94 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
the experiment depends upon the influence which the 
dressing may exercise on every part of the vegetable 
tissue.” (Vol. 1, p. 146.) 
Again on the subject of manures, practical men as 
well as writers, have differed as to the quantities, the 
quality, the time and the manner of applying them to 
the soil, but more particularly as to the value or utility 
of the various ingredients now employed singly or in 
combination with manures. Johnston comes to the fol¬ 
lowing conclusion on some of these points, showing us 
what is requisite in the soil, and consequently what our 
manures should contain: 
“ Thus, (says he) if some ascribe the fertility of the 
soil to the presence of the alkalis in great abundance, 
others to that of the phosphates, others to that of lime, 
others to that of alumina, and others, finally, to that of 
vegetable matter in a soluble state—all these extreme 
opinions are reconciled, and their partial truth recog¬ 
nised, in one general principle, that a soil to be fertile 
must contain all the substances which the plant tec desire to 
grow can only obtain from the soil , and in such substance as 
readily to supply all its wants; while at the same time it 
must contain nothing hurtful to vegetable life.” (Yol. 1, 
p. 420.) 
This brings us to remark that farmers must stick to the 
old method of making barn yard manure, which in its 
animal, vegetable and saline substances contains most of 
the essential ingredients for the nourishment of plants. 
We must not rely on any one saline ingredient highly 
recommended, nor be carried away with the lauding and 
puffing of some factitious ingredient presented as a sub¬ 
stitute for all other manures. We should rather have said 
the improved method of making barn yard manure, such 
as is described in Mr. Gaylord’s Prize Essay in the Trans¬ 
actions of the State Agricultural Society (vol. 2, p. 65.) 
To our manure heaps may occasionally be added lime, 
potash or other fertilizing substances as observation and 
judgment may direct. 
But let us keep within bounds and conclude by saying 
that on the subject of manures, animal, vegetable, saline, 
and factitious, Johnston's Lectures contains a mine of 
wealth for A Practical Farmer. 
Staten Island, Dec. 23 d, 1843. 
ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —No department of ru¬ 
ral economy is probably less understood, or more de¬ 
serving of consideration than that of animal physiology. 
There are in the state of New-York alone not far from 
six millions of sheep, two millions of cattle, and as 
many swine kept, except working oxen, for the sole 
purpose of transforming cultivated plants into mutton, 
beef, pork, lard, tallow, butter, cheese and wool, in that 
way, which will yield to the husbandman the largest re¬ 
turn for his land and his labor. According to the cen¬ 
sus returns of 1840, the crop of hay grown in this state 
the year previous, w*as worth $30,000,000. And as every 
farmer knows that there are nearly twice as many acres 
in pasture as in meadow in New-York, it will be within 
the truth to estimate the whole grass crop of the state at 
$60,000,000. Will the intelligent reader answer this I 
plain simple question: Do the cultivators of the soil in 
the Empire State now realize the largest practical return 
invaluable products, from the entire raw material con¬ 
sumed throughout the whole year, by these millions of 
domestic animals? If they do, then we have already at¬ 
tained to that happy perfection in the science of physio¬ 
logy beyond which improvement can go no further! 
It is with pain and mortification that I see so many 
legislators and men of influence, unwilling to aid in any 
well directed public effort to open the book of nature, so 
that every farmer in the state may see, read anti understand 
how it happens, and why it is, that one sheep can ela¬ 
borate twice as much muscle, tallow and wool, from a 
given amount of food, as another? The same causes 
which have so developed in preceding generations, the 
woolforming organs of Mr. Coming's 130 Cotswold 
ewes, that they are now annually elaborating 8 lbs. of 
good wool per head, would, if judiciously made to ope¬ 
rate on the six millions of sheep that clip per head but 
23 lbs. of wool, so improve the action of their capillary 
organs, as to give their owners twelve million pounds 
more wool than they now get, and at the same cost of 
land and labor. A love of truth, and a deep sense of the 
importance of my subject, compel me to say that our 
farmers generally manufacture very poor and defective 
machines for transforming grass, hay and roots, into 
mutton, tallow and wool. I can not now command the 
time to write an elaborate essay upon the anatomy and 
physiology of sheep; and demonstrate, as I think I can, 
how it happens that more than 50 per cent of the ele¬ 
ments of wool, tallow and muscle, put into the sheep's 
mouth, are needlessly lost. 
Many of our practical agriculturists do a little better 
in the manufacture of living machines for transforming 
grass, grain and roots, into beef, butter, cheese, pork and 
lard. The average loss from the needless waste of the 
raw material in our cattle and swine is, however, at least 
30 per cent. Indeed, how can it well be otherwise, 
when not one farmer in a thousand knows what food is 
best adapted to the production of muscle and fat, or of 
butter and cheese? Not one farmer in a thousand knows 
how to alter and improve the ceaseless action of any or¬ 
gan in the animal system, so as to make it not only perform 
more work in a given time, but to do its work, or if you 
please, to discharge its peculiar function, far better than 
before. 
The arteries that convey the elements of milk to the 
lacteal gland of the cow can be increased, both in num¬ 
ber and size. The gland itself can be made to expand 
its surface, and multiply all its secreting vessels, which 
separate milk from the circulating blood. A large por¬ 
tion of milk with its dissolved butter and cheese, are cor- 
bon, water and nitrogen. By a serious defect in their or¬ 
ganic structure, (which can be removed in the course of 
a few generations by skilful management, and scientific 
breeding) some cows expel daily from their lungs TO 
ounces of carbon and water in proportion, which come 
from the food of such animals, while circulating in their 
blood vessels. Others will get along quite as healthily 
and give off through their lungs from their circulating 
nourishment, only 50 ounces of carbon and water to 
match; retaining the 20oz. of carbon, and its accompany¬ 
ing ingredients, for the manufacture of good rich milk. 
Whatever may be the precise value of the grass, hay, 
grain and roots, worked up annually into beef, pork, but¬ 
ter, cheese, mutton and wool in the great state of New- 
York, is it not plain that genuine science can aid the mere 
muscular toil of eternal hard work, so as to achieve a 
much greater good in a given time? If so, then kind 
reader do send down to your servants, the Legislature, one 
petition for the establishment of a State Agricultural Insti¬ 
tute, where shall be taught 500 young practical farmers, 
coming equally from all parts of the state, all the natu¬ 
ral sciences that will render agricultural labor more profi * 
table and more useful to the community at large. We 
annually expend thousands of dollars to teach thousands 
of young men how to acquire wealth by other means 
than productive labor—riches called into existence by 
the hard work of other men—why shall not something 
be done to teach our sons, not only how to live better by 
productive labor than they now can; but also howto 
keep what their labor produces from the“ itching palms” 
of those so well instructed to live by pursuing some 
branch of unproductive industry? Why create a stale of 
society that now practically compels the great producing 
classes, to toil on day by day through life, at from 50 
cents to one dollar, while those that produce little or 
nothing, are paid a high bounty as the reward of com¬ 
parative idleness? When will our people learn that the 
knowledge of the few, no matter how profound, can ne¬ 
ver compensate for the ignorance of the many? 
D. Lee. 
James Go wan, Esq., near Philadelphia, lately receiv¬ 
ed from the Phila. Soc. for Promoting Agriculture, pre¬ 
miums for the following crops: Sugar beets, 1078 bushels 
per acre, at 60 lbs. to the bushel ; sugar parsneps, a 
fourth of an acre, at the rate of 868-1 bushels per acre 
field carrots, 687 bushels per acre—both the latter weigh¬ 
ing 40 lbs. to the bushel. 
