26 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
aid in developing the “ riches of the art then 
will our country be able to claim her citizens as 
her wealth, and the great pride and boast ot 
mac consist in exhibitions of devotion to his 
country’s goodj by his attainments in agricul- 
tural know ledge. 
ADDRESS OF THE HON. CHAS. DAYAN, BEFORE 
THE LEWIS CO. N. Y. AGRICULTERAL SOCIEIY. 
Extracts from the Adunss.— From the ioiego 
ingremaiks, gentlemen, you will discover the 
importance of your position, and the impor- 
tance ol your occupation, it is un eniably true 
that your occupation is as honorable, as any on 
eanb, claiming the greatest antiquity, and in 
fact being the only one supplying the absolute 
wants and necessities of life, and as such must 
claim a pre-eminent usefulness. In a political 
point of view, you are emphaiicall" thp ‘i bone 
ar.d muscle” ot the nation ; you hold the power 
and the reins ot this government in 3mur hands. 
It is among the agripultuial p rtot community 
that you find that integrity ot purpose and pm i- 
ly ot morals which form tlie moral integrity o! 
a nation. You hold this power, it is true, but 
beware how you use it. All power in the hands 
of man is liable to abuse.— It is a characteristic 
o: our nature to be inflated with power and to 
transcend our powers and duties lor no other 
reason than that we have them ; liom you this 
abuse of powmr is hardly to be expected, so long 
as you sustain that moral and political integrity 
which have heretoiore characterised your pro- 
fession. You must always remember that ours 
is a government of laws based upon equality- 
equal rights and equal privileges are the legiti- 
ma'e inheritance ol every American freeman 
never use the power to degrade, impoverish or 
enslave your fellow man — lot remember the 
language of St. Pierre, “ That while we are 
riveting one end ot ttie chain arounrl the ancle oi 
the slave, Divined ustice is ri veting the other end 
round the neck of the tyrant.” 
No class of community has done more for so- 
ciety than you have The farmer has in all ages 
of the world been the pioneer to Christianity and 
civilization— you have cut through and glad- 
oenedthc way for the gospel ministry, and pre- 
pared tnem to carry the glad tidmgs of the gos- 
pel to the remotest pait ol the nation. In a 
word, you have been instrumental in civilizing 
and christianizing a world— for who can deny 
but what Christianity and civilization have fol- 
lowed in close proximity the axe and the arm of 
the husbandman. 
You have a.ways nourished and sustained all 
other branches of industry— they have been 
solely and entirely dependent upon yon, and are 
so now and always must be. A.gricultuie, Com- 
merce, and Manufactures, have been denomina- 
ted twin sisters, mutually dependent upon each 
other. But strike out ol existence Agriculture 
and Commerce, and manufactures must, ot ne- 
cessity, perish. Strike out the other tv.'o, and 
agriculture, of necessity, must survive. Strike 
out agriculture, and man can only live as long 
as he can sustain himself on the spontaneous 
productions of the earth. Hence you see that 
you are not only the lords of creation, but the 
lords of the soil; and as such, you should, by 
all commendable means, strive to elevate your- 
selves to the dignity of your profession. You 
are styled the great producers of the nation — 
your productions are consumed by all the na- 
tions of the earth. Your national flag flutters 
in every breeze, and every port and harbor is 
whitened by your canvass. You may say these 
are high sounding words without meaning — ex- 
amine for yourselves and you will find it true to 
the letter. Hence the dignity of your calling. 
You live in an age of improvement, and the 
field before you is wide, and it must be occupied 
by you, your children, and your children’s chil- 
dren--and fear not, my friends, that your pro- 
fession will be overstocked. 
I have already detained you long, and will 
close, by making a few remarks to the fathers 
and mothers engaged in agriculture. The fath- 
er should duly appreciate the increased intelli- 
gence of his day, and consequeniiy .see the ne- 
cessity of educating his sons. Scientific works 
on agriculture should be put into their hands and 
their attention called to their necessity. You 
should also teach them in the most concise plan 
of practical husbandry: when you try experi- 
ments, test them in the presence (1 your sons, 
explain to them the principles of your tests, and 
lead them to believe that demonstration is ttie 
best mode of instruction — teach them to reason 
fiom cause to effect, and to watch every practi- 
cal result, and above all, teach them industry.— 
Teach them the old proverb, “ a young man 
idle, an old man • eedy.” That business is the 
salt of life, idleness its canker. Teach them 
that God, in the fulness of his wisdom, has or- 
dained that the necessity of labor should be the 
enjoyment of man, and that it is honorable — 
teach them that labor gives strength and vigor 
to the moral as well as the physical faculties — 
that it gives food to the mind and strength to ttie 
body. 
If you have hired men, never reflect upon 
their condition of life, but on all occa.sions give 
them to understand that you will estimate them 
by their moral worth. 
Never taunt them for their poverty, unless it 
is the result ol idleness and crime: in a few 
words, do all you can to sweeten their toil and 
condition of life: this will give them a cheerful 
heart, and a cheerful heart will give them a 
willing hand. In all your deal with them, 
maintain a scrupulous integrity, and for the 
time being as a f ther, aid and direct them by 
good and honest counsel. 
To agricultural mothers I would say, educate 
ymur daughters in all the domestic relations of 
life. Teach them to know that honest indusiry 
is honor; idleness, dishonor; that industry is 
health and wealth ; idleness, misery and wmnt. 
These are obligations you owe your daughters, 
if you wish to prepare them for future useful- 
ness in society. Teach them to despise the 
empty scoff of that female who is too good in her 
own estimation to work, devoting her time to 
spinning street yarn, and who, like Solomon’s 
lilly, toils not, neither does she spin, and whose 
little hands are too delicate to knead a biscuit. 
Mothers, depend upon it, jmur daughters, in the 
estimation of all intelligent people, rightly edu- 
cated, are held in higher estimation than those 
w’ho sneer at honest industry ; teach them nev- 
er to feel themselv'es degraded by domestic du- 
ties. Teach them to stand to their post when 
they see a perso i approaching the door, and not 
run for fear of being caught at work. Teach 
them that every sensible man will pity a girl 
who runs to avoid the imputation of labor, and 
will despise her extravagance, if she should be 
caught at the wash tub in a silk dress. If you 
have female domestics, instead of treating them 
with neglect and indifference, be to them for the 
time being, a friend and mother — treat them 
with kindi.ess and resfiect, and if occasion 
should require, throw the mantle of charity over 
them. Teach them that their toil is not servile 
but meritorious — do this and you wull seldom 
want help. 
From the New Genesee Farmer. 
USE AND PREPARATION OF THE FOOD OF 
VEGETABLES. 
To understand the process of nature by w'hich 
certain elements of earth, air and water are 
transformed into living plants, and the best meth- 
od of preparing these elements so as to produce 
the largest crops at the least expense, are objects 
worthy of the careful and profound study of ev- 
ery cultivator pf the soil. 
If we take lOD pounds of ripe hay, oats, 
wheat or corn, including the roots, stems and 
seed, and burn them carefully in the open air, 
we shall have only about 3 per cent of alkaline 
earths left, most of which can be dissolved in 
water. If we burn a pound of candles, or a 
pound ol oil, whether animal or vegetable, the 
whole of these substances (which are truly “ the 
fat of the land”) will be transformed into invisi- 
ble air and vapor. The atmosphere and water 
are nature’s great storehouse for preserving an 
exhaustless supply of vegetable food. res- 
piration, fernienlolion and rotting, all c;ganic 
siruciuies are transformed into gases ana .solu- 
ble salts. It is from the lime dissolyeu m the 
ocean that the oyster elaborates its shell, arid the 
coral insect rears its massive mountains < i co- 
ral rock. It IS nrainly from the phosj h: le of 
lime held in solution in its mother’s milk, taken 
from her food, that the sucking calf elaborates 
its solid bones. Without lime to be dissolved 
in her gasiic juices, and taken into her circulat- 
ing blood, the hen can make no solid siidl to 
her egg The unnuised infants in the great 
cities ol London and Paris, brought up wn.iout 
milk, ana led on arrow-root and other f . that 
contains }illle or no lime, have solt, carvlagi- 
nous, rickety bones, simply because neither 
animals nor plants can make somerAz74g . rom 
nuUiing. 
As a general rule it is strictly true, ana more- 
over it IS a iruth of great [ radical impor i. nee, 
hat a ieeble, diseased steqi in wheat, irabie to 
rust, &e., and a shrunken berry, are owj/igto 
•some removable defect in the food of tire j.iant. 
Bo different are the essential eleiuen’- the 
seed of dijs plant liotn those of its sirav. . that 
it is practicable to raise wheat ihatui:, jield 
twice as muchgiain in weight as ther e i '.eight 
ot straw, taking it liom the root. Ti- it is 
also practicable to grow wheat whicJi \v. : give 
flve limes as much straw as grain, inosi . . oiers 
know by sad experience. 
On page 254 ol Transactions of ifn New 
York State Agricultural Society, Ibad, Gen. 
Hai'mon, of Vv heatland, states, that ■•Itr i803. 
Petti n Shefler, Esq., ot this town, liar. t.'-mU 40 
acres of wlieat grown on the Genesee llo , that 
produced b2i bushels per acre.” M n ■ ele- 
ments did nature provide, and where i she 
gel them, for the growth of such a cio; '' Man- 
ifestly they caijie Horn the inineial anu i egeta- 
ble matter washed down from the liiyibands 
above. These elements are just as a. . lUant 
now as they were at the close of the ■ lion. 
Having found out, within the last 4' _ ears, 
since Mr. Shefler harvested his farm crop, 
what these vegetable elements are, an . -w to 
combine them under more favorable • mge- 
ments for the production oi' cultivo a < lanis 
than nature has anywhere done, men o. -crence 
have greatly exceeded the above lai.ge ;,.duct. 
From nature’s crab-apple, that weighs to.'.' than 
an ounce, science has at krst grown irui weigh- 
ing twenty limes as much, or 20(10 pm cent, 
more than the original ! 
By the u.se of charcoal and lime, a Mr. Pell, 
of Go.shen, in this State, has harvested tliis sea- 
son at the rate of 78 bushels 24 quarts ol wheat 
per acre. The ground was accurately measur- 
ed by a surveyor’s chain, and the grain a sealed 
half-bushel, and the statements are all sworn to 
by two reputable men. I notice this triumph of 
science with the more pleasure, from the fact 
that I have long and zealously urged the u.se of 
these abundant elements upon the attention ol 
the readers of the papers for which I have 
written. 
It is more than twenty years since I first be- 
gan to use pulverized charcoal to absorb the 
gases given off by decomposing vegetable .and 
animal matter, urine, and tne like, to be applied 
to garden and field crops. Its value in correct- 
ing the taint in meat, and purifying rain-water 
in filtering cisterns, led me to believe that it 
would be just the thing to absorb the food of 
plants from the atmosphere, into which so much 
passes, and hold it about their roots in a condi- 
tion that neither dew,rain, snow, fr jst, nor the 
heat of the sun, would injure it or take it away. 
To labor hard to save and draw out manure on 
to one’s fields, and then lose 6Q or 80 per cent of 
this vegetable food by its solution in water, and 
washing away to form something like the Ge- 
nesee flats in the bottom of Lake Erie, I never 
regarded as very good economy— -which, by the 
way, is the soul of good husbandry. 
A pint of human urine contains ammonia 
enough to make, with the other necessary ele- 
ments, 60 pounds ol good wheat. Charcoal 
