=5Sji ^»^^f<^^msa§^ 



^^ ERIC AN HERD-BOOIC 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Terfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Liebio. 



Vol. X — No. 6.] 



1st mo. (January) 15th, 1816. 



[Whole No. 132. 



rUBHSHED MONTHLY, 



BY J O S I A H T A T U M, 



EDITOa AND PEOPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



nilLADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year.— For conditions see last page 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Charcoal as a Fertilizer. 



Mr. Editor, — rDid our farmers, particu- 

 larly those who are obliged to clear their 

 lands of timber before they can plant tlieni, 

 know what an immense and almost imper- 

 ishable source of wealth they have at hand, 

 it appears to me that our wooded lands 

 would be seized upon with an avidity that 

 could only be equalled by the progress of 

 the use of steam. 



Charcoal, as a fertilizer, is not surpassed 

 by any thing yet known to chemists. It 

 possesses powers which, if farmers would 

 avail themselves of them, would save 

 a vast deal of labour and expense. It pos- 

 sesses the power of condensing within its 

 pores — and it is an extremely porous sub- 

 stance* — both carbonic acid and ammonia; 



* For this purpose the charcoal of soft woods is, if 

 any thing, preferable to that of hard woods, while tht 

 ashes of hard woods is preferable lo that of soft woods 



Car-— Vol. X.— No. 6. 



two substances of the highest value to all 

 agriculturists. No manure is useful to the 

 farmer, unless it yields carbonic acid, and 

 iiimmonia ; it is for these that he uses ma- 

 Inure; and there is no decaying vegetable 

 'that does not yield them; they are con- 

 'stantly floating about in the air in greater 

 lor less quantities, and every storm of rain or 

 snow brings them to the surface of the 

 earth. Every manure heap in the land 

 gives forth volumes of these gases, unless it 

 is prevented by some means employed for 

 the purpose. Those farmers who place their 

 manure in heaps in the field until it is well 

 rotted, lose the greater part of these mvalu- 

 able substances by such means. Manure in 

 a state of decay, will gasify, every thing that 

 can be done to the contrary, notwithstand- 

 ing. Therefore if we have not something 

 at hand to prevent these gases from flying 

 off" to the woods, swamps, marshes, or other 

 fields, we must sustain the loss. Charcoal 

 possesses the power, singular as it may seem, 

 'of sucking in, if I may be allowed the ex- 

 Iprcssion, these gases, and holding them un- 

 til such time as a growing plant in contact 

 'with it, may want them. What a source of 

 'wealth is this! When every wind, every 

 'rain, every snow, manures the farmer's land, 

 year after year, without any other trouble or 

 jexpense on his part, than applying once and 

 jonce only, finely pulverized charcoal in pro- 

 iper proportions, and furnishing lime and a 

 icomparatively small proportion of potash to 

 lall those plants that need a hard and strong 



(160) 



