1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
309 
be better than last year. There will be some loss 
by wheat midge, yet I think not more than last year, 
and on some farms much less. Oats and Barley 
are a heavy crop—indeed too heavy to be profitable, 
being beaten down by the heavy rains. Corn was 
kept back for a long time by cold rains; it now, 
however, looks well; but much of our stiff soil was 
plowed when it was too wet to make a good crop. 
I believe that stiff soils cannot be plowed too dry for 
corn or any other crop; but more so for corn than 
any other. 
A great many cattle were fed last winter in this 
part of the State-more than ever before; but I am 
sorry to say a great many did not pay for their keep. 
Many farmers went into it that never fed before, 
and bought cattle that were not the right kind to 
feed, and could not have made them profitable 
almost any season; but cattle were bought too high 
last fall, and could not be expected to pay much. 
I was fortunate in buying two year olds, and by 
growth and by fat, I got about what might be con¬ 
sidered reasonable pay for what they consumed, 
besides a great quantity of manure. 
In 1840, I thought I had made a great discovery, 
in that I could winter my sheep better on straw, 
with from 40 to 50 cents worth of oil meal to each 
sheep, during the winter; but after following that 
practice for a number of years, I found that by 
making my sheep pass a large quantity of the straw 
through them, I greatly lessened the quantity of 
barn-yard manure. Still I considered it would be 
so much richer that it would amount to the same 
thing in the end; but I found after some years, that 
my diminished quantity of manure, made a diminish¬ 
ed quantity of straw to make manure, and for the 
last three years I have gone back to the old prac¬ 
tice—that is to let the whole of the straw be trodden 
under foot by the stock, and by that means I can 
raise double the quantity of hay per acre that I 
otherwise could do, and therefore can afford to feed 
hay; and should my land get too rich for wheat, 
I must go to feeding straw again. 
I this year sold 77 fleeces of Merino wool, which, 
at the price sold for, (38 cts. per lb., cash,) brought 
one hundred and foity-eight dollars ninety-six cents. 
Who has a better flock? John Johnston. Rear 
Geneva , 18 th July, 1850. 
The Power of Steam. 
Steam !—mighty steam ! The term suggests a 
thousand pleasing and profitable reflections. That 
marvellous and almost invisible power which brooks 
no opposition, which never tires—scouring the plains, 
piercing the hills, threading the valleys, and plow¬ 
ing the wide ocean, mastering with indignant ease 
time and space, wind, water and seasons. The 
varieties of its power may well amaze us—here Tis 
wielding the ponderous hammer that gives shape 
to gigantic metallic masses—there it weaves the 
gossamer web, or twists the slender fibre. It 
plunges the hardy miner deep into the bowels of 
the earth, and raises from her lap her mineral and 
metallic treasures. These glow and flow with 
liquid meltings at its powerful blast; here J tis print¬ 
ing bank notes, there coining golden sovereigns. 
To-day ’tis preparing food and clothing for the 
body; to-morrow it feasts the mind, spreading far 
and wide, in countless numbers, the broad sheets of 
intelligence. Instruments of death and of preserva¬ 
tion, alike acknowledge its power. What a com¬ 
prehensive word is steam ! It means peace, pro¬ 
gression, civilization, education, abundance and 
cheapness; it is the death-blow to monopoly and 
privation. Ignorance and prejudice shrink away 
at its approach; the iron barrier of separation is 
broken down by steam. The interposition of time, 
of distance, or of poverty, no longer wounds the 
tender affections. It increases alike our political 
power as a nation, and our morality; for the in¬ 
crease of physical comfort must, in a Christian 
community, predispose to moral good. Mechi's 
Lecture on Steam. 
The Food of Plants. 
Plants, even when grown in the same soil, do not 
draw up a sap exac.tly identical. Saussure has 
proved in the most positive manner that the roots 
have the power of selection, though his experiments 
on the unequal absorption of different salts are not 
quite satisfactory: for instance, sulphate of copper, 
though soon causing the death of the plant, is ab¬ 
sorbed in as large quantities as any of those com¬ 
pounds which are beneficial to vegetation. Saus¬ 
sure explains this anomaly by showing that in the 
ease of sulphate of copper, the roots were decom¬ 
posed, and consequently except at the commence¬ 
ment of the experiment, only acted mechanically. 
It was well ascertained that the substances present 
in any solution were absorbed in very different pro¬ 
portions where their substances were not, like the 
sulphate of copper, positively injurious—for in¬ 
stance Bidens (bur-marygold?) and Polygonum 
(buckwheat?) absorbed the salts in the following 
proportions:— 
Bidens. Polygonum. 
Chloride potassium,.. 
Chloride sodium,...... 
Nitrate of lime,.. 
Sulphate of soda,... 
Muriate of ammonia,. 
Acetate of lime,..... 
Sulphate of copper,. 
Gum, ........ .. 
Sugar,.. ... 
Humus ( extrait de terreau).... 
16 .. 
14.7 
15 .. 
13.0 
8 .. 
4.0 
10 .. 
14.4 
17 .. 
12.0 
8 .. 
8.0 
48 .. 
47.0 
32 .. 
9.0 
8 .. 
29.0 
6 .. 
5.0 
These experiments were repeated with the great¬ 
est care, and it was proved—1st, That plants ab¬ 
sorbed all mineral substances when dissolved in 
water: 2nd, That they were absorbed in very dif¬ 
ferent proportions, according to the plant experi¬ 
mented on; this absorption was also quite irre¬ 
spective of the fluidity of the solution; and 3rd, 
That organic matter, when dissolved in water, is 
not in that shape absorbed by the roots, but decom¬ 
posed by their influence, and. then partially ab¬ 
sorbed. 
1, Without entering into the minute details of 
the experiments, the absorption of the following 
substances was proved—prussiate of potash, chlo¬ 
ride of sodium, sulphate of copper, acetate of lead, 
chloride of barium, ioduret of potassium, and ma¬ 
ny others. The absorption of nitrate of silver, 
corrosive sublimate, and gallic acid, did not take 
place until after the death of that portion of the 
plant plunged into their solution. 
2. When the plants where placed in a solution 
containing two salts in equal proportions, it was 
satisfactorily ascertained that they were absorbe/ 
in different proportions. Even, when the sa? ts 
were present in different proportions, this elective 
absorption was not deranged. In a solution con-- 
taining three times as much common salt /s nitre, 
a plant of Chenopodium viride (GoosefooO absorb¬ 
ed much more nitre than common salt; whilst the 
contrary took place with Solanuyt lycopersicum 
(Nightshade.) Other plants sele/ted. also common 
