I 
NEW 
« TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND.” 
SERIES 
VOL. II. 
ALBANY, OCTOBER, 1S45. 
No. 10. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Is published on the first of each month, at Albany , N. Y., by 
LUTHER TUCKER, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
Seven copies for $5 —Fifteen copies for $10,00—all payments 
to be made in advance, and free of postage. tCr* All subscriptions 
to commence with the vol ume. _ 
OFFICE IN NEW-YORK CITY, AT 
M. H. NEWMAN’S BOOKSTORE, No. 199 BROADWAY, 
where single numbers, or complete sets of the back volumes, can 
always be obtained. 
[£7=* “ The Cultivator” is subject to newspaper postage only. 
foreign Correspondence. 
MR. NORTON’S LETTERS—No. XVI. 
Laboratory of Ag. Chem. Association ,) 
Edinburgh, July 31, 1845. S 
L. Tucker, Esq.—At the close of my last letter, I had 
reached Lynn, a town of some commercial importance, 
near the mouth of the Ouse. After leaving Lynn, our 
road as far as Boston, lay across a flat, low country, the 
greater part of which, isbut just above the ordinary level 
of the sea, and some is actually lower, the water being kept 
out by embankments. Large tracts have in this way 
been rescued from the sea, and'there are men living who 
have seen boats sailing where luxuriant grain now waves. 
The soil of this region is of a deep black color and 
rather stiff, but is very rich, as the crops attested in places 
where it was well dried. As this implies, a superabun¬ 
dance of water is the great difficulty. The farmers there 
seem to have but little idea of draining properly. They 
have their fields divided ofl‘ by large open drains or 
ditches, which do the work but very imperfectly. Though 
the fall is very little on most of the lands, tile drains, 
rightly made, and at proper intervals, would carry off 
the water. Where the land is actually below the level 
of the sea, a hole might be dug in some central point to 
collect the water, which might then be pumped up by a* 
windmill, and conducted into the sea. This method is 
extensively practiced in Holland. By a perfect drain¬ 
age, these lands would become exceedingly valuable, 
and equal in fertility any in the kingdom. Our next 
stage, from Boston to Sleaford, was also over a soil ca¬ 
pable of yielding immense returns; it lies higher than 5 
thatnear the coast, and is consequently more easily freed 
from water. Judging from appearances, however, tho¬ 
rough draining is yet confined to a small portion of the 
farms. Near Sleaford the vegetation was remarkably 
strong and of a good color. Soon after leaving that 
place, there was a change for the worse, The soil be¬ 
came light and thin, resting on the oolite formation. 
Formerly an extensive moor stretched nearly to Lin¬ 
coln, 20 miles, and so desolate was it, that a lofty pillar 
was erected on some high ground in the centre, as a 
landmark for bewildered travellers. This pillar re¬ 
mains, but is no longer surrounded by a barren waste; 
within sight of it, are now some of the best cultivated 
farms in Lincolnshire. 
We visited the farm of Mr. Frankish, about eight 
miles from Sleaford, one of the last reclaimed from its 
natural state. When he took it the whole was a light 
sandy heath. The soil is still light of course, but won¬ 
derfully improved. Clover now grows well there, 
though he says it is not quite certain to take. His 
wheat is from five to six quarters per acre, I noticed 
one wheat stack which was computed to contain 140 
quarters, or 1120 bushels. He had two others nearly as 
large. 
The stacks in Scotland are small and round; here they 
are oblong, and very high and wide. I saw one in the 
north of Lincolnshire, said to be forty feet in height. 
They are finished with great nicety, and the wheat will 
keep for many years, excepting mice and rats in great 
numbers find their way to it. In some parts of this farm 
there are but three or four inches of soil above the 
oolite limestone, which lies in small loose fragments to 
a depth of perhaps a foot farther. The subsoil plow 
would be of great use there to deepen the soil, by going 
down through the fragments of oolite. Their gradual 
decomposition also would then be of benefit to the soil 
with which they would be intermixed. 
Mr. Frankish’s large stock manufactures much barn-yard 
manure, but beside that he uses very large quantities of 
rape-dust and bones; he has a mill expressly for grind¬ 
ing these last. He has not yet dissolved them in sulphu¬ 
ric acid. He is trying this year a small quantity of 
Guano. We found that in this district, rape-dust and 
bones were almost universally employed. On our way 
to Lincoln, we looked at one or two other farms that lay 
about the middle of the old moor. Substantially the 
same system is pursued on them all. We reached Lin¬ 
coln on Saturday evening, and on Monday morning re¬ 
sumed our northward progress. In the course of the day 
we visited six or seven of the best Lincolnshire farms. 
We were much pleased at Stannwell’s farm, Mr. Rus¬ 
sell, about twenty-six miles from Lincoln. This and 
several adjoining farms, formed, a short time since, an 
extensive rabbit warren, and was a mere sandy waste 
when Mr. Russell took it. He has in a few years made 
wonderful improvements. Upon the very lightest fields, 
he has carted large quantities of clay and marl, produ¬ 
cing thus, good crops where scarce a blade of grass was 
to be found before. His wheat and turneps were look¬ 
ing particularly well. In the course of our day’s jour¬ 
ney we passed successively across the upper and lower 
oolite formations, (the name oolite is given to a peculiar 
species of limestone,) and finally came upon the chalk ot 
the Lincolnshire wolds. Here we visited during the af¬ 
ternoon, a number of very fine farms, especially deserv¬ 
ing of notice, because made from the thin chalk soils of 
the wolds. We still found a want of subsoiling ani 
draining, but certainly were disposed to yield a very 
high place to those farmers whom we visited. Guauo 
has been little used there as yet, but bones and rape-dust 
very largely. The turneps are mostly fed off by sh^ep; 
the wheat crops are not often more than 4 or 4| quarters, 
32 to 36 bushels, but the grain is of excellent quality; 
barley does admirably. We could very profitably have 
passed many days among these farms, but were obliged 
to cross the Humber on the following morning. 
Our next stop was near Wakefield, at the estate of 
which our companion, Mr. Breckenridge, was manager. 
Here we found many evidences of his encouragement tc 
