give the Herefonls their food 

 for nothing, if they were the conquerors. 



I am well aware that without such a trial, 

 there will continue to be a great ditference of 

 opinion on this question; hut as my object is 

 truth and usefulness, and not fallacy and contro- 

 versy, I submit my remarks with every defer- 

 ence, to the judgment of your readers, not be- 

 ing at all anxious to enter into any defence of 

 the opinion i have formed, if it can be proved 

 to be erroneous, as 1 had no other wish to grat- 

 ify, or purpose to serve, in making tins laborious 

 and extended survey of the two breed*, and in 

 now informingyou of the result^ tlnin a desire to 

 promote the interest of agriculture. 



In the mean time, till the experiment is fairly 

 tried, I must remind your readers tii.it the com- 

 parison is not between the excellent breed of 

 Hercl'ordshire and the wretched cattle with 

 ihnrt-korns, which fmd their way, very undeserv- 

 edly, into many parts of the south, but between 

 the best Herefords and that select and valuable 

 breed to which the name of Improved Short-horns 

 ought to be exclusively applied. 



I am your's, very respectfully, 

 JAMES ARMITAGE RHODES. 



From the nulTalo Patriot, Nov. 26. 

 SatcUitcs of Venus. — The following singular 

 property ofthe plain Mirror, is new it is believ- 

 ed, to the philosophical world. It was acci- 

 dentally discovered by a gentleman a few morn- 

 ings since, and as the subject m.iy excite much 

 .speculation, we give his account of it in his 

 own words. — " Sitting this morning, about gun- 

 lire, with my back to the East, the window be- 

 ing open, and Venus shining brightly into the 

 room. I was surprised to observe two Satellites 

 close to tliat planet reflected in the mirror 

 which the bearer was holding before me. I 

 turned round immediately and looked at Venus 

 steadily with the naked eye but could not dis- 

 cern tliem. Again I looked into the mirror with 

 the same success, i then tried another mirror, 

 supposing that the appearance arose from some 

 tlcl'ect in the glass ; but still the two luminous 

 specks, like stars of the sixth magnitude were 

 distinctly visible. If the exi-<lencc of this ex- 

 tranrdinarv property ofthe plain mirror, rival- 

 ling in its "powers of magnifying, nay, surpass, 

 ing the first instruments in the hands of the 

 great Ilerschell hiniselt", be conlinned by the 

 experiments of other more able observers than 

 myself, it is dilficull to say what wonderful dis- 

 coveries may not shortly be made. The satel- 

 lites of the inferior planets have long been a 

 dcsi.leratum in Astronomy, and if the honor of 

 their discovery he reserved for our new Calcut- 

 ta Observatory, I shall sincerely rejoice that 1 



have been the humble means in the hands of 

 Providence of pointing out the path. There is 

 one thing that puzzles me to acconnt for, unless 

 we have recourse to a new and not improbable 

 theory of optics. I allude to the circumstance 

 of Venus not enhibiting in the mirror her pres- 

 ent gibbous appearance, which a very ordinary 

 telescope will show, while the two Satellites 

 are distinctly represented iu the speculum, 

 though invisible to the most powerful instru- 

 ment hitherto made. Those who are acquainted 

 with the distinction between the rays of sensible 

 and rays of radiant heat, will he at no loss to 

 conceive to what I allude. We are as yet but 

 in the infancy of optical science, and light may 

 have many properties which we are now per- 

 haps on the eve of discovery."^ 



28 carbon, 



8 hydrogen, 

 64 oxygen. 

 Starch, according to Gay Lusaac and Thenard, c« 



THE FARiMER. 



BOSTON :—SATURD,aY, DEC. i?8, 1822. 



CM SAVI.VG A.^D MAKl.VG THE MOST OF MA.NURE. 



(^Continued from page 151.) 

 In our last number on this subject, we attempted to 

 shew that nearly all the esseatial constituent parts of all 

 veo-etable substances were composed- of carbon, hydrogen 

 and oxygen, combined in- various proportions, together 

 with azote, which last is found only in some few spe- 

 cies of plants. These four bodies, or different kinds of 

 matter, by being di.Terently combined, form the vast 

 variety of vegetable products, which appear to possess 

 not only very different, but opposite qualities, such as 

 sweet, bitter, sour, oily, pesinous, glutinous, wholesome, 

 poisonous, &c. &c. As these ideas are probably new 

 to many of our readers, although undoubtedly of great 

 importance, and indeed indispensably requisite for all 

 who would understand the rudiments of the science of 

 agriculture, we shall still farther enlarge upon them. 

 This we are the more readily induced to do on account 

 of the season's inviting to protracted discussion, and 

 the winter evenings presenting leisure both to our read- 

 ers and ourselves, which might be devoted to Uss laud- 

 able and more unprofitable employments. Besides, we 

 do not give any credence to the maxim of the poet, 

 who says, 



" Brevity is always good-. 

 If w' are, or are not, understood." 

 On the contrary we think, when any matter of science 

 requiren to be elucidated, and its first principles ex- 

 plained, in order to pave the way to results of practical 

 utility, it is better to give " line upon line," and run 

 the risque of being censured for redundancy, than to 

 adopt a style more nervous and concise, but less intcl- 

 ligible, and' not so well adapted to the capacity of com- 

 mon readers. 



A little morp or a little less in the proportions of the 

 compounds of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, causes 

 the wonderful variety of vegetable products. Thus 

 " gum aivd sugar contain nearly the same principles, 

 and starch rfiffers from them only in containing a little 

 more carlion. These three products are convertible 

 into each other. Thu.», in the ripening of grain, tlie 

 sugar conveyed into it by the sap vessels, coftgulatts 

 into starch ; while in malting the converse takes plac<, 

 and the starch in grain in converted into sugar, from 

 which anient spirit results. Part of the carbon com- 

 bines with oxygen, and escapes in the form of carbniiic- 

 acid, while the remaining hydrogen and oxygen unitf 

 to form p,lciiliol."* Pugar contains, according to La- 

 voisier, in 100 parts. 



,!■■■ 



■ti 



■1 

 9^t 



* AgrimUural Chemistry 



tains, 



Carben, with a small quantity of lalioc 



and earthy matter, - 43,55 



Hydrogen, . - ^'77 



Oxygen, . . 49^68 



Now if we could take from the carbon in starch 

 as set down above 13,55, that is from 43,55 

 take 15,55, there would remain 

 If we could add to the hydrogen of starch 1,23, 



or to 6,77 add 1,23 we should have 

 If we could add to the oxygen in starch 14,32, 



or to 49,68 add M,32, we should have 

 Thus a little adding and subtracting from the coi t 

 atituent parts of starch, convert? starch into sugar, an (11 

 other vegetable products are capable of being altere h 

 or converted from one to the other by similar mean biv 

 This nature often performs, but art is generally baffle 

 ai the attempt. De Saussure, however, has succeede 

 in converting starch into sugar by boiling the formi 

 in water with sulphuric acid, and it is possible the i 

 other vegetable products may be conducted throug I* 

 analogous changes, artificially, by chemical processi 

 yet undiscovered. It will not appear at all incredibl 

 that a mixture of simple substances should form con ur 

 pounds very different in their properties from the sill ^ 

 stances before mixture, when we reflect that by mcl 

 ing together potash and sand, glass is produced, and 

 mixture of muriatic acid [spirit of sea salt] and sodi< 

 both very corrosive, forms so mild and salutary an ai 

 tide as table salt. 



Barn-yard manure, and other animal and vegetaV 

 manures, are composed of the same constituents, vi 

 carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, as the plants which thcftiiii 

 nourish. Vegetable or animal substances are of no ui il: 

 as long as those particles or atoms remain locked In |1 

 gt-lhcr, or attached to each other. The putrcfactil f. 

 process unlocks or lets loose their component atom m 

 and they immediately commence wandering in, ac — 

 poisoning the atmosphere, unless they light of sod 

 substance which has power to absorb them. If the 

 atoms are taken into the lungs of man or beast, tl 

 anima-1 receives an injury, which, though perhaps : 1 

 the time not perceptible, is not the less real. If, hov | 

 ever, they are taken in by the absorbent vessels 1 

 plants, either in their roots or leaves, the plants coi 

 vert to their own uses such particles as their neccssitii 

 may require, and the floating atoms, perhaps recentl 

 released from a dead vegetable or animal, become a pai 

 of a living plant. It is therefore incumbent on an enligli 

 ened agriculturist to sieze the vagrant atoms, and eitht 

 present them as food for growing crops, or treasur 

 them up for the use of future crops. 



The absorbent substances which may be used to 11 

 vantage for retaining and hoarding up the gases, whit 

 constitute the food of plants, are principally wAxri 

 and EARxn. Water not only dissolves solid bodit 

 such as salt, sugar, ice. but likewise attracts and ri 

 tains in solution gases or steams, such as rise from 

 dunghill in a state of fermentation. Ammonia, or tli 

 volatile alkali, is one ofthe products which arise froE 

 the decomposition of all animal or vegetable substan 

 CCS. When uncombined with water, or any other sul 

 stance, it exists in a state of gas, and is then so ex 

 tremely volatile as to exhale at any known tempern 

 ture. Its volatility is diminished in some degree b; 

 combination with water. That fluid has the power e 

 takin" up and condensing nearly 670 times its ov. 

 bulk of ammoniacal gas, or volatile alkali. C.-irboii. 

 acid gas, which alec arises from the putrescence of if 



i 



