32 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb. 



up its soil, adds to it, or takes atcay from it, so 

 that crops should grow in the one case, and not 

 in the other l 



F. — This question strikes at tlie root of the 

 art of culture, and can only be answered by call- 

 ing to our assistance the light of modern science. 

 That the thorougli stirring of the soil to a con- 

 :siderable depth, either with plow, harrow, culti- 

 vator, spade, or hoe, is extremely beneficial to 

 .nil cultivated plants, is a fact, which was settled 

 thousands of years ago, and has ever since been 

 verified, by all practice and experience. — 

 Whether the earth be stirred with the naked fin- 

 gers, with a clam-shell, a wooden stick, or an iron 

 plow, of the most approved pattern, nothing is 

 added to the soil directly by its cultivation. The 

 important results that follow, are all purely 

 chemical changes in the combinations of matter, 

 a knowledge of which is of incalculable value to 

 the practical I'armar. 



iS. — What are the changes in the ingredients 

 ©f the surface of the earth, Avhich supply plants 

 with much additional food, when the soil is well 

 pulverized by the skilful use of rural implements ? 



F. — As a key to these mutations, you must 

 ever bear in mind these two facts : 



First — That no undissolved, earthy substance 

 •an enter the minute pores in the roots of plants 

 to nourish them. All such solid food must be 

 dissolved in water to be available. Secondly — 

 that, when earthy substances like common salt, 

 the salts of lime, potash, silica, &c., are dissol- 

 ved, no mere filter like the soil, or a barrel of 

 wood ashes put up to leach, can prevent salt wa- 

 ter from running away from the roots of plants, 

 Jind thus at once, depriving them of their proper 

 nourishment, and robbing the soil of its fertilizing 

 elements. 



S. — Let me fully understand what you mean. 

 Do you say that, all solid matter in the earth 

 must be dissolved in water before it can pass 

 through the very small tubes in plants; and when 

 solids are dissolved, they are prone to pass with 

 water deep into the subsoil, and into ditches, 

 brooks, and ultimately into the ocean 1 



F. — Yes. The water that falls from the 

 clouds in rain and snow, and passes no more 

 than 12 or 15 inches into the surface of the 

 earth, and then runs into creeks and rivers, takes 

 with it in solution, some of the earthy salts used 

 by cultivated plants in organising their living 

 tissues. If a field be plowed and harrowed re- 

 peatedly, at short intervals, and nothing allowed 

 to grow upon it, its cultivation will impoverish 

 it, by increasing the solution, and the washing 

 away of the mineral elements of all cro|)S. 



S. — What evidence have you that soluble 

 salts like those in the flung and urine of animals, 

 guano, and other fertilisers, pass with rain wa- 

 ler through the surface soil, deep into the earth, 

 and into brooks and ditches'? 



F. — Common salt applied to land at the rate 



of only three bushels per acre has been found in 

 the water of ditches after a rain, that fell soon 

 after the salt was sown, and harrowed in with 

 seed A\heat. Any soluble salt placed on a bar- 

 rel filled with leached ashes, or soil, and then 

 dissolved with water, will pass through the earth, 

 and come out at the bottom like ley. Coloring 

 matter, like that in the liquid, which flows from 

 dung heaps, may be separated by a good filter ; 

 birt the salt in brine cannot. 



<S. — What practical inference do you draw 

 from the several facts which you have stated. 



F. — First: That all soluble minerals like salt, 

 ashes, lime, guano and stable manure,- should be 

 fed to living, hungry plants only in small and re- 

 peated doses, and as close to their mouths (spon- 

 gioles in their roots,) as possible. Care must be 

 taken not to have fertilizers too strong and con- 

 centrated. Secondly: That a sound judgment 

 must be exercised in not commencing too soon 

 to plow, harrow and otherwise stir the soil for a 

 future wheat, corn, or other crop. To understand 

 this important point in practical agriculture, one 

 must be familiar with agricultural chemistry, the 

 composition of soils, and the action of oxygen, 

 carbonic acid, rains, frost, light, and heat, as 

 modified by tillage, on the various substances that 

 form all cultivated plants. 



S. — What salts are most likely to be lacking 

 in ordinary soils, which are needed to aid in 

 forming the grain and root crops grown in the 

 state of New York 1 



F. — They are the soluble salts of potash, soda, 

 magnesia, and lime, being sulphates, phosphates, 

 carbonates, silicates, and chlorides of those bases. 



(S. — What artificial compound will cheaply 

 supply these mineral substances ? 



F. — Unleached wood ashes, lime, salt, plas- 

 ter, and bones. Plants that have long tap roots 

 like clover, aided by a little gypsum, lime, and 

 wood ashes, together with deep plowing, can do 

 much to fertilize a poor soil, by drawing many 

 important minerals from a greater depth in the 

 soil than the roots of wheat can penetrate. Of 

 course such minerals in clover must be buried 

 near the surface of the ground if they are to feed 

 cereal plants. 



Clearing Swamps and MARsiiEs.-~The win- 

 ter is decidedly the best time to clear the brush 

 and timber from the swamps and marshes, in or- 

 der to let the sun in to dry up the water, and 

 prepare the way for ditching, much of which 

 may also be done now to advantage. Labor is 

 cheap and plenty at this season of the year, and 

 it is the duty of every one, who is able, to give 

 employment to the needy, and get rid of those 

 unsightly rookeries which are of no other use 

 than to harbor the blackbirds that pull up the 

 corn. These swamps are usually the richest 

 land on the farm, and will pay the greatest in- 

 terest of any when drained and cropped. 



