I 860 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Q73 
part of a farmer’s study to ascertain what these 
various demands are. 
One thing is very plain, though many are slow 
to learn it, that some plants derive a larger part 
of their nourishment from the air through their 
leaves, than from the earth through their roots. 
Take an interesting illustration which has just 
fallen under our notice: The Tropseolum tricolo- 
rum often attains twelve to fourteen feet in 
hight, and it has a thousand or more leaves and 
flowers, yet the stem near the ground is fine and 
hair-like. Is it possible that all this foliage can 
derive much of its sustenance through that deli¬ 
cate stem 1 It must come chiefly through the 
leaves. So it is with clover and many other 
plants. When a farmer plows in a crop of green 
clover, he plows in more manure from the atmos¬ 
phere than from his barn-yard. 
Some seeds require a warmer soil to germinate 
In, than others do: some seeds and plants seem 
at home in cool and moist ground. Of such like 
facts, the farmer should have a full knowledge. 
Land which has a large mixture of clay in its 
composition, is cold. It does not absorb heat as 
readily as one into which sand largely enters. 
Dark colored soils conduct heat better than light 
colored. Everybody knows that a black coat in 
the month of August is hotter than a white one. 
So a dark soil, other things being the same, is 
warmer than a light one. Yet not always so. 
Black soils sometimes contain large quantities of 
vegetable and carbonaceous matters which, 
though they attract heat from the sun, do not 
conduct it well. The surface may be very warm, 
but the body of soil beneath may be quite cold. 
Wet soils are uniformly cold. The process of 
evaporating the water carries off heat rapidly. 
Every farmer who has attempted to reclaim 
swampy lands understands this very well. 
But we need not pursue this subject into fur¬ 
ther detail. As nearly all the plants with which 
farmers and gardeners have to do, prefer a warm 
soil to a cold one, it becomes us to inquire how 
our lands may be brought to possess this general 
character. Clayey soils can be ameliorated by 
deep tillage and by frequent dressings of sand 
and lime. If, on the contrary, our lands are too 
light and sandy, they may be improved by dress¬ 
ings of clay and by ashes. Wet lands, of course, 
demand draining. The abstraction of water is 
the addition of heat. Draining is their first and 
greatest want. 
-- ' —^ < 08— 1 I - 
Hearing' Corn Grow. 
A Western farmer who wished to impress one 
of his Eastern friends with a suitable idea of the 
fertility of his land, gave this illustration: “While 
riding along the road, I heard a pig squealing at 
a distance, and looking over into the field, I saw 
the animal on a full run, followed by a pumpkin 
vine which grew so fast that it reached the fence, 
run through, and a good sized pumpkin was 
formed before the hog got across the field.” Not 
quite so strong was the story we used to hear 
told by one of our hired men about the growth of 
corn. He said he was hoeing corn on a hot June 
day, when he heard something behind him squeal¬ 
ing. He thought it proceeded from field mice, 
but as it followed him, he examined carefully, and 
found it was the corn he had hoed. He said “it 
grew so fast it fairly squealed.” 
We don’t know what has become of that man, 
but there is reason to suspect he has settled in 
Ohio, and has recently taken to writing agricul¬ 
tural editorials for a leading daily paper in this 
city. Be that as it may, in a recent number of 
the journal referred to, the writer, speaking of 
the richness of the Sciota Valley, says: “You 
have probably heard the remark, ‘ our corn 
gro^vs so fast that you can hear it.’ This is sup¬ 
posed, by people who don’t know, to be a figure 
of speech only ; but the remark out here, is a lit¬ 
eral fact. Go into one of these ‘ bottom ’ corn 
fields forty or fifty rods on a warm July day, or 
August night, when a bright moon is up, (for vege¬ 
tation grows faster in moon-light than in dark¬ 
ness), and a few hours after a heavy shower that 
has fairly wet the earth, and waked up the drow¬ 
sy corn to its influences, and as the main stalk 
stretches and swells in its new strength up 
through the contracted lips of the upper blades, 
they crack and burst around you like the stifled 
reports of ten thousand rifles ! That corn field 
will be some inches higher at sunrise the next 
morning than at the last sundown. There is no 
mistake about it. We have heard corn grow many 
a time, and so every farmer along in the Sciota 
valley will tell you.” 
Let us apply figures to the above. The most 
rapid growth we have heard assigned to corn is 
10 inches a week, or say inches per day, or an 
inch in 16 hours, which is one-sixteenth of an 
inch in an hour, or about the one-thousandth part 
of an inch per minute—less than one-third of the 
thickness of ordinary writing paper. Will this 
addition, mainly to the outer surface and to the 
ends of the leaves, produce the “ stifled reports 
of ten thousand rifles 1” We fear that with such 
a tremendous cracking and bursting of leaves, 
the corn would present a woful appearance after 
a few nights’growth. We suspect that no where 
else than in the Sciota Valley will corn be found 
“ some inches higher at sunrise than at the last 
sundown,” especially as it is generally admitted 
that the chief growth is under the influence of 
sunlight. 
---- «■ - 
The Mammoth Vegetation of California. 
There is, we think, some misapprehension 
about the wonderful vegetable productions of the 
Golden State. It is commonly supposed that the 
monstrous growth there of young trees—as, for 
instance, of an apple-tree twelve or fifteen feet 
high in a season—is the uniform style of growth ; 
that the pears weighing three and a half pounds, 
the enormous turnips, beets, onions, cabbages, 
etc., are the ordinary productions of the country. 
But it is now stated by a gentleman of the 
highest integrity and intelligence, (Rev. Dr. 
Bushnell,) for some time resident there, that this 
is hardly a correct view of the case. These 
mammoth growths do indeed occur, but they are 
freaks of nature, and exceptions to the general 
rule. The ordinary fruits, he says, are no larger 
than our own, and where the trees become over¬ 
loaded, are quite small. The extraordinary 
growths sometimes seen, may be easily account¬ 
ed for. First, there is, in some places, a depth 
and richness of soil, of which people living on the 
Atlantic coast can form no idea. Next, there is 
either a natural supply of water from springs un¬ 
der ground, or it is furnished by artificial irriga¬ 
tion. Again, the climate is remarkable for its 
clearness and warmth ; and the growing season 
extends through almost the entire year. Then, 
too, the settings on fruit trees are generally limit¬ 
ed, so concentrating the entire forces of the tree 
into the growth and ripening of a few specimens. 
Thinning out fruits here, is known to produce 
great results. 
Hence we say, it is not so wonderful that fruits 
and vegetables which happen to enjoy all of these 
favorable circumstances, should grow beyond or¬ 
dinary limits. But such depth and richness of 
soil and such irrigation, are the exception to the 
general rule, and where these are not found, the 
wonderful growths do not appear. 
Then, in reference to the famous Big Trees, 
Sequoia gigantea, or Wellinglonia , of which so 
much has been written, our authority says: 
“ They depend in part on the same contingencies, 
and partly on the remarkable longevity of the 
species. A tree that is watered at its roots, hav¬ 
ing a deep, almost immeasurable mold in which 
to stand, and not so much as one hour’s umbrel¬ 
la of cloud to fence off the sun for the whole 
warm season, and a capacity to live withal for 
two thousand years or more, may as well grow 
three hundred and fifty or four hundred feet high 
and twenty feet in diameter, and sound to the 
center, at the age of thirteen hundred years, as 
to make any smaller figure with conditions pro¬ 
portionally restricted.” 
Of grape-culture there, he says : “ It promises 
much. Whether it can be successfully prosecut¬ 
ed without irrigation, is doubtful, though it is 
well known that old, deep-rooted vines will bear 
a crop without. It is commonly believed that 
California is hereafter to become the great wine¬ 
growing country of the Pacific.” 
“ The apples are large and fair, and wonder¬ 
fully precocious in bearing, but there is reason to 
suspect, from experiments made in the old Mis¬ 
sion-gardens, that they may be short-lived.” 
“ The strawberry naturally dries up after bear¬ 
ing one crop, but may be made to fruit several 
times a year if artificially watered.” 
California, however, like all other countries, 
has a variety of soil, including all shades of fer¬ 
tility. 
-—--—a® a—--- 
Small versus Large Farms. 
PEEP INTO A FARMER'S ACCOUNT BOOK-ANECDOTE 
OF BAKEWELL. 
By means of a little stratagem, with perhaps a 
little editorial impudence, we managed the other 
day to get hold of a farmer’s private account 
book, and notwithstanding our previous strong 
belief in the theory that the same amount of cap¬ 
ital, labor, and skill, expended upon a small farm, 
is more profitable than if spread out over one 
twice as large, we confess to having been a lit¬ 
tle surprised at the facts and figures the book re¬ 
vealed. We will call no names, and therefore be¬ 
tray no confidence if we publish some notes from 
the book. The farm contains 97 acres, 8 of which 
are woodland, and 2 are taken up with a lawn, 
and about 3 more by a street and lanes, leav¬ 
ing 84 acres in cultivation. The farm cost 
$13,400. The proprietor is the son of a wealthy 
man in business in New-York, and he remained 
in his father’s office until 22 years of age, where 
he acquired thorough business habits. In accord¬ 
ance with his own choice, his father bought and 
stocked this farm for him, instead of establishing 
him in business in the city. We found in the ac¬ 
count book a careful record of every penny of in¬ 
come and expenditure, even to the sale of some 
old iron, and the small sums paid for children’s 
toys, transient newspapers, etc., etc. All farm 
produce, vegetables, fruit, etc., from the farm and 
garden consumed in the family, was charged to 
“family expenses” at the market price. Cash re¬ 
ceived and cash paid out were so accurately re¬ 
corded, that at the end of one year we find a dif¬ 
ference of only 17 cents in the footings. A daily 
record was made of every transaction, and the 
items were re-arranged in ledger columns in the 
second half of the same book, under the several 
heads of “family expenses,” “personal ex¬ 
penses,” charges to separate fields for manure, 
