890 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUNE 11, 1S34. 



NE,W ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING. JUNE 11. 1834. 



FARMER'S WORK. 



Wood .4sh.es for Manure. Wood ashes are not 

 only a valuable manure, but an excellent anlirlote 

 tb worms and other inserts. They should, there- 

 fore, he used fur plants liable to suffer by worms, 

 hugs, ecc. ; such plants for instance as cabbages, 

 turnips, cucumbers, melons, peas, &c. Deane ob- 

 served that "a handful of ashes laid about the 

 roots of a bill of Indian corn, is good to quicken 

 its vegetation. But it should not much if any of 

 it be in contact with the stalks. The best time for 

 giving corn this dressing, is thought to he just be- 

 fore the second or third hoeing : But some do it 

 before the first, and even before the plants are up. 

 Like other top dressings, it is of most service when 

 applied at the time when the plants need the 

 greatest quantity of nourishment. This happens, 

 in Indian corn, at the time when the plants are 

 just a going to send out ears, or spindles." Ashes, 

 however, will have the better effect in preventing 

 worms if laid on before the plant is up. 



Ashes in their full strength are, no doubt, best 

 for manure ; and they lose some of their value as 

 manure unless they ate kept dry; besides, if they 

 are damp they adhere together, and it is not easy 

 to spread them properly. Dr. Deane observed that 

 "ashes should not be spread on land long before 

 there are roots to he nourished by them, lest the 

 rains rob them of their salts, by washing them in- 

 to hollows, or sinking them to too great a depth in 

 the soil. A few bushels on an acre are a good 

 dressing for grass lands, that are low, and inclining 

 to be mossy. But ashes from which Ke h?s been 

 drawn have no small degree of virtue in them. 

 The earthy particles are but little diminished : and 

 some of the saline particles remain in them, espe- 

 cially in soapcr's waste, which has lime mixed 

 with it." 



Leached ashes are much used on Long Island 

 as manure. From a paper in the first vel. of New 

 York Agr. Soc. Trans, by M. E. L. Hommidieu, it 

 appears that " ashes were found to succeed best 

 on dry loamy lands, or loam mixed with sand. It 

 is considered as the cheapest manure that can be 

 procured. Ten loads of this manure, on poor 

 land will produce ordinarily twenty-five bushels of 

 wheat. The land is then left in a state for yield- 

 ing a crop of hay of between two, and two anil a 

 half tons, to the acre, which it will continue to do 

 for a great number of years. No manure continues 

 so long in the ground as ashes." 



A writer for the New England Farmer, from 

 Catskill, N. Y. observed that " The use of wood 

 ashes, when applied on a light but warm loam, 

 (though many are not acquainted with its worth) 

 will repay the first year three times their cost, in 

 the rearing of a crop of turnips. Let the ground 

 be well ploughed in the spring, once at least more 

 before sowing the turnips, twice would be better. 

 After the last ploughing, which should be imme- 

 diately before the seed is sown, spread on an acre 

 from 50 to 100 bushels of leached or unleached 

 ashes ; then harrow down the furrows, sow the 

 seed and give the ground a thorough harrowing 

 [and pass it over with a good heavy roller]. After 

 the turnips are up, and the third leaf formed, give 

 a dressing of plaster. One hoeing will pay well. 

 Pursuing this method for the last seven years, I 

 have not failed of a good crop, any one year." 



J. Spicer, a writer for Goodsdl's Farmer, recom- 

 mends the application of plaster and leached ashes 

 as follows : 



'•From my own experience, I am much in favor 

 of plaster. I use from three to five tons yearly ; 

 and when I apply it to corn, which I have dime 

 for three years past, I use it with one half leached 

 ashes as they are leached for common family use ; 

 put it in a cart, and shovel and mix it well. 1 

 then put one gill to the bill immediately after the 

 first hoeing. I have tried the same quantity of 

 clear plaster, side and side, twice, and find the 

 mixture to produce the greatest effects. The two 

 ingredients, when mixed, appear to produce a 

 much greater power of attraction. My neighbors 

 tried it last season, to great satisfaction, and will 

 hereafter use them mixed, even if the cost were 

 the same." 



Another writer for the same paper, with the sig- 

 nature " R. M. W." says " A very general preju- 

 dice exists among farmers agnfhst leached ashes 

 for manure. Vast bodies of them are suffered to 

 go waste or lie idle in every direction about the 

 country. I know by experience that they are ex- 

 cellent manure. I have tried them in my garden, 

 and likewise in field culture, and always with sat- 

 isfactory results. They are brought in vessels from 

 Albany, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and New 

 York, and deposited at ,the landing, on Long Isl- 

 and, sold at from 12 to 25 cents per bushel, carted 

 from six to ten miles, and used as manure by the 

 farmers of Long Island. 



"About twenty-five years ago I was on a visit 

 to an uncle, and saw him receive four dollars for 

 fourteen bushels of leached ashes. I remarked 

 that the man could never hope to see bis money 

 again by spreading them on his land. He replied, 

 / know not how it is, but we grow rich by it. 1 

 know many thousand acres of land on the Island, 

 which are now producing fine crops of grass and 

 grain, which were formerly too poor to produce 

 any thing but sorrel and mullen. These have prin- 

 cipally been made fertile by means of leached 

 ashes, at this enormous cost of money and labor ; 

 and I am much at a loss to know why they are 

 considered worthless among us, while they are in 

 such request on the Island. They should be 

 spread on the soil, and intimately mixed by the 

 plough, or used in compost. In either way, I be- 

 lieve they would be found equally useful to us." 



Dr. Deane's description of the soil to which 

 wood ashes may be properly applied as manure is 

 entirely different from the soil to which ashes are 

 recommended by the other writers above quoted. 

 Dr. Deane advised their application to low and 

 moist land ; and we believe they have generally 

 been so applied in New England. But they are 

 successfully used on Long Island as an application 

 to " dry loamy lands, or loam mixed with sand." 

 Sir John Sinclair observes that wood ashes "are 

 peculiarly well adopted for gravelly soils and loams." 

 Perhaps it is owing to the mis-application of this 

 manure that the opinion prevails in some parts of 

 New England that leached ashes ultimately leave 

 the land cold and lifeless, and almost incapable of 

 resuscitation. " Wood ashes consist principally of 

 the vegetable alkali united to carbonic acid ; and 

 as the alkali is found in almost all plants it may be 

 an essential constituent in the organs of the greater 

 part. The vegetable alkali has a strong attraction 

 for water.'"* Ashes then have an attraction for 



moisture, and if applied to a soil naturally wet 

 must increase its defects and diminish its fertility. 



From the Rahivay Advertiser. 

 NEW INVENTION. 



\Yk have examined the drawing of a machine 

 to gather grain as it stands in the field without 

 cutting. It is called the Locomotive Thresher, in- 

 tended to be moved by horse power, and with the 

 assistance of three men or boys of fifteen years of 

 age, is calculated to go over ten acres of wheat or 

 other grain per day, and gather say two hundred 

 bushels, leaving the straw standing on the ground 

 threshed as clean as is generally done in the ordi- 

 nary way, thereby saving all the expense of bar- 

 vesting ; and by ploughing in or burning the straw, 

 it is supposed the ground may be tilled ad infini- 

 tum without diminishing its fertility. Should this 

 invention succeed, it will afford another induce- 

 ment for farmers to inhabit and cultivate those 

 beautiful prairies which abound in the far West. 

 The ingenious inventor is Mr. John T. Vail, of La 

 Porte, Indiana, formerly of this town. 



* Treatise on Soils and Manures, appended to the Philadel- 

 phia ediuou of Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. 



Bones of the Mammoth. — We learn that in exca- 

 vating a water passage in New Britain a few days 

 since, a joint of the back bone of the Mammoth 

 was dug up by the workmen. Further searches 

 are making, and new discoveries are expected to 

 be made. — Hartford Review. 



ITEMS OP- INTELLIGENCE. 



Dromedaries. The French are', it is stated, endeavor- 

 ing to introduce dromedaries from Algiers, into the Lan r 

 des about Toulouse, where it is thought they may be 

 very usefully employed. 



Hail Storm. The Greenville Mountaineer states that 

 a most unprecedented hail storm occurred in Spartan- 

 burg District, S. C. Some of the hail stones measured 

 7 and a half inches in circumference. 



A New Counterfeit. Counterfeit ten cent pieces are 

 in circulation. The impression of the die is pretty good, 

 but they aie said to resemble pewter in appearance and 

 touch, and therefore may readily be distinguished from 

 the real hard money article. — Bait. Patriot. 



A Virginia paper relates, as a singular fact, that a 

 mule owned by a gentleman near Norfolk, had lately 

 brought forth a colt. 



A letter from Manchester, Mississippi, states that 116 

 deaths from cholera, had taken place upon a plantation 

 six miles from that place. 



Important. The Editor of the Geneva Courier lias 

 made the important discovery that hams should be 

 smoked with the shanks downwards ! By attending to 

 this, the thick joint of the ham will not become sur- 

 charged with oleaginous matter as at present. This 

 must be looked to. 



Tornado. The counties of Nottoway, Dinwiddie, and 

 Prince George, Virginia, were visited by a terrific tor- 

 nado, in the afternoon of the fifth inst which occasion- 

 ed the loss of many lives, and the destruction of a large 

 amount of property. It appeared in the shape of an in- 

 verted cone — its width varying from two hundred yards 

 to half a mile — apd thcextent of its destructive march is 

 estimated at not less than seventy miles. Every thing 

 which came within its range was more or less injured ; 

 and on many plantations, not a single edifice of any des- 

 cription, was left standing. The number of persons 

 killed or wounded in this war of the elements is suppos- 

 ed to exceed fifty. — 0. S. Journal. 



Interesting Fact. A few years ago a very worthy la- 

 boring man, in this town, who bad been so unfortunate 

 as to acquire a habit of drinking spirit, becoming con- 



