1846. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



17# 



this be so, salt should act more beneficially on 

 the cereals and leguminous plants, because they 

 are the great generators of the constituents of 

 blood, gluten, albumen, and casein ; and these 

 are the parts of plants for which sulphur is abso- 

 lutely necessary." 



The above suggestions of Dr. Playfair evince 

 research, are strictly scientific, and truly impor- 

 tant. But the Author of " European Agriculture" 

 seems not to appreciate the fact that, sulphur is 

 an essential constituent in blood and lean meat, 

 and of course in the seeds of cereal and legumin- 

 ous plants which are so rich in the elements of 

 flesh and blood. Nor does he stop to consider 

 the fact that, sulphate of soda, (glauber salts, 

 formed by adding common salt to a soil that con- 

 tains gypsum,) is more soluble than gypsum, and 

 hence that tlje sulphate of soda will convey more 

 sulphur into the circulation of plants that need it, 

 than the sulphate of lime will convey to the same 

 destination. Catching at the guarded manner in 

 which Dr. P. refers to the statement of Liebig as 

 to the mutual decomposition of common salt and 

 gypsum, in the soil, Mr. C. says : " This little 

 word "if" is certainly one of the most conve- 

 nient words in the language, and performs in 

 science a similar office to charity in morals — that 

 oi covering a multitude of errors.'''' 



The assumption of "error in this instance is 

 wholly gratuitous ; and the circumstance of per- 

 using a manuscript lecture of Dr. Playfair is 

 stated by the Author, apparently for no other 

 purpose than to get an opportunity to indulge in 

 a characteristic fling at " Science," for the al- 

 leged "multitude" of its " errors." 



Agricultural Science is still in its infancy, and 

 far from being perfect. But should it on that ac- 

 count be continually knocked on the head, by a 

 writer of the standing of Mr. Coljian ? If Mr. 

 C. acts in this way from calculation, he may 

 tickle "the ears of the groundlings" and perhaps 

 extend the sale of his book. But the time will 

 come when such conduct will be duly apprecia- 

 ted, even by those that now regard all science as 

 humbug. For ourselves, it is with pain that we 

 make these remarks on a work, whose author has 

 elicited our lasting admiration, by his just sym- 

 pathy with suffering luimanity, and fearless ad- 

 vocacy of the rights of the millions of paupers in 

 England, while surrounded by powerful tempta- 

 tions to speak well of tlie oppressors and forget 

 the oppressed. 



Spontaneous Combustion. 



Mr. Editor : — Riding awhile since in the 

 vicinity of Peterboro, in this county, I passed a 

 barn which had evidently been on fire. I made 

 some inquiries respecting it, and as a like cir- 

 cumstance is of rare occurrence, and thinking 

 an account of it would prove interesting to the 

 farming community, I will give the circumstan- 

 ce* as I learned them from a neighboring farmer, 



who was present at the time, and helped to ex- 

 tinguish the fire. 



The fire occurred in March last, and was the 

 consequence of spontaneous combustion. A heap 

 of manure had been for years accumulating un- 

 der an open shed adjoining the barn. About six 

 weeks previous to the fire, an additional quantity 

 of manure ft-om the horse stable had been thrown 

 upon the heap. The weather had been for three 

 days warm, the wind from the south, with some 

 rain, but suddenly changed to a cold north-west 

 storm. The fire was discovered the day follow- 

 ing ; it caught to the sills and siding of the barn 

 connected with the manure, but was extinguished 

 before it had made much progress. The fire 

 was disper.sed through almost the entire heap of 

 manure, to the depth of three feet below the sur- 

 face. It could not be ascertained that any per- 

 son had visited that part of the barn for three 

 days previous, so that the fire could not have 

 been communicated by lantern or otherwise. — 

 The man who gave me the information had dis- 

 believed the possibility of spontaneous combus- 

 tion, but the evidence in this case was so clear 

 that it could not fail of conviction. 



I write the above with the hope of obtaining 

 information for myself and others. I have related 

 the circumstances to a number of farmers who 

 are hardly willing to credit the spontaneous pro- 

 duction of fire under such circumstances; and 

 my knowledge of chemistry is far too limited to 

 admit of my giving a proper explanation. If 

 you will give the chemical process by which 

 spontaneous combustion is produced, you will 

 much oblige us. The individual owning the 

 barn is Mr. George Packs. One thing is evi- 

 dent — had he been a reader of your valuable 

 paper, and a follower of its precepts, his property 

 would not have been endangered by an accumu^ 

 lated manure heap. . R. D. P. 



Clockville, Madison Co., June, 1346. 



Remarks. — All fermentation generates sensi- 

 ble heat ; but it is only when a large mass of organ- 

 ized matter is rapidly decomposing, that heat suffi- 

 cient to burn is evolved. The sensible caloric, or 

 heat, is eliminated during the chemical union of 

 oxygen in tiie air, with carbon and hydrogen in 

 fermenting matter — forming 7oater with the latter 

 element, and carbonic acid with the former. — 

 In changing diluted alcohol into vinegar, we usu- 

 ally create a temperature of 100 degrees by the 

 direct combination of oxygen in the atmosphere 

 with the hj'drogen in the alcoliol. 



We have heard of one other case of a manure 

 heap taking fire this season, over which a shed 

 was burned. Mix leached ashes and gypsum 

 with the compost, and they will check too active 

 fermentation. — [Ed. 



Apricots. — The first Apricots we -saw, this 

 season, was on the 11th of July, from the garden 

 ofH. N. Langworthy, Esq. Beautiful and rich. 



