L. xxTi.xo. ar. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



213 



)lirig ihe rot of an egg. The touch of other 

 es would spread the disease through the 



of them. 



s disease is spreading its baneful effects 



h nianr parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, 

 ew Vork. We advise all those wliose pota- 

 lave not yet been diseased, to sprinkle a 

 quantity of powdered lime upon iheir pota- 

 •hich are in bins or casks, as by this means 

 lay stay the effects of this pestilence among 

 iluable table vegetable Ballslon Ga:. 



AMMONIA AS A MANURE. 



extract the following from an agricultural 

 s by Dr. Daniel Lee, at Uuffalo : 

 have stated to you tliat mo.-^t plants require, 

 ition to water and carbon, a portion of nilro- 

 This also comes from a gaseous substance 

 atmosphere. Although nitrogen forms the 

 t element in the air, (79 per cent.) yet it has 

 iretty well settled that plants do not obtain 

 itrogen by decomposing common air, but de- 

 from ammonia, which is furnished to the at- 

 lere in great abundance by a world of decom- 



vcgelables and animals. It is the ammonia 

 scapes from putrifying substances that causes 

 iffensive smell. Rain-water has a strong 

 ' for ammonia; which is a compound of 14 

 )f nitrogen and 3 of hydrogen. Water at 

 jrees will absorb (;50 times its bulk of this 

 ble food. Every rain, then, brings conside- 

 jiiantities of it to the ground. It is the am- 

 in rain water that imparts to it its peculiar 

 ss in washing the hands or clothes. It is 

 imonia in snow that makes it valuable as a 

 e ; and it is the ammonia in rain-water that 

 ) it to putrify in some degree, like an animal 

 nee, when it is permitted to stand in warm 

 er in a close vessel above ground. Being 

 ncly vtdatile, it escapes into the air again after 

 IB shower much quicker than water evapo- 



What then will aid the cultivator of plants, 

 ;ize this volatile ammonia, as lime does car- 

 acid, and hold it permanently about their 

 in such a way that it will feed them all they 

 and no more ? — (for an excess of this stimu- 

 alkali, like an excess of salt in our food, 

 estroy life instead of supporting it.) 

 'ommon charcoal is the cheapest, and there- 

 le best material to apply to cultivated fields 

 IS purpose. It will absorb 90 tiinrs its bulk 

 inonia, and will give it out slowly to the vital 

 tion uf the roots of plants. Most of you 

 that charcoal will correct the taint in meat ; 

 urify rain-water, in a suitable cistern, so as 

 dcr It the purest water for culinary purposes, 

 iberal application of charcoal to the wheat 

 of France, has mainly, in connedion with the 

 f lime, added, within the last ten years, 

 )0,000 bushels to the annual crop ot wheat 

 I in that kingdom. The charcoal should be 

 in May, at the rate of 75 bushels per acre, 

 julverized." 



'"The JVew Genesee Farmer announces the 

 ing as its editorial arrangements for 1844: 

 Bateham, Rochester ; assisted by Dr. Daniel 

 uf Buffalo, associate editor of the Commer- 

 idvertiser ; and T. C. Peters, late President 

 I Genesee County Agricultural Society. 



CORN COBS. 



We extract the following from a communication 

 in the Central N. Y. Farmer, by C. N. Bcinent, Kaq. : 



" We will take the present opportunity of direct- 

 ing the attention of our readers to the great value 

 of meal obtained by grinding corn and cob togeth- 

 er for stock : and from the many evidences of prac- 

 tical farmers, ns well as from experiments of our 

 own, we cannot but press it upon the attention of 

 the prudent farmer. Many will object to this on 

 account of the low price iit which corn and oats 

 are selling. But we see no reason why a farmer 

 should throw away or squander his feed, because it 

 sells at a low price. We conceive that one of the 

 very best reasons why he should economise in eve- 

 ry possible manner, so that he can have more to 

 sell, and the extra quantity make up the deficiency 

 in price. 



That there is a nutritious substance in the cob, 

 no one, we think, that has paid any attention to 

 the subject, will pretend to deny. In throwing 

 away the cobs of our corn, we have been wasting 

 very good feed. On distillation of four gallons of 

 cob meal, lour gallons of spirits have been obtain- 

 ed, and other nutritive matter besides saccharine, 

 such as mucilage and oils, has been found in it. 

 ' But besides the actual economy,' says a writer in 

 the American Farmer, 'there is another advantage 

 in this way of feeding corn, which ought to engage 

 the attention of every farmer. It is notoriously 

 true, that the unground grain of corn is heating 

 to the stomach of all animals, and of difficult di- 

 gestion, producing cholic and other inllammatory 

 disorders, particularly in horses. They are de- 

 prived of the benefits derived from the stimulus of 

 distension, (so necessary to the health of all ani- 

 mals,) by being unable to eat a suflicient bulk to 

 produce it, before they become gorged.' 



For hogs, corn and cob meal is much improved 

 by scalding, and by boiling with vegetables of 

 any kind, and still more by a partial fermentation. 



The manner of feeding stock on raw or unground 

 corn, is too common. It is undoubtedly one of 

 the best of grains to finish off a lot of slock ; but it 

 lacks bulk, and is too stimulating without some 

 coarser or more bulky substance to mix with it. 

 Corn alone j/ives too much fat inside, without a 

 corresponding bulk of flesh outside. It has been 

 found that corn and oats, equally mixed and ground 

 together, will improve and fatten hogs faster than 

 the same amoupt of corn alone. 



THE BRIGHTON CATTLE FAIR. 



When we were in Boston, last summer, wo re- 

 quested a friend to give us an account of the man- 

 ner of conducting the cattle fair in Brighton, think- 

 ing that perhaps there might be something in it 

 worthy of imitation in our western cities. We have 

 received the following which will be found inter- 

 esting. We trust that a fair of this kind will be 

 established in this neighborhood. — Louisville Jour. 

 To the Editors nftht Louisville Journal : 



Boston, Nov. 'J, 1843. 



Gentleme.n: I promised in my last to give you 

 some account of th>! manner in which the cattle 

 fair is ctmducted at Brighton. 



You may remember that, in coming from Cush- 

 ing's garden last summer, we passed through 

 Brighton, and I pointed out to you the caltle-fair 

 hotel, and the pens adjacent thereto. This hotel 

 and the pens belong to a company who tease the 

 hotel and grounds ; and drovers, coming in to mar- 



ket their cattle, are allowed the free use of ilie 

 pens for the purpo^^e of disposing of their cattle. 



There is no system about Ihe matter evcept 

 what is observed at a barber'.s shop, of" first come, 

 first served," as to the use of the pens. The cat- 

 tle are generally driven into the immediate iieigli- 

 borhood on Saturday or Sunday, and on Sunday 

 evening, or very early on Monday morning, the 

 cattle are placed in the pens, where they remain 

 until they are disposed of; which is usually dur- 

 ing Monday forenoon. 



The butchers from Boston, New Bedford, and 

 the large towns in this vicinity, meet the drovers 

 at this holel, and "dicker" with each other for 

 beef, pork, or mutton, in their own way ; some 

 selling their cattle by the head.; some by gross 

 weight, and some by net weight ; and in the latter 

 case, the butcher drives off his cattle after making 

 the price, and takes them to his slaughter-house, 

 which may be five, ten, or fifty miles distant ; and, 

 in a day or two, meets the drover at some place 

 agreed upon, (generally at some hotel in Boston,) 

 and brings with him, on a slip of paper, the net 

 weight of the cattle, and pays the money, as agreed 

 upon at Brighton. The drover relying upon the 

 honesty of the butcher for the weight of his cat- 

 tle ; and I am told that it has scarcely, if ever, 

 been known that any dispute or difficulty arises in 

 consequence of this mode of dealing. The sheep 

 are generally sold by the head and hogs by the 

 weight. 



During nearly the whole day of Monday of each 

 week, the roads leading from Brighton to the neigh- 

 boring towns are filled by little squads of cattle, 

 sheep, and hogs, which are marched off to the 

 "place of execution;" where they are dressed for 

 the market, and then transported to the city in 

 wagons and placed in the butchers' stalls ready 

 for sale. 



'1 he season for packing beef and pork has now 

 commenced, and Brighton village, on Monday 

 mornings, presents a livehj scene. There are sev- 

 eral large packing establishments in Cambridge 

 and Brighton, where beef and pork are put up for 

 the use of the navy, for shipment, and for general 

 sale. The same establishments frequently render 

 the tallow, make candles and soap, and sell the 

 bones, or ship them to Europe. Near Day's rope 

 works, in Roxbiiry, is a perfect " Golgotha," where 

 beef is jerked, and the bones and heads are piled 

 up like the Egyptian pyramids, waiting for ship- 

 ment, or which sometimes happens to be ground 

 up for manure. 



At Brighton we find fat cattle from all the New 

 England States, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

 and "Old Kentuck," and sometimes from the rich 

 prairies of Illinois. We have a great variety, and 

 the prices generally range higlier than at New 

 York and Philadelphia. 



Y'ou will see in the " Boston Daily Advertiser" 

 every week a report of the sales at Brighton. 



The butchers are, many of them, men of con- 

 siderable wealth, and I know of several who have 

 risen from email beginnings in that way, to be- 

 come our largest produce dealers and commission 

 merchants. H. 



When " Old Zachariah," the great merchant of 

 Liverpool, was uskcd by what means he contrived 

 to amass so much wealth, his reply was, " Friend, 

 by one article alone, in which thou may's! deal too, 

 if thou pleasest — Civility." 



