366 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
©EC. 
evenings. The mechanical labor, even when aided by 
machinery, of applying 1,000 tons of water to an acre 
of land, must ever present a serious obstacle to the 
farmer of the eastern districts; and even should be do' 
this he would then be only on the level whence - the 
western farmer starts. 
Mr. Caird then proceeds to some details- which tend 
to make such large crops of grass or hay less incredi¬ 
ble. A good crop of meadow hay, it is well known, 
weighs about two tons. Now a stalk of Italian rye¬ 
grass is twice the length of one of meadow-grass. If 
the stalks stand equally thick on the ground, the Italian 
rye-grass will thus weigh twice as much as the meadow- 
grass. But if there are two stalks of Italian rye-grass 
for one of meadow-grass the crop of the former will be 
four times tbe weight of the latter. Those who have 
seen the crops of the gentleman referred to need not 
to be assured that both of these conditions arefulfilled ; 
and, as Mr. C. says, it needs but the repeated applica- , 
tion of liquid manure to this rapidly growing grass, 
in a favorable climate, to secure three such cuttings in 
the season as Mr. Telfer affirmed he had got. Many 
fanners, because they have never seen it themselves, 
would deny many of the great things accomplished by 
their more enterprising and pains-taking agricultural 
brethren, and would say, before it became established 
and notorious, that it is “ impossible ” on any land to 
grow superb crops year after year without manure—to 
have beans, wheat, mangold, potato, cabbages, oats 
and swedes following each other in any succession (pro¬ 
vided the land is kept clean,) each crop most luxuri¬ 
ant, all carried off the ground, and not a particle of 
manure applied. And yet, says Mr. C., this may be 
seen in half an hour’s ride from London by the North 
Kent Railway, on the drained portion of a large marsh. 
When guano was first introduced, many deemed it 
“ impossible ” that a brown powder brought thousands 
of miles across the ocean, would prove a hundred times 
more valuable for the growth of crops than an equal 
weight of good farmyard manure. Mr. Caird con¬ 
cludes his remarks by observing that “one of the most 
serious obstacles to agricultural improvement is to be 
found in the limited standard which some agricultural 
teachers have set up as the fixed boundary of agricul¬ 
tural progress.” There is no presumption so great he 
says, as that which glibly cries “ impossible,” in an 
age which has produced the electric telegraph. 
If these considerations be duly weighed, together 
with some well established facts in regard to the results 
of irrigation in Lombardy and elsewhere, we think the 
incredibility of ‘ the great hay crop’ will be considera¬ 
bly diminished. ♦ Obs. 
Damp Houses. 
Messrs. Editors —There is an almost universal 
complaint in the spring of the year, by persons occu¬ 
pying brick and stone houses, that their houses sweat 
so abundantly as to cause great injury and inconveni¬ 
ence. A true knowledge of the cause and the nature 
of the evil, however, will enable us to remedy the evil. 
The universal impression is, that the damp and mois¬ 
ture which have been accumulating in the walls, flow 
out upon their surface on the first mild days of spring. 
This view, however, is erroneous, and leads to false con¬ 
clusions as to the healthiness or Unhealthiness of cer¬ 
tain houses. The truth is that the walla, during tbe 
winter months, have become frozen, or in other words 
have accumulated a large amount of cold ? on the 
first genial days of spring,-the,warm air, laden with an 
additional quantity of moisture, (for the capacity of 
the air for moisture increases according to its tempe¬ 
rature,) comes in eontact with the cold walls and de¬ 
posits a portion of its moisture upon the walls. The 
cold walls diminish the temperature of the warm and 
heavily-laden atmosphere which comes in contact with 
them, thus rendering it incapable of holding in solution 
its previous volume of water, which consequently is 
deposited upon the walls. 
To prove and illustrate this position, I need only to 
refer to an occurrence with whieh all are acquainted. 
Fill with cold water a glass or silver or other pitcher, 
incapable of the transmission of water, and place it 
in a room on a warm day, and you will instantly see 
the outer surface covered with drops and streams of wa¬ 
ter. Here the water cools the vessel, and the vessel 
lowers the temperature of the air brought in contact 
with it, necessarily causing a deposition ot the surplus 
moisture. In the case of both the walls and the ves¬ 
sel, this operation goes on with like results until these 
materials attain the same temperature as the circum¬ 
jacent atmosphere. 
How then shall we remedy the difficulty 1 Simply 
by keeping our houses closed during this period as 
much as possible; thus preventing the admission of 
the external air, overburthened with moisture, until 
the walls have become warmed by more genial atmos¬ 
phere, to the same temperature as the air itself. In 
proof of this position, you have but to examine any 
room or cupboard or closet, into which the external air 
has not been admitted during one of these giving pe¬ 
riods of spring. We seldom have more than one of 
these periods of sweating in the year, unless a hard 
freezing supervenes to cause a subsequent accumulation 
of frost in the walls. By this simple remedy may your 
paper be kept uninjured and adhesive to the walls— 
the furniture from undue expansion, and paint and var¬ 
nish from injury. 
From this view of the case, you will of course per¬ 
ceive that the amount of moisture settling on the walls, 
is no index of the dampness of the house, and conse¬ 
quently of its unhcalthine8s. From this misconcep¬ 
tion, brick and stone houses have been condemned as 
being too wet; but with a knowledge of the true source 
or cause of moisture upon the walls, during the first 
few warm spring days, I cannot, after long experience, 
discover that they are any colder or damper than other 
material. In order however to render the temperature 
of my house as equal as possible, and to cut off the ac¬ 
cess of any moisture from rain or other causes from 
the outside, I have built a house with hollow walls, 
thus interposing a space of four inches of atmospheric 
