TOL. XVII. NO. .15. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



275 



CFrom tlie Genesee Farmer ) 



DICTIONARY OF 'PERMS USED IN AGRI- 

 CULTURE, 



AND IN THE SCIENCES MOST INTIMATELY CON- 

 NECTED WITH ITS ADVANCEMENT. 



(Continued.) 

 Jlshes. When wood is burned in a position that 

 excludes the air, the product is coal ; if combus- 

 tion is performed in the open air the produce is 

 ashes. Ashes by bcin^ leached, or havinor warm 

 water passed through them, are deprived of the 

 alkali they contain, and this is obtained in the 

 shape of potash or soda, by evaporation. Differ- 

 ent wood, and plants, vary much in the quantity of 

 ashes and alkali they produce ; the fir, beech and 

 poplar, ranking the lowest, and the box, willow, 

 elm, wormwood and fumitory the highest. The 

 leached ashes of several kinds of grain, were found 

 by Ruckert, to be constituted as follows : 



Leached ashes are found to be an excellent ma- 

 nure applied to soils that are light, or such as are 

 inclining to be sour ; the alkali correcting the acid 

 with which such soils, as the vegetation proves, 

 abound. In some instances crops of grain, roots 

 and grass have been nearly^ doubled by their use ; 

 and no skilful agriculturist permits their waste. 



Asparagus. A plant cultivated in gardens and 

 deservedly esteemed for its value as an article of 

 food, when properly prepared. Its value is also 

 greatly enhanced by the early season at which it is 

 produced. It is the young shoots of the plant, as 

 they attain the height of some four or six inches 

 above the earth, that are used for food, and these 

 are cut slanting upwards, about two inches below 

 the surface. Asparagus is usually grown in beds, 

 and requires a soil very rich and deep, and if not 

 so naturally, it must be made so by trenching and 

 manuring with fine manure or compost, before the 

 plants, which are raised from the seed, are put into 

 it They may set in rows eighteen inches dis- 

 tance, and ten inches in the row, or in squares at 

 one foot distance. The beds during the winter 

 are secured from frost, and the plants prepared for 

 an early start by a covering of straw or litter. The 

 beds must be loosened in the spring, and a coating 

 of mould saturated with liquid manure worked in, 

 has been found a capital dressing. A few plants 

 are not cut but reserved for seed, to keep a supply 

 of young plants for the beds. In a favorable soil, 

 an asparagus bed, when established, and properly 

 attended to, will last many years. The plants are 

 usually allowed to stand three years before they 

 are cut ; some, however, commence on them the 

 second year. They arc boiled and eaten with but- 

 ter, as are green peas, &c. The asparagus offers 

 a striking instance of the effect produced on plants 

 by cultivation. In some parts of Europe it is found 

 growing wild on the sea shore, its stem not thicker 

 than a goose quill, and only a few inches in height. 

 The cultivated plant is sometimes found three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter, and grows to six 

 feet in height. In the neighborhood of cities or 

 villages asparagus is cultivated as a source of great 

 profit ; and it should find a place in every kitchen 

 garden. 



Atmosphere. That mass of thin, elastic, and 

 usually invisible fluid, in which the earth floats, 

 and with which that and other bodies are surround- 

 ed. The height of the atmosphere is calculated 

 at 46 miles ; its pressure on the earth to be equal 

 to that of a column of water 32 1-2 feet high, and 

 on the body of a middling sized man at 32,440 

 pounds. The density of the atmosphere diminishes 

 in geometrical, while the height increases in arith- 

 metical progression. In all the functions of ani- 

 mal and vegetable life, the atmosphere acts a most 

 important jiart. It i.s composed of o.vygen and hy- 

 drogen, carbonic gas, aqueous vapor, and a minute 

 quantity of hydrogen. In addition to these per- 

 manent ingredients, it contains a multitude of other 

 substances, in the form of vapor or gas, varying in 

 kind and quantity according to circumstances, but 

 all exercising more or less an influence on the an- 

 imal and vegetable kingdoms. Of those that afl>3ct 

 the animal, that undeternuned something called 

 miasma, which produces disease to such an extent 

 as to render some of the most fertile districts of 

 the globe scarcely habitable, may be adduced ; and 

 of those that act on the vegetable, the animoniacal 

 products, the result of fermentation, may be men- 

 tioned. By stirring the earth, the absorption of 

 these atmospheric agents is greatly promoted, and 

 the consequent vegetation of plants proportionably 

 accelerated. 



Awns. The long bristle-like terminations of 

 the envelope of the kernel in some kinds of plants, 

 is termed the aimi or beard. It is particularly con- 

 spicuous in some kinds of winter wheat, in most 

 varieties of spring wheat, and in all the kinds of 

 barley. Wheat without beards can be converted 

 into the bearded, and vice versa, by changing the 

 sowing from autumn to spring, or from spring to 

 autumn. Of all grains, barley is the most liberally 

 provided with this formidable appendage. 



Axote. A gas, which constitutes the most im- 

 portant portion of the air, and is sometimes called 

 nitrogen, because one of the most essential prop- 

 erties of its base is, that in conjunction with oxy- 

 gen, it composes nitric acid. Though in itself 

 fatal to animal life, it abounds in animal substances, 

 and forms ammonia with thc-ir hydrogen when burn- 

 ed. The great difference between animal and veg- 

 etable substance lies in this, the former contains 

 azote, and the latter is destitute of it. Owing to 

 its feeble affinity for other substances, the number 

 of compounds into which azote enters is small, and 

 its influence on agriculture, with the exception of 

 its eflcct when combined with animal matter, pro- 

 portionably limited. 



Bacon. The flesh of swine that has been sub^ 

 jected to the process of smoking over a wood fire, 

 is termed bacon ; but the parts to which this term 

 is most usually applied, and which are usually cho- 

 sen for bacon, are the hams, and the cheeks or 

 jowls.. A good ham is one of the most excellent 

 kinds of food, and this goodness in a great meas- 

 ure is depending on their preparation. The kinds 

 most celebrated, are the Westphalia, principally 

 brought from Hamburg ; the Hampshire, from Eng- 

 land ; and in the United States, the Virginia or 

 Southern ham generally. It is not known that 

 there is any thing peculiar in the feeding or pick- 

 ling the Hamburg hams ; but their superiority is at- 

 tributed to the manner in which they are smoked. 

 This is performed in large chambers in the third or 

 fourth stories of buildings, to which the smoke is 

 conducted in tubes from fires of oak or maple chips 

 in the cellar of the building. In passing this dis- 



tance, the vapor which smoke usually holds, is de- 

 posited, and the hams are perfectly dry and cool 

 during the whole process. The Hampshire bacon 

 is made from pork not scalded in dressing, but de- 

 prived of the hair by quick fires of straw or other 

 combustible materials. This singeing is repeated 

 two or three times as the case may require, when 

 the hog is cut up, pickled and carefully smoked. 

 These hams are particularly hard and fine, which 

 is attributed to the skin not having been softened 

 by scalding. The Virginia or Southern hams are 

 supposed to owe much of their superior flavor to 

 the animals being allowed to run at large the most 

 of the time of feeding ; to their being much in the 

 w oods, and wild, giving more firmness to the mus- 

 cle ; and to their feeding much on acorns and other 

 products of the.foissts. Virginia hams are usually 

 small, the hogs themselves rarely weighing over 

 two hundred^ and the pickling and smoking per- 

 formed in the best manner. The great defects in 

 smoking, commonly are, the haras are too near the 

 fire ; and the house is too tight The hams are in 

 consequence kept too warm from the fire, and the 

 condensation of the vapor keeps them wet. Dry- 

 ness while smoking is indispensable to good bacon. 

 Bark. Modern writers on vegetable physiology 

 divide plants into exogenous and endogenous ; in 

 the first of which the additions that constitute 

 growth are made successively on the exterior side 

 of the parts from which they proceed ; and in the 

 last the growth is the result of additions made in- 

 ternally. The trees of northern regions, such as 

 the pine, oak, and elm, belong to the first class; 

 the trees of tropical climes, such as the palm, cane, 

 bamboo, and all grain bearing plants, belong to the 

 last. The first named trees or plants, only have a 

 proper bark. In this class of vegetables, every year 

 adds a new layer of wood which is the alburnam ; 

 and a new layer of bark, which is denominated the 

 liber. Bark, then, is divided into three parts ; the 

 inner layer called the liber ; the zone of successive 

 outer layers called 1?^ cellular envelop; and the 

 exterior surface of this envelop, which is termed 

 the epidermis. A cross, section of the bark of the 

 basswood or elm, will e-xhibit this structure 

 in perfection. The hark exercises an impor- 

 tant influence in preserving plants from the effect 

 of frost, and the alburnum from injury, and cannot 

 be removed without inflicting severe or fatal inju- 

 ries to the trees. A healthy and clear bark is es- 

 sential to a vigorous growth ; and an occasional 

 wash of soap, lime, or ashes, is found beneficial, 

 when trees are attacked by insects or mosses. 

 (To lie coulinued.) 



MAMMOTH HOG. 



iiobt Alexander, a substantial farmnr from Jack- 

 son, Washington county, has raised and sold to 

 George Swartz of this city, for $200, a " leetle the 

 largest" hog that was ever dreamt of. This noble 

 porker is now two years and eight months old, and 

 weighs sixteen hundred pounds. It is supposed by 

 good judges that he will lose 150 pounds in dressing, 

 which will leave his useful weight 1450 pounds. 

 He measures 8 feet 9 inches in length, and is re- 

 garded by connoisseurs as the largest aninal of his 

 race, ever raised in America. This is the second 

 hog that Mr Alexander has raised to the enormous 

 weight of over 1400 poanAs.— Albany paper. 



He is a thriftless farmer who buys any thing 

 which his farm can produce. 



