194 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER.! 



[Jan. 13, 



]y in an incipient st;ige — ii.u-ing been made m 

 reterence lo a sinsrle crop. Al some fiiliire pe- 

 riod the result of these experiments may he- 

 come the suhjcct of a Communication to the So- 

 ciety, should it deteloi>e facts or information ol 

 sufiicient consequence. Jly sole object in men- 

 tioning this subject is to induce ot'iers to make 

 similar experimenls. They will require but 

 very liltle lime, land, or expense. 



6;i lime, as a manure, it should he remarked, 

 thai in I'ennsylvania it is as much in use almost 

 as Gypsum, "l am told that il is bouglit there 

 for 12^- cents the bushel, ll has not been much 

 used here — but if it should be asceriained that 



ficiently accurate for all the common purposes of hus- 

 liandry. 



In the field to be examined, take e:u(h a little be- 

 )ow the surface, from four separate placis, about 4 cz. 

 avoirdupois from eacli. Expose it to the sun, or before 

 the fire, till it is completely dry ; and turn it over fre- 

 quently that it may be well mixed together. From 

 the heap take exactly four ouncis, and pass this 

 through a fine sieve, which will allow all the particles 

 of sand and travel to escape, hut which will hold back 

 stones, small fibrous roots, and decayed wood. Weigh 

 the two parts separately, and take a note of each. 

 The stones and other bulky materials are then to be 

 examined apart from the roots and wood. If they are 

 hard and rough lo the touch, and scratch glass easily, 

 they are silicious or flinty ; if they are, without much 

 difficulty broken to pieces by the fingers, and can be 

 scraped by a knife to powder, they are aluminous or 

 clayey ; or if, when put in a wine glass and common 

 vinegar poured upon them, smalt air bubbles ascend to 

 the lop of the liquid, they arc calcareous. The finely 

 dividfd matter, which ran through the sir \ i\ mu?t next 

 undergo the test of experiment. After bci ig wrighed, 

 agitate the w-holc in water, till the earth l.e taken up 

 from the bottom and mechanically suspended, adding 

 ■water till this effect be produced. Allow the mass 

 then to settle for two or three minutes ; and in that 

 time the sandy particles shall have all sunk to the bot- 

 tom. Pour off the water, which wiU .Ihen contain the 

 clay in suspeusiou, and the insolulils earth arising: 

 from animal and vegetable Jecomposilion. The sand 

 should first be attended (o, and if from insptclion il be 

 thought either silicious or calcareous in its nature, the 

 requisite tests may he immediately applied. By this 

 time the mixture will have deposited al the bottom of 

 the vessel the clay, and other earths, with the insolu- 

 ble animal and vegetable matttr. After pouring off 

 the water, dry the srdiment, and apply a strong heat 

 by placing it on the bottom of a pot ignited to redness, 

 and the animal and vegetable matter will burn and 

 fly off in xriform products. The remainder lying in 

 the bottom will be found to consist of clay, magnesia, 

 or lime. To obtain accuracy, anotlicr 1-4 lb. of earth 

 should be taken from the Siime heap, and the whole 

 process gone over a second, a third, or even a fourth 

 |ime, that the operator may rectify any blunders he 

 ad previously commilled, and be satisfied as to the 

 'suits of his experiment. Me should prepare himself 

 ^%vith a pair of fine scales and a set of weights divided 

 at least into ounces and drachms. Although vinegar 

 will dttect limo by effervescence, it does not dissolve 

 It so effectually a; the nitric or muriatic acid ; small 

 quantities of which may be procured from the drug- 

 gists at no great expense- — Lcllers of Jlgricola. 



Pyoccss for analysing soils, given in Memoirs of Hie 

 JVfw-i'ork Board of JlgricuUurc^ vol. i, p. 7, of !he 

 Jippendix. 



1. .\ quantity of the soil, including gravelly pebbles 

 of the smallest kind, was pulverised iu Wedgewood's 

 mortar. 



2. Parcels of two hiindrnd grain? each, were separ- 

 ately weighed : three of them, if it w.as Intended to 

 ascertain the ]iroportinn of iron ; two, if not. 



3. One of the pai-cels was put into a crucible and 

 heated gradually, constantly stirring it with a dry pine 

 stick, until the stick become a little brownish from 

 the heat, on pressing it against the bottom of the 

 crucible. 



it is adapted to our soils, the present price oi il 

 would prohibit ils use. There can bo no doubt 

 ihat we can make lime as cheap as it is made in 

 Pennsylvania. The increased demand would be 

 very great, and the workers of limestone would 

 receive a greater profit from their enlarged bu 



idea of our becoming a manufacturing people, 

 I are now Ihe most largely engaged. The raercan- 

 'tilc capital has bccii drawn to a large amount 

 land continues to lluw into the mauufacluring 

 ! business. The iinal disposition winch was made 

 ['(d'ihe late Tarilf, liiat excited so much apprc- 



siness Ihan thev now get by their high price and jhension during the various stages of its debate 

 small amount of business. 



In the prosperity of our domestic and house- 

 hold manufactures we have great cause for ex- 

 ultation. Of liie former we may truly say, that 

 Ihe fondest expeclalions of its earliest Iriends 

 have been more than realized. Even Ihat class 

 of citizen*, who, a few years since, scouled Ihe 



4. The above was then carefully poured into the 

 scales and again weighed. What was deficient of the 

 iJOO grains, was set down as loaler. 



5. The parcel was then returned into the crucible, 

 and heated to a high red heat. It was iVequently stir- 

 red with a glass rod, and the heat was continued until 

 the mass presented no shining particles. After allow- 

 ing it to cool a little, it was returned into the scale- a- 

 gain, and what it wanted of its last weight al'ter being 

 dried, was set down for the animal and vegtlahlt mat- 

 ter. Part of this is undoubtedly water, but probably it 

 is not more than should always be considered as at- 

 tached to this part. It may here be added, that there > 

 will be no blackness in the appearance of the soil, if i' 

 is sufficiently heated. 



6. Let it now be poured in an assay glass, and adi 

 half a i;int of pure water to it. After repeated stirrin] 

 for ten minutes, let it stand Ibv about three minutes, t| 

 allow the silicious matter to settle. Then pour off al) 

 which stands over the silicious part into another glass 

 Dry this sediment in a high red heat, weigh it, and sej 

 it down for tlie silex. 



7. Let Ihe part which was transferred to anothei 

 g'ass, stand until it settles, having the liquid part clear. 

 Pour off the liquid into another glass, dry this sediment 

 with a high red heat, weigh it, and set it down lor thei 

 aUimivous part. 



S. The remaining liquid was then evaporated in a , 

 glass evaporating dish. The solid residuum was scrap 

 td off, and weighed for Ihe soluble salts. 



9. The other parcel of 2 jO grains was put into a Floi- 

 erce flask, in which half a gill of equal portions of ip'- 

 riatic acid and water had previously been poured, »ud 

 which had also been balanci d by weights in the sialt . 

 After allowing itTo stand about three hours, it w?fi as- 

 certained how much less than 200 grains was to be add- 

 ed to the weight, in order lo balance the flask. This 

 was considered as the weight of the carbonic acil that 

 had been expelled. Then by the table of comtonent 

 par'.s, as 45 lo 55, so is this weight'of the base The 

 ciirbonaic of liine in the soil was thus ascertained. — 

 The lime, however, must now be subtracted fom the 

 silex, and the weight of the carbonic acid must be de 



in Congress, has been approved by the different 

 deparlnic'iits of Industiy in a series of successful 

 operations under its inlluencr. 1 am aware that 

 the duly on foreign word, which was levied by 

 ihat Tariff, occasioned for a lime some uneasi- 

 ness. But that Ihe American wool grower had 

 equal claims with Ihe Ameiican manut'acturer 

 for protection from foreign comjielition, cannot 

 be doubled. In a country like ours, which em- 

 braces every variety of climate and almost every 

 production of ihe earth, that national policv 

 wh.ch should not have a reference to Ihe pro- 

 duction of Ihe raw maleriHl, as well as Ihe rnan- 

 vfiicture of il, would be short sigiited indeed. — ■ 

 So long as a Saxon Buck Ihat costs in Saxony 



lou.oo 



Amos EATo^■, 



T. RoMEYiV Beck. 



TkefoUowing vioc:e of unalysivg soils is front a Trealist 

 on Agriculture, first published in the Albany Ar- 

 gus. 



" 1. Take a small quantify of earth from different 

 parts of the field, the soil of which you wifh to ascer- 

 tain, mix them well together and weigSi Ihem ; put 

 them in an oven, heated for baking biead, and after 

 they are dried, weigh them again, the difference will 

 show the absorbent power of the earth. When the loss 

 of weight in 400 grains, amounts to 50, this power is 

 great, and indicates the presence of much animal or 

 vegetable matter ; but when it does not exceed 20, the 

 ducteil from the animal and vegetable matter; since the '; absorbent power is small, and the vegetable matter de- 

 heat that burnt out the animal and vegetabl') matter, I ficient. 



also expelled the carbonic. acid, aud left the lime with 

 th« silcx. 



i. Put the dried mass into a vase with one fourth of its 

 own weight of clear water; mix them well togither; 



We are aware that part of the quick-lime may re- ' pour off the dirty water into a second vase and pour on 



main with the soluble salts, and part of the carbonic 

 .icid may still remain with its base and silex. The er- 

 ritr, however, will be of no consequence in agriculture. 



Particular attention was paid to the time required 

 tor the alumine to settle. It was observed, that in soils 

 which are adhesive, and retain water a length of time, 

 the time necessary for the aiumine to settle, was in the 

 same proportion. It was also found to be a much bet- 

 ter criterion for determining the measure of this quali- 

 ty, than the actual proportion of alumine. 



Though the above method of analysis is not sufli- 



as much clean water as before ; stir the contents, and 

 jcontinuethe process until the water poured off, is as 



clear as that poured on Ihe earth. What remains iu 



I the first employed vase is called silieious or calcareous. 



3. The dirty water, collected hi the seconil vase, will 



form a deposit, which (after pouring off the water) 

 ! must be dried, weiglied and calcinril. On weighing it 



after this process, the quiintily lost, will shew the por- 

 1 lion ot animal Sind vegettbh mould contained in the soil: 



and, 



4'. This calcined matter mutt then be carefully pul- 



cieutly minute for the speculative chemist, yet it does i verised and weighed, as also the first deposit of sand, 

 not differ materially even frojji Ihe most accurate meth- I but without mixing them. To these apply, separately. 



od. Similar portions of soil, taken from the river allu- 

 vion of William Still, Fsq. of Bethlehem, were anal- 

 ysed according lo that of Sir Humphry Davy, given in 

 Henry's Chemistry. The results were as follow : 



By the preceding Formula. 



SiUx per cent. C4.5 



Alumine, 24.0 



Carbonate of lime. 3.5 



ulphuric acid, and what they respectively lose iu 

 weight, is the portion of calcariovs or aluminous earths 

 contained iu them. These last may be separated from 

 the mass of soap lye, which dissolves them. 



Here is the light we wanti d. Tn knowing the dis- 

 eases, we find the cure. Clay and sand qualify each 

 other ; either of these will correct an excess of lime ; 

 and piagnesian larth, when saturated with carboriic 

 acidy biconits fertile." 



