1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



653 



corn and pork will probably constitute consider- 

 able items in the income* Large quantities of 

 land will actually* be broughl into cultivation by 

 the construction ol'tlns road: grain, which, from 

 thepresent cost ol transportation, cannot be rais- 

 ed lor market, will become an important staple in 

 this country. In short there is no limit to the income 

 ofthis road but the one prescribed by law; and 

 that allows them to divide. 15 per cent, a limit 

 which will soon be reached. Such being the 

 case, I see no scheme which would offer greater 

 chances of profit and less risk, and in which a 

 prudent man would sooner invest. Having com- 

 menced for the good ol'the town, let us increase 

 our subsciptions lor the benefit of our private pur- 

 ses. 



I said we have done much Messrs. Editors,but 

 the work is not, yet finished: we must push on and 

 add to our subscriptions. The world is slow in 

 opening its eyes even to such prospects as this 

 work holds out. Petersburg took the lead in the 

 venture and she must move onwards. One motive 

 which should urge us to exert ourselves is that. 

 by commencing with a large amount of money, 

 the work will progress rapidly to its completion. 

 I am informed that, if we can. begin with spirit, 

 the bridge over the Roanoke and thirty miles of 

 the road will be finished in twelve months; and 

 that the stockholders may expect a dividend in 

 eighteen months from this date. 



PETERSBURG. 



FORMATION OF OXALIC ACID IN SOILS. 



[In presuming to retain the signature to the follow- 

 ing extract from a letter, of which the publication was 

 not authorized, and probably not designed by the wri- 

 ter, we take a liberty which is a rare exception to our 

 general practice. But we hope that the circumstances 

 offer a sufficient apologyl The subject mentioned is 

 both novel and important to agricultural science — and 

 is one that requires all the light that can be thrown on 

 it: and the interesting matters of facts and of reason- 

 ing stated below, concisely as they are mentioned, will 

 be the more sure to be read with interest, when known 

 to proceed from Professor Renvvick.] 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Col New York, ? 



January^. 1836. $ 



I have received your letter, and the accompany- 

 ing" package of two volumes of your Farmers 1 

 Register, and a copy of the Essay on Cai<jareous 

 Manures. I have communicated to our presi- 

 dent, the receipt ofthis very interesting donation for 

 the College Library, and am directed by him, to 

 return you thanks in the name of the trustees. 



I had before seen and perused with much plea- 

 sure, the first edition of the Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures. You have made a most important ad- 

 vance in the theory of this subject, and the suc- 

 cess of your practice under it, taking into view all 

 the circumstances of an original experiments prove, 

 that your theory is in all respects consistent with 

 the operations o( nature. 



On one point, I would beg leave to confirm the 

 justness of your views, namely, in relation to the 



existence of oxalic acid in soils, which you, 

 with all the becoming diffidence of an inductive 

 inquirer, leave for further proof. In confirmation 

 of the views you at first stated, I have to mention 

 that it is well ascertained by chemical analysis, 

 that the soda which is obtained, from the ashes of 

 the sahola, (barilla,) exists in the living plant in 

 the form of oxalate of soda. The formation ofthis 

 acid in calcareous soils, may be readily accounted 

 for — when we consider what takes place in artifi- 

 cial nitre beds. These unquestionably absorb the 

 two elements of nitric acid from the atmosphere, 

 not in the proportions in which they exist there, 

 but in the exact proportions necessary to form that 

 acid.* This acid, if thus absorbed by a soil rich in 

 vegetable matter, would convert the vegetable 

 principles into oxalic acid. In spite of these cor- 

 roborative views, however, it might be well to test 

 them first, by actual experiment. 



* * * * At the time I received 

 your letter, I was about sitting down to inform 



you, that at the instance of Mr. of 



Genesee, I had undertaken to edit an edition of 

 your translation of the article on lime. I had de- 

 clined this, as indelicate, until he had assured me of 

 your assent; and my object in writing, was to thank 

 you for the permission. 



JAMES RENWICK. 



From the Providence [It. I.] Journal. 



AN EXUBERANT ORCHARD. VALUE OF FISH 

 MANURE. 



Towards the close of last summer we visited 

 several times the orchard of Mr. Thomas Greene, 

 of Pawtuxet, as one of the most beautiful exhibi- 

 tions of fructification we have ever beheld. Most 

 of the trees were so laden with apples of the fair- 

 est quality as to require a prop under each limb, 

 and some of them were so entirely curtained with 

 fruit as to resemble a heap of apples resting upon 

 columns. The orchard stood upon about an acre 

 ol' ground, and contained thirty-five trees. Eight 

 of these trees were small, from which, we have 

 since been informed by Mr. Greene, he gathered 

 only from a bushel to a bushel and a half to a tree. 

 From three of the other trees he gathered 27 

 bushels each. The whole product of the orchard 

 was a little over 400 bushels, out of which, alter 

 having dried 12 bushels, he made 12 barrels of ci- 

 der, and sold 60 bushels of fall apples, Mr. Greene 

 informs us he has 220 bushels of winter apples in 

 his cellar. During the summer he also took two 

 tons of millet hay from the same acre of land. 

 But what is the most remarkable fact in the histo- 

 ry of this orchard is, as we are assured by Mr. 

 Greene and some of his neighbors, that when the 

 land upon which this orchard stands came into his 

 possession, it was an unproductive, drifting sand 

 flat, upon which there was no vegetation except 

 such bushes as had been planted upon it by his 



*T1 



_he two principal (and almost only) ingredients 

 of atmospheric air, are oxygen and nitrogen, in a gas- 

 eous state, and mixed together in uniform proportions — 

 and these two bodies, in different proportions, and 

 chemically combined, also form nitric acid. — Ed. Farm. 

 Reg. 





