AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
345 
a -&gr a a areaciai 
EFFECTS OF TOBACCO, 
which that great Babylon has done its full 
share in wasting. Mr. J. has distributed to 
a part of his wheat field three tuns of Tafeu, 
which he now considers to be worth to him 
$20 a ton in New-York, freight to be added ; 
provided always , that the article is free from 
street sweepings or other accidental refuse. 
I hope the Agriculturist will continue to 
be favored with more Deutscheland rural 
correspondence. The Germans are more 
pains-taking farmers than the more intuitive 
Yankees. True, a German does not as 
rigidly catch the spirit of Downing when he 
builds himself a new house, but its surround¬ 
ings are never disfigured by those unsightly 
weeds, which too often mar the beauty of 
the more ornamental grounds and fences of 
his would-be showy and more progressive 
neighbor. With the Germans, mansleute as 
well as weibslute comfort, goes before show 
and fashion. I doubt whether there is a 
pensarosa in New-York of Deutsche blud, 
who would say that $1,000 a year was the 
smallest sum a lady moving in fashionable, 
good society, ought to expend for her ward¬ 
robe. N’Importe. 
Waterloo, July 30th, 1855. 
We have not time just now to enter into 
the discussion of mineral manures ; and, be¬ 
sides, our correspondent asks us to prove 
the negative of a question. We suggested 
that perhaps the substances added to burned 
bones in manufacturing superphosphate 
might be found equally effective with an 
equivalent amount of good charcoal in place 
of the bone earth or burned bones, since 
burned bones alone had not been found 
greatly beneficial as far as our information 
or observation extended. Some years since, 
before entering into a more thorough prac¬ 
tical examination of the subject, we looked 
upon the popular mineral manure theory as 
a very beautiful one, and one eminently 
practical. But further study and observation 
has shown it to be surrounded with difficul¬ 
ties, well calculated to make the earnest 
seeker of the truth cautious in his teachings 
on this subject. We are waiting for time to 
make further investigation and research ere 
we publish our conclusions. We prefer 
patient waiting or silence rather than to in¬ 
culcate error. 
Lead Will Burn. —Prof. Faraday, in a re¬ 
cent lecture, stated that lead is nearly as 
inflammable as phosphorus, and he explained 
the reason of its not burning in ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances to be, that the solid product of 
combustion forms a film which prevents con¬ 
tact with the oxygen, and the conducting 
power of the other parts of the metal draws 
off and dissipates the heat. He also pointed 
out the admirable arrangements by which 
these combustible properties of the metal 
are kept in proper control; and bodies that 
are really so inflammable are made to serve 
as strong resisters of combustion. 
That is, the oxide or coating formed is not 
affected by ordinary exposures, so that lead 
used about gutters and roofing is more per¬ 
manent than any other simple metal, altho’ 
the brilliant surface left when it is cut in¬ 
stantly begins to tarnish. 
In all that is said about saving the rich 
organic matters for manure, we wonder 
some plan has not been broached ere this, 
for saving and restoring to the soil the im¬ 
mense quantities of tobacco juice annually 
wasted ; but, aside from lengthening the 
skirts of ladies’ dresses, we know of no sys¬ 
tematic attempt yet made for its absorption. 
We give the ladies credit for being first to 
attempt to save this liquid manure; but, 
really, the task is quite too heavy to be left 
entirely to their unaided efforts. 
If the weather were cooler, and our stom¬ 
ach sufficiently strong for it, we would go 
into a computation of the amount of this fer¬ 
tilizing material annually produced from the 
four billions of pounds of tobacco, of which 
we wrote last December. We would ima¬ 
gine-all the mouths of tobacco spitters made 
into a single mouth—as Hood rolled two 
single gentlemen into one—and then tell 
what a Mississippi of a stream is expector¬ 
ated. We would imagine all the spittoons 
emptied into one vast chasm, and then tell 
how the yellow lake might float a navy; 
how drowsy tides w T ould rock its Lethean 
waters, and how no living thing could in¬ 
habit such a sea of death. 
Or, we might tell how this liquid, so de¬ 
structive to animal life, by the mysterious 
process of decay, might be converted into a 
rich and wholesome food for plants ; and 
then we might go on to estimate the capa¬ 
city of such hydraulic works as wmuld save 
and distribute this drainage, after the man¬ 
ner of Edinburgh sewage ; and finally wind 
up with an account of the amazing quantity 
of crops it would produce. But the Dog 
Star reigns, and we are subject to qualms ; 
and however interesting such calculations 
might be, we must, for the sake of the family 
dependant on us, be excused. t 
In the absence of any better use for this 
liquid manure, we would suggest that it 
might be made serviceable for the produc¬ 
tion of human flesh ; and we apprehend that 
it would be found, on extended experiment, 
to be worth even more for that purpose than 
for a manure. From an article in another 
column, which we have compiled from the 
Lectures of Dr. H. Bence Jones, of London, 
it will be seen that the use of the saliva is 
to transmute the starchy part of the food 
into sugar, and this sugar is again changed 
in the system into fat. It follows, then, that 
the loss of saliva is loss of the power to use 
a corresponding amount of the starchy part 
of the food; or, in other words, is a waste 
of fat. 
It is in conformity with this announcement 
of Dr. Jones, that farmers in those parts of 
this country, where the “slobber weed” 
(lobelia injlata ) grows, have noticed that 
horses that feed on it, and have the conse¬ 
quent salivation, fall away in flesh. It is 
impossible to keep a horse in good case and 
in good heart, that is subject during the sum¬ 
mer to this exhaustive drain. So does the 
habitual use of tobacco with men, by wast¬ 
ing the saliva, lead to a kind of dyspepsia, 
with loss of weight. Physicians have un¬ 
derstood this fact, in a practical way, for a 
long time, although the reason of it was not 
known; and they have been in the habit of 
allowing the use of tobacco for the relief of 
excessive obesity. On the other hand, a 
friend of ours, who weighed about 150 lbs., 
and who had been in the habit of using to¬ 
bacco freely for fifteen years, became con¬ 
vinced that it injured him, and gave it up. 
Before the end of a month he found his vest 
becoming too small, and on weighing him¬ 
self discovered that he had gained to 175 lbs. 
He continued to increase up to 180 lbs., 
after which he declined to 175, where he 
has remained for more than a year. From 
such facts as these alone, we should 
be authorized to conclude that the use of 
this narcotic produces pernicious effects. 
The spare habit and bilious complexion of 
the Anglo-American, when compared with 
the rubicund visage and rotundity of form 
of his English ancestors, is a subject of fre¬ 
quent remark. Many theories have been 
invented to account for it; but if we were to 
construct one, it should attribute it to the 
excessive use of tobacco. There is no other 
country in the world where this deleterious 
drug is so cheap, and consequently where 
the temptations to its use are so great. The 
different varieties of domestic animals—such 
as the various breeds of cattle—are known 
to be produced by peculiarities of food and 
habits, and these peculiarities are perpetu¬ 
ated through generations. So, to carry out 
the analogy, we do not believe that so pois¬ 
onous a substance as tobacco can form so 
large a part of the consumption of any ani¬ 
mals as it does ot Americans, without pro- 
ducingsome deteriorating effect on the breed. 
Every person is descended from four grand 
parents and eight great grand parents, so 
that it is next to impossible for any one to 
go far back into his genealogy, with any 
prospect of escaping the contamination of 
tobacco, to say nothing of any more vicious 
stimulant. 
Young America stunts himself with penny 
cigars, which he enjoys on the sly at the 
risk of a flogging; grown of age, he spits 
away his fair proportions ; married and the 
father of a family, he smokes himself to a 
mummy—and we can not conceive how the 
original pattern can be transmitted through 
such habits unaltered. It is no wonder that 
his children are deficient in constitution. 
"But the use of tobacco does more injury 
than to the body merely—it blunts the sensi¬ 
bilities, and dulls those aspirations that are 
at the foundation of all success in life. It 
makes one sluggish; he moves more slowly 
and thinks more slowly, and brings less 
edge and point to the duties of life. We 
could mention two men of our acquaintance, 
who found themselves at over thirty years 
of age worth nothing in the way of property, 
and who, by a powerful effort liberated 
themselves from this degrading habit, and 
who each, within ten years, became wealthy, 
although remaining on the same farm. In 
our article on tobacco, last winter, we com¬ 
puted the enormous expense of this vile 
habit, and showed how it cost us more than 
our religion or our schools ; but the mere 
money paid out is, after all, but a trifle com- 
