.44 
MANURES AND CULTIVATION.— FENCES. 
that is all important— deep plowing. By the natu¬ 
ral course of events the richness of the top soil is 
washed out, it sinks into the sub-soil; lime sinks, 
rnarl sinks, clay sinks, thus leaving- the top soil 
poor in lime, &c., and disposed to become poor and 
sticky. By deep plowing these are brought up, 
mixed, and the soil deepened; in proportion to the 
mixing and fine tilth will the air have access, and 
will the soil be rendered lighter and more open, 
and of course permitting roots to ramify and extend 
in search of food; thus causing a retention and 
circulation of moisture, more rapidly cooling in the 
night, and a greater deposit of dew, as well as 
earlier warmth in the spring. 
I need not extend these remarks; your readers 
can find them elsewhere, and if they will examine, 
they will be as equally convinced as I am of their 
utility. 
Nature herself pursues a rotation of crops. I 
have seen a waste field producing nothing save 
broom-sedge; in a few years it would be able to 
bear a crop of short-leaved pine trees. These 
grow, drop their leaves, and after years of labor, 
fit the land to produce a crop of oaks. These grow 
with more or less vigor, and we are told that after 
thriving for centuries, they sicken and die— 
“ its entire race dies out, and other races succeed 
it.” Let the hand of man, in imitating nature, 
have a care lest it runs one crop to the death, and 
unfits the land to produce aught save the ridge- 
grass; as barren fields amply testify all through 
the south. M. W. Philips. 
Edwards’ Depot , Miss. 
MANURES ANlT~CULTIVATION. 
Conclusion of Mr. R. L. Pell’s remarks at the 
January meeting of the American Agricultural As¬ 
sociation, on manures and cultivation. 
On cultivation, Mr. P. said :—On the 9th of Octo¬ 
ber, 1844,1 cleared the tops from a dug potato field 
—burnt them, and returned the ashes—with a view 
of «owing wheat. The seed was then prepared 
thus : soaked four hours in brine that would float 
an egg ; then scalded with boiling hot water mixed 
with pearlash ; passed through a sieve; distributed 
thinly over the barn floor, and a dry composition 
sifted on it composed of the following substances : 
oyster-shell lime, charcoal dust, oleaginous char¬ 
coal dust, ashes, Jersey marl, or blue sand, brown 
sugar, salt, Peruvian guano, silicate of potash, ni¬ 
trate of soda, and sulphate of ammonia. The sun 
was permitted to shine upon it for half an hour, 
when the particles crystallized upon the grain. 
In this state it was sown at the rate of two-and-a- 
half bushels to the acre, directly on the unplowefi 
potato ground, and immediately plowed in to the 
depth of five inches, with a Scotch plow ; har¬ 
rowed once; a bushel of timothy seed sown to the 
acre, and harrowed twice. At the expiration of 
fifteen days the wheat was so far above ground as 
■ • j be in advance of some which had been sown on 
(he 1st of September—thirty-nine days earlier, in 
(ud usual manner, without any preparation. Near 
it 1 sowed wheat prepared, on turnip and carrot 
giwitnd, the tops not having been removed, and 
pioWed the whole in together with like success. 
Still adjoining I sowed three bushels to the acre in 
a dry state, on potato ground ; plowed and har¬ 
rowed first; wheat then sown and twice harrowed , 
the first parcel, although plowed in to the depth o! 
five inches, Avas 2! inches high before the last ap¬ 
peared above ground, although the Avhole field 
received the benefit of the following composition 
sown by hand, at an expense of two dollars per 
acre, viz.: stable manure, dry charcoal dust, hick¬ 
ory Avood soot, bone dust, oleaginous charcoal 
dust, oyster-shell lime, decayed leaves, leached 
ashes, unleached ashes, guano, sal soda, nitrate of 
potash, fine salt, poudrette, horn shavings, refuse 
sugar, ammoniacal liquor, blood, sulphuric acid, 
magnesia, plaster from walls ground, decayed grass, 
decayed straAv, decayed Aveeds, fish, refuse oil, 
sea-weed, oxide of iron, and oxide of manganese. 
My object was to contribute to that groAving crop 
every substance required for its growth. It is pos¬ 
sible that ten or twelve of the above named sub¬ 
stances might have produced the same effects. The 
wheat raised by the experiment just detailed pro¬ 
duced flour containing 18 per cent, of gluten. 
In 1843 I soAA r ed thirty acres with prepared wheat, 
and top-dressed it with charcoal dust. It grew 
rapidly, Avas not attacked by rust, mildew, or 
blight, when fields near it were almost destroyed. 
A small portion of the lot, which had received by 
accident a large supply of charcoal dust, produced 
at the rate of 78f bushels to the acre. I cut it when 
the straw presented a yellow appearance four inches 
above the ground At that stage of its growth a 
milky substance could be expressed readily from the 
kernels. It AA 7 as allowed to remain three days in 
the field, AA T hen it was carried to the barn, and 
threshed immediately. It weighed nearly 64 lbs. 
to the bushel, and sold by weight for 12! cents 
above the market price. 
A few acres were left standing, and cut three 
Aveeks after, when the farmers in the neighborhood, 
harvested their wheat. The grain was small, 
shrivelled, and weighed 56 lbs. only per bushel; 
the straw had lost its most nutritious substances; 
was much lighter than that cut earlier, and conse¬ 
quently less valuable. I believe that after the stem 
turned yellow near the ground, there being no con¬ 
nection betAveen the root and tassel, the kernel 
wastes daily. By cutting early there is preserved 
in the straAv all its nutritive matter, and thus it is 
rendered almost as valuable for fodder as hay. 
In conclusion, Mr. P. said that his processes 
, looked not only to results through science, but to 
economy in expenditure. 
FENCES*. 
W hen you commenced your articles on fences, 
early in the last volume, I hardly had sympathy 
enough Avith you to read them attentively. I was 
not vexed (as it seems some of your readers were), I 
rather ridiculed your notions, and passed them un¬ 
heeded. But now, having spent more than $150 
the past summer, in enclosing my farm with a new 
and stout fence, I confess I have considerably 
changed my mind. 
I purchased a farm where the fences were mise¬ 
rably poor. 4 It was said a crop had never been 
harvested there without more or less injury from 
unruly cattle. Indeed, the domestic animals all 
about seemed to regard it as “ free plunder.” The 
first thing I did was to hire two men, and com- 
