40 
THE CULTIYATOR. 
are suffered to deteriorate, while art and industry are 
augmenting the fertility of poor ones. 
Cicero, in eulogizing Socrates, passes a just en¬ 
comium upon that philosopher, when he says—“ He 
conceived the thought of bringing down philosophy 
from heaven, to place it in cities, and introduce it in¬ 
to private houses ; humanizing it, to use that expres¬ 
sion, and rendering it more familiar, more useful in 
common life, more in the reach of man’s capacity, and 
applying it solely to what might make them more ra¬ 
tional, just and virtuous.” Now we want a Socrates 
to do all this for our farming community—to bring 
down the philosophy of science to the useful purposes 
of life—to place it in our dwellings—to apply it upon 
our farms ; to ruralize it, render it more familiar, more 
useful, more in the reach of our capacities, and to 
make it the companion and .guide of agricultural la¬ 
bor. This would teach us when, and how, our soils 
become exhausted, by “injudicious management,” and 
instruct us in the means of 'preventing 'the loss of 
“ their freshness and fertility,” without diminishing 
their products or income. It would teach us, also, 
how to render lands productive which are not so na¬ 
turally, and to simplify and economize labor in all the 
departments of oui business. But alas! we have no 
Socrates to render us these kind offices—no schools 
in which the young farmer can acquire these useful 
aids to his labor—no public guardians that take cogni¬ 
zance of these highly interesting concerns. Our on¬ 
ly alternative seems to be, that which necessity often 
calls forth on emergencies—we must each become a 
“ Rural Socrates,” and like the Swiss peasant, upon 
whom this title was justly bestowed, and whose me¬ 
moirs we intend shortly to notice, become seif-teach¬ 
ers, in the philosophy which instructs, dignifies and 
rewards rural labor. The means are accessible, and 
success, to the young at least, will be the result of 
perseverance. 
We subjoin to our remarks a further extract from 
the article quoted from as our text, with remarking, 
that w r e very much fear that his object, scientific 
knowledge to the farmer, cannot be reached through 
the means he proposes—geological surveys. This 
may do something, but no great. Science rows with 
one oar—practice with another —and the boat will on¬ 
ly go ahead, by the propelling influence of both oars, 
operated upon simultaneously. Now geologists, very 
properly make the science of geology their study, and, 
were they disposed, they seldom have the practical 
knowledge necessary to render it of great service to 
the agriculturist. We must combine the practice 
with the theory if we would gain useful instruction. 
And the only way we can conceive of doing this, is to 
have schools of theory and practice combined—that 
when boys find themselves at fault in practice, they 
may discover the cause and apply the remedy from 
the theory; and that where the theory is obscure or 
doubtful, they may solve their doubts, and establish 
their principles, by resorting to practice. If a new 
implement, or a new principle, is recommended for 
our adoption, prudence suggests that we try before 
we adopt it. If an operation in husbandry fails to real¬ 
ize our expectations, we naturally wish to know the 
cau.se of failure, and the means of averting it in fu¬ 
ture. This we generally alone learn from the phi¬ 
losophy of science, which seems to have been dis¬ 
pensed to us for the wisest purposes—to incite to stu¬ 
dy, to reflection, and to perseverance. But in our en¬ 
thusiasm on subjects of this kind, we had like to have 
forgotten our promise, which was to give another ex¬ 
tract from the Franklin Farmer. It follows : 
“ But in his first efforts to improve, the practical far¬ 
mer is met by difficulties which he cannot surmount 
alone. He has been bred in the school only of practical 
agriculture, and though he has learned, and practised 
with success, many of her best lessons, he is now at 
fault,—and is seen to sink back in apparent despair, 
and exclaim, what can agriculture do without the light 
and help of science? He has seen a sickly and dwarf¬ 
ish plant growing where in years gone by it was vigor¬ 
ous, thrifty and prolific, and he does not fully under¬ 
stand the cause. He has seen his fields waving with a 
luxuriant and promising crop, and just as his hopes 
were about to be crowned, he has put the sickle to the 
harvest, and gathered little but disappointment and 
vexation. He asks himself the reason why,—in vain, 
for practical agriculture has not taught him that. With 
unwearying perseverance he tries again the fortune of 
another season, in hopes that by different cultivation, or 
more extensive manuring, or a change of crops, to meet 
with more success. But he is unacquainted with the 
character and condition of his soil, with the qualities 
and properties of the different manures, and with the 
adaptation of particular crops to particular soils, and 
again his well meant efforts are but half successful. He 
is constrained to acknowledge that without the light of 
science he is but groping in the dark, along a path which 
may lead to fruitfulness to-day, and to briars on the mor¬ 
row.” 
Staggers in Swine. 
Our attention has been drawn to this subject by 
the loss of several pigs in our neighborhood, and one 
of our own, by a disease denominated the staggers. 
We find in the second volume of the Memoirs of the 
Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, a 
communication from J. P. De Gruchy, of much inte¬ 
rest. Mr. G. kept from 100 to 250 hogs, and lost an¬ 
nually several—six, eight and a dozen being taken in 
a few hours. They were generally attacked in the 
month of September. The hog would all at once turn 
round very rapidly, and if assistance was not at hand, 
would in less than half an hour die. Bleeding and 
brimstone were applied with but little success. At 
length one of his workmen put into his hands an old 
pamphlet printed in the year 1707, in which he found 
the following prescription for what he considered the 
staggers : “ You will see a bare knob in the roof of 
the mouth, cut it and let it bleed, take the powder of 
loam and salt, rub it with it, and then give him a lit¬ 
tle urine, and he will mend.” Mr. De Gruchy em¬ 
ployed the remedy for several years, with almost un¬ 
varying success; but although his hogs generally reco¬ 
vered, they never throve so well afterwards. The 
disorder is generally confined to pigs and hogs of mid¬ 
dling size. 
Mr. De Gruchy mentions another disease which 
attacked his best hogs, (in pen) in August, and which 
carried off thirteen in a few days. He denominates 
it the sore throat. The hog would often be dead in 
ten minutes after he was attacked. He bled the four¬ 
teenth that was attacked, and had him carried and 
laid in a clover field, and he recovered. The remaind¬ 
er ot the hogs were then turned into the clover field, 
and the disease disappeared. This was done annual¬ 
ly afterwards, and the hogs had neither staggers nor 
sore throat. It is now a well established opinion, that 
hogs should have access to pasture, in summer, or at 
least to the earth, to preserve their health. 
On Climate, and the Means which may he Em¬ 
ployed to Modify it. 
There are considerations in regard to climate, which 
should obtrude upon a man who is about to fix his re¬ 
sidence for life; and there are artificial means by 
which it may be partially modified by him who is al¬ 
ready located in a bad one. By climate, we do not 
mean portions of country which are bounded by pa¬ 
rallels of latitude ; but we mean a district, a tract or 
a farm, differing in temperature, from local causes, 
from other districts adjoining. The local cause of 
this difference may be elevation, contiguity to marsh¬ 
es or waters, aspect, capacity of the soil for imbibing 
or retaining heat, &c. All of these circumstances 
have a bearing upon the products of agriculture, and 
most of them upon the health and comfort of the po¬ 
pulation. 
A district is rendered comparatively cold, by being 
mostly covered with wood, by the contiguity of marsh¬ 
es, by being elevated above the surrounding districts, 
and by open exposure to bleak winds. The two first 
render the air moist, and cause a greater range be¬ 
tween the extremities of heat and cold; the rays of 
the sun are partially excluded from the ground ; eva¬ 
poration is prevented ; and the miasma which is often 
generfted is prejudicial to the health of man and 
beast. 
Altitude has a manifest influence upon farm crops. 
One hundred and eighty feet elevation produces a dif¬ 
ference in temperature equal to a degree of 69 miles 
of latitude. In latitude 54 and 55, in Scotland, Sinclair 
tells us, 600 feet above the level of the sea, is the 
greatest height at which wheat will grow, with any 
chance of repaying the husbandman for his labor. 
The quality of the soil and subsoil have an influence 
upon the temperature and products of a farm. If 
these are hard and retentive, and particularly if flat, 
the surplus rain-water does not pass off; solar heat 
is prevented from penetrating; the soil is cold and 
sour, and the finer crops cannot prosper. But if the 
soil consists of sand, gravel, or friable sand loam, and 
the surface has much of a slope, the excess of water 
passes off, the heat penetrates freely, and vegetation 
is healthy and comparatively vigorous, even though 
the subsoil is somewhat tenacious. A moderately un¬ 
dulating, or rolling surface is, therefore, better for 
farm purposes, particularly for arable husbandry, than 
a flat surface, or than a precipitous one, where the 
finer particles of the soil are liable to be washed into 
the valleys by heavy rains. 
Aspect, in hilly or mountainous districts, is a mat¬ 
ter of consideration with the farmer. The soil on the 
northern slope of a hill is generally richer than on a 
southern slope, from the circumstance that it is less 
liable to be wasted by alternations of freezing and 
thawing, and the effects of rains: But that on the 
southern slope, being more exposed to the influence 
of the solar rays, is warmer, and more congenial to 
grain, and other tender crops ; while the north is best 
adapted to pasture and meadow. 
The artificial means of ameliorating a severe cli¬ 
mate, consist in diminishing the wood, and exposing 
more of the surface to the sun’s rays ; in draining the 
marshes md wet grounds ; implanting the crowns of 
the hills, and the exposed quarters of the farm, with 
timber or other trees, where these points have been 
imprudently bared of their wood; by making small 
inclosures, divided by stone walls, hedges or belts of 
timber; by cultivation, and by ridging, and by blend¬ 
ing light and friable soils with those which are heavy 
and stiff. By employing such of these means as are 
best adapted to the location, much may be done to 
ameliorate climate, and to render it salubrious. When 
the surface of the ground is broken, water subsides 
into the soil, instead of either resting on it, or being 
thrown off in torrents, often a source of much mis¬ 
chief ; and if the surface is formed into ridges and fur¬ 
rows, water is drained off, and the soil is enabled to 
imbibe* the salutary rays of the sun, and the genial in¬ 
fluence of dew and air, and may be worked earlier in 
the spring. We consider it a great defect m north¬ 
ern husbandry, that on flat surfaces, and tenacious 
soils or subsoils, the lands are not more generally 
thrown into narrow ridges and furrows, that the win¬ 
ter and heavy rains may pass off as they fall. The 
above remarks, so far as regards the effects of drain¬ 
ing and culture upon climate, we have seen verified in 
our own practice. The small spot which we improve, 
when it came under our care, contained much low 
marshy ground, and abounded in springs, and in wet 
seasons with waters concentrated in pools upon the 
surface. The tendency of all this was to render the 
air cold and humid, and unhealthy, and the crops liable 
to be injured by late and early frosts, from which the 
neighboring district was exempt. A thorough system 
ol draining and good cultivation has effectually reme¬ 
died these evils, and enabled us to work our lands 
earlier, and to bring our crops to earlier maturity— 
while the healthiness of the neighborhood has been 
correspondingly improved. We have done something 
towards sheltering our grounds, by preserving, where 
we could, a growth ot wood on the exposed quarter, 
by planting it at other points, arid by the culture of 
live fences. 
As marshes and shallow waters are prejudicial to 
the health and climate of a neighborhood, large bo¬ 
dies of water, like those of the great lakes, which do 
not freeze over in winter, have a contrary tendency, 
and particularly to ameliorate the severity of winter, 
by the quantity of caloric which they give off at that 
season. Thus the mean temperature of the winter 
months is several degrees lower at Albany and Buf¬ 
falo, than it is at Rochester and Oswego, or any 
where along the southern borders of lakes Ontario 
and Erie. 
In our northern latitudes, every artificial means 
that is available should be employed to ameliorate 
the climate. We have many crops that require a 
combination of favorable circumstances to bring them 
to high maturity, and in a vast many instances their 
product is greatly diminished by early and late frosts, 
which in many cases might be averted, partially if not 
wholly, by a timely attention to the suggestions which 
we have now made. Indian corn, for instance, in 
late years, in order to ensure its maturity, requires to 
be planted on a warm dry sod, in which sand greatly 
preponderates, which imbibes heat readily, can be 
worked and planted early, and that the auxiliary aid 
of unfermented manures be employed to increase the 
warmth. 
Olden Times—1795. 
CANKER-WORM. 
Referring again to the first volume of Memoirs of 
the Society ol Agriculture, &c. the next paper that 
we shall notice, gives us the character and habits of 
the canker-worm, and suggestions for preventing its 
ravages upon our apple trees, by Dr. S. L.'MitchilL 
The Doctor tells us, that Forskall has enumerated 
twenty species of insects which prey upon the apple 
tree, seventeen of which are phalcenas, (millers,) of 
which the canker-worn is one, and more destructive 
than the rest. This insect in its miller state, conceals 
itself in holes and under the shaggy bark of the tree. 
The male has wings, and flies, but the female appears 
to have no wings, and ascends the tree by creeping 
up the body. The doctor had noticed them as early 
as the 25th March, on Long-Island, which was the 
period of their copulation. Soon after the female, 
guided by instinct, crawls towards the extremities of 
the branches, and deposites her eggs where there is 
likely to be an abundance of foliage to nourish her 
progeny, and dies. The same degree of heat that 
causes the leaf to expand, vivifies and hatches the 
eggs. The worm attacks the tender foliage, the ela¬ 
borating organs, and thus deprives the blossoms of 
their proper nourishment; and if the blossoms do ex¬ 
pand, they are either destroyed, or become abortive, 
for the want of elaborated food, which the leaves can 
only furnish. The tree becomes unhealthy from the 
like cause, and is cankered and covered with moss. 
Such is a brief notice of the habits of the canker- 
worm. 
As preventives of the injury they cause, the doctor 
suggests the scraping off ail the loose fragments of 
