THE CULTIVATOR. 
95 
that thickness, however, is greater than I usually practice at t e 
commencement of picking. 
1 am careful to commence my hop harvest with such a number of 
pickers as I am sure will not pick more than I can dry well, and do 
it the same day. My first batch I put on the kiln between eleven 
and twelve o’clock at noon, perhaps about five inches in thickness, 
which, if properly attended, will be ready to be taken off about 
eight o’clock in the evening. I then put on those picked on the 
previous afternoon, which I attend for an hour or two, and then leave 
until morning; the kiln, when left, possessing heat sufficient to 
cause the evaporation so far to take place, that the steam will not 
settle to their injury; a little fire next day will dry them sufficient¬ 
ly, and leave the kiln in a proper situation to receive the next batch 
at the same time. 
I do humbly solicit our western hop growers to try the experi- 
riment of spreading their hops thinner on their kilns, and not ten or 
twelve inches thick, and consequently twelve hours in drying, with 
the use of sulphur to preserve their colour, without adding to their 
substance. 
I made use of sulphur in drying one kiln, last year, for an expe¬ 
riment, and believe it to be perfectly useless and unnecessary. I 
believe we had better employ a few less hands, or extend our kilns, 
the expense of which would be barely nominal, compared with the 
profits we should receive, in two or three years, from a few acres 
of hops. I do not pretend, by these observations, to understand 
the curing of hops better than many others, and hope to see obser¬ 
vations upon the same subject from those of greater ability in eve¬ 
ry sense of the word. I will, however, presume to observe, that I 
have never sacked but one bale of hops which an inspector mark¬ 
ed as seconds, to my knowledge ; my hops have been sold at home 
for two or three years past, and whether inspected or not I do not 
know. WM. LORD. 
J. Buel, Esq. 
To the Editors of the Cultivator— Permit me, through the 
columns of your valuable paper, to call the attention of farmers to 
the importance of under-draining where necessary, and by that 
means bring all their wet, and now comparatively waste lands, in¬ 
to profitable cultivation. Although wet lands may yield a consi¬ 
derable quantity of grass, yet it is generally inferior in quality ; 
but by properly draining these, they can be made to bear all kinds 
of grain and grasses, yielding a profit to the farmer equal to the 
dryest soils. I saw a communication in one of the numbers of the 
Cultivator, estimating the cost at fifty cents per rod, the drain to 
be filled with broken stone. But is this the best method 1 it cer¬ 
tainly is not the cheapest, and I think not the best. It is more sub¬ 
ject to get filled up with the sand and other substances washing 
through it, and I think will not drain the land as dry as it will to 
leave an open passage for the water, by placing round stones, of 
three or four inches in diameter, where such are to be had, on the 
sides of the drain, and covering with flatter ones. This method, 
to the operative farmer, will not cost to exceed thirty-one cents 
per rod. The trench ought not to be less than two feet deep and 
fourteen inches wide, the sides pared down straight, leaving the 
middle a little higher than the outer edges, that the stones may in¬ 
cline outward against the bank rather than inward, as the water is 
continally washing out the centre. One of our neighbors recent¬ 
ly opened one of his drains for examination, which was put down 
six years ago, in the manner above described, and found the pas¬ 
sage as clear as the day it was put down, and I think must ever 
remain so, as the current of the water will always keep it open.— 
The benefit to be derived from under-drains must be obvious to 
every one. Where parts of a field are wet by this means, the 
whole may be brought into cultivation, and in many instances, ma¬ 
king excellent watering places worth double the amount expended 
in their construction. Respectfully, 
GEO. WILLET. 
Skanealeles, Onondaga, co. N. Y. 8 mo. 1834. 
Science of Agriculture. 
SUPPLY OF FOOD BY MANURES AND CULTURE^ 
With regard to the food of plants derived from the atmosphere, 
the supply is pretty regular, at least in as far as the gases are 
concerned; for they are not found to vary materially in their pro 
prions on any part of the surface of the globe ; but the quantity 
of moisture contained in the atmosphere is continually varying, so 
that in the same season you have not always the same quantity, 
though in the course of the year the deficiency is perhaps made 
up. From the atmosphere, therefore, there is a regular supply of 
vegetable food kept up by nature for the support of vegetable life, 
independent of the aid of man: and if human aid were even want¬ 
ed, it does not appear that it would be of much avail. But this is by 
no means the case in regard to soils, for if soils are less regular 
in their composition, they are at least more in the reach of human 
management. The supply of food may be increased by altering 
the mechanical or chemical constitution of soils ; and by the addi¬ 
tion of food in the form of manures. The mechanical constitution 
of soils may be altered by pulverization, consolidation, draining 
and watering; their chemical properties by aeration and torrifica- 
tion; both mechanical and chemical properties, by the addition of 
earths and other substances ; and manures, either liquid or solid, 
are supplied by irrigation and distribution of dungs and other nou¬ 
rishing matters, with or without their interment. 
Soils in a stale of culture, though consisting originally of the due pro¬ 
portion of ingredients, may yet become exhausted of the principle of fer¬ 
tility, by means of loo frequent cropping; whether by repetition or ro¬ 
tation of the same, or of different crops. In this case, it should 
be the object of the practical cultivator, to ascertain by what means 
fertility is to be restored to the exhausted soil, or communicated to 
a new one. In the breaking up of new soils, if the ground has 
been wet or marshy, as is frequently the case, it is often sufficient 
to prepare it by means of draining off the superfluous and stagnant 
water, and of paring and burning the turf upon the surface. If the 
soil has been exhausted by a too frequent repetition of the same 
crop, it often happens that a change ot crop will answer the pur¬ 
pose of the cultivator ; for although a soil may be exhausted by one 
sort of grain it does not necessarily follow that it is also exhausted 
for another. And accordingly the practice of the farmer is to sow 
his crops in rotation, having in the same field, perhaps, a crop of 
wheat, barley, beans and tares in succession; each species select¬ 
ing in its turn some peculiar nutriment, or requiring, perhaps, a 
smaller supply than the crop that preceded it. But even upon the 
plan of rotation, the soil becomes at length exhausted, and tiie cul¬ 
tivator is obliged to have recourse to other means of restoring fer¬ 
tility. In this case, an interval of repose is considerably efficacious 
as may be seen from the increased fertility of fields that have not 
been ploughed up for many years, such as those used for pasture^ 
or even from the walks and paths in gardens where they are a<min 
broken up. Hence also the practice of fallowing, and of trenching 
or deep ploughing, which, in some cases, has nearly the same eh 
feet. 
The fertility of a soil is restored, in the case of draining, by means 
of its carrying off all such superfluous moisture as may be lodged 
in the soil, which is well known to be prejudicial to plants not'na¬ 
turally aquatics, as well as by rendering the soil more firm and 
compact. In the case of burning, the amelioration is effected by 
means of the decomposition of the vegetable substances contained 
in the turf, and subjected to the action of the fire, which disperses 
also a part of the superfluous moisture, but leaves a residue of 
ashes favorable to future vegetation. In the case of the rotation 
of crops, the fertility is not so much restored as more completely 
developed and brought into action ; because the soil, though exhaust¬ 
ed for one species of grain, is yet found to be sufficiently fertile for 
another, the food necessary to each being different, or required in 
less abundance. In the case of the repose of the soil, the restored 
fertility may be owing to the decay of vegetable substances that 
are not now carried off in the annual crop, but left to augment the 
proportion of vegetable mould ; or to the accumulation of fertiliz¬ 
ing particles conveyed to the soil by rains; or to the continued ab¬ 
straction of oxygen from the atmosphere. In the case of fallows 
it is owing undoubtedly to the action of the atmospheric air upon 
the soil, whether in rendering it more friable, or in hastening the 
putrefaction of noxious plants, or it is owing to the abstraction 
and accumulation of oxygen. In tlie case of trenchino- or deep 
ploughing, it is owing to the increased facility with which the roots 
can now penetrate to the proper depth, and thus their sphere of 
nourishment is increased. But it often happens that the soil can 
no longer be ameliorated by any of the foregoing means, or not at 
least with sufficient rapidity for the purposes of the cultivator- 
and in this case there must be a direct and actual application made 
to it of such substances as are fitted to restore its fertility. Hence 
