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CULTIVATORS.-LONG ISLAND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.-SUFFOLK HOGS.

173 pansion of gaseous matters arising from the decom- tions for making corn bread, which they specially ch they position of the oil, and the grain is completely evo- recommended to public attention:futed and folded back, or turned inside out. This Take 1 quart of sour milk, add the beaten yolks property, continued he, is remarkably strong in the of 8 eggs, and a handful of Indian meal, briskly pop corn, and is common, in a greater or less de- stirring the mixture while adding the meal. To this gree, in all kinds of corn that abound in oil; but add a little salæratus, 2 tablespoonfuls of melted those varieties destitute of a horny covering, as the butter, and stir in alternately the beaten white of the Tuscarora, and white flour corn, will not pop under eggs, and a sufficient quantity of meal to form a any circumstances whatever. smooth batter of the consistency of hasty pudding. Recipe for making Corn Bread.-The Committee Then quickly turn the mixture into well buttered appointed to select the best recipes for cooking and tins, and bake in a brisk oven. The time required preparing Indian corn for food, obtained from Jud- for baking will depend upon the size and thickness son's Hotel, No. 61 Broadway, one of the best of the bread. For smaller parcels one-half or onepublic houses in New York, the following direc-fourth of the above-named materials may be used. THE CULTIVATOR.

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CULTIVATORS are of various kinds; we

could enumerate at least twenty. The
general form of them, however, is essen-
tially the same, the greatest variations being d
in the teeth. Of these some are made of a
triangular flat shape, like those represented
in our cut; others like a small hoe blade or
chisel, with sharp edges at the sides as well
as at the front; others again with reverse
teeth, which, when the point of one end is
worn off, can be turned and used at the
other end. In addition to these, coulter or
harrow teeth are frequently added, and
sometimes the two hind teeth are made like.

a plowshare, to throw the soil to or from the crops
as desired, while the middle teeth stir the earth
effectually, and cut up the weeds between the rows.
The cultivator should always be made to expand
and contract at pleasure, so as to accommodate
itself to different widths of space between the rows.
One kind may expand from 2 to 5 feet or more,
another from 1 to 3 feet. They are admirable
implements to stir the ground and destroy the
weeds, and for these purposes they will do the
work of two or three plows. They are absolutely
indispensable on the farm and plantation, and in
the garden.

The price varies from $5 to $8, according to the size and the number and kinds of teeth required in it.

The Hand Cultivator.-This is made entirely of iron, except the handle, and will expand from 10 to 18 inches. It is a very useful implement in the garden for clearing out the rows of beets, carrots, parsnips, and indeed everything sowed in drills, raking up beds, &c. It will do the work of four men at least. Price $3.

LONG ISLAND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.-This Society has been recently organized under highly The celebrated Tull was the first who used culti- favorable auspices, and holds its first semi-annual vators to any extent. He contended that repeated exhibition on the 11th and 12th of this month, stirrings of the earth were equivalent to manuring commencing at 10, A. M., and closing at 10, P. it; and in triumphant evidence of this, he pointed M. There will doubtless be a rich and varied disto a poor field where he had grown crops for thir-play of fruits and flowers, and we hope all who teen years without manure, or summer fallowing, or plowing in a single green crop to fertilize it; and yet his last crops were the best. He even sowed wheat and other grain in drills or rows so wide apart as to be able to work the cultivator between them, and thus obtained on a poor soil 48 bushels per acre!

are interested in such shows will make it a point to attend, and exhibit as much as is in their power. Extra lines of stages and steamboats will ply be tween this city and Flushing during the days of exhibition, for the accommodation of those wishing to attend. Messrs. Wm. W. Valk, Robert B. Parsons, and G. Winter, of Flushing, are the committee of arrangements.

We have recently greatly improved our cultivators by strongly iron bracing the handles to the timbers, and lengthening and setting them more SUFFOLK HOGS.-Mr. William Stickney, of slanting. This gives the operator greater power Boston, Mass., some time since sent us three of over the implement, and makes it easier managing his delicious pork hams, made from the Suffolk it. A wheel is set on to the end of the cultivator breed of pigs, one of which we presented to the or not, as desired. This is useless in very uneven American Agricultural Association, and one to the or rocky ground; but when the surface is tolerably Farmers' Club of the American Institute, nicely smooth it is very desirable, as it makes the culti-boiled and garnished. They were discussed both vator move easier and steadier, and with it the teeth mentally and physically, and pronounced to be sucan be exactly gauged, to work the ground any re-perior to anything of the kind ever tasted. The quired depth. third ham was presented to the New York Lunatic

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from that containing the camel properly so called. Their feet are not, like those of the camel, entirely padded with an elastic sole, but their two toes are separated, each having strong, horny nails or hoofs, nearly resembling the talons of a bird, with a thick cushion or pad beneath. They are also dissimilar in the formation and arrangement of their teeth, having on each side of the upper jaw one canine tooth more than the camel, and want a second canine tooth in the lower jaw. According to from the muzzle bone, so as to meet the pad fitted Walton, their incisors project full half an inch above, by which means, and with the aid of the tongue and cleft lip, they are not only enabled to draw together, and clip short grass upon the ground, but also, with their long necks, pointed muzzle and the oblique posture which the head can assume, to reach herbage growing on the ledges, and in the interstices of rocks seven feet high, as well as the tops of hedges and tall shrubs. Their teeth are, at the same time, so strong, and interlock in such a manner, that they easily crush and masticate vegetable substances too hard and tough and of the callosity on the breast, also constitute for ordinary cattle." The absence of the hump, striking points of difference between these animals and the camel. The llama, however, according to Molina, has a conformation resembling the camel's hump, being provided with an excess of nutritive matter, which lies in a thick bed of fat under the skin, and is absorbed as a compensation for an

occasional want of food.

By what we can gather from various sources, we are led to believe that there are at least three kinds of Peruvian sheep, namely, the Guanaco or Llama, the Paco or Alpaca, and the Vicuña, which agrees with the classification of Baron Cuvier, who regards the alpaca as a mere variety of the llama, and who considers the vicuña as the only animal in the group that deserves to be specially distinguished from the latter. This also agrees with the opinion of our informant, who cites Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, as saying, in the year 1611, that "the domestic animals of the Peruvians are of two kinds, the have callosities on the knees of the fore legs, and, Some of the Peruvian sheep, as in the camels, greater and the smaller, which they, as a common like them, kneel down in the same manner. Their name, call llama, that is, cattle or sheep. The larger kind they call huanacu-llama, on account of stomachs and those of the camels, are, in some the resemblance it bears to the wild animal known respects, similarly organized. That of the llama, in Peru by the name of huanacu, from which it dif- according to Sir Everard Home," has a portion of fers only in color; for the domestic llamas are to be it, as it were, intended to resemble the reservoirs met with as various in their colors as horses; but for water in the camel; but these have no depth, the wild llamas are uniformly of a chestnut-color. are only superficial cells, and have no muscular The larger kind bears a great similitude to a camel, apparatus to close their mouths, and allow the solid except that it is deficient in the hump upon its stomach, without going into these cells." But the food to pass into the fourth cavity, or truly digesting back, and is not so large. The small kind they stomachs of the Peruvian sheep certainly must call paco-llama, which is only reared for its flesh have some kind of internal mechanism for retaining and wool. The vicuñas are not very unlike goats water, or secreting a liquid substance; for it has in their appearance, except that they have no horns, been remarked, along the flanks of some parts of the are larger, and are of a leonine color, or more ruddy; Andes, that they live far above any lakes or streams, They live in the highest mountains and groves, and and abstain from drink a great portion of the year; particularly love those cold regions of solitude, and further, it has been observed, that, in a state of which the Peruvians designate by the common domestication, they never manifest any desire to name of punas; neither are they annoyed by frost drink so long as they can obtain an abundance of and snow, but are rather created by them. They succulent herbage. go in flocks, and run most swiftly; and such is their timidity, that at the sight of man, or wild beasts, they instantly hurry into inaccessible retreats, and thereby elude their pursuits. There were formerly a great number of these animals here, but they are now become much more rare, in consequence of the promiscuous license of hunting them. Their wool the world, with a region of perpetual snow above is very fine, resembling silk, or the fur of the beaver, them. and the natives deservedly hold it in high estima-such as that of the foot, are modifications of nature The slight variations of their conformation, tion; for, besides other properties, it is also said to resist heat and impart coolness to the wearer."

The order of animals to which the Peruvian sheep belong, offers to the eye of the naturalist but a very small anatomical difference of conformation

and the llama, we are led to infer that each is eviFrom the peculiar organization of both the camel dently fitted by nature for the endurance of great hardships and privations" the one amidst the sands of the desert, under a burning sun—the other on the wastes of some of the loftiest mountains of

which fit them for their respective localities. A impossible for the camel; whilst the burning plains habitation amongst the rocks would be mechanically would be as little suited to the llama.”

MR. RANDALL'S MERINO SHEEP.

175

ted to it. If Mr. B. desires any more minute acMR. RANDALL'S MERINO SHEEP. MR. BINGHAM, in his reply to my remarks in count of this experiment, he will find it, with drawyour Feb. No., does no injustice to my motives in ings of the wool (of Col. R.'s prize ram, Mr. Colinstituting the comparison I did between the Ram-lins' Grandee, and various others) in the first vol. bouillet flock purchased by him of Mr. Collins, and of the Amer. Quar. Jour. of Agriculture. So far as fineness is concerned, Mr. B. will see that of Col. H. S. Randall of this place, though he finds a different reason for the liberty I took, than that the evidence is conclusive in favor of Mr. R.'s the one which actually influenced me. I did not in prize ram, and against Grandee. On the subject of the least design to disparage the former. But Mr. strength, Mr. B. suggests that the wool of Grandee B. cannot be unaware that comparisons have been might have "lost strength by age, repeated handbefore instituted between these flocks, that Col. R. ling and pulling, and the wear and tear of being invited Mr. Collins to show some of his sheep carried in some wallet in some man's pocket till against an equal number of his own at Pough-half of its original strength was probably gone." keepsie, in 1844, and that a spirited correspondence took place on the subject in the public prints. I will do Mr. C. the justice to say, that his declining to show did not prove the inferiority of his sheep. Breeders are not bound to accept challenges of this kind. But I mention the fact to show that I was not so far wanting in courtesy, as to single out a particular flock to compare with Col. R.'s, without, as I supposed, finding my warrant for so doing in circumstances of public notoriety.

I have seen part of the specimen from which Doctor E. selected. He received it from an honorable source. It was understood by me to be recent wool, and had never been carried about in any man's pocket, and evidently had been submitted to no injurious treatment. Every serration showed the original, and it gives me pleasure to say, beautiful character of the wool.

The wool from the Merinos of "early importa tion" was "old." I doubt whether this would The weights heretofore published in the Agricul- much affect its strength, if preserved with care. I turist of Rambouillet fleeces referred to by Mr. B., have never known a wool or cloth buyer particular have been invariably, I believe, of unwashed wool. about the age of the article, provided it was in This is a poor test, certainly, if any test at all. proper condition. I state the fact, however, let Wool ordinarily loses from one-third to one-half in each one draw his own inference. The sheep rewashing, and it might be so dirty as to lose far ferred to, were those imported by Seth Adams into more. There can, therefore, be no approach to Massachusetts, and were not, that I am aware, certainty by any such criterion. Mr. B. will doubt-Rambouillets, as Mr. B. erroneously infers I meant The specimens tested were given, I less give us better data to judge by the present year.to intimate. Mr. B. says" Doctor Emmons is doubtless a learn, by Mr. Adams to Sanford Howard, Esq., good geologist, and meant to make a fair trial of junior editor of the Cultivator. the samples, but how much does he know about wool and sheep?"

As to the length of leg of the Rambouillets, 1 am still constrained to differ with Mr. B. The best judges in this country consider them decidedly inclining to this fault.

The editor of the American Quarterly Journal of Agriculture was bred a Connecticut farmer boy, and Mr. B. says I am largely the owner of American for one who has made agriculture a "secondary matter," is supposed in this State to be very famí- Merino sheep of a very similar character to Mr. Is Mr. B. sure of this? Has he seen liar with the subject in all its branches. Else Randall's. greatly did our Executive err in entrusting to his Mr. Randall's flock? He bases this supposition on hands the volume on Agriculture in our magnificent the fact that Mr. R. has purchased sheep in Ver"Natural History," one of the noblest monuments mont which he has highly commended to the pubof New York greatness. Thus much to vindicate lic. There is a family of Merinos in Vermont-the Doctor Emmons from the imputation of presumption most common one claiming purity of blood-with in speaking of these matters. But, after all, a heavy carcases and heavy medium quality and practical or theoretical knowledge of agriculture rather uneven fleeces, and to this family I have been has very little to do with the simple experiments of led to suppose Mr. B.'s belong. Col. R. purchased testing with optical instruments and weights the some such, but soon got tired of them. He now breeds an entirely different quality of sheep, with far diameter and strength of wool. finer and evener fleeces, and is attempting, and apparently successfully, to preserve the weight of fleece of the Vermonter, with a fineness approaching to the Saxon. By far the best ram in my opinion now owned by him, was bred by himself, and he unites these qualities in a very remarkable manner. I do not wish to be understood as classing all the Vermont Merinos with those above alluded to. Col. R. has some of the best ewes I ever saw from Vermont. But they differ most palpably from the common stamp which I have described.

And now to Mr. B.'s inquiry, "How was the exact diameter of each specimen ascertained-by guess-work, by measurement, or by counting the number of fibres constituting the cord to be broken by weights."

The strength of fibre was ascertained by attaching minute weights to a single one until it broke. This was repeated a number of times, and the mean or average weight which fibres of each variety of wool would support, was given as the test of strength of that variety. The diameter of the fibres was ascertained by an optical instrument of great magnifying power, throwing (like the camera lucida) the image of the wool on a measured scale. This instrument, an elegant and expensive one, deP.S. Since writing the above I have been at the signed for this express purpose, is a PERFECT TEST of the superficial size of any minute object submit-pains to see Col. R., to obtain his views in relation

As for the exhibition of fleeces proposed by Mr. B., I cannot say what Col. R.'s views would be. I L. am not authorized to speak for him in the premises. Cortland Village, April 2, 1846.

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to the above proposed exhibition of fleeces. He the temperature of different seasons of that country. says the exhibition of two or three fleeces would be In advancing north from the polar circle, the birch, no test of the quality of a flock, that he cannot re-which bears the severity of the cold best, dwindles serve a large number of fleeces for comparison, but in size, till at last it ceases to grow at 70°, the that he would willingly allow Mr. B. to compare 30 point where man gives up the cultivation of grain. or 40 samples of his Rambouillet wool with an North of this, shrubs, bushes, and herbaceous equal number from his (Mr. R.'s) flock, the weight plants only are to be met with. Wild thyme, of washed fleece being attached to each such sam-creeping willow, and brambles, cover the face of ple, at the next N. Y. State Fair.

GARDENING.-No. 4.

the rocks, and the arctic cloud-berry here assumes its most delicious flavor and perfume. Shrubs next disappear, and their place is supplied by the saxifrage, primrose, and the low-flowering herbs Geographical Distribution of Vegetables.-This and grasses; then comes the lichen, which covers branch of the study of horticulture points out the vast tracts of country, and beyond this we find grand features of the immense extent which plants only a naked, sterile soil, and perpetual snows. occupy, from the regions of perpetual snow to the On the borders of the temperate zones the everbottom of the ocean, and to the interior of the greens commence. The potato, cabbage, turnip, globe. The superior limits of vegetation are and similar garden vegetables, may be cultivated, known, but not the inferior; for everywhere in and cranberries, whortleberries, and currants, are the bowels of the earth are germs which develope the only fruits. In the northern parts of these themselves when they find a space and nourish-zones, the apple, pear, and fruits of the cold regions ment suitable for vegetation. are produced in perfection; but in the southern

The territorial limits to vegetation are determined parts these fruits often lose their finest flavor, and in general by three different causes; by sandy in some instances degenerate entirely, near the deserts, which seeds cannot pass over either by borders of the hot or torrid zone. Here the winemeans of winds or birds; by seas too vast for the grape, peach, almond, and apricot flourish; here seeds of plants to be drifted from one shore to the we first meet with the olive and the fig, and in other; and by long and lofty chains of mountains. Europe, the orange and lemon, and as we proceed To these causes are to be attributed the fact, that towards the tropics, we find the sugar-cane, coffee, similar climates and soils do not always produce and date. The orange, lemon, citron and fig, are similar plants. Thus, in some parts of North here of the most delicious flavor, and still nearer to America, which resemble Europe in respect to soil, the equator the various species of palm characterize climate, and elevation, not a single European plant these regions. Some of the trees of the torrid is to be found in a natural state. The potato, first zone attain a size, of which a native of northern found by the Spaniards on the Western continent, countries can scarcely conceive. The mighty does not grow naturally in like situations on the baobab, on the plains of the Senegal in Africa, is Eastern. There is scarcely a single plant found in found with a trunk 50, 60, and even 70 feet in cirAfrica that grows wild in South America, and the cumference, and one of the leaves of the fan-palm splendid dahlia of Mexico was never found upon is often of sufficient size to cover ten or a the steppes of Asia. dozen men.

Physical Distribution of Vegetables.—The natural Elevation, or the height of the soil above the circumstances affecting the distribution of plants, level of the sea, affects climate much in the same are temperature, elevation, moisture, soil, and manner as latitude; while, at the same time, it light. Some plants belong to mountains, some to occasions a material difference in atmospheric valleys, and others to plains. Every species of pressure. This diminished pressure is one of the soil has vegetables peculiarly adapted to it. Some causes of the diminutive size of plants, grown in plants are confined to water, and some to moist re-elevated regions. Experiments have been made to gions, while others grow only in dry tracts, or on prove this, by causing seeds of barley to germinate the surface of naked rocks. Some require the hot- in soil placed in vessels under different degrees of test climate, and some a climate that is temperate, atmospheric pressure; and the result has been, that while others will thrive only in the midst of frost where the pressure was greatest, the vigor of the and snow. In this way, nearly the whole surface of the earth is covered with vegetation, and plants are found even in the dark vaults of caverns, and in the beds of the sea. Some plants will flourish with a high degree of heat, for a short time, although it is followed by severe cold; others require only a moderate degree of warmth, longer continued, and are adapted to elevated regions. Many plants will flourish where trees will not, and some approach the region of perpetual snow. Those regions where no other vegetable will grow, are provided with the hardy lichen (capable of supporting men and animals), which is found beneath the snow in the depth of winter.

Temperature has the most obvious influence on vegetation. In this respect, not only the medium temperature of a country ought to be studied, but

plant was greatest also. In ascending the mountains of the torrid zone, as the elevation varies, each section has its own distinct plants, and we find in succession the productions of every region from the equator to the poles.

Moisture, or mode of watering, natural to vege tables, is a circumstance which has a powerful influence on the facility with which plants grow in any given soil. The qualities of water, or the nature of the substances dissolved in it, must necessarily influence powerfully the possibility of certain plants growing in certain places. But the difference in this respect is much less than would be imagined, because the food of one species of plant differs very little from that of another. The most remarkable case is that of salt-marshes, in which a great many vegetables will not live, whilst a

LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. NO. 2.

number of others thrive there better than anywhere else.

The soils suitable for the maintenance of the various kinds of vegetable productions may be brought under the five following heads: 1. Primitive soils. These affect vegetables mechanically, according to their different degrees of moveability or tenacity. In coarse, sandy surfaces, plants spring up easily, and are as easily blown about and destroyed. In fine, dry, sandy soils, plants, with very delicate roots, prosper; a similar earth, but moist in the growing season, is suited to bulbs. 2. Mixed or secondary soils include not only primitive earths, but vegetable matters; not only the medium through which perfect plants obtain their food, but that food itself. 3. Aquatic soils are such as are either wholly or partially inundated with water, and are fitted to produce such plants only as are called aquatic. 4. Earthy soils are such as emerge above the water and constitute the surface of the habitable globe, that is everywhere covered with vegetable productions. 5. Vegetable soils are such as are formed of vegetating or decayed plants themselves, to some of which the seeds of certain other plants are found to adhere, as being the only soil fitted to their germination and development.

Light is a body which has very considerable influence on the structure of vegetables, and some also on their habitation. The fungi can live and grow with little or no light, while green plants require light, though of different degrees of intensity. Some require shady places, and hence the vegetable inhabitants of caves, and the plants which grow in the shade of forests; others, and by far the greater number, require the direct action of the sun, and grow in exposed situations. L. T. TALBOT.

177

bolts ought to have large heads on the under side, and be settled into the wood, so that your lever shall be smooth and fair; and the same precaution must be used on the upper side where they rivet down on the iron; and for this purpose it would be well to have the holes in the iron a little the largest on the upper side, so that the bolt would rivet down even with the surface. It is now to have a temper to the biting edge, then firmly fastened to your lever, and it is ready for use. You will remember, also, that such an instrument is worth preserving as much as your plow or harrow; you will therefore use it carefully, taking care of it when not in use; and one thus fitted and taken care of, will last for years, and will hang to a rock like a tooth-key to a rebellious grinder.

There is another small contrivance I have sometimes seen used in turning over heavy rocks with cattle, which works well. Instead of hooking your chain directly into the ring or staple of the yoke, you fasten it to the axle between two cart-wheels (the cart body being first taken off) and your cattle draw by the tongue attached to these wheels. It is to be remembered that the wheels are backed nearly astride of the rock, so that the chain pulls very different from what it does as usually fastened. This plan is of service only in turning over flattish rocks. If the rock is round or square, nothing would be gained; or if flat, if it stands nearly perpendicular, the result is the same.

Shocking Corn.There is a practice getting much in fashion, in this vicinity, of shocking corn, which I like; and as it is very simple, any one can prove it to his own satisfaction. It is simply this, take a smooth pole about ten feet long, and with an inch and a half auger bore two holes near one end, and put in two legs about three feet in length, standing astride like two of the legs of a saw-horse. These legs hold up one end of the pole, while the other rests on the ground. You may then bore with the same auger, or a smaller one will do as well, some five or six holes, beginning about three feet from these legs, at a foot apart or just as you find convenient. These last holes must be bored so that when a smooth rod is

forms right angles with the pole through which it passes. The horizontal cross-rod may be about three feet long; and when made and placed in one of these holes, your instrument is done. Now for its use. Instead of binding the prostrate corn, you take it up in your arms and set it firmly against your pole in one of the angles formed by the crossrod; and as there are four angles, this process is repeated until the shock is formed. The top is then turned down as usual, and bound with a corn-stalk or anything more convenient. Your three foot rod is now drawn out, and then the ten-foot pole, and leaves the shock erect without any other ceremony.

LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE.-No. 2. Moving heavy Rocks.-Everybody knows, that is acquainted with digging heavy rocks, that a common iron bar is too short to afford lever power sufficient to break them up from their earthy beds; and the common heavy wooden lever will not bite so as to hold its grip, especially if the rock at the point is hard and smooth, and withal a little round-pushed through one, it lies horizontally, and it ish. This trouble is easily prevented, and the process is as follows:-Take a good stick of timber of a length and size to your liking, and after giving it the proper shape, let your blacksmith take a wide bar of iron and weld on to one side of one end of it, and the whole width of the bar, a narrow piece of good steel; let him then turn it over on his anvil, and with a very sharp chisel, trim the end so as to leave the side on which the steel was laid, quite sharp. This sharp edge is then turned up a little, say about three-eighths of an inch, like a tooth-key. This end is then finished, all but the hardening part, which your blacksmith will please to remember after finishing the other part. The next thing is to cut off a piece of your bar some eight inches or more in length, and draw down the end not steeled quite thin. You may then have three or more holes punched, of a size that will receive some small bolts, of strength sufficient to hold this piece on one side of the end of your wooden lever. Three-eighths of an inch in diameter for these bolts will be about right. These

Salt and Tar.--As every farmer usually has these articles, it may be well for him to know their value. My experience has taught me the following lessons; and first, salt and tar will cure wens or tumors on cattle. I once had an ox that had a tumor on his neck, a few inches back of his jaw, and apparently attached to his windpipe. Sometimes he appeared to breathe with some difficulty: and the wen had increased to the size of a goose egg.

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