76 
THE CULTIVATOR 
know also of instances where deep well water, formerly free 
from saline and animal matter, became charged with them 
two years after the top soil had been cultivated and dressed 
with animal manures. Hence it is evident, that since all the 
fresh water of our wells infiltrates from the top soil, that the 
soluble salts, whether of animal, vegetable or mineral nature, 
will be dissolved and carried down by the action of water, 
and they are as I know, easily detected tri the water at great 
depths. Hence the value of a clay substratum in our fields, 
where the soils are porous, aud the facts coincide with the 
theory, as I have frequently had occasion to observe. 1 ' 
Philo speaks of the philosophy of nature in the fer¬ 
mentation and decomposition of manures; why should 
not practical men take rules for the application of ma¬ 
nure fronS indications in nature? All the provision 
that is made in the order of Providence in the decay 
and consumption of one crop for the nourishment of 
another—all the droppings of animals and the defolia¬ 
tion of plants and trees, lodge on the surface of the 
earth. The order established in nature seems to con¬ 
tradict the idea of any immense loss in evaporation.— 
Apply manure in any manner, no doubt there will be 
some loss in it. If, in deep burying, we endeavor to re¬ 
tain the ascending gases to the latest possible period, 
we shall not at any time have enough of their influences 
to produce the most vigorous vegetation. If we leave 
the manure on or near the surface, some of it may grow 
inert by drying, or blow into neighboring fields; still it 
is only when placed near the surface, that the most di¬ 
rect and greatest effects are produced on plants. 
OBSERVATOR. 
“On Burying Manure Deep.” 
We were much gratified in reading the communica¬ 
tion of Philo, in your last number, and have long been 
a believer in his philosophy of manure. On this subject, 
we have heretofore briefly given our views, and we ask 
your indulgence at this time, to permit us to say a word 
more, “ in hopes it may be instrumental in producing 
some good, although compared with the famous con¬ 
tributions of our friend Ben Barleycorn, it may be 
thought of no great import.” It must be obvious to all 
who t.ll the soil, that even the salts or earthy particles 
of manure do not sink deep into the earth,—we have 
abundant evidence of this in the appearance of the soil, 
even where fields have heen heavily manured. At a 
certain depth, the soil will exhibit its natural colour and 
texture, and give no indication, by its effects on crops, 
of having been impregnated with the solutions of ani¬ 
mal or vegetable matter. The philosophy of this is, 
the earth acts as a strainer, and, as Philo says, “ this 
is a wise provision of nature—that the most impure wa¬ 
ter is male pure by filtration through a few inches of 
light soil.” 
It is a fact well understood, that the gases generated 
by manure, whilst undergoing fermentation, always as¬ 
cend, because they are lighter than atmospheric air, and 
unless the manure is buried sufficiently deep, they es¬ 
cape and are lost, or become a fruitful source of dis¬ 
ease.” 
The influence of the sun and atmosphere have a ten¬ 
dency to prevent even the salts or earthy matter from 
sinking deep into the soil—the fibrous roots of every 
tribe of the vegetable king lom are always on the alert, 
and are attracted to the depositories of their natural 
aliment, with the precision of the needle to the pole. 
In this our own experience compels us to dissent from 
some of the views of the learned geologist of Maine, 
in his valuable communications to the agricultural com¬ 
mission of Massachusetts. [See quotation in the pre¬ 
ceding article.] 
Now it seems to us a more reasonable thing to believe, 
that the animal matter detected in wells of that depth, 
[150 feet,] was driven by ihe wind through the crevices 
in the platform, or the waters impregnated with these 
salts immediately round the well, found their way by 
some subterraneous passage, through the stoning near 
the surface. Were his theory correct, we should be 
very unwilling to take up our abode among some of the 
intelligent farmers near the city, who are in the habit 
of dressing their land very liberally with night soil, un¬ 
divested of its noxious effluvia, by the Frenchman’s 
process of converting it into poudrette. For our own 
comfort, we hope at least the doctor is mistaken; for 
all the water we make use of is drawn from a well lo¬ 
cated in our barn-yard; this well has supplied us with 
water for fifteen years, and we have never been able to 
detect any saline or soluble salts in it, but occasionally 
we detect animal mattei in the shape of rats, which find 
their way there in the same manner that we imagine all 
animal matter must find its way into a well 150 feet 
deep. With the exception named we were highly gra¬ 
tified with the perusal of the doctor’s communication; 
it contains a fund of valuable information that should 
be familiar to every farmer. We are, however, strong 
in the faith, that farmers >n general lose ten times the 
manure by evaporation, that they do by infiltration.— 
And we think as a general rule, manure judiciously 
buried with the plough, is as secure to the farmer for 
future crops, as is his money when placed in the vaults 
of a solvent bank. C. 
Mattakees, April , 1839. 
Culture of Indian Corn. 
[From the Genesee Farmer .] 
GREAT YIELD. 
Mr. Tucker —As the time of year is near at hand, for 
planting corn, I propose giving you for publication, my 
experience in raising corn, and more particularly my 
success for the last year. I will first say that I think, 
in this vicinity, farmers have been in the habit of plant¬ 
ing too much ground, or in other words, more than they 
have well tilled and manured. I had lost my whole 
crop, or nearly so, for two or three years previous to the’ 
last season, except some small patches, and in my gar¬ 
den. I have sometimes planted on ground of clay and 
muck, that would hold the water so long in the spring 
that the corn would get backward,and thereby get over¬ 
taken with the frost, while a little more than fit to roast. 
Two years ago I sent to the Rochester Seed Store and 
got a small quantiiy of the early Dutton corn. I plant¬ 
ed about one-fourth of an acre, which gave me more 
sound corn than I had on three acres adjoining-»--same 
quality of land—but taking the whole together, it was 
still a losing business. I then resolved to take a differ¬ 
ent course, first, to plant ona different soil; second, to 
plant no more than I could make as rich as my garden. 
My garden is of a gravelly, dry soil, of course rich. In 
it I had every year planted some corn ; sometimes near 
the first of April, and at other times quite late, butever 
have failed to get good corn even in our poorest seasons. 
Adjoining the garden, the natural soil is the same, and 
I came to the conclusion that I could take some of it and 
make it produce as well as my garden. Therefore, last 
season I planted about an acre with the early Dutton, 
or Buel corn, and the result was one hundred and twelve 
bushels of shelled corn to the acre. This is a great yield 
for this country, and in fact is beyond any thing I have 
ever before seen. There was more sound corn than I 
had raised for a number of years before. The season 
was a favorable one, and aside from that I attribute my 
success to three things, viz : manuring high, planting 
thick, and a prolific kind of seed corn. The tilling was 
nothing but ordinary. In the fall of 1837, the ground 
was in timothy and clover, with a light sward, having 
been stocked about two years. I then ploughed it late 
in the fall. In the spring following I covered it over 
with common coarse manure from the barn-yard, which 
was composed of a large quantity of straw. My stock 
is principally sheep, and straw was thrown into the yard 
plentifully during tiie winter for bedding. In drawing 
it out a load was usually dropped in a place, so that after 
it was spread, it completely covered the ground to quite 
a thickness. About the middle of May the ground was 
ploughed very deep, and boys were sent ahead ol the 
plough and raked all the manure into the previous fur¬ 
row, so that it was completely covered. Some of my 
neighbors then said that they should rather have that 
coarse manure off from the ground than on il, for the 
good of the corn crop, and said it would do no good till 
the next crop, or until it should be decomposed. I will 
here remark, that from reason and experience, I must 
protest against leaving manure in the yard over summer, 
or even putting it into heaps todecayas somedo to heat 
and drain off the strength all summer. On the contrary 
in most cases it is most as cheap to haul it into the field, 
as to heap it up in the yard. We get the use of it one 
year sooner, and have all the strength on the land where 
it should be instead of being washed into the streams of 
water. I think for corn and potatoes, that the benefit 
the first year will more than pay the expense of carting 
ordinary distance. To return to my subject, I next har¬ 
rowed and furrowed my ground, or rather marked it 
very shallow, three feet apart. It was now the 17th of 
May, having been hindered a number ofdays by a heavy 
rain. I put three kernels in a hill, and sixteen to eighteen 
inches apart. It being rather cold and wet, the corndid 
not sprout quick as usual, and on examination I found 
that a small wii e worm that was probably in the manure, 
had eaten into the chit of the corn, so that only a part 
of it was coming up. Although now as late as the 4jh 
of June, I commenced planting over by putting in just 
as much seed as I did the first time, a hill between every 
two hills, which made them nearly join. As I had only 
seed enough left of the kind, to plant over 118 rods 
of the ground, the rest was planted over to beans. I 
will here state that the 118 rods was all the ground 
that was manured, and a cast made on an acre from 
that ratio. The rest was equally as good corn, but the 
ground not well stocked. When I hoed the first time, I 
concluded at the second hoeing to pull out some where 
it was the thickest, but 1 left them for some time, and 
forgot to tell my man to do it; therefore it all stood. I 
told him to hoe it twice more, but he did not hoe it but 
once, having for an excuse that the corn got so large, 
he could not, making only two hoeings. The stalks were 
8 or 10 feet high, and a complete swamp to appearance. 
Now some of my neighbors said it would be all stalks 
and no corn. On the night of the 2d of September. I 
think we had a severe frost which killed the stalks, but 
the corn was all ripe, the last planted as well as the first; 
making for the last planted just 13 weeks. It needed no 
sorting to grind, and handsomer corn I never saw. As 
to its being all stalks and no corn, the result showed. I 
am strong of the opinion that great improvements can 
be made in planting by distributing the seed more over 
the ground and by putting in more of it. 
I fear I have wearied your patience about a small 
field of corn, and will close by saying that if any of the 
above is worth publishing you can do it, if not, throw it 
under the table. L. C. 
Darien, Genesee Co., April 19th, 1839. 
The new mode of drawing. 
It would appear from the following Report of the pro¬ 
ceedings of the London Royal Society, at one of their 
sittings in February, which we copy from the London 
Literary Gazette, that the invention called the daguero- 
scope, which has been claimed by the French, is contest¬ 
ed by Henry Fox Talbot, Esq. an Englishman. 
A highly interesting paper by Henry Fox Talbot, Esq. 
was read. It detailed the author’s discovery upwards 
of 5 years ago, of the new process of delineating objects. 
—From the first volume of the journal of the Royal Insti¬ 
tution, it apppears that the late Mr. Wedgewood had 
some i lea of the discovery. That ingenious gentleman 
in conjunction with Sir H. Davy, made many experi¬ 
ments, but they found all their endeavors to obtain suc¬ 
cess ineffectual, so much so that it discouraged them, 
and would have discouraged the author of the present 
memoir, had he not read the remarks ol’ Sir H. Davy, con¬ 
tained in the journal alluded to, prior to the experiments 
which ultimately led to his invention. At first it con¬ 
sisted of laying the nitrate of silver on paper, and by 
means of the camera obscur aand the solar ray acting on 
the paper, a perfect impression is obtained of any object 
in half a second ; it was found, however, that the image 
thus obtained, by exposure to the light, faded, and after 
a while disappeared. By repeated experiments and the 
most devoted attention, Mr. Talbot, by what he calls 
sensitive paper (a great improvement upon that which 
he originally employed,) has overcome this great draw¬ 
back; pictures he has had in his possession for years, 
are now as vivid as they were when first produced. The 
image obtained is white, but the ground is beautifully 
colored, and readily obtainable, either sky-blue, yellow, 
rose-color, or black; green is excluded; these variations 
of color, Mr. Talbot considers as so many chemical com- 
pounds. Objects the most minute are obtained—the 
delicate hairs on the leaves of plants, the most minute 
and tiny bivalve calyx, nay, even a shadow, the emblem 
of all that is most fleeting in this world, is fettered by 
the spell of the invention, and remains perfect and per¬ 
manent long afler it has been given back to the sunbeam 
which produced it; in short, to use Mr. Talbot’s own 
words, the picture is “ ended as soon as begun.” The 
extent of the value of this invention cannot at present 
be anticipated ; already the author has applied it with 
perfect success to the copying of sculpture, engravings, 
handwritings ; and in every case so complete has been 
the image, that it has been mistaken for the original. 
The value of it even now to naturalists and others tra¬ 
velling abroad, many of whom are ignorant of drawing, 
must be immense. Lord Brougham was present, and 
paid profound attention to Mr. Talbot’s paper. 
An Act respecting School District Libraries. 
Passed April 15, 1839. 
The People of the State of A etc- York, represented in 
Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: 
§ 1. The trustees of every school district shall be trus¬ 
tees of the library of such district, and the property of 
all books therein, and of the case and other appurtenan¬ 
ces thereof, shall be deemed to be vested in such trustees, 
so as to enable them to maintain any action in relation 
to the same. It shall be their duty to preserve such 
books and keep them in repair ; and the expenses incur¬ 
red for that purpose may be included in any tax list to 
be made out by them as trustees of a district, and added 
to any tax voted by a district meeting, and shall be col¬ 
lected and paid over in the same manner. The libra¬ 
rian of any district library shall be subject to the direc¬ 
tions of the trustees thereof, in all matters relating to 
the preservation of the books and the appurtenances of 
the library, and may be removed from office by them for 
wilful disobedience of such directions, or for any wilful 
neglect of duty ; and whenever they shall have reason 
to apprehend the loss of any such books, or their injury, 
or destruction by his misconduct, and whenever a va¬ 
cancy shall exist in the office of librarian, the same shall 
be supplied by the trustees until the next annual meet¬ 
ing of the inhabitants of the district. 
§ 2. Trustees of school districts shall be liable to their 
successors for any neglect or omission, in relation to the 
care and superintendence of district or joint libraries, by 
which any books therein are lost or injured, to the full 
amount of such loss or injury, in an action on the case, 
to be brought by such successors in their name of office. 
§ 3. A set of general regulations respecting the pre¬ 
servation of school district libraries, the delivery of them 
by librarians and trustees to their successors in office, 
the use of them by the inhabitants of the district, the 
number of volumes to be taken by any one person at any 
one time or during any term, the periods of their return, 
the fines and penalties that may be imposed by the trus¬ 
tees of such librariesfor not returning, losing or destroy¬ 
ing any of the books therein, or for soiling, defacing or 
injuring them, may be framed by the superintendent of 
common schools, and printed copies thereof shall be fur¬ 
nished to each school distiict of the state, which regu¬ 
lations shall be obligatory upon all persons and officers 
having charge of such libraries, or using or possessing 
any of the books thereof. Such fines may be recovered 
in an action of debt, in the name of the trustees of any 
such library, of the person on whom they are imposed, 
except such person be a minor; in which case they may 
be'recovered of the parent or guardian of such minor, 
unless notice in writing shall be given by such parent or 
guardian to the trustees of such library, that they will 
not be responsible for any books delivered such minor. 
And persons with whom minors reside shall be liable in 
the same manner, and to the same extent, in cases where 
the parent of such minor does not reside in the district. 
§ 4. Any person conceiving himself aggrieved by any 
act or decision of any trustees of school districts con¬ 
cerning district school libraries or the books therein, or 
the use of such books, or of any librarian, or of any dis¬ 
trict meeting in relation to the school library, may ap¬ 
peal to the superintendent of common schools, in the 
