VOL. XIV. NO. 31. 



sy L-l ±J 



±1. Ky XV 



of procuring laiior: and especially the market and 

 the demand. He slioiild have sonic ref'Tcnce like- 

 wise, to the permanency or the perishable nature 

 of the crops or products which he raises. In the 

 former respect, Indian corn yields to none other. 

 I have in my po.ssession, an ear of corn grown in 

 the year of the total eclipse, 180(), as sound and 

 perfect as the day on which it was gathered. — Ihid. 



OURS A IIAPPy LOT. 



We have every reason to thank a kind Provi- 

 dence for the land of our birth, and to cherish und 

 strengthen those bonds of aflection which bind us 

 to the place of our nativity. If its climate aflord 

 no perpetual summer, use reconciles and even at- 

 taches us to its changing seasons : and to the re- 

 flecting mind, the generous, intelligent, and pious 

 student of nature, even stern winter is not barren 

 of objects, in the highest degree picturesque, beau- 

 tiful, sublime and elevating. If its soil is hard, 

 and it requires a bold heart to contend with the 

 difficulties which he in our way, the efforts which 

 are necessarily called out invigorate the physical 

 frame, and give energy and elasticity to the mind. 



There is no ground to complain of the place 

 where Divine Providence has cast our lot. Let us 

 regard it as the highest duty of patriotism, phi- 

 lanthropy and religion, to bring eacli one his hum- 

 ble but hearty contribution to the general stock of 

 good ; and to labor in his vocation, to do what he 

 can and al! he can, to improve, elevate, enrich, em- 

 bellish and make happy the community in which 

 he lives. — Ibid. 



VoT the New England Farmer. 



BEES. 



The last season was peculiarly favorable to the 

 operations or bees, inasmuch as there were fewer 

 high winds to molest them in their labors and less 

 rain to drench the flowers than usual. We believe 

 they made the most of their advantages every 

 where, but have as yet seen no statements of any 

 one's success with them. Being blessed with the 

 "gift of the gab," we presume to ofl^er the result of 

 labors in our own colony, thereby "breaking the 

 ice," and hoping others who have done better, will 

 tell us, and how they managed. We had only 

 three hives on the first of May, and neglected to 

 take up our honey until late in September. Si.\ of 

 our best swan..s are wintering, and (roni the later 

 ones which wc "took up" we had 176 poimils of 

 honey. Whether this is doing well or not, we are 

 anable to siy, as we have not much experience in 

 the business. It is the best we have ever done, 

 however. Our hives thus far are al! of the old- 

 fashion kind, and we kept the swarms scattered in 

 different parts of the garden, in rather shaded po- 

 sitions, stand. iig upon stools raised but little from 

 the ground. We found no appearance of moth in 

 any of the hives taken up, and are rather confident 

 ia opinion that the best preventive of their depre- 

 dations is the henlthfulness and vigor of the swarm. 

 Our bees at no time of swarming showed any dis- 

 position to emigrate from the premises, though in 

 two or three instances they showed so much dissat- 

 isfaction with their hives as to leave them. Keep- 

 ers of bees are in duty bound to furnish them with 

 as much pasture near home as possible ; hence 

 floriculture may become an object with all who 

 keep them — and of all flowers for their benefit, we 

 think mignionelte most valuable. W. B. 



Mount Osceola, 1841. 



CAUSE OF THE INEFFICACY OF GYPSUM 

 ON ACID SOILS. 



1 do not pretend to exfilointhe mode of opera- 

 tion by which gypsum produces its almost magic 

 benefits : it would be e<pially hopeless and ridicu- 

 lous for one having so little knowledge of the suc- 

 cessful practice, to attempt an explanation, in which 

 so many good chemists and agriculturists, both 

 scientific and practical, have completely failed. — 

 There is no operation of nature heretofore less un- 

 derstood, or of which the cause or agent seems so 

 totally disproportioned to the effect, as the enor- 

 mous increase of vegetable growth from a very 

 small quantity of gypsum, in circumstances favora- 

 ble to its action. All other known manures, what- 

 ever may be the nature of their action, require to 

 be applied in quantities very far e-Tceeding any 

 bulk of crop expected from their use. But one 

 bushel of gypsum spread over an acre of land fit 

 for its action, may add more than twenty times 

 its own weight to a single crop of clover. 



However wonderful and inscrutable the fertiliz- 

 ing power of this manure may be, and admitting its 

 cause as yet to be hidden, and entirely beyond our 



reach still it is possible to show reasons why 



gypsum cannot act on many situations--, where all 

 experience has proved it to be worthless. If this 

 only can be satisfactorily explained, it will remove 

 much of the uncertainty as the efl'ects to be ex-, 

 pected : and the farmer may thence learn on what 

 soils he may hope for benefit from this manure— j 

 on what it will certainly be thrown away — and by 

 what means the circumstances adverse to its ac- 

 tion may be removed, and its efficacy thereby se- 

 cured. This is the explanat ion that I shall attempt. 



If the vegetable acid, which I suppose to exist 

 in what I have called acid soils, is not the oxalic, 

 (which is the particular acid in sorrel,) at least ev- 

 ery vegetable acid, being composed of different 

 proportions of the same elements, may easily change 

 to any other, and all to the oxalic acid. This, of 

 all bodies known by chemists, has the strongest 

 attraction for lime, and will take it from any 

 other acid which was before combined with it — 

 and for that purpose the oxalic acid will let go any 

 other earth or metal which it had before held in 

 combination. Let us then observe what would be 

 the effect of the known chemical action of these 

 substances on their meeting in soils. If oxalic 

 acid was produced in uiiy soil, its immediate eflfect 

 would be to unite with its proper proportion of 

 lime, if enough was in the soil in any combination 

 whatever. If the lime was in such small quantity 

 as to leave an excess of oxalic acid, that e.xcess 

 would seize on the other substances in the soil, in 

 the order of their mutual attractive force ; and one 

 or more of such substimces are always present, as 

 magnesia, or more certainly, iron and alumina — 

 The soil then would not only contain some propor- 

 tion of the oxalate of lime, but also the oxalate of 

 either one or more of the other substances named. 

 Let us suppose gypsum to be applied to the soil. 

 This substance, (sulphate of limej is composed of 

 sulphuric acid and lime. It is applied in a finely 

 pulverized state, and in quantities from half a bush- 

 el to two bushels to the acre — generally not more 

 than one bushel. As soon as the earth is made 

 wet enough for any chemical decomposition to take 

 place, the oxalic acid must let go its base of iron, 

 or alumina, and seize upon and combine with the 

 lime that formed an ingredient of the gypsum. — 

 The sulphuric acid left free, will combine with the 



iron or the alumina of the soil, forming copperas 

 in the one case, and alum in the other. The i;yp- 

 sum no loiif;er cxiils — and surely no more satisfac- 

 tory reason can be given why no efi^'ect from it 

 should fcillow. The decomposition of tlieg. psum 

 has served to form two or perhaps three other sub- 

 stances. One of them, oxalate of lime, I suppose 

 to be highly valiialile as manure; but the very 

 small quantity that couKI bo formed out of one or 

 even two bushels of gypsum, could have no more 

 visible effect on a whole acre, than that small 

 quantity of calcareous earth or farm-yard manure. 

 1 he otiier substance certainly formed, copperas, is 

 known to be a poison to the soil and to plant* — 

 and alum, of which the formation would be doubt- 

 ful, I believe is also hurtful. * * Soils that 

 are naturally calcareous, cannot contain oxalic 

 acid combined with any other base than lime. 

 Hence gypsum applied there, continues to be gyp- 

 sum, and exerts great fertilizing pov/er. — Rvffin's 

 Essay on Calcareous Manures. 



ItIa«BachuRetts Horticultural Society. 



EXHIBITION OF FRUIT. 



Saturday, Jan. IG, 184). 



Benj. v. French, Esq., exhibited the following 

 Apples, viz : Ortley Pippin, Black (Coxe, No. 67) 

 Reinette du Canada : Yellow Bellflower; Winter 

 Nonsuch; Wellington, and one sort unknown. Al- 

 so, specimens of King's Bon chretien Pear, (so 

 called.) 



M. P. Wilder, Esq., exhibited Easter Beurre 

 Pears — verjf fine. 



E. Phinney, Esq., exhibited specimens of a large 

 oblong red apple, name unknown. 



S. Downer, Esq., exhibited Easter Beurre Pears, 

 grown in the garden of Capt John D'Wolf^very 

 handsome. These pears as well as those exhibited 

 by Mr Wilder, were the produce of standard trees, 

 and in size, color, and flavor, were equal to any 

 specimens of this fruit we have ever seen. 



Mr Manning exhibited the following Apples, viz : 

 Pumwater Sweet, Bellflower, Sweet Baldwin, 

 Reinette, Noir Sanguine, Cat-head Greening, and 

 one sort unknown. Also, the following Pears : 

 Catillac, Wedale's St. Germaine (Belle d' Jersey 

 or Pound, of American Catalogue,) and Bon Chre- 

 tien Turc, or Flemish Bon chretien, of the London 

 Horticultural Society. 



■| he Canadian Reinette, exhibited by Mr French, 

 was of large size and fine flavor. We give Mr 

 Thompson's opinion of this fruit, in the following 

 extract from the London Hort. Society's Catalogue : 

 "Good bearer, and though large, of excellent qual- 

 ity. Even as a dessert fruit, it is probably the 

 best apple of its size, and surpassed by k\7 of 

 those that are smaller : it therefore deserves exten- 

 sive cultivation." 



The origin of Pumwater Sweet and the Red 

 Sweet Baldwin, are iinknDwn to the Committee: 

 they may possibly prove synonymous with other 

 well known apples. Information on this point is 

 respectfully solicited. 



For the Committee, 



ROBERT MANNING. 



To prevent water from freezing in a pump, it is 

 only necessary to bore a small hole in the pump a 

 few inches below the platform, to allow the water 

 to escape. There is also another advantage from 

 this : the water by agitating the air in the well, 

 purifi s it. — Bangor Whig. 



