132 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
capital employed in it, on the taste of those who purchase its pro¬ 
ducts, and on the knowledge of those who are engaged in agricul¬ 
ture as a profession. 
CHENAM. 
Our merchants are indebted to Capt. Thomas Bennett, of the New- 
York and Liverpool packet line, for the introduction of this article 
into use here. Chenam (the East India name) is made by mixing 
slaked and pulverized lime with whale oil to the consistency of 
mortar. It is so tenacious that it adheres immediately wherever ap¬ 
plied, and is entirely impervious to water, and becomes perfectly 
hard in it. 
It is laid on ships’ bottoms with trowels, sometimes under the 
sheathing and sometimes between the copper and sheathing ; and, 
in some instances, in both places. The copper is put on while the 
Chenam is soft, and adheres to it so completely that no water pass¬ 
es between them; and it is said that copper in vessels which have a 
coat of Chenam wears nearly double the usual time. 
Whale oil is used here in making it, because it fully answers the 
purpose, and is two-thirds cheaper than vegetable oil—but vegetable 
oil makes much the best Chenam, becoming after a short time as 
hard as a stone. It is suggested that the celebrated mortar of the 
ancients was made of lime and vegetable oil. 
I understand that some experiments will be made here on roofs 
and outsides of houses, with Chenam, as it is believed it will effec¬ 
tually resist the fogs and frosts of our climate, which the common 
rough casting does not.— New-Bedford Gaz. and Cour. 
VETCHES, &c. PLOUGHED IN. 
Under this article may be included all sorts of green manure.— 
Amongst the most active parts employed as manure, I have found 
the wild species of the genus Sinapis, [Mustard,] ploughed in fresh 
in the bottom of turnip drills, at the rate of twenty tons per acre. 
The produce brought by auction £12, while the rest of the field, 
manured with twenty tons of farm-yard dung, brought only from £9 
to £10 per acre. Other weeds, such as nettles, thisiles, ragwort, 
&c. produce crops superior to farm-yard dung. Potato stems, fresh 
ploughed in on clover ley for wheat, I have found to produce crops 
exceeding by two bolls per acre in quantity, with more proportionate 
weight of straw, than other parts of the same field manured with 
farm-yard dung, but otherwise under the same circumstances. The 
stems from three acres of good potatoes, will manure an acre for 
wheat to much better purpose than 15 tons o: farm-yard dung, the 
usual quantity allowed in that part of the rotation, clover after wheat 
being the crop which generally precedes fallow. Under the head of 
“ green manure,” I may mention an experiment I this year made 
with pea-straw converted into dung without the aid of cattle. Hav¬ 
ing something of that sort on hand about the middle of last May, 
and being in want of some loads of manure to finish a potato field, 
I had the peas threshed at the mill, and the straw and chaff carried 
to the side of the potato field, and made up like a large hot-bed, giv¬ 
ing each layer of straw an ample watering. Fermentation soon 
commenced, and by the fifth day the mass was so far decomposed as 
to be easily filled into the carts. The diluvium in filling was almost 
intolerable. It was in this state laid in the bottom of the drills; the 
sets of potatoes were planted above, and the earth ploughed over 
the whole. Notwithstanding the dry nature of the ground, and the 
dry state of the weather in the summer months, the part of the field 
manured with the decomposed pea-straw yielded a better return 
than where farm-yard dung was applied.— Loudon. 
WHEAT INSECT. 
The following description of this insect, by Prof. Low, agrees with 
our observation of it about Albany.— Con. Cult. 
“Certain flies also attack the wheat, at a later stage of its growth. 
The Cecidomyia Tritici is a fly with an orange colored body and 
white wings. About the month of June the female ascends the ears 
of wheat, and deposites her eggs in these by means of a fine trunk, 
and in a few days she perishes. The progeny being hatched in the 
ear, feed upon the grain. They are very small, from ten to fourteen 
being sometimes found in one grain, and are distinguished by being 
of a Dright orange color. They do not extend beyond the grain in 
which they are born; but several grains being thus consumed on 
one ear, the damage done is often considerable. The larva*, after a 
period, fall down to the earth, in which they burrow, and remain 
there till the following summer, when they ascend from the earth in 
the form of a beautiful fly which has been mentioned.” 
CUT AND UNCUT POTATOES FOR PLANTING. 
Mr. Fessenden. —The following details of an experiment to as¬ 
certain the relative advantage of planting cut or uncut potatoes 
is at your service for publication if )ou think it of sufficient import¬ 
ance. 
I planted this year alternate rows of cut and uncut potatoes. I 
put four pieces into each hill of the cut potatoes, and two potatoes 
into each hill of the whole potatoes. The hills were three feet 
apart, each way, and of course the number of hills in an acre was 
4,840. The produce of the rows planted with cut potatoes, was at 
the rate of three hundred and thirty-five bushels the acre, or twen¬ 
ty-three thousand five hundred and twenty pounds. The produce 
of the rows planted with whole potatoes, was at the rate of four 
hundred and fifty-eight bushels, or thirty-two thousand and sixty 
pounds. The difference in the crop in favor of whole potatoes was 
at the rate of one hundred and twenty-two bushels the acre, but as 
there were twenty-two bushels more of seed to the acre used in 
planting the whole potatoes, the nett gain was only one hundred 
bushels. However, as one bushel of potatoes at the season of plant¬ 
ing is usually worth two bushels at harvest time, it will be more ac¬ 
curate to calculate the gain at seventy-eight bushels. The kind of 
potatoes planted was the “white blue nose” which is decidedly the 
best potato for the table I have ever cultivated, though a mode¬ 
rate bearer, unless it receive generous treatment.— New-England 
Farmer. 
Shell-Marl is very different in its nature from clayey or stone- 
marls, and, from its effects upon the soil, is classed among animal 
manures. The Rev. Mr. Dickson states, “that it does not dissolve 
with water as other marls do. It sucks it up, and swells with it like 
a sponge. It is a much stronger attractor of acids than they.”— 
Dr. Horne says, that it takes six times more of acids to saturate it, 
than any of the other marls he had met with. But the greatest dif¬ 
ference between the shell-marl and other marls, consists in this ; 
the shell-marl contains oils. It is uncertain if the other marls con¬ 
tain any oils; but this kind, it is said contains them in great plenty. 
This marl, it would seem, from the qualities which it possesses, 
promotes vegetation in all the different ways. It increases the food 
o( plants; it communicates to the soil the power of attracting this 
food from the uir; it enlarges the pasture of plants; and it prepares 
the vegetable food for entering their roots. 
The clayey and stone marls are distinguished by their colours; viz. 
white, black, blue and red. The white, being of a soft crumbly na¬ 
ture, is considered to be the best for pasture land; and the blue 
[commonly called blue clay] which is more compact and firm, for 
corn land. In the districts where marl is much used, these dis¬ 
tinctions of management are attended to, though either of the kinds 
may be employed with advantage, if the following rules are adher¬ 
ed to. 
If marl is of the blue kind, or of any kind that is compact and 
firm, lay it upon the land early in the season, so as the weather may 
mellow it down before the last plough; and, if on pasture land, let 
it also be early laid on, and spread very thin, breaking any lumps af¬ 
terwards which are not completely separated by the first spread¬ 
ing. If marl is of the white, or any of the loose or crumbling sorts, 
it need not be laid on so early; because those varieties break 
and dissolve almost as soon as exposed to the weather.— New Edin. 
Enc. ____ 
“We regulate our mode of living more by the example of others, 
than by the dictates of reason and sound sense.”— Lat. And we 
too generally take the example from our superiors in station and for¬ 
tune ; a consideration which should impress their minds with a just 
sense of the effects which their manners, their habits, their general 
conduct may produce in society. 
Young Men’s Department. 
ON THE PLEASURES AND ENJOYMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE PUR¬ 
SUITS OF SCIENCE. 
Science administers to our enjoyment by the variety of novel and 
interesting objects it exhibits. Almost every department of natural 
science presents to the untutored mind an assemblage of objects, 
new and strange, which tend to rouse its faculties, and to excite to 
important inquiries and interesting reflections. The science of me¬ 
chanics presents us with many curious combinations of mechanical 
powers, which, from the simplest principles, produce the most pow- 
