154 



GENESEE FARMER. 



JlTLY. 



face soil valuable minerals which the long tap 

 roots of clover have drawn from the subsoil be- 

 low. But when even that resource fails, from a 

 lack of deep plowing, excessive cropping, or both, 

 then partial sterility is inevitable, unless the ag- 

 riculturist shall use bone earth and wood ashes 

 equal to the demand of his wheat crops. Bones 

 may be reduced to small pieces by boiling a few 

 hours in lie, and can then be sown at the rate of 

 200 lbs. per acre, with double that weight of un- 

 leached ashes. This is our prescription to pro- 

 duce wheat on the farm desci-ibed by the Com- 

 mittee. We will add that, Mr. Hensliaw should 

 plow his land a little deeper than he has hitherto 

 been M-ont to plow, for wheat. He will find the 

 addition of common salt, gypsum, and lime ben- 

 ficial, but must not depend on either to yield 

 phosphoj'ic acid. 



We fully concur with the committee in their 

 remarks as to the importance of having this soil 

 analyzed. Every man accustomed to reason ad- 

 mits, that it takes 100 lbs. of somelhing to make 

 100 lbs. of wheat. Will he not also admit that, 

 the producer of this bread-forming grain should 

 know how much of this " something" he has in 

 his soil ? So, too, if a farmer wishes to feed a 

 ton of hay to his cow, and then make her manure 

 into a crop of potatoes, should he not know what 

 elements his potato plants must have ? and what, 

 the ton of hay will, and what liunll 7iot furnish? 

 It is obvious that no animal can create out of 

 nothing a new element, or add to any one con- 

 tained in its food and drink. To know the char- 

 acter of any manure, one must understand the 

 precise composition of the food and drink out of 

 which the manure was formed. As the ash of 

 timothy hay contains only 15 percent, of potash, 

 while the ash of potatoes contains 51* per cent, 

 of that alkali, it is obvious that it will take 340 

 lbs. of the natural minerals in timothy to yield that 

 51 i lbs. of potash found in 100 lbs. of potato ash. 



A man might as well attempt to make a ])Ound 

 of solid bone out of the materials in a pound of 

 bread, as to think of making a pound of oat straw 

 into manure, and the manure into a pound of 

 oats. How few practical farmers can tell how 

 many oats 100 lbs. of oat straw will make; and 

 what addition to oat straw manure is necessary to 

 use it up to the best advantage in making it into 

 pciis, beans, corn, flax, wheat, rye, apple trees, 

 or any other cultivated, living thing 1 To make, 

 by artificial means, a large yield of good plump 

 wheat, and at a remunerating profit, requires a 

 knowledge of the science of agriculture. Prac- 

 tical men that desj)ise the aid of science usually 

 apply too much of several ingredients, of which 

 there is no lack in the soil. Like the old alchym- 

 ists they attempt to trjansmute a ton of iron into 

 a like weight of pure gold, and of course fail. — 

 They imagine that the sulphur and lime in gyp- 

 sum can be transformed into bread, meat, butter, 

 potatoes, cabbage, and turnips, with equal facility. 



How to make ¥inegar. 



Many people find it difficult to make good 

 vinegar. When we moved to Wheatland on the 

 first of May we found two barrels partly full of 

 old cider standing in the sun, in the hope, on the 

 ])art of the owner, that the cider would become 

 acetic acid. A few grapes, and we believe some 

 yeast had been put into the barrels, but still the 

 transfoi-mation would not take place. By the 

 following process good vinegar was made in two 

 or three days, and with closer attention might 

 have been made in 30 hours : 



One barrel was set up on end, the hoops start- 

 ed and the upper head taken out. The cider 

 was taken out down below the middle of the bar- 

 rel, so that the bung could be open to admit the 

 air. Several small sticks were set on end in the 

 barrel, on the upper extremetles of which pieces 

 of shingle rested just above the. surface of the 

 cider. On these strips of shingle was placed a 

 quantity of clean pine shavings, which happened 

 to be at hand. With these the barrel was loosely 

 filled. A pailful or two of the cider was drawn 

 by tapping the barrel near the lower head, and 

 warmed to blood heat, and made to trickle down 

 over the wliole surface of tlie shavings into the 

 cider below. After this, sufficient heat was gen- 

 erated by the active chemicle action, or acetous 

 fermentation that followed, to keep the shavings 

 at 98 ° , or thereabouts. So soon as the cider 

 began to turn sour a part of it was made to trickle 

 down a piece of old carpet like an untwisted 

 rope into the bung-hole of the other barrel of 

 cider. This barrel was tapped, and the cider 

 drawn and poured over the shav^ings, and also 

 converted into good vinegar. 



The rationale of making alcoliol and acetic 

 acid is this : 



The alcohol found in cider, wine, beer, fer- 

 mented milk, whiskey, &c., is made of elements 

 contained in sugar and starch, which are elabo- 

 rated by living plants in their fruit, like apples 

 and grapes ; and seeds, as in corn, rye, and bai'- 

 ley. Starch and sugar are composed of elements 

 precisely alike in character and quantity, viz : 

 12 parts of carbon, 10 of oxygen, and 10 of hy- 

 drogen. Before alcohol is formed of these ele- 

 ments, they combine with 2 atoms more of oxy- 

 gen and hydrogen, and make grape sugar. The 

 formula of which is, 12 carbon, 12 oxygen, and 

 12 hydrogen. The formula of alcohol is 4 car- 

 bon, 6 hydrogen, and 2 oxygen. To make two 

 atoms of alcohol will require 8 carbon, 12 hydro- 

 gen, and 4 oxygen. As one atom of grape sugar 

 has 12 carbon, 12 hydrogen, and 12 oxygen, it 

 is obvious that 8 parts of oxygen and 4 of carbon 

 will be left from an atom of grape sugar after 2 

 atoms of alcohol have been formed. Now in 

 making an atom of carbonic acid, oxygen com- 

 bines with carbon in the ratio of 2 parts of oxy- 

 gen to 1 of carbon, or 8 of O. to 4 of C. Hence 

 we see why it is that in all vinous fermentations, 



