THE CULTIVATOR. 
19 
best adapted for their purpose when constructed of polished metal, 
and worst when constructed of black porcelain. A black porcelain 
tea pot is the worst conceivable material for that vessel, for both its 
materials and colour arc good radiators of heat, and the liquid con¬ 
tained in it cools with the greatest possible rapidity. On the other 
hand, a bright metal tea-pot is best adapted for the purpose, because 
it is the worst radiator of heat, and therefore cools as slowly as pos¬ 
sible. A polished silver or brass tea urn is better adapted to retain 
the heat of the water, than one of a dull brown colour, such as is 
most commonly used. A tin kettle retains the heat ot water boiled 
in it more effectually if it be kept clean and polished, than if it be 
allowed to collect the smoke and soot to which it is exposed from 
the action of the fire. When coated with this, its surface becomes 
rough and black, and is a powerful radiator of heat. A set of po¬ 
lished fire irons may remain for a long time in front of a hot fire, 
without receiving from it any increase of temperature beyond that 
of the chamber, because the heat radiated by the fire is all reflect¬ 
ed by the polished surface of the irons, and none of it is absorb¬ 
ed ; but if a set of rough, unpolished irons were similarly placed, 
they would become speedily so hot, that they could not be used 
without inconvenience. The polish of fire irons is, therefore, not 
merely a matter of ornament, but of use and convenience. The 
rough, unpolished poker, sometimes used in a kitchen, becomes 
speedily so hot that it cannot be held without pain. A close stove, 
intended to warm apartments, should not have a polished surface, 
for in that case it is one of the worst radiators of heat, and nothing 
could be contrived less fit for the purpose to which it is applied. 
On the other hand, a rough, unpolished surface of cast iron, is fa¬ 
vorable to radiation, and a fire in such a stove will always produce 
a most powerful effect.— Cabinet Cyclopccdia. — Dr. Lardner, on 
Heat. 
CHEAP FARMING. 
I have been much gratified by the receipt and perusal of your first 
number of the Farmers’ Register. 
I wish your paper may have the effect of producing some amend¬ 
ment in our farming; and that you may be remunerated for your 
labor and good intentions. I am greatly fearful, however, of your 
success in both respects. 
We Virginia farmers, (I mean such as I am, who are at least 
four-fifths of the whole,) require to have some plan devised, by 
which, without much labor, and with no expense, we may improve 
our lands, and that speedily, or we will remove to the western fo¬ 
rests, and encounter all the labor and privations attending a new 
settlement. We have no notion of submitting to the tardy and la¬ 
borious system of your real farmer. We go for a kind of slight of 
hand or no work plan—or we are off'. 
Our general course of operations has been, to cultivate our lands 
in corn one year, and rest them in wheat the next; and so on, until 
they are prepared for a good crop of old field pines -the best crop, 
by the way, since the introduction of steam-boats, of the whole. 
A piece of land thus highly improved, I got possession of some 
years ago ; but instead of waiting patiently for the pine crop, I de¬ 
termined I would cultivate it every year in corn, until I got it rich; 
and this too without manure, although I lived near a town where 
any quantity might have been had; but I scorned all such foreign 
aid. 
I prepared the land early, and having procured some buckwheat, 
I mixed it with oats, and sowed them in March or April. In due 
time, I planted my corn in drills, say eight feet apart. I ran a sin¬ 
gle coulter deep on each side ; hoed and thinned the corn ; and, in 
due course, turned a slice to it, and gave it another dressing with 
the hoes. I took no more than was absolutely necessary for the 
corn, from the oats and buckwheat, until it became proper to break 
the middlings, and lay by the corn. By this time the oats were so 
matured that the seed would vegetate. I preceded the plough by 
coultering deep with a single coulter, so as to pulverize the mid¬ 
dlings, and then turned them with their coat of oats and buckwheat 
on the corn, drawing the dirt over the straw with hoes, so as to co¬ 
ver it up pretty well. The corn was a sorry crop, but the ground 
was well covered with young oats. These I turned in, in the fall, 
and proceeded in like manner the next year, with this difference, 
that I had no buckwheat to mix with my oats. This was a bad look 
out; but as it required some little foresight and management to 
avoid this mishap, it was beyond me. 
I had heard of the chinck bug, but had never seen it; and knew 
not its great fondness for oats. My last ploughing, instead of de¬ 
stroying, saved it even the trouble of travelling to the corn: It had 
nothing to do but to “ arise, slay and eat.'” 
Being thus rudely and unexpectedly assailed in my grand experi¬ 
ment, I had nothing left but to sow the land down in rye, which I 
had tried without success, before I began my experiment. From 
what cause it proceeded, you know better than I do; but so it is, I 
have rarely seen a heavier crop of rye than I obtained from this 
sowing. 
I sold the land soon after, and so ends that experiment. 
I have lately purchased another tract, improved to the pine crop 
state also; inasmuch that a crop of rye on part of a field where 1 
purchased, was too mean to be cut; and I ran a harrow over it so 
as to prostrate it. I observed that even this slight cover produced 
such a change in the appearance of the ground that I determined 
last fall to make another experiment, if such it may be called. 
After taking off a crop of wheat, preceded by one of corn, as usual, 
and after pasturing the land with stock of every kind, as impru¬ 
dently as any experimentalist could require, in testing a plan to coun¬ 
teract bad management; and after all my other crops were sowed, 
I harrowed half a bushel of rye to the acre, not in but on land thus 
beat hard by the hoof. 
It formed no part of my plan to have preceded this operation by 
deep coultering. That would have been too much like your labori¬ 
ous farming. 
Plaster would cost money as well as time to sow it, and that also 
was entirely out of my line. 
In this situation the field was left to shift for itself, except that I 
kept every thing off until the rye was ripe. The crop proved better 
than, under such circumstances, could be expected. 
The field was also well covered with white and red clover, and 
what we call ribwort or narrow plantain, (I don’t know its botanical 
name ;) but if it is good for any thing, it must be an excellent grass 
for bad farmers, for it will grow in any place, and on any kind of land. 
I intended to have prostrated the rye by running a harrow over 
if, (for I have no roller;) but how can it be expected I would take 
so much time and trouble 1 It would have covered the ground much 
better, it is true, and no doubt would have added greatly to its im¬ 
provement; but I never have time to do any thing, however proper, 
that can possibly be avoided; and so I have contented myself with 
turning in my hogs first, and finally my cattle, horses, and every 
thing, to eat and tread it down, intending this fall and winter to turn 
in this cover of straw and grass, and plant corn next year. 
The adjoining field, now in wheat, I will treat in the same way 
this fall, and prepare it for corn, to take its course the year after 
next; and as these fields are better adapted to corn than wheat, 1 
mean to cultivate them afterwards alternately in corn, harrowing 
rye in after the corn is cut off, with some clover and timothy seed, 
(if I can muster energy and cash enough,) so as to have as heavy a 
cover as possible to tread, pasture down, and turn in during the fall 
and winter preceding the corn crop. 
If I can discover a plan in this, or some such way, to improve our 
lands, without trouble or expense, indeed one which will overpay us 
at once for any little trouble or expense we may be at, it may ena¬ 
ble my class of farmers to remain in the Ancient Dominion ; other¬ 
wise (unless indeed you can reclaim us and our lands too ) we must 
remove. 
But seriously speaking, my dear sir, could you not cast this mat¬ 
ter in your mind, and mature some simple plan of this kind, that 
might as an entering wedge, do some good, and strike the attention 
of that great class of farmers, who, from habit, &c. are incapable, at 
once, of any great efficient change 1 
I little expected, when I took up my pen, to trouble you with my 
crude and unsatisjactory notions, for they can’t be caked experiments 
—much less to offer any thing to the public eye. This you will at 
once see is not my object. 
Deciphering such pieces is a price you will have to pay. We will 
have our money's ivortli out of you in some way or other. I would be 
ashamed though to expect an answer, other than such hints, if this 
shall have suggested any, as you may deem it proper to give us in 
your paper. 
By the way, you can also inform us in that way, whether you are 
acquainted with the rib-wort, and what you think of it as an improv¬ 
ing grass. It has entirely taken possession of my farm, and I begin 
to entertain hopes it will prove a valuable grass: if it is not, there 
is no getting clear of it. 
