THE CULTIVATOR. 
291 
1846. 
vided the new tariff-bill should not pass.” This flock, 
it is said, averaged, old and young, a little over $1.60 
per head. It will be recollected that Messrs. P. & B. 
have a wool depot at Springfield, where wool is sorted 
and sold for the various kinds of manufactures. 
Connection - of Science with Agriculture.— 
We learn that at a late meeting of the Corporation of 
Yale College, two new professorships were established. 
One is that of Agriculture and Animal and V egetable Phy¬ 
siology, founded on a donation of $5,000 from John T. 
Norton, Esq., of Farmington, Ct.,to promote the study 
of Agricultural Chemistry. The son of the donor, Mr. 
John Pitkin Norton, whose valuable communicatons 
to our pages for the last two years will be recollected by 
our readers, has been appointed to the professorship. The 
other new professorship is that of Practical Chemistrj r , 
or Chemistry as applied to the Arts, to which Mr. B. 
Silliman, Jr., has been appointed. 
Sale of Durham Cattle. —A herd of Durham cat¬ 
tle, belonging to George Renick, Esq., of Chilico- 
the, Ohio, were sold at public auction on the 29th of 
July, last, and as we learn from the Ohio Cultivator, 
brought the following prices.: 
Cows. 'Heifers three y'rs old. 
Donna Maria,. 
. .. $95' 
Bloom,. 
$45 
Lady Paley,. 
.. . 87 
Josephine,. 
71 
Poppy,. 
Lucy,. 
80 
Red Rose,... 
... Ill 
Twin,. 
52 
Rose of Sharon, ... 
... 97 
Mate. 
35 
Evening Star,..... 
... 120| Lady,. 
80 
Virginia,. 
... 110 
Dairy,. 
55 
Scioto, . 
... no 
Venus,. 
53 
Maria. . 
... 52 
Beantv. 
75 
Thames,. 
... 120 
Ten yearling heifers sold 
Miss Marshall, .... 
... 125 
for the following prices:— 
Sandusky,.. 
... 60 
$36, 41, 31, 30, 32, 50, 
36, 
Dutchess,. 
30, 31, 43. 
Paint,. 
Bulls. 
Laura,. 
... 43 
Prince Charles, 3 years 
Lilly,. 
old, .. . 
105 
Flora. 
... 125 
Albion^ do.,. 
60 
Daisy,. 
Farmer, 2 years old,.. 
30 
Blossom,. 
... 54 
Red Rover, 1 year old, 
46 
Scippo,. 
... 90 
Five bull calves sold 
for 
Blanch, . 
$36, 54, 59, 54, 30. 
Blink, . 
... 90 
These cattle were all bred from those imported by 
the Ohio company in 1834, ’35, and : 36, and were, it is 
said, of highly approved pedigree. A few years since, 
it was one the finest herds within our knowledge. 
FOREIGN. 
By the Caledonia arrived at Boston on the 18th, 
we have foreign papers to the 4th of August. The 
crops in Britain as well as on the continent, are gener¬ 
ally good. The wheat in some districts of England had 
been cut. The quality is said to be fine, but the large 
quantities in market and constantly arriving from for¬ 
eign ports, keep prices very much depressed. The 
rot in potatoes had shown itself in some parts of Ire¬ 
land and also in Scotland, but the crop is spoken of as 
being in most cases promising. In France and Belgi¬ 
um, is said to be very fine. American beef was selling 
in considerable quantities, but at low rates. Pork was 
dull, and on the decline. Cheese had arrived from the 
United States in considerable quantities, but owing to 
the inferior quality of the article, was dull of sale. A 
large sale might, it is said, be counted on for prime 
qualities. 
The annual exhibition of the Royal Agricultural So¬ 
ciety took place at New-Castle-on-Tyne, in July. The 
number of exhibitors is stated to have been greater 
than at any previous meeting. The show of horses 
is spoken of as very superior. Short horned cattle 
were numerous and good, and the Herfords and De¬ 
vons, though in less numbers, owing to the exhibition 
being remote from the breeding districts of those breeds, 
were of excellent quality. Leicester and South-Down 
sheep were numerous and sustained their reputation as 
to quality. The exhibition of pigs was very superior. 
The show of implements was very extensive, and the 
articles themselves generally evinced great improve¬ 
ment. Valuable lectures were delivered before the so¬ 
ciety by Professor Johnston and others, which we 
shall notice more fully hereafter. Thirty thousand per¬ 
sons entered the show-yard in one day during the exhi¬ 
bition. 
INQUIRIES. 
Decay of Hemlock Sleepers—H., (Middlebury, 
Vt.). You say the decay of your sleepers is <e caused by 
a damp cellar and allowing the bark to remain thereon 
for years after the house was built.” Our experience 
does not furnish a knowledge of any effectual remedy 
in such a case. We should think as thorough ventila¬ 
tion and drying as is consistent with all circumstances, 
would be most likely to check the decay of the timber. 
Cheese Making.— V. W., (Minisink, N. Y.) For 
making Cheshire cheese, see an article in this number. 
For Gloucester cheese, see Cultivator for 1844, p. 165, 
166. For the mode practiced at some excellent daries 
in Connecticut, see last vol. p. 283, ’84. 
Soiling. —W. F. B., (Davidsonville, Md.) For the 
present we must refer you to our volume for 1846, p. 
22, 23. We may take up the subject more fully at 
another time. You will, however, find Mr. Newhall’s 
system as there given a good one. 
Hessian Fly. —J. S., (Tyre, N. Y.) We will not 
say that this insect was brought here by Hessian troops 
in the time of our revolutionary war, but we have nev¬ 
er heard of its having been discovered here previous to 
that time. Dr. Harris, also, states this. [Insects in¬ 
jurious to Vegetation, p. 422, 423.] He says it was first 
discovered on Staten Island, in 1776, in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Sir Wm. Howe's debarkation, and at Flat Bush 
on the west end of the island. 
Canada Thistle. —J. S. There is a tradition that 
the seeds of this plant were brought from France, and 
sown in Canada by the first settlers, for the purpose of 
affording food by its roots, for hogs. 
CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE. 
DEEP PLOWING. 
A subscriber at New-Brunswick, N. J., relates seve¬ 
ral instances in which deep plowing did not prove bene¬ 
ficial. In the case first related, he undertook to raise a 
large crop of turneps on a small piece of ground. The 
soil, which was a sandy loam, very friable and clear of 
stones, he dug with a spade, twelve inches deep, mixing 
well with the soil a very large quantity of well-rotted 
manure from the horse and cow stable. The crop was 
well taken care of, but the produce was small compared 
with other crops of the same kind in the neighborhood. 
There was, however, an extraordinary growth of tops, 
they having reached the height of two feet. 
He next tried a similar experiment with potatoes— 
plowed deep, put in plenty of rotten manure, and 
mixed it well with the soil. The same result followed 
as with the turneps, very large tops and small potatoes, 
and of a poorer quality than the seed planted. 
These results are by no means singular—we have 
often known such, especially with the kind of soil he 
mentions. A large quantity of animal manure deposi¬ 
ted in a raw soil, nearly destitute of organic matter, 
usually tends, so far as our own observation goes, to 
produce straw or haulm in a greater proportion than 
grain or tubers. But after a year or two, when the 
manure has become thoroughly decomposed and incor¬ 
porated with the soil,—when the soil itself has really 
become rich to the depth it has been worked—this de¬ 
ficiency of grain and tubers and excess of straw and tops 
will not follow. 
The same writer mentions some trials he had made 
with urine, which resulted unfavorably. He says it 
“ scorched up” every thing to which it was applied, and 
that he finds it “ acts so in pastures where horses run 
and have voided their urine.” We presume that the 
