1847.] TIwi Sowing. 205 



cents per cubic yard. Every farmer, however, must be his own 

 judge of the price he can afford to pay for fertilizers belonging 

 to this class. When, however, it is once known that charcoal is 

 probably one of the best fertilizers for potatoes, and bids fair to 

 counteract the potatoe malady to a certain extent, it appears ra- 

 tional to maintain that it will be a good investment to purchase 

 peat coal at the rate of twenty-five dollars per thousand bushels. 

 The subject especially commends itself to the attention of those 

 who have peat beds upon their estates. Its home profit will pay 

 a heavy interest upon the outlay of labor and capital. 



Peat coal being more porous than common charcoal, will exert 

 a greater influence upon the soil. It may be regarded as an ab- 

 sorber of ammonia and water, and undergoing a slow combustion 

 it will furnish before it is consumed, a vast amount of carbonic 

 acid. Most persons are perfectly familiar with the effects of char- 

 coal upon vegetation. The great desideratum is how to obtain it 

 in quantities, and at a rate to make it an object in husbandry. 

 Surely no one can afford to buy coal, not because there is so much 

 expense in making it, but on account of the value of the materials 

 of which it is formed. Peat however, is a material lying in a 

 waste, useless as it is, and in order to make it valuable, it is only 

 necessary to raise from its half submerged condition, and char it. 

 Or it may be used as a fuel quite economically, and then its ashes 

 are valuable fertilizers also. In this operation no timber is sacri- 

 ficed, no groves of fine trees are destroyed. We reclaim however, 

 an unhealthy marsh, and bring into cultivation, a new field which 

 has laid barren and useless. More considerations than one re- 

 commend peat charcoal to the consideration of farmers throucrhout 

 the Union. 



TFIIN SOWING. 



In England the question has been discussed, whether thick or 

 thin seeding was the most profitable. This is a question equally 

 important on this side of the Atlantic. We have little doubt that 

 the practice of thick seeding has had as many advocates here as 

 abroad. 



A friend of ours who is a good farmer recommends thick seed- 

 ing for the purpose of preventing the numerous secondary stalks, 

 which can never be so strong, healthy and productive as the 

 main stem, which first rises from the seed. That thick seeding has 

 the effect to prevent tillering out, as it is termed, is supported by 

 observation. There is more food for the few stalks which may 

 grow together, than to the many which are often formed where 

 the seeding: is thin. 



