THE CULTIVATOR. 
187 
gain, but for the pleasure of breeding the best ox, or 
cultivating the best farm. There was something beyond 
this, some better feeling in their nature to gratify, than 
the mere love of gain. Was it not a manly, an honora¬ 
ble satisfaction,—what was called in Yorkshire ‘a bit 
of pride,’ to show the best sheep or ox to their neigh¬ 
bors. It was not merely the love of gain, but the love 
of approbation. It was a pleasure to their hearts to 
look round their own farm-yards, and see to what per¬ 
fection things might be brought, what symmetry their 
forms might be made to exhibit. It was not merely the 
love of gain, but the love of beauty, and the love of 
praise from their neighbors, who were alike gratified in 
affording it. It could not but be gratifying to them to 
see almost all the gentry of the country collected to¬ 
gether here to view and admire their productions.” 
Postage. 
We dislike to be harping upon this subject; but it 
is really one of some moment to us. We are in the 
daily habit of receiving letters by mail, enclosing a 
dollar or other bill for the Cultivator, with single 
postage paid, and extra postage charged here to us. 
This extra postage is generally 12| or 25 cents, and 
often 50 cents—a serious drawback upon our profits 
when taken in the aggregate. We beg our friends 
to recollect, that every enclosure in a letter subjects 
us to additional postage ; and if it is not paid where 
the letter is mailed, it must be paid here, where the 
error is sure to be detected. We are in the annual 
receipt of four to five thousand letters, which should 
come to us free of postage, but upon a great many 
of which we are charged, and charged legally, with 
additional postage. We beg our correspondents to 
abate the evil. 
Short-Horned Cattle. 
The Short-Horns maintain their standing in Ken¬ 
tucky. —At a late sale of Gen. Gerrard’s stock, at Pa¬ 
ris, Ky. eleven animals of pure improved short-horn 
blood, sold for $8,157. One, Exception, was bought 
by B. J. Clay & Co. at $1,830. At the same sale, ten 
animals of mixed blood, sold for $2,580, averaging over 
$250 each. 
Mr. Whitaker's stock , lately sold at Powelton, near 
Philadelphia, went off at good prices. The prices 
and purchasers were as follows : 
Dairy Maid, 3 years, $540, J. Gowan, Philadelphia. 
Victoria, 3 years, $520, G. Brinton, Pa. 
Nunnia, 3 years, $500, C. Warwick, Va. 
Viviana, 3 years, $530, W. Heyser, Pa. 
Thornville, 3 years, $500, do 
Lady Whitworth, 2 years, $530, C. Warwick, Va. 
Lobelia, 2 years, $400, W. S. Torr, Pa. 
Enchantress, 2 years, $500, R. A. Taylor, Balti¬ 
more. 
Minerva, 2 years, $360, Dr. Noble, Pa. 
Sarah, 2 years, $380, Mr. Beltzhoover, Baltimore. 
H. Clay, Jr. lately sold his imported short-horned 
Durham cow, Princess, to J. & R. Allen, for $2,000 ! 
This is the climax. 
Agricultural Items. 
At the meeting of the Highland Society of Scot¬ 
land, in August, 177 applications for admission as 
members were made—a pretty good evidence that the 
society is not on the decline, though more than fifty 
years old. 
Apples may be kept in a dry chamber, over a room 
in which there is a fire, even in winter. They pre¬ 
serve best in tight barrels; and after they are un¬ 
headed for use, they should be kept constantly co¬ 
vered with a linen cloth, in two or three folds. They 
are not much injured by frost, if they are kept in to¬ 
tal darkness until they be used, or become thawed. 
An Agricultural and Horticultural Slate Society has 
been organized in Michigan, Hon. Joshua Howard, 
president. They have resolved to petition the legis¬ 
lature to establish a board of agriculture, to make ap¬ 
propriations for the support of a state agricultural pa¬ 
per, and county societies—and to authorize school 
districts to draw their quotas of the school fund in 
agricultural works and publications, to such an amount 
as the finances of the state, and the school fund, will 
warrant. We are happy to find our young sister thus 
early engaged in looking to the substantial warns and 
permanent interests, of her growing family. We hope 
she will prove a kind as well as a wise mother in 
these matters, and teach her children to earn, that 
they may know the true luxury of enjoyment. 
Grease for wheels and machinery. —M. d’Arcet, the 
celebrated French chemist, and master of the mint in 
France, recommends the following composition as the 
best grease for wheels and machinery, viz.: “Eighty 
parts of grease and twenty parts of plumbago, (black 
lead,) reduced to very fine powder, and intimately and 
very completely mixed together. A very little suf¬ 
fices.” So says a French journal. 
Liniment for the galled hacks of Horses. —White 
lead moistened with milk. When milk is not to be 
procured, oil may be substituted. “ One or two oun¬ 
ces sufficed lor a whole party for more than a month.” 
— W. II. Keating. 
To preserve cheese, we perceive this year, for the 
first time that it has met our notice, that some of our 
dairy women envelope the cheese closely in a cotton 
cloth, when it comes from the press. The process of 
rubbing the cheese attaches the cloth so closely to 
the rind, that the cloth is not noticed by a superficial 
observer. This treatment preserves the cheese from 
insects, prevents its cracking, and secures to it a thin 
rind. 
Planting of Trees. —Charles Blakeslee, of New¬ 
ton, Ct. states to us, that last spring he planted out 
14 maple trees, in the following manner:—He put 
them in holes so shallow as to bring the tops of their 
roots to the surface of the ground. He then brought 
loam and turf from a hollow, and raised a mound over 
the roots one foot high, and eight feet in diameter, 
and covered the mound with small stones. Notwith¬ 
standing the drought of the season, every tree thus 
served lived, while others, planted in the usual way, 
all died. Mr. B. ascribes his success to the fact, that 
the small stones prevented the exhalation of moisture, 
and deterred cattle and swine from rubbing against 
and loosening them. 
Rohan Potatoes. —Last spring, we sent to Mr. 
Shepherd, P. M. Northampton, Mass, a peck of Ro¬ 
han potatoes, to be presented to our patrons in that 
town. We see in the account of the October fair, 
in that county, what we deem to be some of the pro¬ 
ducts of this seed. W. Clark, Jr. raised from one 
potato, 2| bushels; Mr. E. Mitchell, from 4 lbs. of 
seed, raised 18 bushels, weighing 1,173| lbs. 
A Knitting Machine was exhibited at the North¬ 
ampton fair, with which a child of 15 years of age can 
turn off two pair of stockings per day. It costs but 
$18. 
Apple Pomace. —Farmers, save your apple pomace, 
for your cows or your pigs. If kept from fermenta¬ 
tion, it may be fed to milch cows with great advan¬ 
tage. We have known it to double the quantity of 
their milk. Pigs will thrive upon it after it has fer¬ 
mented. It may also be made into manure, by mix¬ 
ing it in a compost with quicklime and earth—the 
lime neutralizing the acid and inducing decomposi¬ 
tion. 
Evergreens. —M.Vilmorin, the great Parisian seeds¬ 
man, has found that pines, and other resinous ever¬ 
greens, grow with great luxuriance on land manifestly 
unfit for tillage or grass—and that they will not grow 
well upon a calcareous soil. These conclusions seem 
to be confirmed by the natural growth in our forests 
—the pine and other evergreens being generally found 
upon poor sandy lands, and very seldom upon soils 
abounding in the carbonate of lime. 
M. Yilmorin has come to the conclusion, from nu¬ 
merous experiments, that no species of American oaks 
will succeed in bad calcareous land ; and M. Poiteau 
goes so far as to say, that the soil of Paris has become 
so eminently calcareous, from the constant additions 
it has received from old buildings and repairs since it 
was first erected, that there is scarcely a tree which 
can grow there satisfactorily except the elm. Those 
who plant shade trees may profit from these hints. 
Silk Culture. —Dr. Perrine has pronounced the mo- 
rus multicaulis speculation a splendid humbug. The 
doctor insists, that all efforts to raise silk, from the 
multicaulis, or even white mulberry, north of Southern 
Virginia, will ultimately prove abortive, both from the 
coldness of the climate, and the expense of labor. The 
doctor is certainly in error. Although the public ex¬ 
pectation and enthusiasm have been worked up to an 
unreasonable pitch in this matter, yet we have not a 
particle of doubt, that where the business is judicious¬ 
ly managed, as a branch of domestic or household la¬ 
bor, the benefit will be palpable, and the profit cer¬ 
tain. 
Rohan Potatoes. —The price has advanced; and such 
is the demand for them, that we will not pretend to 
set to it any conjectural limits. Mr. Thompson, of 
Catskill, is the only grower we know who has them 
now for sale. We pronounced their quality good for 
the table. A better opportunity of knowing them, 
will now warrant us in saving they are very good. 
Potatoes. —1,000 tons of potatoes had been shipped 
in the Thames, Eng. in October, for the New-York 
market. The value of the potatoes sent from Maine 
to southern ports has been stated at $300,000. Five 
hundred barrels of Irish potatoes arrived at New-Or- 
leans on the 18th November. The price there was 
$9 per barrel, or fifty cents per dozen. 
Texas. —Flour is quoted in this promising land at 
$22 per barrel; potatoes $7 per bushel, and butter 
and cheese at 75 cents per pound. 
Two bushels of hard Dutton corn, by being boiled 
a few hours, we learn from the Farmers’ Cabinet, have 
been found to expand to the bulk of five bushels and a 
peck. 
We have received a sample of tree —not tea —corn, 
8 rowed and yellow, raised at Caldwell, Warren co. 
The thermometer stood at zero, at 6 on the morn¬ 
ing of the 25th November, at our house; at Utica, it 
was 4°, and at Montreal, 6° below zero. 
M. Multicaulis. —A public sale of one year old plants 
was held in Boston, in November. They were sold 
in parcels of fifty. The first lots, untrimmed, and five 
feet high, were bid off at one dollar a tree; subse¬ 
quently, some lots, partially trimmed, went off at 37| 
cents per tree. Cuttings, with two buds to each, 
were sold at two cents. 
The Queens County Silk Company, Md. held their 
first sale—not of silk, but of multicaulis trees and 
buds—on the 18th November. The sales amounted 
to $2,200, and averaged about $50 per thousand cut¬ 
tings. 
To convey grafts of trees, cuttings of vines—and 
why not seeds!—in safety to a distance, a writer in 
Loudon’s Magazine recommends, that they be placed 
in a tin case or cylinder, filled with honey. The ho¬ 
ney hermetically excludes the air. 
New Agricultural Journals. —The Farmers' Advo¬ 
cate, a semi-monthly sheet in octavo, published at 
Jamestown, N. C. by John Sherwood, price $1.25— 
and the Michigan Agriculturist, a weekly quarto of 
8 pages, price $2 per annum. The more agricultu¬ 
ral journals, the more agricultural readers, and the 
more agricultural improvement. 
The Silk Worm. —According to the Silk Culturist, 
Judge Spencer, the past season, raised 40,000 silk 
worms, and lost but 4. 
Glass head dresses. —Our foreign journals announce 
that a new discovery has been made in the manufac¬ 
tory of glass, by which it is rendered so pliable as to 
make cloth, or fabric, of the finest texture. Pieces 
have been produced 2| yards long, and from nine in¬ 
ches to thirty-six inches in breadth; and some very 
fine ladies’ head dresses have been made from this 
material, which all considered both very curious and 
very useful. 
A new breed of hogs, is noticed in the Michigan 
Agriculturist, as abounding on the banks of the De¬ 
troit river, which will leap “ a five feet fence without 
difficulty.” They may be called leapers if not lepers. 
The Rhode-Island Society for the Encouragement of 
Domestic Industry, have just appropriated $150 of 
their funds, as a subscription to the New-England Far¬ 
mer, to be awarded in premiums. Bating any interest 
we may be presumed to have in the precedent, we 
may be permitted to say, that it is rewarding those 
who do well with the best means of doing better. 
Premium Butter and Cheese —The Massachusetts 
Agricultural Society awarded, in December, the fol¬ 
lowing premiums for the best butter and cheese ex¬ 
hibited for their inspection. 
$100 to L. Chamberland, of Westborough Mass, 
for best butter. 
$50toL. B. Hopgood, Shrewsbury, Mass. 2d. best. 
$30 to W. Barhop, Barnet, Vt. 3d. best. 
$50 to D. Lee, Barre, Mass, for the best old cheese. 
$30 to T. Fisher, Burke, Vt. for the best new cheese. 
'The premium butter sold from 33 to 47 cents per 
pound. It was mostly exhibited in stone pots. 
Berkshire pigs are getting into as high repute 
among swine, as the improved short horns have be¬ 
come among neat cattle. We had heard, in several 
cases, of individual pigs being sold at fifty to eighty 
dollars. The Franklin Farmer, of the 8th December, 
informs us of the sale of a pair of Berkshire hogs, at 
the extravagant price of $500 ! The purchaser was 
William P. Curd, Esq. and the seller John R. Bryant, 
of the society of Shakers, all of Kentucky. 
Sidney Spring, of Pratt’s Hollow, Madison county, 
N. Y. says he obtained from one-fourth of an acre, 
one hundred and seventy bushels of carrots, and from 
the same quantity of land two hundred bushels of 
mangold wurtzel. 
He harvested from five and an half acres, three hun¬ 
dred and twenty bushels of sound corn ; two hundred 
and ninety bushels of which he sold at one dollar per 
bushel—the nett gains of which, he says, was about 
$40 per acre. This land he purchased seven years 
ago, for eleven and an half dollars per acre. 
It is stated in the Franklin Farmer, that a cow be- 
longing to Dr. Samuel D. Martin, gave the day her 
calf was ten days old, 41 quarts of milk. 
A cow, the property of Mr. Kent, of West Spring- 
field, has given, during sixty days, beginning in June 
last, 1346 quarts of milk ! ! averaging 22| quarts per 
day. Largest yield, 11 quarts in the morning and 16 
quarts at night. 
Cows kept warm and dry in a stable in cold wea¬ 
ther, will yield one third more milk than if exposed 
to all kinds of weather; and while the weather is wet, 
they will give twice as much, if stabled, as they will 
if exposed to cold storms. 
A pair of Berkshire hogs, from the stock of C. N. 
Bement, Three Hills Farm, Albany, was lately sold 
in Kentucky for $250. 
