1852 
THE CULTIVATOR 
153 
men of the country, goes to show, that the so-called 
literary aristocracy of the day, against whom so much 
cant is hurled, do net exist, and that no class of com¬ 
munity are so much in favor of diffusing widely the bene¬ 
fits of a practical, sound education, as thorough scholars. 
Large and Small Farms .-=~W. A. Ela writes, u I 
wish you would lay down some plan for farmers with 
small means and large farms, which would convince them 
that by giving away two-thirds of their land, they would 
be better off'and raise more than to skin over the whole,” 
Plans of Farms. —The same correspondent remarks, 
I take the liberty to make one suggestion in regard to 
your subdivision of farms. That is, that the farm build¬ 
ings should be mo^pd back at least one tier of lots from 
the highway. I am aware that I have a great majority 
of farmers against me, but I think for one to be 20 rods 
from the highway and the view of a beatiful lawn from 
the front of the house, would well pay for the extra travel 
in getting to the public road, and whatever may be writ¬ 
ten upon the subject should be to correct bad taste, al¬ 
though it may be against established custom.” [We al¬ 
ways hail, as the desert-traveller does an oasis, all indi¬ 
cations of a taste for rural beauty in connexion with 
country dwellings, and of course could not object to a 
sacrifice of land or nearness to the road, to the increase 
of landscape effect. It will perhaps, however, occur to 
our correspondent that a greater perfection of this nature 
would consist in trees and lawn on the different sides of 
the house, instead of being only in the direction of the 
road, so that the spectator will not have to keep his head 
fixed in one direction, for fear he may see what is not 
agreeable. Neither will the passing traveller be com¬ 
pelled to reserve his sight till he gets exactly in front of 
the dwelling. Eds.] 
Splitting of Cherry Trees.— D. C. Richmond, of 
Sandusky, informs us that some of his trees have split 
the whole length of the trunk, owing, as he thinks, to the 
severe weather of winter. He proposes to keep the 
bodies well wound with straw during winter on the first 
indications of the disaster, and intends to keep the parts 
bound together by one or more iron bolts, secured by 
nuts and screws. We have had no experience with trees 
similarly affected, but see no harm likely to result from 
bolting the parts together, especially when the bolts are 
covered with new 7 wood. In the mean time, an appli¬ 
cation of grafting-wax, paint, or still better of a solution 
of shellac in alcohol, to any wounded surface, would 
doubtless be quite useful. Driving in nails could not be 
of any use whatever, further than their mechanical effect 
—if the trees need iron, which is very questionable, it 
could be most naturally and equally given by a solution 
of some salt of iron at the roots. 
Plan for Illinois State University. —We have re¬ 
ceived a pamphlet from the pen of Prof. J. B. Turner, 
presenting in a clear, vigorous style, the arguments in 
favor of an Industrial University. The details of his 
plan do not differ essentially from others, which are be¬ 
fore the public. The interests of popular education are 
claiming notice and gaining ground everywhere. 
Potato Rot and Rust.—R. Young (near Louisville, 
Ky.,) states that the only portion of his potato fields 
where the rot was destructive r was in a rich cavity or 
basin where the growth of the plants was most luxuriant. 
He has observed, too, that it is in these localities that bis 
wheat is most affected by rust—in both of which cases 
he ascribes the difficulty to an overgrowth and supera¬ 
bundance of moisture in the plants, and suggests whether 
manure copiously applied to such crops may not increase 
the disaster, and asks for information. 
There is no question but that rust in wheat is often 
greatly promoted by a luxuriant growth of stalk, occa¬ 
sioned by an undue proportion of mould or vegetable 
matter in the soil, and that the remedy consists in a 
greater application of mineral and nitrogenous manures. 
We are by no means sure but that these might be ad¬ 
vantageously furnished in rich yard manure. Soils vary, 
and experiment must determine. As for the potaio rot, 
it remains involved in much mystery, hut a moderately 
fertile soil is certainly more favorable to the health of the 
crop, than one unusually rich. 
Destruction of the Peach Crop.— Mr. J. Clark, 
of Lewis, Brown co., Ohio, writes us, that the peach crop 
in his section of the State, is entirely destroyed by the 
frost. On the 20th January, 1852, he says the thermome¬ 
ter fell to 15° below zero, and after spending nearly half 
a day in examination, he did not find a single live bud. 
This appears to confirm the statement, that the peach 
will not endure a temperature colder than 14® below 
zero. Heart cherries and fine plums have shared the 
same fate. - 
Results of Draining. — It has been remarked, that 
“ to apply manure to undrained land, is to throw money 
away,” an illustration of which is furnished by a state¬ 
ment in the Transactions of the New-York State Agri¬ 
cultural Society, where seven acres of low wet land, 
manured annually at the rate of 25 loads to the acre, 
produced 31 bushels of oats per acre,- hut after being 
thoroughly underdrained at a cost of about 60 dollars 
for the whole, the first crop of oats without manure, was 
89^ bushels per acre. 
Raising Chestnuts. —Chestnuts will not grow rapidly 
on all soils, but on such soils as are suited to them; near¬ 
ly all the failures we have known, have resulted from at¬ 
tempts to transplant them. We know of no tree so had 
to transplant as this. The best way is to plant the seed 
in hills, like corn, but rather more remote; pull out all 
but the most vigorous plant, and they will soon form a 
beautiful yeung forest, and obviate all necessity of culti¬ 
vating the ground, which at first Is requisite. Their ra¬ 
pid growth is well known; a correspondent of the Ohio 
Cultivator, judging from his own experience, thinks that 
1400 trees might be raised on an acre, averaging in 20 
years 8 to 10 inches in diameter, making four rails the 
first cut, two the second, and one the third—about 10,- 
000 rails per acre. 
[Cr* “ B,” on “ Raising Horses,” will appear in our 
next. It came too late for this month. 
£7* Answers to several inquiries, are necessarily de¬ 
ferred till next month. 
