ADAPTED TO THE 
Farm, Garden, and. ddoiiseliold. 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN -Washington. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. HI., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
ESTABLISHED IN 1842. 
( $1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
\ SINGLE NUMBERS lO CENTS, 
VOL. XIX.— No. 6. NEW- YORK, JUNE, 1860. [NEW SERIES— No. 161 . 
'EiPOffice at 189 AVatcr-st., (Near Fulton-st.) 
EFContculs, Terms, &c.,on pages 1 89-92. 
(Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1860, 
roy Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
(Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
New-York. ITSPN. IJ.—Every Journal is invited freely 
ito copy any and all desirable articles, if each article or 
(illustration copied be duly accredited to the American 
Agriculturist. ORANGE JUDD, Proprietor. 
^American ^Agriculturist in (Enrman. 
The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is published in 
loth the English and German Languages. Both 
Editions are of the same size, and contain, as 
nearly as possMe, the same Articles and Illustra¬ 
tions. The German Edition is furnished at the 
lame rates as the English, singly or in clubs- 
June. 
*“ Whether we look, or whether we listen, 
We hear life murmur or see it glisten ; 
Every clod feels a stir of might, 
An instinct within it, that reaches and towers, 
And, grasping blindly above it for light, 
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.”— Lowell. 
Growth is the phenomenon that meets us every 
where in this glorious month. All the pent up 
forces of the vegetable world breakout into their 
highest activity in June. Trees make more wood 
in these few brief weeks than in all the rest of the 
year. The dormant Winter, and the hesitating 
Spring have passed, and Summer, in all its fresh 
and glowing life, is every where visible. Every 
blade of grass, every leaf upon tree and shrub, 
answers at once to the quickening influence of the 
sun. 
" The vegetable world is also thine, 
Parent of Seasons ! who the pomp precede 
That waits thy throne, as through thy vast domain 
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road, 
In world rejoicing state, it moves sublime. 
Meantime the expecting nations, circled gay 
With all the various tribes of foodful earth, 
Implore thy bounty, or send grateful up 
A common hymn ; while round thy beaming car. 
High seen, the seasons lead, in sprightly dance 
Harmonious knit, the rosy fingered Hours, 
The Zephyrs floating loose, the timely Rains 
Of bloom ethereal, the light-footed Dews, 
And softened into joy the surly Storms. 
These in successive turn, with lavish hand 
Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower, 
Herbs, flowers, and fruits ; till kindling at the touch, 
From land to land is flushed the vernal year.” 
What is this strange mysterious principle that 
we see every where in the blooming Summer 1 
It has been vigorously at work transforming the 
face of the world, yea building islands in the 
depths of the sea these thousands of years, al¬ 
ways the study and the wonder of man, and yet 
as much hidden from his knowledge, as when the 
first human pair looked out upon the finished 
Creation. The principle of life has wrought such 
changes in the earth, that Adam would hardly 
know the dominion over which he was installed 
as lord. Almost every particle of the surface of 
the w<yW v's'ibfe ‘e us, has been at some time 
within the organized body of some living plant 
or animal. It has felt the power of this principle, 
and been separated by it, perhaps into its ulti¬ 
mate atoms. We gather a handful of the black 
vegetable mold at our feet. It is now inert, but 
how many changes have passed upon it, in the 
last six thousand years! Had we the power of 
evoking from it the history of these changes, it 
would make one of the most interesting and in¬ 
structive volumes ever written. The most of it is 
from the decay of plants, the carbon of which once 
floated in the atmosphere as a gas carried in 
every direction by the winds, until taken up by 
the leaves of plants. How many voyages round 
the world were completed by these particles 1 A 
portion of it is made up of minerals. Here are 
minute fragments of mica, feldspar, and quartz, 
too small for the eye to distinguish, traces of pot¬ 
ash, soda, chlorine, alkalies and aeids, only de¬ 
tected by the most, delicate chemical tests. 
What rocks did they once enter into, what ani¬ 
mal forms have they been incorporated with, and 
whence have they been borne in the earth’s 
changes to their present resting place 1 Once, 
possibly, this particle dwelt in a granite boulder, 
and was borne from the remote North in the ice 
period and deposited in its present neighborhood. 
The lichens and mosses, pioneers among the veg¬ 
etable workers, fastened upon the surface of 
the bare rock and drew aliment from its reluct¬ 
ant bosom. This particle then first entered into 
a vegetable form, and after a brief life and early 
decay, was detached from the rock by frosts and 
rains, and washed down to the soil. Its next 
adventure was among the grasses, taken up by 
the minute roo lets that feed their multitudinous 
growth. “ The grass withereth, and the flower 
fadeth.” In a single season it returns back to 
dust, and becomes plant-food. Again it passes 
into the circulation of a shruh, and sporting for a 
few hours in its tender shoots, is cropped by the 
grazing deer, and for the first time comes under 
the power of animal life. 
The deer lives out his appointed days, and his 
carcass falls a prey to the fowls of the air. The 
particle that once culminated in the shrub, and 
flew swiftly on the winged feet of the deer, now 
flies more swiftly upon the strong pinions of the 
vulture. The bird of prey in his time dies, and 
our errant particle again fattens the soil, prepara¬ 
tory to entering into new combinations and or¬ 
ganized forms. Here, in this handful of earth, we 
have not unlikely the stranded wrecks, or por¬ 
tions of them, of thousands of once living forms. 
It has been disintegrated from the solid rock, 
nurtured the life of the lowly mosses, luxuriated 
in the grass, flourished in the shrub, nurtured the 
beast of the field, and the fowl of the air, burrow¬ 
ed with the mole, and soared with the eagle. 
Thus the wonder working principle of life has 
sported with all that outer crust of the earth that 
we call the soil. We see its fairy creations, the 
verdant meadow, the waving fields of grain, the 
plumed spikes of grass, the tasseled corn, the 
nodding lily, and the blushing rose, in the vegfeL 
able world, and we admire its handywork in the 
nobler forms of animals, the sturdy ox, the grace¬ 
ful horse, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of 
the air. 
And here we come again, in the opening Sum¬ 
mer, into closest contact with this mysterious 
principle ; the heavens above us, the earth around 
us, and the waters under the earth are full of it, 
yet no man is able to define it. Life is so fresh in 
field and forest that there is no visible sign of 
decay. Yet all the hopes of the husbandman are 
wrapped up in this strange thing we call life. 
Without it, his fields are barren, and his Costly 
acres unproductive property. With it, he has 
more than the power of the fabled Midas, turning 
what he will into gold. On every acre he may 
open a mine, quite as productive as the placers 
of our Pacific shore. How few of those have 
yielded a hundred dollars to the acre; yet this 
is no uncommon feat of husbandry in the least fa¬ 
vored of our States. He may not be able to sow 
dragon’s teeth, and see armed men rise up from 
the soil to desolate the earth, hut he can do a 
greater deed. He can stamp on the ground, and 
see lowing herds, white fleeced flocks, and neigh¬ 
ing steeds rise at his bidding, animals more per¬ 
fect in form, more profitable in their yield of milk, 
wool, and labor, than any the nations of antiquity 
ever saw. The deed is none the less wonderful, 
because it is not instantaneously performed. The 
ages of fable have passed, only to be outdone in 
these days of fact. The dreams of poets and the 
speculations of philosophers are more than rea¬ 
lized in the achievements of modern husbandry. 
Though we know little of life, wo do know 
something of its laws and the conditions of its 
development. These, are open for our study, and 
the knowledge of these principles that foster the 
growth of plants and animals, makes the success¬ 
ful farmer. Every season has its facilities for 
this study, but none is so important as these 
young fresh days of Summer. Now we are en 
abled to test our own theories, and the wisdom 
of our practice, as we see life bringing out the 
results of our labors. The new fertilizer is put 
into Nature’s laboratory, and the report which 
vegetable life makes of its qualities must he con¬ 
sidered final, whatever becomes of the theories 
and reports of the chemists. The new crop, or 
the new method in cultivation must abide the 
same test. It is by close observation, studying 
the phenomena of vegetable growth around us, 
that we shall become better cultivators and make 
husbandry more profitable. The practical results 
already realized by the application of mind to ag¬ 
riculture give the highest encouragement for 
further research. There are secrets yet locked 
up in the soil, which discovered, will enable us 
to double the certainty and the measure of re¬ 
ward for labor ; and every fact carefully not,%^ 
opens the pathway to their attainment, 
