202 
THE CULTURE OF TOBACCO.—NO. II. 
Persons living near a city or village, will find 
poultry to pay much better than those living at a 
distance, which, in a measure, will account for the 
difference of opinion in regard to the profits arising 
from them. Then again, in the hands of some, 
they will be made profitable, while in the hands 
of others they would be a losing concern. Much 
depends on management; and I contend, that with 
proper management, and favorably situated, fowls 
can be made as profitable, according to the capital 
invested, and labor employed, as any other branch 
on the farm ; but like all kinds of business, to be 
successful, it must be attended to. In raising or 
managing poultry, as with most other things, a 
little ^experience is worth more than a great deal 
of theory. 
Where eggs is the principal object the Poland, 
or crosses of the Poland, are undoubtedly the best, 
as they very seldom want to set. I consider it 
most profitable to sell the eggs when high, and 
let them hatch when the price is low. 
On many accounts, and in favorable situations, 
geese can be made profitable. They will live on 
grass in the summer without grain, their feathers 
are valuable, and their carcass, when young and 
fat, will command a fair price. But to counter¬ 
balance this, unless confined to a single pasture, 
they are not only troublesome but destructive to 
grain or grass in meadows. In order to obtain a 
good crop and the best of feathers, it is requisite 
that they should have a stream or pond of water 
to resort for washing, &c. C. N. Bement. 
Three Hills Farm, May, 1844. 
THE CULTURE OF TOBACCO—NO. II. 
Tobacco requires for its successful cultivation 
two conditions—an abundant supply of proper sa¬ 
line matter, and secondly, a sufficient source of am¬ 
monia. 
In the mineral earth the former condition may 
be present, but the second as long as the soil is 
untouched is absent. The saline mal ter is how¬ 
ever but very sparingly dissolved, while the plants 
require a large supply, and especially during the 
earlier periods of growth. The indications are 
therefore clear enough, and may be expressed un¬ 
der three heads. 
1st. To pulverize the soil, or give it porosity. 
2d. To hasten the solubility of the necessary 
saline substances. 
3d. To secure a supply of ammonia. 
1 st. To pulverize the Soil. —W hen it is adhesive 
and wanting in porosity, it must be rendered fine. 
This may be accomplished by many means, in dif¬ 
ferent localities. If lime is abundant, and the 
land a stiff clay, it should be used freely, drainage 
may be necessary, admixture with vegetable mat¬ 
ter, as leaves, sawdust, muck, fallowing crops, 
burning clay, repeated stirring, rolling, &c. 
By pulverizing the soil two important points are 
attained: First, the greater absorption of gaseous 
matter, dew, and fluids from the air: and secondly, 
the means of dissolving saline matters are in¬ 
creased. Beside these advantages, the plant is 
enabled to draw food from a much greater extent, 
and the improvement, if properly made, is a per¬ 
manent advantage to the land. 
The absorption of gaseous matter is increased to 
an extent directly proportional to the fineness, and 
looseness of the soil. This requisite to fertility is 
certainly appreciated by many farmers, but there 
are none who are fully alive to its capabilities. 
So much may be accomplished in agriculture by 
attending to this one point that it may be made 
the first, and only principle of successful farming, 
provided the mineral composition of the earth ts 
suitable. Every one is now aware that plants 
will grow and flourish in charcoal-powder watered 
with rain-water, sufficient saline matter being pres¬ 
ent. Yet the charcoal, properly so called, inde¬ 
pendently of the bodies which adhere to it, fur¬ 
nishes no part of the food of plants, not so much as 
the clay of the field. It acts in consequence of its 
extraordinary porosity in absorbing and holding a 
sufficient amount of the carbonic acid, and ammo¬ 
nia of the air, to answer the necessities of the most 
luxuriant vegetation. Its action is undiminished 
for years so long as it is in contact with air. 
There may be a slight difference in the proportions 
of gaseous matters which clay absorbs, when com¬ 
pared with charcoal, but leaving that out of consid¬ 
eration, it may be proved that if the clay of the 
surface-soil could be reduced to the same condition 
of porosity, it would perform the very same office 
as charcoal, and constitute in itself a sufficient 
material whereon the most luxuriant plants might 
be raised, provided as before the necessary saiine 
matters were present. Common clay can not be 
brought into this state of maximum porosity by 
mechanical means, for it differs from charcoal in its 
intense cohesion for water; but when it has been 
burned, this point of difference is destroyed and the 
two now resemble one another very closely in this 
physical property, and are equally known, as well 
as coal-cinders which act in the same way, as fer¬ 
tilizing agents. 
The doctrine advanced is not new, the indefati¬ 
gable Jethro Tull, as the result of mere experience, 
wrote on it, and secured among other illustrious 
disciples ihe name of Duhamel. Liebig applying 
the measures given by Dalton for the absorbent 
power of box-wood charcoal, and which are very 
far beyond an expression of the real absorption by 
pine charcoal exposed to moisture on the open field, 
was the first to account for one feature of the ad¬ 
vantage gained by pulverizing the soil. But 
neither he, nor any other writer on agriculture, 
has alluded to the fact, that dissimilar soils absorb 
unequal quantities of the components of the at¬ 
mosphere. This is a topic of great importance in 
practice, and should be submitted to rigid experi¬ 
ment. From this investigation will appear the 
reason why certain iron-stone lands and fine clays 
are so decidedly superior to loose sandy soils. It 
leads also to the conclusion, that an addition of 
barren sand to clay is injudicious on the whole, for 
the same expense directed to burning the surface, 
or turning in green fallows would lead to much 
more real advantage. 
It may be urged by my readers, that one of the 
facts, previously so much insisted on, proves of no 
consequence here, or that there is a contradiction 
