110 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
of their larger leaves, grouted and afterwards watered. They 
have received no covering, and yet they have hardly wilted, 
and now appear nearly as fresh as those which have been left in 
the nursery beds. I do not think I shall lose a plant in two thou¬ 
sand.* My reasoning is this, that the plants, when taken up, being 
almost wholly devoid of moisture, and the ground extremely warm, 
the water with which they were supplied, imparted a remarkable 
vigor to them, and induced them to throw out new fibrous roots in 
a few hours after they were put into the ground. To grout plants, 
take any small vessel, or dig a hole eight or ten inches in diameter 
in the ground, put into it water and stir in earth till the mixture is 
of the consistence of porridge; into this dip and fully saturate and 
coat the roots of the plants. Plant with a dibble, a piece of a 
hoe or spade handle, 15 inches long, sharpened at one end ; make a 
hole w ith this of sufficient depth for the plant, insert the roots, then 
enter the dibble a second time, an inch or two from the first hole, 
directing its point to the bottom of that hole, and when low enough, 
press the top of the dibble briskly up to the plant, thus bringing the 
earth in contact with all the roots, and afterwards closing the first 
hole, i have seen 500 plants put out in 30 minutes, in this way, by 
an expert man, the plants being dropped for him. 
Canaan Centre, Oct. 27th, 1834. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Sir—I send you the result of a trial 1 made on 
the different methods of curing corn. Soon after the first frost that 
injured corn leaves, 1 cut off two rows through a small piece by the 
ground, and set them up around standing hills, in the usual way.— 
On four adjoining rows, two on each side, I topped four hills and left 
four without topping. On gathering it, I was very particular to 
keep each parcel by itself, and weigh them accurately, and found 
the result as follows: On the hills not topped, which were equal to 
two entire rows, I had two hundred and sixty-seven and one-fourth 
pounds. On the same number of hills topped, I had two hundred 
and forty pounds, and on the two rows cut off by the ground, I had 
two hundred and sixty-one pounds. 
In trying the above experiment, I have satisfied myself that I, as 
well as most other farmers, have been wrong in supposing that topping 
corn would facilitate the ripening, as what I topped was evidently 
not as sound, and had more soft ears than either of the other par¬ 
cels. _ DANIEL S. CURTIS. 
TOASTS DRANK AT CATTLE FAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
Our anniversary celebration—Its foundation is the earth, its sup¬ 
port industry, temperance and enterprise. 
Two modern scourges—The Asiatic cholera and the ultra party 
spirit—both spasmodic and fatal. The first produces physical, the 
other moral and political death. 
The present generation—With our cup of blessings running over, 
we are dissatisfied and are destroying our best institutions, in the 
vain hope of the golden egg. 
The high party press—A sort of safety valve, through which high 
pressure politicians corrupt the political atmosphere by letting off 
their gas, till at length they burst their own boilers and blow them¬ 
selves sky-high. 
Fat cattle and fat offices—The one fills the farmer’s pockets, the 
other empties them. 
The working class of our citizens—Our support in peace, and de¬ 
fence in war. The bone and muscle of a Republic is the product of 
its soil. 
The yeomenry of Massachusetts—In their selection of an over¬ 
seer and other agents for the Stale Farm, should they exercise the 
discretion they evince in the concerns of their own, the best will be 
employed. _ _ 
CUTTING GRAIN BEFORE RIPE. 
For seed, we believe it is recommended to let wheat become fully 
ripe. For flour, Mr. M’Culloch says:—“I had a part of my wheat 
field cut about ten days sooner than the residue—it was kept sepa¬ 
rate, and when recently brought to the mill with the wheat cut from 
the same field at the usual time, the early cut wheat weighed two 
pounds to the bushel heavier than the other. The flour made from 
it (there were ten bushels) is remarkably fine, equal to any I ever 
had in my family, and superior to any I have had this year from any 
other wheat. I think it proper to make these facts known although 
I would not say that a single experiment like this ought to establish 
a general rule.” _________ 
* Sept. 12. On carefully looking over the plants, I find that nine have died. 
Elements of Practical Agriculture, 
By David Low, Professor of Agriculture, &c. 
' 1. SOILS. 
1. The Classes of Soils, and their properties, as determined by external 
characters. 
The Soil is the upper portion of the ground in which plants are 
produced. It forms a stratum of from a few inches to a foot or 
more in depth. It is usually somewhat dark in colour, arising from 
the mixing with it of the decomposed stems, leaves, and other parts 
of plants which had grown upon it, and in part often by the pre¬ 
sence of animal substances. It is this mixture of organic bodies, in 
a decomposed or decomposing state, with the mineral matter of the 
upper stratum, which distinguishes this stratum from the subjacent 
mass of earth or rock, to which the term subsoil is applied. The 
decomposable organic portion of the soil maybe termed mould; and 
it is the presence of mould, accordingly, which distinguishes the soil 
from the subsoil. 
Soils are very various in their fertility and texture. With rela¬ 
tion to their power of producing useful plants, they may be termed 
rich or poor : with relation to their texture, they may be termed stiff; 
and free or light. The stiff'soils arc those which are tenacious and 
cohesive in their parts ; the light or free soils are those which are 
of a looser texture, and whose parts are easily separated. But the 
cohesive soils pass into the loose, by imperceptible gradations, and 
hence, though all soils may be termed rich or poor, stiff or light, 
they are so in every degree of fertility and texture. 
All soils which possess this tenacious or cohesive property in a 
considerable degree, are termed clays, or clayey soils ; while all the 
looser soils are termed light or free. And all soils are more or less 
clayey, or more or less light, as they possess more or less of this te¬ 
nacious or cohesive property or of this looser texture. 
The fertility of soils is, caleris paribus, indicated by the greater 
or smaller proportion of mould which enters into their composition. 
When soils are thus naturally fertile, or are rendered permanently 
so by art, they are frequently termed loams. Thus there are clayey 
loams and light loams ; and peat itself may, by the application of 
labor and art, be converted into loam. 
The parts of plants which grow upon the surface, and are mixed 
with the mineral matter of the soil may decompose and become 
mould. Uuder certain circumstances, however, the plants which 
have grown upon the surface do not decompose, but undergo a pe¬ 
culiar change, which fits them to resist decomposition. They are 
converted into what is termed peat, and the soils formed of this sub¬ 
stance are termed peaty. The peaty soils are the lighter class, and 
are distinguished from all others by peculiar characters. 
Soils, then, may be distinguished from each other :■—■ 
1st. According to their texture, in which case they may be divid¬ 
ed into two classes—1, the stiff, denominated clays; 2, the light or 
free, comprehending the peaty. 
2. According to their fertility or power of producing useful plants, 
in which case they are termed rich or poor. 
Soils, too, from particular causes, may be habitually wet or ha¬ 
bitually dry. Soils, therefore, may be further distinguished by their 
general relation to moisture. When water, from any cause, is ha¬ 
bitually abundant, the soils may be termed wet; when not habitu¬ 
ally abundant, they may be termed dry. 
Subsoils, it has been said, are distinguished from soils properly so 
termed by the absence of mould. Plants, in growing, may extend 
their roots into the subsoil, and decomposing there, mix with it.— 
But this is in small quantity, and for the most part the subsoil is 
readily distinguishable by the eye, from the upper stratum or soil, 
by the absence of organic matter, in a decomposed or decomposing 
state. 
Subsoils may either consist of loose earthy matter, like the soil, 
or they may consist of rock. Subsoils, therefore, may be divided 
into two classes, the rocky and the earthy. 
When the soil rests directly upon and extends to the rock, with¬ 
out any intervening bed of looser earthy matter,- the soil will fre¬ 
quently be found to be similar in the composition of its mineral parts 
to the rock upon which it rests, it having been formed by the gradu¬ 
al disintegration of that rock. This is chiefly found to be the case 
with the soils of mountains; for, in plains, the soil is generally form¬ 
ed, not by the disintegration and decomposition of the rock upon 
which it rests, but by the intermixing together of the disintegrated 
parts of different rocks and mineral strata. 
