THE CULTIVATOR 
85 
SUGGESTIONS FOR CULTIVATORS. 
Editors of Cultivator— To Mr. Bridgman’s work 
on gardening is appended a circular to the people of the 
United States, detailing in part an application to the na¬ 
tional legislature for a sum of money to be appropriated 
for promoting “an improved system of terra-culture.” 
What his* system is, I do not propose to inquire, neither 
do I wish to know; but the reading of that article has 
induced me thus to point out what I have noticed as an 
error in the culture of plants and trees, wherever I have 
been, and I know no better plan to illustrate it than in 
showing the effect of the error on corn. In the culture 
of corn, it is usual to work the crop till the tassel is 
about to make its appearance: this is an error. When¬ 
ever the lateral roots of a plant are injured, moved or 
disturbed, when the stalk that is to produce the seed is 
matured or about maturing, or whenever those roots are 
covered to a greater depth at this stage of growth than 
nature intended, it will produce early maturity and de¬ 
cay; and the yield will be just in the proportion to the 
extent of the error. If you will take the pains to destroy 
the lateral roots of a stalk of corn after its having made 
the last joint on the stock, you will find that it will pro¬ 
duce no corn; and if you will displace their situation at 
this time by hilling, you will get a less quantity of seed 
than if left alone. If the lateral roots of a stalk of clo¬ 
ver are cut off when the seed stock is forming, there 
will be no seed; and just so with other plants and trees; 
and the working of them at this stage cannot be attempt¬ 
ed without injury. Yet, strange'to say, it is almost in¬ 
variably done. I have never suffered my corn to be 
worked after one-third of the height of the stalk was 
attained. I plant close enough to have the corn to shade 
the ground at this height, so as to prevent the growth of 
weeds after this last working. I plant two and a half 
feet square, and leave two stalks in the hill, and I have 
never missed having as much corn per acre and as large 
ears as my neighbors: and much more than some of 
them. I never planted a crop of corn that I had not 
some kind neighbor or friend to tell me that I would 
have neither corn nor fodder. Last spring a cropper 
upon my neighbor’s farm planted thirty-five or forty 
acres in corn, and I about ten acres; our fields adjoin¬ 
ing. He planted his corn four feet square, and left 
three or four stalks in the hill, and worked his crop till 
it was ready to shoot into tassels. I quit working mine 
when about 24 feet high. His field was full of weeds 
and grass. Mine remained clear of both weeds and 
grass. When our corn was husked and housed, he told 
me that I had from my ten acres nearly fifty bushels of 
corn more than he had from his thirty-five or forty 
acres, notwithstanding he told me in its early growth, 
that I would have no corn. Part of his ground was 
quite as good as mine. 
I have digressed somewhat from my subject, and to 
return, I would here notice that Mr. Bridgman’s re¬ 
marks on deep planting cannot be too closely attended 
to; and a similar and worse effect is produced in the 
hilling or working of plants in the latter stage of their 
growth, than takes place in plants and trees when deep 
planted. A disease is produced that hurries the plant on 
to early maturity by impeding the proper nourishment, 
by disturbing or placing the roots below where nature 
intended they should range for food, as well as depriving 
the vessels of the stalks thus covered from performing 
their functions. The stalks being established, it is folly 
for man to attempt to do that which God alone can do. 
Deep planting and plowing the peach orchard after the 
trees have attained sufficient maturity to produce fruit, 
is, if not wholly, the principal cause of the disease called 
the yellows. By plowing, the lateral roots are either 
cut, disturbed, or forced to seek food apart from where 
nature intended, and thus operates as a hill placed around 
plants, and brings the tree to early decay. To conclude 
this subject for the present, I will say, work your plants 
and trees while young, so as to form good stalks, and 
then trust to that all-wise disposer of events to perfect 
them. 
I think I noticed a remark in your paper of the roots 
of the water melon being attacked by small animalculse. 
Some salt added to the hills before planting will remedy 
that evil and give you better fruit; and salt and saltpetre 
sown in the peach orchard, (particularly where the or¬ 
chard is worked with the plow,) will assist in prevent¬ 
ing like depredations to the roots of the peach tree. If 
you think that this hasty notice will be of any service, 
you are at liberty to dispose of it as you think best, and 
be assured that I seek neither money nor thanks for per¬ 
forming duties we owe one to another. 
Lyttleton Physick. 
N. B. I should like to extend my remarks, to compare 
the above with the animal creation; but my present state 
of mind and body will not permit me to make more than 
this remark, that inferior animals from instinct are 
known to partake of certain kinds of plants and vegeta¬ 
bles, and reject others. Now confine one of these ani¬ 
mals to a single spot, and put before him the plants he 
rejects when running at large, and rather than die of 
starvation he will eat some of them, which in the end 
will be like the plant or tree that has been abused by its 
guardian, die with plenty before him. L. P. 
Ararat Farm, Cecil Co., Md., March 31, 1842. 
* Our correspondent seems to have misapprehended Mr. 
Bridgman’s circular. It was not Mr. B. who petitioned con¬ 
gress for pay for a discovery in “terra-culture, worth more 
than all the discoveries of the age combined—the application 
of steam not excepted,” but another individual, to whose pre¬ 
tensions Mr. B. is opposed.— Eds. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Accompanying this is 
a rough sketch of my plan for a gate. You will at once 
see that it is on the rail-road principle; and for that 
reason I think that it will go ahead. I think that this 
gate has many advantages over any that I have noticed. 
It makes a firm and lasting gate, with less expense than 
any that I have seen. It saves at least half an hour 
shoveling snow every morning after a snow storm; it 
plays easily, and is not liable to get out of order. How¬ 
ever, the gate will show for itself, and I will occupy no 
more of your invaluable paper, save a description. 
1, gate post 4 by 6—2, do., with a mortice, the same 
as the height of the gate—3, 3, rails for the gate to roll 
upon—4, two slats nailed on to post, four inches apart 
inside, to keep the gate from being pushed either in or 
out when shut—5, 5, upright posts to gate, 3 by 4, with 
a mortice in the upper end long enough to admit the 
rail and a cast iron or hard wood pulley 4 or 5 inches in 
diameter, upon which the gate hangs—6, is a post set 
beside the fence merely for the purpose of morticing the 
rail into. The dimensions I have not given you, as they 
may be built of any size required. M. 
Onondaga Co., Dec. 9, 1841. 
NOTES UPON ARTICLES IN THE FEB’Y NO. 
Styptic _One of the most efficacious that I ever tried 
is common gun powder, reduced to a very fine powder 
and applied to the wound. The ingredients composing 
that article appear to be in the proper combination to 
have a speedy and good effect. It is better than puff 
ball, and more easily procured at all times. I have 
known it applied so as to reach a deep wound, (the ca¬ 
vity where a tooth had been drawn for instance,) with 
the best effect, by putting a little of it in a quill and 
forcing it into the wound by blowing. 
Making Pork. —Mr. Cornell, (page 33,) says he can¬ 
not make pork at $3.50 per cwt., with corn at 50 cents, 
potatoes 20 cents. But if all should cease making pork 
under these circumstances, pork would rise and corn 
would fall. What is the remedy? for we want to know 
out here in the West, being in just such “a fix.” The 
price of pork at Chicago this winter has been from $1 to 
$2.25. A great portion of the hogs being of the land- 
pike variety, being great consumers and small porkers, 
I do not think they have averaged more than $1.50 per 
cwt. Corn in the same market, 60 pounds to the bushel, 
25 cents. Oats, 18. Potatoes, I cannot say what at Chi¬ 
cago ; but here, 40 miles from there, plenty at 12| cents; 
and corn, 16 cents; oats, 14 cents. Now at these prices, 
I am confident that every man who has put his grain 
inside of these long legged, lantern jawed swine, has 
lost money. But—and here I am “ stalled.” If it had 
not been for this immense “ waste of grain,” could it 
have been sold, even at these prices? It certainly does 
appear to me that it would be a beneficial remedy to 
have a better breed of hogs more generally diffused 
through the country. 
And I too am certain that we never shall be wiser by 
reading of such experiments as Mr. Cornell alludes to; 
but we should be wiser if several gentlemen would take 
a lot of pigs and measure and count the cost of every 
article of food from weaning till butchering time, and 
give the result to the public, as to the breed, age, cost, 
weight, &c. 
I suggest to agricultural societies to offer premiums 
for such detailed experiments. It would be far more 
beneficial than it would be to publish to the world that 
Mr. Prentice owned the best bull or the best boar at the 
fair, while at the same time everybody knew that Mr. 
Stay-at-home had a much better one that was not there, 
and consequently could not get the premium. Let the 
premiums be—not for the biggest bull, for if that was 
not a bull, it would be a boar; but let them be for those 
who produced the most beneficial and useful examples 
for their fellow citizens to follow. In this way we 
would soon learn how many bushels of corn it took to 
make a hundred of pork, instead of hearing how much 
more an old sow weighed after she had drunk a bucket 
of swill than she did before. We want more facts and 
less puffing. 
“A Stone Scraper.” —When I was a boy and lived 
in stony Connecticut, I used to have the back ache and 
sore fingers, “picking up stones.” And as it was al¬ 
ways considered an “endless job,” I suppose they are 
not all picked up yet, particularly as there was when I 
left them a great many small ones; and since then, I 
have seen a great many small men grow into large ones, 
(in their own opinion.) I don’t know but some of those 
small stones have grown large enough to be operated 
upon by that stone scraper described by Mr. Bowman, 
(page 34;) and for the benefit of some of those Yankee 
boys’ backs and fingers, to say nothing about the sythes 
and consequent grindstone turning, I want some of them 
to try that scraper, and see if it will answer to pick up 
stones with; because if it does, I know my name will be 
blest by the rising Yankee generation for making the 
suggestion for their especial benefit. I would try it my¬ 
self; but as a matter of geological information to those 
same Yankee boys, I will inform them that out here on 
the prairie, they could’nt find pebble stone enough on a 
thousand acres to make a “ right smart chance of a size¬ 
able sort of a stone heap.” 
“Cream Pot Cattle.”— It is with feelings far from 
being allied to pleasure that I read the result of the sale 
of this stock of cattle in friend Bement’s letter, (page 
36.) Hundreds of far less valuable cattle have been im¬ 
ported at great expense. “ Far fetched and dear bought,” 
is all the recommendation required by some. Alas, for 
my worthy old friend. Colonel Jaques; his stock was 
“ domestic manufacture;” and who would purchase that 
in these anti-tariff times? I Knew the colonel was em¬ 
barrassed, and I deeply regret to hear that he has been 
sacrificed too. His efforts to do good were worthy a 
better fate. I am at this time in good health, and as 
comfortable as could be expected, in one of the muddiest 
winters that you ever saw. If I do not get stuck fast, 
you will again hear from Solon Robinson. 
SETTING GATE POSTS. 
Messrs. Editors— As I was about sitting a gate post, 
the Cultivator came from the office; I sat down to peruse 
it, and cast my eye on an article giving directions how 
to set posts. The writer says: Dig your hole something 
larger than your post; then take water lime and sand, 
make it into mortar, pick up small stones, throw them 
into it, set down your post, take a shovel and throw in 
your mortar, fill up the hole and let it stand until it gets 
hard before using. It struck me that it was an improve¬ 
ment; but after a little reflection, I thought I could im¬ 
prove upon it. I therefore set down my post, which was 
8 by 10 inches, gathered small stone, filled up the hole 
with them, made my mortar so that it would pour, filled 
the hole a little rounding with it, so that no water could 
stand near the post; smoothed it off, let it stand two or 
three days, and hung my gate, where it has been two 
years as firm as the tree before it was cut down, in a 
solid body of cemented stone two feet square. As water 
lime is an article that but few people keep by them, I 
would say that I have no doubt but mortar made of com¬ 
mon lime and sand would be a great improvement in 
preserving the post as well as keeping it firm. 
Galway, Saratoga Co., N. Y. P. Otis. 
PRIVET FOR HEDGES. 
Messrs. Editors of Cultivator —Seeing an inqui¬ 
ry in your March number, requesting- information re¬ 
garding the privet, ( Pyracantha ,) for live hedges, we 
would inform your correspondent, Mr. Long, that the 
late Jesse Buel tried the common privet on a small scale, 
more for ornament than utility, as a fence, and found it 
to succeed remarkably well; retaining their verdure al¬ 
most entirely through the winter, and being susceptible 
of being trimmed in any shape, to suit the taste of the 
most fastidious. We presume they would not be suffi¬ 
ciently stout for preventing cattle or swine crossing 
them. 
We would inform Mr. Long, that the plants of the 
common privet may be obtained of the undersigned, at 
the Albany Nursery and forwarded to any part of the 
country. The wholesale price is $3 per 100 plants. 
Albany Nursery, March 14. Jesse Buel & Co. 
KEEPING HORSES ON SALT HAY. 
Messrs. Editors—I observe that you have of late 
devoted considerable space in your paper to the treat¬ 
ment of that invaluable animal, the horse, and I would 
mention that at the suggestion of several of my friends I 
have this winter fed mine with salt hay, and found that 
their wind and power of endurance was greater, and 
that they had less of what is called by farmers the hay- 
belly. They are also exempt from the cough which 
feeding on fresh hay, particularly clover, from the great 
amount of dust it produces, is very apt to produce. I am 
very well pleased with the result, and think those farm¬ 
ers who have such hay will find the benefit of keeping 
their horses upon it more exclusively. A. W. L. 
Hempstead Harbor, Feb., 1842. 
TO BEAUTIFY THE COUNTRY. 
We have received from A. Bergen, Esq., a paper on 
this subject, in which he urges the propriety and utility 
of decorating our farms, grounds, &c., with trees, shrub¬ 
bery and flowers, as contributing both to pleasure and 
health. We regret that a press of matter this month 
prevents our giving more than the closing- paragraph. 
“I say, then, that any man who is blessed with a 
comfortable dwelling and a few acres of land, can do 
much to embellish his home without intruding much on 
his daily business, and with very little expense. Trees 
he may get out of the forest, or raise fruit trees from the 
seed. Shrubbery and flowers he can multiply from a 
few sprouts and seeds; besides, if he has a family grow¬ 
ing around him, how much more will they be attached 
to, and love their home. Let no man, therefore, say he 
cannot do this or that; but merely let him try, and he 
will soon find that he can accomplish wonders.” 
