MO 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
if we would learn their utmost latent resources for the 
support of plants and animals. Instead of operating on 
one or two hundred grains, their agricultural value may 
be much better ascertained by extending our researches to 
several pounds, especially if we would learn the amount 
of available elements of fertility in any given quantity of 
earth. A hill of corn planted in rows four feet apart one 
way, and five the other, has twenty cubic feet of earth, 
and more than a ton in weight, from which to extract its 
earthy constituents. These constituents may not exceed 
a dram in weight, and the plant or plants be four or five 
months in the hottest part of the year in taking them 
from the ground. Let the chemist, with his analytical 
art, take an equal mass of earth and equal time for the 
operation of atmospheric and solar influences, and for 
washing and leaching the soil with rain-water as it drops 
from the clouds, and he tpo may find every substance in 
the soil extracted by the plant from the first sprouting of 
the germ to the full maturity of the crop. 
The value of soil- analyses has been the subject of much 
discussion. Had the disputants devoted their time to the 
adt^ancement of chemical manipulations in these research- 
es they would have been better employed. Men who find 
-most fault with Science for its alleged short- comings, are 
innocent of any effort to increase its usefulness. A scien- 
tific truth may be exceedingly valuable to one farmer, and 
worthless to a dozen others, from their inability to appre- 
ciate its bearings on the results which they labor to attain. 
Many facts and truths lie dormant and unproductive for 
years, when some lucky accident, or per chance small 
discovery, renders them of universal significance and 
value. Some of the facts established by soil analyses are 
of this character; being links in an unfinished chain 
whose strength should not be prejudged before the work 
is completed. Very few scientific men in this country are 
cultivating agricultural chemistry, and no reasonable man 
will expect it to make rapid progress. It has had more of 
the frowns than the smiles of Public Opinion ; and some 
of its friends have grown gray while waiting for popular 
appreciation c*f this branch of human knowledge. 
Domestic Economy is named by the munificent founder 
of this new Professorship as worthy of our deliberate 
,^tudy ; and all thoughtful persons will see the propriety 
of (Cultivating and improving this pleasant home feature in 
rura’i life. It is possible for one’s home not to be so plea- 
, sant-as it ought to be ; and in nine cases out of ten where 
. such is the fact, some defect in domestic economy will lie 
.. at the bottom of the difficulty. There are a thousand 
ways in which bad household economy leads to bad plan- 
1, tation management, inducing pecuniary embarrassments, 
-ana not a little untold unhappiness. 
Domestic ecohbffiy is not penuriousness, nor the 
abridgment of any comfort for the purpose of accumulat- 
ing property. On the contrary, it has for its object an in- 
crease of domestic enjoyment by a more judicious use of 
whatever means one may appropriate for the support of 
himself and family. It is an old and common remark, 
'“that one half of mankind know not how the other half 
live-” and it must be confessed that the art and science of 
living well have received less public discussion, and been 
more neglected than many other subjects of almost in- 
finitely less importance. Wise economy in the use of 
fuel for warming dwellings, making them really comfort- 
able at the minimum expense, is alone worthy of more 
than one public lecture. Many families contrive to burn 
a great deal of wood without making their rooms comfort- 
able owing to defects in doors, windows, floors, ceilings 
.and chimneys, which let out all heated air, and let in all 
ithat is colder from without with the utmost freedom of 
(motion. The cost of cutting and hauling firewood is not 
diminished by those that suffer most from cold in such 
poor apologies for houses. They appear to be constructed 
with a view to compel a prodigious waste of fuel and to 
receive the least possible benefit from its combustion. 
Fire-places and chimneys in common use are rarely 
made on any sound principles of economy, either for 
health, comfort, or the pocket. Let a housekeeper make 
as large openings though the sides of his dwelling as 
those out of all his fire-places, through his chimneys, and 
keep them open in the cold of winter as well as in the 
heat of summer, and the folly of such an act will be ap- 
parent to all. But custom renders common observers 
thoughtless of evils and discomforts of no inconsiderable 
magnitude, which, if not familiar and long endured, would 
appear perfectly intolerable. Careful experiments in the 
construction of fire-places and chimneys have led to great 
improvements, by which both economy of fuel and an 
agreeable warmth are obtained. All the seientific prin- 
ciples and mechanical arrangements involved in this econ- 
omical problem will be hereafter elucidated. 
Every family needs pure water for purposes of drink- 
ing, cooking, ablution, washing cloths, and other indis- 
pensable uses ; and it is an economical question of great 
moment, in the course of a life time, how a full supply of 
soft wholsome water can be best obtained at afimiily resi- 
dence. In this place, something over a ton of water falls 
in rain on every square yard in the course of a year. At 
this estimate, an area of twenty yards square would yield 
four hundred tons in twelve months. To filter awd pre- 
serve pure, so much of this water as one may need for 
every day consumption, are points in domestic economy 
worthy of our best consideration. 
No one who has not made it the subject of special in- 
quiry would credit the statement showing the losses and 
vexations that arise from bad economy in the management 
of water. 
The putting up, curing and keeping of all kinds of meat 
is an art susceptible of much improvement. It is not less a 
chemical than an economical question, and should be 
studied as a branch of organic chemistry. Intimately as- 
sociated with the keeping of meat is the question of mak- 
ing sweet, delicious butter, and of preserving it free from 
rancidity, and other defects, the year round. All sensible 
persons will admit the general lack of knowledge and 
care in this branch of domestic economy. Indeed, the 
more closely we examine common things in domestic af- 
fairs, the more glaring do their errors appear. Our edu- 
cational system overlooks those branches of knowledge 
which have a direct bearing on our comfort and happiness 
every day of our lives, while it cultivates ornamental litera- 
ture and ornamental arts designed for show rather than 
use. I would not condemn anything truly ornamental, 
whether in art or literature, but urge the study of domestic 
economy as a science. It deeply concerns all that we eat, 
all that we drink, our sleep at night, our clothing by day, 
and our health and comfort at all times, from the cradle to 
the end of our existence in this world. Man is by nature 
a social being; and the wise cultivation of his social facul- 
ties and. domestic habits, gradually transforms the wild 
brutal savage, whose hand, like that of Cain, is sfained 
with the blood of his murdered brother, into a civilized, 
humanized, member of the most advanced community. 
Human elevation from primeval darkness, ignorance, 
crime and suffering, so far as it depends on the efforts of 
man himself, may be reduced to fixed principles, and a le- 
gitimate science. Educational efforts in this direction 
neither reject, nor claim to supersede the advantages of 
Christianity. On the contrary, those who have done most 
to improve society by the increase and diffusion of useful 
knowledge through the medium of books and periodi- 
cals, and by founding instiuutions of learning and 
science, have both recognized and felt the enobling influ- 
ence of the divine teachings of the Bible. The day has 
happily gone by when a conflict between Science and the 
