1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



557 



the additions which they receive, they are more 'place of leather. It is a very economical fabric, 

 valuable as manures, than when, without serving or rather series of fabrics, cemented together 

 the purposes of nutrition, they are reduced by [ with caoutchouc, wholly inodorous, and of amaz- 

 the former process. These two processes, vegeta- ing strength and tenacity. It assumes a polish 

 ble composting, and the feeding of animals with | like leather, is marked in some instances, like 



vegetables, are the sources from which carbona- 

 ceous manures are chiefly obtained." 



Digestion is a vital process and seems to pos 



morocco, bears a beautiful enamel, is susceptible 

 of the most delicate embossing, resists the stains 

 to which leather is subject, damp does not affect 



sess the power of changing the nature of food jit, and the application of a sponge removes all 

 submitted to it ; of causing re-formation ; and, dirt and restores it at once to its pristine charRc- 

 perhaps by the aid of respiration, (drawing in ter. It is being already applied to countless pur- 

 ine gases of the atmosphere,) of generating or I poses, and maybe ranked amongst the most val- 

 si. cumulating nitrogenous substances. Whether ]uable of the boons which the discovery of caout- 

 a man or brute live on vegetable or animal food,|chouc has conferred upon civilized humanity. — 

 his body is the same. The flesh and bones of the. Globe. 

 lion and the lamb are alike. The processes 

 which go on in the stomach are not well under- 

 stood, and probably never will be. That the lat- 

 ter is not a machine which compounds or mixes 

 up its food, but a receptacle having peculiar and 

 mysterious functions, seems to be admitted. The 

 celebrated John Hunter once laconically observed 

 to his students : "Some physiologists will have 

 it, that the stomach is a mill ; others, that it is 

 a fermenting vat ; others again, that it is a stew- 

 pan ; but in my view of the matter, gentlemen, 

 it is neither a mill, a fermenting vat, nor a stew- 

 pan ; but — a stomach, gentlemen, a stomach." 



At present, it is confessed, physiology and 

 chemistry are unable satisfactorily to explain the 

 animal economy. Liebig's beautiful theory of 

 nutrition is said to be rapidly losing its hold 

 upon the scientific mind, and confusion and mys- 

 tery still reign. The blood is supposed to be the 

 nutritive vehicle in animals ; yet substances are 

 found in the tissues and bones which cannot be 

 discovered in the blood — nor in the food, in suf- 



For the New England Farmer. 

 COAL ASHES AS A FERTILIZER. 



Friend Brown : — Your paper is taken at our 

 ofnce by A. H. Grosvenor, for the general in- 

 struction in agricultural gardening, &c., at our 

 section of the Shaker Village at Harvard. Among 

 the farmers' reading matter it contains, I have 

 been pleased to observe an occasional article up- 

 on the general uses of coal ashes as a fertilizer. 



In your last issue, the editor of the Commer- 

 cial Bulletin has presented to the public a good 

 article on this subject, but in perusing it, I was 

 led to suppose that many disposed to be skepti- 

 cal on this subject would argue that the editor's 

 test cf anthracite coal was not a clear one, be- 

 cause he incorporated with said ashes equal parts 

 of horse manure and loam in one general heap, 

 as an auxiliary to his pleasant half acre. 



Such skeptical friends would be apt to contend 

 that the horse manure and loam did all the work, 

 while the ashes, like the white soft-handed gen- 



ficient Quantities. Neither is the blood the same . , - , • 



in any tVo individuals, and is perpetually varying tleman farmer that simply rides through his 

 in the same. Phosphate of lime is found in the i plantation, received the honor,_ and made all the 

 whole organism of man ; yet it is said none has, noise. But as we too think difl'erent, please a_l- 

 ever been found in the blood. Azotized food ^ow us to state our reasons for endorsing his 

 has been regarded as the most nutritious ; yet a 

 writer in. Blackwood's Magazine says that "water 

 is as nutritious as roast beef." It may perhaps 

 be well supposed, that the water which animals 

 drink — charged with various salts, in connection 

 with the influence of the atmosphere — would 

 greatly modify the food in the stomach, and en- 

 rich that which is passed off as manure. 



Prof. Johnston states that thirty-six pounds of 

 sheep manure are worth one hundred and twenty- 

 five of cow. In feeding one hundred pounds 



opinion. 



We consume at our large dwelling-house a 

 number of tons of coal each winter, and having 

 added portions of it to our composts, with little 

 calculation or observation, we determined to test 

 it singly this past season, and closely observe its 

 effects. On an old mowing field too much run 

 down, we top-dressed a square piece of ground 

 fairly with clear coal ashes early in the spring. 

 While the crop was growing, at all stages the 

 di'Serence was perceptible. When ready for the 



of English hay to a cow, and the same to a sheep, [scythe, it was more in quantity ; and as to qual- 

 in which do we get the greater value as manure ?|'>y. it produced about equal parts of herds grass 



and red clover. If the clover was not introduced 

 by the agency of the ashes, we know not how it 

 was introduced, for four years none was 



Or is the product from either more valuable 

 than the hay would have been — aside from its 

 reduction — or does it contain more nitrogen and 

 other manurial ingredients ? 



I would not pretend to answer these questions ; 

 and although I believe rich food will produce 

 rich manure, I am in doubt whether poor food 



there before, or in any other part of the field, 

 and this was the only clover seen in said field the 

 past season. Both grass and clover was more 

 vigorous, green and lively within the top-dressed 



may not give a manure of higher relative value square, and just as visible all around was the 



than the substance consumed. 

 West Medford, Oct. 13, 1859. 



exhausted crop, which said as audibly as grass 

 could say, in its declining state, that it had re- 

 ceived no such assistance from this individual fer- 

 tilizer. 



Vegetable Leather. — Messrs. Spill & Co.,i On a hill-side not at all renowned for its weal- 

 the well known army contractors, are issuing! thy properties in soil, we planted the Davis Seed- 

 from their works at Stepney, portions, as sam- 1 lings and Jenny Lind potatoes in clear coal ashes, 

 pies, of a novel material, intended to take the half a shovel full in a hill. Below, on equally 



