1846. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
193 
of a top dressing, it is almost valueless as a manure in 
its crude state, but a good and enduring manure when 
combined with certain salts. It is the cheapest materi¬ 
al that a farmer can make manure from when he has it 
on his own farm. By a top dressing in the crude state 
and one dollar’s worth of salts to the acre, (?) I have 
made land yield two tons of hay to the acre, that did 
not yield five hundred before. One dressing of the 
muck will last several years; the other articles it wants 
yearly. I use it in the barn-yard as an underlay to 
catch the salts of yard manure, which I use for hoed 
crops.” What kind of “ salts” are used, and how?— Ed. 
AGRICULTURE IN GEORGIA. 
Extract from a letter of A. E. Ernest, of Bibb Co., 
Georgia:— 
Turneps.- — “ For six or seven years I have cultiva¬ 
ted turneps for stock and for market, and they are, we 
think, a very profitable crop, if cultivated in a proper 
manner. Last Monday I sent a turnep to Macon, that 
when first pulled up and washed, weighed 18| lbs., and 
the season was bad for turneps and everything else; 
and besides that, I commenced pulling- up the largest 
and sending them to market as soon as they were large 
enough. Had it not been for this, it is likely there 
would have been larger ones in the patch. The turnep 
crop can no doubt be made as profitable in Georgia as 
it can anywhere. We are not under the necessity here 
of housing our turneps in the winter; we leave them 
in the patch until we want them for use, and some of 
the varieties grow almost till spring.” 
Silk. — u For some years past I have been cultivating 
silk, and notwithstanding I have carried on the business 
under almost every conceivable disadvantage, yet I 
have made the business profitable—perhaps more so 
than any thing I have done. This, I think, is saying a 
good deal in favor of the business, and it is certainly 
true to the letter; and my prospects in the business 
are now extremely flattering, and in the course of the 
present year I may be able to give you something on 
the subject beneficial to some of your Georgia readers.” 
PINE STUMPS. 
Mr. Samuel Warring, of Morrisdale, Pa., states that 
he is in the habit of burning out pine stumps. He digs 
the earth away from the roots, taking care to go as deep 
as the plow will reach. After the roots were made 
bare, he made a log-heap around the stump, and he 
says, “if the weather is suitable, the fire makes clear 
work of it in a few hours.” He states that he last year 
cleared a field in this way, which was thickly studded 
with pine stumps and old pine trees. He did the work 
by “ odd jobs,” as his labors could be spared from other 
farm work. The field was so clear by the 10th of Sep¬ 
tember, that its contrast with other lots induced the 
inquiry how long it had been cleared. He thinks the 
mode a good one for those who cannot conveniently 
obtain machinery. 
PREJUDICE AND ITS CONSEQUENCE. 
Mr. Geo. Adams, of Attica, Wyoming Co., N. Y., 
gives the following remarks in reference to agriculture 
in that section:— 
It is deplorable to see men who consider themselves 
first rate farmers, so blinded to their own interest and 
prosperity by prejudice, and a superstitious fondness 
for their old notions as to ridicule those who are trying 
to make improvements. I hardly know how to get 
along with such men, but have come to the conclusion 
that the best course to do away prejudice and intro¬ 
duce a better system of farming is to push forward 
and make all the improvements we can, and show them 
by our example that we can make greater crops and 
more money by our improved system of husbandry than 
they can by their skinning system; taking crop after 
crop without returning anything to the land to keep up 
its fertility. It may be said that I am judging my 
brother farmers too hard, but by their works they must 
be judged. I can refer to a number of farmers with 
whom I am well acquainted, who boast of their skill 
in farming, that have cropped certain portions of *heii 
farms without returning anything near an equivalent 
for what they have taken from them, till the crops will 
hardly pay the expense of making them. There are a 
good many farms in this section, which, when new, 
would have produced fifty bushels of corn or twenty of 
wheat per acre, that are so reduced by severe cropping 
that the average yield is not more than twenty bushels 
of corn, and about ten of wheat. Now my own obser¬ 
vation has convinced me that the manure wasted on 
these farms by laying exposed to the weather and 
washed by rains and snows, and carried off through gut¬ 
ters into low, wet places, and the highways, would, if 
properly saved and judiciously applied, be sufficient to 
manure a considerable portion of them, and yet these 
men complain that they have not the means of manuring 
their farms.” . 
BLIND TEETH IN HORSES. 
Wm. Little, Poland, O., relates a case of a stallion 
of his having gone entirely blind without any apparent 
cause. A friend who examined him, found “ blind or 
wolf teeth,” which were immediately knocked out. and 
the horse soon recovered his sight. 
TO CURE GALLS IN HORSES. 
W. B. Hamilton, of Philadelphia, says—“Some 
twenty-five years since, an old stage driver told me the 
secret why, to the astonishment and envy of every 
other Jehu, his horses were never galled. Myself and 
friends have tested it again and again. Here it is. 
Gather a quantity of smart weed (aqua piper ) which 
grows in almost every wet spot about the stable; bruise 
it well, and put it in an iron vessel, in a corner of the 
stable; cover it up with chamberley and wash the galled 
places whenever the horse enters or leaves the stable, 
or oftener, if occasion offers, and then the cure is almost 
immediate. If badly galled under, the harness or collar, 
bruise well some of the leaves and bind on the spot. To 
prevent galling, let the shoulders and parts exposed, be 
washed daily with the infusion, and the animal will not 
gall, work him as hard as you will, provided the har¬ 
ness be good.” . 
SALTPETRE FOR MEAT. 
Chas. Babcock, of Guilford, Ct., writes, in refer¬ 
ence to a communication on curing meat, by N. Dar¬ 
ling in our Jan. number:—“I find by consulting medi¬ 
cal writers that saltpetre is a deadly poison.” In sup¬ 
port of this he cites the following. “ This powerful 
salt, when inadvertantly taken in too large doses, is one 
of the most fatal poisons.”—(Thatcher’s Dispensatory.) 
“ In large doses, such as an ounce taken at one time, 
it produces the most dreadful symptoms—constant vomit¬ 
ing, purging, (the discharges mixed with blood) con¬ 
vulsions and death.” (Cox’s Dispensatory, p. 445.) “ I 
have found by a series of experiments for many years, 
that saltpetre has the most certain and deadly effect 
upon the human system of any thing that is used in 
medicine.” (Dr. Thomson’s New Guide to Health.) 
MARTHA’S VINEYARD. 
Allen Coffin, Esq., of Edgartown, writes in rela¬ 
tion to the state of agriculture and horticulture on this 
island:—If some of our farmers would take the Albany 
Cultivator, or some other interesting horticultural pub¬ 
lication, and follow the directions given, I doubt not it 
would be better to them than $100 per year. The skin¬ 
ning system has been practised here to perfection. It 
is a true saying, “ starve the land, and the land will 
starve you. Feed the land, and the land will feed you.” 
Our people begin to feel the importance of manuring 
their land, and are beginning to set out fruit trees. I 
began to set out trees 13 or 14 years ago, and was 
laughed at, but they now know that with judicious cul¬ 
ture, we can raise good fruit. Last season, I think 
there was nearly as much money laid out for fruit trees, 
as there has been since the island was first inhabited by 
the white man. 
Of the advantage of seaweed for trees, Mr. Coffin 
says —(< I have always kept a good coat of sea weed 
around mv trees which keeps the frost from injuring 
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