SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
205 
down the slope of a hill, depends upon two things : the 
steepness and the length of it — the steeper it is, the great- 
er the velocity it acquires ; and the longer it is, the greater 
the quantity that accumulates during its descent, and its 
momentum or power of communicating motion to pther 
bodies (its washing power, therefore,) varies as the pro- 
duct of these two things— the velocity and the quantity or 
mass. The steepness of our hill sides we cannot change 
except by terracing, (which is impracticable on a large 
scale,) but we can cut a long slope into a succession of 
■^hort ones, by ditching at proper inteiwals, which shall 
catch the water in its downv/ard course, before it has had 
time to acquire great bulk or velocity, and tui'n it into 
channels where we can regulate its velocity. jNIoreover, 
by running the rows between two ditches with only a 
slight fall into the lower one, we can, in most cases, cause 
all the water, which runs down our hills to follow such 
circuitous paths and such gentle slopes, as to produce al- 
most no appreciable washing. 
At some future, time we propose to discuss the other 
two subjects mentioned. 
AGRICTJLTTJKAL WRITING AlfD READING. 
There are some fifty agricultural papers in the United 
States, besides a large number of newspapers which either 
have agricultural editors, like the Louisville Journal and 
N. Y. Tribune, or copy freely from the rural periodicals of 
■the day. The rapid growth of this kind of literature is- one 
of the most auspicious signs of the times ; for it indicates 
both an increase and an elevation of knowledge in the 
masses who own and cultivate the soil. That our agri- 
cultural writing is not all of the best quality, nor our agri- 
cultural reading entirely reliable, is plain enough to every 
well informed observer. Indeed, our defects are often so 
glaring with absurdity, and so injurious to the public, 
that one who really feels a deep interest in the character 
and permanent good of the rui’al literature of the country 
can hardly abstain from exposing and condemning some 
of the more mischievous errors wdth -which the agricultur- 
al press everywhere teems. So far as the writer may at- 
tempt anything of the kind, 4 will be with no unkindly 
feeling ; much less in a dogmatical spirit, but solely to 
prevent a departure from the true principles of the most 
important profession to be'found in civilized nations. 
The following remarks are taken from the June num- 
ber of the Nev) Englo/ud Farmer, v/here they are com- 
mented upon approvingly by one of the clearest and best 
informed minds connected with the agricultural literature 
of the Northern States. The paragraphs are there ascribed 
to Prof 31ap£s, of the Working Farmer: 
“The chemist tells us by analysis, that blood is com- 
posed of certain materials and water. All these materials 
exist in rocks, and may be separated from them. 
Now let us suppose ten square yards of soil to be fer- 
tilized by 10 lbs./)f bullock’s blood, and another ten square 
yards of soil to be fertilized by the constituents which analy- 
sis shows to exist in 1 0 lbs. of blood, and that these constitu- 
ents shall not only undergo the greatest degree of mechani- 
cal division by grinding, but they shall absolutely be 
placed in solution and applied to the soil, still, notwith- 
standing this great mechanical sub-division, the ten yards 
fertilized by the blood will yield double the amount of 
crfp of that fertilized by the same constituents from the 
rocks. 
“As aT.other instance. Should we fertilize one piece of 
1. id with the bones of an animal, previously heated to 
vp I -;ess, so as to drive off the gelatine, fatty matter, etc., 
. ’ ;..ve phosphate of lime only, dissolving it before its 
ication in sulphuric acid, and should fertilize another 
’ r piece of land with the same amount of phosphate 
. ken from the rocks as at the location at Dover, N, 
J., or Crown Point, Lake Champlain, and dissolve this 
also in sulphuric acid, we should find that the portion fer- 
tilized by the dissolved bones would yield a crop much 
larger than that arising from the use of disolved phosphate 
from the rock. 
“This gives rise to the question. Does matter, by its 
entering into animal and vegetable organisms, undergo 
any changes which are important for after-progression, 
but which changes are not discoverable by chemical test 
or microscopic investigation 1 All experiments seem to 
prove that isomeric compounds, although chemically alike 
so far as analysis is capable of discovering conditions, 
really do differ in their adaptability for appropriation in. 
organic life, and thus the ingredients found in the blood 
or bone of an animal, between the time of its leaving the 
original rock and becoming blood or bone, may have oc- 
cupied place in vegetable or animal life a thousand times, 
at each of which assimilation, growth, and decay, it may howe 
been more fully suited for its present advanced purposes^ 
and thus the phosphate of lime and other constituents of 
blood may differ in their applicability for re-appropriation, 
from the same materials in a less advanced state. We all 
know that when a plant or animal decays, or is consumed 
in any way, that its ultimates pass back either to the soil 
or the atmosphere, and are re-united in some new organic 
form ; no one particle is ever put out of existence — and 
may not this be the cause why many manures are to be 
found so much more effective than others of similar com- 
position I 
“All know that the ultimates contained in a green crop, 
when applied to the soil from original sources, will pro- 
duce no such result as is consequent upon the plowing 
under of a green crop. 
“We all know that nightsoil, urine of animals, stable 
manure, etc., produce effects in vegetable growth not to 
be arrived at by the use of the same constituents direct 
from the rocks.” 
The above reads smoothly and prettily ; but whoever 
shall adopt the theory therein propounded, and act upon 
it in the preparation of manures, and the renovation of 
impoverished fields, will soon lose hundreds, if not thous- 
ands of dollars. It is based on no facts vshatever. It rests 
solely on idle assertion ; and this assertion on a vivid 
imagination, perhaps, quickened by pecuniary interest. 
Where is the evidence that “Should we fertilize one 
piece of land with the bones of animals, previously heated 
to redness, so as to drive off the gelatine, fatty matter, &c., 
and leave phosphate of lime only, dissolving it before its 
application in sulphuric acid, and should fertilize another 
similar piece of land with the same amount of phosphate 
of lime taken from the rock, as at the location at Dover, 
N. J,, or Crown Point, Lake Champlain, and disolve this 
also in sulphuric acid, we should find that the portion fer- 
tilized by disolved bones would yield a crop much larger 
■ than that a/rising from the use of dissolved phosphoAe from 
the rockF 
The above theory may be advantageous to one engaged 
in the manufacture of superphosphate of lime from cal- 
cined bones, or bones not calcined in competition with 
others who make their superphosi:>irate from the cheaper 
phosphate found at Dover and Crov/n Point. But is that 
fact a good and sufficient reason for its general promulga- 
tion by the agricultural press as a principle in agricul- 
ture! 
It will be difficult to find a well-informed geologist who 
doubts the exisistence of vertebrated animals, and others 
which had sensible quantities of phosphate of lime in 
their organized tissues, on this planet, millions of years 
ago ; and that from their first creation to the present mo- 
ment, they have never ceased to subsist on organized food 
.containing atoms of phosphoric acid and lime. The same 
is true of atoms of water, (oxygen and hydrogen) atoms of 
carbon, (coal) and atoms of nitrogen, sulphur, chlorine, 
