1833.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



717 



Perhaps an apology may ba deemed necessary for 

 our inserting so laudatory a review ot a work of our 

 own. There are few subjects more suitable to be se- 

 lected for an agricultural journal, than the exhibition 

 of the opinions of intelligent judges in foreign coun- 

 tries, of the writings and opinions of our own farmers: 

 and this consideration would direct the re- publication 

 of any such review, no matter of what American work 

 on agriculture, or whether the reviewer might have 

 awarded more of approbation or censure. Our indi- 

 vidual connexion with the work in question, would not 

 justify a departure from this general editorial obliga- 

 tion: and if the opinions expressed in the continuation 

 of this reviewer on the part of the work which he had 

 not then seen, or of any other intelligent foreigner, 

 should be altogether condemnatory, they will notwith- 

 standing, be here re-published, as surely and as readi- 

 ly. Sundry highly approbatory American notices, and 

 some extended reviews, of the second edition of the 

 Essay on Calcareous Manures, have been published in 

 this country — but not one of them has been copied in- 

 to this journal: because, as these publications had ap- 

 peared in popular and valuable journals, and were al- 

 ready before a large portion of the American public, it 

 was not necessary, and would have perhaps been indel- 

 icate for us to extend their circulation, by re-publica- 

 tion in the Farmers' Register. Yet each of these re- 

 views was fully as favorable as that of Mr. Towers': 

 and among the writers, we will name Jesse Buel, and 

 David Thomas, (whose reviews appeared severally in 

 the Cultivator, and the Genesee Farmer,) whose good 

 opinion and applause deserved to be valued as highly as 

 those of any living agriculturists whatever. 



Before commencing the following piece, we will point 

 to some things which particularly deserve attention. 

 The writer asserts in the strongest manner the almost 

 universal presence of cdcareous earth, (carbonate of 

 lime) in the soils of England — a fact which was infer- 

 red from indirect evidence, and on that ground asserted 

 in the Essay on Calcareous Manures. Another cir- 

 cumstance worthy of note, is, that Mr. Towers is one 

 of those chemists who deny the existence of humic, or 

 geic acid; and has opposed, in a long article in the 

 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, the recent alleged 

 discovery of that substance. Yet he does not here de- 

 ny, and seems by implication to admit, the doctrine of 

 acid soils, as maintained in the first edition of the Es- 

 say, when it had no support from the discovery of hu- 

 mic acid, as the account of that discovery had not then 

 reached this country. 



From the British Farmer's Magazine. 



ON THE UTILITY OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRI- 

 CULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 



By Ma. TowEhS, author of the "Domestic Garden- 

 er's Manual," C. M. H. S. 



I do not affect to apologize for the introduction of 

 this subject, at some length, into your pages, be- 



cause I conceive thai, however it may have occu- 

 pied the attention of practical farmer?, upon the 

 urgent recommendation of men and science, ii has 

 been misunderstood, and, therefore, unjustly agi- 

 tated. 



1 have been induced to resume the considera- 

 tion, by the perusal of those admirable papers in 

 your two last numbers, eniitled Essay on Calca- 

 reous Manures — by Mr. Ruffin — papers which, I 

 think, contain the soundest truths, and, therefore, 

 may be rendered more practically available than 

 most of the elaborate works that have preceded 

 them. The propositions of the writer require, 

 however, to be impartially examined; but before I 

 attempt to do so, I shall cite a passage from a 

 chemical work, written by that worthy and zeal- 

 ous man, the late Mr. Samuel Parkes, whereby 

 the reader may, at one view, appreciate the object 

 of the chemist, and the weight of the arguments 

 he employs, when he urges the necessity to call 

 his science in aid of the agriculturist. 



"Chemistry" (it is observed) "will teach him" 

 (an opulent land-owner) "how to improve the cul- 

 tivated parts of his estate; and by transporting 

 and transposing the different soils, he will soon 

 learn some method by which each of his fields 

 may be rendered more productive. 



"The analysis of soils will be followed by that 

 of the waters which rise upon, or flow through 

 them; by which means he will disc-over those pro- 

 per lor irrigation, a practice, the value of which is 

 sufficiently known to every good agriculturist. 



"Should he himself occupy the farm, and be- 

 come cultivator of his own estate, he must, of ne- 

 cessity, be a chemist, before he can make the 

 most of his land, or put it in a high state of culti- 

 vation, at the smallest possible expense. It will 

 be his concern, not only to analyze the soils on the 

 different parts of his (arm, but the peat, the marl, 

 the lime, and the other manures, must be subject- 

 ed to experiment, before he can avail himself of 

 the advantages which they possess, or before he 

 can be certain of producing any particular effect 

 by their means. The necessity of analysis to the 

 farmer is evident from a knowledge of the circum- 

 stance, that some kind of lime" (magnesian lime- 

 stone) "is really injurious, and would render land 

 which had been hitherto very productive, actually 

 steril." — (Chemical Essays, vol. i. pp. 8, 9,) — 

 Again: 



"A knowledge of the first principles of chemis- 

 try will teach him when to use lime hot from the 

 kiln, and when slacked; how to promote the pu- 

 trefactive process in his composts, and at what 

 period to check it, so as to prevent the fertilizing 

 particles bscomtng effete, and of little value. 



"It will teach him the difference in the proper- 

 ties of marl, lime, peat, wood ashes, alkaline salt, 

 soap waste, sea water, &c, and, consequently, 

 which to prefer in all varieties of soil. A know- 

 ledge of the chemical properties of bodies will 

 thus give a new character to the agriculturist, and 

 render his employment rational and respecta- 

 ble." — (/<fem., pp. 10, 11.) And in a note — 



"Lavoisier cultivated 240 acres of land in La 

 Vendee, on chemical principles, in order to set a 

 good example to the farmers; and his mode of 

 culture was attended with so much success, that 

 he obtained a third more of crop than was pro- 

 cured by the usual method, and in nine years ha 



