12 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
far as you know, or is there any other, and where , that can compete 
with it ? 
Answer. —The hay-press I use is the best in the country, and in 
general use. I know of no better. 
Q,*2. What is the power required to press the hay? How many 
oxen, horses, men or boys, are employed in the work, and how many 
tons will it press in a day ? 
A. The power required to press the hay is furnished by one 
horse, (no oxen.) Three men will press from five to six tons per 
day. 
Q. 3. What is the cost of the press, and putting the same up com¬ 
plete, without the building ? Is it liable to get out of order, and does 
it require a philosopher to manage it, or can a man of common sense 
and industry manage and keep it in order ? 
A. The cost of the press, and of putting it up complete for use, is 
$150. It is not liable to get out of order, does not require a philo¬ 
sopher to manage it, and a m-n of common sense can manage it. 
It is simple in its construction. 
Q. 4. Is hay letter, or worse , for being pressed? How long will 
it keep in good order and condition ? Is there any other advantage 
in pressing hay, besides the facility of removing it, and thereby keep¬ 
ing a large quantity in a small space ? 
A. Hay is not injured by pressing, if packed in good order—will 
keep any length of time sweet, if kept dry. The advantage of 
pressing hay, other than keeping a large quantity in a small space, 
is shipping it to a foreign market, which cannot be done in bulk. 
Q. 5. Is there any other suggestion you can make On the subject, 
that will be beneficial to one ignorant of the business of pressing 
hay? 
A. Care should be taken in selecting the different qualities and 
kinds of hay in distinct bays of mows, so as to have no mixture, as 
timothy hay is most in request and will command a better price in 
market than finer grasses. I avoid packing clover hay. Hay will 
lose in weight, if packed in wet or damp weather, and if it is not 
well seasoned in the mow, will damage in the bale, and mould and 
mat together. Hay from the meadow will not do to press, unless 
for immediate use. I season my hay in the mow 60 days, it will 
then bear transportation to any market. Heavy bales, say 400 to 
500 lbs. are preferred by shippers in a small- compass, say 24 to 26 
feet, as it is frequently shipped by the foot, most generally by the 
bundle. I send from my farm from 300 to 400 tons to the New.York 
market, to be sold there or be shipped to a foreign market to my ac¬ 
count. I employ men to press my hay by the ton, furnishing them 
a horse, hook, lath, nails , &c. They perform the labor of pressing 
and stowing the bales in a convenient place in the building in good 
order—board themselves—at 62£ to 75 cents per ton, or 2000 lbs. 
I refer you to my son, Peter A. Van Bergen, attorney at law, 122 
Nassau-street, who is well acquainted with my mode of pressing 
hay, who will, with pleasure, give you more information on the sub¬ 
ject than now suggests itself to me. He is well acquainted with 
the building of my presses, and may possibly facilitate your opera¬ 
tions in the execution of your press, should you be inclined-to put 
one up. - - - • • ' * 
An excellent Institution was three years ago organized at Boston, 
called the Boston Asylum and Farm School. The association es¬ 
tablished their farm school on an island near that city, as an asylum 
and school of instruction for destitute boys. The third annual re¬ 
port is interesting. The school has 107 boys, probably reclaimed 
from want and vice, and receiving instruction in useful knowledge, 
in morals and in labor. They work upon the farm, in the garden, 
and at mechanical employments, and are instructed in geography, 
the use of the globes, botany, singing, reading, &c. This is truly 
an excellent institution, and may be termed a manufactory of useful 
men from useless boys. We have the raw material in gre at abun¬ 
dance, in the higher as well as in the lower walks of life ; and we 
rejoice to find a disposition, any where, to convert it into a useful 
commodity. ___ 
STARCH AND SUGAR. 
Every plant that contains starch, as the beet, carrot, parsnip and 
potato, may be made, probably, to yield sugar,—if foreign matters, 
colour and flavor can be got rid of. The means of doing this it is 
the province of science and chemistry to discover and apply. Ac¬ 
cording to the analysis of chemists, the elementary matters of starch 
and sugar are similar, though in different proportions,' and starch is 
readily converted into sugar by chemical process. The sugar of the 
beet, which France now produces in immense quantities, has natu¬ 
rally, Davy says, a slight bitter taste ; but chemistry has enabled us 
to render it as pure as the sugar of the cane, both in appearance 
and in flavor. Potatoes contain, according to Einhoff, more than 
one-sixth of pure starch, and about one-fourteenth of other matter, 
analogous to starch, and according to Davy, one-sixth to one-seventh 
of dry starch. The potato yields according to quality, and the ana¬ 
lysis of Skrimshire gave from 8| to 12 parts of starch in 60 parts of 
the root. Davy obtained from 1,000 parts of the turnip, 34 of saccha¬ 
rine matter; from 1,000 parts of the carrot, 95 parts of sugar, while 
the parsnip afforded 90 parts in 1,000, of saccharine matter. The 
quantity of saccharine matter, or sugar, in 1,000 parts of the under¬ 
named is given by Davy as follows : 
Red beet,... 121 I Carrot, ............. 95. 
White beet,.. 119 Common turnips,. 34 
Parsnip,.... 90 j Rutabaga........... 51 
These facts show the importance of science in supplying the wants 
of society, and inculcate the propriety of diffusing its principles and 
its benefits among that portion of our population who are employed 
in the acts of labor, and who seem most likely to make it subservi¬ 
ent to the public weal. 
TILLAGE HUSBANDRY. 
We find, in works upon British husbandry, much that is calculated to aid and 
instruct the American farmer; and much, blended with the useful, that is 
either not adapted to our climate or our practice. To suit our measure to 
our cloth, and to discharge our duty in the best way we can, we propose to 
abstract, and occasionally extract, such matters as may present in our read¬ 
ing, and as we deem useful, and to add thereto the results of our own ex¬ 
perience and observation, wherever we may deem them pertinent. These 
abstracts, for the present, will relate principally to tillage husbandry. 
HINTS ON THE GROWTH OF GRAIN. 
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 
The compounds in vegetables really nutritive are very few, farina, 
or the pure matter of starch, gluten, sugar, vegetable jelly, oil and 
extract—of these the most nutritive is gluten, which approaches 
nearest in its nature to animal matter, and which is the substance 
that gives to wheat its superiority over every other grain. The 
next- in order as to nourishing power is oil, then sugar, then starch, 
and last of all gelatinous and extractive matters. Sugar and farina, 
or starch, are however vety similar in composition, and are capable 
of being converted into each other by a simple chemical process.-— 
All the varieties of substances found in plants, are produced from 
the sap, and the sap of plants is derived from water, or from the flu¬ 
ids of the soil, and it is attended by, or combined with, principles 
derived from the atmosphere.— Davy. 
WEIGHT. 
The common and standard weights of grain are:— 
Common Weight. Standard Weight. 
01 Wheat,... from 58 to 64 60 lbs. 
Rye,. 49 to 56 56 
Barley,. 48 to 56 48 
Oats,. 30 to 42 32 
Indian Corn,.. 54 to 62 58 
SEED, 
Of every kind, should attain full maturity ere it is sown. The 
farina in the seed constitutes the nourishment of the embryo plant, 
as the egg does of the young chicken, until the roots are grown 
sufficiently to provide for themselves. The farina has become fully 
developed only when the seed has attained maturity. The more 
abundant the nourishment in the seed, the more healthy and vigor¬ 
ous the plant which it nourishes. Hence not only ripe, but perfect 
and plump seed should be selected. A weak embryo is not likely to 
produce a- strong plant; for although the soil abound in food, a 
healthy vigorous plant will take up much more food than one that 
is lean and shrivelled. In the Indian corn crop, weak, feeble plants 
are often perceptible in a hill, which give little or no corn. Hence 
the utility of putting in a double quantity of seed, that the weak 
plants may be extirpated, at the first dressing, and strong ones 
enough left to fill the ground. It is a good plan in regard to seed 
corn, to put a dozen or twenty seeds in a flower-pot, or some vessel 
filled with earth, two or three weeks before planting time, to water 
the earth, and to set the pot in the sun in a window of the dwelling. 
It will be then seen in time whether the seed will grow, and what 
portion of it. The importance of select seed has been amply de- 
