36 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
there were many, the opportunity of being benefitted by them could 
not be general. Besides the generality of the books which they 
contain are not well adapted to the capacities of juvenile readers, 
nor to the business which they are destined to follow. The outlay 
in a school district, of ten or twenty dollars a year, in establishing 
and replenishing a school library, would be but a small tax in com¬ 
parison with the benefits which might be expected te flow from it. 
It would be sowing useful seed, and the community would not fail 
to reap the harvest. It would serve to diversify tire studies, to be¬ 
get a taste for substantial acquirements, avert bad habits, and lay 
the foundation of respectability and usefulness. The mental soil 
is good, but, like the natural soil, it needs culture to render it pro¬ 
ductive. We vaunt of our knowledge, and affect to believe that we 
are the most enlightened people on earth. And yet I fear we 
should suffer, greatly suffer, on the score of education and good 
habits, the things which eminently contribute to happiness, by a 
comparison with the subjects of the King of Prussia! The truth 
is, we are deceiving ourselves—we are not so enlightened as we 
would be thought to be—or as we might be, and ought to be. It 
is time to get rid of this delusion—to acknowledge and repair our 
faults—By more liberal and enlightened provisions to fit the chil¬ 
dren of the nation for the high privileges they enjoy, and the 
high responsibilities they are to assume. 
P. S. A bill has passed the Legislature authorizing the estab¬ 
lishing district school libraries. 
WORN OUT LANDS. 
A friend in Virginia writes us as follows:— <! Enclosed I send to 
you thirty dollars, for the 2d Vol. of the Cultivator. You will judge 
by this our opinion of the work. Our people have been deeply en¬ 
gaged in the production of tobacco, and our lands have been ne¬ 
glected, injured, and I might almost say destroyed. Give us some 
instruction, if you please, as to the best plan of stopping the gul¬ 
lies, and healing the galls with which our fields so much abound; 
and also directions fora farm yard, and fora barn on a pretty large 
6cale.” 
A substantial compliment like this lays us under an obligation 
which we are afraid it is out of our power handsomely to requite. 
We confess we have no practical knowledge as to the best method 
of stopping gullies and healing galls, for it has been our aim to 
prevent both on the limited grounds we cultivate; but we have 
seen much of these evil effects of bad husbandry, and will venture 
to prescribe for their cure. 
Virginia farmers, as well as many further north, have, it would 
seem, resembled too much in their practice the prodigal son, who, 
not content to spend the income of the patrimonial estate, encroach¬ 
es annually on the principal, until that is exhausted, and he is re¬ 
duced to want. The soil, or rather the animal and vegetable mat¬ 
ter which is blended with the earth, is the farmer’s capital. The 
more this becomes exhausted or wasted, by injudicious cropping, 
the more this capital is reduced; and consequently, the interest, or 
product, upon which he depends for a maintenance, undergoes a 
corresponding diminution,—until, at last, both principal and inte¬ 
rest,—capital and soil,—are wholly exhausted. But there is a 
common remedy for both these evils, which, though slow, is ne¬ 
vertheless sure;—it is persevering industry, guided by prudence, 
and animated by hope. And it is here that the maxim of Poor 
Richard, that 
“ He that by the plough would thrive, 
“ Himself must either hold or drive,” 
emphatically applies. We are fearful that too many of the Virgi¬ 
nia farmers have trusted too much to overseers and stewards, in¬ 
stead of studying their business, and qualifying themselves person¬ 
ally to direct the operations of the farm. If they will devote their 
leisure to learn more of the principles of their business, and to di¬ 
recting and superintending the operations of the farm personally, 
they will soon discover the defects in their practice, and be able to 
apply suitable remedies: and we can venture to assure them, that 
they will find this study and this practice among the most pleasant 
and ennobling that engage the attention of man. The Old Domin¬ 
ion can become as distinguished in her agriculture, as she has long 
been for her hospitality and patriotism. But to do this, the mind 
must be brought to the aid of labor. 
Gullies and galls are occasioned, we presume, by the exhaustion 
of the vegetable matter of the soi', by severe cropping,—the omis¬ 
sion to alternate grass seeds while the soil is capable of sustaining 
a healthy firm sod,—and the want of artificial drains to conduct 
the water into natural channels, or to prevent it accumulating in 
accidental ones. A system of management the reverse of the bad 
one which has caused these evils, is the best calculated to cure 
them. That is—less must be taken off or more carried on;—grass 
seeds must be sown with small grain;—grass must intervene more 
frequently in the alternation;—all the means of fertility which the 
farm affords, must be well husbanded and judiciously applied, and 
extraneous manures brought on;-—and the water conducted off the 
fields in gently inclined artificial drains. 
Plants are as much dependant on food for nourishment and 
growth, as animals are; and there is as much propriety in expect¬ 
ing a horse to thrive at a stall which is never replenished with fo¬ 
rage or provender, as there is in expecting a continuation of good 
crops from a field which is never replei ished with manure. Philo¬ 
sophers may speculate upon what constitutes the food of plants, but 
the practical farmer knows that a crop is luxuriant and abundant, 
pretty much in the ratio of the manure which is applied to the soil. 
The inference is irresistible, that vegetable and animal matters con¬ 
stitute the basis of the food of vegetables. The elements of the 
dead and the living plant are the same, and they are transmuted, 
by a natural process, from the former into the latter. Tobacco is 
among the most exhausting crops, as it takes much from the soil, 
and gives little or nothing to it in return. We are told that it is 
a rule in Holland and Flanders, not to sow flax on the same field 
oftener than once in eight or ten years, on account of the exhaust¬ 
ing quality of the crop, which, like tobacco, returns nothing to the 
soil. 
The means of fertility on a farm are seldom either well husband¬ 
ed, or well applied. Every vegetable and animal matter may be 
converted into the food of plants; and the urine of the stock, when 
yarded, and which in Flanders constitutes almost a moiety of the 
manure, might be mostly saved, by keeping the yard well littered, 
or bedded with swamp earth, to absorb it. Gypsum is a powerful 
auxiliary on light soils, where clover forms the basis of improve¬ 
ment; lime benefits stiff soils, and marl, where it is found conveni¬ 
ent, is employed as a means of inducing fertility with manifest ad¬ 
vantage. 
We have seen the following method practised, with success, to 
render gullies productive, and to cover with a healthy sod, the 
galls, winch are generally on the declivities of gullies. The first 
object was to prevent an accumulation of surface waters passing 
down, by drains constructed to carry it off where it would do less 
injury. The next step was to fill the water course with brush and 
earth, smooth the declivities, so as to give to the earth a comely 
appearance, and then to carry on and spread a layer of coarse ma¬ 
nure from the cattle yards, abounding in straw, hsy and seeds. 
When necessary, enough earth was spread over this to prevent the 
litter being blown away. In the course of the season, the grass 
seeds sprung up, the manure afforded sustenance to the plants; and 
cattle being kept from the place, a substantial sod was soon form¬ 
ed, which is yet suffered to remain undisturbed by the plough. 
Upon the subject of cattle yards, we beg leave to refer to our 
directions for their construction, published in the first volume of 
the Cultivator, page 62. 
We confess ourselves not sufficiently acquainted with the hus¬ 
bandry of Virginia, to venture an opinion as to the model of a barn 
best suited to one of its lage farms; but we would respectively so¬ 
licit an answer to this part of our correspondent’s request from a 
more competent pen. 
Seed Corn , should be first soaked, say 12 hours, in water heat¬ 
ed to near the boiling point, to saturate the grain, and induce ear¬ 
ly germination; then having put half a pint or more of tar in an 
iron dish, with a quart or two of water, heat it till the tar is dis¬ 
solved or incorporated with the water, when the whole may be 
turned on to the already soaked seed, which is then to be well stir¬ 
red. The flavor of the tar thereby strongly impregnates the seed, 
and prevents the birds or squirrels taking it. Then take the corn 
from the water, and mix with it as much gypsum as will adhere to 
the grain; and put six or eight kernels into a hill, reducing the 
number of plants at the first hoeing to three or four, and them the 
most thrifty and promising. This will require six extra quarts of 
seed to the acre, and the consequent increase of product, in conse- 
