MEW ENCJE.A]\D FAMMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. UUSSELL, AT NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warkhouse.)— T. G. FESSENDExN, EDITOR. 



VOL,. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1831. 



NO. 8. 



®(©sassws?'j>©iisa©s!rS' 



ASHES OF ANTHRACITE COAL, AND DIS- 

 EASE L\ LOCUST TREES. 



Ti> the Editor of llio New England Farmer, 



Sir— .Mlow me tljrotigli tlie iiiciliuni of your 

 valuable Journal to ask llie favoi- of some of your 

 correspoiiileuts to inform me whether the ashes of 

 anthracite coal are of any advantage to the soil, or 

 if not, whether their use has been attended with 

 any injury. 



A satisfactory answer to this question would be 

 very acceptable to those farmers, who, from their 

 situation near navigable waters, find it to their ad- 

 vantage to use the abwe named fuel instead of 

 wood. ■•■' 



The manner in whicfi it shoidd be applied, to- 

 gether with the quantity per acre, &c. would also be 

 Jesirable. 



My locust trees have this year been attacked 

 with a disease in their foliage, which I do not re- 

 collect to have noticed at any time before ; nor to 

 have met with any account of it, in my agricidtu- 

 ral reading. The leaf assumes a rusty color and 

 dies. Will this affection entirely destroy the trees. 

 Or, if not, how great will he the probable injiu-y .' 

 Respectfully yotu's, 



A Subscriber. 



Greensburgh, AT. Y. Aug. 23. 



Remarks hi) the Editor. — We hope that some of 

 our friends, patrons, or correspondents will he so 

 obliginiT as to give the information solicited above. 

 In the mf'aiitimo we will State stich as we can at 

 present coimiiimicate, and should anything farther 

 occur should be happy to publish it. 



In Arthur Young's ' Farmer's Calendar' ptib- 

 iished in London, 1809, it is observed that coal 

 ashes are bought in small quantities in the neigh- 

 bourhood at -Id. per bushel, and collected to tlie 

 land at about Id. per bushel. They are distribi- 

 ted on the land with a shovel, from a cart or wheel 

 barrow. Another, and perhaps the preferable 

 mode, is sowing them by band. Tlie former way 

 costs 12d. per wagon load, the latter ISil. Coal 

 ashes are qseil from 50 to 60 bushels per statute 

 acre for a complete dressing, which amounts to, 

 from 23s. to 2Gs. per statute acre : they suc- 

 ceed well, sown on clover in Blarch or April 

 on dry chalk lands ; and also do much good on 

 sward, applied during any part of the winter or 

 spring. They are never used on wheat. In very 

 dry seasons coal-ashes do little good, on light land 

 they require rain after being sown to set them 

 to work. 



It is observed in Kirwan's Treatise on Man- 

 ures that ' sifteil coal ashes, those of peat and 

 white turf ashes, have been found useful, red 

 turf ashes useless and generally hurtful.' 



In the Gtli volume of the New England Farmer, 

 page 275, we published some notices of experi- 

 ments on sea coal as a mantire by Thomas Ewel, 

 in which the writer, a physician and chemist of 

 Philadelphia, says in substance that the common 

 sea, pit or mineral coal, which is so abundant in 

 the United States, when finely pulverized, might 

 prove a useful manure ; and ' that when powdered 



EFFECTS OF BUDDING. 

 Mr Fessenden — In answer to a query in your 

 last headed ' Burfrfmg-,' I would observe that the 

 its power in quickening the vegetation of corn and I correct theory is believed to be that the stocks are 



wheat is much greater than any manure with 

 which we are acquainted.' This writer, however, 

 states nothing relative to the ashes of pit coal. 



But a writer in ihn Gardener' s Magazine, quoted, 

 New England Farmer, vol. ix. p. 204 says that 

 pit coal cinders were found by him to be injurious 

 to flovvers in pots. That ' On directing the atten- 

 tioi! of a horticultural friend to the circumstance, 

 he related the case of a large garden in Scotland, 

 which had been manured or coated over with coal 

 ashes from a neighboring town two years in suc- 

 cession ; which ashes though impregnated with 

 tlie usual animal and vegetable matters displayed 

 their deleterious effect both on fruit trees and culi- 

 nary vegetables, not less than in the chrysanthe- 

 mum pots. The gardener finding his fruit trees 

 (lot to thrive so well as ho expected, but attributing 

 it'to a different cause, took up a number of them 

 and formed a substratum of ashes in order to lay 

 tiiom, as he said, dry and comfortable. The trees 

 got worse, and were again taken up and the ashes 

 removed ; but such were the deleterious effects of 

 the ashes already worked into the soil, that Ibis 

 garden which previously was, and now is one of 

 tlic most productive in Scotland, was two or three 

 years before even moderate crops could be raised.' 



\n Loxain's Husbandry, page 116, it is observ- 

 ed, ' It has been confidently asserted that stone coal 

 •^ an excellent manure ; that it has succeeded both 

 in Eurojie and this country, therefore I am dispo- 

 sci' to believe under favorable circumstances that 

 ■t 'nay be so. 



' I have tried it by. top dressing, without any per- 

 ceptible effect, on corn, wheat, red clover and the 

 spear grasses, although the coal, was pounded quite 

 fine and sifted. This may have happened in con- 

 sequence of the soil being impregnated with some 

 of the properties of the coal as it frequently appear- 

 ed near the surface throughout the whole neigh 

 borhood ; or it might have succeeded, if it had 

 been ploughed under the soil. There is also a 

 great difference in coal ; that used by me abound- 

 ed in sulphur and bitumen, and burned freely. 



' The ashes from stone coal have been extensive- 

 ly used for manure at from forty to fifty bushels to 

 the acre.' 



Sea coal, or pit coal, either in substance or redu- 

 ced til ashes is not enumerated among manures by 

 Sir Humphry Davy. Dr Deane observed that ' ash- 

 es of sea coal is useful for cold and stiff land.' 



This subject, hovrever, requires farther investi- 

 gation, and we hope will not be neglected by those 

 who have the means of making experiments and 

 the patriotism to publish such results as promise to 

 be useful. 



With regard to the disease in Locust trees, of 

 which our correspondent complains, we are not 

 able to give any useful information. Perhaps it is 

 caused by the worm so destructive to those trees in 

 this part of the country. Information on this to- 

 pic would be gratefully received. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



not influenced by the character of the buds which 

 may be inserted. The buds derive their riounVi- 

 ment from the stocks (iis the stocks do from the 

 earth &c.) and control the future growth of the 

 tree above the insertion only. 

 Dedham,£ug. 19. 



Remarks hy the Editor — There is some difference 

 of opinion among horticulturists relative to the 

 effects of grafting or building. Miller says that 

 crab stocks cause apples to bo firmer, to keep lon- 

 ger, and to have a sharper flavor; and he is equal- 

 ly confident, that, if the breaking pears be grafted 

 on quince stocks, the fruit is rendered gritty or 

 stony, while the melting pears are much improved 

 by such stocks. Lord Bacon, however, says that 

 'the scion overruleth the graft quite, the stock being 

 passive only.' 'This last opinion' says theJErf. En- 

 cyclopedia, ' as a general proposition remains true; 

 it being evident, that the scion, bud or inarched 

 shoot, is endowed with the power of drawing or 

 forming from the stock that peculiar kind of nour- 

 ishment which is ada|)ted to its nature, and that 

 the specific characters of the engrafted plant re- 

 main unchanged, although its qualities may be 

 partially affected.' 



But we never kiiew a question, except that pro- 

 posed by our correspondent who favored us with 

 the query respecting- budding, page 35, relative to 

 the influence of the bud on the stock. We are in- 

 clined, however, to believe that our friend from 

 Dedham is correct; and should almost as soon 

 think of a stream coiii:uunicating its peculiar qual- 

 ities to its foUJli^l»",'4gjj bud or scion having any 

 influence on the properties of the stock to wbicli 

 it was attached. 



FOR THE NEW ENGI.AXD FARJIER. 



Mr Fessenden, — In the sheets of the Revue 

 des Revues sent by Doct. Van Mons, is an inter- 

 esting account of a process for making a cheap 

 and very good kind of cheese ; and as the experi- 

 ment may be deemed worthy of repetition, by our 

 agriculturists, I send you a translation for tho 

 New England Farmer. It is probable the process 

 may be con.siderably imi)rovcd, by the use of a 

 press of some kind, which does not appear to 

 have been applied, as in the mode practised by 

 our dairy-women. 



1 have read your remarks on female industry, 

 and think them generally correct. When the 

 daughters of farmers can be well employed at 

 home, that is the very best jilace for them ; but 

 if there is poverty, shiftlessness, vice, ami no work 

 to be done, within the walls of the parental 

 dwelling, let them seek a better situation for earn- 

 ing a siqiport, cultivating thwr minds and improv-> 

 ing their morals. 



You have treated this important subject of in- 

 qtiiry with candor, and that jiractical good sense, 

 which characterises whatever you publish under 

 the editorial bead of the New England Farmer. 



In this land of freedom all must work to live, 

 and rerollect the apothegm of Franklin, that 

 God helps them, who help themselves.' 



There are innumerable employments for fe- 



