152 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Gold Medal herd both last year and the year 
previous. We are confident that the Here- 
fords will achieve a marked popularity on 
the great plains. They are not an artificial 
breed like Shorthorns, and will probably turn 
grass and corn into dollars faster and better. 
A Home-Made Leveller. 
Mr. H. E. Wright, Crawford Co., Pa., makes 
a leveller in the following maimer: The 
runners are of l 1 / 2 -inch plank, 6 feet long and 
8 inches wide ; they are set 4 feet apart, and 
A LAND LEVELLER (STANDING ON REAR END). 
the top is covered with heavy inch boards. 
The forward levelling board is set 18 inches 
from the front end, and the rear one is placed 
one foot from the opposite end of the leveller. 
The front levelling board comes to within two 
inches of the bottom of the “runners,” while 
the lower end of the rear board is one inch 
from the bottom. Mr. W. writes us : “This 
is a charming thing with which to make a 
lawn. I put two horses to the leveller and 
ride upon the top, and if found necessary 
stones or other weight may be added.” 
Exhaustion of Soil. 
BY DR. J. E. LAWKS, ROTUAMSTED, ENGLAND. 
Considerable fault has been found with me 
for saying that profitable agriculture is 
founded upon the exhaustion of the soil: if 
exhaustion is considered an unsuitable term, 
I do not object to change the word for reduc¬ 
tion of its fertility. The prices of the various 
products of the farm are regulated chiefly by 
the labor expended on their production, and 
not upon the amount of soil ingredients 
which they remove from the land. If all na¬ 
tions agreed to pass a law compelling every 
farmer to restore to the land the whole of the 
ingredients which he removed by his crops, 
we should not only see such a law followed 
by a very general, and large rise in the price 
of our ordinary foods, but also that the rela¬ 
tive cost of the foods themselves would be 
very much altered. Even without such a 
law we find that necessity, from time to time, 
compels farmers to alter their mode of cul¬ 
tivation, and cropping; thus, when they find 
the fertility of their land decreasing, they 
devote themselve to cultivating such pro¬ 
ducts as contain more atmospheric, and 
fewer soil constituents. For instance, let us 
take the case of sugar beet. If the roots are 
sold off the farm, in each 2,000 lbs. of the 
dry roots about 175 lbs. of soil products will 
be removed from the land; while by the 
conversion of the same amount of sugar beet 
into beef, or mutton, only about 10 lbs. of 
soil products will be removed ; and if the beet 
is converted into sugar none of the soil pro¬ 
ducts need be lost to the land. 
For further illustration, I will follow grass 
through the same series. If sold as hay, seven 
or eight per cent of the soil constituents are 
removed from the land ; very much less, if 
the grass is converted into milk; still less 
if converted into meat; and none at all if 
converted into butter; this last being a 
purely atmospheric product, all the soil con¬ 
stituents may find their way back to the 
land, 'except perhaps some small portion, 
which, in the form of skim-milk, might be 
used to produce pork. It takes 5 or 6 lbs. of corn 
to produce 1 lb. of increase in a pig ; a large per 
centage of this increase is fat, and a farmer 
who preserves the blood and offal, would ex¬ 
haust very little of his soil products in produc¬ 
ing bacon. It is the rich fatty cheese which 
commands the high price; and the low priced 
skim-milk cheese which is comparatively 
rich in soil products. The same law holds 
good with regard to flour ; the finest flour is 
exceedingly poor, both in nitrogen and min¬ 
erals ; coarser flour contains more, and bran 
a still larger amount of the soil ingredients. 
As man cannot exist without a certain 
amount of these soil products in his food, and 
as all his efforts in the production of his food 
are directed towards getting rid of such soil 
products, the way in which he obtains them 
in a separate form becomes rather an inter¬ 
esting physiological question. 
Now and then an effort is made to stem the 
tide, and quite recently some enthusiastic 
ladies induced the Lord Mayor of London, to 
take the chair at a meeting held to advocate 
the consumption of whole meal bread. One 
of these enthusiasts paid a visit to Dr. Gilbert, 
with a view to his conversion, but I am 
afraid did not meet with much success, as, 
many years ago we examined into this sub¬ 
ject very carefully, and came to the conclu¬ 
sion that however beneficial it might be for 
wealthy people—who consume quite as much, 
if not more food than is good for them—to 
take into the stomach a somewhat larger 
amount of indigestible matter ; it was quite 
otherwise with the poorer classes, who derive 
the greater part of their sustenance from 
bread. It would appear that while man pre¬ 
fers to take the bulk of the food he consumes 
in respiration, as free as possible from all 
indigestible matter, and soil products—that 
is to say, in the form of fine flour, butter, 
fat, sugar—he takes the necessary supply of 
the soil products in the form of the lean part 
of meat, garden vegetables, tea, coffee, beer, 
and salt. 
The necessity for green vegetables during 
the winter is much felt in our large towns, 
and in certain districts it has given rise to a 
very extensive trade in water-cresses. The 
rivers which run out of the chalk formation 
are very rich in nitrate of lime, derived from 
the washing out of nitric acid, from the 
soils which rest on it, and for miles together 
the beds of these rivers, with additional arti¬ 
ficial beds along the banks, are planted with 
water-cresses, and tended with as much care 
as is usually given to a garden. , 
I suggested to a person who rents a river 
running through my property, that he should 
apply some super-phosphate of lime to his 
cresses, and as might be expected, the result 
was a greatly increased growth in the crops. 
The application of the same super-phosphate 
to my pasture, without nitrate of soda has no 
effect, but when used with that substance it 
produces a remarkable growth of grass. 
By the employment of labor in various 
ways, a farmer can increase the salable pro¬ 
ducts of his farm, and at the same time re¬ 
duce greatly the exhaustion of the soil. It is 
quite clear to me that in the future the agri¬ 
culture of Great Britain must tend towards 
such a system of cultivation. I feel inclined 
to think further, that, under the existing 
competition of the Western States of Ameri¬ 
ca, those farmers who live in the older States, 
may find it to their interests to follow the 
same course. Fortunately with the increase 
of wealth, an increased demand springs up 
for all those products, which—having their 
origin in the sun and atmosphere—have by 
the labor bestowed upon them, been freed 
more or less from the compounds which they 
have taken up from the soil. 
A Wagon-Jack. 
Mr. William Hart, Allegheny Co., Pa., 
sends us a sketch and description of his 
wagon-jack, from which the accompanying 
engraving is made. The standard is made of 
2’/ a by 37<-inch scantling 26 inches long; the 
lever is l'/,-inch thick and 3 feet in length. 
The slit in the upper end of the standard is 
deep enough to allow of the adjustment of 
the lever by means of an iron pin. The pin 
hole is 9 inches from the fulcrum end of the 
lever. A strip of iron one inch wide and 3 /, 6 - 
inch thick is bent and fastened to the lever as 
shown in the illustration. The lower end of 
the curved iron rod is cut with notches and 
A GOOD WAGON-JACK. 
passed tlu-ough a staple in the side of the 
standard. The iron rod is bent or “ set off” 
just below the lever sufficiently to make it 
fit squarely upon the face of the standard. 
The staple is 8 inches from the bottom. In 
lifting the wheel, press on the end of the 
lever only. When the wheel is to be lowered, 
press upon the end of the iron rod, as well 
as the lever, which throws the rod up and 
the notches away from the staple. 
Rats and .^S ice.--If a share of the pains 
taken to catch rats and mice after they are 
in a house or apartment were employed in 
keeping them out, it would save much 
