THE CULTIVATOR. 
Ill 
they are black broken with white, indicating the effect 
of the cross of the white Chinese.” 
Mr. Letton, a gentleman justly celebrated for his 
knowledge and experience in breeding fine hogs, after 
traveling extensively over England, in search of hogs, 
selected a white Berkshire boar of the improved breed for 
a breeder. Mr. Letton had imbibed Mr. Lossing’s pre¬ 
judice in relation to color, before he visited England. 
And Mr. Williams says in his certificate to Mr. Letton. 
(Franklin Farmer, vol. 3, page 10,) “ The origin of the 
late improved Berkshire is a cross on the black Berk¬ 
shire sow, with the large white China boar which gives 
the color white.” 
An improved Berkshire, boar that I imported from 
England, last fall, is entirely white in hair, with a spot¬ 
ted (black and white) skin; he has all the fine points 
of the best of the Berkshire’s, and is one-third larger 
than those of his age purchased near Albany. I have 
no disposition to deny the general characteristics given 
to Mr. Hawes’ and Lossing’s importations, if not extend¬ 
ed so far as to exclude those that are acknowledged to 
be of the best blood. But I do object to his denying 
purity of blood to all other importations of different 
colors, when his own lacks the original color. We are 
told in English standard works, “ that every county 
has its peculiar kind, the superiority of which is main¬ 
tained in its own district and denied in every other, and 
some of the best are bred in Staffordshire.” 
I have many hogs, descendants of Mr. Hawes’ and Los¬ 
sing’s importations, and have but one of the white 
Berkshires*, and this one is acknowledged by me to have 
eastern blood in him, for which I prize him much more 
than I should if he was without it. For I consider east¬ 
ern blood just as important to the hog as to the race 
horse, and as no good turf horse can be found that is 
without it, neither is there any good hog that lacks it. 
I think that considerable injury has been done by rep¬ 
resenting the Berkshires as possessing superior size, 
and competent judges guessing them greatly above 
what they will ever weigh. The purchasers are led to 
expect hogs of much greater size than their own will 
ever be; they feel disappointed and are led to condemn 
the Berkshires. I have no doubt much injury has also 
been done them by unprincipled men, representing as 
Berkshires, hogs that were not. But Mr. Lossing’s ar¬ 
ticle will afford no security. I have three quarter blood¬ 
ed pigs that possess all Mr. Lossing’s marks, and two 
of the full blooded ones purchased of the Shakers, and 
one purchased of Mr. Lossing, lack the white tail, and 
another purchased also of the Shakers, near Albany, 
has but two white hairs in her tail. 
Mr. Lossing’s information is not correct in respect to 
the Berkshires taking premiums in every county in the 
state of Kentucky, last fall. The Berkshires have never 
taken a premium in this (Clarke) county. The pre¬ 
miums have been divided between the Woburns and Irish 
Grazier hogs. The Berkshires were beaten in more 
than half the counties from which I had heard any par¬ 
ticular account. I know nothing about the premiums 
given in Ohio. SAML. D. MARTIN. 
Colbyville, Ky. May 26, 1840. 
Chou Billardeau—Billardeau Cabbage. 
To the Editors of the Cult' vat or . 
Gentlemen — I ha ve recently received from the hands 
of a kind relative in Paris, a small parcel of the seed 
of a cabbage, which if it answers the description given 
of it by the individual who introduced its culture in 
France, is destined to hold a high rank not only in the 
horticultural but agricultural department, and should it 
be adapted to our climate, will no doubt in time, be¬ 
come most extensively cultivated, more especially for 
stock, sheep, &c.; it is called the Chou Billardeau, and 
takes its name from the individual to whom we are in¬ 
debted for its origin. Accompanying the package for¬ 
warded, was a letter from Monsieur H. Billardeau, 
which I have now before me, who states that he sowed 
the seed in October, 1837, but gives no account of its 
origin. He thinks the spring, say the months of April 
and May in this country, a preferable time for sowing, 
describes the mode of culture, 8tc. similar to that of 
other cabbages, states the leaves to be five or six French 
feet long, and the product in leaves in the two years of its 
vegetation (it being biennial,) to be from 1,000 to 1,200 
pounds to each plant. They are represented by him, 
to stand the winters of that climate, and to furnish 
leaves in the coldest and most rigorous seasons. He 
draws a comparison between them and the Chou Cava- 
Here or Chou Verte, presumed to be the cow cabbage, a 
species of cabbage which he says, is so extensively cul¬ 
tivated in Britanny and Normandy, (famed for the su¬ 
perior quality of its milk and butter,) and concludes by 
affirming, that this new species possesses all the quali¬ 
ties appertaining to the former, and its product to be a 
hundred fold. Under the influence of feelings arising 
from the impositions so frequently attempted to be 
palmed on the deserving but too credulous class of agri¬ 
culturists, I could not at first but look upon it as a 
humbug, and felt tempted to exclaim with the Roman 
bard, “ Credat Judeas apella,” &c.; but from the respec¬ 
tability of the source whence the package was received, 
shall for the present suspend my opinion, and having 
now about one hundred thriving plants up, look for¬ 
ward with intense interest to the result, which may tend 
to remove or confirm my previous incredulity. By a 
hasty calculation made by me, supposing the plants to 
be put out at the distance of fourteen feet each way, if 
correct in his statement, (taking Monsieur Billardeau’s 
lowest estimate of the weight of the leaves of a single 
plant,) an acre will yield about one hundred tons in 
weight in two years, or fifty tons per year. 
The Galactometer. 
I fear that I have become already too prolix, and oc¬ 
cupied too much space in your valuable columns, to the 
exclusion of matter that may be deemed of more im¬ 
portance to many of your readers ; but I feel irresisti¬ 
bly impelled, before concluding, to notice a simple in¬ 
strument lately invented in France, for the purpose of 
testing the quality of milk, called Galactometer, differ¬ 
ing entirely from another instrument I have seen an ac¬ 
count of, in Fessenden’s Complete Farmer, called the 
Lactometer. The latter is intended to test the quality 
of the milk, by the thickness of the cream. The for¬ 
mer consists of a glass tube, the bottom of which is 
somewhat globular, enclosing a small portion of mer¬ 
cury, which, being immersed into a vase of milk, sinks 
or rises according to the relative quality of the same, 
showing at the surface, by the lineal indices as well as 
numerical, the different grades from one half milk and 
water to pure milk. It will be found not only useful to 
the dairyman in the selection of cows to breed from, 
but to inhabitants of our cities, who are subjected to so 
many impositions in the purchase of this, to them, so 
great a luxury. For fear I may not be understood in 
the above description, a drawing of this instrument taken 
by my son accompanies this,* and will be found correct 
in every respect, both in the dimensions and form. They 
are quite new here, and I know of but three in this sec¬ 
tion of country, two in the possession of Gen. John Ma¬ 
son, of Clermont, Va., and the one in my hands, to which 
we are indebted to the kindness of a relative of mine, 
and an old friend of the General, now holding an offi¬ 
cial station in Paris, sent to us last fall from France. 
Montgomery co. Md. May 11, 1840. B. 
NOTES OF A TOUR. 
Gentlemen —In a recent tour of considerable extent 
and variety, in the eastern section of our country, I 
have met with many things to gratify the friends of agri¬ 
cultural improvement. Through the whole length and 
breadth of this favored land, the constant operations of 
industry, under the guidance of intelligence and taste, are 
clearly discernible. The rugged forests are everywhere 
disappearing, and their places supplied with green 
pastures, luxuriant meadows, or abundant crops; or if 
wood-lands are still retained, the new growth of select¬ 
ed trees shoot up with a grace and beauty seldom found 
in the dense and matted masses of our native wilds. 
The log cabin gives place to the handsome cottage, and 
the slight, frail tenement of the pioneer, to the substan¬ 
tial farm-house, or more elegant mansion of the wealthy 
husbandman. Nor does the career of improvement 
stop with the more convenient and accessible portions 
of the soil; everywhere nature is pursued in her remot¬ 
est haunts, and everywhere subdued; and from the self- 
sustained luxuriant bottoms, to the verdure-clad sum¬ 
mits of the loftiest hills, the untiring energy of our 
Anglo-Saxon race is throughout conspicuous. The high¬ 
ways are made better and more direct, and the lightning 
paths, with their fierce engines glaring like meteors 
through the skv, convey the traveler from point to point 
with such rapidity, as to leave him all his time for his 
favorite pursuits or observations, requiring scarcely an 
appreciable portion of it for locomotion. 
Draining. 
One feature of recent improvement was peculiarly 
gratifying, and in it I thought I perceived the influence 
of what is too often sneeringly called book farming ; a 
term, I venture to say, was never sincerely used, but 
where stupidity or stubbornness reigned supreme. To 
a considerable extent, ditching and draining low lands 
has been practiced, and in every case with entire suc¬ 
cess. Land that before yielded scarcely a handful of 
coarse herbage during the season, by the expenditure 
of a few dollars in ditching and putting into a state of 
cultivation, has been made worth 50 to $150 per acre; 
for almost invariably, the low swamp lands, when freed 
from water, are vastly the most productive. Much con¬ 
troversy exists as to the mode of draining best suited to 
our country, and the question yet remains unsettled. 
It is undoubtedly proper that the plan should vary with 
the situation of the land. 
It would seem, on a hasty view of the subject, that 
the labored efforts of some well disposed persons to in¬ 
troduce the expensive modes adopted in Europe into our 
own country, are as inappropriate as if the attempt 
were made to introduce the paraphernalia of royalty, 
or a church establishment into our republican institu¬ 
tions. Their system is thorough underdraining, princi¬ 
pally with tiles or loose stones, placed at a sufficient 
depth to allow a coating of soil deep enough for all the 
operations of husbandry to be carried on as if no drains 
existed; and this is undoubtedly the perfection of drain¬ 
ing ; but the expense of this in our country, would be 
from 50 to $150 per acre; an outlay so excessive that 
we apprehend for half a century to come, it cannot be 
practiced here unless in the neighborhood of large cities, 
where land is worth from 300 to $600 per acre for culti¬ 
vation, the price of good farming lands in Europe. The 
system may be applicable and advantageous to this coun¬ 
try, and it is much to be wished that some wealthy and 
patriotic individual would institute a series of scientific 
and practical experiments on this subject, and commu¬ 
nicate the result, and it is possible it might be found, af- 
* The drawing alluded to did not reach us.— Eds. 
ter all the expense, the capital would be more judicious¬ 
ly invested than if expended in additional land, to be 
cultivated in our hurried and imperfect manner. If 
once, however, but generally adopted, our whole career 
of border extension and colonization must be abandoned, 
and the constantly expanding wave of emigration must 
contract and speed its refluent force centerward again, 
for we have run around land enough on this contient al¬ 
ready, to sustain, with proper cultivation, a nation of 
untold millions. Can our national taste for adventure 
and western emigration be checked and turned into the 
more sober and perhaps rational pursuits of a highly 
cultivated husbandry? We think not—a truce then to 
underdraining with us, for without the countless hordes 
that are yearly migrating westward, like the locusts of 
Egypt, we cannot pursue it to any extent. 
There is much, however, we can do, in this matter, 
and at a trifling expenditure of manual labor. And here 
I will mention one mode of underdraining, probably of 
Yankee invention, as I have never seen a description of 
it. It is performed in heavy clay lands, where ditches 
are most required, by excavating a trench, say of 12 
inches wide, witn perpendicular and parallel sides, to 
the depth of 12 inches; or if it is contemplated using 
a subsoil plow, to the depth of 16 inches, then from the 
center of the bottom a sub-ditch is excavated, of 5 to 6 
inches square. The sod taken off the entire width from 
the top is then inverted and placed at the bottom of the 
upper ditch, and becomes a durable cover when filled to 
the top, thus doing away with the large expense of tiles 
or stones. 
Our system must essentially combine economy with 
utility, and this can be effected to a very great extent 
in surface drains. These should exist wherever water 
remains on the ground after rains, or when it is too much 
saturated with springs in the vicinity. No stagnant wa¬ 
ter should ever be allowed in a civilized country, for be- 
sides its effectual hostility to all useful vegetation, it 
poisons the atmosphere and becomes the prolific source 
of half our diseases and deaths. If a systematic course 
be pursued in all the operations of the farm, much drain¬ 
ing may be effected with scarcely any additional trouble 
and expense. For instance, all clay and flat lands should 
be plowed into narrow ridges, and every successive 
plowing should be directed to make the more elevated 
portions higher, and the depressed one still lower, al¬ 
ways preserving an outlet, that the water accumulated 
in the last shall be carried off freely, and by this means 
the whole surface becomes a succession of surface drains 
without the expenditure of a day’s labor to an acre. In 
many instances, however, main ditches will require to 
be cut for a considerable distance, to get sufficient depth 
and slope to carry off the water rapidly, and when the 
principal drain is made, the tributaries can be complet¬ 
ed at a trifling expense, either with the plow and hoe 
or the spade. To illustrate my meaning, I will describe 
the manner of draining a piece of land I recently adopt¬ 
ed. The lot consists of a stiff clay, running back from 
the Niagara river, with a gradual ascent of not more 
than five or six feet for a mile. It is traversed through 
the whole distance with irregular undulations, but the 
ridges almost universally running parallel with the riv¬ 
er. At right angles with the river, and across these, I 
run a ditch four feet wide at the top, two feet at the 
bottom, and from one to three and a half feet deep, 
so as to preserve a uniform descent on the bottom, 
thus cutting transversely all these longitudinal ponds, 
for they were nothing else in ordinary wet seasons, 
and a little additional work with the spade or plow, ef¬ 
fectually carries off all the surface water. The whole 
expense of this does not exceed one dollar per acre. 
Now let us see the profits of this operation. If this 
land be worth $60 per acre, to cultivate in its original 
condition, and much of it has been sold at higher prices, 
and one-fourth of it Avas covered with Avater, which was 
generally the case to a sufficient extent to prevent the 
groAvth of nutritious vegetation—by expending one dol¬ 
lar I increase the productive land by the addition of 
another third to the original amount, which is equiva¬ 
lent to increasing the A'alue of the investment one-third 
of $60, Avhich gives me $20 gain for one expended. 
I have seen an acre of marsh grown up with rushes 
and cat tails, that could be drained by one man’s labor 
in two hours, and when done, it would be xvorth any two 
acres on the farm, and yet to this moment it has not cot 
into the brain of the owner or a dozen of his intellectu¬ 
al predecessors, that this could or ought to be done; 
and it may have been the cause of half the diseases in 
the neighborhood for two centuries 1 These men have 
never been troubled with book farming —nor did they 
ever take the Cultivator; from 'such noddles, and such 
only, are we ever to look for hostility to either. 
Cattle, Sheep and Swine. 
In stock, I was glad to notice considerable improve¬ 
ment. Through NeAv-England there seems to be little 
difference in their herds for the last tAventy years, ex¬ 
cept in the gradual improvement of their native cattle. 
And it is possible, after all, that our Yankee kindred 
may be mainly right as to breed. The accidental cir¬ 
cumstance of the port for the embarkation of our pil¬ 
grim forefathers to their future varied and picturesque 
abode, happily afforded them a convenient source of sup¬ 
ply from the herds of fine Devons that abound in the 
neighborhood of Plymouth, and from them, with more 
or less admixture, have descended the present exten¬ 
sive herds of the eastern states. These animals, though 
habituated to a warm climate, which was but a tempo¬ 
rary inconvenience, are entirely suited to the character 
