a light soil, letting it be covered with a metallic cover, and bringing in contact with the whole an electrical machine. By the same agent hen's eggs, which require twenty or twenty-one days to hatch by animal heat, have been hatched in a few hours. Water apparently free from any animalculæ, in an hour can be rendered full of living insects. It has long been suspected that what is called electro-magnetism performed a prominent part in the formation and growth of animal and vegetable matter, and these experiments would seem to place the matter beyond a doubt. Should these results be confirmed by further experiments, a new era in physiology, both vegetable and animal, may be considered as commenced, and another step taken in drawing the veil which shrouds the mysterious operations in the inner courts of the temple of nature. G. nure to one spot, barn manure and lime mixed on another spot, and on Suppose, for a moment, my whole farm to be as rich and as well I will now give you a short account of my profit and loss for a few years. MANURES. Manure is the wealth of the farmer. This proposition cannot be too often repeated and enforced, for on the full belief of this axiom, and a corresponding practice, the success of the farmer mainly depends. Manure, whenever it may be found on the farm, is beneficial, but it never does all the good it might, unless it is properly and judiciously applied. Most farmers are content if they are able to empty their yards once in two or three years of the accumulated piles of straw and cattle manure, at a loss of nearly one-half its efficient qualities; and the exuberant fertility of our western lands has hitherto in part justi fied this careless management of this important item in husbandry. Compost, or a mixture of earth with common manure, kept in a pile until the union and decomposition is perfect, is undoubtedly the best application that can be made to land. The efficient power is also greatly increased, as the earths employed in making the pile absorb the gases produced by the decomposition of the vegetable and animal matter, and becomes nearly of equal value. The mud which accumu may in this manner be converted into one of the most active restorers of exhausted soils. The yarding of cattle is to be preferred where practicable, to suffering them to run at large, and the additional quantity of manure made by stabling will, independent of the saving in fod. der, nearly pay the expense of erecting stables for their accommodation. Not being able to work myself, and having no force of my own, I am necessarily compelled to have my work done by hired hands. Aflates in swamps and low lands, where it lies useless and unproductive, ter I became unable to labor myself, I found that my hired hands were sinking money for me. I then resolved to keep a strict account of all my farming operations. At the end of the first year, I found, on balancing the account, that I was $163 in debt. I examined the account, and endeavored to ascertain, if possible, where the fault lay. I satisfied myself sufficiently to make a second trial; accordingly, I dismissed my manager and some of the hands, and employed a more faithful and industrious manager, determined, if possible, to profit by past experience. At the end of the next year, when my books were compared, I found I had made a profit of $93, a sum not half sufficient to pay the interest of the money I had laid out. A third trial is now going on, with the same manager, but more immediately under my own super vision, aided by all the knowledge I have been able to acquire from ag ricultural papers and other sources. I cannot yet make a fair estimate of the profits, but from present appearances, I think I shall realize near $500. Is it not astonishing to see the number of persons who subsist by farming entirely, still continue the old land-killing system, when such profitable results are to be expected from an improved mode of tillage? Farming is both a pleasant and profitable employment, if properly carried on. The experience of thousands have taught us this, and any thing I could say, would not make it more clear. I have been asked by some, "what use have we for rail-roads? our population can consume all the surplus which we now have." I answer, if we had rail-roads, the amount would be increased to a vast extent; our interest would become more united, and the danger of a disunion proportionably lessened. A few words more to my brethen of the plough in East Tennessee. From the great irregularity of our surface, we have a great diversity of soils and climate, requiring the greatest agricultural skill, to ensure its full developments. Clover and lime, judiciously used, as a manure, will produce beneficial results, far beyond the expectation of those who have never tried them. Arouse then, brethren, to the improvement of your lands, and be assured, you will reap a reward, amply sufficient to compensate you for your labor. Tennessee Farmer. WM. PEEPLES. NEW APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY. We noticed not long since, in a foreign journal, a wager between a London scientific gardener, and a celebrated cook, that the former would produce a handsome salad of mustard and cress from the seed, before the latter could cook, in good style, a leg of mutton to be eaten with the salad. The wager was won by the gardener. The process was to immerse the seed for a time in oxymuriatic acid, then sow it in * We would caution friend Peeples against an exclusive reliance on lime for manure, valuable as it unquestionably is. Nothing can justify the neglect of animal and vegetable manures, without the application of which, the permanent fertility of land cannot be obtained-but when united with the use of lime, the effect will no doubt equal his expectation; but in both cases it must not be forgotten, that to insure profitable results, judicious tillage is indispensable.-Editor Tenn. Far. Common sense would teach a farmer, that the sooner manure, when applied to the soil, can be put under the surface, the better the effect will be, and the less of its fertilizing qualities will be lost. Spread over the surface it certainly does good, but in a much less degree than when put under the surface. To this philosophical application of manure, much of success in the improved system of farming is owing, as it necessarily involves a rotation of crops, two principles of the first importance in ame liorating the soil, and advancing its products. Formerly the most of the manures was applied to the meadow lands, scattered over their surface, and these were allowed to remain in grass so long, that continued attention was required to produce ordinary burdens. It was erroneously sup posed that the ploughing of lands intended for mowing would be destructive of grass crops, and their renewal as at present practised was not dreamed of. Now, where the soil is not so wet as to forbid it-and meadows are subjected to the same system of rotation as the rest of the the system of draining leaves few pieces inaccessible to the ploughfarm, and when properly managed, no deficiency either in quality or quantity of hay need be apprehended. Experience here in the appli cation of manure, is in perfect accordance with the theory, and shows that when nature is properly understood, the way she points out will be found the easiest and most productive to the agriculturist. The manner in which manures perform the effects attributed to them, there is reason to believe, is at present very imperfectly understood. That they become accessary in some way to the growth of plants is certain, and the general opinion seems to be that the decomposed matter is taken up by the roots, and again becomes incorporated in the new structure. Is it not possible, however, that the electric or mag. netic influence, which seems to pervade nature, and the activity of which every new discovery tends more fully to develop, has a more important agency in the growth of plants than has generally been admitted? In the construction of the electric pile it is well known that alternate substances of metallic and animal or vegetable origin are employed, which seems to be precisely the condition in which the manures are the most effective. Vegetation does not succeed in the pure minerals which form the foundation of the various earths, nor will it flourish where the richest, and of course purest, manure is alone employed. Is it not probable then that the mixture of these moistened with water, constructing a true voltaic pile, by exciting the secretory powers of We throw out these hints for the examination of the curious, merely the plants, gives it vitality, and the powers of aggregation or growth. adding, that in whatever way they operate, manures are indispensable to the success of the farmer.-Gen. Far. G. Labor relieves us from three great evils, indolence, vice and want.Voltaire. ECONOMICAL METHOD OF KEEPING HORSES. BY HENRY SULLY, M. D. Having received innumerable letters from gentlemen who keep horses, requesting a description of my plan of feeding, I shall save much trouble both to others as well as myself, by laying my system before the public. Having pursued the plan about seventeen years, I am enabled to appreciate its full value, and, being perfectly satisfied of its superior excellence, I hope to continue the same as long as I keep horses. Most people who know me will allow, that horses in my employ en joy no sinecure places, and few people can boast of their cattle being in better working condition, or more capable of laborious undertakings, The loft above my stable contains the machinery for cutting chaff and grinding corn. From this loft each horse has a tunnel of communication with the manger below, and a tub annexed to each tunnel in the loft for mixing the ingredients composing the provender. than mine. too large a portion, whilst others will have less than they ought, al though the portions are accurately weighed. The only certain method, then, is, to let the grain, of whatever de scription, be weighed separately from its straw, and the keeper of cattle will soon satisfy himself, that his cattle are in want of nothing in the feeding line. Many people object to potatoes, and think them unfit for working horses; but, from many years' experience, I am enabled to recommend them as a constituent part of the thirty pounds, and am convinced, that it is as wholesome and nutritious a food as can be procured for laboring horses, which are called upon sudden emergencies, to perform great tasks, as has been abundantly proved by Mr. Curwen, M. P. who kept above one hundred horses on potatoes and straw, and always found that their labors were conducted better on this than any other food.-See Curwen's Agricultural Hints, published 1809. MAKING PORK. There should be no rack in the stable, because this may tempt the groom to fill it with hay, and thus by overloading the horse's stomach endanger his wind, to say little of its expense and waste, for it is a well known fact, that if a horse has his rack constantly replenished with hay, he consumes and spoils upwards of thirty pounds per day. The manger with which the tunnel communicates, should have cross-replenishing, the farmer's pocket. bars, of firm oak, placed at the distance of ten or twelve inches from each other, to prevent the horse from wasting his provender in search of the grain it contains, and this space between the cross-bars, allows the horse plenty of room to take his food. The chaff-cutter I make use of, is manufactured by Mr. Wilmott, a very ingenious mechanic, who resides about five miles from Taunton, on the road to Wiveliscombe. He also provides corn bruisers, of the best construction, and any person keeping three or four horses, will save the prime cost of his machinery the first year of its trial, and the horses themselves, thus fed, to use the language of horse keepers, will always be above their work. The business of fattening pork for sale is practised to some extent by most of our farmers, and when performed economically, or when the most is made of the materials given them, it is undoubtedly a source of handsome profit. Yet all will admit, that when carried on in the manner it sometimes is, the process of pork-making drains, instead of To make fattening hogs profitable, it is necessary, first of all, that the breed selected for feeding should be a good one. There is a vast difference in hogs in the respect of easy fattening, proper proportion of bone, weight, &c. and the farmer who thinks to make money by feeding the long-snouted, hump-backed, slab-sided animals, that are too frequently found among farmers, and disgrace the very name of swine, will find in the end that he has reckoned without his host, and has thrown away both time and money. There are several good breeds of pigs now in the country, mostly produced by crossings of other kinds with the Chinese, and of course having different degrees of aptitude to fatten; and these breeds have been so disseminated over the country, that any farmer who is willing to make the effort, may have some improved animals in his pens. The time has gone by when a hog should be kept four years to weigh four hundred; the business of fattening is little understood where hogs of a year and a half do not reach that amount, and some pigs have even exceeded that weight. When the provender is thoroughly mixed in the tub, previously weigh ing out each ingredient, the mixture should be given in small quantities at a time, many times in a day; and at night, enough is thrown into the tunnel to last till morning. This process will be found of very little trouble to the groom, who will only have to go into the loft six or eight times a day. As the component parts of the provender are weighed separately for each horse, we are certain he has his just proportion; Next to selecting good breeds, it is requisite that they should be kept and I have hereunto annexed my scale of feeding in four classes, for it constantly growing. There must be some foundation for fattening, sometimes happens that some of the ingredients cannot be procured, when the process commences, or much time will be lost in repairing and at other times that it may be better to substitute others; but, what errors, and much food consumed in making carcass that should be emever grain is given, it should always be bruised or coarsely ground, and ployed in covering it with fat. Hogs should be kept in clover pasture, carefully weighed out; for, by weight alone, is it possible to judge of a field being allotted to them for their exclusive use, so large in prothe quantity of farinacious substances the horse consumes; it being portion to their numbers that the feed may always be fresh, yet not so well known that a peck of oats varies from seven to twelve pounds; much so as to run up to seed, or grow coarse or rank. They should consequently, if the provender were mixed by measure, there would be have the slops of the kitchen, the whey or buttermilk of the dairy, unfrequently an uncertainty, as to quantity. Wheat varies from sixteen less this is required for young pigs, and in general every thing they will to twelve; barley from thirteen to sixteen; peas from seventeen to fif eat to advantage, or which will promote their growth. teen; beans from seventeen to fifteen per peck. And as wheat, beans, peas, barley and oats are equally good, and of very trifling difference in price when their specific gravity is taken into consideration, I am equally indifferent which grain I use, but I should always prefer boiled or steamed potatoes for hard working horses, to be a component ingredient, whenever they can be procured. As I call all ground or bruised grain of whatever description, farina, it will be so distinguished in the following SCALE. Class 1. Class 2. Class 3. Class 4. .... 5 lbs. 10 lbs. 5 lbs. 5 lbs. 10 lbs. 6 lbs. .... 2 oz. 5 lbs. 8 lbs. 8 lbs. 2 lbs. 2 oz. By the above scale it will be seen, that cach horse has his thirty pounds of provender, in twenty-four hours, which, I maintain, is full as much as he can eat. The two ounces of salt will be found to be an excellent stimulus to the horse's stomach, and should, on no account, be omitted. When a horse returns from labor, perhaps the groom will see the propriety of feeding him from his tub more largely, in order that he may be the sooner satisfied and lie down to rest." Whenever oat straw can be procured, it is generally preferred; and some like to have it cut into chaff without thrashing out the oats; but this is a bad plan, for in preparing a quantity of this chaff, unequal proportions of oats will be found in each lot, so that one horse will have * The English horse-bean is probably here meant.-ED. The manner in which the materials intended for fattening pork is prepared and fed, has a decided influence on the rapidity of the process, and of consequence on the aggregate profits. If given out raw, much of the value of the article is lost; grain is much improved by grinding, but the full effect of all kinds of feed is only brought out by cooking. Corn is, without a peradventure, the best article ever prosionally be used with advantage, and may produce pork of fair and duced for making good pork; and though other substances may occa good quality, yet experience has proved that the real corn fed meat is on the whole, superior to all others. Hogs will fat on corn given to them in any state, yet it is far preferable when soaked, ground, steam ed or boiled. A farmer of our acquaintance, and who is celebrated for the weight of his hogs, and the excellence of his pork, is in the habi of mixing oats with his corn before grinding, in the proportion of abou one-fourth, and thinks that if he had not the oats of his own, he should be a gainer in exchanging corn, bushel for bushel, for oats, rather thar not have them to mix with his swine feed. He thinks they eat the mixture better than clear corn meal, are less liable to a surfeit, and o course will fat much faster with the oats than without them. Pea: have generally been ranked next to corn as an article for making good pork, and they are probably the best substitute that has yet been found hogs feeding well on them, fattening rapidly, and the pork being o good quality. It is almost indispensable that peas should be groun or soaked previous to feeding. Potatoes are more extensively used fo fattening hogs than any other of the cultivated roots, and are probabl the best of the whole for this purpose. Unless they are boiled, how ever, they are of little value comparatively, but when cooked they wi give the hogs a fine start in feeding, and they may then be easily finish ed off with corn or peas. The fattening of hogs on apples may be co sidered as one of the successful innovations of the age, it being certai that this fruit possesses a value for that purpose which but a few year since was wholly unknown. The success of this experiment has give a new value to orchards, and will probably check their destructio which in some sections of the country had already commenced to some considerable extent. The various reports from gentlemen of intelligence of the practical results of apple feeding are most gratifying, and we have no doubt the system will be fully approved wherever fairly tested. Where convenient, let the hogs lie in the orchard from the time the fruit begins to fall, till it is time to gather apples for winter or cider, and they will in most cases be found respectable pork. When it is necessary to put them in the pen, boiled apples mixed with a small quantity of corn, oats, peas or buckwheat meal, will fill them up rapidly, make them lard well, and fill the farmers' barrels with sound, sweet pork, of the first quality. If any, however, are doubtful, they can easily finish off their apple fed pork, as is generally done with potato fed, with corn or peas, and with similar results.-Gen. Far. G. BEET SUGAR. Extract from a file of the "Journal des Debats, 15th April, 1836," at More lately still, Messrs. Rapez and Lecerf, of Onnaing, have also manufactured beet sugar on a small scale. The sugar of Mr. Lecert particularly, is, in the opinion of a sugar refiner in Paris, of a quality that he would pay for at the rate of from 57 to 58 francs the 50 killogrammes. Monsieur Lefitte, deputy from Seine and Oise, and one of the most zealous propagators of agricultural improvements, is on the point of establishing some "sucreries" on his farm at Auverneau. Should, thanks to the endeavors of the Royal Agricultural Society, the process of making beet sugar become popular in France, we shall soon see the day when every family will make its sugar, as it now does its preserves. model here. THE SHEEP.-(Continued from page 99.) THE SOUTH-DOWN SHEEP. The belly well defended with wool, and the wool coming down be fore and behind to the knee, and to the hock; the wool short, close, curled and fine, and free from spiry projecting fibres. The South-Down is adapted to almost any situation in the midland part of England; it has a patience of occasional short keep, and an endurance of hard stocking, equal to any other sheep; an early maturity, scarcely inferior to that of the Leicesters, and the flesh finely grained, and of peculiarly good flavor. South Down Ram. The next is the hill sheep, adapted to more elevated situations and shorter feed on the natural and permanent pastures; able also to travel, without detriment, a considerable distance to the fold and to the down. There can be no hesitation in fixing on the South-Down as the The following is the substance of the description of this sheep, by Mr. Ellman, who, if he may not be considered, like Mr. Bakewell with regard to the Leicesters, as founder of the breed, yet contributed more than any other man to its present improvement and value. The head small and hornless; the face speckled or grey, and neither too long nor too short. The lips thin, and the space between the nose and the eyes narrow. The under jaw, or chap, fine and thin; the ears tolerably wide, and well covered with wool, and the forehead also, and the whole space between the ears well protected by it, as a defence against the fly. The eye full and bright, but not prominent. The orbits of the eye-mixture of foreign blood, for even the cross with the Leicesters was a the eye-cap or bone-not too projecting, that it may not form a fatal ob stacle in lambing. The neck of a medium length, thin towards the head, but enlarging towards the shoulders where it should be broad and high, and straight in its whole course above and below. The breast should be wide, deep, and projecting forwards between the fore legs, indicating a good constitution, and a disposition to thrive. Corresponding with this, the shoulders should be on a level with the back, and not too wide above; they should bow outward from the top to the breast, indicating a spring ing rib beneath, and leaving room for it. The ribs coming out horizontally from the spine, and extending far backward, and the last rib projecting more than the others; the back flat from the shoulders to the setting on of the tail; the loin broad and flat; the rump long and broad, and the tail set on high, and nearly on a level with the spine. The hips wide; the space between them and the last rib on either side, as narrow as possible, and the ribs, general ly, presenting a circular form like a barrel. The belly as straight as the back. The legs neither too long nor too short. The fore-legs straight from the breast to the foot; not bending inward at the knee, and standing far apart both before and behind, the hocks having a direction rather outward, and the twist, or the meeting of the thighs behind, being particularly full; the bones fine, yet having no appearance of weakness, and of a speckled or dark colour. Valuing the franc at 182 cents, this would amount to $75. It is only lately that the South-Downs have been brought to that degree of perfection which they at present exhibit. Their zealous advocate, and the breeder to whom they are indebted more than to any other, for the estimation in which they are now justly held, Mr. Ell man, says of them-"This breed was formerly of a small size, and far the shoulders, low behind, high on the loins, down on the rump, the from possessing a good shape, being long and thin in the neck, high on tail set on very low, perpendicular from the hip-bones, sharp on he back-the ribs flat, not bowing, narrow in the fore-quarters, but good in 1776, thus speaks of them-"Fine wool is certainly a very consiin the leg, although having big bone." Arthur Young, who saw them derable object, provided it is gained on a well-formed carcass; but if a fine coat is procured at the expense of a thin chine, low fore-end, and rising back-bone, the advantage is purchased too dearly. The faults found very general, even in the best flocks, inasmuch as not more than most common in the South-Down breed are these three. They are one sheep in a hundred, perhaps in two hundred, is to be seen tolerably free from them." Since that time, they have materially improved, yet not by any adfailure, and the promised advantages to be derived from the Merinos were delusive. The sheep owners began better to understand, and of their flocks was no longer left to the menial; the sexual intercourse carefully to practise, the true principles of breeding. The "sorting" of the sheep was no longer a matter almost of chance-medley: but a system of selection was adopted, and sedulously followed. In addition to this, as has been already remarked, there was a great improvement in agriculture generally. The introduction of the turnip husbandry enabled the farmer to keep more sheep on the same quantity of land, and to keep them better, and, in fact, to feed them up earli er and more certainly to that development of form and utility of which they were capable. "They are now," says Mr. Ellman, much improved, both in shape and constitution. They are smaller in bone, equally hardy, with a greater disposition to fatten, and much heavier in carcass when fat. They used seldom to fatten until they were four years old; but it would now be a rare sight to see a pen of SouthDown wethers at market more than two years old, and many are killed before they reach that age." the reader is referred back to page 111 of this Treatise, where a deFor an account of the most perfect form of the South-Down sheep, scription is given of what a hill or down sheep ought to be; and to which may be added, that this animal has a patience of occasional short keep, and an endurance of hard stocking scarcely surpassed by any other sheep, an early maturity, not inferior to that of the Leices ters, the flesh finely grained, and the wool of the most useful quality. The South-Down sheep are polled; but it is probable that the origi nal breed was horned. It has been shown that the primitive breed of sheep was probably horned. The ram that was sacrificed by Abraham, instead of his son, was entangled in a thicket by his horns; and it is not unusual to find among the male South-Down lambs some with small horns. The dusky or sometimes black hue of the head and legs of the SouthDowns not only proves the original colour of the sheep, and perhaps of all sheep, but the later period at which it was seriously attempted to get rid of this dingy hue. In almost every flock, notwithstanding the great care which is now taken to prevent it, parti-coloured lambs will be dropped; some with large black spots, some half black, and some entirely black. A writer in the "Annals of Agriculture," states that "he has frequently had twelve or fourteen perfectly black lambs, although he never kept a black ram or ewe." From this he draws the conclusion, that their original colour was black; that art alone produced the white wool; and that, if the best of the South-Downs were left in a wild state, they would in a few years become black again. There are no sheep more healthy than the South-Downs. They seldom suffer from the hydatid on the brain, nor, on the majority of the farms, are they so much exposed to the rot as in many other districts. Their general health may be much connected with this frequent change of food, and their periodical journeys to and from the fold. The pure South-Downs have penetrated to almost every part of the kingdom, and everywhere they have succeeded when care was taken that the locality and the soil were suited to the breed; except that on the northern hills, where the Cheviots and black-faced sheep wander, they have not thriven so well as on their native downs.—Library of Useful Knowledge, Farmers' Series. Translated for the Farmers' Register from the Annales de l'Agriculture Francaise, of 1835.-(Concluded from page 98.) ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE-BY M. PUVIS. ABSORPTION OF PLANTS, IN VEGETATION ON CULTIVATED SOILS. 32. Vegetation on uncultivated soils operates under conditions altogether different from those of the cultivated, so that the results receive modifications which it is important to examine. Nature produces, and continues to produce, all the vegetable mass in spontaneous growth, without any other condition than the alternation and succession of species. In vegetation on cultivated land, by bringing together the same individual plants, which are to grow abundantly on a soil and in a climate which, in most cases, are not those which nature had designed, there are required, besides the general condition of alternation of the species, frequent tillage of the soil, and means to repair its losses, that the culture may be productive and be continued. However, with these new conditions, the force of absorption of plants on the atmosphere still furnishes the greater part of the vegetable principles in soils not limed-and still more in limed soils. To form a precise idea, we will take it in the land of the writer, its The rams are usually put with the ewes about the middle of October, and remain with them three or four weeks. The careful breeder, where his farm will admit of it, puts only one ram to a certain number of ewes in each enclosure; about forty to a lamb ram, and eighty to one fully grown. He thus knows the progeny of each ram, a circum-culture and its biennial rotation. As the same qualities of soil are stance of no little importance with regard to the improvement of the found elsewhere, as no particular circumstance increases or impairs its breed. At the end of the third or fourth week, the whole flock is products, there would be found similar results, for the same qualities again put together; two or three rams being left with them in case any of soil, with a different culture. The inferences which we will draw of the ewes should still remain at heat. from ours will apply then to all others. It is believed that the treatment of the ewes at this time has considerable connexion with the number of lambs which they will produce. If they are well kept, a considerable proportion of them will have twins. It is possible that the stimulus of plentiful and nutritious food may have some influence on the number of lambs; but if the farming arrangements of the sheep-breeder should render it desirable for his stock thus rapidly to multiply, he would be most likely to accomplish his object by breeding from rams and ewes that were twins. No fact can be more clearly established than an hereditary tendency to fecundity. The average dead weight of the South-Down wether varies from eight to eleven stones; but Mr. Grantham exhibited a pen of three sheep in the last show of the Smithfield Club, (1835,) one of them weighing twenty stones three pounds; a second, twenty stones six pounds, and the third twenty-one stones. The average weight of the fleece of a South-Down hill sheep was stated by Mr. Luccock, in 1800, to be two pounds; it has now increased to three pounds. The fleece of the lowland sheep that used to be three pounds, is now three and a half or four pounds. This is the natural consequence of the different mode of feeding, and the larger size of the animal. The length of the staple in the hill sheep rarely exceed. ed two inches in length, and was oftener not more than one and a half inches; it is now more than two inches, and in some of the lowland sheep it has reached to four inches. The number of hill sheep had rather decreased since 1800, and those in the lowlands had materially so; but now that South-Down wool is once more obtaining a remune rating price, the flocks are becoming larger than they were. The colour of the wool differs materially, according to the colour of the soil. The shortest and the finest wool is produced on the chalky soil, where the sheep have to travel far for the food; but there is a harshness and brittleness about this wool which was always seriously objected to. The microscopic appearance of the South-Down wool is delineated in page 90. The fibre is the six-hundredth part of an inch in diameter; that of the Saxony wool being but the eight-hundred-and-fourth part. The serrations are only 2,080 to an inch; while in the Saxony wool 2,720 were observed in the same space. The practice of letting and selling rams was more prevalent and profitable among the breeders of the South-Down sheep, than of any other kind, except the Leicesters. At the sheep-shearing at Woburn, in 1800, a South-Down ram belonging to the Duke of Bedford, was let for one season at 80 guineas, two others at 40 guineas each, and four more at 28 guineas each. This practice has been of later years pursued extensively and profitably by Messrs. Ellman, Grantham, Todd, and others. On our soil of the third class, [or worst quality,] fallow returns every two years, with a biennial manuring of 120 quintals to the hectare. This mass contains more than four-fifths of water, which should not be counted as manure, and consequently the substance which serves for the reparation of the soil is reduced to 24 quintals. We reap, in rye, straw, and buckwheat, after the year of fallow, a dry weight of 40 to 50 quintals on an average. If it is supposed that all the manure is consumed, or employed in forming vegetable substance, still the soil would have furnished 18 to 20 quintals more than it received, and which excess would be due to the power of absorption, whether of the soil or of the plants, on the atmosphere. On land of middle quality, which yields a crop every year, with a double manuring, that is to say, of 48 quintals of dry manure, in two years there is a product of wheat, maize, or potatoes, which amounts to from 12 to 15,000 weight, 120 to 150 quintals, of which two-thirds or 80 quintals at least, are derived from absorption. On soils of good quality, with a manuring of one-third more than the last, which is equal to 64 quintals of the dry substance to the hectare there are obtained of dry products, in grain, straw, roots, or hay, double of the last, or nearly so, of which three-fourths, or 180 quintals, are due to the power of absorption. Lastly-upon the most fertile soils, (sols d'exception,) where ma nures are useless, the product, often double, or at least half as much more than the last mentioned, will amount to 360 quintals to the hec tare in two years. This product would be, as in spontaneous vegeta tion, entirely due to absorption. We should have, then, to represent the products of two years, i quintals, in the four classes of soil under consideration, the progressiv amounts of 42, 130, 240, 360; or, by deducting from these products th weight of the manure, we would have, to represent the power of at sorption, the progression 18, 82, 176, 360 quintals. From this is d duced, as the first conclusion, that, supposing the plants have consume and annihilated all the substance of the manure given, (which is beyon the truth,) plants receive a much greater part of their substance from the atmosphere than from the soil; and that this power of drawin food from the atmosphere increases with the goodness of quality i soils. 33. The proportion of fixed substances, or ashes, in agricultural pr ducts, is 43 pounds to the 1,000, and consequently, in our four class of land, the quantity amounts to 180, 559, 1,032, 1,548 pounds. But th soluble saline substances form at least half of these ashes: they a then produced in the two years of the rotation, in the quantities of 9 279, 516, 774 pounds. But, according to Kirwan, barn yard manu yields two per cent of soluble salts: then the manure given to the soils contained 48, 96, pounds, 128 of saline substances, which, bei Two years previously to this, the Emperor of Russia bought two of deducted from the preceding quantities, leave the four classes of sc Mr. Ellman's rams, in order to try the effect of the cross on the north-stated 42, 183, 388, 774 pounds of products in soluble salts, in two yea ern sheep. The Duke of Bedford, at the request of Mr. Ellman, put of the rotation, gained solely by the absorbing forces of the soil and a price upon them, observing that he did not wish to charge a foreign plants. sovereign, who had done him so much honor, more than any other individual. The price fixed by the Duke was 300 guineas for the two, and he purchased two more for himself at the same rate. 34. But, in the same soils, with the same manures and the same lage, by the addition to the thickness of the ploughed layer of o one-thousandth part of lime, the products, whether volatile or fix are increased in a striking manner; the soil of the first named (or principles, in all the parts of the soil which receive the atmospheric lower) quality reaches the product of the second-the second ri-es one-influences. half or more-and that of the best (of the manured soils) increases a But salts are also formed in plants. The nitrate of potash, which fourth. Thus, our scale of product becomes 130,200,300 quintals-and takes the place of sugar in the beet-the oxalate of potash, so abun deducing the manure, 106,152,236 quintals, for the two years of the ro- dant in sorrel-the carbonate of potash in fern, in the tops of potatoes, tation. The most fertile soil (sol d'exception) cannot receive lime be- and in almost all vegetables in the first period of their life-the sul neficially, because it contains it already; these lands all belong to alphate of potash in tobacco-the nitrate of potash in turnsole and in luvions, where the calcareous principle has almost always been found pellitory-prove, without reply, that vegetation forms salts as it forms in greater or less proportion. the proper juices of plants, since the soil contains the one kind no more than the other. But can we say where plants take the elements necessary for all these formations? They can take them only in the soil by means of their roots, or in the atmosphere-in the soil, which would itself take them in the atmosphere, in proportion to the con sumptions of plants-or directly in the atmosphere by means of their leaves, which would there gather these elements. And if the analyses of the soils, and of the atmosphere, show almost none of these ele. ments, it will be necessary to conclude from it that the substances which analysis has found there, are themselves, or would furnish if de composed, the elements of the saline substances, although science may not yet have taught us the means of reaching that end. 35. The product of fixed principles [as ashes] in the three classes of limed soils, would be 559,863,129 pounds, and in soluble salts 273, 430,645 pounds, and, deducting the soluble salts of the manure, the quanties would be 230,334.525. A light aldition of lime has then doubled the force of absorption, and almost tripled the quantity of saline principles produced. One of the most remarkable effects of lime consists then, in making a soil produce a much greater proportion of sa ine principles: and if the experiments of M. Lecoq upon the efficacy of saline substances on vegetation are to be admitted, it would be in part to the phenomenon of their production that lime would owe its fertilizing effect. 36. It results from what precedes, that salts are formed in the soil or in vegetables: thus we see every day the nitrates of potash and of lime form under our eyes in the soil, or elsewhere, without any thing indi cating to us the origin of the potash which is contained. But potash itself again forms spontaneously in drawn ashes, according to the observations of the chemist Gelhen. We see salts also renewed in the artificial nitre beds, with the aid of moisture and exposure to the air. But it is the presence of lime that determines this formation more particularly. The nitrates abound in the ruins of demolished edifices; they are formed in the walls, and in all parts of houses situated in damp places; they effloresce on the buildings of chalk in Champagne; they are produced spontaneously in the ploughed lands of the kingdom of Murcia. The effect, which we see that the calcareous principle produces every where, we think it produces in all the soils to which it is given, and where meet the circumstances which favor the formation of nitrates, viz: humidity, vegetable mould, and exposure to the air. But, according to the experiments of M. Lecoq and others, and the opinion which is established of the old agriculturists, the nitrates are the most fertilizing salts. It would be then to their formation, which it promotes in the soil, that lime owes, in part, its effect on vegetation. 37. The foreogoing proofs of the daily formation in the soil, and by vegetable life, of saline and earthy compounds, taken in nature and on a great scale, are doubtless sufficient: but they may still be supported by the experiments and opinions of able men who have adopted the same system. And first-in the experiment of Van Helmont, in five years, a willow of five pounds grew to weigh 169, and had caused a loss of only two ounces to the soil which bore it. But the 164 pounds which the willow had taken contained five pounds of ashes, which are due entirely to absorption, since the leaves and the other droppings of five years, which were not saved, would have given at least one pound of ashes, which makes up for, besides all that which, in spite of the sheet of lead which covered the top of the vessel in which the willow grew, it might have received in the waterings, and from other fortuitous circumstances. Boyle has repeated and confirmed this experiment in all its parts. Lampadius, in different isolated compartments, some filled with alumine, others with silex, other with [carbonate of] lime, all pure, has made plants to grow, of which the burning has yielded to analysis like results; and which, consequently, contained earths which were not in the soils which bore them. Saussure, in establishing that plants do not take in the soil more than a twentieth of their substance, in extract of mould and in carbonic acid, has necessarily established, by the same means, that almost the whole amount of fixed principles do not proceed from the soil. Bracannot has analyzed lichens, which contained more than half their weight of oxalate of lime-and he has observed others covered with crusts of carbonate of lime, when there was none of this earth in the neighborhood. Shrader, in burning plants grown in substances which did not con tain any earthy principle, has found in their ashes, earths and salts which were neither in the seeds sown, nor in the pulverized matters in which the plants grew. Lastly-the analyses of Saussure, though showing more of the carbonate of lime in the ashes of plants which grew on calcareous soils than on soils not calcareous, yet, nevertheless, they formed more than a sixth of the ashes from vegetables on silicious soils and Einheff has found sixty-five per cent of lime in the ashes of pines grown on silicious soil. The labors of science then confirin what we have above esta. blished, that plants, or the soil, form salts and earths. 38. The fertilizing effect of fallow, or ploughing, of moving and working the soils, prove still more that all these circumstances determine the formation of fertilizing principles, and probably of saline VOL. III. 17* 39. The formation of lime, like that of the saline principles necessary to plants, is an operation which employs all the forces of vegetationand these forces, directed to this formation, have no energy left to give a great development to plants: but when the vegetable finds the calcare. ous principles already formed in the soil, it makes use of them, and preserves all its forces to increase its own vigor and size. It would then result, from all that has been said, that lime modifies the texture of the soil-makes it more friable-invigorates it-ren ers it more permeable-gives it the power to better resist moisture as well as dryness-that it produces in the soil the humate of lime which en closes a powerful means of fertility-that lime increases much the energy of the soil and of plants to draw from the atmosphere the vola tile substances of which plants are composed, oxygen, hydrogen, ear. bon and azote that the limed soil in furnishing to plants the lime which they need, relieves the soil and plants from employing their powers to produce it-and finally, that lime promotes the formation of fixed substances, earthy or saline, necessary to vegetables. All t is whole of reciprocal action and reaction of lime, on the soil, plants, and atmosphere, explains in a plausible manner its fertilizing properties. We would, consequently, have nearly arrived at the resolving of an important agricultural problem, upon which were accumulated all these doubts. THE AMOUNT OF LIME TAKEN UP BY VEGETATION, 40. The ashes of plants from calcareous soils, or those which have been made so by manures, contain thirty per cent of the carbonate and phosphate of lime, which, by taking off the crop, is lost to the soil. But the product of limed land of middle quality, is during the two years of the course of crops, about 20,000 pounds of dry products to the hectare, which contain a little less than a hectolitre of lime in the calcareous compounds of the ashes. The vegetation has then used. half a hectolitre a year. But we have shown that there was necessary, on an average, three hectolitres per hectare each year. Vegetation then does not take up, in nature, but a sixth of the lime which is given profita. bly to the soil; the other five-sixths are lost, are carried away by the water, descend to the lower beds of earth, are combined, or serve to form other compounds, perhaps even the saline compounds, of which we have seen that lime so powerfully favors the formation. Another portion, also, without doubt, remains in the soil, and serves to form this reserve, which in the end dispenses, for many years, with the re. petition of liming. OF THE EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL BY LIMING. 41. "Lime," it is said, "only enriches the old men; or it enriches fathers and ruins sons." This is indeed what experience proves, when, on light soils, limed heavily, or without composts coming between, suc cessive grain crops have been made without rest, without alternations of grass crops, or without giving to the soil alimentary manures in suitable proportion. It is also what has happened when magnesia, mixed with lime, has carried to the soil its exhausting stimulus. But when lime has been used in moderation-when, without overburdening the land with exhausting crops, they have been alternated with green crops and when manure has been given in proportion to the products taken off-the prudent cultivator then sees continue the new fecundity which the lime has brought, without the soil showing any sign of exhaustion. No where has there been complaint made of argillaceous soils being damaged by lime; and the productiveness of light soils is sustained in every case that the lime was used in compost. In America, where the lime of oyster shells has taken the place of that of magnesian limestone, the complaints of the exhausting effects of lime have ceased. HEALTHINESS GIVEN TO THE SOIL AND TO THE COUNTRY BY Calcare. 42. The unhealthiness of a country is not caused by the accumula OUS AGENTS. |