

TIIE GEIJESEE FARMER. 



on the ground, where water will not lay or run on, and thereon place your coop, made close on top 

 and all around except the south aide, which should be open to admit the sun and to allow the chick- 

 ens to go out and in. ^ Also have the cpop so arranged that the hen can not get where you place the 

 food for the chickens after they are two days old. Feed no raw corn meal dough, as is the common 

 practice, but give a sufficient quantity of baked bread without salt, made of either corn or wheat 

 meal, and at least one feed a day of curd made of sour milk, and every two or three days give some 

 fresh meat — beef, veal, mutton, <fcc. — either raw or cooked, chopped up fine, and mixed with the 

 curd ; and as soon as the chickens are old enough to eat grain, give some wheat and small com, (the 

 hen can be fed principally on grain,) and a supply of water will insure your chickens from the 



gapes. Chester CotTs'TV. 



»«« 



Impoverishing the Soil. — I have been particularly interested in reading the editorial remarks on 

 the subject of the exhausting system of cultivation practiced by too many of the farmers of our coun- 

 try, and have wondered that the appeals to the reason, the interest, and the credit of their brethren, 

 so often and so ably made by the editors of the Farmer, did not more frequently elicit a response 

 from some of the thousands of your readers, who can not but be sensible of the importance of the 

 subject ; and though I am sensible that the space might be occupied by the production of an abler 

 pen, yet^ as few seem disposed to devote their time and talents to the subject, (if we may judge from 

 the contributions to your columns,) I have concluded to oflfer a few remarks, which you are at liberty 

 to dispose of as may seem to you best. 



It is natural to suppose that a large proportion of the inhabitanta of our coimtry will, for the 

 facilities of commerce, manufactures, &c., congregate in cities and villages, and a eonsequent demand 

 will be made upon the farmer for the means of sustaining life and for the raw material for manufac- 

 turing, which are produced from, and consequently exhaust, the soil of its elements, particularly 

 such as enter sparingly into its composition. These are circumstances over which we have no con- 

 trol, nor would we wish, were it in our power, to reverse them ; the farmer is under the necessity 

 of exchanging tlie products of the soil for those of the labor of the mechanic and manufacturer, 

 though it may be at the expense and ultimate exliaustion of certain essential elements of his food and 

 clothing. Tliese are natural results, and Nature, ever right, is as uniformly kind ; for although she 

 has not furnished in inexhaustible quantities every essential element to every soil, yet she has placed 

 all within our reach, though not always in such quantities, nor so easy of access, as to render us 

 justifiable in wasting such as are already in our possession. 



Now, to supply this necessary demand of the inhabitants of cities and villages, and at the same 

 time preserve the primitive fertility of the soil, it appears to me quite necessary that we ascertain, 

 first, what are the elements of our cultivated crops; second, which, if any, of those elements are defi- 

 cient in our soil ; and thirdly, whether the manure furnished by our animals contains the deficient 

 materials in sufficient quantities. As to the first, we find that carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen greatly 

 predominate in all vegetables, besides which the common earths, sUiea, alumina, and lime, enter into 

 the composition of different plants in variable proportions, as also do soda, potash, and sulphuric, 

 phosphoric, and some other acids, besides nitrogen, chlorine, and some other substances. Secondly, 

 few soils are deficient in carbon ; and if they are, the atmosphere is the great reservoir, from which 

 perliaps vegetables absorb through their leaves all that is requisite, in the form of carbonic acid gas- 

 The necessary quantity of oxygen and hydrogen is furnished from water. Silica ?jid alumina ai'e 

 inexhaustible elements of almost every soil, whereas lime is deficient in some ; but an abundant sup- 

 ply is foxmd within a reasonable distance of every section of ouj* country. Potash is rather an 

 abundant material in most soils, but it enters so largely into the compositiou of mo^t plants, that it is 

 by no means inexliaustible ; and if by a waste of the matei-ials that furnish this indispensible the 

 quantity should become deficient, we shall find that an artificial application will be made at an 

 expense that will greatly diminish the profits of our business. Soda and chlorine may, if deficient, 

 be furnished by an application of common salt^ and sulphuric acid by that of plaster. But there is 

 an element of the staff of life, a component part of corn and wheat, the substance of which our bones 

 are mainly composed — to wit, the phosphate of lime — which, important as it is, is furnished natu- 

 rally in the soil in quantities by no means inexliaustible; and until recently no important depositions 

 of this mineral have been known to exist in our country ; but, thanks to the scientific exploration of 

 Prof. Emmons, phosphate of lime has been found in large quantities somewhere near lake Champlain, 

 how easy of access I know not, but with our present and increasing facilities for transportation, no 

 doubt but the discovery is a great acquisition to the means of renovating out worn out lands. Nitro 



