58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
reading fail, d&ubtless, to appreciate their 
deficiency. The want is not so much of 
lime as of disposition to systematically im¬ 
prove what may be at command. The lack 
of taste for reading is the primary defect. 
Where this taste exists to any considerable 
extent among farmers, a sufficient amount of 
time is usually found for its reasonable indulg¬ 
ence. The agriculturist who, under ordina¬ 
ry circumstances, can not get a good living 
and secure at least two or three hours of 
leisure every day for reading, may rest as¬ 
sured that he lacks Jsufficient intelligence to 
judiciously direct his efforts, and the sooner 
he labors less and studies more the better for 
his interests. Many complain that they are 
obliged to labor so hard, that, on sitting down 
to read during an evening, they instantly fall 
asleep. These same men would talk politics 
with a neighbor until 10 o’clock at night, 
without the least disposition to somnolence, 
yet would go to sleep in fifteen minutes read¬ 
ing such works of interest as “ The Ameri- 
canFarm Book,” “ Nash’s Progressive Farm¬ 
er,” or “ Johnston’s Lectures on Practical 
Agriculture.” The reason is, they take an 
interest in the former, and have no taste for 
the latter. Physical labor is not so inimical 
to thought, attention, and wakefulness in 
reading, as many suppose. As before sug¬ 
gested, a want of taste is the fundamental de¬ 
fect, the suggester of many apologies for a 
neglect of reading and mental culture. Many 
complain that they have not the means to 
procure the requisite amount of books and 
papers to gratify a taste for daily reading and 
study. Who ever knew a farmer, addicted 
to the use of tobacco in any form, that denied 
himself the indulgence on the score of cost? 
The truth is, in the one case the taste is 
weak, in the other strong; the latter is in¬ 
dulged in, the former not. Any reasonable 
outlay for practical knowledge is better than 
money in bank ; it will pay its possessor an 
annual dividend of one hundred per cent. 
Let any farmer who fancies he has not the 
means to procure a reasonable amount of 
reading, plant an extra fruit tree or two, and 
devote the annual proceeds to such purchase. 
Or, Avhat is better still, let him expend ten 
dollars the present year for agricultural 
books and first-class agricultural papers; 
cultivate two acres side by side, giving one 
the usual treatment, and the other the ad¬ 
vantage of the practical knowledge which 
his expenditure may bring, and devote the 
surplus product to a similar outlay the en¬ 
suing year, and so on indefinitely ; and, un¬ 
less very much mistaken, a valuable library 
and no mean intellectual acquisition will be 
the result. O. C. Gibbs. 
Perky, Lake Co., Ohio. 
The Sugar-cane. —The sugar-cane grows 
spontaneously in all the South Sea Islands, 
and more than ten varieties are indigenous. 
It has been stated, that the best canes now 
cultivated in the West Indies are those taken 
there by Captain Bligh. In their native isl¬ 
ands thjy grow remarkably fine. 1 have 
frequently seen canes as thick as a man’s 
wrist, and ten or twelve feet between the 
roots and leaves. The Iromotu, a large yel¬ 
low cane, and the To-ura, of a dark red 
color, grow very large, and yield an abund. 
ance of juice; but the Butu, a small, light 
red, long-jointed cane, with a thin husk or 
skin, contains the greatest quantity of sac¬ 
charine matter. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
WHITE SHANGHAIS. 
Since your call for some information on 
the poultry subject, I notice an article signed 
“ C.”, of Hartford, giving the White Shang¬ 
hais the preference. I, too, am ready to 
speak in their favor. 
Some years ago,when living with my father, 
in Chenango Co., N. Y., we always kept a 
great many common fowls, but got few eggs. 
We finally concluded to change to the Black 
Poland fowl—a beautiful creature indeed, 
but very shy and suspicious. We found 
them good layers, in comparison with our 
old stock, but still we lacked one thing—that 
was, hens that would afford us eggs in the 
winter. We did not like the Shanghais then 
around—the buff. We at length found the 
white Shanghais, which better suited our 
ideas of a model bird. We obtained them, 
and found that they fully answered our ex¬ 
pectations. They are a fme-proportioned 
fowl, keep easy, and are most excellent 
layers, giving us eggs in abundance both 
summer and winter. Although we have the 
Poland, buff Shanghai, white Dorking, &c., 
we give the white Shanghai the preference 
decidedly, if the matter of eggs is considered, 
and as to docility, they can not be excelled, 
since any common fence will keep them in. 
S. A. Collins. 
Geneva, March 27, 1855. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
COWS-NEW-JERSEY NATIVES. 
I have frequently noticed in the American 
Agriculturist , the great yield of cows, which 
have been very productive. I have two of 
the common breed of the country, which I 
have kept an account of during the last year, 
and I think they will compare pretty favor¬ 
ably with any I have noticed in your paper, 
except the one in Mobile, described a few 
weeks since. 
From the first cow the calf was taken 
away May 5, 1854—eight weeks and one day 
old; and from the second, on May 26th, 1854 
—seven weeks and six days old. 
The first calf weighed 204 lbs., which 
sold at my stable for 51c. per lb...$11 22 
The second weighed 224 lbs., which 
sold 51c. 12 32 
Made 386 lbs. butter, which at 25 cts., 
the current price, is.. 96 50 
Sold 215 qts. new milk, at 4c. per qt. 8 60 
Estimated quantity of new milk used 
in my family, at 3 pints per day for 
276 days, 4421 qts., at 4c. 17 70 
Skimmed milk for 3 pigs for 7 months, 
say. 10 00 
Total.$156 34 
Quit milking the last cow January 20th, 
1855. 
The above cows were kept on clover hay, 
cornstalks and sugar beets through the win¬ 
ter, and on good pasture in the summer. 
They originally cost my father $19 for the 
first, and $18 for the second covv. I paid to 
the estate, last spring, $90 for the two. 
J. H. Corlies. 
Shrewsbury, N. J., March, 1855. 
O Tempora ! O Mores !—The following 
resolution was adopted by the House of 
Representatives of the Illinois Legislature : 
“ Resolved , That a fine of $500 be hereaf¬ 
ter imposed on any lady who shall lecture in 
public, in any part of the State, without 
first putting on gentleman’s apparel.” 
CAPILLARY ATTRACTION OF THE SOIL. 
From numerous observations which have 
been made at different times on the peculiar 
appearance of the surface of soils, clays, 
&c., during the warm summer months, and 
the fact that they, when covered with boards, 
stones, or other materials, so as to prevent 
them from supporting vegetation, become in 
a comparatively short time, much more pro¬ 
ductive than the adjacent uncovered soil, led 
to the belief that the soil possessed some 
power within itself, aside from the roots of 
plants—of elevating soluble materials from 
deep sources to the surface. 
Dr. Alex. H. Stevens, of New York, was, 
I think, the first to suggest this idea. He 
speaks of it in his address delivered before 
the State Ag. Society of N. Y.. on the Food 
of Plants, in January, 1848. No accurate 
experiments were performed, however, to fix 
it with a degree of certainty, till those made 
which appear in this paper. 
To throw some light upon the subject, in 
May, 1852, I sunk three boxes into the soil— 
one 40 inches deep, another 28 inches deep, 
and a third 14 inches deep. All three of the 
boxes were 16 inches square. I then placed 
in the bottom of each box three pounds of 
sulphate of magnesia. The soil was to be 
placed in the boxes above the sulphate of 
magnesia, was then thoroughly mixed, so as 
to be uniform throughout. The boxes were 
then filled with it. This was done on the 
25th of May, 1852. After the boxes were 
filled, a sample of soil was taken from each 
box, and the percentage of magnesia which 
it contained accurately determined. On the 
28th of June, another sample of surface soil 
was taken from each box, and the percent¬ 
age of magnesia carefully obtained as before. 
The result in each case pointed out clearly a 
marked increase of magnesia. 
On the 17th of July, a sample of the sur¬ 
face soil was taken for a third time from 
each box, and carefully examined for the 
magnesia. Its percentage was found to be 
very perceptibly greater than on the 28th of 
the preceding month. On the 15th of the 
months of August and September following, 
similar examinations severally were made, 
with the same evident gradual increase of 
the magnesia in the surface soil. 
The following are the results as obtained : 
Box 40 Box 28 Box 16 
in. high. in. high. in. high. 
Percentage of Magnesia, May 25th—0.18 0.18 0.18 
“ “ June 28th—0.25 0.30 0.32 
“ “ July 17th—0.42 0.40 0.47 
“ “ Aug. 15th—0.47 0.53 0.54 
“ “ Sept. 15th—0.51 0.58 0.01 
Before the middle of October, when it was 
intended to make another observation, the 
fall rains and frosts had commenced ; on 
this account the observations were discon¬ 
tinued. The elevation of the magnesia, as 
shown in the above experiments, evidently 
depends upon a well-known and quite uni¬ 
versal property of matter, viz :—the attrac¬ 
tion of solids for liquids, or what is common¬ 
ly denominated capillary attraction, or the 
property which most liquids have to rise in 
tubes, or between plane and curved surfaces. 
This may be clearly illustrated by taking a 
series of small capillary glass tubes and in¬ 
sert one extremity of them in a solution of 
sulphate of magnesia, or chloride of ammo¬ 
nium, and break or cutoff the upper extremi¬ 
ties just below the height to which the solu¬ 
tion rises. Expose them to the sun’s rays. 
The water of the solution evaporates, and 
the fixed sulphate of magnesia will be de¬ 
posited just on the upper extremity of the 
tube. 
As the solution evaporates, more of it 
rises up from below, keeping the tubes con¬ 
stantly full. Yet no sulphate of magnesia 
passes off; it all, or nearly all remains at, or 
rises just above the evaporating surface. 
Just so in the soil ; as the water evaporates 
