THE CULTIVATOR. 
95 
Subsoil Flowing in Massachusetts. 
In the Transactions of the Essex Agricultural Society 
for 1840, Mr. Phinney, of Lexington, Massachusetts, 
has given an account of the use of an implement con¬ 
structed for him by Prouty fc Mears, for breaking up 
the pan that is very frequently found in lands that have 
long been plowed, at the depth to which the plow usu¬ 
ally reaches, occasioned by the pressure and consolida¬ 
ting efFect of the repeated passage of that implement, 
aided perhaps by the treading of the animals employed 
in the work. 
In cultivating a field which had been many years un¬ 
der the plow, Mr. P. noticed what in England is called 
the “ upper crust.” It was so hard as to be appa¬ 
rently as impenetrable to the roots of plants as a piece 
of marble, and discovered at once the cause of the fail¬ 
ure, in a great measure, of the potato crop the year pre¬ 
vious. To remedy this obstacle to successful culture, 
Mr. P. had a plow constructed “ the beam five feet long 
and six inches square, of white oak, well ironed, with 
three tines in nearly a straight line, made of the best 
Swedes iron, one and a half inches square, and extend¬ 
ing twelve inches below the beam, with a spur at the 
foot some less than that of the tine of the cultivator, 
with strong handles, and an iron beam extending from 
each handle to the centre of the beam, by which the 
balance is easily preserved.” This implement followed 
the drill plow, and drawn by two yoke of oxen, broke 
up the “ crust” and loosened the earth to the depth of 
fourteen inches. By the use of this simple but effectu¬ 
al implement, Mr. P. nearly doubled his root crop, and 
by giving the roots an opportunity to strike deep, the 
severe drouth which injured the crops on other lands 
was not felt on the deep plowed soil. 
We are glad a farmer of Mr. Phinney’s skill and ex¬ 
perience has brought this business of deep plowing be¬ 
fore the public ; and as there are large quantities of 
land in this country that require such a thorough break¬ 
ing up, and as the implement described is both simple 
and effectual, it is to be hoped that many will avail 
themselves of it to improve and deepen their soils, and 
as a necessary consequence increase the quantity and 
quality of their crops. Mr. Phinney’s subsoil plow is 
much less costly and complicated than the English one, 
and apparently quite as effectual, while at the same 
time it works much easier. 
Biscovary in the Preparation of Timber. 
We are indebted to our friend, C. Carmalt, of 
Friendsville, Pa., for a copy of a translation from the 
collection of Savans Etrangers, of a report made by a 
committee of the French Academy on a method disco¬ 
vered by M. Boucherie of Paris, “ for rendering wood 
more durable, preserving its elasticity, preventing the 
shrinking and variation in size from dryness or humid¬ 
ity, diminishing its combustibility, increasing its tena¬ 
city and hardness, and even giving it a variety of dura¬ 
ble colors and odors.” 
The possibility of impregnating wood with fluid sub¬ 
stances, has long been known ; and the fact has been 
taken advantage of for many economical purposes ; but 
where this has been done, powerful forcing machines, 
and a prolonged action have been required to complete 
the impregnation. The discovery of M. Boucherie, con¬ 
sists in causing the various fluids required, to penetrate 
the tree by the simple operations of nature itself. One 
of the most beautiful proofs of the fact that solutions of 
various substances are taken up unchanged, may be seen 
by sprinkling the soil in which a white hyacinth, in a 
state of blossom, is growing, with the juice of the Phyto- 
laca decandra , when the white blossoms assume in one 
or two hours a red color, which again disappears in a 
few days under the influence of sunshine, and they be¬ 
come white as before. The colors of some other flow¬ 
ers may be changed in a similar manner. 
The method of Dr. Boucherie is to place the bottom 
of a trunk, in the fluid you wish to have absorbed, and 
in a few days it will be found that the liquor has ascend¬ 
ed to the highest leaves. “ For instance, let a tree 
full of sap, be cut off at its foot, and plunge the foot in 
a vessel containing the liquor you wish to have aspired, 
and the liquor will rise to the most elevated points. All 
the vegetable texture is invaded except the heart of the 
jtree, which with the old nuts, resist the penetration of 
fhe absorbed substance.” We have room only to state 
'Some of the principal results ; the applicability of the 
method to a multitude of cases will be seen at once by 
jthe intelligent reader. 
1. It is not necessary that the tree should retain all 
its branches ; a single boquet of branches and leaves at 
the summit, is sufficient to produce the requisite circu¬ 
lation, or rather ascension of the fluid. 
2. It is not necessary the tree should remain erect, 
fit may be felled, the branches, (the terminal ones ex- 
rcepted,) trimmed off, and then the base being put in 
(connection with the liquid to be absorbed, it will gradu¬ 
ally penetrate every part. 
3. It is not indispensable to cut the tree down. A 
icavity made by an axe, or dividing a large part of its 
substance with a saw, will suffice, for in placing the 
liquid in contact with the cavity or cut, it will be rapidly 
absorbed. 
4. The substance chosen to give durability to wood, 
|by preserving it from dry or wet rot, is the pyrolignite 
iof iron. To render it incombustible, or not liable to 
(shrink and swell from dryness or moisture, chloride of 
iicalcium, and the mother water of salt marshes or works, 
iiis used. 
The pyrolignite of iron is made by putting old iron 
into pyroligneous acid, produced from the combustion 
of wood in making charcoal. The colors are given by 
preparations which will affect the wood directly, or the 
substances previously introduced. Thus the color of ebo¬ 
ny is produced by saturating the tree with the pyrolig¬ 
nite of iron, and following this with a tanning matter 
which will dye the whole black, by converting the first 
liquid into ink. 
The effect which such preparations of iron must have 
on the durability of wood, may be considered one of 
the most important parts of the discovery, taken in con¬ 
nection with the ease of the saturating operation. Num¬ 
bers of experiments have been made in the wine cel¬ 
lars of Bordeaux, on hoops prepared by the author of 
the process. Common hoops fell to pieces at the slight¬ 
est touch or strain, when the prepared ones were as 
solid as on the first day of their use. We consider this 
an important discovery, not only as relates to its econo¬ 
mical purposes, but for the light it seems capable of 
throwing on some hitherto unsettled questions of vegeta¬ 
ble physiology. 
The Peach Worm. 
The peach is one of the most delicious and easily cul¬ 
tivated of fruits, in any country where the climate does 
not interpose obstacles to its success ; but within a few 
years a disease called the yellows, has destroyed many 
of the best trees or orchards in the northern and middle 
States ; and where this disease has not appeax-ed, the 
worm called the peach worm, which bores through the 
bark around the surface of the earth or below, and by 
feeding on the juices, eventually destroys the tree, has 
produced great mischief. 
For the yellows, there does not appear to have been 
any preventive or cure discovered, and its cause is en¬ 
veloped in uncertainty. The disease is contagious, and 
is propagated by budding or grafting from diseased to 
healthy trees. The greatest care is therefore required 
in selecting or transplanting trees, that none but those 
perfectly healthy be used ; as one unsound one may be 
the destruction of an orchard. The worm may be de¬ 
stroyed by removing the earth around the tree, when if 
the worm is present, holes will be seen in the bark, and 
quantities of the cuttings of the bark or wood thrown 
out, will be around them. A flexible barbed wire, will 
in some instances extract the worm; in others he must 
be cut out with a knife ; in any event he must not be al¬ 
lowed to remain, as it will be at the expense of the loss 
of the tree, if permitted. Saturating the earth around 
the tree with soap suds occasionally, has been highly 
recommended as a preventive, and in some instances, 
hot water has been poured around them with success. 
It is very possible that injecting hot water into the open¬ 
ings made by the worm might destroy him ; if so, it 
would be better than deep or extensive cuttings after 
the depredator. 
Dr. Anderson of Virginia, has stated in the Farmer’s 
Register, that he has been very successful in growing 
the peach, and in preventing the attack of the worm. 
He says: 
“ Having observed in the practice of medicine, that the ce¬ 
dar berry, [red cedar, we presume,] was a powerful vermifuge, 
I planted cedar cions and peach cions together six years since, 
in the following manner : I set one of each in a hole, with the 
roots entangled and set close together, believing that the strong 
odor peculiar to the cedar, would prove efficacious and sicken¬ 
ing to the worm, and thereby prevent its approach to the peach 
tree. Every circumstance seemed to unite in favor of the ex¬ 
periment ; there was no danger of the peach tree being choked 
by the eedar, because the former is a rapid, while the latter is 
of very slow growth. The peach trees bore the second year, 
and have put forth their leaves black as a cloud every season, 
and bore most luxuriantly every season until the last, which 
was the sixth year. I have set out a number since in the same 
way, which are all flourishing. I think a soil should be select¬ 
ed much mixed with sand in order to prove successful.” 
Theory of Manures. 
From the earliest speculations on the nature of ma¬ 
nures, down to a very recent period, manures have been 
divided into two classes, nutritive and stimulative, or 
such as furnish the direct food of plants, and such as 
act as stimulants or excite plants to take up and assi¬ 
milate such kinds of food as is presented to them. In 
the first class has been placed all decayed vegetable 
matter, farm yard manures, animal excrements, night 
soil, and such other matters as having been derived from 
plants were considered as capable of being reconverted 
into vegetable matter. In the second class it has been 
the custom to place gypsum, lime, such salts as are 
found to produce a favorable effect on vegetation, as the 
phosphates of lime in bones, and the nitrates existing in 
saltpetre, soda, &c. Recent discoveries, however, serve 
to render it probable, that the whole system so con¬ 
structed of the action of manures must undei’go some 
essential modifications, if not a total reconstruction. It 
is now maintained with great plausibility, “ that dung 
itself acts not by any power which it possesses, as hav¬ 
ing formerly been a part of living bodies, animal or ve¬ 
getable, but as uniting those chemical elements, some 
of them mineral, which constitute the food of plants; 
and that a compound of these elements, artificially 
brought together, would act precisely in the same man¬ 
ner as dung.* 
Thus the potash contained in a soil, or applied to it 
in the form of ashes, converts the silex into a silicate of 
potash, and in the form of a solution of that substance, 
acts most decidedly in promoting the growth of all the 
grasses, corn, wheat, and indeed all plants that contain 
* See remarks by the President of the English Ag. Soc. 
silex in their stems or in their grain. To make grain 
perfect, however, other substances than those required 
to create straw are necessary. It is found by experi¬ 
ence, that a great growth of straw may be produced in 
wheat, while the grain will be very imperfect and infe¬ 
rior. Farm yard dung will make as much straw as the 
farmer pleases, but there must be all the elements re¬ 
quired to perfect the berry, or straw will be all that he 
will gain. Ammonia has been found to be one of the 
most efficient of fertilizers ; and as this substance is a 
compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, and as the gluten 
of wheat is mainly nitrogen, it was reasonably inferred 
that ammonia, or such agents as would furnish it to 
plants, would aid a wheat crop materially. Here gyp¬ 
sum, burnt clay, and other things that absorb ammonia 
from the atmosphere rapidly, are found to produce a 
good effect, giving a more perfect grain than could have 
been expected without the use of such articles. Such 
absorbers of ammonia are indeed useful in other re¬ 
spects, than the perfection of a single crop of grain, as 
by the cultivation of clover and other green crops to be 
fed off on the ground, or left to decay there, humus, or 
in other words a supply of carbonic acid, so indispensa¬ 
ble to the formation of the carbon of plants, or their 
woody fibre, is thus provided. It is thus by simplifying 
the elements of nutrition, and showing the manner in 
which this important function of plants is performed, 
that science is confemng the greatest practical benefits 
upon agriculture. 
Things not to be Bone. 
Sowing spring wheat without soaking in brine, and 
rolling in lime, is a thing not to be done. According to 
C. W. Johnson, salt acts an important part in germina¬ 
tion and promoting the growth of plants ; and lime, ev¬ 
ery one is aware, seems to be necessary in some form to 
the perfection of plants and their seeds. Both, then, 
should be used in sowing wheat. 
Attempting to keep cattle, sheep and horses, through 
our long winters on straw or even hay, without roots, is 
a thing not to be done. Every good farmer, will there¬ 
fore make his arrangements so as to secure a plentiful 
supply of turneps, potatoes, or carrots, for winter and 
spring use. These fed with the hay, will improve the 
stock, promote health, and bring the animals through 
the most trying season of the year with safety and profit. 
Making a yard of the highway, and allowing your cat¬ 
tle and sheep to be fed, and to drop their dung where it 
is lost to the farm, is not to be done. This practice, 
though a common, is a wretched one, and should be re¬ 
formed altogether. Feed your animals in stalls, if you 
can ; if not, in yards. To do otherwise, is wasteful in the 
extreme. 
Allowing your cattle in the spring of the year to go 
roaming about, poaching your meadows and pastures 
with their feet, is a thing not to be done. The small 
amount of food they can get in this way is a poor com¬ 
pensation for the damage they do, and besides it de¬ 
stroys their relish for hay, without offering any substi¬ 
tute. 
Suffering animals lo perish for want of attention, at 
any season of the year, is a thing not to be done. But 
if any do die accidentally, they should be converted to 
use by being covered with earth, to absorb the gases of 
oxygen and ammonia that are the inevitable results of 
animal putrefaction, and which are indispensable to the 
growth of plants. 
Having your pig stye in such a state, or place, that 
your pigs shall not work for a living, is a thing not to 
be done. They should have a yard into which weeds, 
swamp muck, straw, and the scrapings of roads and ditch¬ 
es should be thrown to be converted into manure ; and if 
they seem at any time reluctant to begin the task of mix¬ 
ing such materials, a few handfuls of corn scattered 
over the surface will set them to work most industriously. 
Permitting the chips, pieces of bark, sawdust, &c., of 
your wood yard to accumulate for years, is a thing not 
to be done. Remember that all, which has once formed 
part of a plant can be converted into a plant again, and 
place all such matters where their decomposition will 
be most useful, and soonest effected. 
Nearly every farm has some pond, marsh, or bog 
which receives a large portion of the wash of the culti¬ 
vated land and to allow this to remain without being 
returned to the soil, is a thing not to be done. Thei-e 
are some such places that may be considered as inex¬ 
haustible deposits of fertilizing matter, yet have never 
been drawn upon for a single load, by the neighboring 
farmers. Let those who have such deposits look to 
them. 
Allowing your work to drive you, is a thing not to be 
done. The man who is half an hour behind his work, 
finds labor forever an uphill business. There is here a 
serious mistake committed by many farmers. They 
lay out more work than they can do well, or in season, 
and the consequence is, nothing is done at the time, or 
as it should be. What you do, do in season, and be 
sure to do well. 
Being content to allow a single year to pass without 
correcting some error, or making some improvement in 
husbandry, is a thing not to be done. In conversation 
with an intelligent farmer the other day, he remarked 
that the practice of all fell behind their knowledge, or 
in other words, none did as well as they knew how. To 
put the knowledge we acquii'e from our own or other’s 
experience to use, should be the aim of every one, and 
would soon do away the reproach that farmers are a sta¬ 
tionary race of men. 
