AND HORTICULTUJtAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH M.iRKET STREET, (Agricoltcbal Wabehouse.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL. MX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 24, 1841. 



[NO. 34. 



N. E. FARMER. 



For the New England Farmer. 



POUDRETTE AS A MANURE. 



The following practical farmers' analysis, or 

 the results of experiments made with poudrette, as 

 compared with other manures, and by itself, may 

 be of interest to some of your readers; and will 

 tend to show the high value of the article — and es- 

 pecially of that prepared by Anthony Dey, Esq., of 

 New York, which he has represented as beinsr a 

 much better article than that referred to below : 

 of the correctness of those representations, howev- 

 er, I imagine other proof than his assertions or 

 analysis will be required by those who know us 

 both, at home. Of their correctness or incorrect- 

 ness however, I am willing to let those judge who 

 use the articles. 



A gentleman in Westchester county. New York, 

 planted a piece of corn last season, on which he 

 put only half a gill to the hill ; of which he gives 

 me the following account. I use his own lan- 

 guage, which is as follows: 



" For corn, I think no other manure can come 

 in competition with it. I planted, last season, on 

 sward land turned over (being first manured with 

 common yard dung) — the ground rolled very flat, 

 and harrowed — no plough used afterwards ; the 

 rows being marked by an ox chain drawn on the 

 ground, the corn dropped, and half a gill of pou- 

 drette immediately put on the corn, and lightly 

 covered with the hoe. This was done from 25th 

 to 28th of May, as the weather allowed. More 

 than a fortnight after my neighbors had planted, I 

 was told by many who saw the manner and time of 

 planting, that I should have no crop, but in three 

 weeks my corn was farther advanced than any 

 near me ; and it continued of the finest color, and 

 was the best filled of any I saw through the season. 

 It was cut up and removed from the field on the 

 first of September, and when husked, turned out 

 the least soft corn that I ever had, in proportion to 

 the good corn. I can attribute this quick and good 

 growth to nothing but the poudrette; as the land 

 was not well tilled, the corn only having had one 

 good hoeing after It came up; the cultivator was 

 run through it twice." 



Thus it will be seen that it may be used in very 

 small quantities, and yet produce very satisfactory 

 results. 



Another gentleman, on Long Island, says that 

 he used a gill to the hill of corn, and he had as 

 good corn from it as where he used a shovelful of 

 good yard manure in the h\U ; and that the worms 

 were much less troublesome where the former, than 

 where the latter was used ; and others have made 

 the same remark in relation to insects. 



On wheat it has been applied experimentally in 

 different quantities. Twenty, thirty, forty, and 

 even seventy bushels have been applied to the acre. 

 A gentleman on Long Island says : 



" I used it also on wheat, at the rate of 40, 60, 

 and 70 bushels to the acre. That on which I put 

 forty bushels to the acre, produced as good wheat 

 as where I put 40 wagon loads ot stable and barn 

 yard manure — and equally as good as where sixty 

 or seventy bushels of poudrette were used. I also 

 used it on all kinds of garden vegetables, and nev- 

 er had better success. I consider it better for 

 corn, in the hill, than bone." 



Another gentleman who has used it three years, 

 says, under date of " Smithtown, L. I., Aug. 9th, 

 1840": 



" My wheat came in well where I used poudrette 

 last fall. It stood the winter well, and the berry is 

 fine ; but where I used bone, about the same cost 

 to the acre, in tlie same field, it was winter killed, 

 very much shrunk, and I should judge that there 

 would not be over half the number of bushels per 

 acre. Where I used poudrette this spring, the re- 

 sult is very favorable. I used it on corn 'by the 

 side of the best yard manure : thus far it is deci- 

 dedly the best ; and I have no reason to doubt but 

 that it will continue so through the season. I also 

 used it in my garden, and it never looked better." 



Another gentleman, also residing on Long Is- 

 land, one of the earliest experimenters with pou- 

 drette in this country, says: 



"I have used poudrette for three years, on near- 

 ly all the varieties of crops usually cultivated on 

 farms in this county, and am entirely satisfied with 

 its results. I consider its introduction as singular- 

 ly fortunate to the farming interests in this vicini- 

 ty." 



I will refer to but one other gentleman at this 

 time. He is also a resident of Long Island — one 

 of the earliest, now one of the hirgest, shareholders 

 in the company. He received last year over fifteen 

 hundred bushels on accountof dividend. He says: 



"Another year's experience in the use of pou- 

 drette, has, if possible, increased my confidence in 

 its great utility. My opinion of its high value on 

 most crops was expressed in a former communica- 

 tion, and has been fully confirmed. Tlie past sea- 

 son I applied it principally on oats and wheat. It 

 may be sufficient to say the result was entirely sat- 

 isfactory. Indeed the convenience and advantages 

 resulting from the use of this article are so great, 

 that one accustomed to possess them would hardly 

 think himself able to carry on farming without it." 



I could increase these statements if it were ne- 

 cessary, but I will leave the subject with the sim- 

 ple remark, that the practical farmer or purchaser 

 will find more safety in relying upon the character 

 of those who prepare if, than upon an analysis got 

 up by one party for effect. As I have before said, 

 I court investigation, and am willing to abide the 

 result of experiment. 



By a reference to the advertisement in your pa- 

 per, those who desire to make an experiment will 

 learn how it may be obtained. 

 I am, sir, respectfully, yours, 



D. K. MINOR. 



Fonhe N. E. Farmer. 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 

 Although I have always valued highly the addi- 

 tion to the stock of general knowledge made by 

 the experiments of Agricultural Chemistry, yet I 

 have hitherto had but little faith in the immediate 

 utility of their labors; having considered the prac- 

 tical knowledge of centuries far beyond the reach 

 of the theoretical knowledge of about a quarter of 

 one. But so ardent has been the pursuit of the 

 scientific details of agriculture within the last few- 

 years, and so great the talent enlisted under its 

 banners, that I perceive the distance between prac- 

 tice and theory is rapidly diminishing, and the day 

 when they will meet and mutually support each 

 other is evidently not far distant. 



The work of Liebig, on Agricultural Chemistry, 

 noticed by your correspondent, although it contains 

 many errors, clearly arising from closet theory, yet 

 contains also many exceedingly valuable facts and 

 suggestions, and is worthy the perusal of every 

 tiller of the soil. 



The chemist can tell in his laboratory the solid 

 ingredients of a soil, but it is evident that the gase- 

 ous portion has evaporated and escaped prevous to 

 his submitting it to the test. Again, to ascertain 

 the substance most required by any particular crop 

 of vegetation, would seem to require two separate 

 analyses of the same soil, one previous to sowin", 

 the other subsequent to reaping the crop ; and 

 these analyses not simply of the solid constituents 

 of the soil, which are often merely the recipients 

 of the most important substances for vegetation 

 but of the salts and gases ; paying particular atten- 

 tion to the neutral salts and gases in that previous 

 to sowing, and to the free or combined acids in 

 that subsequent to reaping. These analyses 

 should also be conducted on a pretty largo scale 

 say a heap formed by two or three wheelbarrows 

 of soil, brought together from different parts of a 

 field, taken from the surface to the depth to which 

 the roots of the crop penetrate. This should be 



well mixed so as to be perfectly homogeneous a 



large portion treated with water, and so on through- 

 out the analysis. It is evident that the comparison 

 of these two parallel analyses would shew the ac- 

 tion of the crop on the soil, and the use which it 

 had made of the different ingredients thereof. 



Another point of great consequence and one of 

 great difficulty for the chemist to grapple with is 

 the convertibility of one substance into another 

 during the process of vegetation : then it is thought 

 that seeds have the power of decomposing water 

 and converting it for their use into its component 

 parts or hydrogen : and that the nitrates are made 

 to surrender a portion of their nitrage, &c. the 

 same with ammonia. 



To these and many other points of great interest 

 on this subject, the attention of the public in Eu- 

 rope is freely awakened ; nor are they without their 

 students here : our best operative chemists are pur- 

 suing them with great assiduity. No doubt if sup. 

 ported by the great sovereign here, the public 



