42 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
great source of ammoti’a, decay, there we may 
expect all these actions to occur. 
How important, then, is that action of mould- 
ering which produces ammonia. 11, reader, 
you ii'ill reflect upon the consequences of this 
action, you will at once see, that it the mould is 
in too small a quantity to retain the ammonia, 
it may escape. If, by a wa.sty exposure, you 
allow your mould to dissipate itself in air, as it 
certainly will, you not only incur the los.s ol 
that part of the mould, but you diminish, at the 
same time, the chance of keeping the ammonia 
which has been fo:med. No doubt all cattle 
dung exposed to air, forms more ammonia than 
it can retain. Hence the necessity and tne leas- 
on of forming com^^osts with this substance. 
“ Keep what you have got, and catch what you 
can,” must never be lost sight of in manure. 
The third action of mould is, the production 
ofheat. Little need be said upon this. That a 
slight degree of heat hastens the .sprouting of 
seeds, you well know. Thatdiflerent manures 
p ‘oduce diflferent degrees uf heat ; that some are 
hot, some cold, you well know, and adapt your 
seed and manure to each other. The dejrree of 
heat depends upon the rapidity with which de- 
cay occurs. And this i.s affected by the quanti- 
ty of ammonia which each manure can afford. 
The great point to which your attention should 
be directed, when considering the power ol 
mouldering to produce heat, is, that it shall not 
go so far as to burn up your manure, just as hay 
will heat and ta re fire. 
(To be continued.) 
From Ihe Western Citizen. 
PREMIUM ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF 
CORN. 
BY GEORGE W. WILLIAMS. 
(t.'oncluded.) 
11. The crop is to be secured by severing the 
stalk near the ground, and by stacking it in the 
field. 11 th'‘ gi ain is for bread, it should pot be 
cut till after tlie first Irost, or until alter it has 
fully matured, Corn intended for stock, may be 
cut at an earlier period. As soon a? the milk is 
entirely out of the gram, and it has received its 
enamel, or has a firm fegl to the nail, the work 
may be begun. Sixteen hills, from a square, 
are to be nut into each stack, and the stack’s are 
to be made as follows: In the fiist place, lies 
are to be made to support the stacks, at least ten 
days before the cutting is cor menced. The la- 
borer counts eight luus from the edge of the 
fipld, passes between the eighth and ninth rows, 
lies Ihe eighth and ninth hills in each of these 
rows, by bending ifie stalk diagonally across the 
square, and twisting the tops securely together. 
These ties being >iade previ’ms to cutting, be- 
come staunch and aff /rd good sta3’s lor stacks 
wh'n set up. Jn cutting, the workman has a 
straight kniie, which is best made from an old 
scythe blade. With a straight kniie, he can 
strike in any direction, and it is necessary for 
him to do so, because from the many positions 
in which he will fin.1 the stalks standing and 
leaning, and son. eiimes lying, he wdll have to 
make many different kind of strokes which can- 
not be done so well with a crooked knife as 
with a straight one. In this work, he goes first 
to the tie ; here he cuts around the tie and places 
the hills as he cuts them carefully pnd nearly 
erect within the tie. He then cuts with the right 
hand, gathering the corn with his left, and su.s- 
taining the stalk.s, when cut, upon his left arm. 
More than one hill may be cut, and sustained 
in this way, before he carries them to the stack. 
In carrying them to the stack, he does not put 
them on his shoulder, nor does he drop hisknjle. 
It is held in the righ' hand, and the turn of corn 
is carriacl to the slack upon the left arm. He 
places it carefully on the stack, equalizing each 
side and trimming the stalks properly to the 
stack. The chief difficulty in stacking is to 
keep the stack from going into a twist, and this 
can be done only by attention in placing the 
stalks in such a way as that they, while they re- 
cline to the head of the stack at the top, shall 
not lean either to the one side or the other. 
This mode of cutting and stacking is ihe most 
expeditious one known to me, but to work upon 
this plan, the laborer must be a strong man and 
an active one. In average crops, when the 
.stalks stand .straight, such a man can put up 
twenty or twenty-five stacks in a day. But ihi.- 
is exira work, and in such coin I considei six- 
teen stacks a day’s work for a common hand. 
Another, and the most usual mode ol cutting 
am stacking, is to approach the tie and cut 
aiound it as in the first instance, placing the 
stalks as cut within the tie. When this is done, 
the whole square is cut and laid in bunches of 
four hills upon the ground and across the rows. 
The kniie is then thrown clown, and ihe bunches 
carried to the stack. This each man may do in 
the way easiest for himself, hut experience will 
teach all, that the easiest and most rapid is nev- 
er to put the turn on the shoulder, bulcairvit 
on the arm. Too much care cannot be taken 
in making the stack, for if it gets into a twist, 
more than half the corn and lodder will be de- 
stroyed. 
12. hen the corn is thus secured, and after 
the corn has sufficiently dried, the next opera- 
tion will be to crib that part of it which is for 
bread, and take care of the fodder. This must 
be done before the winter sets in, for shucking 
corn in winter weather is disagieeable work, 
and but little can be done at it. 'Damp weather 
should be selected, if possible, and the laborer 
will place himself at the stalk, and as he takes 
the ears from the shuck a d stalk, he casts them 
in a compact heap, and places the fodder in two 
or three piles a.^ound the place where the stack 
stood. When this is done, the tie having been 
lelt standing, he | laces the fodder around the lie 
again, making a compact stack, pressing the 
whole together well. A band must be put 
around the top of the stack. In doing this, tfie 
butt ends of three or four stalks are to be inserts 
ed a foot or more into the body ol the stack pear 
the top, at d the stalks bent around the stack; ; t 
the ta-'^sel end of this band, another bunch of 
stalks is to be inserted as before— around this, 
the tassel end of the first bunch is to be wrap- 
ped, and so on till the band passes altogether 
around and binds the stack well. The slacks 
tie best in the morning, when the dew or damps 
of the night are on the fodder. The corn is then 
carted to the crib. That part of the crop intend- 
ed for stock is left in the field, from whence, at 
the proper lime, it is carried to the place of feed- 
ing, and there consumed, fodder and all. 
13. I have thus given the whole process in 
the cultivation of corn, and, as 1 think, the best 
method to secure a good average crop upon av- 
erage soil. I have, however, an opinion that 
upon prime Japd, with a judicious use of ma- 
nures, much larger crops may be grown. I am 
now engaged in making the’fourth experiment 
to test the truth of ihie opinion. These experi- 
ments have not been entirely satisfactory to my- 
self, but as I intend to co itinue them, I may be 
enabled, hereafter, to arrive at a mode of culti- 
vation to be preferred to the ope now practised. 
Indeed, I am spre, from what I have done, that 
as much as one hundred and fifty bushels per 
acre, one year with another, with great care in 
cultivation, il the land is first rate, can be attain- 
ed. But the soil must be the best for corn, and 
entirely free from weeds. My plan has been, in 
these experiments, to plow deep and pulverize 
the soil thoroughly before planting — to plant 
early and close — to put one stalk ip a place two 
leet by eighteep inches apart, except in the last 
experiment, when 1 put two stalks in a hill two 
feet apart. The whole after cultivation was 
done w'ith the hue, and was comparatively of a 
light character. The first experiment I made 
produced the largest yield — all the circumstan- 
ces were layoiable. The other three had sever- 
al difficulties to encounter, most of which, ex- 
cept in the second, when a severe drought at the 
time the grains were filling, near'y cut off the 
whole crop, might have been to some extent ob- 
viated. The average of the four crops is one 
hundred and ten bushels, four gallons one and 
one-half pints, per acre. This falls greatly short 
ol 150 bushels per acre, but I am confident that 
so large an average crop as that may be attain- 
ed on choice land, with proper attention, 
Gbo. W. Williams, 
Near Cenirevillc, Sept. 28, 1843. 
EXPLANATION OF TERMS, 
(Continued from page 28.) 
Acids — are substances ol a sour taste. 
The acids are very numerous. Their rao.?t 
distinguishing properties are, 
1st. They change to red those colors of vege- 
tables which the alkalies change to green. 
2d. I'hey combine with alkalies, and thereby 
form various kinds of salts. 
Thus, the combination of muriatic acid with 
soda forms common salt. 
Some of the acids are met with in a solid 
state— others in a fluid slate, as vinegar— and 
others in a gaseous state. Of the latter is car- 
bonic acid, which requires a more particular 
description. 
The carbonic acid, when uncombined with 
any other substance, is always met with in a 
state ot gas, and hence it is called carbonic acid 
gas. It is the same substance which was for- 
merly called fixed air. It exists in a small pro- 
portion in the atmosphere. It destroys lile and 
extinguishes the light of a candle when immers- 
ed in it. It is disengaged largely from liquors, 
such as beer, cider or wine, when in the act of 
fermentation. It is this gas which produces the 
many unhappy accidents in some subterraneous 
caverns, in closed cellars containing large quan- 
tities of Isi menting liquors, in some deep wells, 
and in bedchambers, warmed by burning char- 
coal in pans. 
This acid combines with a great variety of 
substances, which are then called carbonates. 
It exists in marble, chalk and limestone, in dif- 
lerent proportions, all of which are called car^ 
bonates of lime, and ihe burning of limestone is 
for no other purpose, but to expel the c arbonic 
acid, which is dune by beat, in which operation 
the limestone loses nearly half its weight. 
The alkalies attract it from the a''tm'0sphere. 
it is present in pot and pearl ashes, from which 
it is disengaged by the addition of a stronger 
acid, as every one may have seen in throwing 
pearlash into cider, ns sopie people do to drink 
in the morning. The acid in the eider, in uniU 
ing with the pearla.sh, displaces the carbonic 
acid, w^hich rises in the form of gas through the 
liq ler, producing much foam with a hissing 
noise, called effervescence. 
48. Almos'phej'tc ezr— -or the air which sur^ 
rounds this earth, is a mixture of tw'o different 
kinds of air, called oxygen and azote. It like- 
wise contains a small proportion of carbonic 
acid gas, a substance already described, 
It is well known that no animal will live, or 
fire burn, w’ithout air; but it is that part of the 
air called oxygen which is necessary for both. 
It is this which supports life and combustion-, 
and w'here there is no oxygen, an animal will 
die and a light will be extinguished a.- suddenly 
as where there is no air at all. 
All this may be made plain by a very easy 
experiment. Take a lighted candle, put it into 
a candle-stick, apd set it into a pail of w’Ptep so 
deep as that the light of the candle may rise 
three or four inches above the surface of the 
water. Then take a deep tumbler, or a wide- 
mouthed decanter, invert it, and let it down over 
the candle till the brim shall dip into the water. 
As the candle continues burning, the w.ater will 
be seen rising in tne decanter till it shall be about 
one quarter part lull, when the candle will suds 
denly go out. Now the reason of the water’s 
rising in the decanter, i.s because the oxygen is 
gradually consumipg by the lighted candle; and 
the reason that the candle goes out, is, that the 
oxygen at that instant is all gone, or has all been 
expended in the combustion. What is then lelt 
in the decanter wi'l be the other part or kind ol 
air called azote, and if a small animal should 
be introduced into this air, it would die as sud? 
denly as if it had no air at all, 
Oxygen gas, (for you must remember that 
every substance in the form of air is called a 
