THE CULTIVATOR. 
143 
The standing com,. 10,616 pounds. 
The cut up do. 10,436 “ 
The topped do. 9,932 “ 
It follows, that the loss by topping an acre would be 634 pounds; do. 
by cutting up 1S1 pounds; and that cutting up has an advantage overtop 
ping of 453 pounds, independent of the important gain in the forage. 
We then shelled a bushel, which required 78 pounds in the ear,—the 
grain weighing 53 pounds and the cobs 25 pounds. When perfectly dry 
the corn weighs 60 to 62 pounds. Dividing the total pounds per acre by 
7S,—the number of pounds of ears required for a bushel of shelled corn 
—the product in bushels, under the different modes of management, would 
be as follows: 
Standing corn,. 136 bushels 8 pounds. 
Cutup “ 133 “ 62 “ 
Topped “ 127 “ 76 “ 
Deduct ten per cent for shrinkage, on drying to a merchantable condi 
tion, and the product Would then be as follows, omitting fractions: 
The standing corn, per acre. 122 bushels. 
The cut of do. “ . 120 “ 
The topped do. “ . IM “ 
That our southern patrons may understand the cause of this great pro 
duct, it will be only necessary for us to.state, that in our mode of plant 
ing we produce on an acre, if there are no deficiencies, as there need not 
be if plenty of seed is put in, 23,232 stalks, which on the assumption that 
each stalks produces an ear, and that the ears average a gill each, which 
is much under the mark with the Dutton corn, the product would be 
about 90 bushels. The southern corn, at four and a half feet distance, 
two stalks in a hill, would give only about 4,300 stalks; now supposing 
this to be the Baden variety, giving four ears on a stalk, the total number 
of ears would be but 17,200 on the acre, or about 6,000 ears, or .gills, less 
than our Dutton crop, with one ear on a stalk. 
OLDEN TIMES—1796. 
CLEANLINESS INCULCATED. 
The next article we shall notice in the memoirs of the old agricultural 
society, is a letter from Dr. S. L. Mitchell, to Rev. Dr. H. Muhlenburgh, 
on azote and its compounds, as they operate on plants as food, and on ani¬ 
mals as poison. 
This is a philosophical essay, calculated to impress upon the agricultu 
rist and others, the great importance of cleanliness about their dwellings 
and out-buildings; and to demonstrate, that the filth which is suffered to 
accumulate in these places, while it is highly deleterious to animal health, 
abounding as it generally does in azote, is admirably calculated to feed 
and nourish farm crops—that plants have the power of destroying pestilen¬ 
tial fluids, and of rendering the atmosphere which has been contaminated 
by them, healthy. What was then in a manner speculation, in these mat¬ 
ters, has since become established by chemical demonstration. Plants 
and animals reciprocally benefit each other in their influence upon the 
atmosphere. The following extract from this paper is particularly worthy 
the consideration of house-keepers:— 
“ Septic substances, (substances containing azote or.nitrogen,) the of¬ 
fal of slaughtered animals, the refuse of house-keeping, are, when ming¬ 
led in due quantity with the soil, justly ranked among the best fertilizers. 
The impregnation of land about houses and barns long occupied with such 
materials, is the acknowledged cause of such superior productiveness.— 
While these manures are mixed with earth in such quantity as to promote 
and not overpower vegetable life, their noxious effluvia are repressed, or 
their virulence counteracted, by the mediation of plants. The instru¬ 
mentality of these classes of animated beings, [i. e. plants,] seems to be 
intended to keep the great balance of nature in equipoise, and prevent 
either scale being overloaded with materials destructive of animal life.— 
But it nevertheless sometimes happens, that in cellars, and around coun¬ 
try dwellings, in pig-styes and cow-pens near the house, there are accu¬ 
mulated great quantities of excrementitious and corrupting substances, 
which, if seasonably carted away, tend eminently to fertilize the fields, 
and promote the growth of vegetables; while, at the same time, by. re¬ 
maining, they render the house foul and unhealthy, by the extrication of 
septic vapors. Neatness and elegance are thus found to be as conducive 
to good health as to good husbandry. The effluvia from the neighborhood 
of dirty cottages and mean huts, in the country, are of a like nature with 
pestilential fumes which insinuate themselves into foul and unventilated 
tenements in cities; and the reason is apparent; wherefore, as penury is 
generally associated with ignorance and nastiness, and often with indo¬ 
lence, these distempers rage with such tremendous violence among the 
poor. 
“ When I see & farmer permit such unwholesome substances to collect 
around his habitation, I cannot help reflecting on the danger which awaits 
him. The manure, which ought to have been carried away and spread 
over his lots, serves, as it lays, but to make his family sickly, to disable 
his laborers, and leadhim'to the dubious and expensive routine of physic; 
and, as in common life, as well as in logic, one blunder leads to another, 
the want of crops, and the consequent failure of income, drive him to 
mortgages, judgments and executions, those fatal expedients of law. 
“In like manner, do I regret the indiscretion of tenants contending in 
our cities, which of them shall obtain, at a high rent, a pestilential stand 
for business! With the view of bettering themselves, they venture, at 
all hazards, amidst the poisonous exhalations of the neighborhood. By 
and bye, they are visited by distempers; and as they are honest and sober 
citizens, having no uneasy conscience to reproach them for their sins, 
they piously consider the affliction as a monition from heaven to try their 
virtue. Their sense of constancy and firmness forbids them to fly from 
the scourge of the Lord, and thus they Teligiously stick to the infected 
spot! What is the true interpretation of such conduct, but that both the 
farmer and the trader, obstinately persisting in the means of self-destruc¬ 
tion, are guilty of a sort of suicide?” 
Septic manures, or manures containing animal matter, or nitrogen, the 
doctor intimates, and as has since been fully established, constitute the 
best dressings for wheat, that grain containing nitrogen; indeed this seems 
to be a necessary constituent in the' soil, to produce good wheat. We 
long ago broached the of»nion, that the absence of lime, and the exhaus¬ 
tion of animal matter, in the soils of New-England, and other primitive 
formations, was the cause that good wheat could not be well grown in 
those districts. In their primitive state, a partial accumulation of animal 
matters had taken place in those formations; and the ashes produced by 
the burning of fallows, afforded the requisite quantity of alkali, containing 
nitrogen, to sustain one or more wheat crops upon newly cleared land. 
But those supplies being soon exhausted, good wheat is no longer pro¬ 
duced, except at long intervals, although, with the aid of stable dung, 
great straw may be grown. Hence the deterioration of this grain in all 
the transition formation from Long Island Sound to Canada, through the 
borders of New-York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the west sec¬ 
tion of Vermont., 
“ Cabbages putrifying in a cellar,” says the doctor, “ have been known 
to render a house unhealthy. Corrupted coffee has been charged with 
emitting pestilence enough to desolate a neighborhood. The like may 
happen from rotten flax, hemp, onions, potatoes, and in short, all other 
plants which have derived septon (nitrogen) from the soil in which they 
grew.” , 
great corn crops. 
This volume contains an account of the great corn crops raised about 
45 years ago, by Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, and Mr. Ludlow, of West¬ 
chester, on a bet of 50 guineas. Mr. Stevens produced 118 bushels and 
two quarts on an acre; and Mr. Ludlow 98 bushels and eight quarts — 
Mr. Stevens gave his acre 700 horse cart loads of street manure, planted 
in double rows 5£ feet asunder, and dibbled in his seed, with intervals of 
seven inches, in quincunx form. Mr. Ludlow. dressed with 200 loads of 
street manure. These crops were deemed incredibly large then, but 
they are now frequently equalled in magnitude. These experiments show, 
that Indian corn is not likely to be injured by over-manuring; and should 
convince all slovenlyfarmers, who summer yard, and thereby waste 
half of their manure, that if they would apply it in the spring to their 
corn crop, they might greatly augment the product, and facilitate its ri¬ 
pening. 
ON raising potatoes. 
Our readers have all heard of Webster’s Spelling-Book, and Webster’s 
Dictionary, but very few, we apprehend, have heard of Webster’s rules 
for-raising potatoes. They are, however, found in this volume, in a let¬ 
ter from "Noah Webster to Secretary Mitchell; and as they are sound rules 
we transcribe their pith. 
1. The seed potatoes should be those of full growth. 
2. Cuttings produce more than whole potatoes. 
3. Potatoes will not come to perfection without the sun. Therefore 
nothing is so prejudicial as to plant them too thick, especially on a rich 
soil. 
4. The cuttings, in drills, where the land is light, will answer well at 
nine inches distance. 
on managing calves. 
Lemuel Clift, of Dutchess, gives his mode of managing calves. It con- 
ists in feeding on new milk two weeks, and then feed with flax-seed tea, 
mixed with skimmed milk, in equal portions—a gill of flax-seed boiled in 
two quarts of water, being a mess for 24 hours. 
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 
A great deal maybe saved in a family, and order and comfort promoted, 
by the mistress knowing how things should be done, though she may not 
be required, in all cases, to do them herself. And a vast deal is wasted, 
and many families ultimately reduced to want, for lack of economy in the 
household, and of intelligence and good supervision on the part of the 
mistress. The duty of women is to manage well the affairs of the house¬ 
hold; and to qualify them for the performance of this duty, girls should 
learn what they ought to practise when they become women. Nothing 
is so great an accomplishment in a young married female—nothing of which 
a young husband is so proud—and certainly very few things so conducive 
to the welfare and happiness of the married life—as a familiar acquaintance 
with domestic duties, and a cheerlul willingness to perform them with 
fidelity. Though we do not intend to assume the office of instructor in 
