THE CULTIVATOR. 
57 
rigor. It calls into action those powers which dis¬ 
tinguish man from the brute, and which are given 
him, with the implied promise, that the harvest shall 
be in the ratio of the culture which he bestows upon 
his mind. We make these remarks, because we have 
hardly yet become divested of the prejudice excited 
in our younger days, against whatever bore the sem¬ 
blance of modern philosophy ; while at the same time 
we have sedulously studied it, under various names, 
and believe we have derived a profit from it, which in 
some measure, we hope to impart to others ; and be¬ 
cause we would excite the young reader to investi¬ 
gate its principles, and to profit from its precepts. 
The writings of Sir Francis Bacon form an era in 
philosophy, as well as in social improvements. The 
following enumeration, from the Edinburgh Review, 
of the benefits which his philosophy has conferred 
on society, may tend to excite a taste, even in the 
farmer, for the higher and nobler studies. 
“ Ask a follower of Bacon,” says the Review, “ what 
the new philosophy, as it was called in the time of 
Charles the second, has effected for mankind, and his 
answer is ready—‘It has lengthened life; it has mitigat¬ 
ed pain; it has extinguished disease; it has increased 
the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to 
the mariner; it has furnished new arms to the warrior; 
it has spanned great rivers and estuaries with bridges 
of form unknown to our fathers; it has guided the thun¬ 
der-bolt innocuously from heaven to earth; it has light¬ 
ed up the night with the splendor of day; it has ex¬ 
tended the range of the human vision; it has multipli¬ 
ed the power of the human muscles; it has accelerated 
motion; it has annihilated distance; it has facilitated 
intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices and dis¬ 
patch of business; it has enabled man to descend to the 
depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate se¬ 
curely into the noxious recesses of the earth, to travel 
the land on cars which whirl along without horses, and 
the ocean in ships which sail against the wind.’ These 
are but a part of its fruits. For it is a philosophy which 
never rests, which has never attained it, which is never 
perfect. Its law is progress. A point which was yes¬ 
terday invisible, becomes its goal to-day, and will belts 
starting-post to-morrow.” 
$100 premium for American Silk. 
An association of gentlemen have obligated them¬ 
selves to pay to the treasurer of the American Insti¬ 
tute, New-York, the sum of one hundred dollars, to be 
awarded in October to the person “ who shall raise, 
and cause to be manufactured, the greatest quantity 
of sewing silk, on not less than one-sixteenth of an 
acre of land, by a succession of crops in a single sea¬ 
son, and exhibit satisfactory evidence of the same to 
the committee of the said institute, on or before their 
next annual exhibition at New-York, together with 
the weight of the mulberry leaves consumed, the 
weight and number of cocoons produced, and the 
weight of waste silk and floss, and the number and 
quality of the trees set on the land. The amount of 
land, and also the weight of leaves which may from 
necessity be borrowed from any other source to com¬ 
plete the experiment, together with all the material 
facts, to be certified to the committee on oath or affirma¬ 
tion. To this statement will also to be subjoined the 
number and condition of the trees which are produced 
on the land at the end of the season.” The gentle¬ 
men who sign the notice are an ample guarantee that 
the premium will be paid. 
Operation of Marl. 
Marls are held to be valuable, for spreading on land, 
in proportion to the quantity of calcareous matter 
which they contain. 
Clay-marl, as it is termed, is composed of carbonate 
of lime, silica and alumina, with a portion of the oxide 
of iron or manganese. It occurs in beds, and is ex¬ 
tensively diffused. It assumes a considerable diversi¬ 
ty of aspect and character, as it is more or less indu¬ 
rated, or as the calcareous or aluminous matters pre¬ 
vail. When very indurated, it is frequently termed 
rock-marl. 
The operation of marls is more slow than that of 
lime, and they require to be applied in comparatively 
larger quantity. They should be laid upon the sur¬ 
face, and generally well exposed to the influence of 
the atmosphere, before being mixed with the soil. 
Some marls have been found to be very deleterious, 
unless they have undergone this previous exposure to 
the air. The kinds of soils to which clay marls are 
most beneficially applied, are the sandy, gravelly and 
peaty. In this case they supply calcareous matter to 
the soil, and improve its texture by the addition of 
alumina. 
The quantity of this substance applied is exceed¬ 
ingly various, being dependent upon the nature of the 
soil, and the proportion of calcareous matter in the 
marl. Where the purpose has been to change en¬ 
tirely the constitution of a defective soil, it has been 
applied even at the rate of from 300 to 400 cart-loads 
to the acre. But where the purpose is to give mere¬ 
ly a common manuring, it is supplied in the quantity 
sufficient to afford an ordinary proportion of calcare¬ 
ous matter. It may be laid upon the surface of land 
when in grass, where it remains till the land is brought 
under tillage ; and this is the best method of applying 
it. 
Shell marl is an entirely different substance. It is 
chiefly a deposite of marine, and sometimes of land 
shells, found under a bed of peat. It may be used at 
the rate of twenty-five to thirty cart-loads to the acre. 
It can be applied to the land when in various states, 
as when it is in stubbie, in summer fallow, or in grass. 
The latter is a good practice; for, as in the case of 
all calcareous matter, the application improves the 
herbage ; and the mineral, sinking into the soil, pre¬ 
pares it well for producing crops of corn when it is 
broken up for tillage. Its operation is not so quick as 
that of calcined limestone, but its effects are more 
lasting. The same consequence is produced by ex¬ 
cessive cropping after the application of this substance, 
as after the application of calcined limestone. The 
soil which has been stimulated by the action of the 
mineral becomes more barren than before, and it is 
for the most part only to be restored by rest and the 
action of animal and vegetable manures.— Low. 
Experiment in Harvesting Corn. 
Andrew Nicol has given in the March No. of the 
Farmers’ Register, a statement of some experiments 
he made last year with his corn crop, the pith of 
which we abstract. 
1. He took 32 loads of pine leaves on to a piece of 
corn, planted very close for the climate of Virginia, 
and spread these leaves so closely, as to give an ave¬ 
rage thickness of four inches. The corn received no 
after culture. The product was 75 bushels per acre, 
considered there a very large return. The pine 
leaves counteracted the effects of drought; and Mr. 
N. thinks, that had the covering been thicker, the 
product would have been greater. 
2. The second experiment was made to ascertain 
the effect of topping, cutting up, and leaving the grain 
to ripen upon the standing stalk. Eighteen rows of 
150 yards in length, were stripped of the fodder, that 
is, all the leaves, except two above the ears, were 
taken off on the 11th Sept.; the tops were cut from 
six of these rows on the 20th Sept.; six other rows 
of the 18 were cut by the ground the same day; and 
the third six rows were left to stand, together with 
the first six, until the corn ripened ; the fourth and 
last six rows, from which neither fodder was pulled 
nor tops cut, was, on the same 20th Sept, cut off by 
the ground, and set up in small stooks. “ The corn 
from each was gathered on the 2d Dec. and on the 
7th Feb. shelled and accurately weighed. The fol¬ 
lowing are the results, in measure and in weight: 
1st 6 rows measured 8 bu. weight per bushel 58 lbs. 
2d 6 “ 
tfi 
7| “ 
tt 
57 “ 
3d 6 « 
ft 
7tt 
1 8 
u 
56| “ 
4th 6 “ 
tt 
8| “ 
ft 
59f “ 
These results go to show, 
1. That leaves are essential, even after corn is cut 
off at the ground, in increasing the quantity and 
weight of the crop. And 
2. That the mode of cutting up the whole, grain, 
tops and leaves, gives the most corn, and heaviest 
corn, and certainly improves the quality, and in¬ 
creases the quantity, of cattle fodder. The difference 
between No. 2 and No. 4, will be seen to be nearly 
10 per cent in quantity, and in weight nearly as much 
more. 
The third experiment was in succoring corn. Mr. 
N. considered the result decidedly in favor of the 
practice. Where the corn was not succored, the 
ears were diminutive, and the succors produced little 
or no sound grain. There is no doubt but succors 
abstract food from the plants, and if taken off' (we 
should prefer to cut them off) and well cured, furnish 
excellent forage ; yet we have hitherto doubted if 
the gain would repay the labor of succoring. But 
we do not profess to be infallible in our opinions. 
A sentiment of Franklin. —“ I think agriculture the 
most honorable of all employments, being the most 
independent. The farmer has no need of popular fa¬ 
vor, nor of the favor of the great: the success of his 
crops depending only on the blessing of God upon 
his honest industry.” 
Knight’s Mode of Grafting In July. 
It is thus described in Loudon: “ The head of the 
stock is taken off by a single stroke of the knife ob¬ 
liquely, so that the incision commences about a dia¬ 
meter below the point where the medulla (pith) ap¬ 
pears in the section of the stock, and ends as much 
above it on the opposite side. The scion, which 
should not exceed in diameter half that of the stock, 
is then to be divided longitudinally, about two inches 
upwards from its lower end, into two unequal divi¬ 
sions, by passing the knife upwards just in contact 
with one side of the medulla. The strongest divi¬ 
sion of the scion is then to be pared thin at its low¬ 
est extremity, and introduced, as in crown grafting, 
between the bark and the wood of the stock, and the 
more slender division is fitted to the stock upon the 
opposite side. The scion consequently stands astride 
the stock, to which it attaches itself firmly on each 
side, and which it covers completely in a single sea¬ 
son. Grafts of the apple and pear rarely ever fail in 
this method of grafting, which may be practised with 
equal success, with young wood in July, as soon as 
that has become moderately firm and mature.” 
The grafting clay of the French and Dutch, is un¬ 
guent de St. Fiacre (St. Fiacre being the patron 
saint of gardening,) and is composed of half cow dung, 
free from litter, and half fresh loam, intimately incor¬ 
porated. They prefer this to all other for excluding 
the external air from wounds of every description, 
and ridicule the idea of complex compositions. We 
know from experience, that cow-dung alone is an 
efficacious application to the fresh wounds of trees, 
barked or bruised accidentally, and we have saved 
trees by its prompt application, where the bark had 
been entirely removed from a foot of the stock. The 
common grafting wax used in this vicinity is compos¬ 
ed of one part of tallow, two parts of bees-wax, and 
four of rosin, melted and well incorporated. It should 
be thrown into tepid or warm water, when about to 
be used. A larger proportion of tallow will render it 
softer, and more easily managed. The wax or clay 
checks the extravasation of sap from the wounds; 
prevents the too sudden drying of the wood, and ex¬ 
cludes the rain water from the wound or cleft. 
A new mode of fertilizing land, 
Has been announced in France, discovered by M. 
Jauffel, and tested by him and others. Several French 
societies have endorsed the inventor’s claim to merit, 
and a learned committee has been raised in England 
to test its value to agriculture. It purports to be “ a 
■process for obtaining cheap and valuable manure, with - 
out the aid of cattle.” The old mode of converting 
vegetable matters into food for farm crops, has been 
that of first feeding cattle with them, and of then ap¬ 
plying the dung and offal to the soil. The inventor of 
this new process proposes, if we understand his pro¬ 
ject, to convert vegetable matters into food for vegeta¬ 
bles by a summary and speedy process, without the 
aid of the digestive organs of farm stock. We do 
not see that it adds any thing to the materials of fer¬ 
tility, but merely cooks them, if we may use the ex¬ 
pression, and thereby expedites their conversion into 
new vegetable matter. The process consists in steep¬ 
ing straw, or other vegetable matters, in water, in 
which a certain proportion of lime, cinders and soot 
have been mixed. Fermentation ensues, and in three 
weeks the manure is fit for use. The Journal des 
Cornices Agricoles gives the following proportions: 
700 pounds of cut straw, or other vegetable substance, 
five hogsheads of common water, one and one-fourth 
hectolitres of quick-lime, three-fourths hectolitre of 
cinders, and one-fourth hectolitre of soot; this mix¬ 
ture to be wed brewed for a couple of hours : and the 
vegetable substances, after having thoroughly imbibed 
the liquid, are to be heaped together, battened down, 
and covered with something to compress them well 
together ; the heap is to be watered every five or six 
days, or as often as the heat of the fermenting mass 
diminishes. The hectolitre is equivalent to about 22| 
gallons. The straw or other vegetable matter is first 
cut in k machine ; three men and a horse, with a ma¬ 
chine, costing about $66, will prepare seven tons a 
day; and ten quintals of straw will produce 40 quin¬ 
tals of manure, either by the addition of the ley, or by 
the fermentation dilating the materials operated upon. 
We are afraid the discovery is not likely to prove of 
great benefit to this country, in many parts of which 
manure is not yet enough regarded to arrest the far¬ 
mer’s attention. 
Hints in Husbandry. 
[From Loudon's Statistics of Agriculture.] 
NORFOLK. 
Buildings. —Lime-wash is used as a preservative 
of boards. It is composed of lime, fresh from the kiln, 
and clean sharp sand, mixed with hot water, and laid 
on hot, stirring it up so as always to lay on sand mix¬ 
ed with lime. At Holkham, a brick manufactory, 
where bricks of all forms are made, and common 
bricks are cut, five parts in six, through in various di¬ 
rections, so as to give half and quarter bricks, angles, 
&c. without breaking and waste. This is one of the 
most complete manufactories in the kingdom. Sharp 
clean sand dashed on new paint is found to answer the 
end of imitating stone. Front edge of cattle manger 
rollers covered with tin, at Holkham ; mangers them¬ 
selves plated with iron, bottoms slate. 
Improvements. —A good deal of draining done of 
late years; very little irrigation ; among the manures 
are reckoned marl, lime, gypsum, oyster shells, sea 
ouse, sea weed, pond weeds, burnt earth, sticklebacks, 
oil cake, ashes, soot, malt dust, ploughing in growing 
buckwheat, yard dung, leaves, burning stubbles, river 
mud, and town manure. Marling, or claying, as it ia 
