270 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



Agriculture, although the first, best, and noblest 

 employment of man, is yet but imperfectly under- 

 stood. ' Chemists have done something to promote 

 its objects by informing us of the constituents and 

 food necessary to promote the growth of plants, 

 but have left us nearly in the dark in relation to the 

 best method of supplying or applying the same. — 

 That knowledge, with numerous other objects of 

 inquiry, can be gained by no other means than by 

 practical and experimental farmers, for which we 

 look to your agricultural meetings with much solic- 

 itude. If we, as working farmers, can have new 

 and well demonstrated facts, we should draw our 

 own inferences, and if we should err, it would only 

 prompt us to more intense inquiries. The truth 

 that the gases arising from the decomposition and 

 putrifaction of manure is the cause of all vegetation, 

 as demonstrated by Sir Humphry Davey, is truly 

 valuable ; at least it has been so to me. It has 

 taught me the effect of manure on vegetation, and — 



First, that it need not of necessity come in con- 

 tact with the earth or roots of the plants. 



Second, that the exhalations arising from it and 

 imbibed by the plants is the true cause of their 

 growth. 



Third, that the frequent stirring the earth around 

 the jilants has the same eSect as uncorking a new 

 set of bottles. 



Fourth, that manure spread on the surface loses 

 much of its fertilizing properties before the plants 

 come up, or before they are of sufficient growth to 

 imbibe them. 



Fifth, burying it deep is similar to keeping the 

 bottles continually sealed. 



Sixth, land highly charged with manure, if plowed 

 in the fall, should be plowed so deep as to bury all 

 the manure, that the frosts may seal up the gases 

 and keep them for use the ensuing summer. — 

 These are but few of the inferences from the ex- 

 periment of Sir H. Davey. 



Now it is very desirable that some of your weal- 

 thy and intelligent [Massachusetts farmers should 

 make some such experiments as the above. They 

 would confer a great favor on the whole farming 

 community. They have means and leisure, and can 

 do it. 



I would add, that taking the hint from Sir H. D., 

 I tried the same experiment with plaster of paris 

 in my corn field, with precisely similar results ; that 

 is, setting the plaster in dishes under the hills in 

 the field promiscuously, where there had been no 

 other plaster used. 



Yours respectfully, H. s. P. 



Orfordville, JV. H., Feb. 15, 1856. 



dissolved in water, when the impurities will settle 

 at the bottom, which they would not do in the 

 black salts, because they were too light. I mean 

 the impurities were too hght. This liquid is now 

 carefully drained off" and evaporated, or boiled to 

 dryness, and is called ivhiie salts, and is, of course, 

 in a purified state. These salts are again put into 

 the oven, such as Chem. describes, and heated until 

 the oven appears to be full of sparks of liquid fire, 

 such as comes from the blacksmith's forge, just be- 

 fore the iron melts ; it is now taken out and cooled 

 off, and is ready for market, and is truly white as 

 snow itself. M. S. Woodward. 



Bath, 1856. 



For the New England Farmer. 



PEARLASH. 



Messrs. Editors : — Your chemical friend of Jan- 

 uary 5th does not give the whole process of manu- 

 facturing pearlash, and as I am somewhat familiar 

 with the whole matter, I beg leave to offer the fol- 

 lowing : — What "Chem." calls pearlash, is only 

 scorched salts, and are of a greyish color. This 

 process of heating them in the oven, only burns out 

 the coarse and lighter impurities, and leaves them 

 in a more condensed and heavier form. Another 

 process is still required, to separate their impurities 

 from the pure salts, or pearlash of commerce. 

 Chem's. pearlash, or what I call scorched salts, are 



ACID IN THE SOIL. 



The presence of free uncombined acids in the soil, 

 affords one of the most insuperable barriers to suc- 

 cessful and profitable cultivation by which the efforts 

 of the farmer can possibly be opposed. How these 

 acids act, is sufficiently explained by Mr. Ruffin, in 

 his essay on "Calcareous Manures." The presence of 

 acids, he says, "by preventing or retarding putrefac- 

 tion, keeps the vegetable matter inert, and even hurt- 

 ful on cultivated lands ; and the crops are still fur- 

 ther jured by taking up the acids with their nutri- 

 ment. A sufficient quantity of calcareous earth, that 

 is, earth where lime is present mixed with the soil, 

 will immediately neutralize the acid and destroy its 

 powers; the soil, released from its baneful influ- 

 encees, will be rendered capable, for the first time, 

 of exerting the fertility which it really possesses. 

 Calcareous earth has also the power of altering both 

 the texture and ahsorbency of soils." 



On all lands where there is a growth of red sor- 

 rel, acids of some kind abound in a free and uncom- 

 bined state, and it is only by adopting some emend- 

 atory ])owers of culture, or by the apphcation of 

 neutralizing substances — such as lime, ashes, &c,, — 

 that they can ever be rendered fertile in the pro- 

 duction of valuable crops. 



On lands where sorrel seemed determined to 

 overpower every other plant, we have eradicated it 

 effectually, by the use of lime and ashes, but at the 

 same time giving the soil a more generous manuring, 

 and more careful cultivation with the hoe. We 

 have, therefore, no doubt of the correctness of the 

 statement by Mr. Ruffin, who is a very careful and 

 experienced cultivator himself. 



It is important that the farmer observe very 

 closely what the natural prevailing product of his 

 soil is, as this will indicate more correctly, perhaps, 

 than anything else, what sort of a corrective is 

 required. If sorrel greatly abounds, or wormwood, 

 or the daisy, or bulbous-rooted grasses, state the 

 fact at the farmers' club, and discuss it, drawing 

 out the experience of each, or, if necessary, get an 

 analysis of the plant, and learn what the character 

 of the soil is in which it, flourishes so well ; then, 

 perhaps the proper correctives may be applied. 



