114 
THE CULTIVATOR 
March, 
manure, the landed property, in the districts where it is 
found, has advanced in value, and employment been given 
to hundreds of laborers. 
With regard to the use of marl as a fertilizer, it might 
be shown that it was only after it had been analysed and 
its real nature discovered, that it was employed to any 
considerable extent. The same is true in respect to 
guano, and the whole catalogue of artificial manures. It 
would be difficult to point to any great improvement in 
the art of cultivation, that has not owed something either 
in its discovery or perfection to science. Practice is im¬ 
potent without principle, and theories are useless with¬ 
out practice—they mutually support and aid each other. 
Yet it would be an error to suppose that every farmer 
must become a chemist, in order to be a scientific cultur- 
ist. It is the privilege of the industrial classes to employ, 
for their own purposes, the results of science, but they 
should do so acknowledging their benefit. What chem¬ 
istry has done for agriculture, are but the pebbles upon 
the sea-shore of what it is destined to accomplish. But 
its results will be of no essential service to the farmer, 
unless they are brought before the public, their- worth 
tested by actual experiment, and the conviction of their 
necessity forced upon every mind. In this, as in every¬ 
thing else, the force of example is powerful, more so 
than pages of carefully written and profound argument. 
Let a single farmer in a town, commence a system of 
improved husbandry, and more or less will imitate him. 
He may be ridiculed for a while, but when it is discovered 
that he is “ making the most money,” as well as excelling 
in other respects, he will be sure of some disciples. Ob¬ 
serve how contagious neatness is in a village • cottage suc¬ 
ceeds to cottage, flow’er garden to flower garden, and lawn 
to lawn, and it is equally true that dilapidated houses, 
broken fences and weed-ridden gardens are found side by 
side. So on a larger scale, will it be with farms. One 
well tilled, productive, improving farm will extend itself 
beyond its boundary lines, as certainly as an honest, in¬ 
telligent, thoughtful man will exert an influence. The 
great body of farmers can never be thoroughly read and 
learned man. but they can use the details of other’s ex¬ 
perience in their own practice—they can carry out the 
principles, which the study of scientific minds has es¬ 
tablished. 
In the mechanic arts science has always been the parent 
of improvement, and if the manufacturer would be suc¬ 
cessful, he must combine all the recent discoveries in his 
practice—must make his capital yield the greatest possi¬ 
ble income. Agriculture is a no less dignified and im¬ 
portant art—it requires no less ability and research 
than manufactures. We trust the time is not far distant, 
when a short-sighted ignorance will give place to more 
enlightened views, when the sons of the soil will invoke 
the aid of science as their patron divinity, and labor be 
invested with new power, 
Size of English Cart Horses. —The editor of the 
Michigan Farmer, says that the heaviest horse he saw at 
the great Windsor cattle show, weighed twenty-three 
hundred and fifty. His owner said that many exceeded 
that weight , and mentioned one that weighed twenty- 
seven hundred and fifty. 
Attacks of Insects on Vegetation. 
The following communication, relative to the attacks 
of insects on vegetation, contains some good suggestions, 
well worthy the attention of entomologists. But the 
writer appears to have committed the same fault that he 
complains of in others, and in Gardner’s Dictionary. 
He furnishes us with what he considers 'probability, and 
which, until thoroughly proved by repeated observations, 
we cannot but regard as conjecture. All we claim is, 
that none shall assume the position of teachers, when 
they ought to maintain that of investigators. If the po¬ 
sitions of our correspondent are correct, all we desire is 
clear, repeated, and undeniable proof, never mistaking 
cause for effect, and vice versa —not merely in one, but 
in all localities—not only in one, but in many seasons; 
for there are numberless ways of being deceived, and 
single observations, and circumstantial evidence, will 
hardly satisfy scientific observers who cannot adopt an 
opinion as truth, until it is established completely by 
what Lord Bacon termed the “ experimentum cruris,” 
or cross-examination of nature. Eds. 
About the beginning of December, (the 11th,) an ar¬ 
ticle appeared in the Christian Intelligencer, credited to 
the Albany Cultivator. It is headed “ Rot in Potatoes 
— Yelloivs in Peach Trees—Disease in Buttonwood 
Trees and the object is to attack certain opinions ad¬ 
vanced by Mr. Buckminster, Editor of the Massachu¬ 
setts Plowman. 
My own object is to furnish a hint, how aside from the 
purpose some investigations seem to be conducted • and 
also to show by a single palpable example, how a fact, 
that ought to have been fully proven, and set down as 
established in the Natural History of Horticulture, is 
still bandied about, affirmed and denied again for suc¬ 
cessive years, as if it were not susceptible of the simplest 
sort of proof, and that absolute. 
An opinion may lead to the most important fact. It 
was in consequence of the opinion formed before hand, 
that Kepler was led to discover those immortal laws 
of the heavenly bodies that bear his name. On the other 
hand, a turkey may have denuded a cabbage plant of 
its leaves; but all parts of the plant may be examined 
by the most powerful magnifiers in existence, without 
finding any such creature. The turkey may be flown, 
or dead, or roasted; yet it was the turkey that did the 
mischief, nevertheless. 
I ivish to bring forward that condition of the peach 
tree called, or which ought to be called, the Curl; that 
is, when the leaves present that peculiar twisted appear¬ 
ance, with a blistered form or forms on the upper sur¬ 
face, and a corresponding dimpled one on the under sur¬ 
face. 
Whoever has seen a cabbage plant, or still better, a 
currant bush, infested with the well known little insect 
called the aphis, in systematic language, would immedi¬ 
ately have the probable cause of the curl suggested to 
him. There are the same swellings on the surface of the 
leaf, while the insects will be found congregated in large 
numbers in the dimples under it. I do not see how any 
one could escape the suggestion. 
Now there is one thing to be noticed; that the defor¬ 
mity of the leaves is not caused by the insects there pre. 
