THE CULTIVATOR. 
93 
are gathered before they are ripe, ana before their finer qualities 
have become developed, and transported to market in masses, in 
hot weather, often attain an incipient state of putrefaction before 
they are consumed. Fruits in this condition, which are too fre¬ 
quently exposed for sale in our cities, are undoubtedly prejudicial 
to health ; and it is this circumstance that has brought the whole 
family into bad odor with some. Yet nothing can be further from 
the truth, than the allegation, that the fruits of our gardens, when 
suffered to mature, and eaten fresh and in moderation, are hurt¬ 
ful to health. None can truly appreciate the value of fruits, hut 
those who cultivate them : the care and toil bestowed in their cul¬ 
ture give to them a zest which the buyer can never realize ; and 
ripe fruite will seldom bear transportation. 
Upon the utility of fruits for food and the preservation of health, 
we quote the following from page 21, &c. 
“ The fruits of various countries and climes, should be regarded as one of 
the most valuable gifts which Divine Providence has bestowed on man; and 
the cultivation of iliose of superior kind should on all accounts be promoted 
—not merely as a source of luxury, nor yet alone as a delicious, healthy and 
most nutritious article of food; but as connected in other respects with all that 
eminently concerns the family ol man. ‘ The palate,’ says the celebrated Mr 
Knight, ‘ which relishes fruit, is seldom pleased with strong fermented liquors; 
and as feeble causes, continually acting, ultima ! ely produce extensive effects, 
the supplying the public with fruit at a cheap rate, would have a tendency to 
operate favorably, both on the physical and moral health of the people.' 
“The belief is but too prevalent, that fruits produce diseases during the 
months of summer and autumn, and especially the dysentery. The belief is 
untrue—and the very reverse is certainly true; fruits being the true preven¬ 
tives of disease. I might amplify on this subject, but must be brief, and will 
only add as proofs, and from celebraied physicians, the following from the 
‘Annals d’Horticulture, 1 due to the researches of Gen. Dearborn and the New- 
England Farmer, where I found them inserted. It is from the writer of ano¬ 
ther country—a country celebrated for the cultivation of good fruit, and alike 
celebrated for the remarkable temperate habits of its people. ‘ One of the 
best aliments, and the best appropriated to the different ages of life, is that 
which fruils afford. They present to man a light nourishment, of easy diges¬ 
tion, and produce a chyle admirably adapted to the functions of the human 
body.’ * * * * 
“ There are fruits which, when perfectly ripe, can be eaten even to excess 
without inconvenience—such as grapes, cherries and currants—the other kinds 
never occasion ill consequences, if they are eaten only to satisfy the demands 
of nature. 
“ Thoroughly ripe fruit, eaten with bread is the most innocent of aliments, 
and will even insure health and strength. 
“In traversing the territories of Germany, there is to be seen, near each ha¬ 
bitation, a vineyard ora garden of fruit trees. The villages are surrounded 
with them, and there are but few families who do not make use of fruits dur¬ 
ing summer, and preserve a certain quantity for winter. The surplus is sold 
in the cities. There are to be seen upon the Rhine, and other rivers of Ger¬ 
many, boats laden with dried apples, pears and plums. 
“ The follow ing from the same writer, is from a passage to be found in ‘Ad¬ 
vice to people upon their health,’ by Tissot. 
“ There is a pernicious prejudice, with which all are too generally imbued: 
it is that fruils are, injurious in the dysentery, and that they produce and in¬ 
crease it. There is not perhaps a more false prejudice. 
“ Bad fruits, and those which have been imperfectly ripened, in unfavora¬ 
ble seasons, may occasion cholics, and sometimes diarrhoea—but never epide¬ 
mic dysentery. Ripe fruits of all kinds, especially in the summer, are the true 
preservatives against this malady. The greatest injury they can do, is in dis¬ 
solving the humors, and particularly the bile, of which they are the true sol¬ 
vents, and occasion a diarrhoea. But even this diarrhoea is a protection against 
the dysentery. 
“ Whenever the dysentery has prevailed, I have eaten less animal food, and 
more fruit, and have never had the slightest attack. Several physicians have 
adopted the same regimen. 
“ I have seen eleven patients in the same house; nine were obedient to the 
directions given, and ate fruit; they recovered. The grandmother, and a child 
she was most partial to, died. She prescribed burnt wine, [burnt brandy or 
high wine?] oil, powerful aromatics, and forbade the use of fruits; it died.— 
She followed the same course, and met the like fate. 
“ This disease was destroying a Swiss regiment, which was stationed in 
garrison in the southern part of France. The colonel purchased the grapes of 
several acres of vines. The sick soldiers were either carried to the vineyard, 
or were supplied with grapes from it, if they were too feeble to be removed. 
They ate nothing else; not another died-nor were any more attacked with 
the complaint after they commenced eating grapes. 
‘‘A minister was attacked with the dysentery, and the medicines which 
were administered gave no relief; he saw by accident some red currants, and 
had a great desire to cat them; he ate three pounds between seven o’clock in 
in the morning and nine in the evening; he was better during the day, and 
entirely cured the next.” 
RIDGING. 
The object of ridging, in tillage husbandry, is either 1, to ren¬ 
der the soil more warm and friable, by exposing a greater surface 
to the sun ; or, 2, to render it more dry, by increasing the facili¬ 
ties for the surface water to pass freely off. The climates where 
ridging is most practised, are those which are cold and humid; 
the soils which are most benefitted are stiff clays, or those of a 
more porous quality, which repose upon a tenacious subsoil, and 
have a level, or but a gently inclined surface. Where the slope 
is sufficient to carry oft the surplus water, or the subsoil porous 
enough to give it a free passage below the roots of plants, ridging 
in our climate, is rather prejudicial than otherwise ; because it 
causes a waste of land, by multiplying water-furrows, and aug¬ 
ments the injuries of a dry season. Ridging and under draining 
are designed for the same end, viz. to free the roots of cultivated 
plants from the habitual presence of water, always prejudicial to 
their health and product. In former times the first of these modes 
was generally resorted to ; but in the improved system of husband¬ 
ry under draining has obtained a decided preference. In some of 
the tenacious soils of Gloucestershire, England, where the surface 
is level. Marshal, tells us, that ridges have existed, time out of 
mind, so high, that two men standing in adjoining water furrows 
are unable to see each other across the intervening ridge. In 
Scotland, on the other hand, at the present day, parallel under¬ 
drains are often made, at the distance of 20 or 30 feet, in large 
tracts of moist or stiff lands, possessing a level surface, and am¬ 
ple remuneration is found for the outlay in the improvement which 
ensues. These drains are now principally made with draining 
tiles, which are laid about two feet from the surface, and in pa¬ 
rallel lines of twenty feet are found to preserve in high tillable 
order the most cold and tenacious soils. We are having some 
draining tiles made for our use, and shall at a proper opportunity, 
apprize our readers of the expense and advantages of this mode 
of under draining. 
“ Stagnant water,” says Loudon, “ may be considered to be in¬ 
jurious to all the useful classes of plants, by obstructing perspira¬ 
tion and intro-susception, and thus diseasing their roots and sub¬ 
merged parts. Where the surface soil is properly constituted, 
and rests on a subsoil moderately porous, both will hold water by 
capillary attraction, and what is not so retained will sink into the 
interior strata by its gravity ; but where the subsoil is retentive it 
will resist or not admit with sufficient rapidity, the percolation of 
water to the strata below, which, accumulating in the surface soil, 
till its proportion becomes excessive as a component part, not only 
carries off the extractive matter, [the food of plants,] but diseases 
the plants. Hence the origin of surface draining, that is laying 
lands in ridges or beds, or intersecting it with small open gutters.” 
It will be perceived, from the preceding view of the subject, 
that the propriety or impropriety of ridging will depend upon a 
variety of circumstances which are liable to vary in every district, 
and upon almost every farm. No general rule will apply. A 
practice that might be beneficial in a flat humid district of New- 
York, might be prejudicial in an undulating warm district in Penn¬ 
sylvania or Virginia. Yet as there are a great many farms that 
are essentially benefitted by the practice, we will suggest some 
considerations that may be beneficial, at least to the novice in 
husbandry. 
1. Ridges should be laid with the slope of the field, that the 
waters may pass off freely; and if hollows or hills intervene, 
cross drains should be cut, after the field is ridged, from the low 
places, to carry off the water, in the direction to which the sur¬ 
face inclines. 
2. The breadth of the ridge must depend upon circumstances, 
and may vary from two to thirty feet. The flatter the surface, and 
the more tenacious the soil, the narrower should the ridges be 
laid. The manner of forming them of different breadths, and of 
different inclination of surface, will be found amply described and 
illustrated in the fifth No. of our present volume. It is well to 
remark, to those who admire and imitate British husbandry, that 
ridging is not so essential here as in Great Britain—from the cir¬ 
cumstance of our climate being warmer and less humid. It is a 
common practice in Britain to drill turnips, particularly Swedes, 
upon ridges. Here we think they do best drilled upon a level 
surface, presupposing, however, that they are to be grown upon 
soils adapted to their culture, which are light and porous. 
3. Head lands are indispensable to good work where a field is 
to be laid in ridges, and trenches should be made through these, 
at least upon the lower border of the field, to carry off the water 
from the middle furrows. 
“The grains are God’s bounties; the flowers his smiles.” 
