280 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
Aug. 
and manure, ending with a thick layer of peat. If 
ashes be added, or if the heap be occasionally watered 
with urine, decomposition will be more rapid, and the 
compost be more fertilizing. In six weeks, more or less, 
according to the season, the heap maybe shovelled over 
and then carried on to the field, where its effects are 
equal, if not superior, to the same quantity of common 
dung. It may be applied to any soil deficient in vege¬ 
table matter, and in any way, exactly as if it were so 
much well rotted yard manure. By ashes alone, the 
peaty earth may likewise be converted into the food of 
plants; but I believe it is best to use them as above 
directed. 
3d. The peat maybe burnt in the fields for its ashes, 
which are applied with very good effect as a top dress¬ 
ing to meadows, at the rate of 40 or 50 bushels per acre. 
Agricultural and Horticultural Fairs. 
State Societies. — New-York, at Albany, Sept. 
3, 4, 5, 6. 
Ohio, at Cincinnati, Sept. 11, 12, 13. The an¬ 
nual session of the American Pomological Congress 
will be held at the same time and place. 
Maryland, at Baltimore, October 23, 24, 25. 
Michigan, at Ann-Arbor, Sept. 25, 26, 27. 
Rhode Island, at Providence, Sept. 18, 19, 20. 
New-Hampshire, at Concord, first week in Oct. 
Canada West, at Niagara, Sept. 18, 19, 20. 
American Institute, New-York.—The exhibition 
will open on the first of October, and continue for 
three weeks. Plowing and Spading Matches at 
Tarrytown, Oct. 11. Cattle Show, corner 5th ave¬ 
nue and 23d streets, Oct. 16, 17, 18. 
Georgia , at Atlanta, Aug. 15. 
N. Y. County Shows. —Cayuga, at Auburn, 
Sept. 24, 25—Saratoga, at Mechanicsville, Sept. 
17, 18—Seneca, at Ovid, Sept. 26, 27—Monroe, at 
Rochester, Sept. 25, 26, 27-—Sullivan, Sept. 18, 19 
— Otsego, Sept. 24, 25-—Madison, Sept. 26, 27'— 
Oswego, Sept. 25, 26—Wayne, at Clyde, Sept. 18, 
19, and at Palmyra, on the 25th, 26th—Livingston, 
Sept. 24, 25—Ontario, Oct. 1, 2—Suffolk, Sept. 24 
—Washington, at Argyle, Sept. 18, 19—Oneida, at 
Rome, Sept. 18, 19—Clinton, at Keeseville, Sept. 
24, 25. 
Conn. —New-Haven Hort. and Agricultural, at 
New-Haven, Sept. 24, 25, 26. 
Vermont. —’Addison, at Vergennes, Sept. 25. 
Science as Applicable to Agriculture. 
The following remarks from the Farmer's Guide, 
a work which we have noticed on several occasions, 
we recommend to the attention of our readers. Eds. 
‘ 1 Agriculture may perhaps be considered one of 
the experimental sciences, as its principles are no 
doubt demonstrable by the test of experiment, al¬ 
though farmers have not yet attempted to deduce 
principles from practice. The necessity for such a 
deduction is, no doubt, the less urgent, that hus¬ 
bandry is usually pursued as a purely practical art ; 
and the facility of thus pursuing it successfully, of 
course renders practical men indifferent to science, 
as they consider it unnecessary to burden their 
minds with scientific results, whilst practice is suf¬ 
ficient for their purpose. Could the man of practice, 
however, supply the man of science with a series of 
accurate observations on the leading operations of 
the farm, the principles of these might be truly evolv¬ 
ed • but the greatest obstacle to the advancement of 
scientific agriculture is to be sought for in the unac¬ 
quaintance of men of science with practical agricul¬ 
ture. Would the man of science become acquainted 
with practice, much greater advancement in scien¬ 
tific agriculture might be expected than if the prac¬ 
tical man were to become a man of science; be¬ 
cause men of science are best capable of conducting 
scientific research, and, being so qualified, could 
best understand the relation which their investiga¬ 
tions bear to practice; and, until the relation betwixt 
principles and practice is well understood, scientific 
investigation, though important in itself, and inter¬ 
esting in its results, would tend to no practical util¬ 
ity in agriculture. In short, until the facts of hus¬ 
bandry are acquired by men of science, these will in 
vain endeavour to construct a satisfactory theory of 
agriculture on the principles of inductive philoso¬ 
phy.” 
Chess will Grow. 
Last fall I selected a dozen grains of chess and 
sowed them; they came up and wintered well. In 
the spring, I transplanted them, and they are now 
just heading out, fine chess. 
I had some seed wheat last fall which contain¬ 
ed a large quantity of chess. I poured it into 
a strong brine, and then decanted it, so as to turn 
off most of the chess. It was then sown, and it 
has but a very few spires of chess in it. W. H. 
Bethel, Vt. 
It is strange that the idea that chess will not 
grow, should have ever been entertained. It grows 
as readily, and produces “seed after its kind ” with 
as much certainty as any other plant. This has 
been repeatedly proved by experiments. Eds. 
Leaves as Manure. 
Leaves, buds, and tender branches are peculiarly rich 
in the vegetable alkali; besides which they contain other 
organic elements derived from the soil, and which, by 
being returned to the soil, enrich its surface, tending to 
prevent its exhaustion, or when newly applied,—that 
is to other ground,—to enrich it more than superficially. 
Leaves—and the remark is applicable to the tender 
branches also—seem destined by nature for the manure 
of forest land, and indeed, of ground generally wherever 
trees grow. The roots collect the inorganic elements 
essential to vegetation from the soil, penetrating deeply 
and widely; the leaves detain and store up a certain 
portion of them, with other elements derived from the 
atmosphere, such as are required for their growth;and 
these returned to the soil with the fall of the leaf, and 
there undergoing decomposition, are ready to be appro¬ 
priated again, and re-adminster to the process of vege¬ 
table growth. Farmer's Herald. . 
Waste of Manure. 
Little or no pains is taken usually to save the liquid 
manure of animals; no earth or saw dust is placed in 
or beneath the stable to absorb it; and the barn-yard 
is often so situated, that all the liquids that would col¬ 
lect in it, run off into the street, or are conducted to 
the adjoining field, where they are so little spread a- 
bout, as to injure the crop by producing an immode¬ 
rate luxuriance. Liquid manure is exceedingly valua¬ 
ble, and the yards and stables of the farmer should be 
so constructed, that it may all be saved. There should 
be no outlet to the barn-yard, where the fluids collected 
in it can run off. They should either be taken away, 
and applied directly to the land, or poured upon the com¬ 
post heaps in and around the barn-yard. The turf a- 
bout his fences and stone walls, or the mud and muck 
from his swamps, should be collected in heaps or spread 
around his yard in order to absorb the fertilizing liquids 
collected there.— Iddress of S. Hart, Esq., before the 
Hartford County, Ct., Ag. Society. 
