12^ Extracts from the Journals. [July, 



miles from the sea, and manm-ed with cattle dung, guano and 

 marl. 



From these analyses, it appears that the cane for successful cul- 

 tivation requires a very large quantity of silicate of potassa and 

 also a considerable amount of the phosphates. Few cultivated 

 plants, except the cerealia, require so much. Wheat, or any of 

 the cereals, necessarily causes the removal of a portion of the 

 valuable inorganic constituents of the soil, such as the alkalies, 

 phosphates, &c., which can only be returned to it indirectly: Irut 

 with sugar the case is quite otherwise. Sugar is a purely organic 

 substance, consisting of carbon and the elements of water, all of 

 which can be derived from the atmosphere, and contains neither 

 alkalies, nor phosphates; so that if the ashes of the canes were 

 carefully collected and returned to the soil in an available state, 

 there is no reason why cane might not be grown upon the same 

 lands almost indefinitely. 



In the West Indies, where wood is scarce, the crushed canes 

 are employed as fuel, under the coppers of the boiling house to 

 concentrate the sirup, and as the heat required is great, a large 

 amount of the silica and the alkalies present is converted into a 

 hard, insoluble glass, M'hich in this form being useless, is thrown 

 away. We can therefore, readily understand the reason of the 

 rapid exhaustion of their sugar-lands, and the comparatively slow 

 wearing out of those in Louisiana, where from the abundance of 

 wood, the cane-trash is never thus employed, and where in addi- 

 tion to the inorganic ingredients of the cane, the soil receives (at 

 least where the planter-ship is what it ought to be,) the almost 

 equally valuable mineral constituents of the wood itself. — South- 

 ern Agriculturist. 



WOOL. 



; The annexed article by Hamilton Gay Esq., on the growth, 

 preparation, packing, &c., of American Wool for the English 

 market, contains information which will be valuable both to the 

 farmer and merchant. It was elicited by the following note, 

 dated — 



New York, May 16th, 1846. 



Dear Sir — You have been engaged for'the year past in export- 

 ing American wools to various markets in Great Britain, and 

 mu.st have acquired much valuable information respecting the 

 manner in which our wools should be prepared for those markets. 

 Such information is much wanted by our farmers and wool deal- 

 ers; for it is evident that wool is to be henceforth an important 



