6 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
they are fed for a time with any kind of roots, or apple pomace, 
the effect which these have upon the quantity of milk be also noted. 
The 11th and 12th premiums embrace objects of much interest to 
our agriculture, and the experiments will require some degree of 
care and accuracy. The experiments with the corn should embrace 
half an acre at least—one third of which, taking alternate rows, 
may be topped, and one third cut up, at the same time, and as soon 
as the grain has become glazed. The product under the three pro¬ 
cesses should be measured and weighed separately, both in the ear 
and after it is shelled—and the value of the forage under each pro¬ 
cess, and of the labor in performing it, estimated. 
The 13th subject will require a drawing and description, and may 
be made to embrace a wagon house, tool house, and other useful 
offices. 
In reference to the 14th premium, the extraneous means employed 
to increase manure should be noticed—the mode of protecting it, if 
any is adopted, from the wasting influence of the weather—the 
average product from each animal kept in the yard or stable,—and 
some comparison in the economy of applying it, in a fermented and 
unfermented state, to corn, potatoes and other hoed crops. 
We shall ask for the certificate of a magistrate, where the com¬ 
petitor is unknown to us, that the applicant for a premium is. a per¬ 
son of veracity, and that the truth of his or her statement may be 
depended on. 
THE GARDEN. 
We consider a good garden not only as contributing largely to the 
health and sustenance of the family, but as a pretty good indication' 
of the taste and comfort of its inmates. We are desirous, there¬ 
fore, of contributing all in our power to the multiplication and im¬ 
provement of these sources of rural enjoyment. Of their various 
productions, fruits deservedly hold a high rank. The varieties of 
the pear now in culture, furnish a succession for the table through 
the whole circle of the year, and always command a liberal price at 
market. The Vergaleu is usually sold at two to three dollars the 
bushel, and we have seen it sold at 15 to $17 the barrel; and other 
varieties, equally luscious, need but be better known to command an 
equal price. The plum and the peach, where the latter can be 
grown, are equally desirable for family use, and profitable for the 
market. The same remark holds good as to grapes, with the fur¬ 
ther advantage, that they, as well as the plum, may be preserved 
fresh and fine for winter use, by alternating them, in stone jars, as 
staled in our last volume , with cotton batting or dry cork dust. The 
smaller fruits, as the strawberry, raspberry, current and gooseberry, 
are all easily multiplied, form a succession of delicacie^ for the table 
for two or three months, and are more or less promotive of health. 
All these fruits may be enjoyed by the farmer, in superior excel¬ 
lence, without seriously abstracting from the labors of the farm. 
They may be most of them kept in a dried state, for family use or 
for market, during the year; and when beet sugar becomes as abun¬ 
dant here as it is now in France, an event which we expect ere long 
to see realized, preserved fruits may become as common with our 
farmers, and be made to contribute as largely in our bills of fare, as 
they now do in some parts of the eastern continent. 
The season for transplanting, and for propagating by grafting, lay¬ 
ering and by cuttings, being at hand, some remarks upon these pro¬ 
cesses will not be considered impertinent, and we trust not unprofita¬ 
ble. 
The first step is, where scions are to be employed, either as grafts 
or cuttings, to secure the desired varieties without delay. They 
should be separated from the parent stock before the buds begin to 
Bwell. They may be transported to any reasonable distance, and 
kept till wanted for use in a cellar, or with their butt ends well plung¬ 
ed in earth. The larger fruits my be propagated by grafting or lay¬ 
ering ; the grape, current, quince, and gooseberry, by cuttings. 
As we have, in our second volume, given partial directions for 
grafting and layering, with cuts illustrative of these processes, we 
shall avail ourselves of the labors of Prof. Rennie, in explaining more 
fully the scientific principles upon which they depend for success. 
“SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPLANTING. 
« The removing of growing plants from one part of the garden to 
another is done for various reasons, and the science of transplanting 
will consequently depend on the intention of the gardener in the ope¬ 
ration. The principle facts to be recollected are, that every plant 
takes its food by the tips of the root fibres, and that the sap theiice 
carried up into the leaves has much of its water and oxygen car¬ 
ried off by exposure to light, particularly to sunshine. It follows that 
if part or all of the tips of the root fibres be broken off or bruised, the 
plant will be kept hungry or starved, just as an animal would be, with 
its mouth much injured or blocked up; while if a plant in such a 
state is placed in the sunshine, the water and oxygen carried off 
thereby will very soon cause it to flag, wither and die. 
“ TRANSPORTING. 
“ If the gardener’s object then be simply to move plants from one 
place to anothor, without affecting their growth in any way, it will 
be important to preserve every root fibre entire ; and even, where 
this can be done, to take it up with part of the soil in which it has 
been growing, or with a large ball of earth, as it is termed. Where 
this cannot be done, .the root fibres ought to be placed in their new 
station as nearly as possible in the manner they were at first, and 
hence dibbling, where the soil is at all stiff, will be bad practice, from 
hs being certain to confine and crush the root fibres within the walls 
of the dibbled hole. 
“ If it be found impossible to preserve the root fibres from injury, 
or to replant them exactly as they were, then, in order to diminish 
the loss of water and oxygen, the plants ought to be shaded from the 
light, or, if that cannot be done, they ought to have a suitable pro¬ 
portion of their leaves [applied to annuals] or branches cut off.. De 
Candolle says this practice was wont to be so universal upon the 
continent, that the gardener’s maxim was, ‘ if you plant your own 
father you must cut oft’ his head.’ Sir Henry Stewart has proved 
the bad science of such universal barbarity.” 
“ It is important not to plant the roots too deep, so as to be out of 
the reach of air, or too shallow to expose them to drought.” If the 
holes are made sufficiently large and deep, so as to have the roots 
surrounded, when the plant is in its place, by well pulverized surface 
mould, a tree should not be planted more than an inch deeper than 
it stood in the nursery. The object in transplanting cabbage, broc¬ 
coli, &c. is, by checking their growth, to throw them earlier into 
flower or head. Trees are frequently transplanted, in their young 
state, by nurserymen, purposely to abridge their long roots, and to 
increase their root fibres. They are therefore in the best condition 
for final planting, after they have been one year transplanted, and 
done well in the nursery. They are then removed with nearly their 
entire roots. 
“ SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF STRIKING. 
“ By certain experiments, not by any means praiseworthy, yet, be¬ 
yond all question, correct, it has been proved that, if the head of a 
snail, or earth-worm, be cut offj the body will not only live for a con¬ 
siderable time, but a new head will be reproduced, with a mouth ca¬ 
pable of taking food. By similar experiments it has been found that 
the legs of spiders, and the feet of frogs, when cut off, are repro¬ 
duced. 
“ Upon a similar principle, when the roots of certain plants, which 
are to them what the head is to animals, are cut ofij new roots may, 
under peculiar circumstances, be reproduced. The chief condition 
required for the reproduction of such roots, is the preservation of 
their life till the roots have time to form, and various expedients are 
resorted to with this view, as well as for the quick production of the 
roots.” 
STRIKING BY LAYERS. 
The common mode of striking by layers, is to select a branch, to 
slit, tongue, or cut it half through in a direction sloping upwards, or 
to take off a ring of bark, or pierce it in several directions by a brad 
awl, or twist a wire round it,—to bury the part operated upon in the 
earth, leaving the point above ground and to fix it in its place by a 
crotched stick. The descending pulp, otherwise called elaborated 
sap or cambium, is stopped short by the cut, in its passage towards 
the root, root buds are formed by it, which soon send out roots into 
the moist earth, and when these are deemed strong enough to feed 
the plant, the branch is cut off a little below, and the tree in minia¬ 
ture is ready for planting out. The soil should not be too damp, lest 
the cut part cankers. [See directions and cut at page 29, vol. iii.] 
“SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF GRAFTING. 
“ When the finger is cut with a knife, the blood vessels soon after 
contract their cut extremities into an opening so narrow, that the thick¬ 
er and red part of the blood cannot pass, and the bleeding therefore 
ceases. But even then there oozes out the thin watery part of the 
blood, consisting chiefly of matter the same or similar to the white 
of an egg, which being thus separated from the rest of the blood, 
thickens by the heat of the body, as the white of the egg does by 
