1846. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
197 
AOBIODX.TURAL SOCIETIES. 
New-York State. —The meeting of the Executive 
Committee for last month, was held at Auburn, on the 
14th. We were unable to be present, but learn that 
there was a good attendance of the members, and that 
a spirit was manifested which promises well for the 
next exhibition. The judges, to award the premiums, 
were appointed, and the arrangements necessary for 
the Fair made, so far as they could be at this early day. 
Madison County. —The Agricultural Society of this 
county holds its next Fair at the village of Eaton, on 
the 22d and 23d days of September next. We perceive 
by their bills, that the Society offers, in premiums, no 
less than thirty-six copies of the Cultivator for 1847. 
Jefferson County. —The Fair of the Jefferson Co. 
Ag. Society, is also to be holden on the 22d and 23d 
of September. Address to be delivered by J. B. Nott. 
This society offers ten volumes of the Cultivator in pre¬ 
miums. 
Dutchess Co. —Fair to be held at Washington Hol¬ 
low, 7th and 8th of October. 
Montgomery Co. —Fair to be held at Amsterdam in 
October. 
Litchfield Co. Ct. —Exhibition at Litchfield, Sep¬ 
tember 23, and 24. 
Windsor County, Yt. —First Fair to be held at 
Woodstock, Oct. 1. 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
Transactions of the N. Y. State Agricultural 
Society for 1845.—This volume, being the fifth issued 
by the Society, contains an unusual number of valuable 
articles. Such in particular are the Prize Essays on 
Science and Agriculture, Irrigation, Culture and Manu¬ 
facture of Silk, Rot in Potatoes; also the Report of the 
Committee on Farms, with statements of the Competi¬ 
tors, an article on Farm-Houses, the Agricultural Sta¬ 
tistics of the State, and an Essay on the Potato Disease 
in Scotland, by John P. Norton. Two of these arti¬ 
cles,—viz: the one on Farm Houses, by A. J. Down¬ 
ing, and the summary of the statistics, by S. S. Ran¬ 
dall, —we copy into this number, believing that the 
readers of the Cultivator will be pleased to peruse 
them. 
American Journal of Science and Art. —We 
have received the number of this excellent periodical 
for May. It contains, as usual, many interesting origi¬ 
nal articles on various subjects, besides several pages of 
miscellaneous scientific intelligence. Conducted by 
Professor Silliman, B. Silliman, Jr., James D.Dana. 
Terms, $5 per annum—published every second month, 
at New-Haven. 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and Sci¬ 
ence. —We have received the number for April, May, 
and June. Among other valuable articles, we notice 
particularly, one on the Agricultural Geology of Onon¬ 
daga county, by Professor Emmons —one on the sponta¬ 
neous changes which Organised Matter undergoes when 
exposed to the action of Chemical and Physical Forces, 
by the same author—structure of Granite Mountains— 
Notes on Natural History, &c. 
WASTE LAND IN IRELAND. 
The idea seems quite prevalent in this country that 
the miseries of the Irish population, are owing to the 
number of inhabitants being too great for the extent of 
territory. From the statistical returns, it appears that 
the population of Ireland is not now as great in propor¬ 
tion to the means of subsistence, or the production of 
food, as it was at the commencement of the present cen¬ 
tury. Improvements in agriculture have made very con¬ 
siderable progress on that Island within a few years; 
many acres of waste land have been reclaimed, and the 
production of other lands increased. But there is still 
a large quantity of waste land which is susceptible of I 
cultivation—not less, according to the government re 
ports, than 5,000,000 acres. 
Some years since, an association was formed under 
the name of the Irish Waste Land Improvement Soci¬ 
ety. From a notice of the fourth report of this society, 
which we find in the English Agricultural Gazette, 
it appears that several thousand acres of these lands 
have been brought into cultivation under the auspices of 
this society, and now furnish support to three thousand 
inhabitants. “They are now,' 5 says the account “pur¬ 
suing their wonted avocations in order and peace, in 
the midst of the distress and consequent recklessness 
prevalent around them, with employment secured to 
them during the approaching trying season, and with 
every prospect of a supply of wholesome food for their 
support until the coming harvest. 55 
If the Irish population could be employed and sup¬ 
ported in bringing into cultivation their waste and un¬ 
productive lands, not only would their present mise¬ 
ries be alleviated, but an effectual safeguard would be 
provided against future scarcity and suffering. To thig 
end, therefore, the Society mentioned is directing its 
efforts, and so far with very encouraging success and fa¬ 
vorable prospects. Parliament has moved in the case, 
and has removed the principal legal difficulties which 
have heretofore obstructed improvement; so that in the 
language of the editor of the Agricultural Gazette, “ it 
appears that there is hardly any country where the in¬ 
vestment of capital in farming should pay so well as in 
Ireland. 55 
REARING- CALVES. 
Mr. Buckminster, the editor of the Massachusetts 
Plowman thinks—“ a cow that makes a fat calf, must 
be presumed to give richer milk than a cow which 
makes a lean calf. 55 A correspondent of the Plowman, 
Lovett Peters, Esq., of Westboro, Mass., disagrees 
with the editor. Mr. P. says—“As a general rule, it 
is no evidence that a cow which makes a fat calf is a 
good one for butter. Some of the best cows I ever 
owned never made fat calves; and those which gave 
poor milk for butter, if enough of it, made fat calves. 
It has been uniformly so. 55 
In reference to the above, we would remark that the 
experience of several years, both in rearing and fatten¬ 
ing calves for veal, has induced us to form nearly the 
same conclusions as Mr. Peters seems to have arrived 
at. Our best cows for butter have not made as fat 
calves at from four to six weeks old, as some whose 
milk was less rich. The reason probably is, that a 
large proportion of oleaginous matter is not adapted to 
the digestive organs of the calf at that early age. The 
milk of cows which are not so good for butter, may 
contain more caseine, or the substance of which cheese 
is formed, and as this is a nitrogenized substance, che¬ 
mistry would teach that it would more tend to dcvelope 
the muscular tissues. This may account in part for the 
more rapid growth of calves fed on such milk; though 
we have not only found them to grow better, but to be 
actually fatter at the age we have mentioned, than when 
fed on milk which was very rich in oil. 
Selecting cows which give rich milk. —In the 
communication of Mr. Peters abovementioned, he 
observes that he has discovered “a certain something 
which is a sure indication of the quality of the milk a 
cow will give. He says—“I am so certain of this, 
that I venture to assert that, I can go into a stock of 
ten cows, when they are in milk, and if there is one in 
the lot which gives richer milk than any other, I can 
find her, and without milking her. And so if any one 
gives poorer milk than any other. I suppose you will 
say this is all imagination, but depend on it, it is not so. 55 
Query .—Has this {£ certain something 55 which indi¬ 
cates the quality of the milk anything to do with the 
direction in which the hair grows? 
Dtarrhcea in Calves. —Two table-spoonsful of 
ground allspice, in three gills of boiling water, given 
once in two hours, will speedily effect a cure. 
