22 



®l)e iTarmcr's iHotUl)!!) llisitor. 



of the horn shaviiiiis, adds 45 bushels of grain to 

 the acre, and stiiHis in prof onion, from the soil 

 or th<! uIiiios|iheru ? 



From iho Uiiown sterility of tlie soil, I ihiiik 

 Bt least VO |icr cciit. of tin) ^rain r.oincs lioni the 

 nir. In a iiicllow, deep soil, whoie the roots can 

 easily expund, and he accessible to atjMns|iheric 

 influence, no niatier how destitute it may he of 

 orjjanic substances, plants f;uin the most by the 

 aid of concentralc'd fertilizers. 



M. BcussiuKanlt heated a fair clayey soil to a 

 liigli temperature for some time, till lie had burn- 

 ed out all the orjianic matter. Iji this earth he 

 planted a few \>rv.<, ami watered them with pure 

 distilled water. Some <d' them blossomed and 

 bore perfect seeds, drawing all their carbon and 

 nitrogen, as well as oxygen and hydrogen, from 

 nir anil water. Had these peas had the benetit 

 of conunon rain-water, there can be no doubt 

 that till) carbonic acid and ammonia which it con- 

 tains woidil have been of essential service in 

 promoting their growth. 



An acre of land wholly destitute of vegetable 

 matter, and containing all the minerals required 

 for the plant, might produce a small crop of peas. 

 The same is proliably true of corn, clover, and 

 urtichokes. JIoiis. B. tried a similar e.xperiment 

 on wheat, but it would not grow to maturity 

 without llie aid of some orgaidc matter. To 

 prepaie a field to produce a good crop of this 

 grain, other plants, whicli draw nearly all their 

 nourishment from the air, should be first culti- 

 vated and "ploughed in" to enrich the earth. 

 There is good reason to believe, liowever, that 

 nearly all lands in Western New YorU lack, not 

 BO much vegctidilo mould, or organic matter, as 

 some of the minrnal or purely earthy ingredients 

 necessiu-y to produce large crops of wheat. This 

 opinion is not lightly formed. It will take up 

 too much of your time, however, to go into de- 

 tails to explain the facts and reasons on which it 

 is founded. Thorough draitiini;, ikep ploughinu;, 

 imd a perfect pulcerizafion of the. soil, I regard as 

 of great importance, and calculated to improve 

 our present sysii in of (iirming. On the subject 

 of draining we have imich to learn, and more to 

 practice. 



Deep ploughing hns the double advantage of 

 letting oft', to some extent, any surplus water, 

 and of bringing to the surliice those saline sub- 

 stances wiihout which no plant can fli/urisli. 

 When any of these are wholly wanting, there is 

 no remedy but to apply them. Fortunately, only 

 n very small pLr-centage of most plants is min- 

 eral matter. 



One himdred pounds of wheat straw give only 

 3i pounds of ash ; and 81 per cent, of that is 

 culled silica — the basis of common sand. Before 

 this sand can enter into the circulation of plants 

 to form the bone of their stems, to keep them 

 upright, (and many a field of wheat has fallen 

 down, ami been lost from a lack ol' this vegetable 

 hone,) it must combine with potash or soda, to 

 render it soluble in water. I.oose, sandy soils 

 are usuidly barn.'n, lucairse all the alkalies are 

 dissolved and bached out. Witliotit these, pure 

 sand camiot ennr the roots of plimts, ami they 

 die from the lack of their natural .'diment. The 

 application of wood ashes to such soils increases 

 largely their fertility, although they contain very 

 little organic matter. 



Ill clayey sod.'*, the potash, soda, and magnesia 

 are not washed out. After they have been par- 

 tially exhausted by in|iidiciou8 cropping, the ap- 

 plication oC lime sets the balance flee to unite, 

 with silica, and form silii'ato of potash or soda, 

 or double salts, which lue soluble in water, .'ind 

 thus enter the roots <d" plants. These salts are 

 decomposed in the chemical laboiatory of vege- 

 tables. Silica is deposited in th>ir tissues, and 

 becomes iig.-un insoluble. But a snia'II part of 

 wood ashes, when put up in a leach, will <lissnlve, 

 although every particle of them was dissolveil 

 before it entered into the organic structure of 

 trees or smaller |)lants. On the decomposition 

 of the compounds of silica, potash and soda re- 

 turn to the earth, combine with and render solu- 

 ble, more saml. Thi.s is carried, with its circii- 

 luting fluids, into every part of the vegetable, and 

 deposited where needcMl. It is doubtless in this 

 way that a small (piatitily of alkali will serve to 

 convey into the stems ol' corn, gia.ss, ami grain, 

 the largo pcr-centage of silica, flint, orsntid, which 

 they arc known to cmilaiii. 



Tliuei, if a soil had a moderate !<iijij>ly of or- 



ganic matter, anil only lacked one or two eimpli: 

 minerals, you can readily see how a farmer 



might pay, as do some in Virginia, at the rale of 

 •SbO a ton for in;;redienls to be transformed into 

 plants, and sold, perhaps, at §10 a ton. It is, 

 liDwever, hail economy to waste the raw materi- 

 als of cultivated |jlaiits- the very constituents of 

 our daily bread anil meat — and then trust luck to 

 purchase, at a dear rate, something nearly as 

 good brought liom Africa, or the Pacific Ocean. 



A large portion of the elements found in gnano, 

 and the salts or minerals necessary to the growth 

 of plants, esca(je from the bodies of animals, 

 whether man or brute, by their kidneys. Voii 

 need not be told that the liipiid exeietioiis of all 

 aiiinmis are salt, anil that this saline matter must 

 come liom their food. Small as this mineral 

 substance nsilly is, when cuiii]<areil with the gross 

 amount of matter taken into the animal .system, 

 it is i]uiie indispeir'^alile in the composition of 

 the vegetables that I'liriiish it. 



There are two and a half millions of people in 

 this Slate, and they may consume .-in average of 

 five bushels of wheat each per annum. Tiiis 

 would use np V2,r,00,000 bushels a year, or 100,- 

 000,000 bushels in eight years. Now, bear in 

 mind the important (iict, that it will take Just as 

 much and precisely similiu' ingredients to form 

 the second 100,000,000 bushels that were con- 

 sumed to make the first. Owing to the great 

 abundance — say 80 per cent. — of these ingredi- 

 ents, iiccording to my estimate, being provided 

 by Infinite Benevolence every w here at our hands, 

 their loss to the wheat-grower is not important. 

 But there are elements in this grain which are 

 not abmiflant, in a form ready to enter into the 

 organization of wheat plants. When we have 

 the seed, the land ploughed, harrowed and fenced, 

 at no small expense, .'iiid ninely four or five per 

 cent, of eveiy thing reipiired to give .30 bushels 

 to the acre, the other (> per cent, of ingredients 

 lacking are worth their treble weight in clean 

 wheat, if they will add 15 bushels per acre to the 

 crop. 



What was the value [ler pound of the few horn 

 shavings used by the Mayor of Albany, which 

 added 'JO bushels of corn to two acres of land, 

 more than were harvested on an acre in all other 

 respects treated like the two named? Some of 

 you may have noticed, that one kernel of wheat 

 will often send up ten stems; and that, iimli.'r 

 fiivoruble circumstances, each stem will bear an 

 ear containing 100 or more plump seeds. I have 

 freipienlly counted over 130 seeds in a head or 

 ear. This is less than half the yield of steins 

 which has been obtained, yet it shows a perli,ct 

 willingness, and the capacity, in Nature to give a 

 return of one Ihoiisitnd fold on the si'cd |)laiiled. 

 A single Jieck of seed planted on an acre, in 

 drills, aiul judiciously supplied with all the in- 

 grdients necessary to form |ii'rfei't plant.-*, and 

 yielding at this rate, would give a crop of ^50 

 bushels. 



Experience has demonstrated the prdclicahilily 

 of increasing largely the yield of grain without 

 augincntiiig the growth of straw in an equal ratio. 

 You will bear witness to the truth of ihe rem.irk, 

 that it is not always the heaviest yield of straw 

 ill wheat, oats, corn, idover, or peas, tlnit gives 

 the most grain or >'cm\. 1 assure yoir, that if yon 

 will li'cd to your hungry plants a good deal more 

 of those ingredients taken liom them, and nK>sl 

 insanely thrown away in urine, you will soon 

 know, why guano is worth si.xty dollars a ton. 



By cultivating the soil with the plough and hoc, 

 it loses not only the minerals carried off in the 

 >rops, but not a little of ihe same sidistaiices 

 while dissidvcd in water, uhicli, instead of being 

 taken iqi into the ririiil.iiion of cultivated plants, 

 pass with the waii;r into creeks, rivers, anil the 

 ocean. How much of the valuable salts of lime, 

 potash, soda, and magiu'sia, are lost from ciilli- 

 vated land, it is impossible to say. But there is 

 scarcely a spring or well, especially in a good 

 grain country, whose water is not "hard." By 

 evaporating a few gallons of such water in a 

 clean vessel, a thin coat of white powder will 

 cover its bottom niiil sides — being the luini^rals 

 held in solution In the water, which it took from 

 the earth. 



All the Blreams that flow into the ocean have 

 more or less of these saline ingredients dissolved 

 in them. The sea is a vast salt-pan, with no 

 other outlet than by solar evaporation. The 

 known difleience in the water that fulls from the 



clouds on to the land and that which runs into 

 the ocean — the water runninc in being salt, and 

 that which escapes \iy itolar evaporation being 

 fresh — makes the water in the ocean very salt, 

 and cry.stalizeil more or less, like tliut in u vat 

 used to make salt, at Saliiiii. No small portion 

 of the rocks fouiiil in the bed of the sea are com- 

 posed of ingredients which, like the crust of lime 

 in a lea-kellle, were (nice dissolved in water. 

 Few arc iiware that the materials carried, either 

 mei banically, like mud, gruvel, and sand, or in 

 solution, to the ocean, from ancient islands and 

 continents, have formed rocks on this continent 

 estimated at, and I may say measured, by Prof. 

 Kogers, to the depth offorli/ Ihousiind feet. 



Mr. I'lidips, in his '• Elcinents of Geology," 

 sets down the perpendicular thickness of the 

 rocks in Great Britain, which abound in the re- 

 mains of plains and aiiiinals that oijce lived on 

 Ihe earth, at six and !i half miles. \'i;wed with 

 a chemical and geological eye, ihe soil in West- 

 ern New York has many interesting features. It 

 possesses many minerals of great value to be 

 used in the |ireparation of compost hetips. I 

 regret that ] have not time to go into details in 

 the matter of combining and prep;iring the pre- 

 cise elements required by Nature to form the 

 plants most cultivated in this section. To absorb 

 many of the valuable gasses given off linin fi'r- 

 menling manure, 1 have reason to believe that 

 there is nothing better than pulverized charcoal, 

 mixed %\!th plaster. It is a suhject worthy of 

 much study, to learn how to save and use to the 

 best advantage all ibe solid ami liquid excretions 

 of every animal that feeds on the fruils of the 

 earth. 



Nature has done much for the farmers of Mon- 

 roe county, in providing ready to Joiir hands a 

 soil remaikable fiir its fertility, and an atmos- 

 phere, lor your lungs, not less remarkable for its 

 salubrity. I rejoice to know that these great 

 natural advantages are duly appreciated and well 

 deserved, by a rural population alike dislinguished 

 for iheir intelligence and their industry. Think 

 not, that while I conlend we all have something 

 to learn, I woidd under-estimate the wonderful 

 improvements which have been made by the 

 hardy tillers of the earth in Western New York. 

 No man respects honest, [iroductive industry 

 more than I do. All I desire is, to see it better 

 directed, that it may be better rewarded. I have 

 often felt, and ofttn expressed, my deefi anxiety 

 to see the time when every practical farmer in 

 the State shall be, able to produce all that he and 

 his limiily shall need, or a fidr ccpiivalent, ami 

 then know quite as well how to keep and enjoy 

 the rich fruits of his honest toil, as all the non- 

 producers in the land shall know how to ex- 

 change their shadows lor the uorking m.in's sub- 

 staiu'e. 



Believe me — those that cre.ite, by hard work, 

 nearly ull the good things consumed by civilized 

 man, ought to learn how to keep, as well as how 

 to earn property, i'anperism is on the increase, 

 and it W(Hild be well if' every man, wuintin, and 

 child knew ihe reason why. 



Son?. 



A^vay down east, where |)Uin|)I\ins grow, 



And the girls arc fair and luprry. 

 Lives a lass as pure as the inniiiilain snow, 



Willi lips like a biirsliiig cherry : 

 And oil niicn the moniihranis wake alune. 



And the; loy has li-ll Ins cover, 

 She leaves her eot, like a timid dove, 



And files to embrace her lover. 



Noble and true is her firsl-love's choice. 



And hi.s linnrl's the throne of honor ; 

 And her car drinks innsic frouj his voice, 



■As his gaze is lixcd upon her. 

 And the evening breeze, nnd quivering leaf, 



Anil the etarry hosts of Heaven, 

 Are witness all ol her fond belief, 



,\s his ardent vows arc yivcn. 



There's not snch another pair in Maine. 



As Kulh and her handsome Harry ; 

 And :dic says, ere winter eontes n|.^.iin, 



lie has promised her to marry. 

 Vet she thinks tliat eonrlsliip's liourii ore BWcot, 



And 'lis line lo have a lover, 

 .And she almosi dreait.^ when their hands must meet. 



And these charming scenes be over. 



Siii'LTER KOK. Stock. — Licliij.' asserts that " our 

 clothing is merely an equivalent for a certain 

 amount of food." In other woiils, if we k<'ep 

 ourselves comfortable und witrm, we cannot etit 

 so much, becuusc the amount of heat to bo sup- 



