198 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
HUMBUG! :: 
Editor Southern Cultivator — I detest the name of 
this meaningless word, a word that has done more injury 
to the advancement of Agriculture than anything else that 
can be named. In this day everything is a humbug— a 
trial is not at all necessary — it’s new, and that is enough 
to brand it a humbug. You are invited to a newly dis- 
covered gold mine, and find it all a humbug, because, for- 
sooth, the gold is not found ready coined into dollars, it 
might have been in five cent pieces, but that would not 
relieve it of the stigma ; nothing short of dollars would, 
and even then I am not certain that some would not com- 
plain at the absence of a few five dollar pieces. Well^ 
here’s a new plow, how do you like it. gentlemen? What 
do you claim for that plow, sir ? I claim that it will both 
turn and subsoil at the same time, I do wonder if you 
think you can humbug anybody with such talk as that ? 
I do not desire to humbug any one — would you bepleased 
to try the plow ? No sir, I do not wish to try it, because 
I am satisfied it’s a humbug without a trial. And thus it 
is, Mr. Editor, vive le humbug. Car passengers are now 
wondering that they so allowed themselves to be hum- 
bugged, as they were some years ago, by the stage cori- 
tractors ; and perhaps before long, if the cry of humbug 
don’t prevent it, they will tell you how they were hum- 
bugged in 1859, by the snail pace of forty or fifty miles 
per hour ! Speak of anything you please, a new grape, 
a new grass, a new anything, and there are those ready 
Jo exclaim, humbug ! 
Well, I do not pretend to say they do not sometimes hit 
Jhe mark, but I do say let the thing have a fair trial be- 
fore passing judgment. Take the case of the Chinese 
Sugar Cane, the stalk is good, so is the leaf and seed, it 
makes a good syrup, but because it does not turn out 
sugar, as some thought it would, it must, therefore, be a 
humbug too; some have even discovered that it kills 
cattle. My experience teaches me differently. If a man 
will let his cattle get so thin that you may rivet a ten-pen- 
ny nail through their sides, he should not compain if they 
die when turned into a green pasture. Why, it has not 
beaa very long since a discussion was going on as to 
whether pea hay would not kill cattle of the kine kind, 
but how it was ever settled I am not at present advised, 
however, my opinion is, that we might find some believ- 
«rs in the humbuguality of pea vines. And is it not a 
great wonder that it has not been found out that corn and 
rice is a humbug ? Indeed I am certain that some would 
have that opinion of corn, if it were not for the whiskey 
that is made from it. But seriously, Mr. Editor, I think 
it is high time that men should take proper views of things 
and not pronounce a wholesale condemnation on anything 
till they have satisfactory evidence to warrant them in so 
doing. Respectfully, V, L. 
Augusta, Ga,, May, 1859. 
lilGHTNING PHENOMENA! 
E. Merriam, the great “weather man,” of Broeklyn 
Heights, thus writes to the editor of the N. Y. Journal of 
Commerce, under date of April 25 ; 
An inquiry is made of me as follows : 
“ Would you be so kind as to inform me through the 
Journal of Commerce, on the following point : Why is it 
that we so seldom hear of death from lightning in cities, 
while it is so frequent in the country 1” 
In reply we answer, that we cannot say ; but our re- 
cords of lightning phenomena rarely mention death by 
lightning in large cities. We have no record of death by 
lightning in a building covered with a metal roof. 
In the year 1858 we recorded the deaths of fifty-four 
persons, killed by lightning on the land, within the field 
of our research. This is not a large number — we have re- 
corded one hundred deaths by lightning in a single year 
in some previous years. 
In Greenwood Cemetary, the surface of which embra- 
ces six hundred and fifty (650) acres, the lightning has 
struck trees and fences five times since June, 1840, 
In the city of Boston the lightning does strike fre- 
quently. In New Haven, Connecticut, Baltimore, Md,, 
and Philadelphia, Pa., the lightning strikes frequently. 
In my juvenile days I made extensive wilderness tours, 
and took particular notice of trees that had been scathed 
or riven by lightning. On one ridge I found great num- 
bers of trees scathed by lightning, and I named the place 
“thunder and lightning ridge,” and then supposed it con- 
tained metals that attracted the lightning. Many years 
devoted to observation have changed that opinion. The 
ridge is a water shed, and it is no doubt that peculiarity 
of surface for which the lightning manifested its prefer- 
ence. 
A few days since a stranger accosted me in the street 
and inquired if iron bedsteads were dangerous to sleep 
upon during thunder storms, I said in reply that I had 
never known a death by lightning on a bed resting on an 
iron bedstead, but we have recorded deaths by lightning, 
of persons reposing on feather beds on wooden bed- 
steads. 
No case of death by lightning has yet occurred to a 
telegraph operator, to pei’sons on board of steamboats or 
in railroad cars, or in iron vessels or iron buildings, or in 
vessels furnished with lightning conductors, and but four 
deaths in buildings furnished with lightning rods. Two 
persons have been killed by lightning while standing on 
the outside platform of railroad cars. 
Many persons suffer greatly from fear during thunder 
storms, and that fear has, in two cases which have come 
to our knowledge, produced death. It will be a comfort 
to such to know the safety which railroad cars, steam 
boats, iron buildings and iron vessels, and vessels and 
buildings furnished with rods afford during thunder 
storms. 
Persons struck down by lightning should be freely 
drenched with cold water. We have the record of a case 
of resuscitation after hours of drenching; therefore do 
not get discouraged, but continue drenching till anima- 
tion is restored. 
The season of the year for the frequent occurrence of 
thunder storms is now here, and this notice may be the 
means of doing some good. 
I have put in type and stereotyped several pages of 
lightning statistics, the printed pages of which will be 
sent free of any charge to any person desirous of the in- 
formation that these printed sheets contain. It is hoped 
that the circulation of these printed sheets may be the 
means of saving many lives. 
Cork OkKB.—ThQ -Dallas (Texas) Herald of May 4th, 
says: 
The Cork-acorns distributed from the Patent Office 
amongst our citizens were planted, and many of them 
have germinated. In some places, we have seen them 
several inches high, preseriting a very healthy appear- 
ance, and resembling, in their young growth, some ofour 
native varieties of oak. The cork-tree mania is triumph- 
ant. 
“When the noble Cork-tree shades 
A lovely group of Castilian maids. 
It is a theme for a song or sonnet ; 
But when it stops a bottle of gin. 
Of bungs the beer (the small beer) in. 
It sticks to the heart like a corking pin 
That there’s something vulgar in it.” 
