^l 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



it ; while from its concentrated soluble character (for many of the mineral substances 

 are increased in solubility by fermentation with organic matter) it acts much quicker, 

 and with more effect, on spring crops than though applied in the green state. 



On heavy clay soils it is often advantageous to apply the manure in the green state, 

 the carbonic acid generated by the fermentation of the litter in the soil assisting 

 materially the solubility of silicates and other nearly insoluble salts. It uicreases, also, 

 the porosity of the soil, and thus benefits it mechanically as well as chemically. 



BIPROVED SUPERPHOSHATE OF LIME. 



Most of our readers are probably aware that the Royal Agricnltural Society of England 

 ottered some months since a premium of $5,000 and a gold medal for a chemical manure 

 which shall be equal in value to Peruvian guano, and which can be aftbrded for $25 

 per ton, gross. 



In the August number t>f the Farmer we mentioned having received two articles of 

 superphosphate of lime made in New York, one under the direction of Prof. Mapes, 

 editor of the Working Farmer^ called " Improved Superphosphate of Lime ;" the other 

 by Deburg, called merely " Superphosphate of Lime." We there gave our opinion of 

 their respective value as compared with each other, and with Peruvian guano, thinking 

 that Deburg's was the better article as a manure for turneps and other root crops, but 

 that for wheat, corn, and other cereals, Peruvian guano was very much superior to either. 



This " improved"^ superphosphate of hme has been advertized in a great number of 

 the agricultural papers, and many of our brethren, from confidence in Prof. Mapes' 

 integrity, knowledge* and skill, as one of our first agricultural chemists, have, probably 

 without trial or good evidence, recommended it to their readers. We bold it most 

 important tliat at the present time, when there is evidently an awakening interest in 

 scientific investigations, and the recommendations of chemists, that everything that will 

 in any way mislead the farmer, or that will give him exaggerated ideas respecting the 

 value of any chemical compound when applied to his crops, should be fearlessly exposed. 



Prof. Mapes, in the November number of his paper, after noticing the premium above 

 mentioned, says: 



" The Royal Society may offer this premium with impunity, so long as the prices of hones, sulphuric 

 acid, and ammonia shall remain as they now are. Long experience haa now taught the English farniera 

 that superphosphate of lime and sulphate of ammonia, when properly prepared, is worth nearly twice 

 its weight of Peruvian guano ; and attempts have been made to manufacture an article containing 

 these requisites in proper proportions, and in a dry form, at £20 per ton, at which price it could 

 readily be sold, but the high price of phosphate of lime and of sulphate of ammonia, has rendered 

 this impossible, and the Royal Society may offer tlxMr premium fearlcs-sly, until it can be proved that 

 crops may be grown from other substances than those contained in them as proved by analysis. 



"The Improved Superphosphate of Lime, used by us for the last five years, and now^ made for sale 

 at $50 per ton at New York, cannot be duplicated in England for double that sum, and if it could, 

 to our certain knowledge it would be done, and would soon take precedence of Peruvian guano at 

 the present prices. 



"Even the American native phosphate of lime is selling in England at £7 ($36) per ton, in large 

 masses, the grinding of which to a powder is attended with large expenses, and even when ground it 

 Is useless as a manure, until treated with half its weight of suljihuric acid, thus rendering the prepared 

 article in a perfectly dry state, costing much more than the cost of the Improved Superphosphate of 

 Lime, which, from the absence of anvnonia and many other of the constituents of guano, it is very 

 far inferior to it in quality. It will readily be perceived that the Royal Society will not soon be 

 called upon to pay over the £1000 so liberally offered." 



We have had some considerable acquaintance with English farmers, and have always con- 

 sidered them by no means an intellectual class of men, but we never thought them such fools 

 as the above hypothesis of Prof. Mapes makes them. If " long experience" has taught 



