THE CULTIVATOR. 
81 
circulation not only among farmers, but all others, 
who have any taste for rural employment. 
The husbanding of manures, and a judicious ap¬ 
plication of them, has been freely discussed, and 
has led me to turn my attention to this subject.— 
1 am persuaded that many who are esteemed 
•good farmers, are lamentably deficient in this mat¬ 
ter. 1 think 1 can now save two loads of manure 
where I formerly saved one, with the same stock and 
fodder; and in the application, I have gained much 
useful information. I practice covering the unfer¬ 
mented yard dung under the sod, and with good suc¬ 
cess. I am a convert to a rotation of crops, and to 
root culture—both of which were first suggested by 
the Cultivator. I have better corn crops, and have 
improved in skill, in the matter of harvesting. I now 
cut up my corn, as you recommend. 1 use ashes ap¬ 
plied to the hills. 
I obtained from Mr. R. Bronson, 14 bushels of mad¬ 
der, top roots, which I planted on light sandy river 
fiats, in the spring of 1836. The ground was rich 
corn ground, from which I had harvested wheat in 
1835, yielding 30 bushels to the acre, the stubble 
being ploughed in the fall, was again ploughed into 
ridges or beds six feet wide in the spring, and each 
alternate bed set out with madder; the intervening 
beds being planted with carrots, onions, beets, pota¬ 
toes, and some corn. In June, when all had begun 
to show themselves handsomely above ground, an un¬ 
usual freshet overflowed a good part of the field; af¬ 
ter it subsided, nothing was left except the madder; 
this was a little faded, but soon recovered its color, 
and since then, it has grown beyond any thing I 
could have expected, from the representation of Mr. 
Bronson. It has had two summers, and bids fair to 
cover the whole ground next fall, at which time I 
shall commence digging, and enlarge my plantation ; 
and it is probable 1 could supply others with top roots, 
if applied for in August or September, a little before 
the time of digging. I intend to let the main crop 
stand four years. 
I have this spring sown, (March 27,) two bushels 
of winter wheat, prepared as recommended in the 
Cultivator, No. 4, of the 4th volume, page 64. It is 
now handsomely up, and looks promising, though the 
weather has been cold and unfavorable. I obtained 
one bushel of Italian spring wheat, which I sowed in 
1837, the produce of which I am much pleased with, 
and am now sowing several acres. I think it answers 
the recommendation given it. 
It is said that the Russian mode of making butter 
is, to scald and churn the milk. In the 1st volume 
of the Cultivator, page 119, is a description of the 
dairy farm of Robert Smith, Esq. from which I learn 
“the cream is raised by steam, produces very sweet 
butter; it sells in market in summer at 31 cents, and 
in winter at 50 cents per pound.” The butter-milk 
is represented as being more valuable, &c. 
I do not practice the Russian, nor yet the steam 
method. But for fifteen years past have scalded the 
milk, as taken from the cows—after which it is set in 
a cool place till the cream rises. We esteem the 
butter to be much improved—the skim milk and but¬ 
ter-milk, being free from acidity, are more valuable 
for culinary purposes, and the trouble of scalding is 
more than paid by the facility of obtaining the butter 
by churning. On a fair, impartial trial of milk divid¬ 
ed and half scalded, the other half not, in the winter, 
when all was cold—the scalded cream required thir¬ 
teen minutes, and the unscalded fifty-six minutes 
churning; one pound of butter was firm and yellow, 
the other open, frothy, &c. 
Very respectfully, 
NATHANIEL SILL. 
Indian Corn, Spring Wheat, &c. 
Ripton, Vt. May 14th, 1838. 
Jesse Buel, Esq.—Sir—In the number of the Cul¬ 
tivator for the present month of May, page 59, it is 
stated that Mr. Thorburn sold corn for Dutton corn 
which proved not to be Dutton corn, as the stalks 
grew large and were seven or eight feet, whereas the 
Dutton corn is of rather a dwarfish growth. This 
corn was probably sold to Mr. Thorburn, by some ho¬ 
nest Vermonter, and was undoubtedly the Dutton 
corn of Vermont. 
Not far from thirty years since, Salmon Dutton, 
Esq. a respectable farmer of Cavendish in this state, 
procured a new species of corn, and having raised a 
crop of it, and as it had a very large growth, and was 
at the same time earlier than the corn that was then 
generally raised in this state, and believing that the 
faming interest would be greatly promoted by rais¬ 
ing it, in October of the same year he transported a 
large quantity of it in the ear, to the place where the 
legislature was in session, and distributed it to the 
members and others attending- the legislature ; it was 
thus distributed through the state, and took the name 
pf the Dutton corn. I took an ear of it and planted 
it the next season; the stalks grew seven or eight feet 
high, and were large in proportion to their height. 
The ears were longer and much larger than any I 
had before seen, having from 12 to 18 rows on an ear. 
The cob was very large and the kernels very small 
and not so fiat as the kernels of other corn; and ma¬ 
ny of the ears, instead of coming to a point at the 
out end, were flattened and perfectly covered with 
very small kernels, I raised the corn for several 
years, and found it somewhat earlier than the then 
common corn of the country, which I continued to 
plant. I never ascertained which yielded the most 
corn by the acre, but considered there was very little 
difference. The Dutton corn produced at least a third 
more corn fodder than the other, and yet after having 
raised it five or six years, I threw it by, finding it ve¬ 
ry difficult to prevent its moulding on the cob, by rea¬ 
son of its very great size. 
About this time, the farmers generally begun to 
seek for earlier varieties of corn, and several species 
were produced; among the rest, a species called 
Rocky Mountain corn. Where it came from I never 
ascertained; I raised it for several years. This corn 
was of a dwarfish growth, but the stalks were rather 
large in proportion to their height—the cob large and 
the kernel small—from 12 to 18 rows on an ear, and 
many of the ears were flat at the end, and covered 
with small kernels, like the Dutton corn; indeed it 
perfectly resembled the Dutton in every thing but its 
size. Is this the Dutton corn of New- York 1 
A few observations in relation to the crops of spring 
wheat. You justly remark, in the May number of 
the Cultivator, page 64, that grain which ripens in 
cold weather, say late in August or September, will 
be heavier ordinarily, than that which is hastened to 
maturity in hot weather. By grain, I presume is 
meant spring wheat, for I have always considered the 
earlier oats ripen, the heavier is the grain. From 
this it might be inferred, that spring wheat should be 
sowed late, without reference to the grain worm; and 
yet before the appearance of that insect, it was found 
by experience, that early sown spring wheat was or¬ 
dinarily the best. By adverting to certain facts 
which have been noticed by observing farmers, this 
may be remedied, and every one may be enabled to 
render late sown spring wheat a very certain and 
uniform crop, if not an abundant one. Every atten¬ 
tive observer of the wheat crop knows, that when the 
wheat grows rapidly with a large straw and a broad 
leaf, with a peculiar deep green color, having the ap¬ 
pearance of that which grows about burnt places, or 
where the land has been manured for crops instead of 
the preceding one, the straw will most certainly rust 
and the grain blast; so that by the time the head ap¬ 
pears, it may be ascertained with a considerable de¬ 
gree of certainty, whether the straw will be struck 
with the rust. 
Again—it has been observed by every attentive 
agriculturist, that grain, whether corn, oats or wheat, 
put into the ground the last of May or first of June, 
will be much more luxuriant, and there will be a 
greater growth of stalks and straw, than when put 
in the ground early. It follows, as I have found by 
experience, that so long as we are obliged to sow 
spring wheat late, to avoid the grain worm, we are 
much more sure of a crop to sow it not on very rich 
land, but on a medium soil, which will yield from 
15 to 18 bushels to the acre, than to sow it on very 
rich ground. Since I have pursued this course, my 
crops have been remarkably uniform, never less than 
15 nor over 18 bushels per acre, while others who 
have sown on very rich ground, have in some seasons 
had from 20 to 30 bushels per acre, have in other sea¬ 
sons had a great growth of straw, but no -wheat. 
One other remark in relation to the crop of spring 
wheat shall close this communication, already much 
longer than I intended when I sat down to give you 
the foregoing information relative to the Dutton corn. 
Since I have sown my spring wheat late, and harvest¬ 
ed it in September, it has uniformly made a whiter 
flour than it did formerly when I sowed it early.— 
This, however, may be owing to its having been har¬ 
vested in a greener state than formerly. Wheat 
ripens so very slowly in September, that we are very 
sure to cut in a green state. I suspect, however, 
that when the grain ripens in August, the heat of the 
sun may darken the colour of the flour. 
DAN CHIPMAN. 
EXTRACTS, 
Science of Gardening— in continuation. 
ATMOSPHERIC AIR. 
All water openly exposed contains more or less of 
the air of the atmosphere, which consists of two ga¬ 
ses, namely, twenty-one parts, by measure, of oxy¬ 
gen, and seventy-nine parts of nitrogen or azote, with, 
in general, about one thousandth part of carbonic acid 
gas. It is chiefly owing to the atmospheric air, and 
a little carbonic acid gas, that common water, though 
said to be tasteless, is agreeable to drink; for when 
these are expelled by boiling, it tastes vapid and un¬ 
pleasant. 
That the air contained in the water which enters 
into plants is important to vegetation, appears from 
water being found beneficial, in proportion as it has 
had opportunities of becoming mixed with air. When 
meadows accordingly are laid under water artificially 
in the process of irrigation, it is found rather hurtful 
than beneficial if the water is not kept in motion, but 
allowed to stagnate. 
It is on this account, that the water of rivers which 
run a long course, is much better for watering than 
that of springs or lakes, whose waters contain but a 
small portion of air, though this does not apply so 
well to the stagnant water of ponds or ditches, whose 
deficiency as to atmospheric air is compensated by 
the greater portion of carbonic acid and other sub¬ 
stances derived from the decaying animal and vege¬ 
table substances usually abundant in such places. 
The best water, however, with respect to the quan¬ 
tity of atmospheric air, is rain, which falling in small 
drops, often tossed about by the wind, has an oppor¬ 
tunity of collecting a large proportion of air during 
its descent to the earth; and hence, the smaller the 
bore of the holes in the nose of a garden watering- 
pot the better. 
As water becomes mixed with air by exposure and 
agitation, so does the air become mixed with water 
by its rising- in vapor, and the driest air accordingly 
always contains more or less water in the state of in¬ 
visible vapor. The quantity of this vapor is in pro¬ 
portion to the temperature; and hence, the warmer 
the air the greater proportion of vapor it contains.— 
A beautiful provision for affording some little refresh¬ 
ment to plants at the very time they are exposed to 
exhaustion in hot weather, the operation of which 
we shall afterwards see when we come to consider the 
use of leaves. 
CARBON AND CARBONIC ACID GAS. 
Carbon is pure charcoal, which is well known and 
easily proved to form a large proportion of most vege¬ 
table substances,—the oak, for example, contains six¬ 
ty ounces in a cubic foot; consequently the living 
plant must have the power of deriving it from carbo¬ 
nic acid gas, for it has been proved by the experi¬ 
ments of Sir H. Davy, that the most finely powdered 
carbon is not taken up by plants in the solid form.— 
Nothing, indeed, is more hurtful to plants than smoke, 
which is carbon mixed with watery vapor; though 
soot, which is condensed and collected smoke, is use¬ 
ful when spread upon the soil, so that water may de¬ 
rive from it a portion of its gases. 
All animal and vegetable substances, in a state of 
fermentation or putrefaction, give out a considerable 
portion of carbonic acid gas, and if it is not dissipated 
by heat, but confined on or beneath the surface of the 
soil, it will become mixed with the moisture there, 
and be taken up by the spongelets or the roots of 
plants. A great quantity of carbonic acid is also pro¬ 
duced by the breathing of animals and by burning 
wood, peat or coal; and being heavier than the air of 
the atmosphere, it must all descend, in the first in¬ 
stance, to near the surface of the soil, into which much 
of it must be carried by rains and dews. When it 
becomes diffused in the air, however, its weight has 
little influence in causing it to descend. 
The cprbonic acid gas thus mixed with water, and 
taken up along with it into the system of plants, is 
there decomposed, as we shall afterwards see, into 
its constituent parts of oxygen and carbon, part of 
the oxygen being given off into the air, and the rest 
with the carbon remaining in the plant, where it goes 
to form most of the solid parts as well as the nutrient 
pulp. _ 
The carbonic acid also exists in soils combined with 
lime, magnesia, iron, and some other substances in 
the form of carbonates, which are soluble with great 
difficulty in very small quantities in water, but readily 
in humic acid, as we shall immediately see. 
NITROGEN OR AZOTE. 
This gas, as we have already seen, constitutes by 
much the largest portion of the atmospheric air, and 
consequently must enter largely into the system of a 
plant, though it is not found in general to contribute so 
much to vegetable as it does to animal substances, in 
all which azote is in considerable proportion. 
Azote is found in larger quantity in cabbages, sa¬ 
voys, cauliflower, brocoli, sea-kale, turnips, radishes, 
mustard, and cresses, than in any other garden plants, 
and it is this which in part produces in these the pe¬ 
culiar acrid taste which most, of them possess. It is 
also a chief ingredient in starch and in the gluten of 
wheat. It is the nitrogen, also, which, escaping from 
these when boiled, or when in a state of fermentation 
or decay, is diffused around and produces an odor in 
general very strong and disagreeable. 
It will follow, that as these plants when healthy, 
contain much nitrogen, it ought, in rearing them, to 
be abundahtly supplied from its two chief sources— 
the air and decaying- animal substances,—in other 
words, by free air and animal manure. Though when 
it is an object, as in the rearing of sea-kale, to ren- 
