FRIENDLY HINTS ON A VARIETY OF SUBJECTS. 



523 



FRIENDLY HINTS ON A VARIETY OF SUBJECTS. 



To John S. Skinneb, ' 



Editor of the Farmers' Library : 



I HAVE carefully read all the Numbers which I 

 have received of your valuable periodical, with 

 the greatest interest and pleasure ; and I con- 

 gratulate you, my dear sir, both on the style of 

 your publication and on tlie matter you have in- 

 ftised into it. It is precisely the kind of work 

 much wanted by the great body of the agricul- 

 turists of this Country, and is vrell adapted to the 

 rapid advancement, at this itme, of agricultural 

 knowledge. It is elementary, scientific, miscel- 

 laneous and practical. 



I have been particularly impressed with 

 Petzholdt's Lectures on Agricultural 

 Chemistry. They are written in a plain and 

 scientific style, and in the true spirit of inductive 

 philosophy, although I think some of his deduc- 

 tions are not quite legitimate. He is entitled to 

 the rare praise of having managedTfto invest his 

 subject with a deep interest by avoiding, as far 

 as practicable, the use of technical terms, and of 

 having succeeded in making his definitions and 

 explanations easily comprehensible to the most 

 unscientific reader. They may be, it is possible, 

 too elementary for many persons, but that very 

 fact must recommend them to a majority of your 

 subscribers. Petzholdt's fault, perhaps, is. that 

 like all men of science, he claims too much for 

 his own peculiar department. I question very 

 much whether productive farming can ever be 

 prosecuted according to strict chemical rules, for 

 there must be a limit to their application, and 

 that limit is the vital principle. The properties 

 of organic bodies, animal and vegetable, their 

 phenomena, and the laws which control their 

 action, belong rather to the Science of Physiolo- 

 gy, while Chemistry is more particularly appli- 

 cable to inorganic matter. I do not, however, 

 by these observations, mean to underrate the val- 

 ue of Chemical Science. Agriculture is greatly 

 indebted to it for its rapid progress and improve- 

 ment, and is destined. I hope, to derive farther 

 benefit from its researches. Still I cannot but 

 entertain the opinion that there are numerous 

 phenomena connected with vegetation and the 

 influence of manure, which entirely elude 

 chemical investigations. Their operations are 

 different from those of the laboratory, and can- 

 not be completely subjected to its laws. Petz- 

 holdt himself calls Agriculture an Art as well 

 as a Science ; and I imagine that much of its 

 most valuable practice with culture to be the re- 

 sult of pure inexperience : the best sj-stem of 

 cultivation in the world is to be found in Belgi- 

 (11111 



um and China, and the lands in these Countries 

 have been tilled with the same kind of imple- 

 ments and on the same plan and rotation of crops 

 for ages. 



Our experience in this part of the Country, 

 does not confirm Petzholdt's Theoiy of Fallow ; 

 but, on the contrary, if I understand it, is in con- 

 tradiction of it. We have, strictly speaking, no 

 fallow, as our fields are never idle. Our rota- 

 tion is almost unifonnly as follows, viz. : Clover, 

 Wheat, Tobacco, and Corn, Wheat, Oats, and 

 Clover. This system, with plaster sown in the 

 Clover, was introduced nearly 50 years ago, in 

 the form which I have mentioned, by Mr. John 

 Galloway, as a substitute for the old fallow -Jield 

 course, by which the lands had been impover 

 ished. There can be no doubt that the present 

 comparative fertility of our fields is due to Mr. 

 Galloway's system — that is, to the substitution 

 of the fallow-crop for the fallow-field ; for you 

 are aware that, owing to a most criminal neg- 

 lect of stock-raising, and of the ordinarj' care 

 elsewhere bestowed on the collection of ma- 

 nures and the formation of composts, the amount 

 of manure returned to the soil is quite insignifi- 

 cant, except that which is hoarded for Tobacco 

 ■beds : yet I believe there has been, and still is, 

 a progressive increase of fertility in our lands, 

 and I fancy that the crops, in this neighborhood, 

 of our great staples. Wheat and Tobacco, were 

 larger in 1845 than in any other previous year 

 within the memory of man. Petzholdt says 

 " the soil after pure falloxo is more productive 

 than after fallow-crops have been cultivated :" 

 and this, it must be confessed, is a fair deduction 

 from his premises. Nevertheless, we have 

 greatly improved our exhausted lauds, by the 

 substitution of fallow-crops for pure fallow. The 

 plaster has, doubtless, exerted some influence 

 in producing this amelioration, but, it is believ- 

 ed, not from its direct action on the soil, from the 

 fact that no great benefit has been observed to fol- 

 low its application to the land, or to other crops 

 than Clover; and the opinion is here pretty gen- 

 erally entertained that its principal advantages 

 result from its beneficial effects on Clover. — 

 Certainly it does not produce the same effects 

 on land where Clover is not cultivated as a fal- 

 low-crop. 



I shall not pretend to point out the precise 

 manner in which Clover acts as a fertilizer — bat 

 it is most likely by drawing the alkaline sili- 

 cates from the subsoil nearer to the surface. I 

 cannot however, agree with one of your re- 

 spectable contemporaries who speaks of restor- 



