SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
193 
An In:h of Rain. — In Lieutenant Maury’s Physical 
Geosraphv of the Sea, he computes the elfoci of a single 
inch of rain, falling upon the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlan- 
tic includes an area of 25,000,000 of square miles. Sup- 
pose an inch of rain to fall upon only one fifth of this vast 
exp.mse. “It would weigh,” says he, “300,000,000,000 of 
tons; and the salt which, as water, it held in solution in 
the sea, and which, when that water was taken up as 
vapor, was left behind to disturb the equilibrium, weighed 
16 000,000 more tons, or nearly twice as much as all the 
ships in the world could carry at a cargo each. It might 
fall in a day; but occupy what time it might in falling, 
this rain is calculated to exert so much force— which is in- 
conceivably great — in disturbing the equilibrium of the 
ocean. If all the water discharged by the Mississippi 
river during the year were taken up in one mighty mea- 
sure, and cast into the ocean atone effort, it would not make 
a oreater disturbance in the equilibrium of the sea than 
would the fall of rain supposed. And yet, so gentle are 
the operations of nature, that movements so vast are unper- 
ceived.” 
iMuTTON — We mean to report at least a thousand times 
or till what we say has some effect on our countrymen, 
that a pound of lean, tender, juicy mutton can be raised 
for half the cost of the same quantity’ of fat pork; that it 
is infinitely healthier food, especially in the summer sea- 
son ; is more agreeable to the palate, when one gets accus- 
tomed to it ; and that those who eat it become muscular, 
and can do more w’ork with greater ease to themselves 
than those who eat fat pork. We know nothing more 
delicate than smoked mutton hams of the South Down breed 
of sheep — venison itself is not superor. Sheep can be 
kept in fine growing order where other domestic animals 
will scarcely exist, and thousands of acres in the State, 
under an enlightened system of sheep husbandry, may be 
made to pay a good interest where now’ they are nearly 
dead property in the hands of their present owners. — 
Pounds to Bdshkls — The following table of the num- 
ber of pounds to the bushel may be of interest to farmers 
and dealers Of wheat, 60 pounds; of shelled corn, 56 
pounds; of corn in the cob, 70 pounds ; of rye, 56 pounds; 
of oats, 35 pounds; of barley, 48 pounds; of potatoes, 50 
[pounds; of beans, 60 pounds ; of bran, 20 pounds ; clover 
i seed, 58 pounds ; of hemp seed, 44 pounds; of blue grass 
j seed, 15 pounds; of castor beans, 46 pounds; of dried 
; peaches, 38 pounds ; of dried apples, 24 pounds; onions, 
I 57 pounds. 
1 Anonymous Correspondents. — The Gerniantoicn Tel- 
! egraph holds our own views precisely, in the following par- 
I agraph; 
I Old Subscriber f making enquiries about Bees, 
; cannot be heard through these columns without comply- 
I ing with our rule of forw’arding his name to us. No man 
! has a right to expect courtesy from an editor, whom he 
I treats thus discourteously. To authenticate a communi- 
: cation intended for the public eye, is to protect the reader 
j against a fabrication, and the publisher against a swindle, 
i Beside, it would Tbe strange indeed, and not a little dis- 
I creditable to an editor, that he should admit into his col- 
j umns, no matter what may be the nature of them, pro- 
; ductions written by persons in concealment We should 
not have referred to this delinquency again, had we not 
only in our lust paper made the communication of the 
name of a correspondent, a sine qua non — a first condition 
I for the insertion of his article. 
Remarks. — Correspondents may attach any fancy sig- 
nature they please to their published articles — though we 
prefer the true name — but the latter must in all cases be 
furnished to us as an evidence of genuineness and good 
faith. Will our friends oblige us by conforming to this 
rule in future? — Eds. So. Cult. 
American Agriculturist. 
Good Cow.s — Mr. J. B. Philbrook, of Hardwick, in j 
Vermont has tw’O cows ot the native breed, (one of them | 
maybe slightly crossed with the Devonshire) from w’hich ; 
he made and sold 600 pounds of butter last season, be- i 
sides supplying his family of two persons with milk and ■ 
butter. I was at his house to-day and he showed me a tub ' 
containing 22 1-2 pounds of beautiful butter, which he had 
just churned from 8 days’ milking, being the first the same 
tw’O cows had made since their calves were taken away 
this spring. What is remarkable in this case is, that his 
dairy woman is his mother, who is ninely-finir year old. 
She never keeps a hired girl, and her boy, the said J. B 
P., who is now nearly seventy years old, does not intend 
to marry while his mother can do her work. 
S. D. Kimball, in Rural Xeiv Yorker. 
Barton, VL, April ]st. 1856 
Is Saleratus a Poison. — Mr. George Summer, in a ! 
recent lecture, spoke of the excessive use of saleratus as a i 
cardinal cause of our prevalent American ill health Ow- 
ing to it, he says that the average American mortality is 
equal to that in the most noisome streets of London. He 
denounces it as a deadly poison, whose use should be 
shunned — as the slaughterer of the infant and the destroy- 
er of the strong man. 
Disappointment. — iMen are very seldom disappointed 
except when their desires are immoderate, or when they 
suffer their passions to overpower their reason, and dwell 
upon delightful scenes of future honors, power, or riches, 
till they mistake probabilities for certainties, or wild wish- 
es for rational expectation. If such men, when they 
awake from thesevoluntary dreams, find the pleasingphan- 
tom vanish away, what can they blame but their own folly? 
Bad News prom Louisiana. — One of our subscribers, 
writing from Bayau Chicot, La., under date of March 29, 
says : 
We have had the longest, coldest and wettest winter, and 
the most backward spring ever known in this part of the 
country. The operations of planting are now about where 
they ought to be at the last of February. Very little corn 
has been planted up to the present time, and no cotton 
seed has been put in the ground. The Sugar Cane was 
materially injured by the winter. Nearly all the stubble 
was killed out-right, and seed cane kept very badly. 
Many sugar planteis are now preparing to plant half crops 
of cotton. Sweet Potatoes are nearly all rotten and seed 
I is scarcer than ever before. 
j There is an excellent prospect for heavy crops of all 
j sorts of fruits raised here, including mast and berries in 
the woods. Very respectfully, C. D. T. 
Bayou Chicot, La., AJarch 29, 1856. 
Spontaneous Combustion. — Benson Blake, Esq., in- 
formed us yesterday that fire bursted out of the centre cf 
a pile of cotton seed that lay by the side of his gin house, 
on his plantation on the Yazoo river, a few days since. 
The cotton seed had been exposed to the weather all win- 
ter, and he had commenced hauling it away, when the 
fire broke out in the pile. After it was extinguished, on 
examination, it was found charred to a considerable depjh 
and bore the appearance of having been smothered in fer 
some time. iMr. Blake assures us there can be no doubt 
of the fire originating from the heat of the seed. No doubt 
this is the cause of many gins burning down ; and we 
would advise all who have piles of cotton seed lying about 
their gins, to haul them out forthwith. — Vicksburg TRfpy 
Alo.rch Vlth. 
