150 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
SOILS WHOSE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION GIVES 
THEM PERPETUAL FERTILITY. 
Mr. Editor —There are some very choice pieces of 
land which I will call lake intervales, dispersed here and 
there along the shores of the middle anti northern por¬ 
tions of the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. A. Durkee, has 
a farm half a mile south of the village of Union Springs, 
on the eastern shore of the lake, seven miles south of 
Cayuga Bridge, which embraces a strip of this all endu¬ 
ring soil, of many acres, next to the lake shore: its sub¬ 
soil is a calcareous soft gravelly shale, the surface a dark 
friable loam. This intervale has been under cultivation 
more than forty years; for the last thirty years it has 
borne alternate crops of corn, oats, wheat, and latterly 
wheat and clover, without any other manure than plas¬ 
ter; all the animal manures of the farm being distributed 
on the higher land. As there has never been any per¬ 
ceptible diminution of crop, Mr. Durkee takes no pains 
to increase his organic manures; as soon as his wheat is 
threshed, the straw is committed to the flames; little 
pains is taken to save even the ashes of the straw; yet so 
far from being a careless improvident farmer, Mr. D. is 
one of the neatest, most thriving, industrious farmers, in 
a county proverbial for good farming. The land bound¬ 
ed by those lakes, is invariably, first rate, unless it is in 
some places towards their southern extremities, where it 
rises with too great precipitancy to be strictly arable; 
but it is only here and there, on a low narrow intervale 
of aluminous schist, underlaid by soft shales, and the 
limestone ledge, that a semper fertile soil is found. A 
small portion of the soil bordering those lakes, is a heavy 
sandy loam, originally covered with beech, maple, bass 
wood, Src.; another portion is a stiff clay loam, intermix¬ 
ed with pebbles, covered originally with oak and hicko¬ 
ry trees; in other places, particularly near the Cayuga 
lake shore, in Fayetteville and Springport, the soil is a 
greasy oak bearing clay, rich in lime, marl, &c. without 
stone or gravel. More money has been made by John 
Dysinger in raising wheat and clover seed or^ this soil, 
within the last thirty y r ears, than would obtain belief, 
should I name the amount. Yet for all the purposes of 
summer cropping, this soil is next to impracticable, re¬ 
quiring the aid of long manure, and fall or winter plow¬ 
ing, the frost alone can render it permeable, and the long- 
manure ameliorates its subsequent adhesiveness. 
I consider that the experiment on the soil of Mr. Dur¬ 
kee, goes far to disprove the Berzilian theory, that hu¬ 
mus in the soil is the main source of vegetable nutrition; 
and to establish the theory of Liebig, that plants derive 
their sustenance mainly from the atmosphere, positively 
requiring little more from the soil than their inorganic ba¬ 
ses. We are told by David Thomas, that on a dry prai¬ 
rie near Vincennes, Ind., Indian corn had been annually 
grown more than sixty years, without any sensible dimi¬ 
nution of crop, although no kind of manure, animal or 
mineral, had ever been applied to the soil. Such a soil 
must be rich intleed in available salts, and the metallic 
bases. The analysis of various soils by Prof. Sprengel, 
clearly establishes the fact, that the most enduring soil 
contains the smallest portion of soluble humus, while the 
barren heath contains the largest portion of vegetable hu¬ 
mus, both soluble and insoluble. S. W. 
Farm Accounts. —We make the following extract 
from the excellent Address of J. W. Proctor, Esq.— 
“ In the agricultural, as in the trading community, pro¬ 
perty will not adhere that is not cemented by labor. The 
young man, therefore, who sets out to be a farmer, must 
look about him and see how farming can be supported, 
what kind of crops there are that will pay for themselves 
and yield something. He must so manage as to make both 
ends meet. I cannot too strongly urge upon him the ne¬ 
cessity of keeping accurate minutes of what he does, and 
of making exact estimates of the result of his labors and 
experiments. Nothing is more detrimental to good has 
bandry than uncertain conjectures. Though the result 
of our operations may not correspond with our wishes or 
expectations, we should not close our eyes upon the facts. 
Truth, exact truth, will ever support itself, and him who 
cherishes it.” 
CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE. 
Mixed Husbandry in Mississippi. —We give the fol¬ 
lowing extract from a private letter from a subscriber in 
Ami'e Co.—“I reside in what is here called the Pine 
Woods, and follow a mixed husbandry, being content to 
raise four bales cotton (o the hand. My farm has, how¬ 
ever, afforded me a better profit the past year, than many 
farms where 8 to 10 bales to the hand, have been raised. 
I find a ready market for all the pork, beef and grain that 
I have to spare, and find no difficulty in disposing of all 
my surplus stock to my more wealthy neighbors west of 
me.” 
Locust Borer destroyed—Spirits of Turpentine. 
—Mr. Z. P. Mason, of Jordan, says —“ My locust trees 
last spring, for the first time, were attacked by the borer 
—on examination, I found from 20 to 50 in a tree. With 
a knife I cut off the bark directly over the place they 
were at work in the wood and applied spirits of turpen¬ 
tine to the place, inserting it when necessary, into the 
holes with a feather. This was effectual, as no more bo¬ 
rers made their appearance during the summer. The 
trees did remarkably well after the application of the 
turpentine, the incisions entirely closing up during the 
summer. Now it is barely possible that I found all that 
were on the trees—if so— all were killed—but it is rea¬ 
sonable to suppose some escaped the direct application—- 
did not the turpentine circulating with the sap drive and 
keep them away ?” 
Early Blossoms. —Mr. N. Parker of Trimble coun¬ 
ty, Ky., writes that he had Peach and soft shelled Al¬ 
mond trees in bloom on the 22d Feb. last. 
Large Eggs. —A correspondent at Providence, R. I., 
informs us that Mr. D. Chase has a Poland hen, that in 
one week laid three eggs weighing 3£ ounces each, be¬ 
side one or two others about the common size.” 
Marking Fruit Trees. —In a late letter to us, Col. 
Randall of Cortland, says—“ I can tell you a cheaper 
and handier way of marking apple frees than the one 
published in your last; which you can publish in your 
correspondence, if you see fit. On a leaf of his farm- 
book, let the farmer put down a map of his orchard thus, 
every dot standing for an apple tree. 
0 0 0 0 
R. I. Greening. Strast. Spitzenburg. Gilliflower. 
0 0 0 0 
Golden Pippin Tallman Sweeting. 
0 0 0 0 
Fall Pippin. 
The upper part of every map is north. Then by coun¬ 
ting rows and the number of the free in the row, the tree 
represented by each dot can be readily identified, and the 
name of the fruit should be put down under each as 
above.” 
Potatoe Rot. —We have received from “ G. S.,” a 
respected correspondent at Pendleton, S. C., a well writ¬ 
ten article on this subject, which nothing but the great 
press of communications, prevents us from publishing 
entire. The conclusion to which “ G. S.” has arrived, 
after much consideration of the subject, is, that “asuper¬ 
abundance of water, or sap in the potatoe, is the imme¬ 
diate or proximate cause of its premature decay.” In 
reference to a remedy, he says —“ it is depiction , which 
in many instances must follow repletion, to save life. In 
other words, I would suggest (whenever it is discovered 
that the rot has commenced,) the propriety of cuttingoff 
the tops just above the surface of the bed, and in one or 
two days afterwards, to dig the potatoes. It will be 
found on the day following the cutting, that much water 
has been discharged from the standing stumps, and that 
the potatoes have been effectually drained of their engor¬ 
ged sap. This operation, I feel well assured, will very 
much improve the quality of the potatoe for immediate 
table use, and I do believe ensure its preservation.” 
We have heard before, the suggestion in reference to 
cutting off the tops. We are not certain that doing this 
after the blight had struck the tops, would injure the tu¬ 
bers—we rather think it w'ould not, and hence we see no 
objection to trying the remedy of “ G. S.” But it may 
