2 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
follow, upon which is sown wheat or winter barley after four 
ploughings—the subsequent crops receive but two. The practice 
is general to pickle their seed wheat in salt and water, with a pro¬ 
portion of Roman vitriol, to escape all malady in the ensuing - crops. 
Division JYo. 2— Turnip soil —Silex seventy-six; alumine eigh¬ 
teen; carbonate of lime four p oxyde of iron two—denominated a 
good loam. The crops in this district are, wheat upon manured fal¬ 
low, clover top dressed with- ashes, oat-s followed the same season 
with turnips, flax manured with urine—occasionally rye, tobacco, 
beans, hops and rape. The preparation of the soil for flax is scarce¬ 
ly to be surpassed by that of the neatest garden. The ground, af- 
t'er two or three ploughings and lmrrowings, is backed up in the 
centre, so as to leave it without any furrow. A heavy roller- fol¬ 
lows, the liquid manure is then spread equally, the ground again 
harrowed, the seed sown and harrowed in with a light wooden- 
toothed harrow, and the operation completed with the roller. 
Liquid manure, universally used for flax, and often for clo¬ 
ver, &sc., consists of the urine of cattle, in which raie-eake has 
been dissolved, and in which the vidanges conveyed from the pri¬ 
vies of towns and villages, have also been blended. This manure 
is collected in subterraneous vaults of brickwork, at the verge of the 
farm, adjoining the main road, or contiguous to the stables. They 
are generally forty feet long by fourteen wide, arched, with conve¬ 
niences to fill and empty them. This manure is distributed in the 
fields by carts, or tm-neau-s, a large cask carried by two men, by 
means of poles, and scattered over the surface wi h shovels or long 
handled dishes. Two thousand live hundred gallons of thi^liquid 
are applied to an acre of flax. 
Division 3— Rye soil —Silex eighty-four; alumine fourteen ; 
oxyde of ron two ;—somewhat similar to the preceding, but more 
abounding in sand ; the crops much the same. Rape, manured 
with liquid manure, yields forty bushels of seed the acre, which 
sells for $82. The expense of manure, plants and labor about $33 
•—leaving a profit to the cultivator of nearly $50, Rape belongs 
to the cabbage (brassica) family, and is cultivated principally 
for the oil expressed from its seeds. The oil is used m lamps, 
and for various domestic purposes, and the cakes, from which it is 
expressed, areemployed, as already stated, as manure. We do not 
know that this plant has been cultivated in this country, although 
it seems it might be profitably. Should any one ask for informa¬ 
tion, we shall cheerfully hereafter detail the mode of culture, and 
of expressing and purifying the oil. The rents here average about 
$5.30, and the taxes $1.50 per acre. The liquid manure from 
forty-four head of cattle, upon one farm, sufficed to manure in the 
best manner twenty-one acres annually. Our Rev. author dwells 
with great emphasis upon this speeies of manure, and earnestly 
recommends it to the notice of his countrymen. The horses are 
in the finest condition. They perform all the farm labor. They 
are kept in the stable in the summer and winter. Their straw and 
hay is always cut, and their grain always given to them in the form 
of meal, and generally mixed with their drink. Their daily food, 
in winter, is fifteen pounds of hay, ten of straw, and eight of oats ; 
in summer, clover is substituted for hay. In this way every grain 
of corn is converted into nutriment. A farmer will work fifty acres 
with two horses, and maintain them in excellent condition. 
Division 4— Wheat soil —Silex sixty-three and a quarter; alu¬ 
mine thrirty-five ; oxyde of iron three-fourths ; carbonate of lime 
one-half; vegetable fibre one-half—a good sand loam. The crops 
and course here, are: 1. wheat with dung; 2. clover with ashes ; 
3. flax with urine ; 4. wheat with short dung and sweepings ; 5. 
potatoes with farmyard dung or night soil; 6. rye with urine; 7. 
rape seed with urine ; 3. potatoes with dung ; 9. wheat with ma¬ 
nure ; 10. clover with ashes ; 11. oats without manure; 12. flax 
with urine ; 13. wheat with dung; and 14. beans, beets or tobacco, 
with dung or rape-cake. Turnips are also grown, but are taken as 
a second crop, after rape, flax, wheat or rye. 
The Clover crop, is managed most successfully; “indeed, upon 
the cultivation of this plant, hinges apparently, the whole of the 
farmer’s prosperity. It is here, and every wlmre, except when vet¬ 
ches are sown, the summer support of all his stock. Here are 
very few pastures. The clover cut and carried to well littered 
stalls, becomes an abundant source of manure of two descriptions 
—the urine being conducted, by proper channels, to the urine cis¬ 
terns—and thus the cattle are made profitably subservient to the 
production of their own nourishment. Without clover, no man in» 
Flanders would presume to call himself a farmer.”' When seed is 
to be taken,, the first crop is used for soiling, after winch the plants : 
are permitted to mature their seed. The seed is threshed at the- 
barn, and then sent to the mill to be cleaned, for which a time oF 
frost is chosen. They seldom fail to roll their clover, and to ma¬ 
nure it with ashes, at the rale of forty-live bushels to the acre. 
Division JYo. 5 —Potato soil —Silex sixty-five and a half; alu¬ 
mine thirty-two and a half; oxyde of iron two—inferior to the pre¬ 
ceding. The crops flax, rye, potatoes, oats, buckwheat; second¬ 
ary products, rape-seed, turnips, carrots, wheat and clover. In the 
best parts the rotation the same as in the preceding district; in 
the inferior ones rye is substituted for wheat; potatoes made to 
commence, and buckwheat to terminate the rotation. 
Division JYo. C— Rye soil —Silex ninety-one; alumine eight; ox¬ 
yde of iron one—rich sandy loam. Chief products, wheat, rye, rape- 
seed, flax, oats, potatoes and buckwheat; secondary produce, tur¬ 
nips, clover and carrots. The rotation very similar to No. 2. Car¬ 
rots are sown with oats, flax or rye. Where intended to be raised 
as a first crop, the ground is ploughed after harvest, which buries 
the stubble. It then lies till spring, when it is ploughed eleven ov 
twelve inches deep, and about twenty tons of manure spread on the 
acre. The seed is sown broadcast, at the rate of three pounds per 
arce, and covered with a harro *•, in the month of April. The pro¬ 
duce is about, one hundred and sixty bushels to the aere. About 
twenty-five pounds of carrots are given to a horse with oats, in 
twenty-four hours, in place of hay. 
Average seed in divisions, 2, 3* 4, 5 and 6—wheat two bushels 
to the acre ; rye one and one-fifth bushels ; oats two and a half bu¬ 
shels; flax two bushels;, rape one quart; potatoes fourteen and a 
half bushels. Average produce —Wheat twenty-three bushels the 
acre; rye twenty-eight bushels ; oats fifty-two bushels ; flax seed- 
six and a half; rape thirty-two bushels; potatoes three hundred* 
bushels; carrots one hundred and sixty-two bushels. Rent $4 to 
$5-75 per acre; land tax one-fifth of the rent ; price of land $100 
to $140 per acre ; farms from seven to one hundred and seventy- 
five acres; hbor eleven cents per day with board. 
THE SILK BUSINESS. 
We have promised to give directions for the culture of the mul¬ 
berry, and the management of the silk-worm—and we shall now 
proceed to redeem our promise. In the meantime we will recom¬ 
mend, that every person who designs seriously to enter into the 
business, should either purchase one of the half dollar publications 
which have recently come fiom the press, or subscribe for one of 
the dollar periodicals, which are specially devoted to this business. 
Either of these will afford all the instructions, in a compact and 
handy form, necessary for the perfect management of the business. 
We shall be obliged to be somewhat brief; for were we to publish 
all that is written upon, this subject, it would engross our whole 
paper. 
We wilT remark in the outset, that we do not doubt but the silk 
business will succeed in our country, and that it will ultimately be¬ 
come a matter of great national concern. Yet we believe that 
many who embark in it will fail to realize their golden dreams; and 
'hat when the fever has passed its crisis, it will be found to depend 
for success, like every other money making undertaking, upon the 
knowledge, prudence and economy with which it is managed. We 
are an enthusiastic, and often an inconsiderate and fickle people. 
When the fever of public feeling is excited upon any great subject, 
be it turnpikes, banks, canals, rail-roads, or the culture of silk, we 
are apt, for want of prudence and forethought, to permit it to as¬ 
sume a dangerous type, that baffles the counsels of reason, and 
some times terminate! in extreme lassitude and prostration of 
strength. Local rivalship and private interest, the spirit of specu¬ 
lation, and the aggrandizement of party, are so profusely employed 
to stimulate the patient, and to deaden him to a sense of danger, 
that it is a long time, after they cease to operate, before he is re¬ 
stored to a sane state of mind, and a sound healthy condition of 
body. And though he does apparently recover from the shock, we 
have serious fears, that these repeated attacks are imperceptibly 
undermining his constitulion. We have seen the turnpike bubble 
burst.—Few ef these roads are at this day productive—many have 
been abandoned—much money has been expended upon them—and 
