138 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
good ploughing is better than two bad ones. Hence the fanner is 
soon compensated for the additional cost of the good article. The 
same remark holds good in regard to other implements and tools of 
the farm. In row culture, the cultivator will pay for itself in a sea¬ 
son, in the economy of labor; the straw cutter will do the like in 
economizing fodder, and the drill barrow is a subject of equal eco¬ 
nomy in root culture. 
9. We hardly need admonish the reader to use none but clean 
good seed; for every man knows that he will reap only what he 
bows —the cheat controversy to the contrary notwithstanding. 
10. And lastly, we should disregard our duty, did we not press up¬ 
on the consideration of every farmer the importance of agricultural 
publications, as the cheapest and most certain means of improving 
in the practice and profits of his business. These bring to Ins no¬ 
tice constantly the improvements and discoveries that are going 
on in the business of agriculture, and they detail the prac¬ 
tice of the best farmers of our country. He that does not keep 
pace with the improvements of the day, in husbandry, as in other 
arts, cannot long find pleasure or profit in his employment. Those 
who stand still and content themselves with the practice of their 
fathers, will soon find that the business, active world, have all gone 
ahead of them. But we urge this matter particularly as an efficient 
means of instructing and qualifying the young for the duties of ma¬ 
ture years—of stimulating them to acquire useful knowledge, and 
that confidence and self-respect which should ever characterize the 
yeomanry of a free country. The seed must be sown, and the 
mind be nurtured in the youth, if we would expect a harvest of re¬ 
spectability and usefulness in the man. 
PENNSYLVANIA HUSBANDRY. 
Earthing Potatoes —A very intelligent farmer from the valley of 
the Susquehannah, Union county, Pa. has stated to us verbally, 
some of the agricultural practices which prevail in his neighbor¬ 
hood, and which he is confident may be adopted with profit by oth¬ 
ers. One of these is raising potatoes without earthing. For this 
crop a young clover ley is preferred. The manure is drawn 
out and spread as the ground is ploughed, the potatoe sets 
are dropped in every third furrow, and of course covered 
with the next furrow slice. The ground is afterwards har¬ 
rowed, and the crop kept free from weeds, by the harrow or 
cultivator, and hoe, hut the plants are not earthed. The plough is 
only used in gathering the crop. Another mode is to draw shallow 
furrows, at the distance intended for drills, drop the seed, and cover 
by gathering two furrows upon the seed. The intermediate spaces 
are ploughed when the crop is first dressed, and turned in equal 
parts towards the two adjoining drills. The soil a sandy loam. 
We have practised the first mode, except that our crop was earth¬ 
ed with a plough ; and we are persuaded, that had we left a plane 
surface, the crop would have been benefitted—for three reasons, 
first, because by earthing with the plough the seed was too deep, 10 
or 12 inches, and could not receive the genial influence of heat and 
air; second, because the crop suffered more from drought in conse¬ 
quence of the sharp ridges into which the surface had been mould¬ 
ed, than it would if the surface had been left flat; and third, be¬ 
cause the plough, by throwing a portion of the manure and sod to 
the surface, diminished the fertility of the ground. Our ground was 
partly in a moist swale, and partly on a sandy knoll. The crop in 
the swale gave at the rate of more than 600 bushels to the acre 
product; while that on the knoll, a severe drought having interven¬ 
ed, gave less than 300 bushels. The whole was highly manured.— 
From this experiment we infer, that in damp and stiff soils, it will 
be best to deposite the seed near the surface, and to earth the plants 
with the plough; and that where the soil is light and dry, the seed 
should be planted deeper, and the plants not earthed. By earthing 
the plants, it will be perceived, that double the surface is exposed to 
the drying influence of the sun, that there is where the ground is 
left flat. Ridges correct the defects of a wet soil, and they increase 
the evils of drought on a dry one. _ 
Clover —The practice, says our informant, is to mow clover only 
one year, as cattle food, and then to turn it under as food for the 
crop_ thus ensuring the return to the soil of a mass of rich vege 
table matter. Clover is a biennial plant, and of course cannot be 
depended upon as a green crop after the second year ; and as this 
there constitutes the main dependance for winter forage, the timo¬ 
thy not being grown, it cannot be depended on, after the second 
year, far hay. Hence clover is not only sown with small grains, but 
in the Indian corn grounds, at the last dressing of the crop—the 
corn not being hilled. The latter practice is found highly advanta¬ 
geous, and is being extended. 
We can add our own experience in favor of sowing clover with 
small grains. It is our general practice ; and w T e find we are doubly 
' paid in the autumn feed, and quadruply paid in the feed and the ma¬ 
nure which the green crop returns to the soil. The clover not only 
imparts fertility, when turned under, but its roots divide and break 
the soil while growing, and render it pulverous as they decay. In 
sowing clover designed for a green crop, and indeed in all cases 
where it is to constitute the only herbage, at least ten pounds of 
seed should be used on the acre. The thicker the plants the finer 
and better the herbage; the more abundant the roots, the greater 
benefit to the soil, both as it regards pulverization and fertility._ 
With regard to the utility of seeding corn fields, the only doubt we 
have, is, whether the clover would acquire sufficient strength to 
withstand our northern winters. As it would be sown in July,"about 
the time we put in our ruta baga, we are inclined to think it would 
acquire sufficient maturity. While on the subject of clover, we will 
state our belief, resulting from experience, that it may be profitably 
grown on stiff soils and marsh land, providing they have been suffi¬ 
ciently underdrained—the only impediment to its growth on such 
| soils being water upon the soil or sub-soil, within the reach of the 
I roots. 
Sheep in Corn —Our informant states it to be a good practice to 
turn sheep into the com fields, after the last hoeing in July. They 
will not eat or injure the corn, but will eat the grass which springs 
up. The corn affords the shelter which those animals require, and 
serves to protect them from the fly, which is vexatious, and often se¬ 
riously prejudicial to them, during the hot weather of August. But 
for the high respectability of our informant, we should be disposed 
to doubt the utility of this practice. 
Liming —The use of lime for agricultural purposes in the valley 
of the Susquehannah, between the Blue Ridge and the Allegany, 
■ where our informant resides, is of recent introduction, but it is 
found highly efficacious, and is increasing. The common applica¬ 
tion on the alluvial flats is fifty bushels the acre. As lime-stone 
l abounds in the neighborhood, it is sold at the kilns at ten cents the 
bushel. It is burnt with anthracite coal, which is there bought at 
two dollars the ton. The process of burning is cheap and simple. 
A hole is excavated in the side of a hill, in the shape of an inverted 
cone, with an open passage from the base of the pit to the base of 
the hill, by which to ignite the coal when the kiln is filled. The pit 
is then filled with broken lime stone, and broken anthracite, inter¬ 
mixed ; the top is well covered with sods and earth, and fire com¬ 
municated below. No attendance upon the kiln is required, and in 
about eight days the lime may be drawn for use. 
Ascending the valley of the Susquehannah, and above the Alle¬ 
gany range, we meet with no lime-stone till we pass some distance 
into the state of New-York. Hence this material, as soon as the 
facilities of water communication, which are begun, shall be com¬ 
pleted, must form a prominent article of export from our state into 
the upper valley of the Susquehannah. The application of lime to 
the red sand stone formation is found to be particularly serviceable. 
As this formation extends, with partial exceptions, from the Con¬ 
necticut river to North Carolina, the publication of this fact may ex¬ 
cite new attention to the subject. If our recollection serves us, 
this formation shows itself, according to Prof. M’Clure’s geological 
map, twenty or thirty miles on Connecticut river, is seen to under¬ 
lay the Pallisado rocks upon the west bank of the Hudson, emerges 
to the surface near New Brunswick, and occupies a district twenty 
to thirty miles broad, through West New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vir¬ 
ginia, &c. 
“ THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE COMMUNITY IS THE GOOD OF EVERY 
INDIVIDUAL.” 
There is scarcely a principle so important to be inculcated, as the 
one we here quote. The well-being of a state, or of a community, 
does not so much depend upon its aggregate wealth, as upon the fair 
distribution of this wealth among the different classes and individu¬ 
als who make up its population—not so much upon the learning and 
wisdom of a few, as upon the intelligence and good habits of the 
mass. He who seeks, therefore, to instruct the public mind in use¬ 
ful knowledge, to inculcate moral and industrious habits, and to pro¬ 
mote the good of others,—iulfils one of the first duties of life, and 
pursues the course best adapted to promote his individual good.— 
