TREATMENT OF MULES.-GARDENING.-NO. 9. 
339 
TREATMENT OF MULES. 
“ Gaston,” on page 187 of the Agriculturist, 
gives his sad experience with stock, and makes a 
most lamentable face of it, in being “ the most un¬ 
fortunate people in the world.” He gives you, I 
know, a faithful account of the how, that work¬ 
horses are generally treated—but I, for one, enter 
my caveat against the treatment, and say, no man 
has any right to accuse our Maker of partiality, 
who will treat stock in this manner. I here give 
you a true and plain statement how I do, and defy 
a man to visit the Hall and find anything to the 
contrary. 
My team turns out about 4 o’clock, these days, 
say, about daylight; at 11 o’clock the horn sounds, 
which calls them from the field; the mules are all 
turned into a lot, where my cows are fed and 
milked, having in it a trough 50 feet long, under a 
roof, in which salt lies the year round, with ashes 
occasionally mixed therewith. Here the mules 
walk about, wallow, and rest until cool ; when 
they are turned into a horse lot adjoining, and 
driven in one corner to water; they, of their own 
accord, return to the stable, where food is present, 
each one to his stall, there tied, curried, and rubbed 
—my manger is never empty. At 2 o’clock, P.M., 
the horn again sounds, when the hands turn out, hav¬ 
ing watered again, and work until dark, when they 
return to the lot, and undergo similar treatment. 
I use no racks, I use no long provender; and 
about half the time I use cob and corn meal; pro- 
vender and the latter is thoroughly sprinkled, so as 
to be damp, with a weak brine. I feed about one 
week with the meal above mentioned and cut 
stuff—being fodder, millet, hay, and shucks— 
another week on corn and cut stuff. My troft— 
(Webster says trough)—is 2 feet wide at bottom, 1 
foot deep, 2| wide at top, and 5 feet long, with a 
partition of about 20 inches for corn ; it is cleaned 
out of everything, once a week, and when wet stuff 
has been used is well cleaned out with a cloth wet 
in brine. 
This is my mode—and 1 was born and raised in 
this glorious South, and here mean to live and die 
—and, by the by, except one mule, I have not had 
a case of colic, since the Sheriff, et id omne genus, 
drove me out of fine doings in 1839, to attend to 
this small business. I say now to friends, North, 
South, East, and West, I do not in truth consider 
there is anything in this, but system, and believe it 
was my profession that gave me this, which leads 
me to say, as I do believe, that the doctors of Ame¬ 
rica are bound to be as useful men to this country, 
in giving more system to the science and art of 
agriculture as any other class. I am proud of my 
rofession, and proud of my country, and say that 
may stimulate my brother chips to greater exer¬ 
tion, and that my brethren of this clime may profit 
thereby, as well as by my feeble pen. 
M. W. Philips. 
Edwards’ Depot, Miss., June 1 5th, 1846. 
Irish Mode of Boiling Potatoes.— Wash the 
potatoes clean without breaking or cutting the 
skins. Drop them into a pot of boiling water, 
adding a little salt, and let them remain until suffi¬ 
ciently soft for a fork to be easily thrust through 
them. Pour off the liquid in which they have been 
boiled, and dash in cold water in its stead. Let the 
potatoes remain two minutes; pour off the cold 
water; place them over a slow fire, with the pot-lid 
partially removed, and let them steam until nearly 
dry. Then peel, and place them on the table in an 
open dish. 
GARDENING—No. 9. 
Of the Agency of the Atmosphere in Vegetation .— 
The atmosphere is composed principally of water, 
carbonic acid gas, oxygen, and azote. The 
quantity of water that exists in the air, as vapor, 
varies with the temperature; the hotter the weather 
the greater the quantity. At 50° of Fahrenheit 
one-fiftieth of volume, or about one-seventy-fifth of 
weight of the air, is vapor ; while at 100°, the 
vapor is one-fourteenth in volume, or one-twenty- 
first in weight. It is a beautiful feature in the eco¬ 
nomy of nature, that aqueous vapor is most abun¬ 
dant in the atmosphere when it is most needed for 
the purposes of life; for, in very intense heats, 
when the soil is dry, the life of plants seems to be 
preserved by the moisture in the air, which is ab¬ 
sorbed by the leaves. 
The quantity of carbonic acid gas in the air 
is very small; probably, where there is a free circu¬ 
lation, not to exceed the one-fiftieth part. The 
principal consumption of the carbonic acid in the 
atmosphere seems to be in affording nourishment 
to plants ; and some of them appear to be supplied 
with carbon chiefly from this source. The action 
of the atmosphere on plants differs at different 
periods of their growth, and varies with the differ¬ 
ent stages of the development and decay of their 
organs. If a healthy seed be moistened, and ex¬ 
posed to the air at a temperature not below 45°, it 
soon germinates, and shoots forth a plume which 
rises upwards, and a radicle, which descends. 
Seeds are incapable of germinating, except when 
oxygen is present. From this it is evident that, in 
all cases of semination, the seeds should be sown 
so as to be fully exposed to the influence of the 
air; and one cause of the unproductiveness of cold 
clayey adhesive soils is, that the seed is coated 
with matter impermeable to air. Any seed not 
fully supplied with air, always produces a weak 
and diseased plant. 
Dew is the moisture insensibly deposited from 
the atmosphere, on the surface of the earth. This 
moisture is precipitated by the cold of the body on 
which it appears, and will be more or less abun¬ 
dant, not in proportion to the coldness of that body, 
but in proportion to the existing state of the air in 
regard to moisture. 
Rain is considered to be the result of the elec¬ 
trical action of the clouds upon each other. The 
quantity of rain varies with the latitude. The 
warmer the air, the greater is the quantity of vapor 
precipitated; hence the reason why rains are hea¬ 
vier in summer than in winter, and in warm coun¬ 
tries than in cold. There are some countries 
where it scarcely ever rains. For example, in 
South America, the clouds seem to be checked in 
their progress from the Atlantic, by the Andes; and 
while the sides of the mountains are deluged with 
frequent showers, the plains of Peru and Chili, 
