2S2 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MAKCH 1 '. IS4I. 



far from offering them as facts, having neither suf- 

 licient proofs of them nor leisure to institute exi>eri- 

 ments on tlic subject. I only wish to enter uiy pro- 

 test against the term vilallbj, as closing the door to 

 examination, and of expressing my satisfaction al 

 the chance that is offered by the i)ublication of such 

 a work as that of Liebig, for new discoveries in the 

 science of agricultural and vegetable chemistry. 



J. E. T. 



COMPOST. 



Fearing that we may not have done justice to 

 Dr. Jackson or to his subject, in our condensed re- 

 port of his remarks at the 7tli Agricultural Meet- 

 ing, we are about to make him speak for himself, 

 by"quoting from his valuable report on the geologi- 

 cal and agricultural survey of Rhode Island. 



"Peat and swamp muck occur in almost every 

 town in the State, and farms arc so situated that 

 they may be abundantly supplied with them. 



I am confidently of opinion tliat when the value 

 of those substances is fully known, they will be 

 eao-erly sought for, as the basis of compost manures. 

 They are extensively employed in Europe for this 

 purpose, and are highly esteemed. 



Lord Meadowbank, who first called the attention 

 of British agriculturists to this valuable substance, 

 states, "that after long and watchful experience he 

 is satisfied with the powers and duration of this 

 species of compost. In every diversity of soil, it 

 has given returns in nowise inferior to the best 

 barn-yard dung, applied in the same quantity, and 

 that it is equal if not preferable in its effects for 

 the first three years, and decidedly superior after- 

 wards." 



"The carcase of a dead horse, which is often 

 suffered to pollute the air by its noxious elfluvia, 

 has been happily employed in decomposing twenty 

 tons of peat earth, and transforming it into the most 

 enriching manure."— (See Young's Letters of Ag- 

 ricola, letter 25, p. 238.) 



In this country experience has also demonstra- 

 ted the value of peat composts. Elias Phinney, 

 Esq., of Lexington, and Mr Haggorston, of Water- 

 town, who are excellent practical farmers, both de- 

 clare that a composted manure made of three parts 

 of peat and one of stable manure, is equal in value 

 to its bulk of clear st-ilile dung, and is more per- 

 manent in its effects. Mr Phinney has also been 

 remarkably successful in reclaiming peat bogs, and 

 values such land for tillage more than his uplands. 

 I have seen the various methods of managing 

 peat composts fully carried into effect, in every 

 form described, and am satisfied that when its use 

 is fully understood, and it shall be generally ap- 

 plied in Rhode Island, that a new and prosperous 

 era will dawn upon the agriculture of the State. 



In composting peat, the farmer should be atten- 

 tive to the principles on which the art is founded, 

 otherwise by deviating he may commit important 

 errors. 



It is essential that animal matters of some kind 

 should be mixed with the peat, for the purpose of 

 effecting its decomposition, and to produce the re- 

 quisite gases. Lime is employed to decompose the 

 peat, neutralize acids, and to disengage ammoniacal 

 gas from the animal substances. 



The peat greedily absorbs every particle of am- 

 monia, and becomes in part soluble in water. The 

 sohible matter produced is principally the npocre- 

 nate of ammonia. Crenatc of ammonia and crenate 

 of lime are also dissolved. 



Where an excess of animal matter and lime are 

 employed, free carbonate of ammonia is formed. If 

 the compost is mixed witn earth and allowed to 

 remain for a long time, nitre is produced, the ope- 

 ration taking place more rapidly in the summer 

 months. 



Potash, soda, soapers' waste lu|Uors and ashes, 

 may also be advantageously mixed with peat, and 

 will serve to render it soluble and fertilizing. 



Peat may likewise bo used to absorb the liquid 

 manures, which ought to be collected for that pur- 

 pose, in every barn-yard, the dry peat absorbing 

 like a sponge. It afterwards undergoes fermenta- 

 tion, in roMsequence of the animal liquids absorbed. 

 !t is stated by Mr John Young, in his letters of 

 Agricola, that the liquid manures are of the same 

 value as the solid, and "that (me ton of the solid 

 dung will make four tons of compost, and four tons 

 more may be made from the urine discharged by 

 the cattle in the same given time." 



Night soil is a very powerful manure, and may 

 . be composted with peat to great advantage, provid- 

 ed it is thoroughly limed, in order to effect its de- 

 composition. It is thus deprived of its peculiar 

 odor, and gives off ammonia in great quantities, so 

 as to saturate the peat. 



After considering the numerous methods of pre- 

 paring peat composts, I ought to urge the farmers 

 throughout the Stale, to begin forthwith to collect 

 and prepare large quantities of this manure for the 

 improvement of their farms, and I have no doubt 

 but the produce of the land will soon be more than 

 doubled. Every farmer who has a bog or swamp, 

 whenever his business will allow him time, and the 

 peat can be dug, ought to obtain large quantities 

 and throw it up on the uplands to drain, by which 

 its weight will be very much diminished, and by 

 atmospheric infiuences its quality is improved, es- 

 pecially if it is exposed to the action of frost. It 

 may then be transported to the barn-yard or hog 

 styes, and there be converted into compost by mix- 

 ture with animal excrements. Or it may be made 

 into heaps in the corners of the fields, where it is 

 to be used, fish dung or some other animal matters 

 being mixed with it. Lime may be put in at the 

 same time with the animal matters, or it may be 

 introduced early in the spring, when the compost 

 is dug over, in case it has remained through the 

 winter." 



CULTIVATION OF THE PINE ON THE 

 SHORES OF GASCONY. 



We take the following interesting article from a 

 London literary and theological periodical, entitled 

 the Christian Teacher: 



Economy is the welfare of states as of individu- 

 als. By economy, in its best and widest sense, is 

 meant, that just end wise distribution of means and 

 efforts, which out of the given conditions firoduces 

 the largest sum of good and happiness. 



To spend little, is but one and a very meagre 

 branch of economy — in many instances no econo- 

 my at all. In states especially, to gather much is 

 at all events ei|ually important. \\ hen we look 

 around upon the world, survey the numbers in want 

 almost of their daily bread, while Ihe earth given 

 to man to be subdued and rendered productive by 

 the labor of his hands, is still, in an infinite num- 

 ber of cases, totally without culture, and Jiewr, with 

 a few rare exceptions, producing what it is capable 

 by skill and industry of being made to produce, it 

 is impossible not to believe that our knowledge of 



the science of political economy is in its very in- 

 fancy — its true principles little practiced or under- 

 stood. Man is seen on all sides in that most af- 

 fecting of all situations, willing to labor, crying for 

 the privilege of being allowed to work, starving in 

 want of the merest necessaries of life, while the 

 bounteous earth lies spread around hiin, offering 

 her liberal rewards for labor, and not finding hands. 

 What inexhaustible mines of wealth yet unex- 

 plored does the surface even of our own well-peo- 

 pled and well-cultivated British islands present; 

 wliat sources of riches, strength and happiness lie 

 buried in the bogs of Ireland alone I 



Soils far more ungrateful have, by a judicious 

 and economical culture, been made the fruitful 

 .source of wealth and felicity, and perhaps there is 

 no contemplation more useful and agreeable, than 

 that of such a picture. 



The manner in which sand hills, such as those 

 which, covered with wiry grass, line many ot our 

 shores, have on the southwestern coast of France 

 been rendered useful and productive in a high de- 

 gree, is a striking example of well-directed and 

 successful efforts of this nature. 



In the departments of the Gironde and of the 

 Lnni'ts, on the shores of that stormy ocean which 

 raves between the mouth of the Gironde and Bay- 

 onne, the most magnificent pine forests are at this 

 day waving, where not many years ago was noth- 

 ing but a dreary and threatening desert of sand. 



These forests cover an immense extent of land 

 round Teste and the basin of Arcachon, and might 

 be extended so as to cover the whole of the above 

 mentioned coast, an extent of si.xty French leagues, 

 or about one hundred and fifty Erglish miles. 



Teste and the basin of Arcachon will he found, 

 on consulting the map, to lie on the shores of the 

 ocean, in the southern part of the department of the 

 Gironcie, from which the department of the Landes 

 extends southwards. 'Ivery one in the least ac- 

 quainted with French geography has heard of the 

 Landes; of those immense level plain?,— and has 

 pictured to himself their dreary monotony — their 

 shepherds elevated on stilts and wrapped in grey 

 sheep-skins, leaning upon their staffs, and natch- 

 in", motionless, the flocks scattered over the meas- 

 ureless pasture. 



The force of the western wind has raised upon 

 this coast, as upon many others, hills of sand, from 

 thirty to sixty metres in height, (a metre is some- 

 thing more than an English yard.) The French 

 irive these sand hills the name of Dunes: they are 

 compojed entirely of the dry sea sand, driven in- 

 wards in various places, as upon some of our own 

 coasts. 



These sand hills having attained a certain eleva- 

 tion, fall — are driven forward by the wind, and in- 

 vading the plains behind them, menace the Landes 

 with inevitable destruction. 



Populous towns have fallen victims to the ad- 

 vance of this slow, but as it was long thought, irre- 

 sistible enemy. The Dunes advanced annually, 

 and the gradual destruction of tlie productive plains 

 mio-lit be predicted with mathematical certainty. — 

 Even the city of Bourdeaux itself seemed doomed, 

 sooneror later, to perish under this deluge of sand. 

 This state of things at last excited public atten- 

 tion, and towards the end of the last century, the 

 means of arresting this fata! progression were 

 sought for, and, as is the usual consequence of be- 

 ing sought for, found. 



A man of the name of Bremontier, we do not 

 know whether he is yet living or not, imagined a 



