54 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
removed in this matter. The great bar to heavy crops 
of corn at the south, is the tall habit of growth, which 
necessarily requires thinner planting, and, we fear, a 
scantiness of dung to feed the crop. The Pennsylvania 
mode of planting, 4 by 3, gives but 3,600 hills to the 
acre; and if there are but "two stalks in a hill, it gives 
but 7,200 stalks. In our mode, 3 by 2|, and four stalks 
in a hill, we get 5,808 hills, and 23,232 stalks—and eve¬ 
ry stalk will yield at least one good ear— if the crop is 
well fed and well worked ;—but upon poor ground, or 
evefl upon rich ground, without good manuring, all the 
stalks would not produce ears, nor would all the ears be 
good ones. The business of corn raising is the manu¬ 
facture of dung into grain; and -without a plenty of the 
raw material, we cannot expect a great abundance of 
the manufactured article. There is scarcely any farm 
crop that makes a more liberal return for manure than 
Indian corn. 
THE MULTICAULIS. 
“ Some complaints are made here by your subscrib¬ 
ers,” says our Georgetown, (D. C.) correspondent, “be¬ 
cause you do not encourage the cultivation of the morus 
multicaulis. Many of my neighbors have been inoccu- 
lated for the disease, and some have taken it in the na¬ 
tural way. I hope they may not be much 'pitted by it.” 
We hope so too; and doubt the propriety, therefore, of 
administering stimulants during the paroxysm of the 
fever. But we can say to our patrons on the Potomac, 
that our remarks in regard to the multicaulis have been 
meant to apply to the north. We do not doubt the tree 
may grow well, and sell well, and become a profitable 
and useful article of culture, perhaps in all the country 
south of New-York—but here, while we think it no bet¬ 
ter than other and hardier varieties, we should feel it a 
dereliction of duty to encourage its extensive culture, 
especially if it is to be purchased at the present high 
prices. 
THE DESTRUCTIVE SYSTEM. 
Luke Fish writes from Brush Creek, Ohio—“We 
are three miles east of the Great Miami, which, by the 
way, is not very great here. Our land is very flat in 
general, with large timber, beech, ash, bur-oak, hickory, 
lime, poplar, elm, buckeye and some walnut. Land 
rates from ten to twenty dollars an acre. Farming with 
us is in a most wretched condition—to take all off, and 
put nothing on, is all the go here.” This system has 
been all the go, in the old east, till the meal-chest has 
become empty—the field wretchedly poor. We beg our 
patr ons in the west to pause, and to consider the inevi¬ 
table tendency of this destructive system of farming. 
NEW DISCOVERIES. 
A worthy friend in Lancaster co. Pa. B. Clendenon, 
writes us, what seems to be new to him, and what we 
fear many have not yet found out—1. That our doctrine 
in regard to manure constituting the proper food of 
plants is orthodox; for, says he, “ some corn that I ma¬ 
nured lightly, was fifty per cent better than that along¬ 
side without manure;”—and 2. That the government 
expends millions of dollars annually, “for the benefit of 
the commercial interest, while the agricultural interest 
is left to take care of iff elf, though I admit it is inciden¬ 
tally aided by commercial facilities.” 
EXPERIMENT IN HARVESTING CORN. 
S. Hitchcock, of Sharon, Ct. has sent us the result 
of an experiment which he made last season, in harvest¬ 
ing Indian corn; and we are pleased to find that the 
result corresponds with the results of our experiments, 
made in 1837 and 1838—and shows a manifest advan¬ 
tage in cutting up over topping the stalks. “ I counted 
off 48 hills,” says Mr, Hitchcock, “ and cut them up at 
the roots. I counted off other 48 hills, and topped 
them according to the old mode, 
by weight, that Ihere was at the rate of eight bushels 
per acre more corn on the cut up, than on topped corn. 
There was no manure on the spot experimented upon, 
and the crop was not large, otherwise the difference 
might have been greater.” 
Mr, Hitchcock asks what grasses will grow in a ma¬ 
ple grove. It will be difficult to make any flourish, un¬ 
less the ground is first ploughed. The orchard grass 
and white clover will, we think, do best under the shade 
of trees. 
REARING CALVES WITHOUT MILK. 
We have several inquiries as to the most economical 
mode of rearing calves. The practice of many, and we 
are included in the number, is to take the calf from the 
cow at three days old, and to give it sweet milk ten or 
fifteen days, and afterwards skimmed milk, with a gill 
of flour or Indian meal, till it is fit to wean, at twelve 
weeks old. This is the common mode. The following, 
from the Bath Society papers, is perhaps a better, if not 
a cheaper mode. 
“ The following is as near a calculation of the expense 
of rearing my calves, without milkj as I can at present 
assert. In the year 1787, I weaned seventeen calves—in 
1788, twenty-three, and in 1789, fifteen. I bought, in 
1787, three sacks—[three bushels each]—of linseed ; I 
put one quart of the seed to six quarts of water, which 
by boiling ten minutes, became a good jelly; this jelly 
is mixed with a small quantity of tea of the best hay, 
steeped in boiling water. 
“Having my calves to drop at different times, I did 
not make an exact calculation of the expense of this 
hay-tea; but out of my three sacks of seed, I had better 
than two bushels left at last. I gave them the jelly and 
hay-tea three times a day. To the boy who looked af¬ 
ter them, 6d. (11 cents) per day: the price of the lin¬ 
seed was 4s. 6d. (say $1) a bushel: the whole three 
years’ feed .£2.5s. ($10.) My calves are kept in a good 
growing state, and are much better at this time than my 
neighbors, that are reared by milk; they do not fall off 
so much when they come to grass.” 
We beg of our dairy folks, who are in the habit of 
murdering their calves at their birth, to save milk, to 
try the above mode. Here were fifty-five calves raised 
at an expense, in linseed jelly, of about 18£ cents each, 
with hay-tea and attendance, as cheap here as in Eng¬ 
land, without a particle of milk. If interest does not 
prevail, humanity should. 
As a cure for scouring in calves, mix a ball of wheat- 
en flour and chalk with gin, and give them—or lay be¬ 
fore them a lump of chalk, which they can lick. 
- To young calves, the food, be it sweet or skimmec 
milk, hay-tea or linseed-milk, as it is called, should be 
given of a temperature similar to cow’s milk when first 
drawn; as they advance in age, the heating may be gra¬ 
dually dispensed with; and wisps of hay should then be 
placed before them, in order to induce them to eat. Barley, 
Indian corn and oat-meal may be given in small quanti¬ 
ties in their drink, and increased as they advance in 
growth. Beets, shredded fine, are said to be excellent 
for calves, when they get four or five weeks old. 
MR. OSBORN’S PREMIUM CORN. 
Mr. Osborn has felt called upon, by the remarks of 
Mr. Dodd, to send us a corrected statement of the pro¬ 
fits of his corn crop. He has made his crop debtor for 
board, threshing, keeping team, &c. a little more than 
$17, in addition to his former charges, making the ex¬ 
pense of an acre $37.85. The manure he still makes 
no account of, as he says it will sell for nothing, and he 
can get it from others for carting away. But he also 
adds to the credit side $6 more for stalks, upon which 
he says he has kept almost entirely sixteen head of 
cattle during the winter; and he also raises his corn to 
$1 per bushel, the market price. So that in striking 
the new balance, he makes the nett profit of the acre 
$96.65, instead of $87.71. 
TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS, &C. 
Mrs. Sarah Battell, of Norfolk, asks directions for 
transplanting the white pine and rhododendrons. In 
addition to the directions in our last, we advise, that a 
circle be made round the pine or rhododendron to be 
taken up, with a spade, of such diameter as to embrace 
the principal roots; that the spade be inserted six or 
eight inches, or below the roots, and that the plants be 
lifted carefully, with as much earth as will attach to 
them, and that they be planted two inches deeper than 
they stood in the forest, and the roots covered with lit¬ 
ter, well wet, and then with earth. In this way we 
transplanted six large white pines on the 8th July, at 
midday, thermometer at 82°, and the sun shining bright 
—all of which lived and are doing well. 
We recognize in our correspondent, an amateur florist 
and pomologist; and we would be glad to instruct her 
in the -means of preserving her fruit trees and her flow¬ 
ers The diseased branches of the plum should be cut 
off and burnt as soon as the disease, apj/ears, and not pe¬ 
riodically , as has been the practice of our correspondent. 
We have improved the health and growth of our pears, 
we think, by throwing round the collars of the tree 
some shovels full of tan. We have considered a clay 
soil so essential to the plum and pear, that we have de¬ 
posited a barrow full of this earth in the hole intended 
for a plum or pear tree, and about its roots. 
The Brake — {Fern) —of which our fair correspon¬ 
dent’s neighbors complain, and which one says, “ will 
ruin me—will run out my pasture and my meadow,” 
can only be overcome by labor and perseverance—by 
subjecting the land to thorough tillage, and by collecting 
and burning, Avhen necessary, the root of the evil.— 
Ferns, of which there are many species, are cultivated 
in Europe, as rare and scarce plants, but in no case, we 
believe, as useful ones. And yet they cannot be said to 
be without their use: they admonish the slothful, that 
if he would enjoy the treasures of the soil, he must win 
them by the “ sweat of the brow.” Mrs. Battell’s 
“ Cardinal,” or “ Eye-Bright,” is noticed in our floral 
department, under the name of “ Lobelia f which is the 
Cardinal flower. 
QUERIES. 
“ 1. What kind of manure is best for a sandy soil, 
with clay three feet below the surface? 
“ 2. Is deep or shallow ploughing the best mode to 
protect such a soil, in order to make it produce clover, 
or small gram ?” 
ANSWERS. 
1. The answer to the first question depends upon the 
inclination of the surface; but any vegetable or ani¬ 
mal manure is good. If the surface is flat, the soil will 
be inclined to be cold, and will be benefitted by warm 
unfermented manures; if sloping, fermented or colder 
manures may be preferable. Unfermented manures 
should be applied to heed crops; fermented manures 
may be applied to small grain crops. 
2. The deeper the better, to the extent of twelve inch¬ 
es, provided that the soil to this depth can be made suf¬ 
ficiently rich. Deep ploughing, with the above contin¬ 
gency, should be resorted, to once in a course of crops, 
be it a course of four or six years. But if the soil is 
poor, it should be deepened gradually, as the means of 
fertility can be imparted to it. 
TEA TREE. 
Geo. N. Burwell, of Buffalo, wishes to know the 
address of the gentleman who cultivates the tea tree, so 
called, in Ohio. Who will inform him ? 
The greatest clogs to improvements in agriculture, 
are indolence, ignorance, and self-conceit; wherever 
their influence extend, they paralyze the very earth, and 
produce sterility. 
CORRESP ONDEMCE. 
Leached Ashes and Brine—Steaming Rut a Baga. 
T New-York, April 12, 1 839. 
Judge Buel— I noticed in your April Cultivator, a 
communication on the subject of the use of leached ashes, 
and suggesting advantages to be derived from a mixture 
of salt or brine, in its application, of which I am dis¬ 
posed to think favorably, and shall try its utility in the 
western part of this state, where the soil is of a sandy 
and gravelly loam, and where we have abundance of 
leached ashes, & where we have used them without much 
apparent advantage. I, however, must differ entirely 
with Mi. Easton, as to its utility upon clay soil, having 
used it in connection with a few loads of manure at the 
rate of seventy-five bushels to the acre, some twenty- 
five years since, on a clay soil, some two miles west of 
Hartford city, where nothing but five fingers grew ■ a 
very stout crop of herds grass and clover was brought 
forward the first season, and continued a first rate piece 
of meadow for some years, until I removed from there. 
And had I clay soil now, I should apply ashes, with 
perfect confidence of its great advantage. 
The distribution of saline qualities over land, must 
I think, be attended with beneficial effects. We may 
at any dry time observe the dampness of the soil where 
there has been brine turned out, continuing for a length 
of time; and from this fact, we have a right to antici¬ 
pate advantages. Its connection with leached ashes 
may be advantageous, or it may not, farther than in 
the mode of distributing it. This we must learn from 
future published experiments. 
One of your correspondents complains of the quality 
of his beef, as made from ruta baga, which I suppose 
must arise from his having fed it raw. I had a steamer 
put in operation last fall, made sufficient to contain 
twenty-five or thirty bushels, which were well steamed in 
less than three hours; and several hogs and one ox, were 
fed and fatted on steamed rutas. The ox, with about 
six weeks feeding, made very fair beef, and my folks 
say they nev^er ate better. There can be no question 
but steaming is a great improvement in feeding all kinds 
of roots, and I am inclined to the belief that all un¬ 
pleasant flavors may thereby be avoided. 
My box for steaming, was made with a door on top, 
to put in the roots, with a door at the end to haul them 
out when done, into a cooler, secured by scantling, let 
in to each other, in the manner ship-carpenters steam 
Plank. _ AGRICOLA. 
Inducements for Cultivating Fruit. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Feeling desirous in common with 
you as conductor, and the numerous readers and cor¬ 
respondents of the Cultivator, of “improving the soil 
and the mind,” I have taken the liberty of extracting 
from a periodical I took some years ago, from a subject 
the title of which is “ Fruit a substitute for ardent spi¬ 
rits”—The writer says, “I am fully of the opinion that 
the habits of temperance and intemperance in different 
nations, are to be ascribed to some extent at least, to their 
possession or want of an abundance and variety of 
fruit, particularly of the finer and more delicious kinds. 
The temperance which prevails in the south of Eu¬ 
rope has been ascribed to the general use of wine.— 
That this is a cause of very considerable influence can¬ 
not be doubted. For the tendency of wine to produce 
an intemperate appetite is far less than that of distilled 
spirits or malt liquors. But when it is considered that 
in the northern countries of Europe, those wines only are 
held in estimation which are fitted to produce excite- 
ment, and that to a considerable extent they are subser¬ 
vient to intemperance; while in Italy, for instance, 
where intoxication is of exceeding rare occurrence, those 
wines are preferred which are sweet and pleasant to the 
taste, and that they are used solely for the purpose of 
refreshment; it becomes necessary to look out for some 
other cause for the singularly temperate use which is 
made of wine itself in the southern countries of Europe. 
This cause, it is believed, will be found in the use of 
fruits, which are very abundant in those countries where 
the vine flourishes. But the tendency of wine to create 
an intemperate appetite is comparatively so small, the 
quantity of weak and thereforeharmless wine made and 
consumed in countries producing the vine is so great, and 
so excellent is the fruit itself, that the vine may doubt¬ 
less with propriety be cultivated for the purpose of 
checking intemperance. 
In the United States of America, though well fitted 
for the production of fruit throughout nearly their 
whole extent, drunkenness or intemperance is every 
where common. This may perhaps be considered an 
anomaly. But it admits, I think, of a satisfactory ex¬ 
planation. The original settlers of this country were 
principally from the British Isles, and brought with them 
a taste for fermented liquors, which they had contract¬ 
ed in their native land. For a long period they were of 
necessity wholly destitute of fruit, with the exception 
of a few inferior kinds which grew wild. And even to 
this day the more delicious fruits, such I mean as are 
suited to the climate, are by no means extensively raised. 
On probably nine-tenths of the farms in what may be 
termed the old states, there is little fruit of any value, 
with the exception of apples, and these often not graft¬ 
ed. Peaches were formerly common, but now they are 
very rare, though with a little pains easily raised in any 
quantity. English cherries, with the exception of a few 
places, are by no means abundant. Good pears in any 
considerable variety are seldom seen. And strawber¬ 
ries, raspberries and gooseberries, are cultivated in only 
a small number of gardens. Here and there an indivi- 
