1846. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
63 
CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE. 
PRODUCT OF A HALF ACRE. 
H. W. Crosby, La Fayette College Pa., states that 
he gathered last year from half an acre, 212 bushels 
sugar beets, 92 bushels carrots, 20 bushels turneps, and 
450 merchantable cabbages. The ground had no ma¬ 
nure last year, but the year before it had a good dress¬ 
ing. It was plowed twice, very deep, (about 13 inches,) 
then thrown into ridges eighteen inches apart, the 
ridges raked and the seed sown. The plants were 
thinned to six inches in the row. The turneps were 
only sown where the carrots missed. 
LIEBIG’S THEORY OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 
We make the following extracts from a letter on this 
subject signed Dairyman Farmer: 
" Although I think the communication written by 
Liebig, published in your December number, is worth 
the full price of a year’s subscription, yet I think some 
of his conclusions and assertions have a tendency to 
mislead new beginners and give them to expect more 
certainty in agricultural operations than facts will war¬ 
rant. I will only notice a couple of instances. First, 
he says—" The system of draining, which of late has 
been so extensively followed in England, brings the 
land into the state of a great filter, through which the sol¬ 
uble alkalies are drawn off, in consequence of the per¬ 
colation of rain; and it must, therefore, become more 
deficient in its soluble efficacious elements.” [See Cul¬ 
tivator for Dec., 1844, p. 364.] Can it be that injury 
has resulted to the lands from this cause? I think not. 
" Again he says, (same page) if chemists succeed (as 
he has no doubt they will,) c in combining the effica¬ 
cious elements of manure in such a way as that they will 
not be washed away—their efficacy will be doubled; if 
in this manner the injurious consequences of the pre¬ 
sent system of draining be removed, agriculture will be 
based upon as certain principles as well arranged man¬ 
ufactories.’ 
" Now every farmer of experience knows that the re¬ 
sults of his operations depend in a great degree on the 
season, over which he has no control. He certainly 
cannot prepare his land against wet and drouth, heat 
and cold at the same time. We lose at least one crop 
in four on 3'•count of unfavorable weather.” 
DISEASE IN COWS. 
A " Dairyman Farmer” writes that in the spring 
and summer of 1840, his cows were attacked with a 
swelling about the head and jaws. " The first” (says 
he) " that I observed of it, one of the cows refused her 
food, and on examining her, I found that she was so 
swollen about the mouth and eyes that she could scarce¬ 
ly see. I had her bled immediately, and in fifteen 
minutes she began to feed. The swelling soon went 
down, and the next day she appeared as well as ever. 
In the course of the summer, five or six others were 
taken in the same way, though we generally discovered 
it before they were as bad as the first. They were all, 
however, more or less swollen, and some of their bags 
were affected. Copious bleeding invariabl 3 r cured them. 
T have sometimes given four or five quarts of thorough- 
wort (bone-set) tea, one or two quarts at a time.” 
PROFITS OF HENS. 
Mr. James L. Cox, Zanesville, Ohio, gives us the 
results of an experiment he made for the purpose of as¬ 
certaining whether hens would be profitable. He says: 
“ In Dec. and Jan. last, (1844, ’45,) I sent out to a man 
who has charge of our coal-banks and farm, 24 hens and 
one cock. One would think the number of hens too 
large, but the eggs hatch very well—say 110 eggs set, 
hatched 75 chickens. This was previous to July 1st, 
1845; and besides the eggs set, the hens, laid in the 
same time, 1096 others. The grain eaten in that time 
amounted to $4.25. This was for six months. I in¬ 
tended to have kept the account for a year, but left 
home on the 4th of July, and did not return till Septem- 
ber. I thought the produce pretty well for the time. 
I had them in a warm room with a stove in the room 
adjoining, which I think had a good effect, for after 
they commenced laying, they did not stop, let the wea¬ 
ther be what it might.” 
CROPS OF 1845 IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
Extract from a letter received from W. S. Gibbes, 
of Chestnut Grove, S. C., dated Jan. 1st, last:—" The past 
has been a deplorable year; the loss of crops and the 
suffering of the poorer classes, will long be remem¬ 
bered. The drouth injured us greatly, but the chinch 
bug more—injured our wheat, eat up our oats and de¬ 
stroyed fields of corn. I do not make more than one- 
fifth of a corn-crop, and not more cotton than enough 
to buy the corn needed—and yet I make a better crop 
than many of my neighbors. Some did not make a 
bushel of corn, or a pound of eotton. Many are kill¬ 
ing off their hogs from the woods, having no corn to 
fatten them with; and their stock, because they cannot 
carry them through the winter, and cannot sell them in 
a country where there is no provender to be had. Thus 
you see, it is indeed hard times with us here. But this 
is a new year, and we hope for better things.” 
TO KILL PEPPERMINT. 
In relation to an inquiry for a mode of exterminating 
this plant Mr. George Hampton, of Perth Amboy, N- 
J., writes as follows:—"A farm on which I resided 
some eight years since, had a small patch overrun with 
peppermint and spearmint. I converted it into a sheep- 
pasture for two years, and when I left the farm, which 
was nearly three years ago, there was scarcely a plant 
of it to be seen. I have no doubt that by pasturing it 
with sheep for five or six successive years, it may b® 
entirely eradicated.” 
STUDY OF AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOLS. 
Mr. Paris Bapber, of Homer, writes us as follows* 
"The effort of Mr. Woolworth, the principal of our 
Academy, to introduce the study of agricultural chemis¬ 
try and geology, has met with great success. He has 
a fine class of young men—from 25 to 30—farmer’s sons, 
from this and the adjoining counties, and I can assure 
you, they are deeply interested. He also gives a sepa¬ 
rate lecture to the farmers every Friday evening, at 
which fifty or seventy-five are present, and are much 
benefited.” We are pleased to receive this informa¬ 
tion, and regard it as an indication that the plan of in¬ 
troducing the study of agriculture into schools, is des¬ 
tined to succeed. 
EARLY POTATOES. 
Mr. E. T. Clark, Providence, R. I., to whom we 
sent some of Mr. Hall’s early June potatoes, writes in 
reference to them as follows:—" The potatoes I had of 
you turned out remarkably well. A sample sent in 
to the exhibition of the R. I. Horticultural Society, 
were boiled and pronounced first rate. I have had more 
calls for them than I could supply, at a dollar a busheL 
I planted them on the first of May, and in just sixty 
days had them on the table of the size of small hen’s 
eggs.” . 
EFFECTS OF LIME. 
Rev. J. N. Candee, New Albany, la., relates the fol¬ 
lowing:—"In a field in which I planted corn last 
spring, a lime-heap, (a heap of logs on which a quanti¬ 
ty of lime-stone had been placed,) had been burnt more 
than twenty years ago. The gentleman who was on 
the place when I purchased it, being here during the 
summer, remarked that he presumed that he could show 
me by the corn, the very spot where such a log-heap 
had been burnt. I had before noticed an uncommon 
strength of stalk on the spot, but was not aware of the 
cause, until he took me to the place.” We would sug¬ 
gest this query in regard to the above—Was the extra 
growth of corn owing to the lime or the ashes of the 
logs burned with the lime? We have seen the effects 
