THE SOl'THERN CULTIVATOR. 
103 
The former way of either making hills or 
large ridges tor potatoes, should be exploded ; 
and good farmers are finding it out, for the hill 
or the ridge only shed the water from the young 
plant and hinders its growth, makes it later 
and less productive in the end; whereas break- 
ing the land deep, (which is no trouble in the 
soil ot Florida, 3 throw three furrows together 
with a winged plow, and instead of pulling up 
the earth as usual to a sharp ridge or point, just 
strike the hoe on top till it is flat, just as the 
planters prepare for the ground nuts, and plant 
nearly level, the furrows on either side will pre- 
serve the plant from the spring rains, and by 
the time they are over, you may plow and hoe 
as you would other articles— corn or cotton. 
Perhaps twice over uiay be quite sufficient, and 
in the end you have a richer crop or harvest 
than in the old farming way, for the potatoesget 
much more the benefit ot the siiininer rains, 
(which in Florida are generally rather scarce,) 
than they ever get when planted in hills or high 
ridges. The beds for potatoes should never be 
more than from two to four inches above the le- 
vel of the common earth. 
Try it, my fellow-citizens, and you will find 
good results. Hermon Mercer. 
St. Andrews, April 20, 1846. 
From the American Agriculturist. 
A Chapter oii Apples* 
The great advantage of fruit raising to the 
farmer has been often commended through our 
columns. It is not our intention to enlarge 
upon its general merits at present, but to confine 
what we have to say to the subject of apples 
alone. 
The apple is, beyond all question, the king of 
fruits; as wheat and the potatoe are of grain 
and roots. In some one or more ot its varie- 
ties, it keeps throughout the three hundred and 
sixty-five days of the year; and long after the 
earliest june-eatingand sweet-bough, w’ith their 
glossy sides and fragrant odor, are offered in 
the market, the piles of smooth greenings and 
pippins, and rough golden coated russets, with 
all the firmness and substantial merits of vete- 
rans of ’76, are tempting the eye and olfactories 
of every beholder by their plump and but just 
matured perfections. It is to this quality of en- 
duringness, that much ot the merits of the ap- 
ple are due. But much more it may justly 
claim, in its luscious flavor and healthful influ- 
ences, and its peculiar adaptation to so large 
and varied uses. Besides the thousand-and-one 
varieties of dishes of which it forms the sole, 
principal, or a subordinate part in the economy 
of the skillful housewife, it contributes greatly 
towards the interest ot the farmer by the profits 
from its sale, and its use as food for his stock. 
The profit from feeding the surplus of an ex- 
tensive orchard of fine fruit -to stock (for fine 
fruit is as much better for animals as it is for 
their owners,) has become an item of careful 
estimate, since the nearly general abandonment 
of ifie wasteful, sottish system of cider-making. 
It was the rule, we believe, that 8 to 12 bushels 
of apples would make one barrel of cider, and 
8 to 12 barrels of cider, one barrel of cider bran- 
dy. The former was made to the halves, while, 
perhaps, 2 gallons of tht; latter might be return- 
ed as a full equivalent for a barrel of the former. 
Two gallons of miserable liquid poison, under 
the name of eider brandy, was, within less than 
a generation since, the product of 8 to 12 bu- 
shels of apples! Let us see how the case 
stands by the touchstone of figures. Eight bu- 
shels ot good apples (and it is cheaper raising 
good apples than poor,) are worth in an average 
of seasons, 37i cents per bushel in the orchard, 
or S3 for the whole ; while the two gallons of 
brandy would be worth about the same price of 
whiskey, say 50 cents — difference in favor of 
selling the apples, or using them for some ap- 
propriate purpose, six to one. Verily, the pre- 
sent age has improved some in pocket, as well 
as morals. 
The value of apples, however, for feeding 
to stock, is not equal to that for selling, when= 
ever a good market is within reach. The early 
droppings from the trees should be Invariably 
fed to stock; as besides their general worthless- 
ness for other purposes, from their immaturity, 
they frequently contain worms, which their con- 
sumption by stock effectually destroys. The 
most economical way for providing for this is 
to allow swine to run at large in sufficient num- 
bers to consume all the first droppings. These, 
with the offal of the dairy, and a good clover 
pasture, with a trifle of meal, thoroughly sour- 
ed with the whey or slops, will put a good breed 
of hogs into fine condition, if kept out of Uie 
road, by the time peas, potatoes and corn are 
sufficiently matured to begin their fall breeding. 
If there should be any surplus of apples, be- 
yond what may be more profitably disposed of, 
these may be led to the fattening porkers, either 
raw or cooked, with certain advantage. The 
exact equivalent in grain or roots, for pork or 
beef making, has not been ascertained with suf- 
ficient accuracy to be here stated, but that thev 
stand high in fattening properties, is beyrnd a 
doubt; while the quality ot meat they produce, 
is of the highest order. 
Sheep may be substituted for swine in rang- 
ing through the orchard and picking up the dis- 
eased andimmatured fruit. They will not hurt 
store sheep either in flesh or fleece, but they are 
more particularly profitable for such as are in- 
tended for mutton, A run in the orchard is an 
excellent preparation for heavier feed at a later 
period iti the season, and richer or more highly 
flavored mutton cannot be produced than is af- 
forded from such as have this food continued 
to them, till ready for the shambles. 
Milch Cows thrive on them exceedingly, 
though they should never be allowed to run 
among the trees, from their injuring the limbs, 
and their liability to be choked in taking the ap- j 
pies from an elevated position. The milk from j 
cows so fed. is noted for its richness and deli- ! 
ciousness of flavor. For working cattle and ' 
such as are intended for beef, they are nearly as ' 
valuable. j 
Horses are also exceedingly fond of apples, j 
and few kinds of stock are more benefitted by 
their use. They are a lull substitute for grain, 
with hay, when not too hardly used, and it has 
been found from long experience and careful 
observation, that their health is better when so 
fed, their coat is smoolherand more glossy, and 
that they are equally spirited. 
The quality ot apples has much fo do wMth 
their value; though probably not more than 
that of roots and grain. Such kinds should be 
selected for feeding; if that be the object, which 
are, as a general rule, the most profitable lor 
sale; as they will be found to combine the best 
flavor w'ith the most substance. Sour apples 
have been proved fn’tn careful experiments to 
be equally nutritious for stock as sweet, but it ! 
must be remembered, that they soon set the teeth 
on edge, and cannot be continuously fed in con- 
siderable quantities, with advantage to the 
thrift of animals. Boiling wmuld remedy this 
objection, but it is more easily obviated by al- 
ternating sweet with sour; or if an orchard is 
to be set out or grafted, expresslj'^ in reference to 
this object, sweet apples may almost entirely 
predominate, 
Pov.llry comes into the long list of consum- 
ers of t.he apple orchard; and no less good does 
it do them, than the other tenants of the farm. 
Of apples, of a soft, delicate, delicious pulp, 
we have had more than a peck perday consum- 
ed by a small flock of hens and chickens. Tur- 
keys, ducks and geese are equally fond of them. 
Some prejudice has been created against the 
use of apples for stock, from the fact, that when 
a hungry cow happened to break into an or- 
chard and filled herself to repletion, a fever en- 
sued, and her milk dried up. The same rule 
would hold good against alfowing a horse a ra- 
tion of grain, because one Mddied from an un- 
stinted feed of corn. The true course is, to com- 
mence feeding in small quantities, and gradu- 
ally increase the allowance till put on full ra- 
tions. 
W hen the apple is fed to the larger animals, 
hay and grass should alw'ays accompany it: 
and when fed to hogs, fresh clover or grain 
should be added. When thus judiciously ma- 
naged, we doubt it the production of roots for 
stock feeding, will compare in economy, with 
that of raising apples lor a similar purpose. It 
is true that they are sometimes cut off by late 
frosts, and are not vegetables and grain equally 
liable to injury and disappointment ? In con- 
clusion, we can offer no better advice to our 
readers, than to urge them to plant as extensive 
orchards as they can manage to advantage, of 
the choicest fruits they can select, and whether 
intended as an investment of their money, as 
food for their families, or domestic animals, or 
as an inheritance for their heirs, they can make 
no more appropriate bestowment of their time 
and wealth. 
From the Genesee Farmer. 
Improvements In Agriculture. 
“The gre.'it truth that animal manures are nothing 
else than the ashes of the food produced from our field* 
consumed or burned in the bodies of men and animals’ 
has given the chief direction to all modern improve* 
raenisin agriculture.” — Liebig. 
The above remark deserves the profound con- 
sideration of every practical farmer. After an 
animal has attained his maturity, and adds no- 
thing to his weight in the course of a year, it is 
obvious that the matter which escapes from the 
body must be the same in quantity as that which 
enters it, A very notable portion of the food ot 
all warm-blooded animals passes out of the 
lungs in the form of air and vapor, during their 
ceaseless respiration night and day, j ust as wood 
passes oul of a chimney when burnt in a fire- 
place. The combustion of grass, hay and 
grain in the system of the cow, horse, or sheep, 
is not so complete as that of fire applied to the 
same substances in the open air. In the latter 
case, nearly all the combustible ingredients— 
carbon and hydrogen united wiih oxygen and 
nitrogen— are expelled into the atmosphere. In 
animal combustion, a larger portion of carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen remain with the 
ashes contained in the food taken into the sto- 
mach, and voided with the solid and liquid ex- 
creiions. 
That portion of cultivated plants which es- 
capes into the air through the lungs of man and 
the domestic animals, growing plants can re- 
gain by their roots and leaves, and thus re-or- 
ganize into animal food. But the ease is differ- 
ent with the ashes or earthy portion ofafl plants. 
If these minerals are taken from the soil in crops 
and not faithfully restored, by leplacing on our 
cultivated fields all the salts contained in the ex- 
cretions of the human family and of domestic 
animals, the injury will be great. 
Nearly one third of all the food grown on the 
globe, is raised by the Chinese, For thousands 
of years this wonderful people have cultivated 
most successfully the bread-forming plant. For 
a long period their wheat fields have been fer- 
tilized almost exclusively with the ingredients 
of whest, derived from its combustion in the hu- 
man system. In other words, they manure their 
fields with night-soU alone. 
The manufacture of corn, wheat, barley, 
oats, hay, potatoes, pork, beef, butter, cheese, 
wool, can be reduced lo an exact science. The 
laws of chemical affinity, of vegetable and ani- 
mal vitality, are uniform and easy to be under- 
tood, so far as successful agriculture is con- 
cerned. One of these laws is, that no man nor 
vegetable can possibly make anything out of 
nothing. Another is, that one simple substance 
like carbon, cannot be transformed into another 
simple element like nitrogen. Clay cannot sup- 
ply the place of sand, nor sand of clay. 
Suppose you have the materials to produce 
fifty good crops in your now fertile soil: wheu 
those materials are worked up and sent to dis- 
tant parts, where will the largely increased po- 
pulation of the State go for food and clothing? 
Do you say to the West? But what right has 
the present generation to consume and destroy 
the fertility of God’s bountiful earth, to the se- 
rious iBjnry of those who are to succeed them ? 
