28 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
GRAPE DIET. 
The physicians of Geneva send some of their patients to the Pays 
de Vaud, during vintage, to take what is called a regular course ol 
grapes—that is, to subsist three weeks entirely on this fruit, with¬ 
out taking any other food or drink. In a few days a grape diet be¬ 
comes agreeable, and weak persons, and also the insane, have 
found great relief from subsisting on it for three or four weeks— 
BakewelCs Travels, v. 11, p. 206. We can add our own authori¬ 
ty in confirmation of the utility of a grape diet. We have twice 
made grapes our almost entire food, from ten to fourteen days each 
time, when confined with a bilious fever. We ate them without 
stint—they were at no time ungrateful to the stomach, and we are 
satisfied they did us much good. Reader, have you planted a grape 
vine? If not, do it the coming month. 
TO PROMOTE THE PUBERTY OP THE APPLE AND PEAR. 
John Williams planted seed in pots, in November, 1809, trans¬ 
planted after midsummer in the following year, into the open 
ground—transplanted again in the autumn of 1811, six feet apart— 
pruned away every winter the trifling lateral shoots, leaving the 
larger laterals at their full length to the bottom of the plants, and 
gave a good exposure to the sun. At the height of six feet the 
branches ceased to produce thorns. One yielded fruit at four years 
old, and several at five and six years.— Rep. of Arts, 1819, p. 175. 
Repeated transplanting retards the growth of wood, and induces 
premature maturity in the plant—it converts, for want of abundant 
nourishment, wood buds into fruit buds. It is calculated to pro¬ 
duce early bearing, but not to produce stately long lived trees.— 
Precocity in vegetables, as in animals, is rather indicative of short 
life. Frequent transplanting is often resorted to by the florist, 
in order to induce plants to produce double flowers, or to produce 
an abundance of flowers, and it is found highly efficacious in the 
balsam,coxcomb,&tc. It deranges the natural organization of plants, 
and produces monsters, a term applied by botanists to double flow¬ 
ers. It is by a process like the one pursued by Williams, that 
Knight so early obtains fruit from seeds, the blossoms of which he 
fecundates artificially, and it is to this that we are probably indebt¬ 
ed for many of the fine fruits that enrich our tables, and for many 
of the gay flowers that embellish our gardens. 
THE EARTHS NOT FOOD FOR FRANTS. 
Giobert mixed together lime, clay, sand and magnesia, the true 
earths, in such proportions as are generally to be met with in fer¬ 
tile soils, and moistened them with water. Several different grains 
were then thrown into this artificial soil, which germinated indeed, 
but did not thrive, and perished when the nourishment of the coty¬ 
ledons—the lobes of the seeds—was exhausted.— See Enc. of Card, 
p. £01. Hence it is neither earths, nor water, nor air, nor all com¬ 
bined, which aft'ord the true food of plants—though all are essen¬ 
tial agents in preparing and elaborating this food. It is vegetable 
and animal matters— dung —filthy dung—that feeds and fattens the 
plants that administer to the wants and comforts of man and beast. 
A GOOD SOIL, 
According to Bergman, contains four parts of clay, three of sand, 
two of calcareous earth, and one of magnesia, and quantum svjjicit 
of vegetable matter. In 400 grains of good soil, Fourcroy found 
52 of water, sand 240, vegetable fibre 5, vegetable extract 3, clay 
48, magnesia 2, oxide of iron 14, calcareous earth 30; loss 6.— Lou¬ 
don, p. 200. The ability, in the farmer, to analyse his soils, would 
not only serve to discover their defects, but would enable him often 
to correct them, at little cost, and to apply to them, with more cer 
tainty, the crops to which they are most suitably adapted. 
TIMBER. 
The best timber is that which is seasoned before it is cut down. 
If a tree be barked the year before it is cut down, the sap is expell¬ 
ed, and the alburnum is converted into wood in the course of the 
year.— Enc. of Gard. p. 174. 
URINE 
Is a highly fertilizing material. It may be used in the winter, 
says Gorrie, (Col. Hart. Soc. 11, 290,) on the currant and goose¬ 
berry—in summer upon all vegetables, diluted with two parts 
of water. In China it is solicited on the way side, of travellers, to 
enrich the soil. 
The Aphis. —There are many species of this insect, which infest 
various plants, one of which is well known as the cabluge louse, 
and is found upon this vegetable. Hayward describes that which 
preys upon the peach. The eggs are deposited in autumn, on the 
embryo bud, and are hatched with the first start of vegetation in 
spring ; and they multiply so fast, that in a few days there are se¬ 
veral generations of them, which become destructive to the young 
fruit and tree. The only successful application was found to be 
snuff, repeatedly applied with a barber's puff. It has been ascer¬ 
tained by the experiments of M. Bonnet and other naturalists, that 
males of the aphides are produced only every tenth generation,and 
then but few in number ; and that one copulation serves for ten ge¬ 
nerations.— See Rep . of Arts, 1829, p. 357. We have found the 
calix of the peach blossom, the green leaves which envelope the 
base of the petals, filled literally with the aphis. 
IMPORTANCE OF SALT TO CATTLE AND SHEEP. 
Salt, as a condiment, is as grateful and as beneficial to domestic 
animals as it is to man. It serves the same purposes to both. We 
can readily determine, that it promotes our health and comfort best 
when taken with our daily food. Then why not equally so to the 
cattle of our farms? It may be apprehended, that if permitted, 
the latter will take it in excess. This is not so. If they have con¬ 
stant access to salt, domestic animals will take no more than is re¬ 
quired by their natural wants. But if given to them only at long 
intervals, they will then, if opportunity presents, indulge in it to 
excess. We have had salt troughs under the sheds in our yards for 
a dozen years, in which salt has been constantly kept, and to which 
our cattle have had daily access; and they have not only not taken 
it in excess, but they have been wholly exempt from disease; and 
although they have been fed three months in a year withruta baga, 
and pastured often in fresh rank clover, they have in no case been 
hoven, nor has their milk or butter been tainted with the flavor of 
the turnip. 
Some years ago, the duty upon salt in Great Britain, was so high 
as almost to preclude its use for farm stock. Petitions were sent 
to parliament, for a repeal of these duties, so far as they affected 
agriculture. The committee to whom the subject was referred, 
called before them many eminent farmers and others, to testify as 
to matters involved in the inquiry. The evidence w'as voluminous 
and conclusive, not only that the duty amounted almost to a prohi¬ 
bition of its use for catt le, and for the poor, but that where this pri¬ 
vation had been felt, diseases had multiplied, to man and beast, 
to an alarming extent. We refer to the London Repertory of 
Arts, vols. 34 and 35 for particulars. In the mean time we give 
an abstract of the evidence of two of the witnesses, so far as re¬ 
gards the benefits of the daily use of salt to animals, well known 
as men of distinguished eminence, and of extensive practical agri¬ 
cultural knowledge. 
J. C. Curwin, M. P. states, among other advantages of giving 
salt to his animals, daily, that it removed the unpleasant flavor from 
the milk of cows fed with turnips; that it greatly lessened inflam¬ 
matory diseases—promoted digestion—increased the quantity of 
milk, and disposed the animal to fatten. That it improved the ge¬ 
neral health and spirits of horses, rendered the gloss of their coats 
remarkably fine, and, given at the rate of 8 to 12 ounces per day, 
rendered fit for service some which had become disabled by a dis¬ 
order called the grease. That given to sheep, in the quantity of 
two ounces per day, it preserves their health, renders them sound, 
and sensibly improves their condition. 
Lord Somerville, considers salt all important to sheep. With¬ 
out it, even on dry soils, his flock became sickly, and he lost many. 
Giving it twice a week, they were healthy. Salt preserves hay, 
and restores it when damaged. In the humid climate of Great Bri¬ 
tain, his lordship feeds a ton of salt to every thousand sheep annu¬ 
ally. It is particularly serviceable with green food, clover and tur¬ 
nips, and prevents and cures the lioven, which is pent-vp wind, oc¬ 
casioned by excess of fermentation in the stomach. In a wet sea¬ 
son he did not lose a sheep, although fed with turnips, and he con- 
siderd salt as a specific against disease. He generally gives it with 
hay, about twenty-five pounds being sifted on to every ton. 
These facts are of high authority, and of deep interest to the 
cattle and sheep farmer, and of general application. The low price 
of salt among us will enable every farmer to profit by them. 
