92 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
agriculture. When we consider this reduction of price accompanied 
with the consequences which have sprung from it in our own times, it 
may well be made a question, whether we ought rather to regard it as 
an evil or a blessing; or rather as a fact inherent in the nature of 
things, than a result which should excite any profound inquietude?” 
* * “ Agriculture, then, if it would avoid the periodical phenomenon 
to which I have alluded, and from which it has suffered so extensively, 
must seek other sources of profit than the culture of bread stuffs 
alone.” 
“ The beet root has come, at length, to sanction the scientific pre¬ 
dictions which were made of its capabilities, and the hopes to which 
they gave rise are in a rapid train of realization. The beet root is at 
last becoming a great, an incalculable source to French agriculture 
and industry, and never, of all the plants of the earth, has any vege¬ 
table produced for France and Europe, so extensive and so beneficent 
a revolution. I will not repeat here all that has been said upon this 
result. It is but fifteen years since Vicompl de Morel Vende, present¬ 
ed the beet root, which had just then been so warmly recommended for 
its properties, by Chaptal—presented it, I say, as the best possible 
substitute for following, in a quadriennial succession of crops; and 
that skilful agronomist (agronome) thus combined the universal im¬ 
provement of our agriculture with the fabrication of indigenous sugar. 
If then, we would improve our land and our culture, we ought to culti¬ 
vate the beet, even if it yielded us none of the rich product of sugar. 
It is, therefore, that the Royal Society of Agriculture has deemed that 
it was rendering a signal service to the country, in seeking to propa¬ 
gate the culture of the beet root—in making it a general and common 
property of the soil, where natural circumstances would permit, and 
in introducing, even to the smallest rural establishments, by the aid of 
processes which experience ought to simplify still more, the fabrication 
of indigenous sugar.”— [See for the entire report, Journal of the Ame¬ 
rican Institutes for June 1836.] _ 
DISEASES OF SHEEP, &c. 
For the foot rot in Sheep. —Take alum, green vitriol and white mer¬ 
cury, the first in the largest proportion; dissolve them in water, and 
after the hoof is pared, anoint it with a feather, and bind on a 
rag all over the foot. The Middlesex shepherds use the green vitriol 
alone, after pounding it fine. Others again anoint with a feather dip¬ 
ped in aqua fortis, or weak nitric acid. The drovers to Smithfield car¬ 
ry a bottle of this with them, to apply to lame sheep. It hardens the 
hoof, and enables the sheep to travel better. Another mode is to 
spread 3 or 4 inches slaked lime over a floor, pare the sheep’s feet 
well, and turn them into this house, where they may remain for a few 
hours, and then be put into a dry pasture. The treatment may be 
twice or thrice repeated. 
To prevent the foot rot. —Keep the sheep in dry pastures, and if stony 
the better; examine them often and carefully; and when any fissures 
or cracks, attended with heat, make their appearance, apply oil of 
turpentine and common brandy. When these do.not avail, wash the 
diseased part, and pare as close as possible without drawing blood, 
and apply some of the caustics above named. In all cases it is of 
great consequence that the animal be afterwards exposed only to a mo¬ 
derate temperature—be invigorated with proper food, and kept in 
clean, early, dry pasture. 
To prevent sheep from catching cold after being shorne. —Rub them 
with water saturated with salt, or plunge them into sea water. 
To cure the scab.— Sir Joseph Banks gave the following prescription 
to the Society for the encouragement of arts: take 1 lb. of quicksilver, 
£ lb. Venice turpentine, i pint oil of turpentine, and 4 lbs. hog’s lard; 
rub them in a mortar till they are well incorporated. Then begin at 
the head of the sheep, proceed from between the ears along the back, 
to the end of the tail; the wool is to be divided in a furrow till the 
skin can be touched, and as the furrow is made, the finger, slightly 
dipped in the ointment, is to be drawn along the bottom of it, where it 
will leave a blue stain on the skin and adjoining wool. From this 
make similar furrows down the shoulders and thighs to the legs, and 
if the animal is much infected, two should be drawn along each side, 
and the ointment applied in all. 
To cure the measles in swine. —The existence of the disease can only 
be known by the animal not thriving or fattening like the rest. Put 
into the food of each hog, once or twice a week, as much crude pound¬ 
ed antimony as will lie on a shilling. This is very proper for any feed¬ 
ing swine, though they have no disorder. A small quantity of the 
flour of brimstone will be found of great service, if occasionally given 
to swine. But the best way is to prevent disease, by keeping their 
sties clean and dry, and to allow them air, exercise, and plenty of 
clean straw. 
Cure for cattle swelled with green food. —Give of dose of train oil, 
which, after repeated trials, says the Farmer’s Magazine, has been 
found to prove successful. The quantity of oil must vary according to 
the age and size of the animal. For a grown up beast give a pint, 
which must be administered with a bottle, taking care to rub the sto¬ 
mach well, in order to make it go down. After receiving this medi¬ 
cine it must be made to walk about, until such time as the swelling 
begins to subside. 
Draining. —The importance of under-draining, to health, where lands 
are flat and possess a retention subsoil, to say nothing of the benefits 
which draining imparts to culture, is well explained in the following 
extract, which we make from M. Puvis. 
“The water with which the soil is inundated, not being able to es¬ 
cape in any direction, [the surface being level, and the subsoil too com¬ 
pact for its passage down,] remains there [upon the subsoil] in a state 
of stagnation, the general principle of the corruption of water. It 
forms them in the soil a kind of interior marsh; the sun and the dry¬ 
ness of the air exhale a part. These waters, motionless, diminished, 
heated by the sun in the warmth of the long summer days, ferment, 
become altered, and are sometimes so much corrupted as to become 
black. They are then an unwholesome drink for men; and at the 
same time the exhalations of a soil impregnated with corrupted water, 
becomes unhealthy, as those of the borders of marshes, of ponds, and 
of all lands temporarily inundated and which the summer sun strikes 
upon, after the waters are drawn off. Thus among the inhabitants of a 
district, in the midst of an atmosphere mixed with deleterious exhala¬ 
tions, numerous intermittent fevers occur, without the necessity of the 
appearance of any marshes or ponds in the country,” 
Effects of Temperance. —We find from the Register of the Society 
of Friends, or Quakers, that as a consequence of their temperance, 
one-half of those that are born, live to the age of 47 years ; whereas 
Dr. Price tells us, that of the general population of London, half that 
are born live only two years and three-quarters. Among the Quakers, 
1 in 10 arrive at 80 years of age, of the general population of London 
only 1 in 40. Never did a more powerful argument support the prac¬ 
tice of temperance and virtue. 
Potato Hoe. —We are much pleased with a new cast iron malleable 
potato hoe, or hook, manufactured and presented to hs by Messrs. 
Thorp and Adams, of Oak Hill, Green county. It has four prongs, 
which are round, and equally well adapted to digging potatoes, or to 
hoeing or loosening the earth about gardens or field crops. These 
hoes are for sale at Thorburn’s, at 50 cents each. 
NOTICES OF CORRESPONDENCE, &c. 
Ribwort. —L. S. who dates at Salisbury, complains of the “ southern 
plantain as a nuisance in his grounds, and asks us how it can be got 
rid of. We presume our correspondent alludes to the ribwort plan¬ 
tain, ( Plantago lanceolata ,) a hardy plant, with a tuft of long ribbed 
leaves springing from the crown of the root, and a long tap-root. We 
know of no other mode of getting rid of this, than by destroying the 
plants separately, as we do dock. But the evil, if we apprehend aright 
the plant alluded to, is not so great as our correspondent imagines, 
inasmuch as the plant is often cultivated on account of its herbage, in 
damp moist grounds, where it thrives best. Arthur Young cultivated 
and recommended it. Anderson says it is well liked by horses and 
cattle, and yields a very good crop in rich ground tending to damp¬ 
ness. It abounds in the irrigated meadows of Lombardy ; and is high¬ 
ly commended both there and in Yorkshire as a pasture grass. It af¬ 
fords a nutritious hay, particularly for cows, which are also advanta¬ 
geously fed upon the green crop in May. Upon dry grounds its growth 
is stinted. 
Saxon Rucks. —S. C. Scoville, of Salisbury, Vt. wishes to sell 100 
Saxon bucks, which he states to be of the best stock, the clip of which 
has been sold at $1 per pound. Gentlemen who have inquired of us 
for these sheep will address Mr. Scoville. 
Cortland Marl. —Mr. N. Gillet, of Cortlandville, is informed, that 
the analysis, in our last, was of his brick, or lower specimen, of marl. 
Barley.— M. B. Mason, of Montpelier, Md. asks our opinion of the 
practicability of substituting barley for rye in his farm crops—and whe¬ 
ther barley can be advantageously grown on corn ground, &c. The 
best soils for barley are light rich clay loams, it neither doing well in 
stiff clay or light sand. The product is greater than that of rye, on 
soils adapted to its growth. The spring barley is alone cultivated 
here ; we of course can say nothing of the winter species. Our princi¬ 
pal doubt is, whether Maryland is not too far south for the crop to suc¬ 
ceed well, and this doubt would seem to be removed by the fact, that 
barley is among the principal farm crops in Persia, and Asia Minor, 
where we believe the temperature is warmer than it is in Maryland. 
Rape. —D. S. Davies, of Saratoga, asks for directions in cultivating 
the rape. Rape, colza, or cole seed, ( Brassica campestris, of De Can¬ 
dolle,) is an important article in Flemish husbandry, though but little 
cultivated in Britain, and not at all in the United States. It is cultivat¬ 
ed on account of its seed, which is crushed like lintseed, and the oil 
expressed in like manner. The cake is generally thrown into the urine 
I cisterns, where it becomes a valuable material as manure. The haulm, 
