THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
in 
293. As plants derive aa essential part of iheir 
food ironr the air (280) by tbe action of light, it 
lollows that in glass-houses those which admit 
the greatest portion ot light' are the best adapted 
for purposes of cultivation, 
294. The proportion ot opaque matter in the 
rool ol a glass-house constructed of wood vai ies 
from ^ to 1-7 — that of an iron house does not 
exceed 1-23. 
295. Therefore iron-roofed houses are in this 
respect better suited lor cultivation than wood- 
en-roofed houses. 
29G. And it has been found by experiment, 
that light passes mure freely through a curvili- 
near than through a plain roof, and through 
glass forming an acute angle with the horizon 
than through perpendicular glass, it follows that 
a curvilinear root is best, and a plain roof with 
glass perpendicular sides the worst adapted to 
the purposes of the cultivator. 
297. For the same reason common green 
glass is less fitted for glazing forcing-houses 
than white crown glass. 
298. Poisonous gasses in very minute quan- 
tities act upon vegetation with great energy. A 
ten-thousandth part ot sulphurous acid gas is 
quickly fatal to the life of plants; and hence 
the danger of flues heaied by coal fires, and the 
impossibili'y of making many species grow in 
the vicinity ot houses heated by coal Sres, or in 
large towns, (7b be c-mtinued.) 
ELiECTKiCa'JTS.^ and AGaiCULTURE. 
The element which now promises to be turn- 
ed to the increased uses of man in the most ex- 
traordinary way is electricity. Already we 
find communications made, and con versations 
sustained, between parlies fifty miles apart, with 
nearly as much rapidity as could be peiformed 
by any system of symbols in the same room. 
By means of the electric telegraph London is 
brought into instantaneous proximity with 
Windsor, Southampton, and other places, and 
before long there is every reason to expect that 
communications may be made between all the 
important parts of the country in a few seconds. 
We have already seen some extraordinary ex- 
amples of the effects ot this rapid communica- 
tion, not the least striking of which was the 
capture of the late unhappy man Tawell. On 
the other hand, we now hear ot games of chess 
and whist being sustained and carried on at dis- 
tances of fifty or sixty miles, as if the parties 
\ve,re all in the same room. Hitherto it has 
been thought that a man having the start for 
any object by railv/ay was secure from pursuit, 
but now this new agent will arrest his progress 
or anticipate his arrival at any point with more 
ease than a man on the fleetest horse could over- 
take another on foot. 
But of all the uses to which this new and 
marvellous agent has been applied, none prom- 
ises such remarkable results as to agriculture. 
It is a principle when has been long admitted 
and understood, that electricity had a considera- 
ble effect on vegetation, but it has not been till 
now that any practical application of that aid 
has been attempted. Of late many experiments 
have been made, in a manner, loo, which affords 
means ol judging, not only the comparative re- 
sult but comparative cost. And we are bound 
to say that they are such, that we look upon this 
new agent, as one likely, before long, to pro- 
duce as great a revolution in agriculture as the 
inventions ol the steam engine or the spinning 
jenny have done in manufactures. 
We have before us the result ot one experi- 
ment on a considerable scale, which, we think, 
cannot but prove highly interesting to our read- 
ers. It took place in the north of Scotland. 
A portion of a field of barley, to which the 
electric application was made, produced last 
year at the rate ol thirteen quo,riers and e,half to 
the acre, while the surrounding land, similarly 
treated in other respects, produced the usual 
quantity of five to nx quar'ers to the acre, T he 
following is a detail of the very simple mode in 
which the electric fluid is collected and appl die 
o influence the land. A field is divided into ob- 
long squares, 76 yards long and 40 yards wid ’, 
and containing, therefore, just one acre each- 
The lollowing is a plan ot such square : 
A G B 
s 
S E 
c 
2 
e H D 
At each of the points A, B, C, and D, pegs 
are driven into the ground; the external lines 
represent strong iron wires, extending from and 
fastened to each of the four pegs, and communi- 
cating with each other, so as to form a square 
of uire, sunk 3 inches below the surface; at 
the points E and F poles are fixed in the ground 
15 feet high; a wire is connected with the cross 
wire beneath the surlace, at the point E, —car- 
ried up the pole and along the centre ol the 
square to the top of the pole at F, down which 
it is conducted and fixed to the cross wire be- 
neath the surface at that point. We must here 
remark that the square must be so torined, to 
run from North to South, so that the wire pass- 
ing Irom E to F shall be at right angles with the 
equator. It is well known that a considerable 
body ot electricity is generated in the atmos- 
phere, and constantly travelling from East to 
West with the motion of the earth. This elec- 
tricity is attracted by Uie wire suspended fioin E 
to F, and communicated to the wires forming 
the !-quare under the surface ot the ground, from 
the points A, B, C, and D. 
It has, however, been suggested to as,, by a 
very competent authority, who has at thismo- 
raeiu a number of experiments going forwarff 
to test this extraordinary new power in a variety 
ol ways, that any quantity of electricity could 
be generated that might be required, by placing 
under the ground, at the point G, a bag ot char- 
coal, and plates of zinc at the point H, and to 
connect the two by a wire passing over two 
poles similar to those at EandF, and crossing 
the longitudinal wire passing from those points. 
The cost at which this application can be 
made is computed at one Twund per acre, and it 
is reckoned to last ten to filteen years, the wires 
being carefully taken up and replaced each 
year. We may mention tbe result of an experi- 
ment on a small scale of the effect ofelectricity on 
vegetation. Two small parcels of mustard seed 
were sown; to one electricity was applied, the 
other was left toils usual course: the result was, 
that while the former grew three in’hes and a 
half, the latter grew one inch. We should also 
state, that the barley produced at the rate of thir- 
teen qaarters and a half to the acre, weighed 
nearly two lbs. more to the bushel than any 
other in the neighborhood. This discovery is 
likely to present a very full compensation for the 
exhaustion of Ichaboe. — Scotch paper. 
To Preserve Milk.— At this v;arm season, 
it may he interesting to some of our readers to 
know, that Johnston, in bis Agricultural Che- 
mistry, says: “An easy way of preserving 
milk or cream sweet for a Icnger time, or of re- 
moving the sourness when it has already come 
on, is to add to it a small quantity of the common 
soda, pearl ash, or magnesia of the shops. — 
Enough is added, when a little of the milk 
poured into boiling water no longer throws up 
any curd. If milk be introduced into bottles, 
be then well corked, put into a pan with cold 
water, and gradually raised to the boiling point, 
and after being allowed to cool^ be taken out 
and set away in a cool place, the milk may be 
preserv'-ed perfectly sweet lor upwards of half a 
year.’’ He says, another mode is, to evaporate 
it to dryness by a gentle heat, under constant 
stirring. By this means a dry mass is obtained 
which may be preserved for a length ot time, 
and which, when dissolved in water, is said to 
possess all the properties of the most excellent 
milk. It is known in Italy by the lattelnn 
SHEPAKB’S A1VAEYSE.S 
Of Cottan-Woo!, Cotton-Seed, Indian Corn 
and the Yam Potato. 
I.— COTTON WOOL. 
One hundred parts weight of cotton wool on 
being heated in a platina crucible, so long as 
brightly burning gas continued to be emitted, 
lost 86 09 parts — the residuum being a perfectly 
charred cotton, which, on being ignited under a 
muffle until every particle of carbon was con- 
sumed, lost 12.985, and lell almost a purely 
white ash, whose weight was rather under 1 per 
ct. or, 0.9247. Of this ash, about 44 perct. was 
found to be soluble in water. It contained 12.88 
per ct. of silicious sand, which must have been 
acquired adventitiously in the process of har- 
vesting the fibre. Deducting the sand from the 
ash, the constitution of the latter is as follows: 
Carbonate of Potassa (with possible traces of 
Soda) 44 19 
Phosphate of Lime with traces of Magnesia 25 41 
Carbonate of Lime 8,87 
Carbonate of Magnrsia 6 85 
Silica 4.12 
Alumina (probably accidental) 140 
Sulphate of Potassa 2 70 
Chloride of Potassium, ) 
Chloride of Magnesium, I 
Sulphate of Lime, yandloss 6.43 
Phosphate Potassa, | 
Oxide Iron in minute traces, J 100.00 
But since it is obviou-s that the carbonic acid 
in the above mentioned salts must have been 
derived during the incineration of the cotton, 
the following view will more certainly express 
the important mineral ingredients abstracted by 
the cotton from the soil lor every 100 parisol its 
ash : 
Potassa (with possible traces of Soda,)...., 31.09 
Lime 1L03 
Magnesia 3.26 
Phosphoric Acid 12.30 
Sulphuric Acid... 1.22 
64.92 
For every 10,000 lbs. of cotton wool, then, 
about 6.0 lbs. of the above mentioned ingredients 
are subtracted from the soil in the proportion 
indicated by the numbers appended, i. e. omit- 
ting fractions: 
Potassa.... 31 pounds. 
Lime....... 17 “ 
Magnesia....... 3 “ 
Phosphoric Acid. 12 “ 
Sulphuric Acid 1 '* 
Several queries were submitted to me along 
with the sample to be analyzed, relative to the 
effect o.f soils on cotton. 1 regret to stale that 
the almost total ignorance in which we are still 
left respecting the composition of the varieties 
of this fibre, and the soils producing them, pre- 
vents me from hazarding any explanations on 
the subject. This is the first destructive analy- 
sis ever made (at least so far as my knowledge 
extends) of the cotton wool. Nor am 1 ac- 
quainted with the properties of the soil which 
afforded it. Prior to any deductions, it is clear 
we must know the composition of each variety 
of cotton, as well as that of the soil it affects. 
At present I can only venluie on connecting to- 
gether two facts, which appear to occupy im- 
portant relations to one another. Tbe soil of 
3i. Stephen’s, which is said by F. A, Porcher, 
Esq., to be a stiff clayey loam, produces the 
strongest and finest fibre of the Santee varieties. 
The Sea Island qualities are supposed to owe 
their superiority to the use of marsh-mud, 
which I have ascertained to be a clayey admix- 
ture, rich in alkalies and alkaline earths. Whe- 
ther the similarity between these two staples is 
influenced most (if it is affected at all) by the 
chemical or mechanical qualities of the .soils 
producing them, it is impossible to decide. It 
is also conceivable that the two sets of qualities 
may conspire to one and the same end. 
II —COTTON SEED. 
One hundred paits, heated as above, lost 
77.475, and the thoroughly charred residuum 
burned under the muffle, left 3.856 parts of a 
perfectly white ash. The composition was 
found to he as follows : 
