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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Everybody, in travelling, likes to see mile-stones, 

 and I think it is well enough for you and brother 

 Holbrook and myself to observe "in this merry 

 month of May," that a half year has passed us 

 by, since in the times of cattle shows and the In- 

 dian summer, we hoisted our tri-colored flag at 

 the head of the Farmer. 



I like your idea of giving your readers an apol- 

 ogy for a hearty laugh occasionally and ridding ag- 

 riculture of the common association with the idea 

 of ox teams and sober faces, and everything else 

 that is slow and dull. It has been said that the 

 devil gets all the good music away from the church, 

 for dancing tunes. Let us not allow him to get 

 all the fun and spirit out of the three-quarters who 

 till the earth, into the other quarter who worship 

 Mammon in offices and counting-rooms. 



With the eastern benediction, "May your sha- 

 dow never be less," I remain your friend, 



Exeter, N. H., May 12, 1852. n. f. f. 



ALUMINA. 



This simple earth is of great importance in agri- 

 culture. It consists of a metallic basis, united 

 with oxygen. Clay is an admixture of alumina, silica 

 (sand,) and oxide of iron. Next to silica, alumina 

 1 is the earth most commonly found in soils, and it 

 likewise enters largely as a constituent into most 

 of the stony masses found on, and beneath their 

 surface. It combines readily with carbonic acid, 

 and forms a solid compound with it, as is illustrated 

 in the union of lime and magnesia. It has a much 

 greater affinity for water, than any of the other 

 Bimple earths. Of this fluid, when recently preci- 

 pitated, it has been found to contain six times its 

 own weight ; but when dried, by the application 

 of moderate, but well sustained heat, it is incapa- 

 ble of retaining more than one and one-third times, 

 or at most, two times its weight, without falling. 

 When heated to redness, and even when dried at 

 a very high temperature, it loses its power of re- 

 tention, and is capable of retaining only a very 

 diminished portion of water. Silica and alumina, 

 which are the components of clay, are not simply 

 mingled together in its constitution, as some of the 

 earlier writers have supposed, but are chemically 

 combined. In most of the clay found on or near 

 the surface, is mixed an extra quantity of silica, 

 known by the common appellation of sand. In all 

 clay, there is a certain quantity of iron in a higher 

 or lower state of oxidation. This oxide is formed 

 by the union of the metal with oxygen, a unison 

 easily effected by the aid of water, or of simple 

 moisture. It consequently varies essentially as to 

 its characteristics and value, both as regards agri- 

 cultural and mechanical purposes. 



Some clay is nearly worthless whim applied to 

 soils, while other kinds are of great value. By an 

 admixture of clay with common sand, or silex, we 

 are enabled to form a soil of surprising and perma- 

 nent richness, and it is for this purpose that clay 

 assumes its chief importance in agriculture. If a 

 aii'ly soil be overlaid with a stratum of clay, four 



inches deep, and carefully plowed and worked, so 

 as thoroughly to comminute and mix the clayey 

 particles with about eight inches of the surface 

 soil, the mechanical action of the application will 

 so far modify the constitution of the soil, as to ren- 

 der it highly fertile. Not only will it effect the 

 consolidation of the constituent particles, render- 

 ing the soil more firm and compressible, but also 

 increase its capacity of retaining moisture, a pro- 

 perty of which, in their natural and unameliorated 

 state, such sorts are almost wholly deficient. But 

 where soils are to be permanently improved by the 

 admixture of clay, the most judicious, and perhaps 

 the most economical method the operator can 

 adopt, is to use it in compost. It will thus be 

 more perfectly disintegrated, and prepared for 

 mixing more intimately with the particles of the 

 soil to which it is to be applied. When hauled 

 upon the land and spread, it will rarely be reduced 

 to that degree of fineness which is necessary to 

 effect a thorough intermixture, without a much 

 larger amount of labor than most farmers can af- 

 ford, or be induced, by considerations of mere util- 

 ity, to bestow. 



When, however, this plan of application is adopt- 

 ed, it is well to haul on, and spread the clay in 

 autumn, that it may be subjected to the disinte- 

 grating and pulverulent action of frost. In this 

 way, the separation of the solid, or more compact 

 masses, will be effected, and the communication 

 of their particles greatly accelerated by the expan- 

 sion of the water by freezing, — a process during 

 which crystals or nudles of ice separate the mole- 

 cules of clay, and facilitate amalgamation of them 

 with the soil to which it is applied. 



The retentive power of clay is very great. It 

 yields up the water it has absorbed with great dif- 

 ficulty, and the more so, in proportion to its puri- 

 ty, or "fatness." It is well known that sandy soils 

 — those composed principally of silex, and clayey 

 soils, those composed of aluminous particles, differ 

 from each other in two very important character- 

 istics. Lime and alumina have a very strong af- 

 finity for organic matter and moisture, and retain 

 both by a powerful attraction, while sand possess- 

 es no such affinity, only commingling, and never 

 chemically combining with it, to any extent. Owing 

 to its extreme porosity and lax texture, it opposes 

 no resistance to the rapid and almost immediate 

 escape of those alimentary matters which are ap- 

 plied as sustenance for growing crops. All the 

 fructiferous properties of the manures applied are 

 thus speedily abstracted by their ready combina- 

 tions with tin- components of water, supplied by 

 depositions from the atmosphere. But clay obvi- 

 ates this waste by producing a constitutional mod- 

 ification which renders escape impossible. 



When a sandy soil has once been thoroughly 

 ameliorated by the application of a quantum suffi- 

 cit of good clay, it never afterwards falls back to 



