190 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
heat the cover sufficiently to melt the solder, A tempera- 
ture high enough to melt a small piece of rosin is sufficient 
Lay a weight upon the cover until the cement hardens. 
The weight must be heavy enough to keep the lid firmly 
down. If the sealing is perfect, the top and bottom will 
become slightly concave, when the contents cool. 
“For Unsealing. — Place the Can in the oven of the 
range or stove, until the cement becomes quite soft. Then 
remove the Can, and liftoff the cover. Letit stand until 
the cement cools, when the contents may be poured out, 
and the Can, after cleansing, will be ready for use again.” 
Those who wish to obtain those Cans or Jars, may ad- 
dress D. B. Plumb & Co., Augusta, Ga.: or Arthur, 
Burnham & Co,, Philadelphia, Pa. 
“EESCUE GRASS,” &C. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — A transcript of the 
brief comment of “J. W. B.” in your April issue, on the 
famous Rescue Grass, would express my experience with 
it thus far. I sowed a little patch of sandy land which 
had been “cow-penned,” in September last, and the grass 
is now as tall as my pen, which, by the way, is not an 
old-fashioned goose quill. If, however, I should continue 
to write with it until I purchase another peck of Rescue 
Grass seed, the inference might be fairly deduced there- 
from, that it had in the mean time been metamorphosed 
into a Goose's quill. Let me state, however, that I think 
the seed were sown too thick and covered too deep. But 
such mismanagement would not have prevented the de- 
velopment of every spear. The process of development 
is onward— -the seed are forming, and the spears are not 
likely to topple with their load of fruit. It is standing— 
not rvnning to seed. 
Your strictures upon the proposed speculation of Signor 
Lattis, the Egyptian rice-grower, are decidedly oppor- 
tune and appropriate. It is not likely that any warming 
process better than old fashioned solar rays will be dis- 
covered for the fullest development of vegetation ; and it 
is simply ridiculous to talk of gathering large crops from 
land and returning nothing back to it, without improving 
its fertility. The elements of fertility in soils go nut in 
their products, and without corresponding returns, the 
process of deterioration must go on with more or less 
rapidity. 
Farmers must learn, sooner or later, that the habit of 
borrowi.ng, perpetually, from their land and never paying 
back, is barbarous— unnatural— ruinous. It involves a 
shameful betrayal of trust towards the munificent Giver of 
land, which retributive justice cannot foil to punish. The 
ability to give without impoverishment is a supernatural 
attribute. Nature’s laws, which are as immutable as their 
Author, operate upon tlie principle of givingand receiving 
— the common-sense principle of quid pro quo." 
The remarks of Dr. Kersh, with your comments, under 
the head of Geological and Agricultural Text Bonks, are 
highly interesting, and not less important to the interests 
of the planting public. I trust that the noble movement 
of Dr. 'IerrkI/L will prove the advent of a brighter day 
for the progress of scientific Agriculture. But I must stop 
snort in my running commentary upon the rich contents 
•ol your April number, by adding my liumble, but most 
hearty “well done,” to your noble efforts in the great 
cause of Agricultural advancement. T. P. L. 
Darlington, S. C., April, 1855. 
The vast extent of the United States is illustrated 
by the fact that while the inha!>itants of New Orleans are 
feasting on strawberries, people in the Nortlicrn extremity 
have snow three feet in depth in their forests. j 
WHAT S HALL WE EAT?— HIGH PRICES, 
“ All kinds of provisions, especially flour, beef and 
butter, are again enormously high. People will soon have 
to live on beans.” — Exchange. 
Such is the piteous language of several of our cotempor- 
aries, but if no worse fate happens than that here predicted, 
we shall not fear the extinction of our race by starvation 
for some time to come, at least. The case is bad enough, 
however, and we ask the attention of our readers to the 
subject of “what kinds of food are cheapest I” which is 
always a matter of interest, and especially so now. Let 
us first get a clear idea of the use of food to the system. 
The bodies of human and other animals, are chiefly 
made up of three parts — bones, muscles and fat — and the 
object of food is to supply the waste of these. Each of 
these three portions of the body are nourished, enlarged, 
or renovated by different kinds of food, or by different ele- 
ments in the same food. 
The BONES, constituting the frame-work of the body, 
are mainly composed of mineral elements. Most kinds 
of food, and especially the fluids we drink, contain a sup- 
ply of these minerals, and we may leave them out of the 
reckoning. 
The MUSCLES are the lean or red flesh of warm blooded 
animals — including, besides land animals, whales and 
some other inhabitants of the water. It is upon tire 
muscles or lean flesh that we depend for strength, or power 
to labor. One person may have a large body and yet be 
very weak, because of a lack of this lean muscular flesh ; 
while another may have a small body, and yet be very 
strong, because his flesh is nearly all muscular. 
The FATTY portions of the body serve to keep up the 
respiration (breathing) and to supply the system with 
warmth. We know by common observation that corpu- 
lent persons — those having much fat upon their bodies 
— are usually of a warmer temperament, and suffer less 
from cold than those whose flesh is less in quantity, and 
this chefly muscle or hard red flesh. 
The waste of the muscles (lean flesh) depends upon the 
amount of exertion put forth ; the waste of the fat, upon 
the amount of heat necessary to be supplied. Active 
persons require more muscle-forming food. They also 
breathe faster and require more fat-forming food than 
hose less active, but they chiefly need muscle. 
In winter the external cold rapidly exhausts the heat of 
the body, and hence fat or heat producing food, is requir- 
ed in greater abundance, than in summer, when muscle or 
strength-producing food is most needed. Either of these 
fwo parts of the body may be nourished by supplying it 
with the appropriate food. The lean, and the laboring 
man require different food from the corpulent or sedentry. 
The v/orking animal will thrive best and perform most 
work when fed with muscle forming food; ibe fattening 
animal requires that tending to the accumulation of fat. 
Of animal food, laboring persons — and others in warm 
weather — should partake niore freely of lean meats, such 
as beefsteak, while in winter those producing fat may be 
consumed more freely. The usual practice among labor- 
ers of eating large quantities of fat pork while hard at 
work in summer, is by no means a judicious one. Lean, 
meats and those having little oil or grease, are much bet- 
er adapted to their wants. 
Vegetable food of different kinds contains more or 
less of the elements of both muscle and fat, but the rela- 
tive proportion of these is veiy difierent. Those kinds of 
food containing most sto.rch, gum and sugar, yield 
the most fat; those having the most gluten, alhvmtn or 
/cgm'rm, yield the most muscle or lean flesh. For ex- 
ample, 1 00 lbs. of fine wheat flour contain about 70 lbs. 
of starch — a fat-producing element — and U lbs. only of 
gluten— a muscle-forming element — 7 to 1; while 100 lbs. 
