1856.] Abhes as Manure, etc. 247 



thereby render the cold and dense soil of mossy and wet places warm and 

 porous ; they are destructive to many ravaging insects ; their alkaline 

 elements expedite the process of breaking down and dissolving the dense 

 vegetable fibres and stalks of the compost heap ; and they are especially 

 applicable to clayey lands, in order to render the soil porous and friable ; 

 while they supply to loamy lands the element of silica, so necessary to 

 give hardness and stiifness to stalks of corn, and straw of grain, to pre- 

 vent it from falling when the heads become filled. 



Wheat contains a large proportion of potash ; and about sixty per 

 cent, of the ash of corn is fuund to be carbonate of potash ; while one- 

 half of the earthy matter of the potato is pure potash. This element is, 

 therefore, demanded by our agricultural products in such abundance as 

 to make its supply an object of the first importance in the consideration 

 of every careful and intelligent farmer. And the potash, so essential to 

 the full development of our most desirable crops, is not abundantly sup- 

 plied to our soil in its geologic constitution ; this element must therefore 

 be, in a great measure, supplied by our manures. In granitic reiiions, 

 potash is obtained in the soil by the dissolution of the feldspar ; but^here 

 we have no such sources of supply. AVe should therefore save our 

 wood-ashes with great care, and apply them judiciously and systematic- 

 ally to those crops in whose vegetable composition their elements are so 

 indispensable, and our abundant reward will be found in the increased 

 abundance of the harvest. 



GRADUAL RISE OF N E WF U x\D L A N D ABOVE THE SEA. 



It is a fact worthy of notice, that the whole of the land in and about 

 the neighborhood of Conception Bay, very probably the whole island, is 

 rising out of the ocean at a rate which promises, at no very distant day, 

 materially to afi"ect, if not to render useless, many of the best harbors 

 we have now on the coast. At Port-de-Grave a s:^ries of observations 

 has been made, which undeniably prove the rapid displacement of the 

 sea-level in the vicinity. Several large flat rocks, over which schooners 

 might pass thirty or forty years ago with the greatest facilitv, are now 

 approaching the surface, the water being scarcely navigable for a skiff. 

 At a place called the Cosh, at the head of Bay Roberts, upward of a 

 mile from the sea-shore, and at several feet above its level, covered with 

 five or six feet of vegetable mold, there is a perfect beach, the stones 

 being rounded, of a moderate size, and in all respects similar to those 

 now found in the adjacent Id^n^i-v^Si^h^s.—Neicfoundland Times. 



