126 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
only can the greatest quantity of timber be produced. In 
this case, the trunk should be kept free from branches, the 
leading shoot should carefully be preserved, and the top 
kept in a crown like form. Nature must be followed in this 
respect, and the tall beautiful trunks of our native forest 
trees will be the result. For fruit, a low branching top, 
spread and exposed to the sun as w idely as can be, is to be 
preferred; and hence, the leading shoot when the tree is at 
a proper height must be carefully cut out, and the lateral 
branches cut and pruned with direct reference to this effect. 
Fruit trees must be pruned frequently, or their tops become 
woody, close, and the fruit will necessarily prove inferior. 
— Genesee Fanner. 
Eggs. 
Almost every body loves good fresh eggs, and with or 
without glasses or silver spoons, can contrive to eat them; 
whether boiled or fried, raw or roasted, made into custard 
with sugar and spices, or swallowed gently with a bordering 
of old port, they agree with the palate and the stomach, and 
neatly laid out with fair slices of bacon, they form a repast 
within the reach of all, and to be despised by none. But 
though most farmers keep fowls, and raise their own eggs, 
there are many who have not yet learned the difference 
there is in the richness and flavor of eggs produced by fat 
and well fed hens, and those from birds that have been half 
starved through our w'inters. There will be some difference 
in the size, but far more in the quality. The yolk of one 
will be large, fine coloured, and of good consistence, and the 
albumen or white, clear and pure; while the contents of the 
other will be watery and meagre, as though there was not 
vitality or substance enough in the parent fowl to properly 
carry out and complete the work that nature had sketched. 
In order to have good eggs, the hens should be well fed, and 
also provided during the months they are unable to come at 
the ground, with a box of earth containing abundance of fine 
gravel, (if of limestone, so much the better,) that they may 
be able to grind and prepare for digestion the food they re¬ 
ceive. Fowls form no small item in the profits of the small 
farmer, and few creatures better repay the care and attention 
they receive. Of eggs, those of the domestic hen are deci¬ 
dedly the best; but those of both ducks and geese may be 
used for some of the purposes of domestic cookery. Eggs 
can be kept any length of time, if the air is perfectly exclud¬ 
ed, and the place of deposite kept at a low temperature."— 
Genesee Farmer. 
All account of a comparative trial of stable man¬ 
ure and bone dust for raising turnips on a clay 
soil. 
BY MR. HENRY HAXWELt, OF CALDERWOOD. 
The following are the particulars of the turninueroE■ 
was raised by stable manure u '"y uust on ® lr William 
yalderwood, this season. 
The nature of the soil where the turnips grow may be de¬ 
scribed as a strong loam on a retentive clay bottom. Before 
draining, the field generally was very wet and sour, but a 
thorough application of the cross or branch drain system 
completely divested it of all moisture; and as the ground 
was ploughed and cleared under favorable auspices, the con¬ 
dition of the land at the time of receiving the seed was very 
satisfactory. It may be proper to remark, that the field, 
which was old lea, was drained in the beginning of 1832, a 
crop of oats taken off it during that season, and prepared for 
turnips during last spring. In addition to the quantities of 
manure laid on the land, as will be found in the statement 
below, seven and a half chaldrons of lime, of excellent qua¬ 
lity, were applied to each acre (the Scotch). The seed, 
which was of the finest quality (procured from Mr. Law'son,) 
was all deposited at rather an early period. Where stable 
manure was applied, the braird came away at first more ra¬ 
pidly and vigorously than was the case with the bones; but, 
ultimately, the bones gained ground, and, if any thing, got 
rather the start of the stable manure in point of shaw or 
leaves. The whole field brairded beautifully, with scarce 
an exception, and the crop did not suffer in any degree from 
the ravages of the fly. In order to ascertain the results of 
bone and stable manure in regard to the produce of turnip 
per acre, the most accurate calculations and trials were 
made; and I have no hesitation in affirming the correctness 
of the statement in all particulars. In conclusion, I have 
merely to remark, that the quality of the soil is by no means 
particularly well adapted for turnip culture, partaking, as it 
does, rather too much of the clayey character, for which 
reason also, there is little doubt that the comparatively un¬ 
favorably development of the effects of bones as a manure is 
chiefly to be ascribed. As to the quality of the turnips pro¬ 
duced, the specimens which I have sent to Mr. Lawson’s 
very interesting agricultural museum will best testify. They 
were carefully selected, with a view of furnishing a fair ave¬ 
rage of each description. This is the statement referred to. 
Swedish—30 cart loads stable manure, per Scotch acre, pro¬ 
duced ..... 29 tons. 
60 bushels crushed bones, per ditto,. 24 
Dale’s Hybrid—30 cart loads stable manure, 
per ditto....... 33 
60 bushels crushed bones, per ditto.. 31 
45 ditto ditto, per ditto...29 
Yellow Bullock—30 cart loads stable manure, 
. per ditto...29 
60 bushels crushed bones, per ditto ..... 28 
Globe—30 bushels crushed bones, per ditto. 25 
25 ditto ditto, per ditto ditto.. 23 ton 18 cwt. 
No stable manure.— Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
* As our cotemporary teaches us how to make good eggs, 
we beg to reciprocate the favor, by advising him how to cook 
them. To be nutritious and healthful, and to suit most pa¬ 
lates, the yolk of an egg should not be cooked hard, and the 
white should be merely cooked to a jelly, the consistence of 
a custard. This is best accomplished, neither by boiling, 
frying nor roasting—but by caudling, that is, by turning upon 
it scalding water, either in a caudler or other close dish. In 
this way eggs maybe properly cooked; and by repeating the 
hot water, or leaving them to lay in it a longer or shorter 
time, they may be easily graduated to the liking of every 
one,'without trouble or waste.— Cultivator. 
On the comparative value of the Turnip and Po¬ 
tato Crops. 
Swedish turnips should be sown on or before the middle 
of next month; the different kinds of the Aberdeen and 
Dale’s Hybrid, about the latter end of it, or early in June. 
The Globe, Norfolk, and Tankard turnips may be sown from 
the middle of June till the middle of July, but there is better 
chance of success when they are sown from the middle till 
the latter end of June. 
Some farmers complain of the succeeding crop being less 
productive after turnips than after potatoes; for our own 
part, we never saw any just ground of complaint where the 
culture and management of the turnip crop was judiciously 
performed; and we consider the potato crop to be compara¬ 
tively exhausting, and less profitable than turnips. This we 
shall endeavor to show. The same labor and manure is ne¬ 
cessary for potatoes with this exception, that the farmer has 
the advantage of preparing his ground for turnips at a com¬ 
paratively slack season, and every opportunity afforded for 
thoroughly eradicating weeds, which advantage, (and it is 
by no means a trifling one), is not allowable at the early 
period when potatoes are put into the ground. The potato 
crop is chiefly transferred to the market, and consequently 
returns a very inadequate quantity of manure to the soil; 
whereas the turnip crop, with rare exceptions, is consumed 
upon the farm where it is produced, and by the large quan¬ 
tity of valuable manure accumulated by their consumption, 
turnip is the most enriching crop under cultivation we know 
of. 
TO SEED AN IRISH ACRE WITH TURNIPS. 
The produce of an Irish acre of turnips may be reckoned at 
40 tons, which will maintain (at least) four horned cattle 
for five months. Each of these will make 1/. per month 
in value during that time, amounting to.£20 0 0 
And the quantity of manure made during that 
time will be worth. 16 0 0 
£36 0 0 
Deduct price of seed. 4 0 
£35 16 0 
On the other hand, an acre of pota¬ 
toes may be calculated to produce 
upon a fair average about 400 
bushels, which at Is. per bushel, 
amounts to. ..£20 0 0 
Deduct price of seed. .. 1 15 0 
-- £18 5 0 
Leaving a balance in favor of turnips of.. £17 11 0 
And the loss of labor, and expense of transferring the potato 
crop to market, far more than counterbalancing the expense 
of attendance of 
we are aware that many farmers derive a larger produce 
of potatoes per acre than we have mentioned, but this is 
only the exception, not the general or average produce. 
No crop, which can be raised at so cheap a rate will main¬ 
tain such a number of animals per acre the consumption of 
which will return such a large quantity of valuable manure 
to the soil, nor enable the farmer to increase the fertility of 
his farm equal to the turnip; and we are happy to see that 
their culture is yearly extending, and we hope ere long to 
see the whole farmers in the kingdom thoroughly alive to its 
advantages.—C. in Farmers' Magazine. 
The Productive Powers of Nature. 
The pow-ers of nature to create vegetable productions ap¬ 
pear never to diminish; the process goes on year after year 
with increasing energy, and brings forth an increase of ve¬ 
getable matter to be again decomposed and returned to the 
soil. This is the natural process by which the decomposing 
vegetable matter which we find in the soil is formed; and 
there has been a continual succession of production, decay, 
and reproduction, of vegetable matter going on ever since 
nature first sprung into existence, producing vegetables 
which, when dead, are decomposed into the elements of 
which they were originally formed. 
No loss is sustained by the decomposition of vegetable or 
animal matter in the soil; all is reduced to the first elements 
of plants which give fresh energy to vegetation by again en¬ 
tering into vegetable composition. 
Thus the process of the growth and decay of vegetable 
matter goes on in a continual succession, and the decay of 
one crop becomes the nourishment of the next. 
When nature is left to herself, the accumulation of decom¬ 
posing vegetable matter on the surface becomes great; and if 
the soil is not possessed of the property of hastening their 
decay, the vegetable matter is merely increased on the soil, 
without adding to its productive powers. 
On a careful examination, we think, it will be found that 
the production of vegetables never exhausts any soil; the 
yearly growth of grass with its decay, adds yearly to its pro¬ 
ductiveness, and even a plentiful crop of weeds, when al¬ 
lowed to decay on the land which produced them, has the 
same effect; and thus it is, that land, which has been worn 
out by close cropping, is by slovenly farmers left for nature 
to improve. 
When the natural pasture is consumed by stock it is con¬ 
verted into animal food for man: and the excrement of the 
stock being left on the soil forms a rich decomposing animal 
manure, which gives to the soil increased energy to repro¬ 
duce an increase of vegetable food for an additional quantity 
of stock. 
Pasture land is full of vegetable fibre, from the surface 
down as low as the roots of plants descend. Some are the 
recent roots of grasses, others are those of every stage of 
decomposition. In arable land scarcely any vegetable fibre 
is to be found; this circumstance should teach us, that to 
form a good pasture, we should fill the soil with vegetable 
fibre as a manure, where we convert arable into pasture land. 
The very small proportion of vegetable matter which is 
contained in the most productive arable soils, would almost 
seem to indicate that their richness does not depend on the 
decomposing vegetable matter, but on something else; for 
if all the straw or refuse of the crops it produced, was re¬ 
turned to it after it had passed through the stomach of some 
animal, this would scarcely be equal to one-third of what the 
earth produced. 
A judicious succession of crops, and a profitable consump¬ 
tion of the produce by sheep on the ground, return to the 
soil such a quantity of manure as to give an additional means 
of increasing its productiveness. 
“ Water is necessary to the growth of plants. It is essen¬ 
tial to the juices or extract of vegetable matter which they 
contain, and unless the soil, by means of comminution, be 
fitted to retain the quantity of water requisite to produce 
those juices, the addition of manure will be useless. Ma¬ 
nure is ineffectual towards vegetation, until it becomes solu¬ 
ble in water; and it wrnuld even remain useless in a state of 
solution if it so absorbed the water as entirely to exclude the 
air: for in that case the fibres or mouths of the plants would 
be unable to perform their functions, and they would soon 
drop off by decay.” 179, Steward. 
It is necessary that the animal and vegetable matter in the 
soil should have this decomposing disposition, and the soil 
have it in proportion, to the proper admixture of the materi¬ 
als of which it is composed. 
A certain degree of heat, the influence of the atmosphere 
and water, are necessary to carry on the decomposition of 
animal and vegetable matter in the soil. The best consti¬ 
tuted soil therefore has the power of imbibing, retaining, 
and giving up to plants a proper degree of heat, air and mois¬ 
ture. When the atmosphere is warm, moist, and sultry, ve¬ 
getable life is in the greatest vigor, which would indicate 
these to be necessary to vegetable life if not the very princi¬ 
ples on which it depends. 
Soil should not only have an affinity for the moisture of the 
atmosphere, but it should also have the property of readily 
transmitting it to the vegetables which grow in it. 
The soil, therefore, which is best adapted for retaining and 
transmitting in all circumstances of wet and of dry weather, 
the necessary quantity of moisture to growing plants, may 
be reckoned the best and most productive. 
If we impart to any soil that which induces vegetation, 
we improve it and increase its productiveness; but if we in 
any way withdraw from it that which tends to produce ve¬ 
getation, we injure it and may make it steril. Barrenness in 
soil is produced when the component parts of it are so firmly 
united, that air, water, and the influence of the sun cannot 
enter into combination with it. When a soil is pure clay, 
it is sterile and worthless, and so is that which is pure sand. 
The former resists effectually the enriching influence of the 
rains and dews, which merely fall on its surface, and either 
run off or lie there, without penetrating into it. The sun 
and wind also may beat on it and blow over it, but they can 
never penetrate its mass to awaken up the dormant energy 
that lies within; they only have the effect of their repeated 
attacks to dry and harden the surface, crack it into irregular 
portions, and more firmly to lock up any languid and dor¬ 
mant principles of vegetable life that may be within the 
mass.. The latter is porous and loose in its texture that 
the rain and dews no sooner fall on it, than they pass through 
it rapidly like water through a sieve; the rays of the sun 
and the wind evaporate and dry up the last particles that re¬ 
main, producing only a transitory effect on vegetation, and 
because they have no regular supply of moisture, the plants 
soon wither and decay. 
The energies of the soil are frequently held in bondage by 
some pernicious quality inherent in it, or imparted to it, 
which if neutralized or extracted the soil would become pro¬ 
ductive. 
When light, sandy, and vegetable soils are artificially 
made lighter, they possess little of the principles of vegeta¬ 
tion. The mechanical disposition of a clayey soil is also de¬ 
ranged by improper treatment, such as trampling or plough¬ 
ing it in wet weather; and although the soil has a full sup¬ 
ply of animal and vegetable manure in it, yet the mechani¬ 
cal derangement so totally locks up all its energies, that the 
fermentation so necessary is altogether stopped, and com¬ 
plete barrenness is the result. 
This we have frequently observed to occur from land be¬ 
ing trampled by sheep in eating off turnips from strong clay 
soil during wet weather, in the early part of spring. 
They convert the surface into a complete puddle, and 
when it becomes dry, the parts composing the soil are so 
closely united together, that it is like bricks dried for the 
kiln, and is entirely unfit for the production of plants. It is 
evident that the causes of sterility in these soils are opposed 
to each other; each therefore will require a mode of treat¬ 
ment peculiar to its case. The light, sandy, and vegetable 
soils, that are too friable, must be artificially rendered more 
firm; and the too tenacious clay soils must be made artifi¬ 
cially friable and kept so, and be pulverized and mechani¬ 
cally altered before we can expect them to become produc¬ 
tive. It is evident if these two soils could be mixed toge¬ 
ther, the mixture, with a proper quantity of vegetable and 
animal manure, would make a good productive soil_ Mor¬ 
ton on Soils. 
Young Men’s Department, 
Chemical Catechism—Chapter VIII. 
[From Parked Chemical Catechism .] 
OF SALTS. 
What is a salt ? 
When an acid is combined with an alkali, an earth, or a 
metallic oxide, it forms what is called a salt. Such com¬ 
pounds were formerly called neutral salts; but that term is 
now applied only to those salts in which there is no excess 
either of acid or of base.* 
Hmc many salts are there ? 
As the acids are capable of forming various combinations 
with the different earthy, alkaline, and metallic bases, f the 
* To give the pupil a clear idea of this class of bodies, it 
may be advisable to set him to form some of the salts from 
their component parts. He might, for example, be directed 
to pour a little sulphuric acid into a solution of soda in wa¬ 
ter, to evaporate the superfluous water, and then to notice 
the crystallization of the newly-formed salt; for, if the liquor 
be allowed to stand for a few hours undisturbed in a cool 
plate, the salt will be seen to shoot into beautiful crystals of 
sulphate of soda. 
f It should be recollected that, besides the various salts 
which are formed artificially in the laboratory of the chemist, 
there are many mineral bodies belonging to each of these 
