THE CULTIVATOR. 
85 
ses wherein we have found the benefit of sulphur, one 
in protecting plants against insects, and the other in 
protecting them against mildew. Dusted upon grapes, 
in the grape house, they have prevented mildew upon 
the fruit. It is equally efficacious in the open ground, 
till the sulphur is washed or blown off. For many 
years, we have lost most of our early cabbages by a 
maggot which preyed upon the stem under ground. 
By mixing sulphur with the grout in which the roots of 
the plants are dipped before planting, the evil has been 
wholly prevented; and if the plants are plunged deep in 
the grout, so as to coat the base of the leaf stems, they 
are protected from the grub. If scattered upon the rows of 
young cabbages and radishes, before or after they are 
up, it would probably be efficacious in protecting both 
the tops and bottoms. 
Industry 
Is the grand antagonist of crime, as well as of pover¬ 
ty. • It is the salt which preserves from moral corruption. 
Were industry duly and universally inculcated in youth, 
and enlightened, encouraged and honored, we should 
have much less need of jails and poor-houses, and we 
opine, of lawyers, than we have now—three items of 
expense that consume much of our substance. The late 
Bishop Asbury, having, in one of his sermons offered a 
bitter reproof to those who neglect the duty to their 
children, of bringing them up in moral and industrious 
habits, suddenly paused and said, “but you will say 
this is hard. Alas?” he added, letting his voice fall to 
a low and soft key, “ it is harder to be damned.” And, 
temporally speaking, it is harder to see them in the jail 
or poor-house, or vagabonds at large. 
The Multicaulis Fever 
Does not seem to have passed its crisis. If aught 
were wanting to increase it, it is furnished by a late 
visit from Mr. Olmsted, of East-Hartford, Ct. who ex¬ 
hibited to us forty hanks of beautiful sewing silk, of 
various colors, weighing between four and five pounds, 
made from plants of tke multicaulis, growing on one- 
sixteenth of an acre of land, and the plants themselves 
put in the ground after the 15 th of May, the same season. 
So says Mr. Olmsted, and we have no reason to distrust 
his word. Mr. Olmsted’s plan, and we believe his prac¬ 
tice, is, to cultivate the multicaulis as an annual, that 
is, to plough up the roots every fall, preserve them 
in cellars or elsewhere during the winter, and to 
replant the roots and the cuttings, with the plough, in 
the spring. Mr. Olmsted also showed various silk fa¬ 
brics, manufactured at Northampton and elsewhere, and 
silk in various modes of preparation. 
Agriculture of Maine. 
We are presented, in the Maine Farmer, with an an¬ 
nual and a semi-annual report of the trustees of the 
Kennebec County Agricultural Society, containing mat¬ 
ters of interest to farmers in every section of the coun- 
try. 
The attention of a considerable portion of the inha¬ 
bitants of Maine has been taken up with lumbering and 
fishing; and if agriculture has constituted the great 
employment, it has not received that attention there till 
lately which its importance every where demands.— 
Lumbering and fishing districts afford comparatively 
poor farmers, however bountiful nature may have been 
in her gifts to the soil. Within a few years, however, 
a new interest seems to have been awakened in this 
matter, and active and successful measures adopted, to 
advance agricultural improvement. Two agricultural 
papers have been established, and the state has made 
liberal appropriations to stimulate and reward her hus¬ 
bandmen ; and societies have been formed, and conduct¬ 
ed with intelligence and spirit; and improvement has 
progressed with a pace not perhaps surpassed in any 
of the other states. One of the leading agricultural 
societies is that of Kennebec, from which the two re¬ 
ports now under consideration have emanated, and from 
which we propose to glean some facts and suggestions 
of general interest. 
The public benefits resulting from agricultural socie¬ 
ties, are declared, and very correctly, to be palpable, 
great and certain. 
“ These trifling investments, (says one of these reports, in 
reference to the contributions to the funds of the society,) 
have yielded a profit not only to the individuals who have 
made them, nor the agricultural interest alone, but to the 
country at large, to the whole community. We assert with 
confidence, that the dollars which have been paid into the 
treasury of this society, have been refunded to those who 
have paid them, with interest; and, not like any other ap¬ 
propriations of money, profitable only to those who make 
them, they have yielded an equal profit to their neighbors; 
every individual within the sphere of the influence of the 
society has received, in some shape, a greater or less divi¬ 
dend of the increase.” 
The Grain Worm .—The report suggests no mode of 
preventing its ravages, except that of sowing spring 
wheat late. This coincides with oUr observations.— 
All wheat sown in April, or the early part of May, is 
liable to its attacks; while that sown after the 12th of 
May, and particularly after the 20th, is likely to escape 
its ravages. The fly which produces the worm, appear¬ 
ed in Maine last year, on the 27th June, and “ closed 
the campaign about the 19th July—thus remaining 
about 22 days, during which early sown wheat is in 
blossom, but the late sown grain does not develop its 
heads, or but partially.” The objection to late sowing 
is its liability to rust and mildew. To avoid these, the 
report recommends plenty of seed, and but light manur¬ 
ing. We deem it far better to apply long manure to the 
previous crop, which may be corn or roots, than to give 
any manure directly to the wheat crop. 
Wheat and barley are sown together, for bread-corn, 
in the proportion of two parts of wheat to one of bar¬ 
ley, with decided advantage. The product is said to be 
greatly increased, the bread good, and the rust and mil¬ 
dew avoided. The culture of barley is also recom¬ 
mended as affording an excellent substitute, when 
hulled, for rice. The cultivation of this grain is in¬ 
creasing, as an article of food for man and brute.— 
The committee recommend late sowing, from the 20th 
May to the 1st June. 
Ruta baga is said to be grown on moist as well as on 
dry soils—on clay loam, as well as on sand. 
Alternating crops is strongly enforced, in the injunc¬ 
tion, to let no grounds that are tillable, remain more 
than two years in meadow; and that frequent plough- 
ings be practised, whether the object be immediate pro¬ 
fit or permanent advantage to the soil. 
“ Instances can be referred to,” says the report, “where 
there is a difference in the tilled crop of more than one-half in 
favor of land which has been but two years in grass, in the 
same kind of soil, ploughed, manured and managed in the 
same manner with that which has lain in grass six or seven 
years.” 
The committee express an erroneous opinion, we 
think, when they ascribe to arable or ploughed crops, a 
fertilizing influence upon the soil. The two years’ grass 
ley gives the elements of fertility; pulverization of the 
soil, by rendering it open to the influence of air, dew 
and heat, adds something to these elements, and tends 
to convert insoluble into soluble geine; but the crop, if 
carried off, is unquestionably exhausting; and if the 
process of cropping is continued, without the applica¬ 
tion of vegetable and animal manures, sterility must be 
the inevitable consequence. Grain crops are decidedly 
more exhausting than grass, or root, or green crops. 
The reclaiming of bogs and marshy grounds, is strong¬ 
ly recommended; and the example of Massachusetts, 
where grounds before wholly unproductive, have been 
made to yield a hundred dollars worth of hay per an¬ 
num, is given in illustration of the benefits of this kind 
of improvement. There are within five miles of Win- 
throp, says the report, bog land enough to produce, if 
properly reclaimed, five thousand tons of hay annually. 
This branch of improvement, in connection with drain¬ 
ing, even upon uplands, when required, is one of the 
first importance, not only to agriculture, but to the health 
of a country. But the subject of draining has not yet 
sufficiently engaged our attention, and we do not see it 
noticed in either of the reports. 
In a late tour through N. Jersey, and upon the Delaware 
border of Pennsylvania, we saw an ample field for this 
kind ofimprovement. In many places the grounds are flat 
and wet; the soil of course cold, and the crops meagre. 
We have no sort of doubt, but that in most cases a tho¬ 
rough Scotch system of under-draining, in connexion with 
clover, plaster and a judicious alternation of crops, 
would in five years not only remunerate for the out¬ 
lay, but would quadruple the agricultural products, and 
the intrinsic value of the lands. We were happy to 
learn, that some spirited intelligent farmers had com¬ 
menced this system of improvement; and wherever it 
met our observation, the effects fully verified our calcu¬ 
lations. We hope the inhabitants of those districts will 
profit by the example of these pioneers in improvement. 
In the southern part of our Union, irrigation may affect 
more than draining. Butin the north, we have often 
a superabundance of water, not always upon the sur¬ 
face, but within the range of the roots of plants, which 
is hurtful to healthy vegetation. A soil saturated with 
water in a wet season, is wet and cold in the spring, 
and dry and hard in a dry summer. It is impervious to 
the genial influences of air and heat at all seasons.— 
When drained, the water does not stagnate, but perco¬ 
lates through the soil, leaving it light and porous; the air 
and moisture do not become stagnant and deleterious; 
the soil can be worked in all ordinary seasons of farm 
labor; the vegetable matter is readily decomposed; the 
roots of the crops have a healthy range in the search 
of food; and the crop, if there is food in the soil for its 
proper development, will be abundant. 
The semi-annual report, to which we have hitherto 
confined our notice, closes with a proposition, to have 
the agricultural and mechanic interests better repre¬ 
sented than heretofore, in their legislative councils; or, 
at least, for the appointment of an agent to represent 
the interest of the producing classes, to assist in devis¬ 
ing the best modes of advancing the great objects of our 
labor—to render the state independent and prosperous. 
* * * “The agriculturists and mechanics need the 
services of such a man, the members of the legislature 
need his services, and the committee on agriculture need 
the services of just such a man.” 
Agriculture and manufactures the basis of our prospe- 
perity. Says the annual report— 
“ No nation, or state, or community, ever did, or ever can 
flourish long, when the productive branches of industry are 
not fostered and encouraged by the government. They are 
to the community what life is to the system: they give mo¬ 
tion and activity to every limb, and if success in one is para¬ 
lyzed, the other must languish with it. Let agriculture cease 
to yield her annual harvest, and the mechanic must leave his 
workshop to seek for the means of subsistence in the forest, 
or in the lakes and rivers. Let the manufacturer cease to 
supply his various machines and fabrics, and agriculture can 
no longer be successfully carried on. The agriculturist may 
indeed for a time, retain his flocks and herds, and in a half 
civilized state, live upon their milk and flesh, [and why not 
add the grains, the roots, and the fruits of the soil?] and 
clothe himself in their skins, [and in the cloths of his family 
fabrication, from the wool and flax of his farm.] Agriculture 
and manufactures are children of one family, and equally de¬ 
serving the attention of the parent, [the public?] equally re¬ 
quiring the fostering care of those whose aim it should be to 
devise measures for the common good.” 
What is national independence ?—The committee an¬ 
swer— 
“We are not independent, till our exports, in the whole, 
are equal to our imports. We shall not increase in wealth 
till the balance of trade is in our favor.” 
True, whether the rule be applied to an individual, a 
family, a state or a nation. The income must be great¬ 
er than the outgoes, before the individual, the family, 
the state, or the nation can say—“We are indepen¬ 
dent.” The last few years have increased the debt of 
the states one hundred and seventy millions of dollars, 
and upon this debt we are obliged to remit to Europe, 
annually, ten millions as interest, and the principal is 
besides to be paid. However we may laud our prospe¬ 
rity, and revel in our day, we are bringing upon our 
posterity a load of debt that will make them subservi¬ 
ent to foreign powers, or to foreign influence, or that 
will merge them in anarchy and despotism. 
The report very properly recommends increased at¬ 
tention to instructing the fai-mer and mechanic—who 
constitute the bulk of our population, in a higher grade 
of studies, and of bringing up our sons in habits of in¬ 
dustry and regular application to business. 
“ It is this larger part, this majority, that is to give charac¬ 
ter to the whole. In devising plans, and adopting measures 
for the future good of a country, it is to the majority we are 
to look, not to small portions. If our condition as a commu¬ 
nity is ever to be greatly improved, the habits of the rising 
generation are to be looked to for the assurance of that im¬ 
provement. If those who follow us are to be intelligent, 
prosperous and happy, and fill their places with honor to 
themselves and the community, we must look to their early 
habits for a guarantee. They must be furnished with em¬ 
ployment, trained to business. They must be inured to that 
kind of exercise which nerves the arm, and gives vigor to the 
mind. To this object we call the attention of all who have 
her interests at heart, and all who have any thing to do in the 
direction of affairs.” 
The committee reiterate their former injunction, “ ne¬ 
ver to mow more than two crops of hay from a field before 
ploughing it.” They superadd to this, a recommenda¬ 
tion unsound in theory, and which will prove fallacious 
in practice, “ to turn out to pasture all our upland that 
we are not able to keep under the plough, and depend 
entirely on straw, fresh meadow hay, grain and roots 
for keeping stock in winter,” or, in other words, to 
make pasture grounds, which are the only portion of a 
farm which is improving without the aid of manures, 
permanent, and thus deprive the farm of all the bene¬ 
fits of the enriching effects of pasture—to confine the 
alternation of crops to a part, where it is acknowledged 
to be of great service, instead of extending it to the 
whole farm. If rotation is beneficial on low grounds, 
ii will be found no less, and we think more so, upon up¬ 
lands. 
Root culture is strongly recommended; and the use 
of roots, in fattening stock, is deemed far more profita¬ 
ble than fattening upon hay and grain. The committee 
estimate a profit of $20 the acre under root and other 
tillage crops, over that of an acre in meadow. 
Hint in Transplanting. 
This common error in transplanting trees, is not mak¬ 
ing the holes, or pits, for their reception sufficiency 
broad and deep. The roots require a mellow soil to 
strike down and horizontally in; and if the earth under 
and around them is left undisturbed and hard, they can 
not extend themselves for food, or but very slowly; the 
plant consequently grows but slowly, if it survives.— 
The following experiment, made by M. Chalermeau, il¬ 
lustrates the importance of this hint. The hole should 
not be proportioned to the extent of the roots as they 
are, but to their extent as they may be and should be. 
“ Four peach trees, resembling each other ag to size and 
vigor of growth, as much as possible, were planted. No. I 
in a hole three feet square; No. 2 in a hole two feet square, 
and Nos. 3 and 4 in holes eighteen inches square. The soil 
and exposition similar. No. I has every year given the most 
abundant crops, and the relative sizes of the trees are now as fol¬ 
lows: the stem of No. 1, 18 feet high and 8 inches in circum¬ 
ference; that of No. 2, 9 feet high and 5J inches in circumfe¬ 
rence; No. 3, 6 feet high and 3 inches 8 lines in circumference; 
and No. 4, 5J feet high and 3 inches in circumference.” 
Showing a difference between No. 1 and No. 4—be¬ 
tween large holes and small holes—of five inches in 
circumference, and 12£ feet in height. Apple, pear and 
forest trees, generally having a larger spread of roots 
than the peach, require proportionally larger holes. 
Diseases of Neat Cattle. 
There have a great number of cattle died in the country, 
within a few years, of a disease not definitely under¬ 
stood or described, but by many believed to be the 
murrain ; and many have also been lost by hoven, for 
want of a knowledge of a proper remedy of relief. 
The following extracts, from the Encyclopsedia of Ag¬ 
riculture, descriptive of the murrain, and of kindred 
diseases,—of the symptoms and treatment of these 
diseases, and modes of prevention;—and also of the 
hove and the modes of relief—cannot fail of proving 
interesting to cattle breeders and graziers. We will 
repeat here an opinion, founded upon reason and long 
experience, that the best preventive of disease in our 
farm stock, is the free use of salt, as a condiment; to 
which our cattle have had daily and free access for 
