Science replies-You have lived for a few years on the native richness of your soil, which was the accumulation of a thousand years, from the decay of animals and vegetables. It is now mostly expended, and you must either adopt a scientific mode of tilling your lands, remove to Iowa or Texas, or starve where you are. The choice is placed before you.

To the eye of a scientific agriculturist, ten acres of peat bog is a more valuable appendage to one of our northern farms than would be the same number of acres of the richest Scioto bottoms. He views these bogs as the means provided to enrich our impoverished uplands, and also foresees the day that they may furnish a portion of the fuel needed in this cold climate.

Art considers no act more meritorious than to convert them into a potatoe field.

It is painful to see the reckless haste that is made to destroy their character and value by drainage and cultivation.

We have known Art to commit some serious blunders in regard to the mineralogical constitution of a soil where Science could see her way clearly. Without stopping to notice the numerous avaricious reveries that Art has been thrown into at the sight of glistening mica, pyrites or blende, in the limited scope of our acquaintance, we will refer to some of her errors under this head that have a more intimate relation to agriculture.

Some years since an excitement was raised in Trumbull county, by a report that a supply of sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris) had been found in Ellsworth. Splendid crystals for a cabinet were sent to the eastern states, and a distinguished professor gave correct information in regard to their being plaster. Speculative purchases of land were made in anticipation that abundant beds of this valuable article would be discovered in the vicinity. No such beds have, however, come to light.

It appears that the earth in that township is mostly the detritus of a broken down shale which contains some marine fossils, a portion of lime and pyrites, as well as other ingredients. The sulphur of the pyrites acted upon by the air is slowly converted into sulphuric acid, which then combines with the lime and forms the sulphate of lime or plaster. The process is constantly going on at a slow rate, and beautiful crystals form in the beds of shale and clay in the course of a few years, yet they afford no indication that beds of plaster rock are in that vicinity.

Again, Art concludes, that if she locate in a limestone formation she is sure to obtain good lands, abounding in lime, with a soil naturally adapted to the production of wheat. In this she may be mistaken. A few years since, several farmers in the Miami Valley complained that their soil was not as good as they expected, and did not yield as large crops of wheat as their neigh

bors', although in the same vicinity, and in the midst of a limestone formation.

A scientific examination of the soils from several localities in the vicinity by a member of the late Geological Board of Ohio,* disclosed the fact that the soils of these defective farms were made up of the detritus from a primitive region, containing hardly a vestige of lime, and composed mostly of argillaceous and silicious materials, notwithstanding the rocks beneath were carbonate of lime. At his suggestion a top dressing of lime was furnished, and the lands became fertile and productive. Art would never have suspected that in the midst of a limestone region the cause of sterility in the soil could be the absence of that mineral. Instances the reverse of this occasionally occur in some of the northern parts of Ohio, which are of a different geological formation, where limestone is not found in place. As an instance, certain farms in Rockport and Olmsted, along the course of Rocky river, in the county of Cuyahoga, are known to be more favorable for the production of wheat than many of the claylands in the same townships, though the soil presents no very flattering appearance to the eyes of Art.

To Science the cause is evident; the boulders large and small, are principally limestone, and the soil contains a large per centage of lime mixed with clay and sand. Bad tillage and a grasping system of husbandry are, however, rapidly exhausting these lands of their vegetable and animal matter, and lime alone will not render lands fertile that are deficient in these ingredients. When Science shall be permitted to control the operations on these lands, understanding the matter, she will so manage as to add from time to time to the exhausted soils, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, by dressing with manure and plaster, turning in green crops, particularly clover, and by attention to a correct routine of crops, she will be constantly raising the condition of the soil, and at the same time obtaining productive crops in re

turn.

Northern Ohio is becoming exhausted under the course pursued by Art. Few farms will produce half the crops at the end of twenty years' cultivation that they would when first cleared from the forests. Such results are not necessary. Under skillful and scientific management, they should yield more abundantly. We go farther and assert that even when thus exhausted, they may be reclaimed in five years by good management and placed in a better condition than when taken from the hand of nature-at the same time the cultivator may obtain annually better rewards for his labor than he that follows the exhausting course of Art. At such an assertion we are aware Art is disposed to express

her doubts. Science has already investigated the subject, and discovered,

First, That the evil consists primarily in a deficient quantity of lime in the soil, and after a few years of bad farming, a deficiency also of animal and vegetable matter.

Second, That the only remedy is to supply the soil with those deficient materials.

Art, at once assures us that lime cannot be procured in quantities and at a price that will admit of its being employed extensively for such a purpose, and that it would be hopeless to attempt to procure animal and vegetable matter sufficient to enrich a common farm.

Science, more calculating, takes the subject under consideration. She ascertains that it would require from 100 to 200 bushels of lime to effect an essential and permanent change in the quality of one acre of our clay lands. This would cost from $25 to $50; but that from one or two bushels of Plaster of Paris, correctly employed, would answer an equally good or better purpose. This might cost seventy-five cents.

TO GUARD SHEEP FROM THE DEPREDATION OF

DOGS.

The American Agriculturist recommends the active, red, sharp horned cattle of New England. First put a few active cows with their sucking calves into the pastures with the flock, with four or five three year old steers. Take a gentle dog into the field with a long light cord about his neck, the cord held in the person's hand, and then set him on the sheep. The cows will at once proceed to attack the dog in defence of their calves, and the steers will follow their example. The sheep will retreat behind them. A few exercises of this kind will be sufficient to break in the steers, when the cows may be removed from the pasture. They will then gore any dog who attempts to molest the sheep. It is well known that a sheep killing dog, like all sheep stealers, are great cowards, and will flee on the first appearance of danger.

WHAT FOOD WILL PRODUCE THE MOST WOOL.-The Boston Cultivator maintains that that food which contains the most albumen is the best for sheep. Hence, peas, beans, and vetches may be regarded as those substances in which the most material is found which is peculiarly adapted to the growth of wool.

MERINO SHEEP.

The Hon. William Jarvis, in a letter published in the Boston Cultivator, maintains that the Paular Merino sheep are not in existence, and that all those persons who pretend to breed this variety are either deceiving themselves or trying to deceive others. He maintains, moreover, that it is impossible to increase the weight of the merino fleece over 7 or 9 lbs. without injury to its properties. This is asserted on an experience of thirty-five years. We desire our patrons should attend to these statements; as we have some friends whom we believe have proved that they possess the Paular sheep, and we know, at any rate, that these sheep yielded a fleece much heavier than Mr. Jarvis states, and that too, equal in fineness to any Saxon in the state. It is undoubtedly true that the light fleece of the Saxon is finer than the Merino as usually bred, but take the best bred Merinos of this state and they compare well with the best imported Saxons. We have in our mind the late Mr. Groves' flock. The fibre though it may possess a greater silkiness is not after all finer than that of the best Merino, whose fleece is four times heavier.

A GOOD METHOD OF COOKING POTATOES.

Mr. Norton, in one of his letters published in the Albany Cultivator, describes the Copenhagen method of cooking potatoes for stock. The potatoes are well washed and steamed, and while still hot cut or crushed by a revolving cylinder furnished with knives. To this pulp is then added three pounds of ground malt for every one hundred pounds of mashed potatoe. This mixture, at the temperature of 150°, is then kept in motion for four or five hours, or until it has acquired a sweet taste. It is then ready for use. Its advantages are, 1. that it is richer food for milk cows than thrice the quantity of potatoes in a raw state; 2. that it is excellent food for fattening cattle and sheep, and for winter food.

EDITORIAL NOTICES.

CORN CULTURE AND THE SOAKING OF SEEDS IN SALINE SOLUTIONS.— We call the attention of our readers to the article on the cultivation of corn, by Mr. Hopkins, and to the succeeding one on the advantage of soaking seeds in saline solutions, preparatory to planting or sowing, by Dr. N. S. Davis, of Binghamton. We wish them to notice the nearly exact coincidence in their views on this subject. Mr. Hopkins is a successful farmer and an accurate observer. Dr. Davis, besides being a careful experimenter, is also an acute observer, and is possessed of a mind accustomed to the process of analysis When we find two persons of their skill and judgment to agree in their views of the nature of any proposed practice, we may with safety place confidence in the results of their experience and observation.

In this conection, we take pleasure in observing the increased interest with wich the maize crop is regarded. There has been in the husbandry of this country a remarkable proneness to imitate the English. Most of our periodicals fostered this inclination. It seemed that writers and farmers never took the trouble to inquire in what respects England differed from the United States in climate. Besides they appeared to be ignorant of the fact, that the striking features in English husbandry were forced upon that country, and that it grew out of the physical condition of the country itself, and is not that husbandry which would be preferred or followed, provided it could have a choice. Let the husbandry of this country too, be such as naturally grows out of our climate, without any attempt to force upon it what is esteemed abroad, without due regard to circumstances.

THE PROMOTION OF VEGETATION BY ELECTRO-GALVANIC ACTION.— In order that our readers may understand how and to what extent electricity may be employed in promoting vegetation, it is only necessary that they should comprehend what takes place when a galvanic battery is in action. Thus, when a saline solution is submitted to it, it is decomposed; suppose it is sulphate of soda. In this, and in all instances of a similar combination, the compound will be resolved into its elements; the acid will appear at one pole of the battery and the soda at the other. The effect