1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
193 
ded,” and we certainly could not denounce what w® 
knew nothing absolutely about, however well “ satis¬ 
fied of its utter fallacy 55 from general reasons.^ We 
have never considered it any part of our legitimate 
business to build fences for the sake of getting “ on one 
side or the other, 55 and no “ proclivity to dollars and 
cents 55 has ever set us astride 55 of a fence of others 5 
making. --- 
“Fashion. 5 ' —We learn that Col. L. G. Morris, in 
company with Mr. F. Morris, of Westchester, pur¬ 
chased this celebrated racer, at the late sale of Mr. 
Gibbons’ blood horses, for $1,550, with a foal at her 
foot, by “Mariner. 55 As “Fashion 55 is now 16 years 
old, it is the intention of Col. Morris to keep her as a 
breeder, and we understand he proposes to send her to 
the stable of Maj. Burnett, the owner of the celebrated 
pure blood horse “ Consternation. ,5f 
Plowing and Manuring. —Our correspondent, 
“Mooers,” is partly right and partly wrong. It is a 
waste of manure to cover it eight inches deep; but to 
plow the land eight inches deep, and then thoroughly 
ineoporate the manure with this eight inches of soil, is 
quite a different thing. As a general rule, the finer the 
soil is pulverized, and the more thoroughly the manure 
is intermixed with it, the better will be the crop. If 
the land is in good tilth, the roots of plants will be sure 
to find the manure. -— 
The 'Miscellany and Review, is the title of an 
excellent monthly journal, commenced with the present 
year, at Memphis, Tenn., by Risk & Ebbert, at $2 a 
year. The Editor (Mr. Ebbert) objects -to the “ usual 
method, of crediting selections, as both uncertain and 
embarrassing;’ 5 biit why uncertain'and embarrassing, 
he does not explain. Instead of the old way of attach¬ 
ing the name of the Journal to the article copied, he 
attaches it to the reference to it in the Index on the 
cover. Now we think the manner he has adopted, de¬ 
cidedly “ uncertain and embarrassing. 55 When the cover 
or index is lost, as is frequently the case, the reader is 
left to the “ uncertain 5 ? supposition, that the article 
copied is from the pen of the editor, who must fre¬ 
quently be “embarrassed 55 by thus being compelled tc 
father the bantlings begotten by others. The article oi 
the 186th page of the April number, should have been 
credited to the Country Gentleman. 
I - 
Ag. Addresses. —Hon. James A. Pearce, U. S. 
Senator from Maryland, is to deliver the annual Ad¬ 
dress at the Ohio,State Fair, and Horace Greedy, 
Editor of the New-York Tribune, at the Indiana State 
Fair. - 
Comstock’s Terra-Culture. — I have read your re¬ 
ply to Mr. Talbott, in the April Cultivator, in regard 
to Comstock's system of Terra-culture, and wish to say 
a few words in reply. 
I heard Mr. Comstock last March, at the expense of 
three days time, and some $12 in money, and must say 
that I cannot see in what respect he is a humbug. Our 
company was composed of ten practical men, and so far 
as I could learn, all were satisfied that his theory is new 
easily applied, and of great value. He took us on to a 
field of wheat, and gave us the most convincing proofs 
of the truth of his statements in regard to this plant. 
In trees, there can he no doubt but his ideas are very 
valuable; and not only so, but I must think perfectly 
consistent. 
I send you the certificates of Professor Norton and 
Mr. Johnson, which I am sure arc "new to you, or you 
would have spoken differently. 
I have no apology to make for his course, which pre¬ 
vents 999 in 1000 hearing him. Some arrangement 
ought to he made so that all might learn who choose. 
There are very man;/ persons in our State, who now 
wish to hear him. What I wish to say is, that a man 
in your position, is not justified in condemning such a 
thing without hearing for himself. The agricultural 
community place great confidence in your judgment, 
and justly, therefore, you ought to be very careful in 
the use of it. 
Before I heard him, I was at no small pains to ascer¬ 
tain the opinions of those who had heard him, and I 
found none who did not speak favorably. Yours very 
respectfully, Dayid Lyman. Middletown, Conn., 
May 6, 1853. 
We cheerfully give place to the above. True, we 
have not heard Mr. Comstock lecture; but private con¬ 
versations have led us to believe that he was not the 
man to reveal any “ new’ 5 law of nature. Farther than 
this, w r e have been assured by competent judges, who 
have heard his lectures, that he did not reveal anything 
which was not understood by those well versed in Vege¬ 
table Physiology. That there is anything prejudicial to 
the interests of agriculture in the lectures, we have never 
supposed; but that the hints he throws out, and the facts 
which he calls attention to, are any “secret, 55 or are 
sufficient to constitute a safe theory to guide the farmer, 
we have never been persuaded of. 
Mowing and Reaping Machines. —The Rensse¬ 
laer County Agricultural Society offer a premium of $20, 
for the best mowing machine, and the same amount for 
the best reaper. The trial is to he held in July, and 
application must be made by competitors by June 15, to 
B. B. Kirtland, Greenbush. / The cost, simplicity, 
durability, power, quality of work, facility of mana¬ 
ging and adaptation to uneven surfaces, will be consid¬ 
ered. The farmers are wide awake on the subject of 
reapers and mowers, and it is to be hoped that the re¬ 
sults of the trial will be such as to inform the farmer 
which machine is best adapted to its purpose. 
A Method of mcreasing the yield of the milch-cow, by 
selecting proper animals for the dairy; according to 
Guenon's Discovery. Improved and simplified, as 
classified and arranged, by John Nefflin. Phila¬ 
delphia, 1853. 
We noticed briefly, some weeks since, at the request 
of a correspondent, the nature of Guenon's discovery, 
remarking at the same time that the marks of a good 
milker, according to this theory, were not infallible, and 
that the system had been carried to a degree of minute¬ 
ness and assumed accuracy, hardly applicable in ordi¬ 
nary practice. With these exceptions in view, this mode 
of examining the value of cows is well worthy the at¬ 
tention and experiment of the proprietors of diaries. 
The author of the work before us, (an octavo pamph¬ 
let of 54 pages,) is a native of Southern Germany, and 
having a strong taste for rural pursuits, and becoming 
acquainted with Guenon's method, he gave it a thorough 
and practical examination for several years, in his own 
dairy and in that of hfs neighbors, and consequently he 
became a most thorough adept in the examination of 
the charts found to be so remarkably mapped out on 
every cow’s milk-bag. He has thns been enabled to 
simplify and present in a clearer and more comprehensive 
shape, the system of Guenon, and has furnished his 
work with a table or chart, representing in 78 figures, 
the various gradations of value in cows, from the deep 
milker of twenty quarts a day, down to the worthless 
animal of only two quarts. 
There is a sort of quaint egotism occasionally dis¬ 
played, not often found in American books, which ought 
not to prejudice the reader against this author. It ap¬ 
pears that he held political offices for nearly thirty years 
in Germany, and to use his own words, “ Elected repre¬ 
sentative for the Assembly of the States in 1831, I was 
appointed on the committee of agriculture, and on that 
for the diminution of feudal taxes and tithes. In this 
capacity, and as editor of the “Field and Garden Ga¬ 
zette, 55 I joined the opposition, and continued with the 
party, until on the first of October, 1848, by a speech in 
the popular Assembly at Heilbronn, the text of which I 
had taken from the Bible, and had changed to suit the 
times, “ Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, to 
the people the things that are the people’s, and what re¬ 
mains to the king,” I had attracted the favorable notice 
of the government, which had become re-act ionary to 
such a degree that they contemplated appointing me 
for a couple years to a government situati n in one of 
