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AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL LEE, !H. D., Editor.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1859.
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.
There is no department of political economy
or human industry, that so abounds in gross er
rors and misrepresentations, as what are called
“ official statements - ’ relating to agricultural
statistics. The very word “ statistics” is of re
cent origin in our language or any other; and
the science is confessedly in its infancy. It is,
however, useful in many respects, when not
perverted nor vitiated by falsehoods. More un
truths may be published to the world on one
page of figures, than can be printed on twenty
pages of words of the same size. We have
been impressed by this fact on reading the lTm
pending Crisis of the South," by 11. R. Helper,
in which the industrial statistics of the North
and South, as shown by the last United States
census, occupy a conspicuous place. On page
17 lie says: "And here we may remark, that
the statistics which we propose to offer, like
those already given, have been obtained from of
ficial sources, and may, therefore, be relied on
as correct.” Table 8 professes to give a correct
account of the “actual crops per acre on the
average in the free and in the slave States, in
1850.” The crops cited are wheat, oats, rye,
Indian corn and Irish potatoes; and the state
ment is made in bushels per acre. After giving
his table of figures, the author says: “ Examine
the table at large and you will perceive that,
while Massachusetts produces sixteen bushels
of wheat to tho acre, Virgiuia produces only
seven; that Pennsylvania produces fifteen, and
Georgia only five; that, while lowa produces
thirty-six bushels of oats per acre, Mississippi
produces only twelve; that Rhode Island pro
duces thirty and North Carolina only ton; that,
while Ohio produces twenty-five bushels of rye
per acre, Kentucky produces only seven ; that
Vermont produces twenty and Tennessee only
seven; that, while Connecticut produces forty
bushels of corn per acre, Texas produces only
twenty; that New Jersey produces thirty-three
and South Carolina only eleven; that, while
New Hampshire produces two hundred and
twenty bushels of Irish potatoes to the acre, Ma
ryland produces only seventy-five; that Michigan
produces one hundred and forty, and Alabama
only sixty.”
Now, what must every fair-minded man, both
North and South, think of the above statistics
and their author, when his attention is called to
tho undeniable fact that the census ol 1850 does
not return the y ield per acre of either wheat, rye,
oats, com, Irish potatoes, or any other crop, in
any State whatever. Tho statements, as pre
sented by Mr. Helper, are but little short of
forgery, for he places “ 1850 ” at the head of the
table, where these so-called official returns are
given. In not one census, from 1790 to 1850,
inclusive, has the yield per acre of any one crop
ever been given. The writer had charge of the
Agricultural Bureau in 1849, when the schedules
for collecting the statistics of tho agriculture of
the United States in 1850 were arranged, and
was consulted in the matter. It is not probable
that the author of the “ Impending Crisis" fabri
cated this table, so false in its figures and de
signedly injurious to the South; but most likely
some other abolitionist performed the dirty work.
In what light does this disclosure place the
Hon. William H. Seward, whose endorsement
on the cover of Helper’s book reads as follows:
“ I have read 1 The Impending Crisis of the
South’ with deep attention. It seems to me a
work of great merit, rich, yet accurate in statis
tical information, and logical in analysis.”
Its general aceurac}' and the soundness of its
logic may be inferred, when the reader is in
formed that the author labors long to make out
an indebtedness on the part of slave holders to
those who own no slaves in the South, of over
seven and a half billion dollars , for the alleged
depreciation in the market value of their farm
ing lands! The book is something of a curiosi
ty in abolition extravagance and absurdity; yet
we are not surprised that sixty-eight members
of the House of Representatives, U.S. Senator
and other distinguished characters of the Black
Republican stripe should regard it as a most tel
ling production in behalf of anti-slavery fanati
cism. The way to meet it, is not to prohibit its
circulation as an incendiary publication, but to
show its want of truth and the utter impracti
bility of its scheme to send some four million
slaves to Africa, that white laboring persons
may till their places. The appeal to the latter
to get rid of negroes on all rice, cotton and su
gar plantations, that free white men may do
their work, is not likely to excite any special ad
miration. It would not be a difficult task to
answer every argument of this elaborate work
fairly on its merits, and show that the industrial
statistics relied on to prove that, slavery is un
profitable and incompatible with solid progress,
are either misrepresented, misunderstood, or
both. Losses are charged to the account of
slavery, with which it haS no more connection
than with late frosts in spring and early frosts
in autumn. Sifted to the bottom, three-fourths
of all the evils ascribed to slave labor are seen
to arise from the equally unjust and unwise re
strictions thrown upon the use of this kind of
productive.industry by blind, unreasoning pre
judice. These restrictions must give way, or
the one milliont hree hundred thousand voters
who cast their suffrages for Fremont, and who
affect to believe that “the soil itself soon sickens
and dies beneath the unnatural tread of the
slave,” will soon swell their numbers sufficient
ly to have and hold the government in their
own hands. For the friends of the institution
to practice eithei concealment or exclusiveness,
is to place themselves in the wrong, invite at
tack, and jeopard the most vital interests of tho
South. To secure the confidence of all non-slave
XKX govsnut VXS&B MTU EIB.KSIDK.
holders, free and open discussion, not distrust
and timidity, should characterize our public pol
ioy.
The silly estimates of Mr Browne of the agri
cultural department of the Patent Office, of the
value of all the different crops given in the Uni
ted States, furnish anti-slavery writers with
their best arguments against the value of slave
labor for agricultural purposes. In 1848, com
missioner Burke set down the hay crop as worth
eight dollars a ton to the producers, who live
mainly in the free States. In that year, or ear
ly in 1849, we proved beyond the reach of cavil
both in the Genesee Farmer and Southern Culti
vator, that his estimate at that time was too
high by one half. Mr. Browne has set down
the average value of hay to American farmers
at eleven dollars twenty cents a ton. For more
than twenty years some twenty thousand horses
have been employed on the Erie canal in trans
portation during the summer, which are boarded
by the large companies that own them, in win
ter where their keep is cheapest. Experience
has proved that a farmer can do better to feed
these horses on hay at five dollars a ton, and
throw in the labor of watering them, he getting
their manure, than feed his hay to sheep and
produce wool and mutton; or to young neat
stock, and thereby rear heifers and steers to be
sold when three years old; or to dairy cows, of
which New York contains about one million. It
is by estimating hay at two prices as hag, and
then estimating the live stock, wool and dairy
products at high figures, formed by hay and oth
er crops twice estimated, that northern agricul
ture is made to excel that of the south. It is
by this system of statistics that Helper proves
that tho hay crop of the free states is worth
more than the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay, hemp,
and cane-sugar of the slave states.
Ohio grows nearly eighty million bushels of
corn a year; at least such is the estimate, which
is very properly credited to her industry and
enterprise at its full value. This done, the
credit for this staple should cease; but instead
of that, full credit is taken for all the fat hogs
and cattle, and all the whiskey, produced by
the consumption of this identical corn. Esti
mated over and over again as grain, as whiskey
still-slop, pork, beef, lard, tallow and hides,
Ohio corn, like her hay, and that of New York,
counts up rapidly in all agricultural compari
sons. But the most deceptive and extravagant
industrial statistics in all America, and probably
in the world, are manufactured in the state cen
sus of Massachusetts, for 1855. It would seem
that, industrious and skillful as her citizens have
been for many generations, they somehow con
trived to augment their productive labor to tho
extent ol about one hundred and fifty million
dollars a year, in the short space of five years
from 1850 to 1855 ! How this was done, we
will explain at another time when we have her
last state census before us, which we have not
at present. These official statistics are the
handiwork of sectional politicians who resort to
every fair and every foul means to fill the minds
oi working classes at the North with self-esteem
and conceit, united to a very low estimate of the
intelligence, industry, and strength of the
planting States. John Brown was a represent
ative man not less in his bitterness, than in his
policy toward tho slaveholders of Virginia and
tho South. Much of this lamentable bitterness,
which tolle d bells and held prayer-meetings at
Brown’s execution, can be traced to that system
of false statistics which we have not ceased to
expose and condemn from its beginning. When
Virginia sends her tobacco to market, and other
southern States their cotton, rice, hemp, and
sugar, these crops are set down at their cash
returns, and once only. When the millers of
Massachusetts import from the West five mil
lion bushels of wheat worth a dollar and a half
a bushel in Boston, for growing which the west
ern farmers have full credit in their local agri
cultural statisiics, Massachusetts industry cred
its itself with having produced eight million
dollars worth of flour, simply because it has
expended not over three hundred thousand dol
lars' worth of labor in passing this imported
wheat between the upper and nether millstones.
As we intend to review the industrial statistics
of that State, and of New York, carefully and
critically, nothing more need bo said on that
head at this time.
Truth is national, and will befriend all sound
interests; while falsehood begets sectional strife
and hatred, and tends directly to all the horrors
of civil war. It was by circulating false reports
concerning Masonry, that Mr. Seward was first
made a Senator and then Governor of the State
of New Yo rk, and his friend Thublow Weed,
State Printer, and the founder of the Albany
Evening Journal. The early success of tho An
ti-masonic schemers, induced Joseph Smith, of
Ontario county, to invent the Golden Bible
of Mormonism, one of the first printed copies of
which fell into our hands. Mormonism having
flourished about as well as Anti-masonry, the
Misses Fox, of Rochester, invented the mysteri
ous art of Spiritualism.went to New York and set
up business under the patronage of the Tribune
—giving the most satisfactory information about
friends and foes in the spirit-world for a trifling
consideration. These girls have turned not on
ly tables, but the heads of learned Judges on the
bench, United States Senators, and even a
mind so s -ientific and acute as that of the late
Dr. Hare of Philadelphia. Helper is ambitious
to become a second Joseph Smith among tho
poor white people at the South; and if he follows
the teachings of Greeley, Weed and Seward,
he will probably succeed; for these three men
have done more than all others to create, diffuse
and intensity the anti-slavery feeling of the coun
try.
—
Corn and Cob Meal. —Persons feeding corn
to live stock, will find it good economy to grind
corn and cobs together, and feed the coarse
meal thus formed in place of feeding whole corn
alone. The bulk of the cob is perhaps more im
portant than its nutrient elements.
COTTON CULTURE IN ALGERIA.
A letter recently received from Tunis by a
gentleman in Philadelphia, says that the attempt
to raise cotton in that country has resulted in a
failure, both in the hands of private planters,
and those of an English Arab Company engaged
in the experiment. This is the second failure.
“ Cause, the want of organized and controllable
labor.”
Slowly the English and French are learning
wisdom from experience in their attempts to pros'
eeute tropical agriculture with free laborers,who
cannot be governed by any mind but their own.
In temperate and cold climates, there are exter
nal influences which sternly impose on all men
the necessity of manual labor far beyond what
exists in tropical and semi-tropical regions. Un
der the constant pressure of this necessity, hab
its of greater industry and economy are formed,
so that steady employment becomes a kind Os
second mature in the very constitution of the
people, no matter what their color or race. Os
course, a stupid, ignorant, brute-like community,
whatever may be the rigors of the climate, or
the poverty of the soil, will do less for them
selves and mankind at large,,than one possess
ing higher mental gifts and a more advanced
civilization, with its elevated standard of social
and physical comfort. But the best industrial
results in the production of all agricultural sta
ples, where the summers have a tropical heat,
are attained by making the white man master,
and tho black man a servant for life.
This arrangement is in no respect artificial in
its elements, but the result of laws that spring
directly from an Allwise Providence. Success
ful planting in Africa, as in America, requires
an intelligent white man to direct the labor to
be performed, and both able-bodied and obedient
operatives to execute the work of tillage, and of
gathering the crop. At present, and for many
years to come, these conditions cannot be fulfill
ed in the native land of the African. Let us
study them in our own country.
There is in tho Southern States a largo sur
plus of intelligent white men capable of directing
three or four times more field operatives than
they now possess. Indeed, our white popula
tion is nearly eight millions ; and yet their pro
duction of cotton, sugar, rice, corn, and tobacco,
is limited in a good degree to the slave force
available for agricultural purposes. This fact
should never be lost sight of in considering the
productive industry of the planting States. Com
pared with the number of whites and with their
eight hundred and fifty-one thousand square
miles of slave territory, the number of available
field hands is exceedingly small. Hence, our
agricultural operations are carried on to a great
disadvantage, from tho lack of good roads and
bridges, of mechanics, manufacturers, merchants
churches, schools, and many other useful appli
ances in the creation of wealth, and the attain
ment of happiness.
Because, with a very small industrial force, as
compared with the North, working under nu
merous discouragements, and severe legal re
strictions on our natural right to introduce trop
ical operatives for tho cultivation of tropical sta
ples, we have not improved our land more than
the North, our system of labor is thoughtlessly
condemned by men who have never studied it!
Let the planters of the South at least master the
economical problems involved in this kind of
productive industry. Never was there a sub.
ject more misrepresented, misunderstood, and
sophistically treated, in the whole history of the
human family. Why is it that, while the people
of the North in theory condemn negro slavery
as do the people of Great Britain, France and
Germany; in practice, they give it the most sub
stantial and enduring support? We want the
reader to answer this question to his own satis
faction Is their theory wrong? or is their prac
tice wrong ? for both cannot be right.
Why is the slave labor that produces so much
cotton, corn, rice, sugar, and tobacco, every
where patronized by anti-slavery persons and
communities? The only answer that can be
given to this question is, that they purchase and
consume all the products of negro slavery from
a deep and abiding conviction that it is best and
right for them to do so. Their every-day acts
aro the dictates of their sound judgment and
common sense. The truth is patent, that negro
slavery rests far less on the will and interests
of slaveholders, than on the sound common
sense of all Christian nations, who obey the voice
of Nature, and of nature’s God, in spite of false
theories, and give to slave labor in agriculture
their undivided support—their unanimous ap
proval.
The general want of cotton for wearing ap
parel, bedding and a thousand domestic uses,
is no fictitious demand that will pass off in a
sow days or years; but a want that will attach
to tho nakedness of every child that shall be
born in all coming time. Negro slavery, not by
the wit, nor by the wickedness of man, but by
tho inscrutable will of God, supplies this univer
sal want. All the patient, cultivated industry
of nearly three hundred millions in Europe, alj
their capital and talent combined, have signally
failed to drive proscribed negro slaves out of
successful competition in furnishing the great
markets of the world with tropical staples. It is
not Cotton, but Negro Slavery that is king. Its
dominion, over the production of coffee, rice and
sugar, is as firm and lasting in all the attributes
of industrial sovereignty, as in the cultivation
of cotton. Hence wo conclude, that all anti
slavery speculations are wrong; that the univer
sal practice of patronizing slave labor is right, is
wise, and will endure as long as the world
stands. Abolition theories must be corrected.
«»> -
Wheat and Oats. —The recent cold weather,
following rains, lia3 materially damaged the
young wheat plants in this and the adjoining
States. Frozen water has lifted the tender
rootlets out of the ground in many places, so
that a few hour’s sun and drying wind have quite
destroyed them.
Alston - , Fairfield Distrut, 8. C., I
Dec. 9, 1559. )'
Dr. Daxiel Lee : Dear Sir: I write to
you for some information. I wish to know your
opinion in regard to the different manures now
advertised for sale; or, in other words, of
all the preparations, which would you prefer to
buy as the most soleable? I see you think very
few of them are to be relied on. We have
Mapes’, Rhodes’, Hoyt’s Superphosphates; which
would you prefer ? We have Peruvian, Elite,
Columbian Guano and others, for sale, with ad
vocates for each kind.
Os the above named manures, which would
yon, as a farmer, purchase ? Will you please
answer through the Field and Fireside ?
J. M. G.
It is hardly fitting that we undertake to sit in
judgment on the relative merits and demerits of
the numerous commercial manures now of
fered for sale. Nothing short of large expe
rience with them, or a most searching analysis,
would justify the expression of a general opin
ion on the subject. We shall, however, from
time to time, attempt to inculcate such views
and principles as will enable every reader of
our paper to judge wisely for himself what fer
tilizers to purchase, and how much of each. —
There is something of a risk in buying substan
ces, the precise composition of which is not
known. In this money-getting age where it is
easy to sell one man a rich phosphate or guano,
and another man a worthless article, all should
be cautious in trusting certificates. Better deal
with perfectly honest parties, if you can find
such.
- -
Bell Town, East Tenn., Nov. 20, 1859.
Dr. Lee —Dear Sir: Please inform me, by let
ter or through the Field and Fireside, the reme
dy, if any, to prevent the ravages of Hessian
fly in wheat. It is thought that early sown
wheat is more likely to be injured by the fly than
wheat later sown ; but late wheat is more like
ly to be injured by rust.
Any information on the matter will be thank
fully received. Yours, respectfully,
B. F. Barksdale.
Early sown wheat is more likely to be attack
ed by the Hessian fly in the fall at the North
than late sown: but in this part of the South,
wheat is generally put into the ground too late
for this insect to deposit its eggs on the leaves
of the plant before spring. There is no prevent
ive of this misfortune, no more than there is of
rust in hot damp weather.
[For the Southern Field and Fireside.]
CULTIVATION OF COTTON.
Me. Editor :—As Cotton is King, and many
of the readers of the Field and Fireside are
more or less engagod in the cultivation of cotton,
I propose to make a few suggestions upon that
branch of agriculture, which may interest inex
perienced cotton planters.
The land should be broken flue and deep in
the preparation; subsoil, if a fine clay subsoil;
throw up high beds for the purpose of drying
the land in early spring, which not only neutral
izes the acid, but creates a warmth in the soil,
so necessary to start the young plant. If plant
ing upon high dry land, the beds should be
plowed down at the time of planting, and, in the
cultivation, the land should be kept as level be
tween rows as possible, in order to keep up a
free circulation of moisture during a dry season,
to prevent the plant from shading its forms. If
planted upon low flat lands, inclined to bo wet,
it should lie planted upon beds as high as pos
sible, and in the cultivation the middle or water
furrow should bo kept open to drain off the sur
plus water, so that the beds may have warmth
and dryness, so essential to the cotton plant.
In a high latitude for cotton it should be plant
ed on beds as high as potato ridges and kept so
in the cultivation by keeping the water furrow
well open, which not only frees it from all ob
noxious acids, but increases the warmth of the
land at least one degree, causing it to take an
earlier start in spring. The land should be
plowed as shallow as possible in the cultivation,
after the plant commences fruiting, with light
harrows or sweeps, with the wings set flat to
the ground, seiving the dirt over the wings in
stead of throwing it like a shovel plow or solid
sweep, as deep culture at this stage of the
plant severs the small roots or feeders, causing
it to shed its first fruit, which ought to be se
cured. In all light, loose and sandy soils, cot
ton should be cultivated with very light har
rows or sweeps, set very flat, stirring the land
as shallow as possible, but frequently, as such
lands are already too porous to produce a heavy
crop of fruit.
The land should be stirred as soon as possible
after every heavy shower, to prevent its forming
a crust, opening the surface soil in order for a
free admittance of all the gases to feed the
plants and enrich the soil.
These are general rules, but it will be neces
sary for the planter to vary these rules and use
some discretion; as, for instance, in case of a
long wet spell upon very stiff clay soil, running
the soil together, it would bo necessary to give
it a moderately deep plowing, although it would
break many of the small roots of the cotton
plant. To make cotton mature well beforo frost,
it should be left very thick in the drill, especial
ly in a short climate for cotton or bottom lands,
as many plants together have a tendency to re
duce the sap in the weed, causing an earlier ma
turity. By deepening and enriching the soil and
surface culture, I have produced a stalk of cot
ton this year with 523 bolls, only four feet high.
It is true that it was a very highly improved va
riety; yet the ordinary mode of culture would
not have produced so much fruit.
Every planter should read and study agricul
tural papers; it makes them think and act and
makes farming interesting. *
I regret to see so many farmers opposed to
book farming. It is agricultural science that en
ables the cotton planter to raise cotton success
fully where it was once thought it would not
mature, and to make the stiffest clay soil soft
and friable.
Yours, truly, David Dickson.
Oxford, Ga., Dec. 12th, 1859.
[For the Southern F'ield and Fireside.]
RABUN AS IT IS.
Blue Ridge, Georgia, December, 1859.
Mu. Editor:— Rabun county is undoubtedly
the best climate in the world. It restores tho
iuvalids like magic—they scarcely realize their
restoration. The beautiful mountain scenery is
not to be surpassed anywhere. The grand Am
acolah Falls, near Capt. Dillard’s, are most beau
tiful. They aro six miles from Clayton, and
twelve from Tallulah Falls. Their falls aro not
as high as Tallulah; but the scenery all about
Amacolah is grand and charming. No county
can excel Rabun for stock farms. The cove
lands are exceedingly rich and productive, and
even on the mountains, w'ith lazy, bad cultiva
j tion, the crops are good, and wheat, rye, and oats
yield abundantly. Herd-grass and clover can
not be excelled anywhere. The meadows are
fine, notwithstanding it has had the laziest pop
ulation in Georgia; but the first settlers are mov
ing rapidly to Texas and Arkansas. There are
three kinds of large native grapes, exclusive of
the summer grapes that grow wild in Rabun.
There is a large black grape, very large bunches,
and sweet, and there is the Scuppemong in
great perfection. The other kind is a largo,
round grape, pale red—all of these grapes are
as large as the Isabella, with a thin skin, and
very sweet. The peaches and apples have hit
| three years in succession in my orchards, and a
great profusion of both, when they had no fruit
|in Habersham, (the adjoining county.) They
! raise an immense number of sheep, with no ex
: pense but occasionally salting them, and on Wil
liam Carr’s plantation, near Mud Creek, it is a
sight worth seeing, the innumerable droves of
mules, old and young; horses of all sizes—the
majority with bells on—feasting on the luxuriant
mountain grass and wild pea-vines, and their
beautiful, slick, shining hair shows that they
have lived bountifully. The owners of these
animals salt them occasionally, and there is no
telling what their stock would be if they had a
Peters. What a land of beauty and plenty!
As to the mineral, it abounds in rich gold and
copper ore on the surface of the soil, but has
not been worked, because it was Rabun. The
mineral water is good, but has not been analyzed.
The common free stone water is so cold and
pure that the mineral water is not appreciated
or attended to. The chestnut mast and acorns
on the mountains supply the hogs with food
until spring. , Naomi.
STOCK FEEDING.
Os the various methods employed by the
farmer for the purpose of realizing a profit on
his agricultural produce, that which refers to the
fattening of stock is especially deserving of his
attention. The season having arrived when the
free use of roots is employed for this purpose, it
will bo found that a limited supply of turnips,
with oilcake at the rate of two pounds per day,
will bring the animals forward quicker than up
on turnips alone. It is important to bo able to
determine how this process may be carried on
according to those principles best adapted to the
constitution of the animal and advantageous to
himself. This process will bo considerably hast
ened or retarded, in proportion to the different
substances used for the purpose. In supplying
feeding cattle with food, it is necessary that the
amount supplied shall contain a sufficient quan
tity of nutritive matter. The nutritive value of
turnips may in a general way be estimated ac
cording to the amount of nitrogen which they
contain. From analyses we may gather that the
very best kinds do not uniformly contain a very
high per centage of nitrogen, and we cannot,
therefore, determine the nutritive qualities of
these roots by the amount of nitrogen which
they contain; but we can compare them with
other substances suitable for fattening cattle, and
may thereby judge of their nutritive value.—
When compared with rapecake, oilcake and cot
ton-seedcake, the per centage of water in white
globe turnips may be on an average stated thus:
91.41, and of flesh-forming matters 1.35. In
rapecake the per centage of moisture is 10.68,
flesh-forming matter "9 "'3; in oilcake the
amount of water is 12,44, and in cotton-seedcake
11.19; while we find that the flesh-forming mat
ter of oilcake is 27.28, and that of cotton-seed
cake 25.16. A glance at these figures will show
us the superior nutritive qualities possessed by
the various cakes over the turnip in those parts
of its composition to which we have referred.—
But inferior as it is in its nutritive qualities, we
cannot dispense with it as a food for feeding pur
poses, since we have known fat stock of the best
quality produced from the use of Swede turnips
and oat-straw. The stock to which wo here al
lude were fattened not on turnips alone, as they
had attained to that state of condition which
might be called very good on grass previous to
their being put upon the turnips. In the feed
ing districts of Scotland, where the turnip is
found to possess a greater amount of nutritious
qualities than in more southern districts, the
process of fattening has been known to be car
ried to a wonderful extent by the use of turnips
and oat-straw only; but the process of feeding
according to this method must necessarily be
prolonged. To accomplish it in the shortest pos
sible time is a consideration with the feeder. In
order, therefore, that the oilcake may produce
the largest effect, it is necessary that the stom
ach bo filled with food, to enable tho digestive
organs to perform their functions. The full ef
fect of the cake will be but imperfectly brought
out if the food be not of sufficient bulk. “It is
most necessary, therefore,” says one of our pro
fessors of chemistry, while writing on this sub
ject, “to study the bulk of the food, and to con
sider how to mix different substances in such a
manner as to adjust the proportions of nutritive
matter to their bulk.” Nutrition and bulk are,
therefore, properties inseparably connected with
tho process of fattening stock. Turnips beidfe
the most bulky of all kinds of food, and oilcake
the most nutritious, the process of feeding will
be hastened in tho shortest space of time by their
use. This mixture of food is found also adapt
ed not only to support or increase tho weight of
their bodies, but also to furnish the necessary
amount of carbon required for supporting respi
ration. The quantity of food consumed in main
taining the animal heat, and the constant waste
of the tissues, differs greatly according to cir
cumstances Thus a horse, according to Bous
singault, throws off daily 15 lbs. of carbon, in the
form of carbonic acid gas; and in the case of the
cow four-ninths of tho carbon contained in the
daily food is consumed during the process of re
spiration. —[ London Field.
■ - ♦»»
Make Farm Labor Fashionable.— -At the
base of the prosperity of any people lies this
great principle— make farm labor fashionable at
home. Educate, instruct, encourage ; and offer
all the incentives you can offer, to give interest
and dignity to labor at home. Enlist the heart
and tho intellect of tho family in the support of
a domestic system that will make labor attract
ive at the homestead. By means of tho power
ful influences of early home education, endea
vor to invest practical labor with an interest
that will cheer the heart of each member of the
family, and thereby you will give to your house
hold the grace, peace, refinement and attraction
which God designed a home should possess.
The truth is, we must talk more, think more,
work more, and act more, in reference to ques
tions relating to Home. .
The training and improvement of the pnj
cal, intellectual social and moral powers and sen
timents of the youth of our country, require
something more than the school-house, aca e '
my, college and university. The young mi
should receive judicious training in the ne ,
the garden, in the barn, in the workshop, m
parlor, in tho kitchen—in a word, around the
hearthstone at home.
Whatever intellectual attainments your so
may have acquired, he is unfit to go so
society if he has not had thrown around