154 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



July 



ady with whom the 

 s cow gives some 20 

 3re are Devons near 



since and brought down 675 pounds. This heifer 

 which was not fat, is the offspring of Mr. Clay's impor- 

 tation. Another heifer of the same family weighed 

 718 lbs. when 15 months old. The mother of the 

 calf first named belongs to th 

 writer boards ; and this valuah 

 quarts of rich milk a day. ". 

 here from the herd of L. F. Allen, Esq., which are 

 much admired for their beautv. 



The Texas Telegraph of "May 24, published at 

 Houston, says that wool grown in that State, and 

 sent to New York market has brought $1 25 a 

 fleece this season. Men are buying large flocks in 

 Mexican States, Missouri, Tennessee and elsewhere 

 to drive into the northern parts of Texas. Sheep 

 husbandry is beginning to excite considerable atten- 

 tion at the south and south-west. 



Believing as we do, that this Republic is likely to 

 enjoy great prosperity during the next ten years, and 

 receive large accessions to its population and wealth 

 from Europe, the demand for good breeding animals 

 will be steady and at quite remunerating prices. — 

 Whoever will take due pains to improve his cows, 

 sheep, horses and swine, cannot fail to be well paid 

 for his trouble. 



LIMESTONE SOILS. 



Every month's experience and observation increase 

 our esteem of limestone lands. \V"e have studied 

 the growth of wheat and other crops on granitic and 

 sandstone soils, and compared them with the products 

 of lime lands, with which we have long been famil- 

 - iar. The latter not only contain more lime, but more 

 potash, soda, magnesia, chlorine, phosphorus and sul- 

 phur — more of all the earthy elements of cultivated 

 plants. Having become satisfied that such is the 

 fact, we were for a .time at? a loss to account for the 

 circumstance that, lime rocks yield other minerals on 

 their disintegration as well as the one that forms the 

 main bulk of this product of nature. The remains 

 of animals with' which they abound, that once lived 

 in the ocean, furnish unmistakable evidence that all, 

 or nearly all ordinary lime rocks were slowly built 

 up in the bed of an ancient sea. The same miner- 

 als which makes the stoney covering of an oyster, 

 serves under favorable conditions to form many stra- 

 ta of precipitated lime rocks in which to embed the 

 oyter, and a thousand other animals and plants. 



These depositions carry down and fix permanently 

 in the growing rock, not only the carbonate of lime, 

 but an appreciable quantity of all the minerals dis- 

 solved in the water of the ocean. A moment's re- 

 flection will satisfy the reader that this water must 

 abound in all the constituents of vegetables and ani- 

 mals, or they could not flourish in such prodigious 

 numbers in this medium. By analyzing water taken 

 from the ocean, we find that it contains every sub- 

 stance necessary to organize either a whale, a tree, or 

 a man. It abounds in potash, soda, magnesia, iron, 

 chlorine, bone earth, gypsum, and compounds of car- 

 bon and azote. 



When the bed of the ocean is elevated by volcanic 

 action into islands and continents, and dry land is 

 formed, we find the best soils for the support of ter- 

 restrial animals where marine deposits were most 

 abundant. And these vegetable and animal remains 

 are most abundant where sedimentary rocks were 

 slowest in forming. Most sand rocks appear to have 

 been deposited rapidly ; for they usually contain lit- 



tle beside mere traces of lime, potash, soda and other 

 minerals dissolved in sea water. Shales, such as 

 may be seen along the terraces above Geneseo in 

 Livingston county, and most limestones appear to 

 have been built up very slowly. There are some 

 fresh water deposits of lime, both ancient and mod- 

 ern, that contain little beside the pure carbonate of 

 that mineral. There are one or two deposits of this 

 character in Cattaraugus county, and one on General 

 Harmon's farm in Wheatland. Prof. Peter of 

 Kentucky, gives the following as the composition of 

 the limeston'e near Lexington, remarkable for the ex- 

 cellent soil which it forms in that vicinity. He says : 

 During the past month or two, in my leisure moments, I 

 have submitted to analyses, several specimens of the Ken- 

 tucky Blue limestone, and have been much gratified to find 

 my anticipations realized in relation to its agricultural value, 

 as will be seen by reference to the results given belnw. 



Specimen No. 1, is of the hard grey limestone ; it was 

 dug out of a well in the city of Lexington ; it contains geo- 

 des lined with brown spar, pearl spar, calc. spar and fluor 

 spar and the usual fossils ; its specific gravity is 2.45 in a dry 

 specimen. On analysis, it was found to be composed of the 

 following materials, viz : 



Carbonic acid 36.675 



Phosphoric acid 1.350 



Sulphuric acid ., 807 



Lim« 47.046 



Magnesia 900 



Alumina and oxide of iron 9 880 



Fine sand and silicates ; ... 1 .790 



Moisture and loss 1.552 



100.000 

 Specimen No. 2, from the hard thin layers which are more 

 superficial than the first in this locality, yielded : 



Carbonic acid 40 53 



Phosphoric acid 36 



Sulphuric acid not estimated. 



Lime 50 97 



Magnesia . . • 66 



Oxide of iron 32 



Alumina 15 



Sand and silicates 6.52 



Moisture and loss 49 



100.00 

 In addition to these ingredients, potash and soda were ob- 

 tained from the limestone, whenever the proper processes 

 were employed ; in one case as much as 0.0487 per cent of 

 potash ; in another, 0.0058 per cent. 



The above extract is copied from the May number 

 of the Albany Cultivator. In t£e June number of 

 the American Agriculturist a gentlemea in Winches- 

 ter, Va., says that he raised eighty-three bushels of 

 corn per acre, without manure, on a piece of ground 

 which had been irrigated for several years by a 

 " limestone spring." 



The rivers Euphrates and Nile, not less than the 

 Genesee in New-York, and the Cumberland in Ten- 

 nessee, run over lime rocks. These valleys are re- 

 markable for their fertility. On the contrary, all 

 granite regions are characterized by comparative ste- 

 rility. Granite, unlike sedimentary rocks, have been 

 melted by intense heat deep in the earth, andcrystal- 

 ized on cooling, under great pressure. All this class 

 of rocks decompose slowly, and from comparatively 

 thin, poor soils. They usually lack lime and all the 

 other minerals held in solution by the waters of the 

 ocean. Granitic formations show no signs of organic 

 beings, either animal or vegetable. 



The fair inference from the above remarks would 

 seem to be, that salts of lime, potash, soda and mag- 

 nesia are indispensable to the growth of crops. — 

 Every farmer whose soil lacks lime, should take mea- 

 sures to remedy the defect in the cheapest way pos- 

 sible. In many places gypsum, common salt and 

 wood ashes can be had on such terms as will war- 



