20 
SOUTHEEN CULTIVATOE. 
2. Because Agriculture fursiied as a Science, loith the 
needful caution and perseverance, is a source of the highest 
and most constant pleasure. 
No thinking, active mind is content with mere process- 
es of muscidar effort. To such a mind, the tread-mill of a 
farmer’s work, pursued from generation to generation, in 
the same unvarying monotony, is tiresome enough. The 
toil becomes doubly toilsome, because it is enlivened 
by no living and inquiring thought. And the farmer him- 
self becomes almost as stupid as the cattle he feeds, except 
politics, or literature, or religion, shed at intervals, and 
from afar, a beam of cheerful light on his mind. But let 
every process have its well digested theory ; let every 
piece of work, while done in its time, and most efficiently- 
performed, be an experiment which compares diffei’ent 
inodes of manuring of cultivation ; let every change be 
made on sober thought, and with a full knowledge of the 
objects to be gained, and of the best and cheapest means 
of gaining them ; in short, let the life of a true Science send 
its healthy pulsations through the whole system of a 
farmer’s work, and he feels a joy “uufelt before,” in every 
work to which he sets his hand. His farm becomes his 
laboratory. The pleasure felt by the Chemist or Artist, 
as he communicates these discoveries which bring the 
ends of the earth together, and revolutionize the social 
condition of nations, is shared by the careful and labori- 
ous student in Scientific Agriculture. For he is applying 
similar principles, and his labors tend to a similar result. 
Every crop is a study to him, for it has its own laws to 
be studied. Every season has its charm for him, for its 
changes and chances must be carefulty watched. He 
must make suns, showers, and snows, and frost, and fire, 
all to minister to his interests and work out his ends. And 
in doing all this — and all this he will do, if he works with 
open eye and careful hand— will he not find a pleasure so 
constant as to enliven his heaviest toil, and so varied as 
to strip of their charms the false attractions of city life, 
and so purely intellectual and refined, as to place him in 
dignity and aim side by side with the great brotherhood of 
thinking men, whose hands have been busy, but whose 
brains have been more busy still ; and who have done 
most for the wealth and comfort of the race, because they 
have done most for its improvement in all solid and endur- 
ing Science. 
3. Because it wotdd be greatly to the pecuniary advant- 
age of the far wer to pursue his vocation as a Science. 
If he pursues his work simply because he has done so 
before, or because his farther or his neighbors have done 
so, he shuts out all improvement, of course. If he makes 
changes blindly, he is much more likely to lose than to 
gain. Besides, if he makes experiments at random, some 
of his neighbors — and perhaps he himself— will set down 
his failures to the account of Scientific farming ; and be 
the more confirmed in their old ways, because of his blind- 
ness and blundering in a single case. But if he studies, 
during his leisure, the results of former experiments in the 
department he is enquiring about ; if he converses with 
intelligent men, who have been successful in the same 
branch, and who understand and will explain to him the 
the principles and pi’ocesses which they have adopted, he 
will be safe in following their example. And thus proceed- 
ing — with thought ever active, and making due account 
of all differences between his experiment and theirs, he 
will very probably be far more successful than in any 
other way. A little example of the disadvantages of ig- 
norance, on a single point, will illustrate this matter. 
Within sight of the window by whose light the pi’esent 
article is v/ritten, is a strawberry bed. Its owner pre- 
pared the ground carefully, enriched it well, and planted 
it with plants of a choice kind, in the very best manner. 
He has hoed, and manured, and mulched, and watered 
now for two full years. The plants have grown, and 
spread, and flourished greatly. Every spring the ground 
has been white with flowers ; but no fruit has been ma- 
tured. And the owner has just discovered that the kind 
he planted was a pistillate kind. Of course it could never 
ripen its fruit. He has lost two year’s fruit from his ignor- 
ance of this single fact. His neighbor, who lives but a 
litile distance off, has had abundant supplies, from a bed 
but little larger, and no better cultivated, because he 
planted one row of Early Scarlets between every two or 
three rows of his pistillate kinds. This is a single case. 
Millions more might be gathered on a large scale as well as 
on a small one, all over our land. But we must stop now. 
We close with a single remark: The strictest Science is 
the mother of the truest Art. — Ohio Farmer. 
SPAYING COWS. 
In “old times” — if you know when that was — the prac- 
tice of spaying female animals of the farm, such as cows, 
heifers, sows, &c., was very common, and was thought to 
be profitable. The custom, however, went out of prac- 
tice gi’adually, until at last no one could be found ac- 
quainted with the mode of performing the operation. 
This subject has been recently called to the notice of 
farmers, by a writer over the signature of “A.” in the 
Boston Cultivator. This writer recommends the practice 
for various I'easons, but brings forward no cases to prove 
the positions taken by him. 
Since the appearance of “ A.’s ” communication, Mr. 
Elijah Fletcher, of Tyngsboro’, communicates some inter- 
esting facts, as the results of spaying three cows. We 
abridge from his account the following : 
First cow was 11 years eld — was spayed 22d day of 
May, 1851. After being fully healed, her milk increased 
in quantity and quality ; continues to give on an average 
the year through, 7 quarts of milk per day — in winter 
kept on hay alone ; turned out to fatten this summer on 
account of age. 
Second cow, six years old, gave 8 quarts of milk per 
day; spayed June 11th. A tumor being found near one 
of the ovaries, it was not removed, and she consequently 
manifests the sensual passions ; she continues to give the 
usual quantity of milk, but being predisposed to fatten 
has been turned out to prepare for that purpose. 
Third cow was 5 years old, gave ten quarts of milk 
per day; Spayed June 11 th; continues to average this 
quantity ever since ; thinks that 8 quarts will make more 
butter than 12 quarts of any other that he owns, that are 
not spayed. Winter before last she made a pound of but- 
ter per day, fed on hay only. 
All these cows carry more flesh since being spayed 
than before. Mr. Fletcher comes to the following con- 
clusion : 
“I am thus far perfectly satisfied with the experiment, 
and recommend the operation, especially to those persons 
keeping one cow, as they will have a continuance of milk 
all the year round, and in quality for butter, at least 25 per 
cent, better than that from cows not spayed.” 
Depth and Mellowness op Soil. — Depth and mel- 
lowness of soil may be considered the principal character- 
istics of successful gardening. In our school boy days, 
we have all read of the dying husbandman, who told his 
son never to part with the vineyard, as there was a valu- 
able treasure lying within a few inches of the surface. 
This young man, in the ex'pectation of finding a bag of 
money, carefully turned over the soil, but found nothing. 
In the subsequent harvest, however, he was astonished at 
the extraordinary luxuriance of his crops, and then under- 
stood, for the first time, the enigmatical meaning of his 
father’s words. — Boston Cult. 
