338 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRIL ;»8. 1<<4I. 



in straw and grain to that on other portions of field, ] may be made in lar^e quantities 



oth 



the soil aait treatment of "hicli was otherwise pre- 

 cisfily similar. 



The bed of onions which had been prepared by 

 dressing it with a mixture of mud and ashes pre- 

 vious to the sowing of the seed, but which had not 

 by harrowing been so completely pulverized, mix- 

 ed and kneaded with the soil as the cultivators of 

 this crop deem essential to success, consisted of 

 three and a half square rods. The onions came up 

 well, were well weeded, and about two bushels of 

 fresh horse manure spread between the rows. In 

 June, four rows were tirst watered with the solution 

 of ge'ine above described. In ten days the onions 

 in these rows were nearly double the size of the 

 others. All but six rows of the remainder were 

 then watered. The growth of these soon outstrip- 

 ped the unwatered remainder. 



Mr Henry Gould, who manages my farm on 

 shares, and who conducted all the foregoing expe- 

 riments, without thinking of the importance of leav- 

 ing at least one row unwatered that we might bet- 

 ter ascertain the true efl'ect of this management, 

 seeing the benefit to the parts thus watered, in 

 about a week after, treated the remainder in the 

 same manner. The ends of some of the rows, 

 however, which did not receive the watering, pro- 

 duced only very small onions, such as. are usually 

 thrown away as worthless by cultivators of this 

 crop. This fact leads me to believe that if the on- 

 ions had not been watered with the solution of 

 geine, not a single bushel of a good size would 

 have been produced on the whole piece. At any 

 rate, it was peat or geine rendered soluble by alka- 

 li, that produced this large crop. 



The crop proved greater than our most sanguine 

 expectations. The onions were measured in the 

 presence of the chairman of your committee, and 

 making ample allowance for the tops which had 

 not been stripped off, were adjudged equal to four 

 bushels to the square rod, or at the rate of 040 

 bushels to the acre. In these experiments, 7 lbs. 

 of potash which cost 7 cts. a pound, bought at the 

 retail price, were used. Potash, although dearer 

 than wood ashes at \2 1-2 cts. per bushel, is 1 

 think, cheaper than the whiteash mentioned by 

 Dr. Dana, and sufficiently cheap to make with 

 meadow mud, a far cheaper manure than such as 

 is in general used among our farmers. The expe- 

 riment satisfies me that nothing belter than potash 

 and peat can be used for most if not all our culti- 

 vated vegetables, and the economy of watering 

 witfe a solution of geine, such as are cultivated in 

 rows, I think cannot be doubted. The reason why 

 the corn was not very obviously benefited, I think, 

 must have been, that the portion of the roots to 

 which it was applied, was already fully supplied 

 with nutriment out of the same kind from the peat 

 ashes and manure put in the hill at planting. For 

 watering rows of onions or other vegetables, 1 

 should recommend that a cask be mounted on light 

 wheels, so set that like the drill they may run each 

 side of the row and drop the liquid manure through 

 a small tap hole or tube from the cask, directly up- 

 on the young plants. For preparing the liquor, I 

 should rocommend a cistern about three feet deep 

 and as large as the object may require, formed of 

 plank and laid on a bed of clay and surrounded by 

 the same, in the manner that tan vats arc construct- 

 ed ; this should occu|)y a warm place, exposed to 

 the sun, near water, and as near as these requi- 

 sites permit to the tillage lands of the farm. In 

 Buch a cistern, in warm weather, a solution of geine 



ith little labor 

 and without the expense of fuel, as the heat of the 

 sun is, 1 think, amply sufficient for the purpose. 

 If from further experiii'.erils it should be found eco- 

 nomical-to water grass lands and grain crops, a 

 large cask or casks placed on wheels and drawn 

 by oxen or horse power, the liquor from the casks 

 being at pleasure let into a long narrov,' box per- 

 forated with niuneroua small holes, which would 

 spread the same over a strip of ground, some G, 8, 

 or ](i feet in breadth, as it is drawn over the field 

 in the same manner us the streets in citiea are wa- 

 tered in summer. ANDREW NICHOLS. 



I certify that I measured the piece of land men- 

 tioned in the foregoing statement, as planted with 

 corn, on the 21st of September, 1830, ar.d found the 

 same to contain two acres, three quarters, thirty- 

 one rods. JoH.N VV. Proctor, 



Surveyor. 



Continuation of Dr. J^ichols' Slat tmcnt for 1840. 

 Four acres of corn, on the same kind of soil, was 

 manured in the hill with this compost, and one 

 acre of corn on a more meagre portion of the same 

 field, was manured in the same manner, with a 

 compost consisting of the same kind of mud, half a 

 cord of manure taken from the pigsty, and forty 

 pounds of potaeh, second quality, dissolved in wa- 

 ter, sprinkled over and worked into the heap, with 

 the fork, in the same manner that the dry ashes 

 were into the other compost. Of both kinds the 

 same quantity, a common iron or steel shovel full 

 to the hill, was used, and no difference in the crop 

 which could be ascribed to the different manures, 

 could be perceived. The hills were four by three 

 feet apart on an average. In the borders and ad- 

 joining this piece of corn, one acre was planced 

 with potatoes. The compost used on some portions 

 of this consisted of rather a larger portion of coarse 

 barn manure composed of meadow hay, corn fod- 

 der waste, &c., wet with the urine and mixed with 

 the droppings of cattle, and less meadow mud. 

 The whole six acres was hoed twice only after the 

 use of the cultivator. The whole amount of labor 

 after the ground was furrowed and the compost 

 prepared in hea|)s on the field, is stated by the til- 

 ler of the ground, H. L. Gould, to have been forty- 

 nine days' work, of one man, previous to the cutting 

 of the stalks. Pumpkins, squashes, and some beans 

 were planted among the corn. The produce was 

 four hundred and sixty bushel baskets of sound 

 corn, eighty bushels of potatoes, three cords of 

 pumpkin.", one and a half bushels of white beans. 

 On one acre of the belter part of the soil, harvest- 

 ed separately, there were one hundred and twenty 

 baskets of corn ears, and a full proportion of the 

 pumpkins. On one eighth of an acre of Thorburn's 

 tree corn treated in the same manner as the rest, 

 the produce was nineteen baskets. A basket of 

 this corn shells out seventeen quarts, one quart 

 more than a basket of the ordinary kinds of corn. 

 The meal for bread and puddings is of a superior 

 quality. Could we depend upon its ripening, for, 

 I horburn's assertions to the contrary n itwithstand- 

 ing, it is a late variety of corn, (though it riiened 

 perfectly with us last season, a rather unusually 

 warm and long one,) farmers would do well to cul- 

 tivate it more extensively than any other kind. 



The use of dry ashes on our black soil grass 

 lands, showed an increased benefit from last year. 

 But our experiments with liquid manure disappoint- 

 ed us. Either from its not being of the requisite 



strength, or from the dryness of the season, or from 

 our mistaking the effects of it last year, or from all 

 these causes combined, the results confidently anti- 

 cipated, were not realized ; and from our experi- 

 ments this year we have nothing to say in favor of 

 its use, although we think it worthy of further ex- 

 periments. On the first view of the subject, a dry 

 season or a dry time might seem more favorable to 

 the manifestations of benefit from watering plants 

 with liquid manure, than wet seasons or times. 

 But when we consider that when the surface of 

 the earth is dry, the small quantity of liquid used 

 would be arrested by the absorbing earth ere it 

 reached the roots, and perhaps its fertilizing quali- 

 ties changed, evaporated, or othervise destroyed, 

 by the greater heat to which at such times it must 

 be exposed — it is not, I think, improbable that the 

 different effects noticed in our experiments with 

 this substance, the two past years, might be owing 

 to this cause. It is my intention, should sufficient 

 leisure permit, to analyse the soil cultivated and the 

 mud used, and prepare a short essay on the subject 

 of peat mud, muck, sand, &c., as n.anure, for pub- 

 lication in the next volume of the transactions of 

 the society. Yours, respectfully, 



ANDREW NICHOLS. 

 Danvers, December 26, J 840. 



NOTICES 

 0/'L)t5(g'5 Oro-anic Chemistnj of JIgriculture and 

 Physiolosy- — Just published by J. Owen, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. 



This work has already acquired great reputation 

 in Great Britain, and several notices and reviews 

 of it have appeared in the foreign journals, all of 

 which unite in expressing their high estimation of 

 its contents. Three lectures have been recently 

 delivered on Agriculture, at Oxford, by Dr Dau- 

 beny, the distinguished Professor of Chemistry and 

 Botany, in which he has illustrated and adopted 

 Professer Liebig's views. 



" Every page contains a mass of information. I 

 would earnestly advise all practical men, and all 

 interested ill cultivation, to have recourse to the 

 book itself. The subject is vastly important, and 

 we cannot estimate how much may be added to 

 the produce of our fields by proceeding on correct 

 principles-" — Loudon's Gardey^er's Magazine for 

 March, 1841. 



In alluding to this work .before the BritishAsso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, Dr Greg- 

 ory remarked ; — 



" Every thing was simple and clearly explained. 

 It was the first r,ttem|)t to apply the newly created 

 science of Organic Chemistry to Agriculture. In 

 his opinion, from this day might be dated a new 

 era in the art, from the principles established by 

 Professor Liebig. He was of opinion, that the 

 British Association had just reason to be proud of 

 such a work, as originating in their recommen- 

 tion." 



The following is from the address at the Anni- 

 versary Meeting of the Royal Society, November 

 30, 1840, when one of the Copley medals was 

 awarded to Professor Liebig, in presenting which, 

 the President, the Marquis of Northampton, thus 

 addressed Professor Daniell, who, in the absence of 

 Professor Liebig, received from him the medal : — 



" I hold in my hand and deliver to you one of 

 the Copely medals, which has been awarded by us 

 to Professor Liebig. My principal difficulty, in 



