■98 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
gH3 
fey those in the school, so that the education always 
advances in and out of doors pari passu. 
The pupils are thus instructed in all the practical 
parts of farming, and are also several times a week on 
the theory of agriculture. They are made acquaint¬ 
ed with all the properties of different soils, the ma¬ 
nures most applicable, and the crops best adapted to 
each ; points in which most of our practical farmers 
displayed great ignorance. They are also made ac¬ 
quainted with all the numerous varieties of cattle, and 
their qualities, such as early maturity in some breeds, 
hardihood in others, and have strongly impressed on 
them that one of the most essential points in farming, 
is to select the cattle and the crops best adapted to 
the situation, soil, &c. 
The stables, harness-rooms, cow-houses, winter¬ 
feeding houses, piggeries, barn, tool-houses, are ar¬ 
ranged in the best manner, and the pupils are re¬ 
quired to keep them and their contents in the highest 
order. A respectable and intelligent matron has the 
superintendence of the dairy, cooking, and cleaning 
the house, and the charge of the domestic servants. 
In sending a pupil to Templemoyle, it is necessary to 
have a nomination from one of the shareholders, or 
from a subscriber of 21. annually. The annual pay¬ 
ment for pupils is 10Z. a year; and for this trifling 
sum they are found in board, lodging, and washing, 
and are educated so as to fit them for land-stewards, 
directing agents, practical farmers, surveyors, school¬ 
masters, or clerks. 
From fifteen to seventeen is the age best suited for 
entrance at Templemoyle, as three years are quite 
sufficient to qualify a student possessed of ordinary 
talents and a knowledge of the rudiments of reading 
and writing, to occupy any of the above situations. 
N. B.—Upwards of two hundred young men, natives 
of sixteen different counties in Ireland, have passed 
through or remain in the school. Of these between 
forty and fifty have been placed in different situations, 
such as land-stewards, agents, schoolmasters and 
clerks, or employed on the ordnance survey. Nearly 
one hundred are now conducting their own or their 
fathers’ farms in a manner very superior to that of 
olden time; and the accounts of those who have been 
placed from the seminary are such as to gratify the 
gentlemen who have its interest at heart, and to con¬ 
vince them that the good seed sown is producing an 
ample and valuable harvest. 
Templemoyle, Oct. 14, 1837, 
[It gives us unqualified pleasure to lay before out- 
readers the above gratifying account of an institution 
so eminently calculated to confer lasting benefits up¬ 
on the country. We have been long strenuous advo¬ 
cates for the establishment of agricultural schools in 
all parts of Ireland, feeling assured that they would 
ultimately be the means of breaking down those ab¬ 
surd prejudices which have been hitherto the most 
insurmountable obstacles with which agricultural im¬ 
provement had to contend .]—Editors [ British ] Farm¬ 
ers’ Magazine. 
Decomposition or Putrefaction of Vegetables. 
All vegetables, when t.he principle of life has de¬ 
parted from t em, begin spontaneously to be decom¬ 
posed (to putrify). The elements which enter into 
the composition of plants, when left entirely to the 
disposal of their chemical affinities, have a tendency 
so separate from each other, and form new compounds 
very different from those which compose the living 
plant. This is termed the “ spontaneous decomposi¬ 
tion” of vegetables. The substances formed by the 
new- arrangement of the elements of the vegetable are 
aerial and colourless ;—hence the entire disappearance 
of the vegetable, as if it had been totally annihilated 
when life ceased to preserve its particles together in 
the vegetable form. 
The compounds formed, when the vegetable dies 
and putrefaction goes on, are,, carbonic acid, water, 
carbonic oxide, and carburetted hydrogen. The two 
former are the chief results of the decomposition ; the 
two latter formed more sparingly, and' principally when 
there is not a free supply of oxygen, to the substance 
undergoing decomposition. The carbon and hydrogen, 
of the plant have a constant tendency to unite with 
oxygen, and form carbonic acid and water. Now 
there is never present in the vegetable a sufficient 
supply of oxygen to convert all the carbon into carbo¬ 
nic acid, and all the hydrogen into water; hence, if 
there be not a sufficient supply of oxygen to produce 
these compounds presented from external sources, as 
from the air, the two other matters are formed, one of 
which (carbonic oxide) requires a less quantity of 
carbon than the carbonic acid, while the other (car¬ 
buretted hydrogen) requires no oxygen, consisting of 
carbon and hydrogen. 
In vegetables which decay under water, caburetted 
hydrogen is abundantly formed ; hence arises the gas 
which is found so plentiful in summer in stagnant 
waters containing quantities of putrefying vegetables. 
The spontaneous decomposition of vegetables goes 
on most rapidly when they are exposed to the air, 
kept moist, and preserved at a degree of warmth 
higher than the usual temperature o.f the atmosphere. 
Putrefaction is retarded or almost prevented if the 
vegetable be dried, so that its own moisture is expel¬ 
led, carefully excluded from air and moisture, and kept 
cold. The influence of heat in promoting the decay 
of vegetables depends upon the repulsive power it pos¬ 
sesses, by which it disposes the various elements to 
assume the gaseous form. Animals and vegetables are 
frequently found in snow or ice, in a high state of pre¬ 
servation. 
Such are the changes which go on in the dead 
plant. That mysterious agent, Life, is able by its pe¬ 
culiar power, to control and overcome the chemical 
attractions which tend to produce these changes, and 
retains these elements in that state of combination 
best adapted for the performance of their proper func¬ 
tions : at the moment however, in which life ceases 
to superintend the exercise of these functions, they 
cease and the chemical attractions, no longer restrain¬ 
ed by the vital principle, obtain full sway. The car¬ 
bon, oxygen, and hydrogen, formerly existing in the 
state of wood, bark, leaves, fruit, or seeds, obey the 
laws of chemistry, return to the state of carbonic acid; 
water or inflammable gas mix with the earth and at 
mosphere, afford nutriment to new plants, again form 
leaves, flowers, and all the beautiful and diversified 
organs of the vegetable creation—again wither and 
decay, and return to the soil to supply new genera¬ 
tions, and continue the same series of unceasing re¬ 
volutions .—Chemistry of Nature. 
Application of Marl. 
On reading the last No. of the Cabinet I perceive 
that your readers in the lower part of Delaware and 
the Eartern shore of Maryland, where the green sand 
or marl abounds, are desirous of being informed of the 
best mode of applying it as indicated by the experi¬ 
ence of our New-Jersey farmers. It may perhaps 
save those who are inclined to try it, some trouble 
and expense to be informed that every known method 
of application seems to have been resorted to; and 
that which has been found to answer best, is to use it 
as a top dressing on sward or grass grounds ; the ef¬ 
fect is immediate and great, being scarcely to be be¬ 
lieved excepting by those who have been spectators 
of its effects. The quantity applied to an acre of good 
marl is from six to twenty tons; a bushel weighs 
about a hundred weight—of course a ton is about 
twenty bushels ; more may be applied without any 
apprehension of injury, but from twelve to fifteen tons 
per acre is a good dressing, though some have applied 
twice that quantity. Spread it evenly over the sur¬ 
face of the grass ground in the fall, winter or spring, 
or whenever you have most leisure, and when done 
you need not give yourself any further trouble about 
it; nature will do the rest, and your reward will be 
certain and great if your marl be good. Whenever 
you plough down your grass ground which has been 
thus maided for corn, or any other crop, you will see 
the effect of it strikingly exhibited in the subsequent 
crops. It has frequently increased the fertility of the 
soil more than ten fold, and some crops are believed 
to be much improved in quality as well as quantity by 
its application. 
The great weight of the marl causes it to sink in 
the earth, and if it should be ploughed in on its first 
application, there is some danger of losing part of the 
good effects of it, by its being placed too remote from 
the roots of the plants intended to be nourished by it. 
It is now agreed on by all, that the fertilizing ingre¬ 
dient of this valuable substance is poiash, and the bene¬ 
fits derived from its use are directly proportioned to 
the quantity of it contained in its composition.— Com¬ 
municated for the Farmers’ Cabinet. 
Notice of an Experimental Farm in France. 
BY ■ COL. LE COUTEUB. 
It is situated, in a beautiful and fertile country, well 
wooded and watered, but cultivated by the Breton 
farmers just as their fathers tilled it 200 years since. 
The college or experimental farm appears like a gar- 
dendn a smiling wilderness, so far as culture goes. I 
rose at four in the morning, in order to witness the 
whole course of labor in this interesting institution. 
There were from 80 to 90 students under the su¬ 
perintendence and tuition of a director, a professor of 
agriculture and agricultural chemistry, a veterinary 
surgeon, and an agricultural implement maker. At 
half past four they took a slight repast, and as the 
clock struck five, ail were employed; some in harness¬ 
ing the horses and oxen, others in carting out and pro¬ 
perly disposing the implements in the field, others set 
to hoeing, others weeding, some ploughing, some hay 
making, in a word to all the various labors of the sea¬ 
son. 
The school is divided into working parties of ten ; 
at the head of each is a steady young man of experi¬ 
ence, called the ‘ decurion,’ who directs the work of 
his party. In all difficult operations, a regular far¬ 
ming laborer is at hand to perform them; hut such is 
the ardor and perseverance of the youths,, that they 
rarely allow any difficulty to arrest their progress. 
The duty of one ‘ decury’ or ten, is to dress, litter 
and feed the cattle, with as much regularity as a ca¬ 
valry corps dress their horses; also to keep the farm¬ 
yard in order. Thus all, in turn, are made acquaint¬ 
ed with every thing connected with a farm, whether 
in regard to horses, oxen, cows, pigs, or manures. 
These last are made and husbanded with the greatest 
care, the mixons being formed of sweepings, leaves, 
and weeds that had not seeded, in alternate layers 
with stable manure. 
The drainings of the stables and straw-yard, run 
into a tank, to be pumped out when required as liquid 
manure, which is in the best, most portable, but least 
known in this country. 
The learned professor M. Donku, who is an admi¬ 
rable practical farmer, as polite and communicative as 
he is learned, complained that he had not a sufficient 
quantity of manure. I urged him to burn the under¬ 
wood and decaying timber of the large adjacent fo¬ 
rests, through which wide roads were cut, which would 
enable him to obtain an inexhaustible supply of ashes 
the best of all manures either for turnips or wheat; 
the cartage of ashes being easy, and the quantity re¬ 
quired to dress the land not being great; in which 
he entirely coincided. 
At nine all come into their studies, when they write 
remarks on the various operations of the morning. 
From eleven to twelve is the breakfast hour. From 
twelve to three is the time for recreation and study, 
which embraces for the first class questions of the 
following nature:—“ His farm of 600 acres, one eighth 
of which is always to be in beet-root, is to be divided 
into the most eligible rotation of crops; show the 
most profitable course, and describe the nature and 
chemical properties of the soil in each field, the proper 
manures to be applied to them, the quantity of seed 
required for the crop, its culture by previous plough- 
ings, by after-hoeing or weeding, and the cost and la¬ 
bor, and the probable return?” 
The plans of farming given by some of the youths, 
would have done credit to an experienced farmer, and 
demonstrated clearly that though theory alone in far¬ 
ming is an absurdity, the combination of the practice 
with scientific acquirements, will soon operate great 
melioration in the agricultural world. From three 
till seven they prosecute their labor in the fields, be¬ 
ing eight hours work in the day. They then come in 
for dinner. At eight the director receives the report, 
from every decurion, of the day’s work of his party of 
ten. He then orders the work for the ensuing day, 
giving a concise lecture on the subject when neces¬ 
sary to the culture of any unusal crop. A library of 
agricultural works is open to the students till bed 
time, quarter past nine. * * * The crop that ap¬ 
peared to me to be most carefully cultivated, was 
beet-root in drills, which produced per acre about 750 
pounds of sugar, selling at ten pence per lb. as fast 
as it could be manufactured. 
Science of Gardening.— Continued . 
POTASS. 
When wood or any garden plant is burned to ashes, 
these are found to consist of a considerable portion of 
the substance termed potash, which was discovered 
by Sir H. Davy to consist of a metal termed potas- ■ 
sium combined with oxygen and water. Different i 
sorts of plants, however, vary very much in the quan- ■ 
tity of potass which they contain; aspen and box- ■ 
wood, for instance, containing only sixty or eighty i 
pounds in every thousand pounds weight, while sun¬ 
flower, fumitory, and wormwood contain froin three : 
hundred and fifty to seven hundred and fifty pounds i 
in every thousand. Sea weeds and plants growing: 
close by the sea shore, instead of potass, yield soda, i 
when they are burnt to ashes. 
It may be taken as a general rule, that the herbs: 
yield four or five times, and shrubs two or three times, ■ 
as much impure potass as trees ; while the leaves pro- - 
duce more than the branches, and the branches more 
than the trunk; and further, that plants, when green' 
and fresh, yield more than when they have been pre-: 
viously dried. 
The process by which this is ascertained is not dif-l 
ficult, and consists in weighing the plant before burn-i 
ing ; in washing the ashes twice in their own volume. 
of water; in passing the washings through blotting, 
paper; and in evaporating them to dryness. The dry 
substance thus obtained will be probably pure potass.- 
The potass is introduced into the system of a plant; 
in the same way as carbon, by being first combined 
with humic acid, forming humate potass, and then; 
dissolved in water. 
LIME. 
Like potass, lime has been proved to be composed! 
of a metallic substance termed calcium, united with; 
oxygen. When thus composed, with the addition of 
other substances, it is usually called quicklime; when; 
united with carbonic acid, it forms chalk, limestone,' 
