1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



63 



ty. If a substance opposes no resistance to the 

 diffusion of electricity through its body and over 

 its surface, or, as philosophers expi-ess it, is a good 

 conductor of heat and electricity, it is called a met- 

 al. If it presents characters the opposite of this, 

 it is called non-metallic, or a metalloid." The 

 salts detected in the residuum of vegetable sub- 

 stances submitted to the action of fire, are pro- 

 duced by a union of both these substances. Phos- 

 phorus, sulphur, iodine, bromine, clilorine and sil- 

 icon, as also oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and car- 

 bon, are classified as non-metallic bodies, while 

 the other elementary constituents, to wit, — sodi- 

 um, potassium, calcium, manganese, iron and mag- 

 nesium, belong to the class of metals. 



When the non-metallic elements combine with 

 oxygen, the result is the formation of an acid, and 

 the same result ensues upon any of that class 

 combining with hydrogen ; and it is in this state 

 that they are recognised in the soil, as mcII as in 

 vegetables and their ashes. 



Carbon, combined with oxygen, forms carbonic 

 acid. 



Sulphuric acid is a combination of sulphur and 

 oxygen. 



Phosphoric acid is produced by the chemical 

 union of phosphorus and oxygen, and silicic and 

 nitric acid are the results of the same union be- 

 tween silicon and nitrogen, and oxygen. Anoth- 

 er feature presented by these acids is their propen- 

 sity to form combinations with certain bases. 

 These bases are found almost universally on the 

 earth's surface, or mingled in its crassus, and in- 

 variably in the ashes of vegetables, and it is there- 

 fore by no means a matter of surprise that the 

 two are seldom found in an uncombined state, in 

 the soil, and invariably in a combined state in 

 vegetables and their ashes, in the form of salts. 



For the Neic England Farmer. 



OVER A THOUSAND MEN" 



Crawling Twentt-Five Miles on their Hands and Knees — 

 NOT IN India, but in New England ! 



If we were to go into the labor market and of- 

 fer farm operatives sixteen dollars a month for the 

 working season, with the condition annexed, that 

 in the course of the season they should crawl twen- 

 ty-five miles on their hands and knees, how many 

 of our free Northern laborers, suppose you, would 

 set their hands and seal to any such arrangement? 

 Yet there are thousands of aljle workmen who 

 readily engage themselves to our thrifty market 

 gardeners, with the condition very clearly implied 

 in the contract, that each of them shall perform in 

 the neighborhood of twenty-five miles of liand- 

 and-knec crawling in the course of the season. 



If any of our readers will take his pencil in 

 hand, and figure out the problem of the distance 

 to be gone over in the care of two and a half acres 

 of onions, which is about the average quantity al- 

 lowed per man, planted in rows fourteen inches 



apart, and requiring three hand-and-knee weed- 

 ings in the course of the season, he will find, if 

 my pencil mistakes not, that allowing two rows 

 are taken each time, some twenty-six miles must 

 be crawled over before the job is finally finished. 



However, our worthy farmers, with knees well 

 protected by stout woollen or leather pads, pro- 

 gress, tortoise-like, over the ground, and gradu- 

 ally wind up the season's work apparently with- 

 out any serious inconvenience. An onion crop 

 requires not only three such Aveedings, but also 

 one or two hand weedings, towards the close of 

 the season, and three hoeings in the course of it. 

 With such data added to the extra cost of pi'epar- 

 ing, manuring and planting the ground, our farm 

 friends who devote their acres principally to the 

 grains, and sigh to hear of the heavy incomes de- 

 rived from the culture of roots and bulbs nearer 

 the city, Avill be better able to fhrm some idea of 

 the costs of such investments. 



J. J. H. Gregory. 



Marblchead, Mass., Dec, 1861. 



HOUSE PLANTS— ^S^ATER AND "WATER- 

 ING. 



It is desirable that plants should be Avatered 

 with rain-water ; but as this cannot always be 

 done, Avater from Avells or pipes must, in such 

 cases, be used, hut should never he used in a cold 

 state, as a quart of boiling Avater to a gallon of 

 cold Avill in great measure rectify it, and save the 

 cultivator the mollification of seeing the leaves of 

 his plants turn yelloAV and drop off. So import- 

 ant do I consider this point, that I never give cold 

 spring-Avater even to kitchen garden crops ; and 

 Avhen in charge of a large place, had daily a copper 

 going to supply hot Avater for all purposes of 

 A\atering and syringes ; and for sj'ringing I con- 

 sider it should be as Avarm as one can comfortably 

 bear the hand in. To promote the growth of the 

 plants in April, May and June, syringing should 

 be done on the afternoon of bright days, just as 

 the house is losing the full force of the sun's rays 

 — say from three to five o'clock. The moisture 

 Avill then be diffused into vapor, instead of hang- 

 ing coldly about the plants, as it would do if giA'- 

 en at a later period of the day ; and to syringe in 

 the morning may be attended Avith danger, for the 

 sun striking upon the Avct foliage might disfigure 

 it. Syringing in a house Avill scarcely be required 

 excepting during the period named, Avhile the gen- 

 eral stock is inaldng its principal groAvth ; even 

 then plants in fioAver must be shunned, but the ob- 

 ject sought by sj-Tinging is not so much to drench 

 the plants as to create a soft groAving atmosphere, 

 which may be accomplished, if done before the 

 sun is AvhoUy off the house, by throAving the Avater 

 into the air, and upon the roof and Avails. Any 

 individual plant or climber, on the other hand, that 

 shoAvs the presence of red spider, at Avhatever sea- 

 son, must be soundly soused ; and this may be 

 best done, in the case of pot plants, by laying them 

 doAvn upon a bass mat, and playing the sp-inge 

 Avell at the under sides of the leaves ; and this 

 must be rejjeated often, until the spider is put to 

 flight. 



Watering at the root is an important matter ; if 

 plants are not supplied Avith as much as they re- 

 quire they do not attain to the perfection, either 



