510 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



LEAVES FOR COMPOST. 



Many farmers regard leaves as utterly worth- 

 less for purposes of fertilization. A moment's can- 

 did reflection, however, would convince them, we 

 think, of the fallacy of this opinion. How, if 

 leaves are not endued with alimentary powers, do 

 our forests retain their health and vigor for so long 

 a time? or, in other words, why do our wood- 

 lands upon which we bestow no care whatever, 

 continue to grow and flourish in increasing vigor, 

 while arable soils, from which the crops produced 

 by manuring and cultivation are annually re- 

 moved, "run out," and in time fail to remuner- 

 ate the husbandman for the labor and expense of 

 "carrying them on ?" Is it not because the ali- 

 mentary matter returned to the soil in the foliage 

 is adequate to the demand made upon the resour- 

 ces of the soil by the crop ? 



The leaf is not merely a vegetable substance. — 

 It contains mineral matters, which are essential to 

 the health of all plants ; and these being deriva- 

 ble only from the earth, are returned to it, in part, 

 by the decay of the foliage which rots upon the 

 soil. Let us, for the sake of more fully illustrat- 

 ing the subject, present an analysis of the leaves 

 of a well-known tree — the Early Harvest Apple — 

 the foliage of which was collected Sept. 30th — the 

 tree bearing fruifc. 



Silica 5.775 



Earthy Phosphates. 



Phosphate of peroxide of iron 4.875 



Phosphate of lime 1.416 



Phosphate of magnesia... trace. 



Silica 5.125 



Phosphoric acid 5 353 



16 775 



Lime 36.398 



Magnesia 0.075 



Potash 13.179 



Soda 11.616 



Chloride of sodium 0.060 



Sulphuric acid 0.137 



Carbonic acid 15 200 



Organic matter 2 850 



301.065 

 Proportions. 



Water 54 341 



Dry 45.659 



Ash 4.194 



Calculated dry 9.163 



The leaf, when analyzed in a mature state, is 

 found to contain a much larger quantity of miner- 

 al matter than it affords when young, or newly 

 firmed. This is accounted for by the well-known 

 physiological fact that the food of all vegetables — 

 ti eea not excepted — is taken up in a state of solu- 

 ti >n. This food passes to the leaves, where it is 

 exposed by serifaction to the action of atmospheric 

 phenomena, and its aqueous parts evaporated, or 

 given off, but not the substances which it held in solu- 

 tion. These are in part disseminated through the 

 entire system, a certain amount remaining in the 

 vascular structure of the leaf itself. These., it has 

 also been ascertained, contain a larger proportion 

 of mineral matter than the wood of the trunk. — 

 The dried leaves of the elm — ( Vlmus Americana) — 

 ain more than eleven per cent, of ashes, (earthy 



or mineral matter,) while the more perfectly ligni- 

 fied substance, or perfect wood, contains only two 

 per cent.; those of the willow, more than eio-ht 

 per cent., while the wood has only 0.45; those of 

 the beech, 6.69, the wood only 0.35; those of the 

 European oak, 4.06, the wood only 0.21; those of 

 the pitch pine, 3.14; the wood only 0.24 per cent. 

 A late American writer, in an article illustrating 

 the value of leaves as a manurial agent, says : — 



"It is very plain from these facts, that, in for- 

 ests, the mineral ingredients of the soil perform a 

 sort of circulation ; entering the root, they are de- 

 posited in the leaf; then, with it, fall to the earth, 

 and by its decay they are restored to the soil, again 

 to travel their circuit. Forest soils, therefore, in- 

 steady of being impoverished by the growth of 

 trees, receive back annually the greatest propor- 

 tion of those mineral elements necessary to the 

 tree, and besides, much organized matter received 

 into the plant from the atmosphere ; soils, there- 

 fore, are gaining instead of losing. If owners of 

 parks or groves, for neatness' sake, or to obtain 

 leaves for other purposes, gather the annual har- 

 vest of leaves, they will, in time, take away great 

 quantities of mineral matter, by which the soil ul- 

 timately will be impoverished, unless it is restored 

 by manures." 



Whenever leaves can be obtained in sufficient 

 quantities, the farmer has within his reach the 

 most ample resources for sustaining and increas- 

 ing, ad libitum, the productive energy of the soil 

 he cultivates. By accumulating them in autumn, 

 depositing them in yards and other enclosures 

 where they will be in a situation to become im- 

 pregnated with the liquid voidings of his animals, 

 and thus predisposed to ferment and decompose 

 more rapidly when applied to his lands, he will 

 secure an adjuvant, the beneficial and powerful ef- 

 fects of which will be obvious for years, both upon 

 his soil and the crops it is required successively to 

 sustain and perfect. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ASPECT OF THE CROPS. 



It is your province to catch the manners living 

 is they rise. If by glancing the eye at the pro- 

 ducts of the season, you can lay the foundation for 

 comparing one season with another, you will do a 

 good service, for all coming time. 



Never have I witnessed apples so abundant as 

 they now are, especially the Baldwin. Almost 

 every tree is loaded to its fullest capacity. On 

 many trees, the apples are so numerous, that they 

 are of diminutive size, and of course of inferior 

 quality. An early removal of one-half, would 

 have left the remainder better than the whole. — 

 Other varieties of fruit, such as the Greening, 

 Danvers Winter Sweet, &c, bear abundantly, but 

 not so full as the Baldwin. 



Pears are very abundant, and of fine quality. — 

 We have heard it said, that the Bartlett pear was 

 failing ; — but wo do not remember to have seen 

 them handsomer than the present season — where 

 the trees were not overloaded. 



The crop of Com promises to be very good, and 

 is in fair way to ripen well. We have seen one 



