AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY.-NO. 1. 
83 
nails; and they have got them, poor or worth¬ 
less.” Gov. Reed then shewed the two kinds of 
nails spoken of above, and they were examined 
with a great deal of interest. 
Inside finish, also, claims a passing remark. 
Let us strive to do away with so much paint. 
Rather finish with some of our beautiful native 
woods, and varnish immediately, and a much 
handsomer finish will be obtained than by 
painting. J. B. D. 
Boston, January , 1850. 
TO DESTROY CUT WORMS. 
I take other papers, because they instruct and 
amuse me; but I take the Agriculturist because 
it teaches me how I am to jpay for all. But to the 
point. 
I was quite successful in my first essay last 
spring in forcing tomatoes, cabbage, &c. In 
May, I commenced transplanting them into my 
arden. Beautiful plants they were, too; and as 
grew them myself, I felt quite proud of them. 
A day or two after this, upon going into my 
garden, I found the varmint that had destroyed 
them, smashed their heads, and replanted. But 
off they went again. I could kill the cut worms, 
but that did not replace my plants. A new idea 
then struck me. I pulled a few handfuls of 
clover, and laying a small quantity at the base 
of each plant, put thereon a chip. By this 
simple contrivance, I trapped the whole brood 
of rascals, and saved my plants. 
The philosophy of the thing is this: The 
cut worm prefers the green clover, which will 
keep so for about a week, under the chip, and 
every day or two you can hand the worms 
which collect there, over to the tender mercies 
of the old hen and chickens. The trouble of 
doing this is much less than replanting. 
H. M. Baker. 
Winchester, Va., January, 1850. 
To Restore a Drowned Chicken. —One morn¬ 
ing, a half-grown chicken was brought in, 
nearly dead, having been just taken from 
a swill barrel, into which it had fallen. I had 
little hopes of saving it, but I poured a few 
drops of brandy into its mouth, wet its head with 
cold water, wrapped it up in a piece of warm 
flannel, and then placed it near a warm stove. 
All this had to be done with great care, for it 
was so far gone, that the least movement seemed 
to affect it seriously. After a time, it began to 
revive, and in about an hour, it was running 
around. During the summer, when very young 
chickens were injured by being trodden upon by 
the hens, or struck by other fowls, I have often 
plunged their heads into cold water, when they 
would revive, and soon recover. F. 
To Remove the Turnip Taste from Butter.— 
The Farmer’s Herald says, add a small quantity 
of saltpetre to the cream before churning. 
Don’t give the buttermilk to the pigs, however, 
for you may chance to scour and kill them—un¬ 
less very much diluted. 
AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY.—No. 1. 
For a man to be pecuniarily successful in any 
art, it is necessary that he should have a perfect 
knowledge of that art. This perfection is attain¬ 
able, not merely by steady practice, but by the 
careful study of other branches of art and knowl¬ 
edge connected with the one pursued. It has 
been often found, that the constant practice of 
the farmer does not, in itself, always return suc¬ 
cessful harvests; and it is known that the ap¬ 
proved practice of one neighborhood or state is 
a disapproved practice in another; and why ? 
because other circumstances, beside practice, 
come into play to produce a harvest, such as 
the influences of atmosphere, of climate, and of 
soil. To guard against the unfavorable effects 
of these, or even to turn them to our advantage, 
requires that they should be studied and under¬ 
stood ; and this constitutes the scientific portion 
of the art. The more intimately a farmer is 
acquainted with the constitution of his soil and 
subsoil, and of the strength and quality of his 
manure, the more he understands the circum¬ 
stances which favor vegetable growth, the more 
likely is it, other things being the same, that he 
will reap more bountiful harvests. 
The ability of a farmer to grow certain crops 
on his land, is restrained by its natural character 
and constitution. Each soil will only support a 
vegetation suited to its own nature; and though 
this may be counteracted to some extent by the 
efforts of the agriculturist, yet, on the cessation 
of these efforts, the vegetation returns to its 
original type. The love of plants for certain 
minerals confines them to very narrow limits; 
and where an alteration of the soil occurs, 
whereby the mineral is diminished in amount, or 
removed out of the soil, the plant disappears. 
This frequently occurs in fields which have been 
limed; the character of the weeds are changed, 
and a new set of plants, which delight in lime, 
displaces the older growth. The hemp, flax, the 
nettle, and all of the botanical family urticeae, 
flourish in soils which contain potash; the sali- 
corniese family, as samphire, glass wort, and salt¬ 
wort, in soda soils; and the leguminosee, as clover, 
beans, and peas, prefer soils which have plaster 
as a constituent. 
The relation between the plant and the soil is 
most intimate, and any branch of knowledge 
which teaches us how to estimate the value and 
properties of earths, and to determine their 
constituent parts, should receive the studious 
attention of those interested in agricultural 
improvement. 
To trace a soil to its original rock, is to learn 
its composition to some extent, and give an 
insight into the kind of manure most beneficial. 
If we know our soil to be derived from a distant 
rock, we infer that it contains a large amount 
of the mineral matter of that rock, and we at 
once know what it is best suited for. In this 
case, it is what is called a drift soil—it is not 
formed by the wearing away of the rock bed 
beneath our feet—it possibly contains few mine¬ 
ral elements in common with the rock below, 
and a new question is presented to us, namely— 
Can this rock below communicate anything to 
