398 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Dec. 
sugar 60.72 lbs. By far the greater part of the dry mat¬ 
ter of the cucumber is sugar. 
Ultimate Organic Analysis. 
Long Prickly. White Spine. 
Nitrogen,. 1.236 1.301 
Oxygen,. 41.806 41.832 
Carbon,. 40.984 40.467 
Hydrogen,. 6.879 6.723 
Inorganic matter, . 9.955 11.252 
The indigestibility of the cucumber is almost prover¬ 
bial. In fact it has scarcely a parallel example in all the 
cultivated edible plants. In studying its composition, 
we can scarcely refrain from making the inquiry: What 
does this much esteemed fruit contain, to unfit it so 
much for easy digestion? 
One would naturally suppose, from the tendency it 
has to pass through the digestive organs without being ma¬ 
terially acted upon by the digestive process, like most oth¬ 
er food, that it is constituted of bodies, which are either 
deleterious to the system, or are not essential to its com¬ 
position. If we refer to the analysis, however, we find 
that the bodies which compose it, are found in nutri¬ 
tious healthy food, and are all quite harmless; in fact, 
the most of them go to build up and support the several 
tissues of the human body, and are necessary to their 
healthy nutrition and growth. We, hence, must con¬ 
clude that the indigestibility of this fruit, cannot depend 
upon the kind of matter of which it is composed. 
Suppose now w r e examine the relative proportions in 
which the several bodies unite to form this fruit, to see 
if there can be anything in this direction which will 
throw light upon the matter. We find, in the forego¬ 
ing analysis, all the bodies in very small proportion, with 
the single exception of water. The per centage of this 
in the fresh fruit, is equal to about per cent. May 
w T e not infer that this very large per centage of water has 
something todo in retarding digestion? It is well known 
that all of those fruits which contain a very large pro¬ 
portion of water, such as the watermelon, green apple, 
cherry, currants, &.C., are very apt, when taken in quan¬ 
tities, and without admixture with other food, to pro¬ 
duce like unpleasant symptoms, and pass through the 
stomach and intestines without being scarcely acted upon 
at all by the powerful solvents of these organs. Water, 
however, does not seem to be the only body in food, 
which when in great excess, may appear to retard diges¬ 
tion. Other substances, as casein, albumen, fat, sugar, 
8cc., viien in large proportion, appear to produce like 
results. For instance, cheese—which is composed princi¬ 
pally of casein, but contains also in small quantity, quite 
all the constituents of the animal body-—wiien eaten alone, 
and in quantities, produces symptoms somewhat similar 
to those produced by the cucumber, and is voided in a 
similar undigested state. The same may be said of food 
composed principally of either albumen, fat, sugar, &c. 
May we then not infer from the above, and numerous 
other examples, which readily will suggest themselves 
to every one who observes, that food suited to easy di¬ 
gestion must contain, not only the ingredients of which 
the tissues are composed, but these ingredients must 
bear some simple relative proportion to each other.— 
That is, they should be in such proportion as is best suited 
to furnish nourishment to the system with the least pos¬ 
sible loss of undigested material. J. II. Salisbury, 
M. D. Albany , Dec. 16, 1852. 
Agriculture of Sullivan County. 
Eds. Cultivator —Knowing that you have a large 
number of subscribers in our county, and believing that 
we are scarcely known as agriculturists, I have thought 
that some account of its resources and capability of pro¬ 
duction would be interesting to a portion of your readers. 
In order to a proper understanding of these, a short 
description of the geography of the county will be ne¬ 
cessary. Previous to the digging of the Erie canal, there 
was considerable emigration to the county, notwithstand¬ 
ing the almost insurmountable barrier to entrance, which 
the Shawangunk Mountains—the alps of New r -York— 
stretching from the north to the south the whole length 
of the eastern boundary, formed, and also a belt of bar¬ 
ren land from four to six miles in width, running par¬ 
allel with the mountains and valley. Most of the land 
on the east side of the mountains has been in a good state 
of cultivation for many years, as well as the valley on 
the west side. Farming in these sections is on a good 
basis, and has been the chief business for a long time.— 
The Delaware and Hudson canal extends through this 
valley. A large portion of the northern and central parts 
of the county lies in ridges and valleys, and was former¬ 
ly covered with dense forests of beech, maple, hemlock, 
bass-wood and birch. 
Previous to the construction of the Erie canal, con¬ 
siderable of these lands w r ere sold for farming purposes, 
and in many instances at high prices, but after that chan¬ 
nel w r as opened, emigration w r as diverted to the west 
and continued in that direction for many years. Farm¬ 
ing was much neglected, and most farmers made lum¬ 
bering a business, much to the injury of their farms.— 
The roads w r ere extremely bad; the principal ones lead¬ 
ing into the county from the east, crossing at right angles 
all the high mountain ridges. The Delaware and Hud¬ 
son canal, which was finished, if I mistake not, in 1825, 
gave a new impetustoagriculture, making a better home 
market for the produce. It also had the effect to make 
goods cheaper than w r hen dealers were obliged to cart 
them some forty miles from Newburgh. 
About the year 1812, a few capitalists from Green co., 
came and erected large tanneries, which furnished a 
nearer and better home market for produce. As a con¬ 
sequence, a portion of our farmers gave more attention 
to their business; wdfile a large number commenced 
peeling bark and lumbering. 
The business of lumbering now began in good earnest. 
Most of it from this section found its market in the city 
of New-York, through the canal. The lumbering and 
manufactories helped to build the flourishing villages 
along the canal, and these villages not having a farming 
country around them w^ere principally manufacturing 
ones, which tended to benefit the home market. Tan¬ 
ning proved profitable, and many enterprising capitalists 
were led to engage in it, which had a tendency to in¬ 
crease the lumbering, as the lumber was lighter and 
easier to handle after being stripped of the bark. This 
increase of business necessarily brought in a great num¬ 
ber of mechanics and workingmen, farmers included.— 
The tanning business was at first confined to the northern 
and central sections of the county, but gradually w'as 
extended over the entire county. Since the building 
