568 
YANKEE FARMING. NO. 10. 
meat grow big and swell in de pot ?" " Not always, 
my good fellow; for sometimes it shrinks." "Wal, 
he make a pint ob rice full tree heaping pint, same 
as a little wave make tree big mountain wave, arter 
a hurricane, as I see him when we lays on our 
beams-end, right away off — " " Ah, now you 
Ijave got on salt water again, and if we don't look 
out we shall have another long yarn from you, so 
please to be quiet once more and listen, while I go 
on with Joe about the fresh water." 
" Yas, massa Sargeant, Cassar belays all dat, ,J 
he added, nodding respectfully, and turning a large 
quid over in his cheek ; "but nobody '11 make him 
b'lieve dat fresh water's as good as salt, 'cept for 
bilin' vittles, and " — Here I gave him a frown 
which shut his mouth a while, and I went on. 
" Well Joe, as I was saying to you, fresh water, in 
addition, always carries a greater or less quantity 
of fertilizing elements, in solution or otherwise, 
with it. If it descends from the atmosphere in 
snow, hail, rain, or dew, ammonia abounds in it, 
which is one of the most fertilizing substances 
applied to plants. If it takes its course over land 
abounding with trap, granite, or rocks which have 
mica, or feldspar in them, then it will contain pot- 
ash in solution; if it comes from a limestone 
region, it will then hold lime, gypsum, magnesia, 
and some other elements. Now, when land is 
irrigated with such water, it is equivalent to giving 
it a good top-dressing of ashes, lime, or plaster of 
Paris." 
" Why, how you do talk, Sargeant," said Joe ; 
" now do tell, for that beats all natur. Who ever 
heerd afore there was ashes and lime in a running 
stream ?'? 
" To be sure there is ; and if it oozes out of 
swamps and woodlands, or courses down through 
fertile fields, and above all, if it receives the drain- 
ings of barnyards, tanneries, and manufacturing 
villages, as Silver Brook does, then the water be- 
comes richly charged with decomposed vegetable 
and animal matter, which makes irrigating the 
meadows here, particularly after a gentle rain, even 
more valuable than a top-dressing of manure, or 
muck ; because the salts and substances thus left 
on the land, are in that state best fitted to be applied 
to crops. Then all they want is genial sunshine, 
and they spring up and grow with great rapidity." 
" Yes, may be, but not half so fast as our brave 
Sargeant has done lately in big lamin'," exclaimed 
a loud voice, that started us all abruptly to our 
feet, and which, upon turning round, we found pro- 
ceeded from the stentorian lungs of Uncle Sim. 
" Why, Mr. Doolittle, I had no idea you were 
near." 
" Sartinly you hadn't," he replied, laughing, 
"but didn't I tell you, when you promised to 
give Joe a lectur about water kimics, sometime 
when I wasn't by to hear you, didn't I tell you, I 
say, that I would be there in spite o' you, if for 
nothin' else but jest to plague you ?* Wal, here I 
be. When he's got his dander up, and detarmined 
on a thing, it's an old fox that steals a march on 
Simeon Doolittle. Wal, I guessed you'd be here 
arter a while, so I and the boys keeps a smart look 
out, and as I peeked through the winder a spell 
ago, I see you all movin' slily along my meaders. 
* See January number, page 32, line second. 
Then says I to the boys, says I, if there aint the 
Sargeant, and Joe Wat kins, and that 'ere great big 
sassy black-a-moor, Caesar, sittin' down talkin' over 
our ditchin'. Now hoorah for kimics, says I. So 
out we runs, and down round the hill, and then up 
behind the trees, stealin' softly along to the bank 
of this ditch, when we laid down snug as a coon 
in a beanfield, and heerd all you was lecturin' 
about." 
"Well, sir," said I, "you have done a capital 
job, and your improvements are really surprising." 
. "Yes," added Joe, " Mr. Doo-Vittle has showed 
his mammy warn't Mrs. Spm-little this time." 
" S^ar/e-little, or Skovel-Yittle, you mean, Joe, I 
suppose." "Just as you say, Sargeant," he re- 
plied, " for you're ollous takin' a body's words out 
o' his mouth, you're so consarned quick at improv- 
in'." " Well, Joe, never mind; for one thing is 
certain — we shall see no more poor steers on Uncle 
Sim's farm, but stout, fat cattle in their place ; for 
the meadows will produce the best of English 
grass hereafter, and I hope he may profit well of 
what he has overheard of our discourse, and make 
still further improvements." 
" May be I will, and may be I won't, Sargeant," 
replied Uncle Sim. " Yet let me ax you, didn't 
everybody know afore you begun your long- 
winded lectur, that it took water to make things 
grow % But as for them ere high-gins, ox-gins, 
and nigh-gins, what can the man mean ? I've 
heerd tell of a cotton gin, and I've smelt, afore 
now, o' Holland gin, 'specially at hayin' time," he 
continued, at the same time smacking his lips, and 
giving me a sly wink ; " and the temperancers may 
say what they like, I know Holland's good for 
horse, as well as human stomachaches, and it cures 
bots, too, as 1 can prove." 
" Now just stop, will you, Mr. Doolittle," said 
Joe ; " for if you once get on horse ails, we shall 
never hear the eend on't. I guess I know what 
the Sargeant means by all his gins — its a kinder 
somethin' floatin' in the air, that settles down and 
makes things grow." "Quite right, Joe," I added; 
" they are gases which combine and solidify into 
grass, grain, vegetables, trees, and even stone and 
metals." " Why," said Uncle Sim, opening his 
eyes in utter astonishment, " you don't purtend to 
say, Sargeant, that air turns into rock and iron ?" 
"Certainly; and by burning them with oxygen, 
we can dissolve them into air again, or, rather, 
floating gas, which ascends into the air, and is lost 
to our vision like smoke, or steam. You often 
see fog rising from the water. Now this is pro- 
duced by nature in the same way that steam is, 
but when the sun comes out ; or a wind blows, it 
disappears to the eye; but soon it condenses again, 
high up, into clouds, and ultimately falls to the 
earth in rain. Pray, is this more wonderful than 
that solid substances should be turned into thin 
air ?" 
" Wal, Sargeant, I can't reply to none o' your 
larnin', that's a fact, and some how or other you 
ollous contrive to be right ; and what's more, I'll 
give you the credit o' makin' things work on your 
farm a leetle better even than you talk ; and yet, 
I kinder think your daddy missed a figure when he 
didn't send you to college, and make a purfessor 
on you, instead of a farmer. What big talk you 
