338 



NEW ENGLAND FARI^IER. 



July 



we must conBde in them." A jealous, suspi- 

 cious person, always suspecting every one, and 

 trusting none, will make everybody jealous 

 and suspicious of him We make others to- 

 ward us what we ourselves are toward them. 



Again, it is for the interest of every em- 

 ployer to engage in his service the best he can 

 find and then pay them a good price, so that 

 the employee shall have no just or reasonable 

 ground of complaint that his pay is not suffi- 

 cient to meet his actual necessary wants for 

 support ; because if a man is pressed down to 

 the very lowest point of support, and must 

 strain himself to the utmost to pay necessary 

 bills, there is set before him at once the 

 strongest possible temptation to be dishonest 

 with his employers. 



Every man has a right to ask and to receive 

 a fair and liberal compensation for his services 

 according to the i\;lative and comparative 

 value of the service rendered ; and it is no( 

 for the interest of the employer to try tc 

 sponge out of any body labor for less than a 

 fair price. 



Hundreds of boys and clerks, and sewing- 

 girls and others, depending upon their meagre 

 salaries and pay for a living, in oui* cities and 

 larger towns, are rendered dishonest and vi- 

 cious by the wicked, grasping, starving policy 

 of those who employ them. Boys and girls, 

 men and women, must eat and drink, must 

 have clothes to wear, and some place called 

 home to have shelter, rest and sleep ; and 

 means must be provided somehow to furnish 

 these ; every employer has an interest in the 

 welfare of those he employs and should see that 

 they are not actually suffering or driven to 

 extremities. If persons are honest, temper- 

 ate and virtuous, they have a just and reason- 

 able claim upon their employers for such pay, 

 if there is no physical disability, as will afford 

 the necessities of life. 



Again, when one engages in the service of 

 another, he does not thereby sacrifice his in- 

 dependence or any rights or privileges, civil 

 or political. His employer has no right to 

 dictate for whom he shall cast his vote or to 

 interfere in any way with his rights as a citi- 

 zen. The employee has all the rights and priv- 

 ileges as a citizen of his employers. 



We are confident that very many complain 

 of their employees when their own treatment, 

 and manner, and indifference, have made them 

 to be what they are. It is too true that there 

 are both bad employers and bad employees ; 

 yet generally, good and kind employers make 

 good employees. e. g. 



Needham, Mass., 1869. 



— ^The Vermont Journal and Watchman says 

 that Cassius Buck, of Fairfax, had a cow that did 

 not seem to do well ; he gave her medicine and 

 she "heaved" up, not Jonah, but a lizard which 

 measured 14 inches in length, and about 1^ inches 

 thick. 



DISSOIiVINQ BONES. — FERTILIZERS. 

 The frequent inquiries that are made by 

 farmers upon these subjects indicate an inter- 

 est in the matter which will make the follow- 

 ing articles from Dr. Nichols' Journal of Chem- 

 isiry acceptable to a large part of our readers. 

 The Bosion Journal of Chemistry is a monthly 

 publication at fifty cents a year. 

 Erroneous Views. 



In some remarks made by Col. Daniel Need- 

 ham, in the Massachusetts Senate, upon the 

 bill relating to the sale of commercial fertil- 

 zers, which was presented as something new 

 and valuable, he is reported as making the 

 following statements : — 



"He said tliat a most valuable fertilizer could be 

 made by taking four barrels of ground bone, one 

 carboy of sulphuric acid, and two barrels of ashes. 

 He said that the expense of this fertilizer would be 

 only about eighteen dollars a ton, and that he did 

 not doubt the fertilizer thus made would be as 

 valuable as any purchased in the market for forty 

 dollars per ton. He stated the expense substan- 

 tially as follows : — 



4 barrels bone, at $2 50 per barrel, $10. Oo 



175 pounds t-ulpburic aciJ, 5 23 



2 barrels asbes, 2.50 



$17.75 

 "The process of mixing, be said, was very sim- 

 ple. He would take the ground bone, and, after 

 wetting it thoroughly, allow it to heat, which it 

 would do in a short time; then pour on the sul- 

 phuric acid, and afterwards mix with the mass 

 two barrels of ashes." 



Quite a number of correspondents have in- 

 closed to us slips cut from newspapers contain- 

 ing the formula, with requests for an expres- 

 sion c f opinion in the Journal respecting its 

 value. As regards this matter it may be said 

 in brief, that we have a very high opinion of 

 the substances employed, but a very poor 

 opinion of the chemistry involved in making 

 up the mixture. It is proposed to do first 

 simply what we have so often recommended 

 farmers to do,— make their own superphos- 

 phate, by acting upon ground bones with sul- 

 phuric acid. But that also is proposed, which 

 we have never recommended, — viz., add ashes 

 to the mixture, and thus greatly retard or in- 

 jure the fertilizing influence of both the super- 

 phosphate and the ashes. 



Ashes contain much caustic potash and soda, 

 and these would be instantly seized upon by 

 the free phosphoric acid in the dissolved bone, 

 and locked up in new combinations, — phos- 

 phate of potash and soda Thus several 

 agents, of high fertilizing value as they exist 

 in the bone mixture and naturally in the ashes, 

 would be placed in a form not so readily and 

 perfectly assimilable by plants. 



The mixture is quite unscientific and un- 

 necessary, and farmers had better keep ashes 

 out of their superphospate ; for as chemists 

 say, it is incompatible. Adding ashes to fine 

 bone, moistened with water, as we have re- 



