12 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
with an exceedingly pungent smell, extinguishes flame, 
and is fatal to life. Its old name was “ spirits of hearts- 
horn.” To the agriculturist, ammonia is particularly 
interesting from the fact that those substances that con¬ 
tain the most of it, are the most efficient manures, and 
act with the most certainty and promptness. Ammo¬ 
nia is produced from soft or fluid animal substances 
while in the process of decomposition, and this change 
is rapid in proportion to the quantity of earthy salts 
they contain. It is particularly to the developments of 
ammonial gas,” says Chaptal, “which, combined with 
gelatine, passes into plants, that we can attribute the 
wonderful effect produced upon vegetation by certain 
animal substances.” These substances are the animal 
manures, the urine, poudretie, the bones, horns, hair, 
&c. The urine of the animal contains in muriates and 
carbonate of ammonia about 20 per cent, besides 11 per 
cent of phosphate of lime and sulphate of potash or 
30 per cent of the most active manure yet discovered; 
and the saving and proper distribution of it forms an 
important item in Flemish husbandry. The larvae left 
after the cocoons are reeled in the extensive silk manu¬ 
factories of France and Italy, are considered invaluable 
as a manure. Their excellence is owing to the ammo¬ 
nia they contain, which in them Chaptal found to ex¬ 
ceed in quantity that of any other animal substance. 
35ptractfi from mtr Comfjjiontfence, 
ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES, &C. 
Mangement of Hogs. 
Mr. James T. Warder, of Clark Co., Ohio, who has 
asked our opinion on the system of feeding hogs propo¬ 
sed by him, is answered, that, setting aside the contin¬ 
gency of a failure of the crops, (beets and potatoes,) on 
which he principally relies for feeding, he will probably 
succeed. He will doubtless find, however, that it will 
be necessary to make the most of his ten acres of roots, 
and his ten acres of corn, to bring his 200 hogs up to 
250 or 300 lbs. Ten acres of clover, of the second year, 
will give abundant room and pasture for ten swinish 
“ mothers and their progeny,” if they are allowed besides 
“ slops, boiled vegetables, bran, and milk from the dai¬ 
ry.” Mr. Warder will find it necessary, however, to 
take effectual measures against the rooting of his swine, 
as, unless this is done, his fine clover fields would become 
a waste,—our experience showing that there are few 
things of which swine are more fond than the roots of 
clover. The facility with which corn and roots can be 
grown on the rich prairies of the west, gives the farmers 
of that part of the United States advantages for the ma¬ 
king of pork possessed by no other, and which has thus 
far proved one of the lucrative branches of productive 
industry west of the mountains. 
Night Soil. 
Mr. Robinson, of Baldwinsville, inquires “ by what 
process night soil can be converted into an inodorous 
manure in a short time, so that any cultivator may be 
able at once to remove a nuisance, and obtain a valuable 
manure.” We are unable to inform Mr. Robinson of 
the processes adopted where the preparation of pou- 
drette is carried on extensively and in the most appro¬ 
ved manner; but it is said in the 1st vol. British Hus¬ 
bandry, that “ All unpleasantness of odor may be pre¬ 
vented by the mere use of ashes; and were those thrown 
upon the night soil, or into privies that have no commu¬ 
nication with sewers, the ashes made in every dwelling 
house would so completely absorb the fluid parts, that 
a solid heap of manure would be produced, which might 
afterwards be removed without difficulty or offensive¬ 
ness.” This is the method practiced extensively in some 
parts of England, and on the continent. Lime is, how¬ 
ever, much better than ashes, and this is the disinfect¬ 
ing agent wherever poudrette is produced. In Rigby’s 
Agricultural Reports, the following is recommended as 
the best method of preparing and using night soil:— 
“ Spread it on a spot of clean grass ; let it be well har¬ 
rowed on a clear drying day; then put it under cover, and 
.add a chaldron of lime to four loads of the soil in that 
state, and it will become dry, and can be reduced to an 
inodorous powder.” All that seems to be required, is to 
mingle with the drained material something that will 
dry and render the mass friable and pulverulent. Lime 
is the most efficient agent for this purpose, and that which 
is slaked, is stated in Pilkington’s Transactions to be pre¬ 
ferable, for this purpose, to that which is caustic. 
Planting Apple, Plum and Peach Seeds. 
“ Messrs. Editors —Will you please to say what is 
the best time for sowing apple, plum and peach seeds, 
for raising stocks to graft upon; and if the spring is the 
best season, then in what way should the seeds of each 
be kept over the winter ?” R. D., Lancaster Co., Pa. 
With the apple it usually makes but little difference 
whether the seeds are sown in the spring or fall, they 
being very certain to vegetate, whether placed in the 
earth in the spring or fall. The manner in which they 
spring up in apple pomace is proof of this ; but if put 
into the earth in the fall, they sometimes suffer from 
mice, an evil avoided by spring planting. Nature, how¬ 
ever, points out fall planting. 
Fall planting is doubtless the best for plum and peach 
stones, and we have rarely found any difficulty in their 
vegetating, when planted in light garden or good mould, 
and slightly covered with such earth through the winter. 
The following, from a letter of D. Chipman, of Ripton, 
Yt., will show the result of an experiment made by him, 
from which useful hints may be taken. “ I took a quan¬ 
tity of peach, cherry and plum stones, with a number of 
butternuts and walnuts, or in the language of the south 
and west, hickory nuts and white walnuts, wrapped them 
in a cloth, that I might more conveniently take them out 
of the ground in the spring, and buried them in a loose 
muck, under a fence, where they were covered with a 
snow drift during the winter. When I took them out in 
the spring, the sprouts had perforated the cloth in all 
directions. When I opened the cloth I found the stones, 
as well as the walnuts and butternuts, all opened, and 
t e young plants disengaged from them, which I placed 
in the ground, and they all grew.” Whether planted in 
this way, or without a covering, we have experienced 
no difficulty when the stones of these trees were planted 
in the earth, and exposed to the softening and prepara¬ 
tory influences of the winter. 
Improved Berkshire and China Pigs. 
Our respected correspondent, to whom we are in¬ 
debted for the excellent “Chapter on Swine,” in this 
paper, informs us that he will have for sale by the 
first of May next, a considerable number of pure blood¬ 
ed improved Berkshire and China Pigs, which he be¬ 
lieves will be inferior to no other stock in the United 
States or England. The price per pair, caged and de¬ 
livered on board steam boat at Buffalo, at eight weeks 
old, will be for Berkshires $20; Chinese $15; Tusca- 
roras $15. He also expects to have a few Black Siamese 
Pigs in September next, which will be sold at $20 per 
pair. Address A. B. Allen, Esq., Buffalo, Erie Co., 
N. Y. — 
The Rohan Potatoe. 
Of this potatoe there seems to be no difference of 
opinion. All agree that it is no humbug. Mr. James J. 
Jackson, of Wellsboro’ (Pa.) after expressing in strong 
terms his condemnation of the Chinese Corn Humbug, 
says, that from one potatoe weighing 10 oz.. with 53 
eyes, he raised the last season, 134 lbs. measuring two 
bushels, being an increase of 214 fold in weight. The 
potatoe was cut into 53 pieces, and two pieies planted 
in a hill, in sandy loam, manured in the hill, on the 17th 
of May; twice plowed and hoed. Mr. J. will see that 
we have adopted his suggestion in relation to a table of 
contents. 
Mr. Levi Robbins, of Copenhagen, (N. Y.) says— 
“ In the spring of 1838, I planted 6 lbs. 12 oz. of Rohan 
potatoes; in the spring of 1839 I let two of my neigh¬ 
bors have 6 lbs. 12 oz, each, and several others I let 
have one potatoe each. The remainder of the pro¬ 
duct of 6 lbs. 12 oz. I planted; part of them as early 
as the ground would answer, and the other part about 
the middle of May ; and one moderate sized potatoe on 
the sixth day of June. Part of the crop was injured 
by frost in June, and also by the grub worm; but not¬ 
withstanding these disadvantages, I had 700 bushels. 
From one potatoe I had nine bushels and half. From 
the potatoe planted on the 6th of June, I had three 
bushels. In another experiment from half an ounce of 
seed I had 30 lbs. Sixty of the large sized tubers fill a 
common sized salt barrel, and sixteen of the very larg¬ 
est will fill a bushel basket. I think they are a rich and 
valuable potatoe for the table and for feeding.” 
Mr. George C. Gillett,of Clarkson, (N. Y.) says—“I 
bought three and a half small Rohan potatoes for two 
shillings, which together weighed 13 ounces. I planted 
them in 21 hills, putting two eyes in a hill. The tops 
grew very large, and were still green when the frost in 
September killed them. I dug them soon after, and 
they measured three bushels and a peck; the largest ones 
weighing two pounds and six ounces.” 
Culture of Carrots. 
Mr. Gillett also informs us that on the 10th of June, 
he sowed about 11 rods of ground to carrots, which was 
all he had seed to sow. The ground a sandy loam— 
the year before in potatoes, with manure. The ground 
was raked over with a garden rake ; then marked out 
in drills 16 inches apart, and the seed planted and co¬ 
vered by hand. Owing to the seed being poor, and the 
cold weather which followed, nearly a third part of the 
ground was almost naked. They were hoed twice, and 
were harvested about the middle of October, and the 
product was 37 bushels. He thinks that if it had been 
sowed early and the ground well supplied with plants, 
it would have produced nearly double the quantity. 
To make Leather Water Proof. 
A correspondent at Northampton, furnishes us with 
the following recipe, published in the London Mecha¬ 
nics’ Magazine, by Col. Macerone, for making a com¬ 
position, which it is said will render boots and shoes 
Avater-proof:—“Melt a pound of tallow with half a 
pound of rosin. When melted and mixed, warm the 
boots or shoes, and apply the hot stuff with a painter’s 
brush until the sole and upper leathers will suck in no 
more. If it be desired that the boots should immedi¬ 
ately take a polish, dissolve an ounce of bees wax in 
an ounce of spirits of turpentine, to which add a tea¬ 
spoonful of lamp-black. A day or two after the boots 
have been treated with the tallow and rosin, rub them 
over with the wax and Turpentine, but not before the 
fire. Thus the exterior will have a coat of wax alone, 
and shines like a mirror. Tallow, or any other grease, 
becomes rancid and rots the stitching as well as the 
leather, but the rosin gives it an antiseptic quality and 
preserves the whole.” 
(fmitmttniraiicms. 
A Chapter on Swine. 
The writer of the following article, having become a 
breeder of improved swine to some extent, among other 
choice stock, has found himself so often called upon for 
descriptions of them, and rules for their breeding, that, 
by way of general answer to numerous inquiries, he has 
embodied below such information as his little experi¬ 
ence and limited range of inquiry have enabled him to 
obtain. Though much has been desultorily written up¬ 
on this interesting subject, we have still to regret the 
want of some standard Avork to refer to, for full and 
complete information in so important a branch of rural 
economy. It is to be hoped, hoAvever, that the British 
Society for the Diffusion of Useful KnoAvledge, will soon 
add to the valuable Treatises that have recently appear¬ 
ed on horses, cattle and sheep, a similar one on SAvine, 
and thus supply this great desideratum. The substance 
of the rules of breeding, together with some other obser¬ 
vations, appeared originally over the Avriter’s signature, 
in the 2d and 5th numbers of the current volume of that 
excellent agricultural periodical, the Franklin Farmer, 
published in Kentucky. Those who then took the 
trouble of perusing them, he trusts will excuse their re¬ 
appearance here, among a numerous and almost entire 
neAv class of readers. 
Of the hog tribe, (Sits) zoologists describe no less than 
six species, some of which are so entirely distinct in their 
general habits and appearance as to have prevented their 
ever breeding, or even associating together. Five of 
these species, however, can only be regarded as matters 
of curiosity to us at present; we shall therefore pass 
them over, and come at once to that known as Sus scrof a, 
ferus, the common Avild hog of the Eastern Continent, 
and from which has directly descended the domestic 
among us, in all its countless varieties. Except with 
those nations Avhere its flesh was forbidden by their laiv- 
givers, the Avild boar has ever been considered a great 
delicacy and eagerly sought for, not only to gratify the 
appetite of the epicure, but as affording a favorite amuse¬ 
ment in the chase, that was considered equally noble, 
dangerous and exciting to those Avho folloAved it. Among 
the earliest feats that Zenophon thinks Avorthy to re¬ 
cord of his favorite hero Cyrus, is that of hunting and 
slaying the wild boar with his OAvn hand ; and the great¬ 
est of modern heroes, Napoleon, thought a chase of the 
same kind highly indispensable to royal habits, and to 
assist in qualifying him to assume the imperial purple, 
Avith the greater dignity and grace. 
The time of the domestication of the hog, like that of 
most other animals, is lost in remote antiquity, but that 
it must have been very early, Ave infer from the fact, 
that the Greeks and Romans offered it as a grateful sac¬ 
rifice to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, in order to 
propitiate her smiles upon their labors, previously to 
commencing their harvests. That distinguished philo¬ 
sopher Aristotle, also gave hints on the raising and 
breeding of swine, Avhich are worthy of regard at the 
present day; and Yarro and Columella, if Ave could su¬ 
bstitute soft, thin hair, for “thick, strong and erect 
bristles,” have described the main points, of what Ave 
may notv consider, Avith all our modern improvements, 
a very perfect hog. 
The reasons that Avere supposed to influence the for¬ 
bidding of eating swines’ flesh, as well as that of seve¬ 
ral other creatures, under the Levitical laAV, are, that 
the children of Israel, at the time of their exodus out of 
Egypt, were a very debased and gross people; but few 
grains and vegetables Avere then cultivated to vary the 
food of man, and as they were destined to inhabit, Avhere 
a generally hot and dry climate prevailed, a great indul-' 
gence in these meats Avould tend to thicken the blood, 
check perspiration, and consequently, especially engen¬ 
der scrofulus, scorbutic and cutaneous diseases. We find 
among the Egyptians, that some of the same prohibi¬ 
tions of Moses Avere made sacred by their priests to that 
singular people, Avith the intention, undoubtedly, of more 
certainly preventing their being used as food, and main¬ 
ly for the reasons spoken of aboA'e. Pork, however, as 
uoav usually made, and above all eaten in the moderate 
quantities that it generally is, and accompanied by so 
great a A r ariety of grain and A r egetable food, can no lon¬ 
ger be considered objectional, especially in a cool climate; 
and as it is one of the most palatable and substantial of 
meats, the cheapest and easiest reared, the longest and 
most certain to keep, it has at length become the most 
necessary item of the stronger food of civilized man, and 
without doubt the most important of the stock grotver’s 
products in the United States. 
What amount of pork is annually raised and consum¬ 
ed in the republic, it is impossible to accurately say, but 
something of an approximation may be made towards a 
calculation of it. The census of the present year, will 
doubtless give us a population in round numbers of 16,- 
000,000. The army ration to each soldier of the best 
quality of mess pork per day, is three-fourths of a 
pound, which Avould be about equivalent to one pound 
of the Avhole hog. It is intended that this ration shall 
be rather more, upon an average, than each soldier can 
consume ; Ave will therefore put the allowance inAvhole 
hog pork at 12 ounces. Admit, for the people at large, 
that beef, mutton, fish, &c. Avould make half their meat, 
again deduct half of this remainder for women and 
children not being as great consumers as men, and 
the result Avould be three ounces per day, or say 64 
pounds each per annum for the Avhole population of the 
