NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



W 



FijAx. Prof. J. Hodges, Belfast, Ireland, in for- 

 warding a prize essay for the culture of flax, aays, 

 " I would recommend you to bring the subject of flax 

 culture before the members of your important society, 

 as at the present time it would be found well worthy 

 of their notice. In Ireland, great efforts have been 

 made to promote it, but the supply is not by any 

 means equal to the demand for our own manufac- 

 tures. At present, in Belfast, flaxseed of good 

 quality can be procured with difficulty. Now, Amer- 

 ica might supply us with great advantage, and 

 without injury to our interests, as the crop is one 

 which cannot be cultivated beyond a certain extent. 

 Having devoted considerable attention to the subject, 

 I shall be happy to give yon any information you 

 may consider necessary for your direction. I send 

 you below correct returns of the average yearly 

 amount of flaxseed exported from Riga to Ireland, 

 which will serve to show you our consumption : — 



18-43, about 54,000 barrels. 



1844 18,000 



1845, 47,000 



1846, 30,000 



1847, 11,000 



1848 29,000 



1849 16,700." 



— Maine Fanner. 



CULTIVATING DWARF PEARS. 



Every intelligent fruit-raiser is aware of the neces- 

 sity of cultivating and manuring the soU well, for 

 dwarf pear-trees. S. B. Parsons states that he has 

 seventeen hundred trees on four acres ; that he 

 applied to this orchard, last spring, $150 worth of 

 manure, and gathered, in the autumn, two hundred 

 and seventy-flve bushels of potatoes, thirty tons 

 sugar-beets, and a large quantity of turnips and 

 cabbages — paying the expenses of manure and cul- 

 tivation, and giving the peai'-trees a vigorous im- 

 pulse. 



DURABILITY OF BONE MANURE. 



At the last meeting of the Probus (Eng.) Farmers' 

 Club, a paper on the analysis of the soils of Carn- 

 winick farm, the property and in the occupation of 

 C. A. T. Hawkins, Esq., was read by Mr. Karkcek. 

 Its object was to show the durability of bone manure 

 for a period of ten years. 



It appears that, in 1835, a piece of waste ground 

 was taken from the common, and prepared for 

 turnijis, the larger part of which was manured with 

 bone dust, at the rate of three quarters (twenty-four 

 bushels) to the acre. (The whole of the turnip 

 plants were destroyed by the fly ; consequently, little 

 or none of the bone dust was used in that crop.) In 

 the two following years it was successively cropped 

 with oats, and with the last crop, laid down to per- 

 manent pasture, in which state it has remained ever 

 since. At the present period, the effect of the bone 

 dust can be plainly distinguished — the land having 

 a rich greensward, while the adjoining part, where 

 no bone dust has been applied, has a coarse, sterile 

 appearance. This, and a great many other experi- 

 ments of the same character, made by the manager 

 of the farm, in all of which the effect of the bone 

 was ec^ually visible, induced the C'lub to send a 

 sample of the soil from each part of tlie field on 

 which the first named experiment Avas made, to Mr. 

 Hunt, now curator of the Museum of Economic 

 Geology, to be analyzed, in order to ascertain if the 

 bone could be detected at the present time. It should 

 be observed that Mr. Hunt was kept altogether ig- 



norant of the object of the Club, and that the result 

 was perfectly satisfactory, inasmuch as he readily 

 detected the bone in that portion of the field on 

 which it had been applied ten years before. The 

 following are the analyses : — 



No. 1. No. 2 



Water, evaporated by stove-drying, 14.06 14.18 



Vegetable and animal matters burnt off, 12.01 12.05 



Silica and silicious grit, 49.54 49.50 



Oxide of iron, 7.03 7.00 



Carbonate of lime, 1.05 1.06 



Carbonate of magnesia 0.25 0.35 



Sulphate of lime, 1.05 1.04 



Muriates 0.54 0.54 



Alumina 7.10 6.04 



Phosphate of lime, 0.10 0.75 



Phosphate of magnesia, 0.00 0.05 



Potash, 1.00 1.27 



Humus and soluble alkalies, 6.00 6.17 



Mr. Karkcek contended, from these analyses, that 

 the experiment went to prove an important fact, 

 which had been a disputed question among agricul- 

 turists, viz., that the principal manuring properties 

 of bone existed in the earthy matters, which consti- 

 tute about two thirds of bone, and not in the oily 

 and glutinous parts, constituting the remaining third. 



An interesting discussion ensued on the subject of 

 the analyses, the Club being of opinion that the 

 organic parts of bone evidently had a powerful effect 

 as manure, but that it was next to an impossibility 

 that any other than the earthy matter could have 

 remained so long in the land, — the whole of the 

 animal matter having probably been consumed by 

 the two crops of oats — and they agreed with Mr. 

 Karkcek, that the principal manuring properties of 

 bone exist in the earthy phosphates. — Lonclo/i Agri- 

 cultural Gazette. 



The above instructive article calls forcibly to mind 

 an incident in our chemical experience in Georgia, 

 something over a year ago. Two parcels of miner- 

 als, having precisely the same appearance, were sent 

 for analyses, with the implied understanding that 

 they were fertilizers, like marl, from a common bed 

 at diftcrent depths ; when, in ruth, one was from the 

 Cherokee country and the other from Nova Scotia. 

 The analyses were entirely satisfactory, although we 

 had not the remotest suspicion at the time, that the 

 substances had been prepared to test the skill of the 

 analyst. We have found soils so poor that 5000 

 grains would give but one of sulphate of lime, or 

 gypsum. — Gc?iesee Farmer. 



High Price of Hay. — The prolongation of win- 

 ter has greatly enhanced the price of hay in this 

 vicinity. It has been selling, for a week past at our 

 market, for thirteen and fourteen dollars per ton. 

 This is a higher price for hay than we have known it 

 to bring here for a number of years. — Syracuse Jour- 

 nal. 



Pal-lah Siiekp. — A flock of one hundred Paular 

 sheep, of the Messrs. Bingham's selection, in Ver- 

 mont, were recently sold to some enterprising wool- 

 growers and breeders, in Lafayette, Onondiiga Co., 

 for the sum of $ 1 400. 



Cleaning Treks. Trees and vines which are kept 

 the cleanest bear the best ; like the liuman body, 

 the pores of their skin become clogged with dirt, and 

 retain gases which should escape. Trees, the bark 

 of which has been scraped and scrubbed, become 

 more thrivuig and more vigorous. 



