7S 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
tion of old errors will not only guard the practical 
man from falling into new ones, but will suggest 
direct improvements he would not otherwise 
have thought of. So, also, the true explana¬ 
tion of one useful practice will point out other 
new practices, which may safely, and with ad¬ 
vantage, be adopted. 
4°. To analyze soils, manures, and vegetable 
products. —This is a most laborious department 
of the duties which agriculture expects chemis¬ 
try to undertake in her behalf. 
a. Soils. —The kind and amount of benefit to 
be derived from the analysis of soils, are be¬ 
coming every day more apparent. We cannot, 
indeed, from the results of an analysis, pre¬ 
scribe in every case the kind of treatment by 
which a soil may at once be rendered most pro¬ 
ductive. In many cases, however, certain wants 
of the soil are directly pointed out by analysis; 
in many others, modes of treatment are sug¬ 
gested, by which a greater fertility is likely to 
be produced; and, as our knowledge of the 
subject extends, we may hope to obtain, in every 
case, some useful directions for the improvement 
or more profitable culture of the land. 
b. Manures. —Of the manures we employ, too 
much cannot be known. An accurate know¬ 
ledge of these will guard the practical man 
against an improvident waste of any of those 
natural manures which are produced upon his 
farm; thus lessening the necessity for foreign 
manures, by introducing a greater economy of 
those he already possesses. It will also protect 
him against the ignorance or knavery of the 
manure manufacturer. The establishment of 
such manufactories, conducted by skilful and 
honorable men, is one of the most important 
practical results to which the progress of scien¬ 
tific agriculture is likely to lead. And if it can¬ 
not prevent unscrupulous adulterators from en¬ 
gaging in this new traffic, chemistry can, at least, 
detect and expose their frauds. 
c. Vegetable products. —In regard, again, to 
the products of the soil, few things are now 
more necessary than a rigorous analysis of all 
their parts. If we know what a plant contains, 
we know what elementary bodies it takes from 
the soil, and, consequently, what the soil must 
contain, if the plant is to grow upon it in a 
healthy manner; that is, we shall know, to a 
certain extent, how to manure it. 
On the other hand, in applying vegetable sub¬ 
stances to the feeding of stock, it is of equal 
importance to know what they severally con¬ 
tain, in order that a skilful selection may be 
made of such kin Is of food as may best suit the 
purposes we intend them to serve. 
5°. To explain how plants grow and are nour¬ 
ished, and how animals are supported, and most 
cheaply fed. —What food plants require, and at 
different periods of their growth, whence they 
obtain it, how they take it in, and in what forms 
of chemical combination. Also, what kind and 
quantity of food the animal requires, what pur¬ 
poses different kinds of food serve in the animal 
economy, and how a given quantity of any vari¬ 
ety of food may be turned to the best account. 
What questions ought more to interest the prac¬ 
tical farmer than these ? 
Then there are certain peculiarities of soil, 
both physical and chemical, which are best fitted 
to promote the growth of each of our most val¬ 
uable crops. There are, also, certain ways of 
cultivating and manuring, and certain kinds of 
manure which are specially favorable to each, 
and these again vary with every important mod¬ 
ification of climate. Thus chemical physiology 
has much both to learn and to teach, in regard 
to the raising of crops. 
So, different kinds and breeds of domestic an¬ 
imals thrive best upon different kinds of food, 
or require different proportions of each, or to 
have it prepared in different ways, or given at 
different times. Among animals of the same 
species, also, the growing, the full-grown, the 
fattening, and the milking animal, respectively 
require a peculiar adjustment of food, in kind, 
quantity, or form. All such adjustments, the 
researches of chemistry and physiology alone 
enable us accurately to make. 
6°. To test the opinions of theoretical men.— 
Erroneous opinions lead to grave errors in prac¬ 
tice. Such incorrect opinions aro not unfre- 
quently entertained and promulgated, even by j 
eminent scientific men. They are, in this case, 
most dangerous, and most difficult to overturn ; 
so that against these unfounded theories, the 
farmer requires protection, no less than against 
the quackery of manufactured manures. It is 
only on a basis of often-repeated, skilfully-con- 
ducted, and faithfully-recorded experiments, 
made by instructed persons, that true theories 
can ever be successfully built up. lienee the im¬ 
portance of experiments in practical bgriculture. 
Such are the principal objects which chemistry, 
aided by geology and physiology, either prom¬ 
ises or hopes to attain. In no district, however, 
will tiie benefits she is capable of conferring 
upon agriculture be fully realized, unless her aid 
be really sought for, her ability rightly estimated, 
and her interference earnestly requested. In 
other words, what we already know, as well as 
what we are every day learning, must be ade¬ 
quately diffused among the agricultural body, 
and in every district, means must be adopted for 
promoting this diffusion. It is in vain for chem¬ 
istry and the other sciences to discover or sug¬ 
gest, unless her discoveries and suggestions be 
fully made known to those whose benefit they 
are most likely to promote. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
A. L. S.— Fleece Wool.— If perfectly dry 
when packed away, it will lose very little weight 
during a year in a dry loft. 
We have received reports of New-Hampshire 
State Fair; official, of sales of Kentucky stock; 
letters from F. 0. R.; J. T.; J. M. J.; A Sub¬ 
scriber ; J. R., of California; and E. A. These 
will be attended to at the earliest opportunity 
possible. 
New Wheat from Mount- Atlas.—A pplicants for 
this wheat are informed that we have no more on 
hand; all having been distributed some time since. 
Dating Letters. —Where our correspondents are 
not perfectly well known tons, we wish they would 
in ail cases, date their letters very plainly, with their 
post office address. Nearly every town in the United, 
States has half a dozen name-sakes in other States, 
and of some of the mo9t popular, they number by 
fifties. A few years since, there were about thirty 
Washingtons in Ohio alone. Let us, in all cases, 
have the name of their post-ojfice and Stale , at the 
head of their letter, and they will be sure of a right 
direction for their letters in return. 
Correspondents will confer a favor by writing 
plainly. We spent four hours in deciphering a 
long article from a correspondent, which con¬ 
tained some good ideas. We have just received 
another from the same source, which we have 
necessarily laid by for the leisure of a rainy 
day. We never did like illegible writing, but 
we cheerfully correct ungrammatical expres¬ 
sions, and will properly prepare manuscript for 
the press with pleasure. If only plainly written, 
we care not how homely the style. 
Pre-payment of Postage. —All correspondents 
are requested to prepay their postage on letters to 
us, as they thereby secure pre-payment in return. 
The saving of two cents for each letter may seem a 
small matter to such as seldom write, but the gen¬ 
eral omission to pre-pay would make a difference of 
hundreds of dollars ner annum in our own postage 
bills. 
We also suggest the propriety, where correspond¬ 
ents write us expressly on their own business, re¬ 
questing a favor which causes us some trouble, and 
with no ^corresponding benefit, that they not only 
pre-pay their postage, but also enclose a stamp, to 
pre-pay the answer they solicit in return. 
Salt your Cabbage. —We printed some time 
ago this recommendation, and do so again, that 
it may not be forgotten that, in boiling a cab¬ 
bage whole, if some common salt be put into 
the water, when washing cabbages or greens, 
preparatory to cooking them, the snails, bugs, 
&c., will come out and sink to the bottom, so 
that they need not be boiled with the vegetables. 
It is impossible to wash out with water alone, 
except the cabbage be taken to pieces.— Oe.r. 
Tel. 
FAIR OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 
The American Institute have issued the fol¬ 
lowing programme with reference to the Fair : 
October 1st, 8d, 4th, and 5tli, goods were re¬ 
ceived. 
October 10th, Fair opened from 9 A. M. to 10 
P. M., for the admission of visitors, and will re¬ 
main open till further notice. 
October 11th, Plowing and Spading Match at 
11 o’clock, at the same place. 
October 17th, special exhibition of Roses and 
Cut Flowers at 12 o’clock M. 
October 19th, 20th, and 21st, Cattle Show at 
Hamilton Square. 
October 20th, Anniversary Address by lion. 
William Seward, at Metropolitan Hall, at 7 P. 
M. Tickets may be had at Castle Garden, or of 
any of the Examiners. 
At the Fair, the Chair of Gen. Tallmadge, late 
President of the Institute, will remain vacant, 
being clothea in black. Immediately behind 
the chair will be a large portrait of Gen. Tall¬ 
madge, veiled in black. 
EFFECT OF FRUIT ON HEALTH. 
That ripe fruit is generally agreeable to the 
system and conducive to health, is not disputed. 
But there is a writer in the JVew-Yorl Ob¬ 
server who goes much farther, and contends 
that unripe fruit is not injurious. He admits 
that a great increase of disease and death 
in the city of New-York is synchronous with 
the appearance of green fruit in the mar¬ 
ket, but insists that it is attributable lo the 
excessive heat of the season, or to other causes 
than the fruit that is then consumed. This he 
attempts to establish, by showing from the bills 
of mortality, first, that fins increase takes place 
among children under five years of age almost 
exclusively, principally under two, and therefore 
tne free use of fruits can have nothing to do 
with it. Simultaneously with this, the number 
of deaths between five and twenty years of age— 
the period especially exposed to'the injurious 
effect of fruit, if any such exists—is less than 
in the winter months. This point he seems to 
establish by the comparative reports of the City 
Inspector for the three summer and three win¬ 
ter months of the last three years. 
He moreover adds, and fortifies by the table, 
that the whole adult mortality of the city is 
usually as great, and frequently greater in win¬ 
ter than in summer. In confirmation of this 
view, he cites the third week in June of this 
year, which was marked by extreme heat, and 
a greater mortality than the first week in July. 
The former was very fatal to children under five 
years of age, but not characterized by an un¬ 
usual mortality from ordinary diseases in the 
adult population. An analysis is also given of 
the weekly report from July 9 th to 16th, which 
confirms the facts in the former reports, show¬ 
ing that the increased mortality was, as is usual 
in summer, confined to children under five vears 
of age. 
There is a good deal of force in the foregoing, 
though we are not prepared to endorse the 
whole of the statement. That ripe fruit, in its 
season, eaten in moderate quantities, is not only 
not injurious, but positively wholesome, we en¬ 
tertain no doubt; and we do not believe that 
the use of fruit under such circumstances is apt 
to cause bowel complaints. Facts will not bear 
out any such inference ; summer complaints are 
not, as a general thing, any more prevalent 
when fruit is abundant than when it is scarce ; 
but the reverse, we rather apprehend, will be 
found, on careful examination, to be the fact. 
We hope that physicians will make observa¬ 
tions on this point, and also “ make a note ” of 
any cases and facts which may have a bearing 
thereupon.— Exchange Paper. ' 
-©-*-#- 
North Carolina Rice Crop.— The Wilming¬ 
ton Herald, in alluding to the rice crop, says: 
“We rejoice that our planters have reason to 
be abundantly grateful for the rich returns of 
their labors the present season. The crop is 
more than an average, we believe, and will pro¬ 
bably reach 200,000 bushels.” 
