386 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
of wood and bark, leaving in its cellular 
tissue rich supplies of concrete. 
Vegetable growth, the circulation of sap. 
&c., will bo described in another and con¬ 
cluding article. Archibald Stone. 
llinmunville, N. Y., 1852. 
MERITS OF GUANO AS A FERTILIZER. 
The vast superiority of guano over all 
other manures is attributable to the fact 
that it is wholly composed of animal re¬ 
mains, concentrated by tho evaporation ol 
most of its moisture, at the same that no 
portion of its substance has escaped in con¬ 
sequence of those iusiduous changes known 
as fermentation,decomposition.&c., by which 
new products are formed, and some of the 
most nutritive elements are evolved and 
pass off as gases. This condition, so dif¬ 
ferent from what is observed elsewhere, 
over nearly the whole surface of the globe, 
is owing to tho circumstance that these de¬ 
posits are found in a dry, warm climate 
where rains are almost wholly unknown.— 
Tho moisture voided with the excrements of 
the birds is soon evaporated in the dry at¬ 
mosphere, as well as that contained in the 
refuge fish (which constitutes their exclusive 
food,) their broken or addled eggs, together 
with their feathers and carcases, thus with¬ 
drawing from these substances one of the 
indispensable requisites of decomposition. 
There is a gradual change, however, going 
forward in these remains, by which the re¬ 
cent animal features are broken up, their 
form and texture slowly altered and reduc¬ 
ed to a fine powder, and they at last, per¬ 
haps after ages of rest, have assumed that 
brownish hue, and homogeneous mass, 
known as Peruvian guano. 
This simple statement of its origin and 
subsequent condition clearly reveals the 
full merit of guano, unapproached and unap¬ 
proachable in value by any other manure. 
The analysis of average specimens of Peru¬ 
vian guano have been repeatedly made, and 
with nearly the same result Wo subjoin 
one, as indicating, with little variation, the 
character of most of the guano imported for 
American consumption. This average was 
taken from numerous analyses made by Dr. 
Anderson of Scotland. It gave of 
Organized ma ter and ammooiacal salts, . . .53.10 
Phosphates,.. 
Alkaline salts,.' * '.7.97 
..*.LJ. /3 
Sand.1 
FEEDING E-EES- 
700.00 
The quantity of ammonia yielded hv the 
above was 17 per cent. The proportion of 
phosphates is also very largo, being near 
one-fourth of the entire quantity, which is 
accounted for in thefact that these sea fowls 
subsist solely on marine fish, which yield 
largo quantities of tlieso A'aluable ingredi¬ 
ents. 
Von Martius estimates guano to be five 
times as valuable as night-soil, and four times 
more so than pigeon dung; and Liebig con¬ 
siders the importation of one cwt. of guano, 
when properly applied as manure, as equiv¬ 
alent to tho importation of eight cwt. of 
wlioat. 
The eminent value of guano may bo fair¬ 
ly claimed, because it embraces every ele¬ 
ment required by plants for their most 
rapid development and growth, with the 
exception, perhaps, of potash, except such 
as abound in every soil and atmosphere, and 
even potash it probably aids in liberating 
from the soil, where it lias been securely 
locked up for ages. The silicates of soda 
magnesia, and other salts almost everywhere 
exist in sufficient quantity to furnish the 
necessary food for crops, while the organic 
elements, carbon, oxygon, and hydrogen, are 
profusely furnished by the de vs, and rains, 
and atmosphere. Nitrogen, the only organ¬ 
ic element, so difficult of arrest and appro¬ 
priation by plants, while floating through the 
air, is abundantly furnished by tho various 
ammouiacal compounds ol guano. 
Thore is no doubt that much of tho effi¬ 
cacy of guano is owing to the large propor¬ 
tion of phosphates it contains, which are so 
minutely divided as to yield ail their vege¬ 
table food the instant it is demanded, to 
which demand the rootlets are strongly stim¬ 
ulated by the presence of tho ammoniacal 
salts with which the phosphates are inti¬ 
mately blended.— American Agriculturist. 
THE TRUE COURSE. 
With energy for prompt and vigorous 
action, and capacity for sober thought and 
sound reflection, a man may enter upon 
business with some assurance of success. 
His homo will exhibit the best picture of 
his true character. What ho undertakes is 
well done. His fences are in order—there 
is an air of neatness and thrift about his 
dwelling and out-buildings; his grounds are 
laid out with reference to beauty as well as 
convenience—orna.ncnt and use have been 
consulted in planting out his fruit and shade 
trees, and tho garden evinces that his wife 
and daughters have joined him in his culti¬ 
vation. lie does not waste the long winter 
evenings in idleness, nor do his family neg¬ 
lect this season of improvement. While 
his children are engaged in the rudiments 
of learning, he surveys the action of our 
National and State Legislatures; and stud¬ 
ios thoroughly the policy by which both are 
guided. His family do not content them¬ 
selves with the light reading of the day, but 
history, biography, morals and religion re¬ 
ceive a duo share of attention. They lay 
up in winter, from reading, conversation and 
reflection, a harvest more valuable than the 
bounties of autumn. Tho mind thus stored, 
casts light upon any vocation. It cheers 
tho housewife in her round of duties, and 
lightens the labors of tho field.— Hon. J. T. 
Jenkins. 
The editor of the Northern Farmer, who 
has made the subject a study, and is doubt¬ 
less good authority, lias the following arti¬ 
cle on tho Winter Management of Bees, 
which will bo of use to our readers who 
keep them, although it is a little too late in 
the season for all its recommendations to 
bo put in practice the present year.— JY. F. 
Farmer. _ 
Falt.l and Winter Management of Bees. 
—Your weak swarms that have not honey 
enough to pass the Winter, must bo fed. 
or joined with other families. Feed them 
in any manner you please to effect the end 
desired. If your families are all rather 
short of honey, you had better feed all at 
onco, This is effected by a trough, or box 
made tight, say 18 inches long, by G wido. 
and 4 deep. The honey or syrup of sugar, 
is poured into this trough, and covorod with 
a float, or light board filled with small holes, 
or sawpd through from end to end as many 
times as can be, with the interstices cut out 
on a bevel with a knife to admit the honey 
to pass up. West India honey is the only 
article to feed, unless you uso brown sugar. 
This honey is worth 75 cents per gallon, and 
weighs about 1*2 pounds to tho gallon. It is 
kept in all large towns. Half honey and 
half sugar make a good feed. Any cheap 
dry sugar will do. Put your honey and su¬ 
gar into a pot, or kettle, with a quart of 
water to about seven pounds of sugar, and 
beat to a boiling point, skim, and it is ready 
for use. Do the same if sugar is used with¬ 
out honey. 
If you cannot got honey easily, you 
should feed lightly on sugar alone, as the 
water is liable to evaporate in the cells, af¬ 
ter a while, ami tho sugar to harden in 
them, consequently feeding syrup of sugar 
in tho spring is much more desirable than 
in the fall. 
If you have large sheets of empty combs 
you can feed very well by warming your 
feed, and turning it from a pitcher upon 
the combs till the cells are filled. 
When honey is fed alone, or with sugar, 
there is danger of setting all your bees to 
robbing ; hence, before you feed, you must 
contract tho entrances to your hives so that 
but two or threo bees can pass at a time; 
and if tho families are weak, so that but 
one can pass. You should contract the en¬ 
trances, however, in September, whether 
you feed or not, to prevent robbing, but not 
too close. 
As feeding should generally be done in 
October, those who have not done it should 
lose no time. Take the first warm, pleasant 
days, and feed as much as you can, i;i the 
shortest time, so as not to disturb tho bees 
inv longer than is necessary. You can feed 
them in the chambers, or under particular 
hives if you please, and leave such as have 
honey enough unfed. Feeding under tho 
the bees is done by raising the bivo upon a 
box to fit its size. Then place tho feed on 
tho stand, within the box, it being open at 
top and bottom. 
Joining two weak families is a good plan, 
when one hive has honey enough to winter 
on. The addition of another family will 
not reduce its stores one jot, strange, as it 
may appear, as bees consume less than half 
the feed when in large numbers that they 
do in small numbers, having to consume 
more food to keep up vitality. 
Tho manner of joining is as follows:— 
About the first of December, or as soon as 
it is obvious that the bees will not leave 
their hives much, take the most numerous 
family and place it over the weaker one at 
evening, the latter being turned bottom up. 
Then by rapping the lower hive with a rod 
the bees will ascend and join those in the 
upper hive, and if they refuse'to leave rap¬ 
idly, a little smoko applied below to pass 
through them, will give them a start. 
Dry cellars will answer to winter boos in, 
and any dark, airy upper room, but an out¬ 
er box to cover over a hive, with tho passage 
cut to correspond with the passage in the 
hive proper, is the best protection we know 
of. Or you may take hay or straw and .sur¬ 
round your hives so that tho bees shall be 
well ventilated, leaving their entrances open 
and tho hives raised a little from the floor 
boards, then darken tho passages with any¬ 
thing before them, so that the light shall 
not enter and attract the bees but in mild, 
sunny weather, and you can winter your 
bees in perfect safety. 
An Intelligent House —Some years ago, 
the citizens of Centroville, Indiana, wore 
often amused by the conduct of a horse 
when, with others, ho was turned into tho 
barn-yard to ho watered. One day, ap¬ 
proaching tho trough, and finding it empty, 
iio seized the pump handle, to tho surprise 
of the witnesses, between his teeth, and 
pumped water sufficient for himself and the 
other horses. Having thus begun, he was 
allowed, when so inclined, to wait upon 
himself and companions afterwards. But it 
was observed that he always drove the other 
horses away until he had quenched his own 
thirst, after which he pumped for tho rest. 
Poultry and Eggs.— Fowls like the warm 
southern aspect, where they can huddle to¬ 
gether in the sun during the middle of tho 
day. Provide them such a place, and plenty 
of food, such as corn, barley, wheat, cob- 
meal, mixed with scalding water or hot po¬ 
tatoes, with occasional foods of tho flesh of 
young calves, plucks of sheep, and constant 
access to pure water, gravel, old morter, 
oyster or clam shells and bones, all broken 
finely, and they will yield eggs in abundance 
through tho cold weather.— JY. K. Farmer. 
MANAGEMENT OF BARN-YARD MANURE. 
The great aim of the farmer in the man¬ 
agement, of barn-yard manure, should be— 
First, To preserve all tho liquid; Second, 
To keep up a slow fermentation, never let¬ 
ting the heap heat or ferment violently, and 
thus throw off its ammonia; Third, To pre¬ 
vent leaching during heavy rains and melt¬ 
ing snows. 
Tho first is perhaps the most difficult; 
and tanks for the reception of the liquid are 
often recommended and.adopted by first 
rate farmers, and wo wish there was a good 
tank in every barn-yard in the land ; yet wo 
think that much may be done by covering 
the bottom of the yard with dry peat, muck, 
saw dust, waste straw, potato vines, and num¬ 
berless other absorbent substances which can 
he found on most farms, and which, value¬ 
less in themselves, can thus bo made into 
enriching fertilizers. If this bo done and 
the yard be kept constantly supplied with 
waste straw, the heap Avill absorb all the 
liquid of the animals and what may fall in 
rain on its surface. If it will not, a tank, 
or water tight pond, should he placed in a. 
convenient place in the yard and the super¬ 
abundant water of tiio rainy season bo pre¬ 
served for pumping back on the heap in a 
dry period. If this liquid be kept saturat¬ 
ed with sulphate of limo, or refuse common 
salt, it will bo of great value to the manure, 
inasmuch as plaster will, in its liquid state, 
change the volatile carbonate of ammonia 
into the fixed salt, sulphate of ammonia. 
Tho second object, or keeping up a grad¬ 
ual and not too rapid decomposition, is very 
easily attained. If horse or sheep manure 
bo thrown up loosely, so that there is a free 
admission of air and moisture, rapid and 
most injurious decomposition takes place 
with the evolition of ammonia, carbonic acid, 
and water. This burning process (for it is 
nothing loss than a slow process of actual 
combustion) may bo allowed to go on till the 
heap is greatly reduced in size and what is 
left be comparatively worthless. On the 
other hand, if the hog and cow manure he 
thrown in a solid heap, little or no docom 
position takes placo, and the manure re¬ 
mains in a raw and unsuitable state for di¬ 
rect application to rapidly growing plants. 
The object of the farmer, therefore, should 
be to mix those several manures together, 
so that tho horse manure, &c., shall act as 
a ferment, and induce the desired decompo¬ 
sition of the iiog manure, &c. In this way 
they will counteract each other, and the 
heap by spring will be in first rate order for 
direct application to tho corn, potato, or 
other crops. Sheep do not like to lio on a 
fermenting manure heap. They should, if 
possible, have a separate yard to run in at 
night, and the manure they make be hauled 
to the heap as often as practicable, fresh 
straw being supplied in its place. It is gen¬ 
erally necessary that sheep and cattle should 
run on the manure heap so as to compress it 
and prevent too rapid fermentation. 
The third condition necessary to preserve 
tho valuable elements of manure is to pre¬ 
vent leaching. This can be accomplished 
by having all tho buildings around tho yard 
spouted, and tho water conducted away 
without falling on the manure. If this is 
done, tho water falling on the natural sur¬ 
face of the heap will not usually he more 
than the manure can absorb; if it is, as wo 
have before said, it should be preserved— 
saturated with plaster and convoyed back to 
tho heap in dry weather. 
We believe if these three conditions were 
attended to in the manner we have men¬ 
tioned. or in some other way better suited 
to individual situations, the value of the ma¬ 
nure on most farms would be at least doub¬ 
led.— Genesee Farmer. 
HOW TO IMPROVE POOR SOIL. 
No animal or vegetable matter can act as 
a stimulant to vegetable growth until after 
fermentation. 
Carrots for Horses. —The stable keep¬ 
ers are beginning to find that theso vegeta¬ 
bles form a cheap and nutritious food to 
mix with grain for their horses. It is better 
to give a working horse a peek of carrots 
and four quarts of oats or corn meal a day, 
than to give him six quarts of meal. 
There is a way within reach even of a 
poor man. If he will bo content to til but 
little ground, bo may liavo it enriched al¬ 
most at free cost, by observing the following 
particulars. 
Waste nothing. If you have merely a tub 
of soap-suds, throw it upon your manure 
heap. So of rotten chips, the hair carded 
from your horse and cow, the liquids re¬ 
moved every morning by tho acting cham¬ 
bermaid, your woolen rags, ashes, lime, or 
clay, that may be at hand. Get also the 
oyster-shells that are thrown as refuse by 
some neighbor, burn and powder thorn, and 
add this to the common stock. • Mix in, too, 
any hay you may have that is worthless as 
fodder." Pursue this course in tho strictest 
manner, and your land will constantly bo 
improved. Nor should you forget to set all 
hands, old and young, male and female, as 
far as convenient,to pluck up by the roots the 
weeds that infest your grounds, taking care 
that the seeds do not ripen, and throw these 
upon the pile. A small armful per day will 
amount to much in a season, and may pro¬ 
duce nearly its own weight of grass, or straw, 
or stalk, and you rid yourself of a 
pest at the same time. If your land is 
clay, surely you can mix sand in your dung- 
heap, and this will do much good, and all 
this costs a mere trifle. 
Haul up to your yard a few loads of peat 
or muck from some swamp ; or if this is be¬ 
yond your reach, collect a quantity of leaves 
from the forest or elsewhere, and throw 
these upon tho pile. And it you can add 
charcoal-dust from some neighbor’s kiln, 
you will be a gainer. Doing these things, 
or as many of them as you can. other sug¬ 
gestions will occur to you. tho result of cir¬ 
cumstances, which will he equally impor¬ 
tant. Thus, spent tan is valuable. Can’t 
you get some ? This latter, however, is im¬ 
proved by being charred. Thus prepared, 
the tan is a capital manure for your straw¬ 
berries, melons and cucumbers, grape vines, 
&c. _ _ 
Deference is tho most complicate, the 
most indirect, and tho most elegant oi all 
compliments. 
NEW YORK MILK TRADE, 
The number of farmers engaged in tho 
milk business, according to tho New York 
Evening Dost, to which tho following facts 
are due, is little over three hundred, and 
the number of cows possessed by them a 
little over nino hundred. These, at filtccn 
dollars each, will come to $135,000, and tho 
land necessary for their support, ot three 
acres to an animal, will amount to twenty- 
seven thousand acres. The value of horses 
engaged in the distribution of the milk, is 
forty-five thousand dollars; the horsos con¬ 
nected with tho transportation ot country 
milk alone, travel daily twice as tar as from 
Now York to Liverpool. There are threo 
hundred wagons worth a hundred dollars 
each. Ten thousand cans are used, valued 
at thirty-five thousand dollars. Tho loss 
for wear and tear of theso is great, and es¬ 
timated at about five per cent on the profit 
of sales. 
Two hundred and fifty companies and 
single dealers are estimated to receive milk 
from the country, sell from 200 to G000 
quarts daily. Many hotel restaurants and 
hoarding houses make contracts with the 
farmers, and get their milk from them di¬ 
rectly at three and four centsaquart. The 
sum paid for pure milk iast year in New 
York was over one million eight hundred 
thousand dollars; about one-fourth ol 
which was paid for the water, with which it 
was diluted. The amount of the milk and 
water was about thirty-one millions and a 
half quarts, and about one hundred and 
forty-six thousand dollars Avero paid for 
transporting it. 
What has been spoken of, comprises about 
one-third of tho article consumed, and is 
called pure country milk; tho other two- 
thirds are composed of the produce and 
swill of the grain stables of Now Yot’k and 
the vicinity. The number of cows thus ted 
is fifteen thousand. Their value is less by 
twenty-live per cent than country cows; 
but after being dry and fatted, if not en¬ 
feebled by the disease incident to such cat¬ 
tle, they will bring nearly as much, it is said, 
as grass-fed cattle, and are probably served 
up at tables with no suspicion of their his¬ 
tory. Tho cows fed on grain and swill are 
estimated to ho worth one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars; and, though proportion¬ 
ally less in value, yield a profit about two- 
thirds greater. than that realized on the sale 
of the pure country article. The swill milk 
is adulterated about one-fourth more than 
the country milk. Tho number ot quarts 
daily produced by theso establishments 
which undergo a remarkable increase in 
tho hands of the hucksters, may be estimat¬ 
ed at one hundred and eighty thousand 
quarts daily. This is three millions, seven 
hundred thousand yearly; which at four 
and a half cents, amounts to noarly three 
millions of dollars. 
Tho number of porsons ono way or an¬ 
other engaged in the distribution of this 
milk in Now York, Williamsburg and Jersey 
City, may bo set down at twelve hundred 
at weekly wages of about six dollars each. 
Horses connected with it are about eight 
hundred, worth eighty thousand dollars 
and wagons, cans, &c., ono hundred thou 
sand dollars more. Tho total value of carts 
horses, cans, other utensils, and cows in city 
and country concerned in the product and 
distribution of both kinds of milk is esti¬ 
mated at nearly six hundred thousand dol¬ 
lars. Tho total annual receipts from its 
sale may bo reckoned at six millions, as lol 
lows : 
Pure country milk.SI.350.000 
Pure swill milk. 2,null,000 
Water, chalk, magnesia, molasses, &c.,. . . 1,•.’.50,000 
$6,050,000 
The last item shows an immense sum paid 
for water, though it is commonly celebrated 
as the free gift of Heaven. It to this be 
added what is paid for ico. and by the in 
habitants of New York for tho Croton, i 
will be found that few articles are more ex 
pensive than water, covering though it doe 
three-fourths of tho surface of tho earth 
In its simple state tho largest amount ot 
milk is consumed by infants and children 
and when its deleterious nature is consider 
ed. their extraordinary mortality can excite 
no wonder. But tho great proportion of the 
milk sold is probably used in cookery and 
the manufacture of confections; of which 
there is an immense consumption, especial¬ 
ly in the summer. One of our largest sa¬ 
loons in New Y ork is reputed to have con¬ 
verted live hundred quarts into ico cream in 
a single day last summer. 
On the whole, the million and a quarter 
annually paid for tho water, molasses, chalk 
and magnesia mingled in this drug, for so it 
then becomes, is probably laid out at a hot¬ 
ter bargain than tho two millions and a half 
for the product of tho swill. 
DRAINAGE.-TEMPERATURE CF THE SOIL. 
MAKING VINEGAR. 
Not long ago, wo gave some of the modes |j 
of making vinegar. Since that time wo 
liavo received queries from different indi¬ 
viduals, asking tho mode of manufacturing 
vine< r er, in the quickest way, without cider. 
It is probably well known that vinegar is 
tho acetic acid which is formed from vege¬ 
table substances, and tho best vinegar in this 
country is that made from cider, in the slow 
way, by first permitting the sugar or sac- 
ebarine matter of the cider, to ferment and 
form a spirituous liquor, and this again to 
undergo another change, by absorption of 
oxygen from the air, and become acetic acid. 
Sugar and spirit, and vegetable albumen, 
seem to bo necessary for the manufacture of 
vinegar, or perhaps sugar alone contains 
the necessary elements, which may, by tho 
Addition of water, and exposure to the air, 
undergo all the necessary chemical changes 
to be converted into vinegar or acetic acid. 
Wo abridge, from Pareira’s Materia Medi- 
ca, the following German method of ma¬ 
king vinegar in a short time : 
Take alcohol of eighty per cent strength, 
four to six parts of water, one thousandth 
part of ferment, (veast.) honey or extract 
>f malt. Mix tlieso together, and cause 
them to trickle down through a mass of 
beech shavings, steeped in vinegar. Tho 
shavings are placed in a tub or vessel, cal¬ 
led a vinegar generator, or graduation ves¬ 
sel. 
It is a tub, narrower at the bottom than 
it the top, furnished with a looso lid or cov¬ 
er, below which is a perforated shelf, (colan¬ 
der, or false bottom,) having a number of 
small holes, loosely filled with pack thread 
about six inches long, and prevented from 
falling through by a knot at tho upper end. 
The shelf is also perforated with lour open 
glass tubes, as air vents, each having its end 
projecting above and below tho shelf. Tho 
tub, at its lowest part, is pierced with a 
horizontal row of eight equi-dist nt holes, 
to admit atmospheric air. 
One inch abovo tho bottom is a syphon 
formed diselmrgo pipe, whose upper curva¬ 
ture stands one inch below the level of tho 
air boles in tho side of tho tub. Tho body 
of tho tub being filled with beech shavings 
or chips, tho alcoholic liquor (being heated 
to between seventy and eighty degrees) is 
placed on the shelf. It trickles slowly down 
through the holes, by means of the pack 
thread, dilfuses itself over the chips, slowly 
collects at tho bottom of the tub, and then 
runs off by the syphon pipe. The air en¬ 
ters by the holes in the circumference of 
the tub, circulates freely through it, and es¬ 
capes by the glass tubes. 
As the oxygon is absorbed, tho tempera¬ 
ture rises to ono hundred degrees, and re¬ 
mains stationary at about that point, while 
action goes on favorably. The liquid re¬ 
quires to he passed threo or four times 
through the cask before the vinegar is per¬ 
fectly completed, which is generally effected 
in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours.— 
Tho Rectification of cider will be much has¬ 
tened if passed through the same process. 
—Maine Farmer. 
RUST IN WHEAT.-PREVENTIVE 
The Editor of tho Michigan Farmer in 
one of his “ Pickings by the way ” speaks of 
the effect of thick sowing upon rust in wheat. 
It seems to us there is a good deal of rea¬ 
son in what ho says, and he adduces in favor 
of his theory, the testimony of pructcal far¬ 
mers, which goes farther than all theory. 
What ho proposes is to sow tho seeds 
thick.' This lie contends will have a ten¬ 
dency to make the roots run deep into the 
earth, instead of over the surface, and that 
such would be the result he cites the case 
of forest trees growing in the forest, and 
again in an open field as a proof. If tho 
roots run deep, it gives them greater acces¬ 
sibility to tho mineral elements below. 
A Mr. Fay of this State, in conversing 
with him, related some facts in his experi¬ 
ence which seems to bo very much to the 
point. Ho has a field lying low and cover¬ 
ed with a deep mould, approaching to the 
nature of muck, iio had sown it to wheat 
several times, but it never escaped tho rust. 
Observing that in the dead furrows, where 
the seed was collected in grearer quantities 
than elsewhere, and as a consequence tho 
crop stood thicker, that tho straw was 
brighter and the kernels plump, he was led 
to sow the whole field thick for tho next 
crop. Ho put on two and a half bushels to 
the acre, and tho crop wholly escaped tho 
rust. lie has had tho same success since. 
Now it is true that all this may be purely 
accidental, yet as tliero seoms to be i>ood 
reason for the theory, and so far as yot put 
in practico it has sceinod to succeed, it cer¬ 
tainly affords good ground for further trial. 
— Randolph Whig. 
All tho rain that falls upon our fields 
must either ho carried away by natural or 
artificial drainage, or, having thoroughly 
saturated the soil on which it falls, bo left 
upon tho surface to be carried off by evap¬ 
oration. Now, every gallon of water thus 
carried off by evaporation, requires as much 
beat as would raise five and a half gallons 
from tho freezing to the boiling point !— 
Without going to extreme cases, the groat 
effects of the heat thus lost upon vegetation 
cannot fail to bo striking, and I have fre¬ 
quently found the soil of a field well drained, 
higher in tomperaturo from 10° to 15°, than 
that of another field which had not boon 
drained, though in every other respect tho 
soils were similar. I have observed the ef¬ 
fects of this on growing crops, and I liavo 
soon not only a much inferior crop on the 
undrained field, hut that crop harvested 
fully threo weeks after tho other, and owing 
to this circumstance and tho setting in ot 
unsettled weather, I have soen. that crop 
deteriorated fully ten per cent in value.— 
Journal of Ag. Society. 
Use of Saltpetre. —Professor Refines- 
quo denounces the uso of saltpetre in brine 
intended for tho preservation <>f flesh to bo 
kept for food. That part of the saltpetre 
which is absorbed by the meat, ho says, is 
nitric acid, or aquafortis, a deadly poison. 
Animal flesh consists of gelatinous and fi¬ 
brous substances, the former only possess¬ 
ing a nutritious virtue; tho gelatine is des¬ 
troyed by tho chemical action of salt and 
saltpetre, and as the professor remarks, the 
meat becomes as different from what it 
should bo, as leather is from raw hide bo- 
fore it is subjected to tho process of tan¬ 
ning. lie ascribed to tho pornicious effects 
of the chemical change all tho diseases 
which are so common to mariners and oth¬ 
ers who subsist principally upon salted 
meat, such as scurvy, sore gums, decayed 
teeth, ulcers. See:, and advises a total aban¬ 
donment of the uso of saltpetre in the ma¬ 
king of pickle for beef, pork, &c\, tho best 
substitute of which is, ho says, sugar, a 
small quantity rendering tho meat sweeter, 
more wholesome and equally durable. 
