No. 63.J 211 



writer undertook to make a compost in imitation of it, of lime and 

 sand and potash, and gave it as a top dressing to one of his fields, 

 with, as he believes, a decidedly beneficial effect. He used in that 

 case, a portion of caustic potash and some salaeratus, or subcarbonate 

 of potash, and Athens lime, all purchased in New-York and transported 

 in barrels. The result and further particulars, he has promised to 

 communicate to the editors of the " Cultivator," at Albany. The 

 other saline articles have been applied this autumn, (1842,) the ef- 

 fects to be ascertained next year. The soda employed was the white 

 soa-ash obtained from barilla, and the nitrate, the East India saltpe- 

 tre or nitrate of soda. 



A few husbandmen in this county have applied the leached or spent 

 ashes of the soap boilers. The article has been purchased in New- 

 York at one dollar to one dollar and a quarter, by the city cart load, 

 where wood ashes have been used; and at seventy-five cents to one 

 dollar, where barilla is the alkaline material in making soap. Dr. 

 Dana informs us (in his Muck Manual,) that the active ingredient in 

 spent wood ashes, is the silicate of potash; so where soda is employ- 

 ed, the residuum must contain the silicate of soda. As these ingre- 

 dients only enter into the composition of straw and the stalks of 

 plants, they are better for grass than grain. If applied to grain, 

 spent ashes should be mixed with barn-yard or other manure to pro- 

 duce a good crop. The writer has preferred the application of ground 

 glass as recommended by Mr. William Partridge, (Cultivator, vol. 

 IX, p. 112,) as containing a greater quantity of silicate of potash 

 than leached ashes, and that too in smaller bulk and at less expense. 



Manure is the life of agriculture. The foregoing articles enume- 

 rated, are the principal forms of manure employed in this part of our 

 country. Others may be found and introduced. Here and in other 

 parts of the state where land has been under cultivation a century or 

 more, the soil is exhausted and requires renovation, which may be 

 done by a judicious application of fertilizing ingredients. The study 

 of manures should be one of the employments of the farmer, to make 

 and mix and apply, as on these depend the fertility of his fields and 

 the value of his crops. Some farmers have erred by adopting and ad- 

 hering to some single article highly recommended, as lime, spent ashes, 

 &c. without reflecting that plants are composed of various and dif- 

 ferent elementary substances. The ingredients usually given to the 

 land as manures, are not appropriated in the forms applied, but are 

 first resolved into their elements, and becoming soluble in the mois- 

 ture of the earth, are absorbed, circulate with the sap, and give nour- 

 ishment to plants. 



GEOLOGY OF RICHMOND COUNTY. 



The basis of Staten-Island is a primitive magnesian rock, of green 

 serpentine, similar to the rocky peninsula of Hoboken in New-Jersey. 

 Some of it is hard and compact, and capable of taking a polish, while 

 other portions of it are soft and pass into talc and soapstone. Veins 

 of amianthus are found in it, and beautiful long fibrous asbestus. 

 Carbonate of magnesia, in a pulverulent form, has been collected 



