THE CULTIVATOR. 
93 
before such a tract of land is justly entitled to the appel¬ 
lation of farm. What a different aspect will this country 
present when it has been so long- settled as that you have 
described. Vast tracts of the prairie will be cultivated, 
but without fence, and timber will be grown for fuel and 
building. The locust that you mention, grows most luxu¬ 
riantly upon this soil. No doubt that and other timber 
can be grown to great advantage anti profit. Some of 
the numerous marshes will also be found to afford com¬ 
bustible turf; and through a great part of the Illinois 
prairies, stone coal can be conveniently obtained. But I 
must close, for my sheet is full, and the loss of the frank¬ 
ing privilege warns me not to tax my friends with a dou¬ 
ble postage while that upon a single sheet is exorbitantly 
high. I thank you for your sympathy for my removal 
from an office that I endeavored to use for the public 
.good. Shall I hear from you again soon? I remain your 
friend, Solon R@binson. 
Lake C. H., laJan. 20,. 1844. 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, by Jas. 
F. W. Johnston, M. A. fyc. a new and enlarged edition, 
in 2 vols. 8 vo. pp. 434 and 405. Wiley <§■ Putnam, Neiv- 
York , 1843. 
Editors of the Cultivator —Having called the at¬ 
tention of young farmers to Liebig’s Familiar Letters, in 
a preceding communication, your correspondent in 
noticing the above entitled work, thinks he is doing them 
a service, provided he can persuade them to read as 
well as to labor, to refresh the mind as well as the body. 
In the ordinary state of farming operations we go “from 
labor to refreshment.” But the refreshment is animal 
and not intellectual; it nourishes the body and not the 
mind. We want to rear a generation of intelligent 
farmers who are hereafter to wield the destinies of this 
.great country, and prevent its administration from falling 
into the hands of intriguing demagogues, or ignorant 
-disorganizes. 
Youth is certainly the best period to study and im¬ 
prove in knowledge, but we do not all have the time, 
the opportunity, or the impulse, so to do in our younger 
days. Deficiency, however, may be made up by diligent 
application in after life, when we see and feel the ne¬ 
cessity of acquiring information. Adults and farmers 
may think it childish and effeminate to read and study, 
but books are not all published for children or females to 
read. Works on agriculture are as much adapted for our 
improvement as those on law, divinity, or the arts, are 
for other professions and employments. As one among 
cultivators of the soil, I must confess that what I know 
on this and other subjects, has been acquired by reading, 
study and inquiry, since I left school. This reminds me 
of what a teacher once told me, that I did not come to 
him to be instructed !! It is my duty said he to teach 
you the elements of knowledge, and to point out the 
path, the method, and the books by which you may 
hereafter improve and instruct yourself. 
Now then if the young farmer desire to improve him¬ 
self, let him read Liebig’s Familiar Letters, and read and 
study Johnston’s Agricultural Lectures, as designated at 
the head of this article, and if he do not understand half 
their contents, I predict he will rise from the perusal, 
satisfied with the necessary expenditure in the purchase, 
($1.25) pleased with his improvement and mental re¬ 
freshment. 
In referring to the first edition published by Wiley & 
Putnam, in Feb. 1842, we find that the work was not 
then complete, as our copy contains only eight lectures 
and a short appendix. The new edition now before us 
is in twm handsome octavo volumes, divided into three 
parts. The first parts treat, of the organic elements of 
plants in eight lectures; the second of the organic ele¬ 
ments of plants in five lectures; and the third part, of 
the improvement of the soil by mechanical means and 
by manures, in five lectures. Added to these is an ap¬ 
pendix containing numerous and detailed experiments 
made in England in 1841 and ’42, on various crops with 
-saline substances as manures, or fertilizers with ma¬ 
nures, such as common salt, Glauber’s salt, soot, sulphate} 
of ammonia, sulphate of magnesia, nitrate of soda, ni¬ 
trate of potash, caustic lime, carbonate of lime, silicate 
of potash. These substances, together with many others, 
were experimented upon singly or in duplicate and trip¬ 
licate combinations, and the entire appendix contains 
a mass of information in tabular forms, with remarks, 
highly valuable to all who seek information as to their 
application and utility to the crops to which they have 
been applied. 
To the practical farmer the appendix is perhaps the 
most valuable part of the work, as a test of that which 
is theoretical; and as the experiments are condensed it 
is easy to refer to them if we are desirous to repeat them 
in this country. The writer of this article has within 
the last two years made experiments on some of these 
substances, but without the benefit of Professor John¬ 
ston's work. With: it and the knowledge of what has 
been done elsewhere, they may he repeated or modified 
with advantage. 
We should like to make some extracts and remarks 
upon the text of the work under consideration, if 
they did not take up too much space in the Columns of 
the Cultivator. First then on the subject of Labor. 
Labor, bodily labor, health-giving muscular exertion, 
is too of.en looked upon as disgraceful even here in the 
north, but more so as we travel south of Pennsylvania. 
Instead of looking upon labor as a disgrace or a curse, 
we esteem it as a blessing, as the human frame is not 
constituted for sloth or idleness. We agree with our au¬ 
thor, who says: (Lect. 2d, p. 32, vol. 1,) 
“ But set man free from the necessity of tilling the 
earth by the sweat of his brow, and you take from him 
at the same time the calm and tranquil pleasures of 
a country life-—the innocent enjoyments of the returning 
season—the cheerful health and happiness that w'ait upon 
labor in the free air and beneath the bright sun of hea¬ 
ven. And for what? only to imprison him in manufac¬ 
tories, to condemn him to the fretful and feverish life of 
crowded cities.” 
Aye, my young countrymen and fellow laborers in ru¬ 
ral employments, the “fretful and feverish,” and I may 
add the artificial life of large cities, is destructive of health 
and calm enjoyment. Let us not be deterred from in¬ 
dustrious exertion, from bodily labor, because it is ob¬ 
noxious to some. Bear in mind, that 
“ Honor and shame, from no condition rise, 
:i Act well your part, there all the honor lies.” 
Let us call your attention to another subject. You will 
find by reading Johnston and other publications relating 
to agriculture, and the growth of vegetation, that mere 
theorists have frequently drawn hasty and erroneous con¬ 
clusions from a few isolated facts. Some for instance 
have made plants grow and increase in weight in water 
only, and hence concluded that water was the constituent 
and necessary ingredient in their nourishment. Others 
found that all plants increased in growth by withdrawing 
something from the atmosphere. Others again that they 
absorbed water and air from the soil by their roots, and 
so they were nourished and increased in growth. All 
these looked upon the soil as a mere mechanical mix¬ 
ture only necessary to sustain trees and plants in their 
position. Later writers have corrected their errors. Let 
us see what our author says on this subject: 
“ We have seen reason to conclude that while plants 
derive much of their sustenance from the air, they are 
also fed more or less abundantly by the soil in which 
they grow. From this soil they obtain through their 
roots the carbonic acid which is continually given off 
by the decaying vegetable matter it contains.” (Vol. 1, 
p. 201.) 
The reader may see more in detail (p. 83) how the 
vegetable matter increases; and how (pp. 84 and 85) 
plants are partly supported by the air, anti partly by the 
soil. Hence when we remove a crop from the field, we 
remove a portion of the soil, and disturb the equilibrium 
of nature, (Liebig, Familiar Letters,) to restore which we 
must apply manure. 
“ Though manures in the soil act immediately thro’ the 
roots, they stimulate the growth of the entire plant; and 
though the application of a top-dressing may be sup¬ 
posed first to affect the leaf, yet the beneficial result of 
