THE CULTIVATOR. 
71 
not plant it, but summer fallow and sow winter grain, 
and manure at that time, for the reasons above slated. 
Now for the proof: a few years since I had two pieces 
of stiff clayey soil broken up, they were both poor and 
Covered with moss, one 1 summer fallowed and sowed 
with wheat and grass seed, after spreading about twenty 
loads of manure to the acre on the furrow and harrow¬ 
ing it in with the wheat; in the spring following, I sowed 
it with clover seed. On the other I spread about twenty 
loads to the acre on the soil, ploughed it in about three 
inches deep,* (the depth of the soil,) and planted it with 
potatoes, had a tolerable crop, took them off and sowed 
rye, and seeded as I did the first piece; the result was, 
that I had from the first, full fifteen bushels wheat to 
the acre, the next year an abundance of clover, and for 
two years more, clover, timothy and red top, about two 
tons to the acre, and is now rich enough to bring good 
corn without manure. From the second piece I had. 
about four bushels rye to the acre, hardly a spear of 
clover, and something like three-fourths of a ton of 
grass to the acre, and is to all appearance as poor as 
when I broke it up. 
We well know that the enriching properties of unfer¬ 
mented manure will leach away, thus where it is applied 
to grass grounds before the spring rains, the effect on 
the grass is surprising. May not its virtue, when bu¬ 
ried beneath the soil, leach still farther down, and is it 
an expensive way of enriching a subsoil without the aid 
of the sun and atmosphere ? Heavy Soils are seldom 
managed as they should be. It would generally be bet¬ 
ter to plough but little and manure that highly, and top 
dress the remainder to renovate the grass, rather than 
plough much and risk getting any thing, besides toil 
and trouble. I will add, that in summering manure, I 
make it into a compost. . 
I have been informed by a friend, on whom I can re¬ 
ly, that to arrest the ravages of the grub in corn, as 
soon as you find they are troubling it, take tobacco, add 
water and boil it up until the decoction is strong enough ; 
pour about a wine glass full on each hill; the remedy 
will be effectual, the cost trifling, and there is the con¬ 
soling reflection that a filthy weed is applied to some 
good purpose. Yours, &c. JESSE RYDER. 
Transplanting—Protecting Brick and Stone Walls 
—Culture of Onions. 
Stockbridge, April 27th, 1839. 
Mr. Buel —Although not a subscriber to your paper, 
I have received so much pleasure from it, that I feei 
bound to make a return, if it is in my power. 
I fancy I can write upon two or three subjects on 
which your correspondents are soliciting information. I 
begin with the letter of Mr. Seitz, in the Cultivator of 
March. I beg to tell him that I have transplanted roots, 
such as sugar beet, rata baga, borecole and mangold 
wurzel, with the greatest success for ten years past. I 
prefer it; but I must be candid, and tell you that they 
consider me here as an enthusiast. I prefer it, because 
I raise the young plants with the greatest care in my 
garden, so as to make them a great deal more thrifty 
than they would he in the lot. They are placed in the 
very best soil; highly manured ; and if a drought comes 
on, are watered. Young plants, like young animals, re¬ 
quire to be taken great care of; if this is well done, 
half the toils of agriculture are accomplished. Again, 
I have great time to prepare my soil, to carry out my 
manure, and to make the necessary arrangements for 
after culture ; if this is well done, there is no danger in 
transplanting. I place a garden line to mark my rows ; 
I give a scratch with the fingers, joined together, in the 
loose soil, and the root is deposited in a reclining posi¬ 
tion; this is the German method where mangold wurzel 
is cultivated in the highest perfection. 
A gentleman from Morristown, in the same paper, in¬ 
quires as to the best method of protecting brick walls 
against a driving easterly storm. I came here from In¬ 
dia, where we have six feet of rain in four months; it 
requires some attention, in the art of building, to protect 
you against such a climate. Many houses have a broad 
veranda which brings the roof within nine feet of the 
ground ; this makes the body of the house dry; but I 
had, what is called there, a top sail house; that is, two 
stories, to protect my walls, which were substantially 
built of stone, and well stuccoed. I had a projecting 
roof of near six feet. Nobody can imagine the comfort 
of allowing your windows to be open during a heavy 
storm of rain. A long driving storm will make brick 
walls damp ; but this dampness is greatly increased by 
the sheets of water which perpetually fall from the 
roof. My house, in Stockbridge, has a roof of four feet 
projection, and I have received great advantages from 
it. The greatest expense in building, are sashes, blinds 
and window frames; these are well protected, and will 
last much longer. 
Now, to the third subject. I was amused at some in¬ 
quiries I saw, from a gentleman from Pennsylvania, 
on the subject of onions. In Bombay, where I lived the 
greater part of my life, this root is cultivated, in the 
highest perfection. The mode of cultivation was no 
doubt carried there by the Portuguese, who, with the 
Spaniards, produce a fruit that we know nothing of here. 
It sells in the markets of London, for fourpence and six¬ 
pence a piece. The fruiterers keep them in their stores; 
it is remarkable for its great mildness ; the great per¬ 
fection qf the root depends on irrigation and very high 
*■ A three inch stratum of soil, especially with a tenacious 
and wet subsoil, cannot be expected to produce much of any 
crop, especially of tap-rooted plants, like clover, with or with¬ 
out dung. 
manuring, which, by the way, can be used only with ir¬ 
rigation; the seed is sownat the end of our rainy season; 
when that is over, the ground is prepared by having 
beds made about six feet square, so as to contain about 
four inches of water; gutters pass between two rows of 
these squares. The young onion plants are pricked into 
the mud, and well manured; during the growth ol the 
plant it is enriched three times, with powdered fish, and 
in less than three months the crop is brought into mar¬ 
ket. 1 have succeeded in this country in producing an 
onion equal to what I have seen elsewhere; but the 
climate here is too cold and too uncertain, and the sea¬ 
son too short. In Pennsylvania, this would be a branch 
of industry from which important results might follow. 
Yours respectfully, L. ASHBURNER. 
Boiler for cooking Cattle Food. 
Hardeman’s Cross Iloads, Tenn. April 1st, 1839. 
Judge Buel —Sir.—For several years past, I have 
been much more in the habit of attending to my farm, 
than writing, but as my paper and pen are before me, I 
will give you a description of my neighbor Bostick’s 
boiler, which he uses for the purpose of boiling food for 
his cattle and hogs. It is sim¬ 
ply a cast iron pipe, about five 
inches in diameter and six feet 
in length, closed at one end and 
open at the other end. It is 
fixed in the fire place of the 
kitchen. By placing it across 
the fire place, next to the back, 
on the hearth, and the open end 
of the pipe extends through 
the jamb of the chimney about 
six or eight inches, and passes 
into a tub or trough, which has 
a circular hole cut into it near 
the bottom for the reception of 
the pipe, which is prevented from 
leaking, by being corked around with tow. Then by put¬ 
ting water into the tub with corn, or whatever kind of food 
you wish boiled, and making a fire in the kitchen (which 
is usually done in this country three times during the 
day) the pipe becomes very hot and causes the food to 
be boiled very done. 
It surpasses any thing of the kind I have ever seen, 
on account of its simplicity, convenience and economy 
of fuel; for we are necessarily compelled to have a fire 
almost constantly in our kitchen for cooking, and the 
same fire will serve, with this kind of a boiler, to cook 
food for hogs or cows, by which plan, they are kept in 
much better order and at much less expense, during the 
winter season. Your obdt. servt. 
JOHN S. CLAYBROOKE. 
Machine Ibr sowing Beet Seed. 
Agawam, Hampden Co. Mass. March 30th, 1839. 
Judge Buel —Dear Sir— I feel myself indebted for the 
many important facts communicated by my brother agri¬ 
culturists through the columns of your very valuable 
publication, and would cheerfully contribute my mite in 
return for such a mass of important practical informa¬ 
tion. As the season is approaching in which the beet 
culture commences, I would describe a simple (but to 
me a useful,) apparatus which I have made use of for 
two seasons past, for sowing all kinds of beet seeds. We 
sow on drills or ridges, which after they are thrown up 
with the plough we brush on the top slightly with a hoe 
or head of a rake, to obtain a flat surface on the centre 
of the drill; for forming the drill to receive the seed we 
use a wheel made of plank 1£ inches thick, and 1 foot 2 
in diameter, bevelled on each side of the circumference to 
nearly an edge in the middle, hung to turn on a pin be¬ 
tween 2 handles, about 4 feet in length, which project 
forward of the wheel four or five inches; near the end a 
piece is framed in or nailed on to each crosswise in front 
of the wheel, in which is inserted a small wood or iron 
coulter or scratch on a line with the track of the wheel. 
The wheel is run upon the centre of the drills, and makes 
an impression or furrow 1% inches deep and about the 
same width at the top, slightly compressing the earth at 
the sides and bottom of the drill, causing it to retain 
moisture, so essential to the germination of seeds. The 
drills thus prepared, we use the following machine for 
sowing, and equally distributing the seed.' 
A, a staff or handle 3 or 
3J feet in length, running 
through the flat piece B. B. 
six inches, and terminating 
at the lower end in an egg- 
shaped point or pivot; C. a 
pivot at the opposite end of 
the piece B. B. 6 inches 
long and shaped at the low¬ 
er end like the former; e e e 
e 4 tubes with a half inch 
hole through the centre 20 
inches or more in length, 
funnel shaped at the top 
(which may be formed of 
paste board or leather,) 
running through and fastened into the piece B. B, to ex¬ 
tend about three inches below said piece; d d, a strip of 
lath i an inch wide, tacked to the tubes to keep the tops 
in their places. The tubes are six inches distant from 
each other, and the 2 outside ones 3 inches from the 
pivots. The machine we use is made of white pine, 
tubes and all (tin would be preferable for tubes,) and 
weighs 2i lbs. and was made by myself in less than 2j 
[Fig. No. 16.] 
hours. After the seed is prepared by soaking, or wet¬ 
ting and rolling in plaster, or ashes, to fill their rough 
surfaces, that the seed may separate more readily, the 
machine is set up, the pivots in the drill, and a seed is 
dropt into each tube; it is then turned from the workman 
towards the right on the front or short pivot into the drill 
again, and a seed is dropt into each tube as before ; it is 
then turned on the handle pivot, and so on alternately, 
dropping the seeds at each turn, &c. The workman can 
stand upright in the space between the drills, and 
the tubes being so near the ground that the dropping is 
not aftected by the wind; the seed lies regular at 6 inches 
apart at the bottom of the drill; with a little practice in 
taking about the requisite number of seeds so as to sepa¬ 
rate freely, from the planting pocket, a person will drop 
ata decent walk, without much fatigue. We coverwitli 
the head of ai-ake run along back down nearly length¬ 
wise the drill; if the soil is light and dry, run a hand 
roller over the rows of about 6 or 8 lbs. weight. 
We also make our drills for ruta baga, with the be¬ 
fore mentioned wheel, and sow the seed from a small 
tin box fastened to a staff or handle 3 ft. in length at angle 
of 45 deg. downward, having 2 holes to let the seed pass 
out in the lid, which when the handle is held upright is 
the bottom, filling the box half full of seed and holding 
it in the left hand over the edge of the seed drill, and 
rapping the box gently with a light rod in the right 
hand, a person will sow at a brisk walk with great regu¬ 
larity. Last season I sowed one quarter of an acre in 
this manner with less than ] £ oz’s seed, and they required 
considerable thinning after they came up. 
I obtained from the Albany seed store, last spring 1 
Rohan potato, weighing 6 oz. planted it on a dry sandy 
soil, where it suffered severely from drought for two 
months ; the produce however was 34 lbs. many of them 
good sized tubers, and a few that grew very late in the 
season quite snnall—I have 6 hills in boxes growing in 
the green house planted about the middle of March, 
which I design to transplant in the field at the proper 
season, (the boxes being slightly made for that purpose.) 
The object is to see if very small tubers of that variety, 
if sprouted early, by artifical means, will produce large 
ones. The 2 tubers to make the 6 hills did not weigh 
one ounce in all. I may give you the result hereafter. 
Yours with esteem. 
JONA. E. FERRE, 
Physiology—Vegetable and Animal. 
Dear Sir —In another number of the Cultivator you 
published my communication relating to the artificial 
crossing of vegetables, &c. which imitates, partakes of, 
and has an alliance with, the animal kingdom. 
I have frequently met with insects in a dormant state, 
and at first supposed them to belong to the vegetable 
kingdom, and the first glance of the elephant only re¬ 
sembled a heap of inanimate matter. If we saw a tree 
approaching us we should suppose it to be an animal, 
but if it remains stationary, not possessing any muscular 
power, it is ranked among the vegetables, though it 
possess most of the properties of some animals. 
The vegetable nor the animal can subsist without 
food, and upon the quantity and quality depends the 
health of both; either may be injured by food not adapt¬ 
ed to their habits, their appetites or digestive powers. 
Animals subsist most entirely upon vegetables; it is 
through the vegetable kingdom that the different pro¬ 
perties of the earth are subtracted, suitable for the sup¬ 
port of the animal kingdom; hence the vegetable forms 
the link between the animal and mineral, or inanimate 
nature 
I propose to add more respecting the structure of 
plants, and on the general analogy of vegetable and ani 
mal life; and I shall endeavor to notice that which may 
be useful and interesting to the reader, by referring to 
Good’s Book of Nature for the ground work of the sub¬ 
ject. 
In the organized bodies and the structure of plants, 
compared with that of animals, I would first ask, where 
is the difference between the stone and the plant ? If one 
be removed to another place it will suffer no alteration, 
by change of place ; but as soon as the other is removed 
it will instantly sicken, and perhaps die. Both have 
proceeded from a nucleus or germ ; both have a tendency 
to preserve their family configuration; and both have 
been augmented and perfected from one common soil. 
It is only by a minute attention to the relative histo¬ 
ries, internal structures and modes of growth of the two 
substances, that we are enabled to offer any thing like 
a satisfactory answer; and by thus examining we find 
that the stone was produced by chance, and has grown 
by external accretion, and can only be destroyed by me¬ 
chanical or chemical force; while the plant has been 
produced by generation, and advanced in size in pro¬ 
portion to, and by the nourishment it has received, and 
destroyed by death; its parts have been mutually de¬ 
pendent and contributory to each other’s functions. The 
consistency of the internal power is unknown; different¬ 
ly modified, we meet with it in both plants and animals; 
and we denominate i,t the principle of life• and the sub¬ 
stance thus produced is called an organized being. 
The various bodies of nature arrange themselves un¬ 
der the two divisions of organized and unorganized; 
the origin of the former by generation, the latter a for¬ 
tuitous origin. The corals, sponges and fuci form the 
loivest natural order among animals and vegetables; the 
corals seem to constitute the link that connects the ani¬ 
mal and vegetable with the mineral world; it has, in 
different periods, been ascribed to each. 
The difference which consists between the organiza¬ 
tion hi' the animals anti the Vegetables is not Very" Hear- 
