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VOLUME V. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.- SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1854. 
rVVHOLE NO. 
SlVan’s Hand gltto-gnrlur: 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary, and Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
ASSISTKU BY 
JOSEPH HARRIS, in the Practical Departments: 
EDWARD WEBSTER, in the Literary and Nows Dep’ts. 
Corresponding Editors: 
J. H. Bixby,— H. C. "White, — T. E. Wetmore. 
The Rubai. New-Yoiiker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to make it a Reliable Guide on the important Practical 
Subjects connected with the business of those whose in¬ 
terests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horti¬ 
cultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter, 
interspersed with many appropriate and handsome engrav¬ 
ings, than any other paper published in this Country,— 
rendering it a complete Agricultural, Literary and 
Family Newspaper. 
For Terms, &c., see last page. 
Progress and Improvement. 
SPECIAL MANURE THEORY.—NO. III. 
Some of our readers will be inclined to ask 
how we account for the facts adduced in the 
previous article. At present they are inexpli¬ 
cable. Laws there are, doubtless, which regu¬ 
late these as well as all other phenomena, but 
we arc not obliged to understand them clearly 
before we yield assent to the truth of careful 
observations. We know that wheat destroys 
a large quantity of ammonia during its growth, 
but we do not know why, how, or for what 
purpose the destruction takes place. So, too, 
it is unmistakably a fact that turnips, though 
they cont’ain much less phosphoric acid than 
wheat, require for their growth more available 
phosphoric acid in the soil, than the wheat 
plaut. But we do not pretend to see why this 
should be so. It is well to know that such is 
the case, even though we do not understand the 
cause. 
But, it will be said, these facts appear to in¬ 
dicate that the less quantity of any particular 
substance a plant contains, the greater should 
be the quantity supplied in the manure; and 
that such a supposition appears ridiculous.— 
We do not wish to establish any such a rule. 
Our object is not to propound a new theory, 
but to show that the theory on which so many 
now act, or rather argue, for few act upon it, 
is unsound. We would respectfully ask the 
advocates of the special manure theory ou 
what ground they assume that, because certain 
elements preponderate in the plant, they should 
preponderate in the soil, or manure best adapt¬ 
ed for their growth. Such a view, we are free 
to admit, is exceedingly plausible; but is it not 
superficial? A few considerations, we think, 
will show it to be so. 
The most profound physiologists cannot, tell 
us how plants take up their food. They offer a 
number of theories, which are at variance with 
each other. Some think that the matter is 
absorbed by spougeoles at the extremities of 
the roots, while others say that the whole epi¬ 
dermis of the root takes up the food by endos- 
mose. The latter opinion is sustained by many 
careful experiments, but the former is most 
popular. Those who have examined into this 
subject, will admit that we are yet lamentably 
ignorant of the laws which govern the absorp¬ 
tion of food by plants. Should we not, there¬ 
fore, be more careful in writing out prescrip¬ 
tions for compounding a manure best suited 
for the growth of this or that particular crop, 
simply from the deductions of analysis? 
One point seems clearly established— plants 
can take up their food only in solution. Rain 
falls on the soil and dissolves by the aid of 
its carbonic and nitric acid, &c., the soluble 
matter of the soil, conveying it to the roots of 
plants. May we call this dissolved matter from 
which all plants are sustained, the sap of the 
soil ? ilow then do plants obtain just such 
food as they require from this common source? 
If one plant required potash, another soda, an¬ 
other lime, another phosphoric acid, &c., it 
would be difficult to suggest any plausible hy¬ 
pothesis; but this is not the case. Agricultu¬ 
ral plants are all composed of similar constitu¬ 
ents, the only difference being in the relative 
proportion of the ingredients. Take, for in¬ 
stance, the turnip and the wheat plant; the lat¬ 
ter contains much more phosphoric acid and 
less potash than the former. If we plant them 
both in the same soil, how does the turnip ab¬ 
sorb, from the same common sap of the soil, 
less phosphoric acid and more potash than its 
neighbor, the wheat plant? Plants in popular 
treatises are frequently said to have the power 
of selection. But they are not sentient beings, 
and have not the power of volition, and this 
power of selection in regard to obtaining more 
or less of substances they require, which to a 
certain extent, they undoubtedly possess, must 
be attributed to catalysis, or to the peculiar 
formation of the spougeoles or pores of the 
roots. Suppose we take the latter view,.which 
is most consistent with observed facts. If the 
sap of the soil contains sufficient phosphoric 
acid for the wheat plant, it obviously contains 
too much for the turnip plant growing by its 
side. How, then, shall the turnip absorb a sap 
containing less phosphoric acid than the wheat 
plant ? Is it not probable that the pores or 
spougeoles are so formed as to separate or fil¬ 
ter out a portion of the phosphoric acid, or 
some of its various compounds. In other 
words, is it not probable that the wheat plant, 
requiring a large proportion of phosphoric acid, 
would have pores or spongeoles so formed as 
to be capable of taking it up from a very weak 
solution, or from a sap of the soil, in which it 
existed in the minutest quantity; while the tur¬ 
nip plant, which requires but a small quantity, 
would have pores or spongeoles so formed as 
to take up only a small portion of that which 
was capable of assimilation ? 
Plants have definite characteristics, and if 
their power of obtaining dissimilar food from 
a common solution, is owing to the formation 
of the pores of the roots or spougeoles, as we 
have assumed, then, a plant which requires a 
large proportion of any particular substance, 
would have pores so formed as to take it up 
in large quantities, while a plant that only re¬ 
quired a small proportion would have pores so 
formed as to prevent too large a proportion 
from entering the circulation of the plant. Un¬ 
der these circumstances, then, if we wish to in¬ 
crease the normal growth of a plant, we must 
supply it, in large quantity, with those substan¬ 
ces the pores require iu the most concentrated 
solution, to wit, those of which they contain 
the least. 
It must be understood that these are mere 
speculations, which we offer, not to confirm the 
facts which gave tise to them in our mind, but 
simply to show that those who make such an 
easy matter of determining from analysis, the 
substances best suited to the increased growth 
of any particular crop, take but a partial view 
of the subject The facts, founded ou Mr. 
Lawes’ experiments, and on the practice of 
thousands of the best British farmers, need no 
theoretical confirmation; and whatever may be 
said of the speculations we have ventured to 
build upon them, the facts will still remain in 
all their force, and they are standing witnesses 
against the doctrine of special manure as pop¬ 
ularly understood. 
CULTIVATION OF ONIONS. 
R. B. E. wishes for information in the culti¬ 
vation of onions, soil, seed, manure, &c., best 
adapted for their proper development. With 
but little experience in their cultivation, the 
writer of this condenses an article from various 
reliable sources, for the benefit of R. B. E., 
and others. 
Other things being equal—a light, loamy 
soil, approaching somewhat to sand, is the best 
soil. The onion delights in a dry warm soil, 
one that shall receive and impart a goodly de¬ 
gree of heat without parching. At all events 
the soil should be a good one, and iu good con¬ 
dition. made rich with the proper food for the 
plant. 
For the successful cultivation of the onion, 
on soil which has never produced onions, there 
should be a preparatory course, by very deep 
plowing for one or two years, and the ground 
thoroughly cultivated with corn, carrots, or 
something of the sort, that, shall perfectly sub¬ 
due and mellow the ground, whilst, iu the mean 
time shall be given generous dressings of good 
manure. After these crops, give the laud an¬ 
other dressing of strong manure, with the ad- it sends out, are numerous, minute and tender, 
dition of muscle-bed if convenient, covering it and any injury to them must result in draw- 
well, but not deeply—then 1 * -ow thoroughly backs on the profits of the crop. If the land 
and clear the surface of roots, weeds, and all is properly clear of weeds, or their seeds—two 
obstructions. If a coating of well-rotted ma- weedings are all that are needed. All the rest 
uure be then added to the surface and incor- of the stirring can be done with an onion hoe. 
porated with a bush harrow,’all the better; and Keeping the ground well stirred, loose and 
your ground will be in fine condition for re- clean, facilitates the bottoming of the onion, 
ceiving the seed just as early as it can be plant- so that the old maxim of “a stitch in time,” 
ed in the spring. After this, the onion crop &c., applies with much force to the raising of 
may follow year after year, for an indefinite onions. 
period—as most people think the produce is The cut ivorm i 3 a lover of young onions, 
bettered by continued cropping. I here are and is not slow in cutting them down. The 
instances where the crop has been known to only remedy that can be suggested against 
follow for ten, fifteen, and even thirty years, them, is to “catch them, and pull out their 
without any apparent deterioration of the pro- teeth.” To do this, one must be up betimes in 
duct. Aud \^e are told a spot ot ground was the morning to catch them at their work, for 
shown in Scotland, a few years since, which they are soon after light burrowed again in the 
had been cultivated in onions for eighty years, ground. When the tops begin to wither and 
and the last crop was as wood as any of its die, it is usual then to commence the harvest- 
predecessors that could be remembered. But jng. Eight or ten row 3 are pulled and thrown 
fertilizers of course must b j added, to keep up j n one, where they lie for a week or so, when 
this good tilth they are indispensable to a they are stirred and turned with a rake, when 
profitable crop. The mac .re is added before jf the ground be dry and the weather good, in 
the plowings, in a finely rotted condition. about a week more they will be in order to 
After the ground is commenced to be crop- cart to the barn, where they are sorted and 
ped with onions, the plowings are more shal- cleaned of refuse leaves, when they are ready 
low—say four or six inches. The land is also to be barreled, or bunched for market A 
\ vve11 harrowed, to obtain a fine and mellow good deal of the labor of cultivating and fitting 
j surface, for on this also much depends. Some the onion for market, can be performed by 
i cultivators give an occasional deep plowing; children who are more nimble and come more 
others think it unnecessary, while some do not readily to the work. The yield per acre, on 
even plow the land, only occasionally after it good soil, with such treatment as is indicated 
is once well brought to Great care must be above, will go above five hundred bushels to 
exercised too, to keep down the weeds—per- the acre, as an average. The potato onion, 
mitting none to go to seed, aud then to apply especially the English potato onion, is coining 
manure free from foul stuff. W hen the land is more into cultivation and is promising to be 
once cleared from wee ; cultivation is profitable, aud the more so, as they are remov- 
light and easy, and mostly done with an onion ed so early that a second crop, of turnip or the 
hoe, propelled on wheels, which saves much like, may be raised on the same ground. These 
back-aching labor. are propagated not by seeds, but by offsets, 
Ashes, soot, charcoal, and plaster, are all aud hence, are more easily worked amongst in 
beneficial to the onion. Some preler leached the early stages of their growth. Some think 
ashes to unleached. Any strong manure, that them not so good keepers. t. e. w. 
is well rotted, is applied very advantageously. _ , , -» . ,_ 
Muscle-bed, by the onion raisers of Mass., is CULTURE OF INDIAN CORN 
considered almost indispensable. Whatever T0 o BTA i^- the largest yield. 
the manure applied, it should be near the sur- - 
face and well incorporated with the soil. It A correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune 
is in vain to expect full crops of the onion asks how to grow one huudred bushels of corn 
without full and generous manuring, and the to the acre. With some excellent advice and 
cultivator must be willing to work early and directions in the premises, the Tribune also 
late, without stint of elbow grease, or fear of advises deep plowing between the young grow- 
soiling the knees of his trowsers or the palms ing corn. Methinks that all the deep tillage 
of his hands. corn requires, should be done before plowing, 
Much care should be had in the selection of and that no other cultivation is necessary after¬ 
seed. Formerly the eastern cultivators pre- wards that cannot be done by the hoe, or a 
ferred the fat onion. Bat now, the round, steel-toothed cultivator. Turning up the soil 
thick, and plump onion is more sought after with a plow so soon after it is planted, exposes 
and commands ten per cent, better prices, be- it to lose its ammonia in the rays of the new 
ing thought to yield better and to weigh heav- hot sun, and drying winds. In loosening the 
ier. This change in shape, was brought about surface with hoe or cultivator, the weeds are 
by carefully selecting those of the best approv- killed,—the stirred surface takes iu the night 
ed form for seed, and using caution in prevent- dew by capillary attraction, an#I the roots of 
ing them from mixing with baser sorts in the the corn strike wide and deep through the 
blossom. The silver skin, red, and white previously well pulverized soil, availing thern- 
onions are most raised. The white is milder, selves of the ammonia as it is generated by the 
and preferred for immediate use—does not humus in the soil. 
keep as well. The red sells better in some The Tribune says, that corn ground should 
markets, but does not produce as heavy, crops, be plowed two feet deep, with Mapes’ subsoil 
The silver skin is most cultivated. The drill plow. Methinks this is going a little too deep 
barrow is used where a quantity ot seed is to for present farm economy, it being about four 
be sown. The quantity of seed per acre is times as deep as ordinary plowing, an innova- 
about three pounds. The best cultivators pre- tion too great to be immediately adapted by 
ler a pretty thick seeding, so as to secure a full j that constitutionally conservative man, the far- 
crop, without gaps in the rows, and also to pre- mer. If two inches of urine saturated, un¬ 
vent too great a growth, as they find that those washed, stable manure is placed in the bottom 
from one to two iuches in diameter are most of the furrow or trench, ten to twelve inches 
sought after in the markets. below the surface, in an undrained calcareous 
A good deal of care is necessary while the clay loam, not previously exhausted of humus, 
plants are young, and they should be handled it may be made to produce at least one huu- 
with much caution—any derangement of the dred bushels of shelled corn to the acre. Plant 
roots and fibres of the young plant, is followed early in drills, 2$ to 3 feet apart, according to 
by prejudicial results. Weeds should uot be the larger or smaller variety of the corn; thin 
allowed the least ascendancy, and it is here that out the plants at the first hoeing, to about 8 
the greatest item is had in the resultant prof- iuches in the row, and cut out barren or fun- 
its, by having the ground clear of the pests.— gus stalks and suckers afterwards; the product 
They do not overshadow the young plants, or is worth the trouble for soiling cows. Hoe or 
suck away the nutriment, while the young onion cultivate, or both, as soon as the plants are up; 
is not injured by any disarrangement of its ten- this gives them a better start than soaking the 
der roots, by a severe weeding. The plaut on seeds, and often counteracts a light frost.— 
clean ground, is therefore permitted to grow With the thermometer much below 70°, corn is 
forward without any let or hindrance to its stationary above the surface, but the roots con- 
highest development. tinue to grow; in proof of it, such corn will 
There is probably no plant more liable to gain more in stalk in one hot day, than later 
injury from weeds than the onion. The fibres planted corn will in two days. 
There is no greater mistake than to suppose 
that cold weather stints the early planted corn. 
I have had it turn yellow and remain station¬ 
ary for a week or more; yet this corn ripened 
two weeks earlier than that planted later. In 
cool,damp weather, corn is gaining that strength 
of root which alone enables it to support the 
subsequent heat and drouth of summer. The 
advantage of having unfermented manure deep 
in the soil, is that the corn roots may find that 
ammonia and water, which is generated or 
chemically formed, only after summer heat is in 
full force. It is also a mistake to suppose that 
a July and August drouth, in our climate, di¬ 
minishes the cereal product of a previously 
well managed corn field; however fatal it may 
be to the late planted, undrained, ill-plowed, 
manureless field. I have had roasting ears of 
sweet corn in forty days after planting, but 
they were the longest, hottest days; after the 
long cool nights of September, corn grows and 
matures slowly; in October it will hardly glaze, 
hence that farmer who complains of having 
much soft corn, sets the seal to his own neglect 
and want of skill in his great calling. s. w. 
BUCKWHEAT. 
This crop, though last to be sown, is not by 
any means the last in importance. As it can 
be got in at a time of comparative leisure, 
(from the 10th to the 20th of June), and as it 
will grow on almost any soil, even if indifferent¬ 
ly prepared, it is, all things considered, many 
times, one of the most profitable crops. And 
who that has tasted of “ hot buck-wheat cakes 
ou a cold frosty morning,” will deny that they 
are among the luxuries of the table? If the 
gi«Jn L of fair quality, there is no good -casco 
why the me-al should not be as white as the 
flour of wheat; if it is not, the fault is in the 
grinding. 
As feed for horses, when ground, it is excel¬ 
lent, and for cows that give milk in the winter, 
there is nothing superior. Were its merits for 
thi3 use better known, they would be more ful- 
h* appreciated. 
Dairymen, try it. When mixed with other 
grain, it is also good for fattening hogs. Con¬ 
cerning its value as a green crop, to be plowed 
under, there is a difference of opinion. Chem¬ 
ists tell us that it does not contain the elements 
of fertility in as great abundance as clover, and 
according to their theory, it is not as valuable 
as a green crop. 
But the writer has tried it on a tough sward, 
with eminent success,—the benefits, no doubt, 
partly arising from its mechanical action in 
pulverizing the sward, and for this it stands 
pre-eminent; it is superior even to peas. c. 
Remarks. —It may possibly be superior to 
peas for mechanical action in tenacious soils, 
but that it is superior to peas for fertilizing 
purposes, is, to say the least, contrary to many 
well attested experiments, and contrary to gen¬ 
eral opinion, among experienced men. Will 
our esteemed correspondent give us his experi¬ 
ments more in detail?— Eds. 
Corrosive Sublimate for Sacks. —It is 
well known that nearly all substances are more 
or less affected with mildew, which greatly ac¬ 
celerates their decay. Corrosive sublimate 
(chloride of mercury) affords the best means 
of destroying it, though there are other sub¬ 
stances less expensive, which iu other cases 
answer the purpose equally well. How fre¬ 
quently have we heard farmers complain, that 
their grain sacks prematurely lost their strength 
from partial decay. We are satisfied that 
much of this rotting of sacks, cordage, &c., is 
attributable to a species of fungus, or mildew, 
which may be destroyed, or what is still better,” 
be prevented, by soaking the sacks in a weak, 
solution of corrosive sublimate, say one drachm 
to each quart of boiling water. If you pur¬ 
chase any new sacks this season, try it on a 
few and report the result. 
Chandler’s & Kemp’s water drills, for the 
distribution of guano, superphosphate, and 
other concentrated fertilizers, are spoken of 
very highly by tbe British Agricultural press. 
Their use insures a crop of turnips, and the 
action of the manure is more immediate and 
beneficial. 
