220 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
July 
height of the rod. Therefore, in putting up a lightning 
rod, the perpendicular height of the rod, from the point 
■where it ascends from the ridge, must be l-4th the length 
of the ridge, that is,if it ascends from the ridge at the cen¬ 
tre between the two ends. If the rod ascends from one 
end of the ridge, its height must be one-half the length of 
the ridge-unless another rod is provided for the other end, 
in which case each must project one-fourth the length 
of the ridge. From this it will be seen that the great 
point in relation to the length of the rod, is not the ab¬ 
solute length from one end to the other, but only the 
length measured from the tip to where it leaves the 
ridge of the building. The height of the building 
makes no difference—the extreme horizontal length of 
the ridge only, being taken into account. 
The diameter, or thickness of the rod should be—if 
iron, three-fourths of an inch thick—if copper, half an 
inch. The reason that rods of this thickness are re¬ 
quired, is, that they may not be melted by the most 
powerful discharges that occur. The end of the rod 
that is to project above the building, generally termi¬ 
nates in a fork of three prongs. Of this there is no 
necessity if one is well made. The only reason for 
having three points is, if one gets rusty, there is still 
another remaining bright. Now if one is constructed 
so that it will not get rusty, it is all that is required. 
The rod should be brought to a point, and perfectly 
capped with some metal not liable to oxydation. Pla- 
tina, gold, and silver, are used'—the two first are pre¬ 
ferable to the last. The cap should be from an inch 
and a half to two inches in length and of the thickness 
of a sixpence. 
The means of attaching the rod to the building, are 
various. The most effective and at the same time the 
most simple is glass. The object is to permanently at¬ 
tach the rod to the building with a non-conducting ma¬ 
terial. The mode of attachment is as follows: In all 
cities you may find what are called glass spools; 
Through the hole in the centre the rod passes. On the 
groove, on the outside, (where in a spool the cotton is 
wound,) is to be fitted a bolt, which may be readily 
driven into the building. 
The different lengths of the rod should be rivetted to¬ 
gether—being first fitted by shoulders. The bottom of 
the rod should terminate in two or three branches going 
off in a direction from the building, four or five feet 
under ground. The depth may vary, according to the 
nature of the soil—wet soils requiring less and dry ones 
a greater depth. John J. Higgins. 
Stones for Draining, 
I have seen an article written by Prof. J. P. Nor¬ 
ton, on the subject of draining (Vol. v. No. 1, page 
16,) where he remarks that stones may be used as a 
substitute for tiles or pipes; but quotes from Mr. 
Smith of Deanston, that no stones should be used much 
larger than a hen’s egg. Also, same vol. No. 5, p. 
137, we have an account of Mr. Phinney’s mode of 
draining in which he applied stones, the size or weight 
of which is not mentioned. Now what I wish to ascer¬ 
tain of Mr. P. is, what sized stones he applied. The 
size of stones is a matter of much importance with me, 
for the following reason. On my farm of 60 acres, I 
presume there are not stones enough of the weight of 
one pound and less, to apply in draining one acre, and 
to pick them up one at a time, or to break larger ones, 
I think would be more expensive than pipes, even at 
eight cents a rod. Besides, stones of those weights 
are very little obstruction, as they maybe easily crush¬ 
ed into the ground by passing the roller over them. 
But stones from the weight of one pound to five or 
six pounds, are very plentiful—a great nuisance, and 
wall-layers say they are not fit to put into a wall. If, 
therefore, they will answer in draining, then the farm¬ 
ers of New-England may assume a two-fold advantage; 
first, of clearing the land of otherwise useless stones, 
and again have means within themselves whereby to 
drain their land—and advantages I think are an object 
worthy to be secured by all cultivators of New-England’s 
sterile lands. A. W. Day. Colchester , Ct. May 25. 
To Farmers.— No. II. 
The education of agriculturists is a subject much 
discussed in our own and other countries at the present 
day; and the question of establishing schools, particu¬ 
larly for this purpose, in connexion with which, it is 
proposed to have pattern farms, where young men may 
resort to learn the science of agriculture, is a subject 
often agitated, and much is said, and perhaps justly, 
in favor of such project. There are also professorships 
established in several of our older colleges for the like 
purposes, all of which efforts show that the public 
mind is becoming awakened to the subject of agricul* 
tural education. Yet we apprehend that these mea¬ 
sure alone are not fully calculated to meet the entire 
wants of the mass of our farming population. A few 
of our more wealthy farmers may be able to spare the 
services of their sons at a proper age for them to at¬ 
tend, and have the ability to pay the expense attending 
the instruction in such institutions. Still, compara¬ 
tively few could be expected to avail themselves of op¬ 
portunities like these. Even if it was designed to 
support these schools at the expense of the State it 
would avail but little to the less wealthy and larger 
portion of our farmer’s sons, for in most, if not all, of 
our public institutions, in addition to other difficulties, 
it requires some special influence to gain admittance 
to them. We would by no means object to the estab¬ 
lishment of such schools, and while we most heartily 
hail the appointment of agricultural professors in our 
colleges, as a token of good to the farmer, we cannot 
believe these means of education will wholly accom¬ 
plish the end designed, or that they are entirely adap¬ 
ted to confer the “ greatest good to the greatest num¬ 
ber.” It appears to us, that in order to benefit the 
farming community, as such, the foundation must be 
laid in common schools. We cheerfully admit the 
value of w r hat is now learned in these schools in other 
branches of knowledge to the farmer’s child, as well as 
to the children of other portions of society; but we 
would not have his education stop here; w r e would have 
something particularly adapted to his wants. Let the 
first principles of agriculture there be taught, the ad¬ 
vantage of mixing soils, the benefit of deep tillage of 
the land, of draining, the proper means of saving and 
applying manures, the analysis of soils, of grass, grains, 
roots, and other crops, together with the necessary 
cultivation to produce good crops. And he would bet¬ 
ter understand the means necessary to accomplish the 
end for which he labors. He would also be prepared 
to be benefitted by the reading of agricultural publica¬ 
tions, and to profit by his own after experience, and 
any new discoveries in science, applicable to his call¬ 
ing. Much of value is now published in our agricultu¬ 
ral papers, which but few of our farmers are prepared 
by their education to appreciate. 
A short time since, on inquiring of one of our neigh¬ 
bors, a respectable farmer who has several sons, whe¬ 
ther he took an agricultural paper, he replied, that he 
did not; and the reasons he gave for not doing so were, 
u that there were many things published in them that 
he thought was not correct, and much that he did not 
understand, and besides, (the old story,) he did not be¬ 
lieve in book farming.” It is probable, had he better 
understood their value, his opinion would have been 
somewhat changed, and his sons now growing up to 
manhood, might have had occasion to thank him for 
the perusal of an agricultural paper. Although the 
