10 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
nure will seldom ferment before the ground thaws. The earthy co¬ 
vering imbibes the gaseous matters, and protects the dung from the 
wasting influence of the weather. When crops are dunged in the 
hill or furrow, with long manure, the dung sometimes fails to rot, for 
want of moisture to bring on fermentation, and is consequently of 
no benefit to the crop. When the dung is spread broadcast, and 
ploughed under, this difficulty never occurs, and the dung becomes 
better incorporated with the soil. 
Brooks’ Silk Spinner and Twister gave great satisfaction to all 
who saw its performance, and it stands highly commended in the 
proceedings of the Agricultural Convention. With it a woman will 
convert half a bushel of cocoons into sewing silk in a day, or into 
twist, or into single, double or threble threads, of any required fine¬ 
ness. The machines will be kept for sale at W. Thorburn’s—price, 
for family use, thirty to forty dollars. 
FACTS IN THE SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 
BY PROFESSOR RENNIE. 
Lime .—If quick lime, either fresh burned or slaked, be mixed 
with moist vegetable substances, however hard and fibrous, it soon 
destroys their texture, and forms a mixture, the greater part of 
which can be dissolved in water, thus rendering what was previous¬ 
ly useless, fit for the food of plants. [Hence the utility of applying 
quick-lime to reclaimed swamps, or other soils abounding in woody 
fibre.] , . , , 
On the other hand, it is injurious to mix quick lime with vegetable 
substances already soluble in water, or with any sort of dung, or 
other animal manure, lest it should take up too much humic acid.— 
[Humic acid may be termed the essence of dung, combined with oxy. 
gen.] 
Sugar and gluten .—There are few plants that do not contain su¬ 
gar, which chemists have shown to be a compound of about three 
parts carbon, four parts oxygen, and eight parts of hydrogen. 
It would follow, therefore, that it is not necessary to be introduced 
into the soil in the state of sugar, the constituents being always more 
or less contained in the water, and most probably combined into su¬ 
gar after entering the system of a plant. This applies also to starch 
which is composed on the same principles, and may indeed be con¬ 
verted into sugar, as was lately discovered; and gluten differs only 
in containing nitrogen. [Gluten is the substance which imparts nu¬ 
triment to wheat in a greater degree than is possessed by other 
^Flavor, color, tfe .—All flavor, color, smell, and nutritive qualities, 
depend for their production chiefly on the action of light. The red 
color of forced rhubarb, [and of the blood beet,] which seems to be 
an exception, arises from the red matter previously produced by the 
agency of light being carried down to the root. [Hence celery is 
bfanched to divest it of its otherwise acrid taste—and hence fruits 
growing in deep shade, are more vapid and colorless than those 
growing in an open exposure.] , , - .. 
Heat .—The soil of this country, below where the frost usually 
penetrates, averages a temperature of 48 degrees, or fifteen degrees 
above freezing, which is the reason why springs do not freeze, 
and not any quality in the spring water, which will freeze rea¬ 
dily enough when taken from the well. [And this explams why 
spnng water, retaining always near the same temperature, appears 
cold in the heat of summer, and warm during the cold of winter.] 
Radiation is the spreading of heat, which arises from heat passing 
from a hot body to a colder one near it, as uniformly as water runs 
down a slope. This spreading of heat takes place between the 'sur¬ 
face of the ground and air; and when the air is cold, though the 
soil be warm, it soon loses its heat, and dew or hoar frost is formed 
on the grass, by the moisture diffused in the air, though previously 
invisible, becoming condensed or frozen. But when the sky is co¬ 
vered by clouds, this spreading and loss of heat is, in a great mea¬ 
sure, prevented, and hence there is no dew or hoar frost on a calm 
cloudy night. It is on this principle, that garden plants are protect¬ 
ed bv matting, which stops the heat of the soil from spreading about 
and being lost in the air. Dr. W ells proved this by stretching a very thin 
cambrick handkerchief, two feet square, six inches above a grass plat; 
and he found on one night, that it was five degrees warmer under 
the handkerchief than on the rest of the grass plat; and on another 
n j e ht there was eight degrees of difference. The screen should 
not touch the soil, or the plants to be protected. In this case it 
might carry off heat by conduction. 
It is on the same principle that snow affords a protection from the 
severity of frost, the plants under snow having been found, by Dr. 
Darwin, to indicate forty degrees, that is eight degrees above freez¬ 
ing ; hence some alpine and Siberian plants, do not bear exposure to 
frosts when unprotected by snow, so well as those which are natives 
of a warmer clime. 
A reason for a slope or a hill being warmer than a valley, is that 
cold air being heavier than warm air, the coldest air always rolls 
down to the lowest situation; but if there be a brisk running stream 
in a valley, it will prevent, in some measure, the stagnation of cold 
air; injurious, because the greatest cold always occurs in air having 
the least motion. Prof. Daniel says he has seen a difference of 30 
degrees on the same night, between twq thermometers, one placed 
on an elevation and another in a sheltered situation. Daniel also 
states, that the same surface which, in a calm state of the air, would 
give off 100 parts of moisture, would yield 125 in a moderate breeze, 
and 150 in a high wind. 
COMMON SCHOOLS AND THE SURPLUS FUND. 
Tt seems to be the fashion of the day with all parties—and fashions 
run as rampant in politics as they do in dress,—to throw all our sur¬ 
plus means, even the millions of the surplus revenue, into the com¬ 
mon school fund. It is not our province, nor our intention, to scan 
motives, yet it is our privilege to examine the policy of the proposi¬ 
tion ; and this we propose now to do. 
The annual distribution of the interest of the common school fund 
now amounts to 110 to $120,000 per annum, and constitutes nearly 
one-half of the monies expended in the state, annually, for the pay 
of common school teachers. The distribution of this money has pro¬ 
duced the effect originally designed: it has led to the establishment 
of schools, and to their maintenance, for at least a portion of the 
year, in all, or nearly all, of the school districts in the state, and it 
has placed within reach of the poor, as well as the rich, all the be¬ 
nefits of these schools. Now the question at issue is, whether an¬ 
other like appropriation, applied in like manner, would tend materi¬ 
ally to increase the usefulness of these schools,—or whether it would 
not, on the contrary, by relaxing individual exertion, the material 
stimulant to improvement, tend to diminish their benefits, and dete¬ 
riorate them in character. So far as these means can be applied 
to improve the qualifications of teachers, and to raise the standard 
of instruction, by furnishing suitable books and apparatus, and ma¬ 
nual employments, so far they may be profitably applied; but these 
would require but a small part of the amount proposed to be added 
to the fund, and would not be likely to become objects of expendi¬ 
ture, unless appropriations are specifically made for them. The son 
who depends upon a rich father for suppport, and who from this ex¬ 
pectancy, is allowed to follow the natural bent of his inclination in 
pursuit of pleasure, too often becomes a useless member of society; 
while the child of the poor parent, who has to rely wholly upon his 
personal exertions for character and fortune—and who bends to this 
noble purpose, from necessity, the powers ot his mind and body, not 
unfrequently rises to the highest scale of usefulness. We fear, that 
by too lavish an expenditure, we should sink our school districts to 
the condition of the rich man’s son. Men do not prize sufficiently 
the blessings, which, like the dews of heaven, fall upon them unask¬ 
ed ; but they ever put a high value upon those which they earn by 
their own industry. The first cost nothing, and are but momenta¬ 
rily regarded, and as common place matters. But those they achieve 
themselves, are bought with their personal means and efforts, are 
highly prized, and ever retain an intrinsic value. The tree that is 
protected in its growth by the wide spreading and towering pine, 
is less tough and lasting, than that which has grown up unshel¬ 
tered and unprotected, in despite of the buffetings of storms, in the 
open field. The prince and the peasant, as the fable teaches, were 
cast shipwrecked together upon an island. The latter had learned, 
from necessity, to provide for himself,—and this provident knowledge 
enabled him to supply the wants of his helpless companion. The il¬ 
lustration will not be mistaken. Both the man and the tree became 
more useful from the early habit of being obliged to take care of 
themselves. 
But we will dismiss all metaphor, and reason upon facts—facts of 
general notoriety, which have transpired, or are transpiring in our 
day and country. 
Our native state, Connecticut, was the first state to set apart a 
fund for the support of common schools; and we believe that this 
fund is now larger, according to her population, than that of any state 
