94 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
EARTHING PLANTS. 
Our late quotation from Lorain, against earthing up, or hilling 
hoed crops, has called forth, it will be seen, the animadversion of 
a respectable correspondent, in to-day’s Cultivator. The bene¬ 
fits sought for by ridging, are in some measure obtained by earth¬ 
ing plants, that is, the plants are less liable to be incommoded by 
water, and a geater surface is exposed to the ameliorating influ¬ 
ence of the sun and atmosphere ; but then it must be confessed, 
that serious injury is likely to ensue, from cutting and restricting 
the range of the roots, and the waste of manure, incident to the 
earthing process, particularly where the plough is employed, as it 
usually is. We have made this the subject of experiment and ob¬ 
servation for some years, and the conclusion we have come to is, 
that upon our sandy soil, there is neither field nor garden crop, 
save potatoes, that is benefitted by being earthed up, if the ground 
has been properly prepared, and the surface is kept clean and open, 
by the cultivator, harrow or other implement;—and that even the 
potato crop should be only earthed up at the first dressing. Earth¬ 
ing plants, as Lorain observes, is not imitating nature, whose 
teachings constitute our best guide. The most plausible reason 
urged for this practice, except what we have intimated at the 
commencement of this paragraph, is, that it affords a bed of fine 
pulverized mould for the roots of plants to range in for their food ; 
but if the ground is well prepared and drained, and the surface 
kept loose, this labor is seldom necessary. While on the other 
hand, the disadvantages of the practice are manifest. We will 
illustrate this in the corn crop. When this receives its last dress¬ 
ing, it is usually from three to five feet in height, and we assume 
it as a fact, of which we have had ocular demonstration, that 
the roots at this time, unless they have been already shortened by 
the plough or hoe, are of greater length than the tops—or in other 
words, that they occupy the whole ground. Now supposing the 
hills to be four feet apart, it gives to each hill four superficial feet 
of soil to thrive upon. If you run a plough twice between the 
rows, one way, you reduce this four square feet of pasture, at 
least until the roots can be elongated, to three feet, and if you 
plough your corn both ways, you reduce it to two, or one-half, 
and this too at a time when the grain stands most in need of an 
abundant supply of food. Nor is this all; nature has ordained, 
and she will in this be obeyed, that plants shall have surface roots, 
to imbibe the benign influence of the atmosphere, and when those 
which she provides are buried under a load of earth, she will pro¬ 
vide new ones ; and every earthing which we give to our corn and 
potatoes, causes a new growth of surface roots, at the expense of 
the crop. Besides droughts operate far more prejudicial to hilled 
crops than they do to those which are not hilled. 
The potato, according to our understanding, has two sets of 
roots, which perform entirely different offices for the plant—the 
proper roots, which take the unelaborated food from the soil—and 
the stollens or fruit bearing roots, which receive the elaborated 
food, and convey it to the tubers. The first are protruded as soon 
as the seed germinates, the latter not till the plant has made most 
of its growth. The first strike down obliquely ; the latter shoot 
horizontally, and repose near the surface. The object of earthing 
is to furnish a bed permeable to the stollens, and which will give 
readily to the pressure of the expanding tubers. The hill may 
be formed when the seed is deposited; but as the soil is apt to 
become compact, it is better to form it later, but before the stol¬ 
lens and tubers have formed ; for if the plant is earthed after these 
have begun to form, a new set of stollens is thrown out near the 
surface, the tubers upon which seldom attain to full size. Hence 
a late earthed crop is likely to abound in small potatoes. 
Calcareous Manures. —We invite the attention of the reader to 
Mr. Ruffin’s experiments with shell marl, inserted, in to-day’s 
Cultivator. The extract details but a small portion of the expe¬ 
riments made by this enterprising gentleman, and which are nar¬ 
rated in his essay—a work which we cannot too warmly commend 
t) the patronage of every farmer who can avail himself of the ad¬ 
vantages of calcareous manures. And it may not be amiss here 
tr repeat, that most if not all our sandy districts abound in clay 
marl, a material calculated to impart as much benefit to a sandy 
soil, as shell marl has been found to impart to the poor clays of 
maritime districts. And the expense—what is it compared to the 
advantages ! Twenty to forty loads to the acre constitute a good 
dressing, the benefits of which will be as lasting as time. Clay 
marl should be carted on to the field in autumn, and deposited ins 
small heaps, that it may be broken down and pulverized by the 
frosts of winter, before it is blended with the soil. 
Transplanting Evergreens. —This may be done all the present 
month, taking care that the roots do not dry, and that the trans¬ 
planted trees do not suffer from drought. Mulch the surface about 
the transplanted trees with coarse litter, and saturate this with wa¬ 
ter. The only danger, if the operation is well performed, is from 
evaporation, which is much less now than at midsummer. Ever¬ 
greens must have a prompt and constant supply of moisture and 
food to sustain their foliage, when transplanted. 
On the 8th of July last, during a bright sunshine, the thermo¬ 
meter at 80°, and between the hours of one and three P. M. we 
went to the commons, took up, brought home and planted in our 
court yard, six white pines, nine to twelve feet high, and feather¬ 
ed with limbs to the ground. They are all now living, Sept. 1, 
and promise to do well. A few tender branches, injured in the 
transportation, have alone died. 
Gama Grass —We have given this grass a fair trial, and have 
become satisfied that it cannot answer any valuable purpose in 
northern husbandry, and that it is not, as has been said, found 
growing naturally in Connecticut. We soaked the seeds in hot 
water, sowed them early in a hot bed; they germinated freely, 
and as soon as the season would warrant, the plants were removed 
into a bed of rich garden mould. Their growth has been diminu¬ 
tive, and affords no hope that this grass can amount to any thing 
as a forage crop. 
William Murphy complains that he cannot make grass seeds 
take on a stiff brownish clay—proposes to apply 20 bushels of 
lime to the acre, and asks our opinion as to the expediency of the 
application. The lime should be quadrupled to produce a good 
effect, and even then its benefits cannot be insured. We suspect 
the stiff clay was not sufficiently pulverized, and that the grass 
seeds were sown in a dry time, and the roller not used—conse¬ 
quently that the seeds failed to vegetate for want of moisture, or 
from the earth not coming in close contact with them. We ad¬ 
vise, that 20 loads of manure be substituted for the lime, that the 
ground be well pulverized, and rolled after the seed is harrowed 
in. A heavy bush drag may be substituted for the roller. It will 
pulverize the surface, and press the earth upon the seeds. 
The Tomato. —Dr. Bennett, a medical professor in one of the 
western colleges, considers the tomato as an invaluable article of 
diet. He ascribes to it high medicinal properties, and declares, 
“ 1st. That it is one of the most powerful deobstruents” [i. e. removing ob¬ 
structions; having power to clear or open the natural ducts of the fluids and 
secretions of the body; resolving vicidities; aperient,] of the materia medica; 
and that in all those affections of the lesser organs, w here calomel is indicated, 
it is probably the most effective, and least harmful remed al agent known to 
the profession. 
“2d. That a chemical extract will probably soon be obtained from it which 
will altogether supersede the use of calomel in the cure of diseases. 
“3rd. That he has successfully treated serious diarrhoea with this article 
alone. 
“1th. That when used as an article of diet it is almost a sovereign remedy 
for dyspepsia, or indigestion. 
“5th. That persons removing from the east or north, to the west or south, 
should by all means make use of it as an aliment, as it would in that event 
save them from the danger attendant upon those violent billious attacks to 
which almost all unacclimated persons are liable. 
“ 6th. That the citizens in general should make use of it, either raw, cooked 
or in the form ofa catsup, with their daily food, as it is the most healthy arti¬ 
cle of the Materia Alimentary, &c. &c.” 
Without intending to endorse all the professor’s conclusions, we 
know enough of the tomato, from experience, to recommend it as 
a grateful vegetable, and salutary to health, in the summer months. 
It is extensively used in the south and south-west, as an article of 
diet. It is easily cultivated, and readily prepared for the table in 
various forms, requiring merely a seasoning of salt and pepper. 
It belongs to the same family of plants as Ihe egg plant, potato 
and deadly nightshade. To obtain it when most wanted, during 
(he heats of summer, the plants should be started in a hot-bed, 
and afterwards planted out two or three feet apart, in a soil mode¬ 
rately rich, in which case the ripe fruit may be gathered early in 
July. 
To make tomato sauce, the ordinary preparation for the table, 
peel the ripe fruit, place it in a sauce-pan, over the fire, without 
