AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 247 



[From the Journal of Education, Montreal, April, 1857; from Mons. Huguet Latour.] 



How many seeds in a pound, on an acre, &c., if, in ordinary 

 practice, 1,200,000 seeds of wheat are sown on every 40,000 

 square feet 1 



THE PLOW. 



The great agriculturalist of France, Duhamel, admired the plow 

 invented by the great agricultural master of England, in 1*150. 



Tull's theory was a deep and thorough tillage, pulverizing and 

 mixing soil as much as possible. His plow, therefore, was con- 

 structed with four coulters, instead of our one. His cutting the 

 soil into slips two inches wide, before they are lifted and turned 

 over by the plow. And with this plow Tull tilled the land ten, 

 twelve, and even fourteen inches deep. It required three horses 

 to do it. 



MUSHROOMS. 



Mr. Meigs said, that Prof. Mapes is making a grand experiment, 

 on a large scale, on his Newark farm, for the growing of the true 

 edible delicacy, the mushroom. 



As France leads in this article, we take from her excellent 

 Farm House (Le Maison Rustique) the following account of their 

 means of success : 



" The cultivation of mushrooms, with the exception of the 

 environs of Paris and some large cities, is very little attended to 

 in France; and yet it presents great advantages to the professional 

 gardener, and is as useful as it is agreeable to the amateur gar- 

 dener. 



" We will now endeavor to combat those two extensive preju- 

 dices entertained generally against the use of them as aliment. 

 They are generally viewed with suspicion, on account of the fre- 

 quent accidents from eating them. 



" Modern naturalists agree in placing mushrooms on the extreme 

 verge between the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, but much 

 nearer to the animal. In fact, their substance is highly azotized, 

 and, in boiling, exhibits all tlie character and even smell of the 

 asmazone of boiling meat in the most concentrated form. 



