1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
147 
Merino can be grown by almost any of our farmers 
successfully, while the finest quality may be produ¬ 
ced by those who devote the pains and attention. 
No where is stock more uniformly healthy, exempt 
from those diseases which in some localities render 
the business hazardous. 
What we need is more attention devoted to the 
subject, more capital invested, and more care and 
skill in breeding. 
There are tracts of valuable land bordering upon 
the Ohio river, such as above described which at 
most moderate prices are open to the purchaser. 
Darwin E. Gardner. Marietta, Ohio, Feb. 5. 
Growth of Pumpkins. 
Eds. Cultivator —-Last summer I had several 
pumpkin plants come up in my garden spontaneous¬ 
ly j and as I devoted a part of the garden to pump¬ 
kins, I thought I would let some of them grow. 
They were not in the richest part of the garden, 
and I took no pains with them, only to keep down 
the weeds around them. Two grew very luxuriant¬ 
ly, and produced abundantly. I did not keep an 
exact account of the number that grew on one ; but 
there were over forty pumpkins, which would ave¬ 
rage nine or ten pounds a piece. The other produ¬ 
ced twenty-seven pumpkins, which averaged a 
fraction over 22 lbs. each. The heaviest weighed 
33 lbs. The lightest weighed lbs. The whole 
amount was 601 lbs. The longest vine was 63 feet, 
and was still growing when I measured it. 
I enclose a few seeds, out of one of the 27 pump¬ 
kins. Perhaps they will not do any better or as well 
in your climate, than your common pumpkins, but 
you can try them, or let some other persons have 
them. Jacob Hitchcock. Dwight Mission, Che- 
rokee Nation, Jan . 24, 1850. 
Cabbage Culture. 
Eds. Cultivator —I am induced to ask, through 
your journal, what are the effects of growing cab¬ 
bages on soil? Is the crop an exhauster or renova¬ 
tor? 
There is a little community of us here engaged 
in cultivating potatoes and cabbages for the south¬ 
ern market. We are on the bank of the Ohio river, 
immediately below New-Albany, Ind. Our prac¬ 
tice is to take a crop of potatoes, and then a crop 
of Drumhead cabbage from the same ground in one 
season. We invariably find, that we can get a bet¬ 
ter crop of potatoes from the ground on which we 
took, the previous year, both a crop of potatoes and 
a crop of cabbages, than we can when we only take 
a crop of potatoes, and leave the ground idle till the 
following spring. 
We have reason to think our experience is not sin¬ 
gular in this matter; and we wish to know where 
the u protein compounds,” which a writer in the 
Edinburgh Review speaks of as being found in the 
cabbage on analysis, are obtained—do they come 
from the subsoil or from the atmosphere? 
Our soil is alluvial, rather sandy, and the subsoil 
similar to the surface for about thirty feet, when 
we come to a slate rock. We have had periodical 
overflows from the river, of three to five feet in 
depth, once in fifteen years, since 1800. In some in¬ 
stances, the water sweeps three or four inches from 
the surface, and in other places it deposites from 
one to two feet in depth. It is probable that the 
whole space our land now occupies, has in former 
periods constituted the channel of the Ohio. J. H. 
Collins. Locust Lawn, near New-Albany, Ind., 
Feb. 12, 1850. 
Juries in Civil Causes. 
BY DAVID THOMAS. 
A lawyer of great experience, after reading my 
remarks in The Cultivator for October 1849, page 
315, said to me, “ that is correct as far as it goes, 
but it does not reach all the abuses that are practi¬ 
ced. The manner of selecting jurors, is often high¬ 
ly exceptionable. It was doubtless intended by the 
legislature that supervisors and assessors should 
choose the best men ; but it too often happens when 
these officers convene, and proceed to business, that 
if A—- is mentioned as a suitable person to serve in 
that capacity, the reply will be after this manner: 
“ Yes, but lie is actively engaged in affairs of his 
own, and it might be a great damage to him. We 
had better not impose such a burden on him.” So 
of B—, so of C—; and in this way second rate, 
and third rate men have their names entered, and 
enough of them to make a jury trial but little better 
than a farce. 
li Again—the manner in which juries often arrive 
at the amount of damages, is iniquitous; and no¬ 
thing short of a burlesque on Courts of Justice. 
Suppose K— has slandered L—, and the latter asks 
damages. When the jurors have retired to their 
room, a difference of opinion is soon perceived,— 
and how do you suppose they make up their verdict? 
By carefully weighing the evidence, and trying to 
enlighten each other’s minds? Perhaps they do so 
at first; but such discussions soon become tiresome; 
and not unfrequently they proceed to chalk, and 
take the average !! Now then is the time for par¬ 
tialities and antipathies to bud, blossom, and bear 
fruit. The juror is no longer restrained by the ar¬ 
guments or opinions of his colleagues; but with a 
view to the average, and apprehensive that others 
may be as twistical as himself in an opposite direc¬ 
tion,—he marks down a sum which his sober judg¬ 
ment intimates is twice, or three times as great as 
it ought to be. In the mean time, others with a si¬ 
milar view, mark down only half or a third of what 
they believe to be just. The whole is then added 
together and divided by 12! and the foreman gives 
it in, under oath, as a true verdict according to law 
and evidence ! ! 
“ It is some comfort to know however, that the 
Court will generally set such verdicts aside, if the 
facts become known; but the utter worthlessness of 
juries in civil causes, is none the less palpable on 
this account.” 
Having forwarded to my learned friend, the pre¬ 
ceding sketch for revision,—he sent me by return 
of mail, the following supplement,—saying howev¬ 
er that he had no time to write on such subjects, 
except in the greatest haste. 
“ The habits of the great mass of those who are 
drawn to serve as jurors, do not render them the 
best judges of the intricate questions upon which 
they are called to decide,—not that they are defi¬ 
cient in natural endowments, or incapable by due 
training to resolve the doubts and difficulties which 
in every contested suit, must perplex men of the 
keenest intellect. We do not employ a blacksmith 
to make our coats, nor a carpenter to mend our 
watches, nor a physician to make our shoes,—and 
why? Simply because they do not understand the 
business, and others do. If I disagree with a neigh¬ 
bor as to our mutual rights, why should I refer the 
matter to 12 men whom I do not know, but of whom 
I may safely predict that they have been selected at 
random, and are no better at the solution of a diffi¬ 
culty than myself or my neigbor? Why not at oneo 
refer it for final decision to a judge, or a bench of 
I judges, trained to reflection by years of study, and 
