82 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb. 
any trouble, after they are laid down. But we must 
have more tile machines in operation. I intended to 
have had 10,000 tiles home this winter; but find the 
maker has only a very few on hand. Farmers ought 
to have the tiles on the ground in winter; the ex¬ 
pense of drawing is little, and if there are any soft 
tiles, they will decompose before spring, which is 
much better than to put them in the drain. John 
Johnston. Near Geneva, Dec. 25, 1849. 
Agricultural Economy. 
Eds. Cultivator —The economy of the farm is 
that which first concerns the individual. Not to get 
rich; not simply to sell the greatest possible quan¬ 
tity of produce, but to maintain the original fertili¬ 
ty of the soil or constantly improve it. The com¬ 
mon farmer cannot expect to get rich, but with good 
management he may obtain a ‘ comfortable living,’ 
and have leisure to enjoy social blessings, and time 
to devote to reading, and mental improvement. 
This should be done without wearing out the soil. 
True economy consists in returning the same ele¬ 
ments to the soil that are taken from it, and in the 
same quantity. This will keep the soil fertile, so 
that it will produce the same crops, both in kind and 
quantity, year after year. Vegetable productions 
derive part of their constituent elements from the 
earth, and part from the atmosphere. That part 
derived from the earth must be returned to it again, 
or it will eventually bocomo barren. The ground 
that produces one hundred bushels of grain this year, 
will not, under the same circumstances, produce the 
same amount next year, unless its equivalent is re¬ 
turned. And the more a piece of land is cropped 
without manuring, the more labor and expense is 
required to obtain a crop from it. The farmer that 
sells hay, grain or stock,—if he does not use extra 
means to increase his manure—is reducing the ferti¬ 
lity, and consequently the value of his farm. On 
new land this effect is not seen so clearly, but it is 
nevertheless true, and in time will be manifest. 
The older settled parts of New England, furnish 
sad illustrations of want of true economy. Except 
in the vicinity of cities and villages, the soil has 
long been deteriorating. This is tho result of bad 
management. The productions of the soil have 
been sent to market, and the fertility, in this way 
taken from the soil, has not been returned. Pas¬ 
tures have been grazed from April to November, 
and the fat cattle and sheep sent to Brighton. 
Hence, grain and roots cannot be raised as easily as 
they could be formerly, and pastures cannot sustain 
half the stock they could thirty years ago. And we 
hear frequent complaints of milch cows being affect¬ 
ed with u bone disease,” and bone dust must be 
procured for their relief. (Better bone-dust the pas¬ 
tures.) A reversed order of things is in many in¬ 
stances taking place. Less land is tilled and more 
pastured. The area of woodland is sufficiently li¬ 
mited, and it will not do to make further encroach¬ 
ments upon it for pasturage, therefore when the 
pastures will not summer the stock, that the pro¬ 
ducts of the fields will winter, they must be enlar¬ 
ged by a portion from the fields. Or when a piece 
of tillage land is reduced so as not to pay for culti¬ 
vating, it is 11 turned out” to pasture. Still by 
concentrating labor and manuring better, the origi¬ 
nal fertility of a portion of the farm may be main¬ 
tained, but its aggregate productiveness is much di¬ 
minished. And when it requires constant toil the 
whole year 11 to make both ends meet,” the rich 
lands of the west present visions of ease and plenty 
too brilliant to resist, and emigration to Illinois, 
Wisconsin or Iowa, is “ next in order.” 
The land in the immediate vicinity of cities and 
large villages is becoming more fertile. The source 
from which this fertility is derived is evident. Every 
year thousands and tens of thousands of cattle 
and sheep are collected in Vermont and New Hamp¬ 
shire for the city consumption. The vegetable pro¬ 
ductions of the soil, to an enormous extent, are fur¬ 
nished for the same purpose, together with large 
quantities of flour, daily supplied from Western 
New-York and farther on. In this way, the ele¬ 
ments of fertility are transferred, the suburbs of ci¬ 
ties are enriched, and remote districts impoverished. 
The grazing portions of Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire are becoming less valuable, and so are all pla¬ 
ces that export more fertility than they import or 
manufacture. 
Is it worth while to seek a remedy for these evils? 
In China the people are always engaged in saving 
every particle of manure that can be found; the 
English import vast quantities of fertilising sub- 
stances; but our population is not so dense as to 
render it absolutely necessary in our case. Besides 
the cheap and fertile lands of the West are so invi- 
ting, that it must be a long time before expensive 
cultivation will be resorted to. Yet it is important 
that we should understand what we are about. If 
there are defects in our system let them be pointed 
out, and if possible, remedied. At any rate, farm¬ 
ers should save and apply all the fertilising substan¬ 
ces within their reach. W. L. Eaton. East 
Weare, N. H. _ 
Water-tight Cellars. 
Eds. Cultivator —Some time ago there was pub¬ 
lished in The Cultivator an inquiry for information 
how a wet cellar can be made dry, when draining is 
inconvenient? A wet cellar is a sad thing—a nui¬ 
sance to a farmer, and always inconvenient for the 
storage of many valuable articles of agricultural 
produce. When under a dwelling, it is frequently 
the fruitful, yet unsuspected cause of intractable 
sickness, to those living within the influence of the 
pestilential miasma, that, during warm weather, 
continually rises from it. 
The subject is of such importance, as to press it¬ 
self upon the attention of reflecting minds, and to 
call for a more extended notice than it has yet re¬ 
ceived. Every reader who has experience in the use 
of means to make a dry cellar, should communicate 
it to the public. In the absence of experience to 
make a 11 wet cellar dry,” it may bo useful to 
show how a oellar can be constructed, secure from 
water, by a cheap method, in any place where clay 
can easily be procured. A brief sketch, also, of 
some of the uses to which this substance is applied 
in connection with its impermeable property, may 
afford hints how it can be used to effect the purpose, 
in reference to which the writer of the publication 
alluded to, asks information. 
Every farmer knows that water will not soak 
through a clay subsoil. Some careful farmers, 
availing themselves of their soil, dig ponds in the 
lowest part of their field, or orchard, to collect and 
retain rain water for the accommodation of their hogs 
in pasture ; or in very dry summers to haul a few bar¬ 
rels of water there for that purpose. Clay is ex¬ 
tensively used along the line of our canals, to stop 
the leakage through the embankments. When used 
for this purpose, or to stop the leakage through the 
breast of a mill dam, or the bank of a meadow ditch, 
it is called 11 puddling;” and when this is properly 
