10 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ferent is the atmospheric circumstances of one farm from 
that of another! and how unlike are the results on ani- 
mal and vegetable life ! 
Such diversities are to be attributed no less to geologi- 
eal than geographical causes. When we enter the field, 
may it not be said, How little is yet known of the “chem- 
istry of common life I” for here the undivided labors of the 
farmer are directed to one continued process of decompo- 
sition ! as if man had but one grand object in view— viz , 
to pull down as fast as Nature builds up the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms ! Nor are results to be measured by 
his own individual efforts ; for mechanical appliances 
without number are now being brought to bear upon the 
soil, exposing it more effectually to the decomposing in- 
fluence of the atmosphere, in order to increase both pro- 
duce and consumption. 
This decomposition of the soil and its produce must af- 
fect the contiguous atmosphere less or more, and hence 
the quality of the crop. The smell of newly plowed land 
is sensibly felt, for instance, on entering the field, and 
from different qualities ofsoilitis equally different. From 
time immemorial, plowmen have experienced certain lo- 
calities more healthy than others ; and the difference is 
obviously to be attributed to climate, as affected by the 
volatile matter given off in the process of decomposition. 
We might here enter into a large amount of detail, 
quoting examples from different geological formations, did 
our limits permit ; but this blank we shall leave our read- 
ers to fill up themselves. If they take up a clod and 
break it, they may easily detect what the smell or volatile 
matter given off in the atmosphere is composed of. Or if 
they can analyze it, they may also be able to say what 
will be liberated in the process of decomposition. All 
that we shall add is this : Were every farmer in posses- 
sion of the analyses of the different qualities of soil he 
cultivates, and volatile matter given off in the process of 
decomposition, it would prove an interesting source of in- 
formation to him ; and when a few sovereigns w^ould ob- 
tain it, why should it not be had ? 
The atmosphere, again, is sensibly affected by different 
crops, and that differently at different stages of their 
growth. Who has not felt, for example, the intoxicating 
aroma of peas, beans, and clover in flower'? — the fra- 
grance of the meadow during hay-making '? — the pungent 
smell of turnips when growing rapidly 1 — and that of a 
field of barley behind a reaping machine in harvest ; 
These, although prominent examples, are only a few of 
what experience is familiar with, and which might readi- 
ly be quoted for the sake of illustration, 
Onr next topic is cultivation. How does it affect the 
influence of the atmosphere upon the soil and its pro- 
duce '? 
With regard to the soil, it is only when accompanied 
with a sufficiency of moisture that the atmosphere can 
enrich it. If divested of water, the searching effects of a 
summer’s sun would render our fields as barren as the 
deserts of Arabia ; but with the requisite supply of this 
invaluable fertilizer, the rays of the sun are powerful auxili- 
aries to the enriching of them. To “keep in the sap” and 
*‘out the drouth,” and yet admit the free circulation of the 
atmosphere, has long been acknowledged one of the car- 
dinal points in good farming. 
Deep culture and drainage, again, by increasing the ca- 
pacity of the soil for holding air, add greatly to the means 
of enriching it. Probably more of the success of the Lois- 
Weedon system depends upon this, than to the mere fal- 
lowing of the “intervals” between the beds of wheat or 
Other kinds of crop; so that the question may yet be 
Taised whether equally deep culture, with proper atten- 
tion to seeding the ground uniformly, may not produce 
equally beneficial results. But be this as it may, the 
tthemical effect of air and water in a greater depth of soil 
is manifest from what has already been said ; for the de- 
composition of the soil, air, and water (and hence the for- 
mation of soluble matter and ammonia) will be directly as 
this depth — twice the depth of ordinary cultivation by the 
plov/ producing twice the quantity of fertilizing matter, 
while from the greater depth there will be less escape or 
waste of volatile substances. 
The free circulation of air, again, access of light, and 
rays of the sun, among growing crops, are questions of 
equal importance. In this respect wide drilling is highly 
advantageous, while intervals may produce a m.ore healthy 
and free circulation. But much of this will depend upon 
special circumstances; for clean flint straw on thewide- 
drill system may admit of a freer circulation than coarse 
flaggy straw deficient of silica with wide intervals. 
Many excptions may, no doubt, be taken to the whole- 
sale manufacture of ammonia, as advocated, from the ni- 
trogen set free in the decomposition of air, uniting with 
the hydrogen of water when undergoing a similar pro- 
cess ; but granting them to be true, the practical question 
in the field is obviously to reduce exceptions of this kind 
to the common rule. This may be done in various ways 
— as by draining; deepening the soil; adding clay, cal- 
careous, and vegetable matter to sandy lands, to retain 
moisture and produce decomposition; sand, vegetable, 
and calcareous matter to clay lands, to promote the free 
circulation of the atmosphere, and its decomposition along 
with that of water ; in short, anything which will pro- 
mote the decomposition of air and v/ater in the soil, so that 
the nitrogen and hydrogen set free shall be united so as 
to form ammonia. We see no other way of accounting 
for the extraordinary fertility produced by improvements 
of the above kind, than by working up the nitrogen and 
hydrogen set free in the process of decomposition into am- - 
monia, or some of its compounds, as food for plants. The 
decomposition of farmyard manure in the soil, and even 
clean straw in clay lands, obviously works up the nitro- 
gen of the atmosphere and hydrogen of water into matter 
more fertilizing than their own constituents will satis- 
factorily account for. The advocates of exclusive liquid 
manuring, overlook the economy of decomposing veget- 
able matter in the soil, and the additional supply of am- 
monia derived from this source by means of the nitrogen 
and hydrogen liberated in the process.— Farmcr^s 
Magazine. 
MEASURING CORN IN BUIiK. 
An exchange paper gives us the following 
Infallible Rules for Measuring Corn in the Crib. 
— If measured in feet : 
1st. Shucked. Corn — Measure the length, v/idth and 
depth of the crib in feet ; multiply these three dimensions 
together and their product by 8 ; then cut off two figures 
to the right ; those on the left will be so many barrels, 
and those cut off, so many hundreths of a barrel. 
2nd. Unshucked Corn — Multiply the three dimensions 
in feet, as in rule 1st, and their product by 5 2-3 ; cut off 
two figures to the right, and the result will be barrels and 
hundreths, as in rule 1st. 
If measured in inches : 
3d, Shucked Corn — Take the dimensions in inches and 
multiply them together ; take one-half of the product and 
divide it by 1250 and you have the bushels of shelled corn, 
which divide by 5 to reduce to barrels. 
4th. Unshucked Corn — Multiply the dimensions as in 
rule 3d, and take one third of their product, and divide it 
by 2150 the result will be as in rule 3d. 
These rules have often been put to the most critical test 
by the nio.st thorough as well as the most practical mathe- 
maticians of the south-west, and the people using them 
rely upon their being accurately correct. Preserve a copy 
for use. 
