282 



Prepared Manures and their effects on Crops. 



Vol.. X. 



ter Ewes ; returning with them in time to 

 place the Bucks with these Ewes, and about 

 230 of the finest of the Reybold flock ; and 

 the lambs from this cross, which are now 

 dropping, give proof of the success of the 

 undertaking. The subject of our engraving 

 weighs 320 lbs. live weight, and is rapidly 

 increasing in size; his fleece, in the estima- 

 tion of the best judges, promising to attain 

 the weight of 20 lbs. by shearing time. 



Major Reybold retires from the farm, and 

 his son, Mr. Clayton Reybold, succeeds him, 

 with the intention of making the rearing of 

 improved sheep his chief business. He will 

 be happy to exhibit his flock to gentlemen 

 desirous of introducing on their estates this 

 valuable and increasingly important species 

 of stock, flattering himself, that from Ewes 

 confessedly unrivalled in this country, aided! 

 by further importations of the best sheep 

 that can be obtained for money, he will bej 

 able to supply Bucks, both for sale and for] 

 letting for the season, that shall meet the 

 approbation of his friends, be a credit to 

 himself, and an honour to his country. P. 



Prepared Manures aiid their effects on 

 Crops. 



The substance of the following remarks was lately 

 delivered at the meeting of the American Agricultural 

 Association in New York, by R. L. Pell. We copy 

 from the American Agriculturist. 



Mr. Pell rose and said : By analysis it is 

 known that all cereal grains, cruciferous 

 and leguminous plants, trees, and shrubs, 

 require in the soil the same chemical sub- 

 stances, but in different quantities. These 

 are eleven, viz: potash, soda, lime, magne- 

 sia, alumina, oxide of iron, oxide of manga- 

 nese, silica, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, 

 and chlorine. If one be absent, the soil will 

 not grow any cultivated plant. Hence ana- 

 lysis of soils is necessary for a proper and 

 economical application of manure. In a 

 barren soil one necessary ingredient alone 

 might be absent. If, then, ten ingredients 

 be added and the eleventh kept back, the 

 soil is still barren. Hence, the reason why 

 so much of New York will not grow wheat, 

 and yet will grow other grain: the requisite 

 quantity of some one or more chemical in- 

 gredients necessary for wheat is absent, but 

 in sufficient quantity for rye, &c. When, 

 at last, cultivated plants cease to grow, the 

 five-finger vine appears, as it requires still 

 less of thein. In such a stage it is not rare 

 that an expense of three dollars per acre, 

 will enable the soil to produce 30 bushels of 

 wheat. I produced 78| bushels of wheat on 

 a piece of worn out ground, by fifty cents 



worth of two ingredients. Like produces 

 like; and hence if straw of wheat be given 

 to the ground it will produce wheat: indeed, 

 wheat may be grown on a pane of glass, if 

 the seed be covered with wheat straw in a 

 decomposing state. Hence the farmer may 

 sell the grain but not the straw. The farmer 

 who sells straw becomes poor; he who buys 

 it, grows rich. 



I apply straw to the cattle-yard; it absorbs 

 the liquid excrement, and rots. What is 

 long or partly unrotted I apply to hoed 

 crops; what is fine I mix with the eleven 

 requisites and apply as a top-dressing. It 

 may be advisable to apply the straw to the 

 ground and plough it in when unrotted. To 

 grow grains, give the soil straw of its kind; 

 for potatoes, their vines; grapes, their vines; 

 to apples, their branches; and so of all. 

 The droppings of cattle r.re the best manure 

 to grow grasses, as they feed on grass ; 

 those of horses fed on grain for the growth 

 of cereals. Onions are grown year after 

 year, by only returning the tops to the 

 ground. In Virginia, had the refuse of the 

 tobacco plant been returned to the soil, she 

 would not now be barren. The bad farmer 

 is injured by the vicinity of well manured 

 land, as manure has an affinity for oxygen, 

 hydrogen, ammonia, «&c., floating in the air, 

 and attracts them to the provident farmer's 

 land. 



Formerly, I applied composts of various 

 things, and had wonderful results; I dared 

 not omit any one, as I knew not which had 

 produced the result. Now, science by ana- 

 lysis shows what is necessary. By these 

 composts, I grew a squash to weigh 201 lbs., 

 the heaviest on record ; and a cabbage to 

 weigh 44 lbs. Bv it I grew wheat to weigh 

 64 lbs., rye 60 lbs., oats 441 lbs. When 

 Sprengel inade known his analysis, showing 

 that eleven substances are necessary to all 

 good soils, I found that my compost by 

 chance had them all, and twenty other en- 

 riching ingredients. 



Previous to 1840, my orchards bore only 

 every other year. Since then I make them 

 bear every year: and this year, a bad one 

 for fruit, found my manured trees full, and 

 those not manured barren. The drought of 

 this year was fatal to fruit; yet my manured 

 trees had abundant moisture and were fruit- 

 ful. I prefer the manure of decayed vege- 

 table matter to the excrement of cattle, as 

 the material that makes jand supports the 

 animal has been extracted, and the excre- 

 ment is not so rich on that account. If the 

 vegetable matter be rotted and its ammonia 

 fixed by charcoal dust, all the chemical sub- 

 stances are present. Thus rotted vegetable 



