38 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
exposure to the action of the winds and rain, are thus 
brought into operation in the subsoil, whilst the surface 
soil is in the ordinary course of cropping; and when, 
after a few years, by a greater depth of ploughing, the 
subsoil is mixed with the upper soil, it is found to be so 
completely changed in its nature, as to be capable of 
producing every kind of corn.” 
Jethro Tull and his disciples maintained, that the 
great secret of inducing fertility, consisted in minute¬ 
ly dividing and pulverizing the soil by culture; and 
John Taylor, the Arator of Virginia, and an excellent 
practical, as well as scientific farmer, considered the 
atmosphere as the great store-house of vegetable food, 
where this food exists in a gaseous form. The good 
tillage we advocate embraces all the advantages of 
Tull’s and Taylor’s theories, without lessening the im¬ 
portance which we attach to barn-yard manure. 
The deep ploughing of dry land, or the breaking 
up and stirring of the subsoil, promotes fertility, by in¬ 
creasing the power of the land to absorb water by co¬ 
hesive attraction. “ The power of soils to absorb wa¬ 
ter from air,” says Davy, “is much connected with 
fertility. This power depends in a great measure up¬ 
on the state of division of its parts, the more divided 
they are, the greater their absorbent power. When 
this power is great, the plant is supplied with moisture 
in dry seasons ; and the effect of evaporation in the 
day is counteracted by the absorption of aqueous va¬ 
por from the atmosphere, by the interior parts of the 
soil during the day, and by both the exterior and in¬ 
terior during the night.” The soil imbibes caloric 
earlier in the spring, and retains it later in autumn, 
in proportion as it is dry and deep, a matter of high 
consideration in cold climates, where the length of 
the summer scarcely suffices to mature the crops. 
The quality and dryness being the same, a soil is fer¬ 
tile and durable nearly in proportion to the depth of 
the tillage which it receives: six inches giving nearly 
double the pasture for plants that a three inch stra¬ 
tum does—and a twelve inch tilth greatly exceeding 
in productiveness, one of only six inches. Von Thaer 
calculates this difference in proportionate degrees in 
lands which contain' a vegetative stratum of soil of 
four, six, eight and twelve inches in depth; provided, 
of course, that it be all of equal quality. If, there¬ 
fore, each seed were to produce a plant, it would fol¬ 
low that ground which contains eight inches of depth 
of fertile mould, might be sown with double the quan¬ 
tity of that which consists of only four inches. He 
however admits, that this principle cannot be carried 
to that extent, because the action of the atmosphere 
must ever afford that superiority to the surface, that 
a cubic foot of mould, if divided into two square feet, 
will always produce a greater number of plants than 
if the seed were sown upon one foot superficial; but 
he assumes the value of the land to be increased in 
the proportion of eight per cent for every inch of 
mould beyond the depth of six to ten inches, and to 
be diminished, in the same proportion, from six to 
three inches, in soils of a thinner staple .—Principes 
Raisonnes <TAgriculture, vol. Hi. p. 138, s. 735. These 
considerations have been hitherto but little regarded 
in our practice* through they constitute an important 
feature in the new system of husbandry. 
Good tillage demands also, the extirpation of weeds. 
Every plant which grows upon a soil tends to impair 
its fertility, and weeds generally more than cultivated 
crops, because theyare generally the most hardy, and 
the greatest consumers of vegetable food. They are 
particularly prejudicial to crops in a dry season, as 
they exhaust the soil of moisture in proportion to their 
superficies—or the surface of their stems and leaves, 
some species transpiring their weight of moisture eve¬ 
ry twenty-four hours. The drill culture and deep 
ploughing both lessen the evil of weeds ; the first tends 
to destroy them, and the latter to bury their seeds so 
deep, as to prevent the plants getting ahead of, and 
choking, the young crop. Clean tillage has been too 
much neglected in our practice. Many crops are di¬ 
minished a fourth, a third, and a half, by pestiferous 
weeds which are permitted to seed and propagate up¬ 
on the land. 
Good tillage requires good implements, and these to 
be kept in order, that the farm work may be economi¬ 
cally done, and well done, and done at the proper time. 
The disparity between old and new implements of 
culture is great, not only in the time employed, but in 
the manner in which they do the work, and in the 
power which is required to perform it. The old plough 
required a four cattle team, and two hands, to manage 
it, and the work, ordinarily, was but half executed. 
The improved plough is generally propelled by two 
cattle, requires but one man to manage it, and, when 
properly governed, performs thorough work. Har¬ 
rows and other implements have undergone a like im¬ 
provement. Besides, new" implements, which greatly 
economise the expense of tillage, are coming into use, 
as the roller, cultivator, drill barrow, &c. so that a 
farm may now be worked, with half the expense of 
labor that it was wont to be worked forty years ago, 
and may be better worked withah Mind, likewise, 
where it is put in requisition, and enlightened by sci¬ 
ence, is doing ten times more in aid of agricultural la¬ 
bor than it formerly did. 
If we revert to old, and in most cases to present 
practices, we shall perceive, that thorough tillage has 
not been sufficiently attended to. Our implements 
have been defective, and the manner of using them 
often imperfect. Good ploughing is all-important to 
good farming, and still there is no labor upon the farm 
that has been more imperfectly performed, than this 
generally has been. Light soils seldom require but a 
single ploughing for the seed, if well executed; but if 
badly executed two ploughings are too little. Our 
implements are, however, daily improving, the impor¬ 
tance of good tillage is becoming more and more ap¬ 
parent, and our practical knowledge is increasing. 
The Farmer’s Garden. 
Every farmer should have a garden, for health, for 
pleasure, and for profit. For health, as nothing, in the 
form of diet, contributes more to this blessing, than a 
variety of choice fruits and vegetables for his table; 
while the exercise and recreation which the cares and 
beauties of the garden excite, are highly promotive of 
health. For pleasure —and what can afford a more 
heart-felt pleasure to the eye, unalloyed with pain, 
than the various and ever changing beauties of a 
well-kept garden? and what a more rich and in¬ 
nocent enjoyment to the palate, than a succession of 
fruits and vegetables, the product of our own culture 
and of our own soil. For profit —believing, as we ve¬ 
rily do, that the labor judiciously bestowed in garden 
culture is amply repaid, in the subsistence it furnishes 
for the family. “It is incredible to those who have 
not had occasion to observe the fact,” says Cobbett, 
“ how large a part of the sustenance of a country la¬ 
borer’s family, in England, comes out of his little gar¬ 
den.” And yet the culture of the English laborer’s 
garden costs him virtually nothing. His occasional 
hours of leisure, with the aid afforded by the other¬ 
wise unproductive inmates of his family, suffices to 
complete the work. The rural scenery of England 
derives much of its interest from the beauty of the 
farmer’s and cottager’s gardens which every where 
abound; and many of the successful competitors for 
premiums, on fruits and flowers, at the horticultural 
shows which are there held in almost every town, are 
weavers and manufacturers, who cultivate their little 
patches of ground in the hours of exemption from pro¬ 
fessional labor. Indeed so prevalent is the taste for 
garden improvement and embellishment, that a man 
is judged of by the character of his garden. “ Po¬ 
verty,” says Cobbett, may “ apologise for a dirty dress, 
or an unshaven face; men may be negligent of their 
persons; but the sentence of the whole nation is, that 
he who is a sloven in his garden, is a sloven indeed. 
The inside of a laborer’s house, his habits, his quali¬ 
ties as a workman, and almost his morality, may be 
judged of from the appearance of his garden. If that 
be neglected, he is, nine times out of ten, a sluggard, 
a drunkard, or both.” The great strife every where 
is to get wealth—and for what ? To increase the en¬ 
joyments of life. A great many of the most substan¬ 
tial of these enjoyments are within the reach of most 
men—they lie at our door— in the garden —but we 
too often reject or overlook them, because they are 
not “dear-bought” and “far fetched.” 
Under our impression of the great advantages which 
are to be derived from the garden, to the body and 
mind—as a source of health, of pleasure and of pro¬ 
fit, we intend, now that our sheet is enlarged, to de¬ 
vote more room for its improvement. We will short¬ 
ly give a plan of a garden; and in the mean time, the 
scientific principles of gardening, of Prof. Rennie, 
which we are publishing, will be found no less appli¬ 
cable to the farm than to the garden. Postponing 
to a future occasion, our remarks upon the soil, 
and laying out of a garden, we proceed to give some 
instruction for the management of gardens already 
located, more particularly adapted to the present sea¬ 
son, barely remarking, that every man who would 
have a good garden, must, like the late Rev. Dr. 
Dwight, be at least- his own head-gardener—he must 
make himself so far acquainted with the principles 
and manipulations of the art, with the qualities of his 
soil, and the wants of his table, as to be able to super¬ 
intend and direct its principal operations. He may 
obtain a good substitute, but he may be assured there 
are more than two blanks to a prize. And the task 
of qualifying one’s self for this duty, is conducive alike 
to bodily health and mental gratification. It may be¬ 
come a passion, increasing with experience and with 
age ; but it is a passion which bodes no ill to any one, 
but, which, on the contrary, is fraught with the best 
feelings of our nature. 
Th epreparatory business in the garden, in the spring, 
is to rake together the haulm of last year’s crop, and 
to burn it, as well for cleaning the surface, as to de¬ 
stroy the seeds of weeds with which the litter more 
or less abounds; to put the fences in good order; to 
take the manure to thosfe parts where it is likely to be 
wanted ; to procure and sharpen, if leisure permits, 
poles for beans, and sticks and brush for peas; to 
prune the fruit trees, if they must be pruned in the 
spring; to put the garden implements in order, and 
to procure a supply of good seeds. If a hot-bed is 
to be employed, and we strongly recommend one, it 
should be prepared, if not already done, in the man¬ 
ner recommended in pages 6, both in our second and 
third volumes. In these may be sown early and head 
lettuces, peppergrass, radishes, peppers, tomatos, ear¬ 
ly cabbages, cellery, and seeds of many annual flow¬ 
ers. If cucumbers are designed to be raised under 
glass, they should have a separate frame, or be but 
little encumbered with other plants. 
The seeds which should be first sown in the open 
ground, and the warmest border or part of the garden 
should be appropriated to them, are early peas, pota¬ 
toes, turnip beet, spinach, sallads, radishes, early cab¬ 
bage, cellery, &c. The second course of sowing may 
embrace onions, beets, carrots, early corn and beans, 
sweet herbs and flower seeds. The third course will 
consist of the tenderer kinds, as Lima and other beans, 
sweet corn, cucumbers, melons, squashes, pumpkins, 
&c. The plants of the garden possess different de¬ 
grees of hardiness, and require different temperatures 
to bring them forward. Some will germinate and 
grow at a temperature of 45 3 to 55°; and will not suffer 
from slight frost; while others will not grow unless 
the temperature is higher, and are liable to be in¬ 
jured by the slightest frost, or by cold damp weather. 
When corn, put in the ground very early, shoots to 
the surface, it is deemed early enough to plant melons, 
cucumbers and other vines for a main crop. All roots, 
to be planted for seed, as turnip, beet, carrot, parsnip, 
onion, &c., should be put out as early as the condition 
of the ground will admit, where the soil has been well 
prepared. They should be put at sufficient distance 
from each other to permit their seed stocks to spread, 
and to enjoy the full benefit of light and air. No 
two kinds of the same family of plants should be put 
out for seed near each other, not even the turnip and 
cabbage, as the seed will thereby become adulterated. 
It is important in planting, for most crops, that the 
ground should be well dug, or ploughed, to the depth 
of eight to ten inches, to which depth the roots of 
most plants run, and for the tap rooted plants, as beets, 
carrots and parsnips, it were better to have the tilth 
twelve to fourteen inches. The ground should be 
fresh turned or stirred when the seeds are put in, and 
either trod, on the lines where the seeds are to be de¬ 
posited, before planting, or pressed upon them after 
they are covered with earth. Seeds should be plant¬ 
ed no deeper than is required to keep them moist.— 
See our article upon the germination of seeds, in ano¬ 
ther column. 
This is the season for transplanting. How often 
do we hear people regret, on seeing their neighbor’s 
gardens abound with choice fruit, that they too had 
not planted in times past. The season for transplant¬ 
ing fruit trees is unavoidably limited to the season of 
defoliation, when the growth is dormant; and the ex¬ 
cuse of men generally is, that they either had not 
time, or forgot, to put out trees when alone the work 
could be done. This is very much like the man who- 
suffered his family to be drenched by every rain, be¬ 
cause he could not patch his roof when it stormed, 
and because there was no need of doing it when the 
weather was fair. What short-sighted mortals, to- 
undergo a life of privation, of many of the richest 
gifts of Providence, rather than incur the trifling out¬ 
lay of expense and labor—of a few cents and a few 
hours—to secure those blessings for themselves and 
families ? Mercenary considerations alone—the rul¬ 
ing passion—should prompt to the planting of fruit 
trees. One of our neighbors has been in the habit, 
for years, of receiving from <$500 to $1,000, for the 
fruits of his garden, after supplying himself and a 
large circle of friends. Another once pointed to a 
fine black heart cherry tree in his garden, and remark¬ 
ed, “ the fruit of that tree has brought me fifty dol¬ 
lars.” The tree might have cost him fifty cents, and 
the planting fifty minutes of time. This was ten 
years ago, and the tree still continues to render its 
annual tribute. We know a Siberian crab, the fruit 
from which brings the proprietor from eight to twelve 
dollars every other or bearing year; and of a farmer’s 
garden, from which the currants, besides the liberal 
use of this fruit in his family, afford an annual income 
of some twenty dollars. The planting of the cuttings 
for these did not cost three hours’ labor. 
But in our zeal to commend the practice of plant¬ 
ing, we must not forget to give some hints as to the 
method of doing it. A tree is like a plant of corn, or 
of any other farm crop: it will prosper and repay for 
labor,' according to the soil in which it is placed, and 
the attention bestowed upon its culture. The soil 
must be good, to afford the necessary food for its sus¬ 
tenance and growth; it must be loose, that the roots 
may penetrate readily in search of food; it should be 
free from habitual wetness, as an excess of water will 
injure, if not destroy it. Like farm crops, too, it de- 
