NEW enc;l.and farmer. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at thk Aoriculturai. Warf.housk.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XI. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 22, 1832. 



NO. 6. 



Coiumiinications. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mr Fessende.v — Indulge mc in a brief reply to 

 your remarks in No. 3, and I ))romise not to pester 

 you further upon these sulijerts: for ])erhaps it is 

 discreet to drop a controversy when our antago- 

 nist becomes testy. 



I intended to have made the amende honorable 

 ia my last, for having indiscreetly, or improperly, 

 used the word quackery. But as my apology seems 

 rather to have awakened new sensibility, I beg 

 leave now explicitly to recall the obnoxious ex- 

 pression anil apologize for its use. As the i"ose 

 loses none of its fragrance by being called this- 

 tle, I hope. Sir, that your professional advice will 

 lose none of its force by eitiier my levity or grave 

 accusation. I have another mistake to atone for. 

 I applied your monition to the wrong article ; to 

 the compost instead of the practice of the Rens- 

 selaer farmers. I assure you this was inadver- 

 tent. I do not recollect to have read the Rens- 

 selaer iiaragraph till after I had sent you my sec- 

 ond communication. But the mistake neither 

 benefitted me nor injured yon. The'poiat at is- 

 sue is the same. Do unlearhcd ashes and quick 

 lime destroy seeds and plants, by contact, in their or- 

 dinary mode of application in agricnlture ? Ujion 

 this point I have but a single remark to make, and 

 contenting myself with the known results and 

 benefits of practice, will leave you undisturbed in 

 the enjoyment of your speculative theory. You 

 rely on Sir John Sinclair for support in the af- 

 firmative of this ])roposition. The quotation from 

 him applies, I think, exclusively to dead matter, 

 and the dispute has reference only to living, grow- 

 ing plants. Upon dead matter the laws of chem- 

 istry are uniform ; but upon matter endued with 

 vitality, whether vegetable or animal, they are nu- 

 gatory. The genial heat of the sun invigorates 

 and expands the living ])lant, while it facilitates 

 the decomposition and destruction of the dead 

 one. I admit, however, that used indiscreetly or 

 in excess, the lime and ashes may be destructive 

 to living vegetables, as may any other fertilizing 

 substance ; but applied with ordinary prudence 

 they are harndess. 



The next point of difference I shall notice, is 

 the solubility of limestone in water, and its che7mcal 

 action upoii the soil or atmosphere, to induce fertili- 

 ty. In supporting the affirnjative you quote Monk, 

 Darwin, Young and Deaiie, respectable authori- 

 ties to be sure, but not the best, as regards the 

 chemistry of agricultiu-e. All but one I btlieve 

 wrote nearly forty years ago, since which souje of 

 the most important discoveries have lieen made in 

 chemistry. But it should be observed, that Monk 

 speaks of quick lime, and not of the carboonte. 

 Darwin reasons merely from hypothetical prenu- 

 ses, viz : that "another means by which vegeta- 

 bles acquire carbon in great quamiiy may be from 

 limestone dissolved in toatcr." Young evidently al- 

 ludes to the mechanical, and not the chemical effects 

 of lime. To your authorities, such as they are, I 

 oppose the subjoined, of more recent date. 



" Pounded limestone. — This substance differs 



from calcined lime in containing fixed air, or car- 

 bonic acid, and likewise as being insoluble in wa- 

 ter." — Sinclair's Code of Jlgr. p. 38. 



"Carbonate of lime will only improve the tex- 

 ture of the soil, or its relation to absorption; it 

 acts merely as one of its earthy ingredients." — 

 Davfs Jlgr. Ch. p. 284. 



" ftuick lime, when first made, is caustic and 

 burning to the tongue, renders vegetable blues 

 green, and is soluble in water ; but when combined 

 with carbonic acid, it loses all these properties, its 

 SOLUBILITY, and its taste." — 76. 282. 



■'Carbonate of lime is not soluble in water, un- 

 less the water itself be charged with caibonic 

 acid."— Pa;/'' Chem. Cat. p. 195. 



"Chalk, (carbonate of lime) having no power 

 of acting on animal or vegetable substances, can 

 be no otherwise serviceable to land than as it al- 

 ters its texture." — Giisenthwaite. 



Caibonate of lime is soluble in acids, and in 

 water charged with them. It is not the water, 

 but the acids, which renders it soluble ; and it is 

 to the adventitious presence of acids that we must 

 ascribe the presence of lime in hard water, mineral 

 springs, &c, and the formation of stalactites in 

 cave?. In all the prescribed analyses of soils, 

 the s|)ecimens are directed to be washed and sat- 

 urated with water, without a suspicion that these 

 operations diminish the calcareous matter. This 

 is subsequently detected, and the quantity ascer- 

 tained by acids. 



I may have presumed too far in saying you 

 seemed to sustain professor Eaton in his opinion, 

 that the atmosphere afforded the chief nutriment 

 to plants ; and am satisfied from your declaration 

 that I did so. But as your correspondent W. B. 

 complains that I have given no " experiment" in 

 proof that plants do not derive their chief nourish- 

 ment from the atmosphere, I beg leave to satisfy 

 his doubts upon this head, by furnishing him botli 

 with a{ithorily and experiment. The authority is 

 Professor Davy, who says, in p. 11, of his Agricul- 

 tural Chemistry, that " all the varieties of substan- 

 ces found in the plants, is derived from water, or 

 from the fluids in the soil, and it is altered by, and 

 combined with principles derived from the atmos- 

 phere.". The experiment is my own. Some years 

 ago I began to cultivate a piece of sandy land. 

 The first year the wheat did not return the seed, 

 nor the corn pay for ihe culture. By the applica- 

 tion of manures to the soil, fertility has gradually 

 increased, till the former has yielded me 36, and 

 the latter more than 100 bushels per acre. As 

 the atmosphere is the same as at the commence- 

 ment, I have a right to ])ut down the increase to 

 the food in the soil. 



I must a|)ologize for having taken up so much 

 of your paper with subjects in which I am fearful 

 most of your readers have taken little interest ; 

 and yet I cannot but hope that some of their minds 

 may have been enlightened by the sparks which I 

 have elicited from your [icn. B. 



Albany, August 8, 1832. 



RECLAIMKD MARSHES, No. IV. 



Mr Fessenden — I some time since, placed be- 

 fore your readers several numbers, to show the 



ill effects of diking, or shutling out the sea from 

 our marshes, and how lar experience was against 

 it, ill very many well tried experiments about us. 

 Some reasons too were offered why diking might 

 be beneficial in Nova Scotia paiticularly, and ye; 

 otherwise here. Among these, we repeat, arc 

 the differeagiconstitinjnt ]u-jnci|)lcs of the soil — 

 much of iaro^"" l«:i"g hi nujd banks at the mouths 

 of rivers,'«fe^ their greater depth, and the great- 

 er time they are covered by water. Besides that 

 it is admitted that in their natural state their pro- 

 duction is only "a worthless coarse hex-bage." 



Their formation, and rich accumulation by the 

 inrush of the tides, forming thereby what has been 

 denominated " a perfect soil," has been mention- 

 ed. About the Bay of Fundy, Dr Morse " jilaces 

 their rise at from thirty to sixty feet, and so very 

 rapid is it, says he, that swine and other animals, 

 feeding on the shores which Ihe tide overflows, 

 are often overtaken and overwhelmed, unable to 

 make their escape." This will be considered the 

 more striking, when contrasted with our tides, 

 which rise from eii_htto thiiteen feet only. 



It was al)out these waters, says Agricola, "that 

 the French planted themselves, in the first occu- 

 ])ation of the country in ICOG, and threw across 

 those dikes and abateaux, by which they shut out 

 the ocean, and possessed themselves of the rich 

 marshes of Cornwallls and Horton."* 



But he denies in the most favored of these, "a 

 perpetual fei'tilily, without a supply of animal or 

 vegetable mbtter as a chimera," and adds, that 

 " by the cultivation of ibem ibr a number of 

 years in succession, they nnist be worn out, as a 

 contrary opinion is in despite of the first laws of 

 vegetable nature." 



"That a degree of fertility is preserved, by lay- 

 ing out these marshes to grass, and keeping them 

 so for several seasons. Yet notwithstanding these 

 intervals of rest, which to a certain extent recruits 

 all soils, the jiroduct of the best marshes, may now 

 be estimated at from twelve to fifteen bushels, 

 which is not half they once yielded, or would 

 again yield, were a different system of manage- 

 ment adopted, by giving them a certain portion of 

 the barn manure." This judicious wTiter has been 

 availed off, to show that howevei- extraordinary 

 the causes may be, by which a foil is created so 

 favorable for diking, and so jiroductive thereby, 

 yet even in these cases of exuberant fertility, lliey 

 are alike subject to the laws of the vegetable king- 

 dom. We have been somewhat difl'usive, to show 

 that the productiveness of these marshes, though 

 long and justly celebrated, is not, as some have 

 su[iposcd, a profuse and lavish outpouring, to be 

 forever relied upon ; but a principle, the regula- 

 tion and support of which, demands the consider- 

 ation of the husbandman. Hereabouts oav mart-h- 

 es are spread out in thin and level strata, and arc 

 occasionally overflowed by the influx of the tides, 

 and ri*ive a constant fertility therefrom. They 

 occasion no expense of labor, fencing, culture, 

 manure, &e. 



By diking, the rich and fertilizing deposit is 

 shut out, and the land it appears falls into a state 



* In King's County there are 10,000 acres of inaish. 

 In Cumberland County, 20,000, mostly diked. 



