192 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Barley is extensively used in the south of Europe, in Asia Minor 
and in Persia, for feeding horses, for the reason, probably, that oats, 
being indigenous to colder climates, do not grow well in these coun¬ 
tries. In the first of these countries it is uniformly led with straw. 
Six bushels have been found, on trial, to be equal to eight bushels of 
oats. Barley contains 20 per cent more starch than oats, 5 per 
cent more saccharine matter, and 27 per cent less husk. 
British writers have furnished us with estimates of the annual ex¬ 
pense of keeping farm horses. One of these before us gives the 
aggregate expense of a two horse team and driver at about £90 
($400.) This includes the interest on the cost of the team and im¬ 
plements, (£270) and 10 per cent for repairs and deterioration.— 
We state this fact for the purpose of calling the readers attention to 
it. It imports, that allowing for the days when the team cannot 
labor, and assuming 260 working days in a year, that a team and 
driver should earn more than $1.50 a day, for 260 days in a year, to 
pay cost; and that all they fall short in doing this, is absolute loss 
to the owner. The keep, in Britain, is probably higher, however, 
than it is with us. Yet we are persuaded that few among us duly 
reflect upon the cost of maintaining a horse team in a plight requi¬ 
site for doing good service. In Britain a team ot good horses is 
considered adequate to the cultivation of 40 to 60 acres in tillage 
crops.” 
FARM ACCOUNTS. 
Few points are more essential to success in any business than 
well kept accounts ; and these are as essential in farming as in other 
operations. They are necessary in order to ascertain the relative 
profits of the several crops we cultivate, and the adaptation of our 
farms to particular branches of husbandry. Without these, although 
the amount of profit or loss may be guessed at the end of the year, by 
the balance in hand, yet no comparative judgment can be formed of 
the value of different modes of culture, or of different kinds of stock, 
and though we sometimes hit right, we often hit wrong. We intend to 
publish ere long, a somewhat detailed account of the systems pursu¬ 
ed by Gen. Beatson and Mr. Gregg, upon two farms of stiff clay, in 
England. By keeping accurate accounts, and varying their sys¬ 
tems as economy and good judgment dictated, Mr. Gregg in a few 
years, enhanced the profits of a 240 acre farm more than £600, or 
about $2500 per annum. When Gen. B. took the management of 
his farm, the expense per acre of cultivating grain, under the old 
system of summer fallowing, including manure, rent and taxes, was 
£16.4s. per annum. In a few years he reduced this expense, by eco¬ 
nomical changes in his system of culture, without diminution of crop, 
to about £5 per acre, or a third of the former expense. 
The son of a farmer, arrived at years of discretion, might, with a 
little instruction, be enabled to keep a journal, which would tend 
very much to benefit him, as well as to improve the profits of the 
farm. A preliminary step is to make a schedule of the stock and 
implements upon the farm, and to designate the different enclosures, 
as A. B. C. &c., with their contents in acres. Let him note down 
daily, the expenditures in labor, money, &c., for each field, the in¬ 
crease or diminution of stock, the products of each field, and its 
value for market or home consumption. This journal may be post¬ 
ed into a ledger, where each field may be charged with the expendi¬ 
tures made upon it, and credited the value of the products. Deduct 
the lesser from the greater sum, and the balance is the profit or loss. 
Continue the account with this field through a course of crops, and 
from the general result, you will be able to judge of the crops and 
courses best adapted to the soil and the market, with a degree of 
certainty, and of the stock most profitable to be kept upon the farm. 
NOTES FROM MY MEMORANDUM BOOK. 
The turnip .—The napus (turnip) says Pliny, “requires a dry 
soil; it delights in cold, which makes it both sweeter and larger, 
while by heat it grows to leaves.” Pliny wrote for Italy, whose 
climate resembles that of the southern states; and hence his re¬ 
marks are particularly applicable there. The turnip thrives best, 
and is sweetest north of lat. 40. But even here it requires a dry 
soil, but one that is sandy and warm is preferable to a cold one.— 
The earlier common turnips are sown, after midsummer, the larger 
they grow ; the later, if before the middle of August, the fairer, the 
sweeter, and the better for table. A large top indicates a small or 
defective bottom. 
Gypsum. —Grisenwaithe, in his new theory of agriculture, states, 
that as in the principal grain crops which interest the agriculturist, 
there exists a particular saline substance, peculiar to each, so, if we 
turn our attention to clover and turnips, we shall find the same dis¬ 
crimination. Sanfoin, lucern and clover have long been known to 
contain a notable quantity of gypsum. Clovers and lucern have 
their growth very much accelerated by the application of gypsum, 
though many other plants are not at all benefitted by its action. A 
series of accurate experiments can only enable us to decide, with 
precision, the plants and the soils to which the application of gyp¬ 
sum is beneficial. 
Snoiv, 6pc. —The overcharge of the atmosphere, with moisture in 
frosty weather, when falling from a great height, forms snow in 
large flakes ; and from that height which in warmer weather produces 
drizzling rains, it becomes sleet; but when only floating over the 
surface, the watery particles, too small to be visible, collect upon the 
ground and leaves of vegetables, and form hoar frost_ Dr. White in 
Georgical essays. 
Mosses, lichens and insects, which are prejudicial to fruit trees, 
may be destroyed by a simple solution of quick-lime, any time be¬ 
tween the fall and opening of the leaf, applied with a watering pot 
or gardener’s syringe. It does its office, and withal promotes the 
growth of the tree.— T. Bishop, in Cal. Hort. TV. 
Urine constitutes a rich manure. It may be used in winter on 
the currant and goosebery—in summer upon all vegetables, diluted 
with double its quantity of water.— A Gorrie in do. 
Sap of plants. —Knight teaches, that the sap of plants ascends 
through the whitewood, and descends down the bark, depositing the 
matter of the new wood in its descent, but without becoming chan¬ 
ged into it. That the matter absorbed from the soil and the air, is 
converted into the true sap or blood of the plant wholly in the leaves, 
from which it is discharged into the bark; and that such portions of 
j it as are not expended in the generation of new wood and bark, 
join, during the spring and autumn, the ascending current in the 
! wood, into which it passes by the medullary processes. As the au¬ 
tumn approaches, however, and the ascending sap is no longer ex¬ 
pended in generating new leaves and blossoms, or young shoots, 
that fluid concentrates in a concrete state in the sap wood of 
the tree, as in the tuber of the potatoe, and the bulb of the tulip, 
and joints of the grasses, whence it is washed out in the spring, to 
form a new layer of bark and wood, to form leaves, and feed the blos¬ 
soms and fruit.— Cal. Hort. Soc.. Mem. vol. 11,p. 258. 
To slop the bleeding of vines, Mr. Knight takes four parts of scrap¬ 
ed cheese, and one of calcined oyster shells, or chalk burnt to lime. 
This is to be pressed into the pores of the wood. In this way the 
longest branch may be taken off' at any season with safety.— lb. 261. 
Melons. —Mr. Knight says the green fleshed and Salonica, or 
white fleshed, are alone worth cultivating— lb. 163. 
The grasses. —Their relative nutricious properties are indicated by 
the joints they contain—these abounding in concrete sap. Thus the 
florin, which contains many joints, is highly nutricious, and almost 
as much so if gathered in winter as if gathered in summer. 
Transpiration oj vegetables is greatest in spring and autumn, 
when the temperature is variable—( Knight) and is greater or less, 
according to the texture of the leaves, the soft and spongy display¬ 
ing far the greatest powers, with regard to the elevation of the sap 
—the apple, peach, quince, walnut, &c. raising the mercury from 3 
to 6 inches—the elm, oak, chesnut, &c. having glasy leaves, from 
one to two inches, and the evergreens scarcely affecting it.— Davy’s 
Ag. p. 214. 
In grasses, as well as in perennial trees, and shrubs, there is more 
soluble matter in winter than in summer, and its specific gravity is 
heavier than in summer, in consequence of the nutritive matter 
which nature lays up for the wants of the plant in spring.— Davy, 
223. 
FLAX CULTURE. 
In a summer tour through West New-York, we saw large and nu¬ 
merous fields of flax in Seneca and Tompkins, cultivated merely for 
the seed, the fibre of the flax being not deemed worth getting out for 
market. We confess this struck us with astonishment, after hav¬ 
ing published, in our April No. of this crop producing, in Jefferson, 
more than a ton of dressed flax the acre, and knowing it to be worth, 
to the manufacturer, from 180 to $220 per ton, at the manufactory. 
Mr. J. O. Dey, of this city, has purchased several tons, for a manufac¬ 
turer, of water rotted hemp, at 11 cents per lb. which is $220 per 
ton. We have been advised, that this indifference to the flax crop, 
or rather to the flax, arises from a want of knowledge of the process 
