HOVEN IN CATTLE. 
163 
two of lime, and one of fish, no odor is given out, 
and this mixture forms a more valuable and last¬ 
ing manure, than if composed of fish alone. Ma¬ 
rine shells, salt-marsh mud, and meadow hay 
abound ; the reader may judge in what quantities 
the two latter, when he is informed that Long Island 
has about 70,000 acres of salt marsh upon it. In 
addition to all these natural fertilizing sources, 
manures of various kinds from this city are so 
abundant that they can be had to any reasonable 
extent, and the facilities of transporting them by 
water are great. Then there is sand to make the 
clay soils more friable, and clay again to give con¬ 
sistency to the sands; so that after all, Long Island 
as a farming district, may be said to be rather 
eligibly situated. 
Rotation of Crops. —Being so convenient to 
ship to the south, and to the city market, where 
an immense number of tons are annually con¬ 
sumed, hay has become the leading crop of Long 
Island ; the land therefore is kept in grass as long 
as it will profitably produce it, and all other prod¬ 
ucts are consequently made subservient to it. The 
usual rotation is, first year, plow up the sod, manure 
heavily, and plant with corn. It is difficult getting 
this off in season for wheat or rye; oats or barley 
consequently follow the second year, or potatoes 
with manure again. These are harvested in sea¬ 
son for wheat or rye, whichever the land best 
suits, and stocked down at the same time with 
timothy. Clover seed at the rate of 4 lbs. or more 
per acre is added the last of February or early in 
March sowed upon a light melting snow. 
Gardens.— In passing over Long Island, one 
would be surprised at the number and extent of 
its gardens. They are devoted to all sorts of 
vegetables and fruit which can be grown in this 
climate, and many persons have attained consider¬ 
able wealth by their cultivation. Some of the 
seeds are sown in the fall of the year, for the pur¬ 
pose of procuring earlier crops in the spring, onions, 
spinach, brocoli, cabbage, lettuce, and cauliflower, 
particularly. The seeds and plants are protected 
during winter by covering with sedge or some kind 
of litter. We shall describe some of these gardens 
more particularly hereafter, we now advert to 
them for the mere purpose of mentioning one 
vegetable only. 
Culture of Cabbages. —These are produced 
from forcing houses at a very early season, the 
main crop, however, is not set out till the last of 
July or fore part of August. On account of the 
liability of the plants to be destroyed in their 
early growth in the field by insects, they are sown 
in beds where they can easily be protected, and 
are then transplanted in rows; they find that this 
is less laborious and more certain than endeav¬ 
oring to protect them in the fields. The land is 
made rich by a heavy coating of manure, then 
plowed deep and harrowed fine. The plants are 
set out in rows, and the number occupying an 
acre is from 3,000 to 7,000. They are regulated 
according to the size of the cabbage when full 
grown, as the heads will weigh from 3 lbs. 
to 30 lbs. each. They are supplied in immense 
numbers, not only to this city, but to vessels for 
sea stores, and are shipped to almost every port 
along the American seaboard, from Newfoundland 
to Mexico and the West Indies. One of the gar¬ 
deners we visited informed us, that one year when 
they were very high, he netted $2,600 from nine 
acres, after paying all expenses of rent of land, cul¬ 
tivation, and marketing; and that he had cleared 
$1,200 on an average for the past ten years, on 
about the same quantity of ground. He has un¬ 
doubtedly been fortunate in the cabbage culture. 
We know of many a farmer occupying from 300 
to 500 acres of land who does not on an average 
clear half this amount, so that it is not the num¬ 
ber of acres after all, so much as the crop and 
method of cultivation, which gives the largest 
profits. 
It would be a curious paragraph of statistics, 
could the number of cabbages be ascertained which 
grow within a circle of 30 miles from this city. 
They must amount to several million heads, for 
the Horticultural Committee of the American In¬ 
stitute, reported last year upward of 600,000 in 
one tour they made of three miles only. 
HOVEN IN CATTLE. 
In the article in our last No. under this head, 
we carelessly wrote down the language of our in¬ 
formant, using the word “ windpipe ” instead of 
gullet , and the correction escaped us entirely in 
reading the proof. Any one in the slightest de¬ 
gree acquainted with the anatomy of animals, 
would recognise the mistake at once, and take our 
meaning; still we have thought it advisable to 
make the correction. The windpipe and gullet 
are quite different things. The former leads to 
the lungs, and is for the purpose of breathing, &c.; 
the latter leads to the stomach, and is the passage 
for food and drink. Should any material substance 
by accident get into the windpipe, and it be not 
immediately removed, it will cause death. A body 
lodged in the gullet would also cause death; 1st. 
by obstructing the breathing by pressing on the 
