152 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
up to fatten eleven hogs, about fifteen months old, and six shoats 
which were pigged the 15th May last, having given to the wholp 
nothing during the summer but the wash from the dairy, with a 
small orchard of about an acre and a half of ground, where they ate 
the premature apples that fell. I proceeded to fatten them by steam¬ 
ing six bushels of small refuse potatoes with fourteen bushels of ap¬ 
ple pomace, and one hundred weight of buckwheat canal [bran], the 
whole incorporated well together while hot from the steamer with 
a wooden pounder, adding to the mixture the dairy wash, and sup¬ 
plying them with a plenty of charcoal and pure water. They were 
divided into three Jots, and closely confined. I continued to give 
them this mixture until nine days before they were killed, during 
which latter period they were fed with corn. They were slaughter¬ 
ed on the first of December. The expense of fattening, and the pro¬ 
duct, in pork, pigs, &c. are as follows: 
30 bushels small potatoes, at 2s. 6d.. $9 37 j 
8 cwt. buckweat canal, 8s. per cwt. 8 00 
21 j bushels corn given the last nine days,. 13 43 
Apple pomace, say. 00 00 
Total expense of food,. $30 80j 
Cr. By 36 cwt. 50 lbs. pork, at $5,...$182 50 
50 roasting pigs sold during summer,. 50 00 
6 shoats sold alive,... 12 00 
4 do. on hand, worth,.. 6 00 
250 50 
Deduct expense,. 30 80 
Balance,.$219 70 
Respectfully, THOS. MIDFORD. 
Ball Farm, Hyde-Park, Jan. 1,1835. 
Nile Mile Prairie, Perry co. Illinois, Dec. 14, 1834. 
Amongst the means of improving not only agriculture but the con¬ 
dition of society at large, 1 would beg leave to suggest the impor¬ 
tance of placing common schools upon the manual labor system. 
Land is not yet so dear in almost any part of the United States, but 
that a small experimental farm might be attached to the common 
schools; and certainly there must be a superiority n a system of 
education, in which the books of children should treat on subjects 
tangible to the senses; subjects by which they should be continual¬ 
ly surrounded, and circumstances of every day occurrence, over the 
common system, which too frequently places in their hands books 
viiich neither child nor teacher can understand. Any one who has 
attended to the nature of the infant mind, well knows that books 
which treat on the domestic animals, insects, flowers, and the vari¬ 
ous articles used either as food or clothing for the human race, and 
the different processes whicli they undergo in order to render them 
fit for our use, interest children above all others. Shall not children, 
whilst they eat fruit, learn both theoretically and practically, the pro¬ 
per mode of cultivating it ? or is it irrational, to teach them how to 
raise grain and manufacture it into bread! or why should they be 
left ignorant of the management of the cow, or of the nature of milk, 
butter and cheese! What can produce greater delight to the in¬ 
fant mind, than the discovery of the various changes of the silk¬ 
worm !—changes which belong nearly to the whole tribe of insects, 
but which changes are unknown to a large majority of our agricul¬ 
turists. If we consider not only the superiority of a such a system 
of education, in rendering the rising generation rational, but likewise 
the profit which attends the employment of the children in healthy 
occupations, certainly it ought to be sufficient to induce every lover 
of his country to endeavor to effect so desirable a change. 
J. BRAYSHAW. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Sir—In the September number of the Cultivator, 
under the head of “ Improved cheese shelves,” 1 noticed the descrip¬ 
tion of Mr. Blurton’s machine for turning cheese, and resolved to 
test the utility of his plan by actual experiment, and accordingly 
constructed a machine upon that principle, but instead of twelve we 
used but seven shelves of sufficient length to accommodate three 
cheeses each, and framed into the heads of the frame at a proper 
distance from each other to admit the hand between the cheese and 
the shelf next above it, for the purpose of rubbing them, (say three 
inches more than the thickness of the cheeses.) This frame when 
filled, holds eighteen cheeses, weighing from 100 to 170 pounds 
each, and being placed on the shelves so that they will as nearly ba¬ 
lance each other as possible. The whole are turned by one man in 
as little time, and with less exertion than is required to turn one 
cheese of the former size, in the usual method of taking them off the 
shelves to turn them. We found it necessary for large soft cheeses 
to have semi-circular bearers made to fit about one-sixth part of the 
circumference of the cheese, which are singly laid in and allowed to 
remain between the cheeses and the “ bars” that support them 
while turning, which effectually prevents them from flattening or 
breaking on the side exposed to the pressure, while in the act of 
turning. We have used this machine since the middle of last Sep¬ 
tember, and it succeeds to our entire satisfaction, and have since 
made more on the same plan. It is our opinion, (although we have 
not had opportunity to test its utility in the heat of summer,) that 
upon this plan, cheeses of any size, however soft, may be turned at 
any season of the year, with as little injury as in any manner with 
which we are acquainted. The principal advantages which attend 
the use of this machine are, a great abridgment of labor in turning 
cheese, which in large dairies, as now practised, is very considerable 
and fatiguing; also that of having every day, dry shelves to turn the 
cheeses upon, as the sides of the shelves on which the cheeses drop, 
have in the former position of the frame, been above the cheeses, 
and exposed to a current of air for twenty-four hours previous, which 
in a great measure prevents mould, and the necessity of rubbing the 
cheeses; and a room filled with these machines will hold much more 
cheese than it will on shelves at the sides, or on counters. As the 
expense of a single machine, or frame, is trifling, I would recom¬ 
mend the trial of them to dairymen who are disposed to try experi¬ 
ments. Yours, respectfully, 
EPHRAIM PERKINS, Jr. 
South Trenton, December 22 d, 1834. 
P. S. For further descriptions, see number seven of the Cultiva¬ 
tor. 
Elements of Practical Agriculture, 
By David Low, Professor of Agriculture, &c. 
MEANS OF INCREASING THE PRODUCTIVE POWERS OF SOILS. 
The means at our command of increasing the productive pow¬ 
ers of soils may be comprehended under the following general 
heads:— 
1. Supplying to the soil those organic and earthy substances 
which may be required. 
2. Altering its texture, depth and properties, by tillage and other 
means. 
3. Changing its relation with respect to moisture. 
4. Changing its relation with respect to temperature. 
Vegetable and animal matters, in a decomposing state, appear to 
act in various ways, in increasing the productive powers of the 
soil. They improve its texture, and they may be supposed to in¬ 
crease its power to absorb and retain moisture; but above all, they 
supply that matter, which, in whatever form conveyed to the organs 
of plants, tends to nourish them. This matter being absorbed by 
the roots of plants, it must be supplied when exhausted. 
Experience has in every age accordingly taught the husbandman 
to supply those substances to the soil; and the doing so forms one 
of the most important means at his command of maintaining or in¬ 
creasing its fertility. 
Besides the animal and vegetable matter which is mixed or com¬ 
bined with the mineral part of the soil, and is essential to its pro¬ 
ductiveness, the mineral parts themselves, it has been seen, require 
to be mixed together in certain proportions, and in certain states of 
division, in order to produce the greatest degree of fertility. 
Silica and alumina form the principal mineral part of the soil. If 
one or the other of these earths be in excess, the soil is defective in 
its composition. If the alumina prevails the soil is too adhesive; if 
the silica prevails, it is too loose. A medium is seen to be the best; 
and although the precise proportion in which the alumina and silica 
should exist have not been determined, it is safer that there be a 
tendency to an excess of alumina than silica. 
Further, the fertility of the soil depends on the state of division, 
chemical or mechanical, of these minerals. 
It would appear, then, to be a means of improving the composition 
of a soil, to add to its silicious matter when it is found to be too 
stiff] and aluminous matter when it is found to be too loose ; and 
