308 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



and designs in black, consist<« in engraving in the 

 ivory itself, and then filling in the designs with a 

 black, hard varnish. To obtain finer and more regu- 

 lar designs, the ivory is to be covered with the com- 

 mon ground, and by means of the paint the designs 

 arc engraved upon it. They are then eaten in by a 

 solution formed as follows : — 



Fine silver 6 grammes. 



Nitric acid 30 ♦' 



Distilled water 185 '♦ 



At the end of about a half hour, according to the 

 depth to be given, it is to be washed with distilled 

 water, and dried with bibulous paper. The design 

 is then exposed for an hour to the solar light, and 

 the layer of wax is removed by essence of turpen- 

 tine. 



The design has then a black color or a dark brown, 

 which blackens entirely at the end of one or two 

 days. Other colors may be produced by replacing 

 the solution of nitrate of silver by a solution of gold 

 or platina in aqua regia, or of copper in nitric acid. 



SALT AS A MANURE-AGAIN. 



The Press, no doubt, is the greatest blessing 

 human ingenuity has conferred upon our race. Man 

 is, or ought to be, a social being ; and through the 

 medium of your cheap and useful publication, 

 Messrs. Editors, we can quickly convey to each 

 other oiir ideas and sentiments. In the January 

 number of this year, I gave my views, which are 

 original, on salt. Sec. In the March number I am 

 called upon to give a little more light on the subject. 

 I think friend Jewctt does not read me correct, as he 

 says I commenced by " putting on a small quantity 

 of manure." I had not manured the land for four 

 years, and then but very little. Again, I am called 

 upon, in the April number, by R. H. J., of Lockport, 

 to give some further information on this subject. 

 This friend has also mistaken the reading of the 

 second article. I meant a peck of soaked corn over 

 a two or three acre field, not a peck of arsenic. I 

 am not a chemist, but, like K. H. J., wanted to know 

 what effect mother earth would have on arsenic. I 

 inquired of Prof. Dewey, who informed me that the 

 earth would not destroy its poisonous qualities. 



Since I published my views on salt and insects, I 

 have met with two paragraphs, which coincide with 

 my views to a tittle. The first is the opinion of 

 Prof. Agassiz, on the multitudes of insects that infest 

 the earth : — 



Insect Life. — Prof. Agassiz says, " more than a 

 lifetime would be necessary to enumerate the various 

 species of insects, and describe their appearance. 

 Meiger, a German, collected and described six hun- 

 dred species of Hies, which he collected in a district 

 of ten miles' circumference. There have been col- 

 lected in Europe twenty-seven thousand species of 

 insects preying on wheat. In Berlin, two professors 

 are engaged in collecting, observing, and describing 

 insects and their habits ; and already they have pub- 

 lished five large volumes upon the insects which 

 attack forest-trees." 



Only think of that, brother farmers— twenty-seven 

 thousand different species of insects preying on 

 wheat ! This is a startling fact, and calls for the con- 

 sideration of the best means for their destruction. 



The following, on the use of saU, is from Eell's 

 Messenger, (a London paper,) of May last: — 



•' The application of common salt as a manure pro- 

 duces this effect, in one mode, which is evidently 

 doubly advantageous to the farmer. We allude to 

 the destruction of insects, and the conversion of the 

 substances of which they arc composed into the food 

 of vegetation. It is needless to enlarge upon the 



countless tribes of insects, of all kinds, which tenant 

 the farmers' lands, and prey upon their crops. It 

 will be more useful, on this occasion, to direct our 

 attention to the powerful action of common salt in 

 effecting their destruction. In producing some fresh 

 evidence of this fact, it will be well to remember 

 that this important use of salt is not a recent discov- 

 erj% for it is now sixteen years since we find inserted, 

 in a work on the uses of salt in agriculture, (John- 

 son on Salt,) reports from different counties, amply 

 proving its powerful effect in the dcstruciion, among 

 other insects, of slugs and worms. There were, for 

 instance, those of Mr. Jacob Busk, of Ponsbourn 

 Park, in Hertfordshire. His valuable experiments 

 extended over some hundreds of acres of wheat. To 

 use his own words, ' In every situation, and at every 

 time, the effect appeared equally beneficial.' The 

 quantity per acre — ' about four or five bushels, sown 

 out of a common seed shuttle ; ' the period — ' in 

 the evening.' The effect — 'in the morning each 

 throw may be distinguished by the quantity of slime, 

 and number of dead slugs lying on the ground. In 

 some fields it has certainly been the means of pre- 

 venting the destruction of the whole crop.' In Ox- 

 fordshire, again, ' six bushels of salt per acre were 

 applied by hand, in April, to a field of oats attacked 

 by the slugs and worms, on the farm of Mr. John 

 Slatter, of Draycote, near Oxford. The crop was 

 completely saved by this application, although an 

 adjoining field, not salted, was completelj' destroyed 

 by this sort of vermin.' It is ascertained that the 

 salt readily penetrates sufficiently into the soil to 

 destroy many of the insects in their cells. * Com- 

 mon salt,' Prof. Way observed some time since, * may 

 be advantageously employed as a manure directly to 

 the soil, or it may be mixed with the dung-heap. In 

 the latter application of it, it must be borne in mind, 

 that in large quantities it is capable of suspending 

 fermentation altogether, so that if the farmer wants 

 his dung to heat well, he must be careful in the use 

 of salt ; but in small quantity during the fermenta- 

 tion, or in full supply to the manure a short time 

 before its application to the land, salt is likely to be 

 of great service. Not only does it render the am- 

 moniacal compounds less volatile, but it is capable 

 of destroying the germs of both vegetable and ani- 

 mal life ; for there is little doubt that we too often in- 

 troduce into the soil, with the manure, the weeds 

 which choke, and the insects which devour our crops. 

 Salt will prevent all seeds from germinating when 

 they are sufficiently saturated with a solution of it. 

 No fear, however, need be entertained of its ettect 

 when the manure has been properly mixed with the 

 soil ; it is then too diluted to interfere with the ger- 

 mination of the turnip seed.' " 



I am satisfied of the benefit of salt, and strongly 

 recommend it to destroy insects ; and I also believe 

 in its fertilizing qualities. On fallow it should be 

 used. I intend to try a single acre with three barrels. 

 If I am spared, I intend, in a future number, to give 

 some further views on the efficacy of salt. The busy 

 season coming on at present forbids it. 



JOHN P.VRK. 



Gates, 7tk mo., 1850. 

 — Genesee Farmer. 



JERSEY CATTLE. 



Col. Le Contour, Bellevue, Island of Jersey, under 

 date 18th June, writes us, — 



That he has forwarded through his excellency 

 Abbot Lawrence, in answer to our request, litho- 

 graphic impressions of the Jersey breed of cattle, 

 and the scale of points of a perfect animal of the 

 breed, and also two essays written by Col. Le Cou- 

 teur, one on the Jersey cow, the other on the culture 



