106 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
proportion, is prepared to receive manure, and 
support all vegetation. It is regarded as essen- 
tial to a rich and proper soil, as either clay or 
sand, and is just as indestructible. By occa- 
sional rest, and occasional application of putre- 
scent matter, a soil rendered calcareous artifi- 
cialfy, will be more than double in productive 
capacity in 10 years, and quadrupled in 20 
years; and if the theory is correct, which I do 
not doubt, but which practice has not fully es- 
tablished, because sufficient time has not elaps- 
ed to test it effectually, there will scarcely be a 
limit to its increasing fertility. But I cannot 
intrude upon your space to enlarge upon the 
subject. At a future time I may briefly state 
the mode of applying marl, and the character 
of those soils upon which its effects will be ear- 
liest and strongest. 
To Analyse Marl. — Take a specimen, dry it 
perfectly in a shovel over the fire, pulverize it 
thoroughly in a mortar, and weigh accurately 
50 grains of it. Take next a retort with as 
open a mouth as practicable, put into it about 
200 grain s of muriatic acid, diluted if you please 
with once or twice its bulk ol water, place retort 
and contents in the scales, balance them and 
note the weight. Next, pore carefully the 50 
grains of marl into the retort; give time for the 
carbonic acid gas, which rises with efferves- 
cence in a white vapor, to escape. When the 
effervescence ceases, and the vapor has entirely 
passed ofl', which you can aid by blowing, bal- 
ance the scales again ond note the difference of 
weight. Say, for example, that this difference 
is 20 grains, then, knowing that every 100 grains 
of carbonate of lime contains 44 grains of car" 
bonic acid gas and 56 grains of lime, and hav- 
ing taken 50 grains of marl, we have the follow- 
ing proportion: 
If 22 grains of carb. acid gas are found in 50 
grains of carb. of lime, how many are 20 grains 
carb. acid gas (which we supposed escaped from 
the retort,) foundl Answer, 45 grains of carb. 
of lime: or, 
22:50::20:45 — which last term is the quantity 
of carbonate of lime in a 100 grains of the marl 
analy.sed. a burke farmer. 
Jefferson Hall, Green Co., ) 
June 15, 1843. ) 
Messrs. Jones — The enclosed recipe, which is 
doubtless a good one, and which is ^mple and 
easily procured, I wish published in the South- 
ern Cultivator. 
Yours, respectfully, a. a. 
“Cure for the Bots. — The editor of the 
Baton Rou^e Gazette slates, that he is informed 
by gentlemen who know, that strong tea, made 
of common garden sage is one of the most ef- 
fectual remedies for bots in horses ever discover- 
ed. Also, a branch of sage chopped into the 
feed of horses once a week, will prevent the bots 
altogether. 
When your horse is taken ill of the bots, give 
about a quart of strong sage tea, and he will re- 
cover in a few minutes. 
The above remedy is simple enough in all 
conscience, and has this to recommend it — if it 
should do no good, it can do no harm — and being 
innocent in itself, is, we should think, worthy of 
ttial.” 
CURE FOR BOTS IN HORSES. 
Make a strong decoction of tansey tea, bruise 
and press out the juice, and drench with a quart 
at a time. It is said by a very knowing old lady 
of Morgan county, to be the very best of reme- 
dies. It is also stated, on good authority, that 
the grub, dropped in a strong tea of the above 
plant, will immediately die. 
Green County, June 19. 
Wilkes County Ga. ) 
June 24, 1843. ) 
Messrs. Editors. — I will comply with your 
request for all your subscribers to communicate 
their experience to you, or at least a part of it- 
As I am not accustomed to writing I hope you 
will correct all mistakes. 
The subject to which I would call the atten- 
tion of farmers, is one of great importance to 
them — it is. 
THE CULTIVATION OF THE GRASSES. 
There is very litile attention paid to this sub- 
ject in this county, and very little in the State. 
I do not know of a single farmer in this county 
who sows any kind of grass seed — they say 
there is plenty to cut up now without planting 
more. Now I do not know of one good reason 
for not planting grass seed. We can have as 
good clover here as at the north, and there are a 
great number ot grasses which are natives. I 
have had grass growing in a square in my gar- 
den, three feet high, and which made as good 
hay as 1 ever saw. It is the kind called here 
“ciow'’s foot.” 
It seems as if our farmers would rather have 
their cattle poor and starving, than to be at the 
trouble of sowing grass to make hay for them, 
when there is nothing for them to eat in the 
fields. Now this is all wrong. If they would 
build good shelters for their cattle, and provide 
enough for them to eat, they would find it more 
(O their profit. Cattle when sheltered do not eat 
as much as when kept in the cold blast of win- 
ter; where they get on the sunny side of a fence 
and shiver as if almost frozen. Another thing, 
cows give more milk when kept under a warm 
shelter, and do not eat as much by one third. — 
I asked a farmer last winter, how his cattle 
stood it. He replied, “they could all get up 
without help and that was all.” There is an- 
other thing in which our farmers are at fault — 
it is, they keep too many cattle. If they would 
keep fewer and keep them well, they would be 
gainers by it. 
It is a matter of rejoicing that the people are 
waking up to the importance of improving their 
land and keeping better stock. I will not en- 
croach on your valuable paper farther. If you 
think the above worthy of a place, give it. You 
may hear from me again. 
I remain your friend, a. o. 
Fruit Stains. — The fumes of brimstone will 
remove fruit stains and iron mould fram linen 
and cotton. Moisten the part stained wdth cold 
wmter, then hold it over the smoke of burning 
brimstone till the stain disappears. 
Wounds and Bruises on Horses. — Take 
one quarter of a pound of saltpetre, half a pint 
of vinegar, half a pint of spirits of turpentine, 
put them together in a bottle, and shake up be- 
fore using. Apply it to the wound with a feath- 
er, three times a day. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE NEW YORK AGRICUL- 
TURAL SOCIETY. 
We are indebted, says the editor of the South, 
ern Planter, to the politeness of Mr. Luther 
Tucker, the Secretary, for the second volume 
of the Transactions of the New York State Ag- 
ricultural Society. As in the last volume, so 
in this, we meet with matter of great ability and 
of general and absorbing interest. Amongst 
othei things, we find two prize essays, from the 
pen of Willis Gaylord, Esq., occupying sixty 
pages, every word of w'hich we should be glad 
to transfer to our columns, if the nature of our 
work permitted. As it is, we must be content 
with making brief extracts from such portions 
of these essays as we deem most interesting to 
our readers. The first essay is on 
the preparation and use of manures. 
Alter examining the nature and constitution 
of plants, Mr. Gaylord remarks, “In the prep- 
aration of manures, the principal object to be 
aimed at must be to supply materials for the 
formation of carbon and ammonia; and these 
are found in the greatest abundance in dead or 
decomposed animal and vegetable matter.” He 
then proceeds to consider separately the differ- 
ent kinds of manures, under appropriate heads, 
and first of 
animal manures. 
He quotes a late British writer on agricul- 
ture, who says, “If cattle repay their food and 
the expense and risk attending their keeping, the 
manure is sufficient profit. Even wnth a mode- 
rate loss, they must be kept when manure can- 
not be purchased. Manure is to a farm what 
daily food is to an animal; it must be procured 
at any sacrifice.” Mr. Gaylord thinks, that to 
such crops as corn, potatoes, &c. that do not re- 
quire forcing in the early part of their growuh, 
but demand nutriment at a late period of their 
vegetation, to j erfect iheir seeds or roots, long 
manure may well be applied in the spring; be- 
ing well covered, fermentation will not take 
place until the gases, which are eliminated in 
that process, will be retained by the earthy cov- 
ering, and appropriated by the roots of the plants. 
To preserve manure for such purposes, he 
thinks, that the usual plan of incorporating the 
drippings of the cattle with the usual litter of 
the farm yard, during the winter months when 
the absence of heat prevents decomposition, is 
fully sufficient; but for other crops, as turneps, 
beets and carrots, where the influence of ma- 
nure is required to be felt at once, in order to 
push them forward at the first start beyond the 
reach of insects, he thinks the vegetable matter 
should be reduced to a state of perfect decompo- 
sition, before its application. Whenever this 
process takes place, the vegetable matter should 
be protected and covered, as in the compost heap, 
with alternate layers of sod, earth from ditches, 
ponds, &c. which may absorb the drainings of 
the manure above, and arrest the ascent of the 
gases from the manure below. He says, “the 
more solid such deposits of manure are made, 
the more slow will the fermentation be. Should 
the dung in the heaps be too slow in fenaienta- 
tion, it may be hastened by opening the piles, 
or still better, by making holes in the top into 
which the wash of the yards and the urine of 
the stable^ay be poured.” 
If ^r. Gaylord is correct in supposing that 
no lois occurs during the winter months in the 
farm-yard manure, his plan of hauling it out 
and covering it up at that season when the heat 
generates decomposition, is highly to be recom- 
mended; because it saves all the labor of the 
compost heap during the winter season. But, 
in our southern climate, at least, we imagine 
that the loss, even during the winter, from eva- 
poration and solution, would more than justify 
the labor of daily collection and addition to the 
compost heap. In addition to the earth and 
sods, which are mere mechanical retainers, we 
