36 



Foul Air in Stables. 



Vol. VI. 



arguments than my friend advances, I must 

 continue to recommend the practice to my 

 friends and customers. 



He thinks a tree should be planted so deep 

 that the roots shall be lower than the usual 

 depth of a furrow, otherwise they will be in- 

 jured by the plounfh. By this plan the upper 

 roots must be placed 8 or 9 inches below the 

 surface, and all tlio roots will be in the sub- 

 soil ; now if my friend had had as much ex- 

 perience in planting young- apple trees, and 

 had received as much information on the sub- 

 ject from others, who have been losers by 

 deep plantinfj, as myself and other nursery- 

 men, he would know that a tree thus planted 

 cannot thrive, but will barely live until new 

 roots are thrown out where nature forms 

 them — near the surface. 



I believe it is as necessary to cultivate a 

 young orchard as a corn-field, and not only 

 for one or two seasons, but for many; and if 

 it be properly done, the trees will not be in- 

 jured, even if planted as shallow as the 

 " fashion" and experience of nurserymen point 

 out My friend does not represent me quite 

 fairly when he says I think it best to have 

 the trees planted so shallow as to have the 

 roots bare winter and summer; my words 

 were, " in transplanting trees from a nursery, 

 great care should be taken not to plant them 

 too deep ; let the upper roots be so near the 

 surface of the ground, that a little basin 

 formed about the tree, may expose the upper 

 part of them to the sun and air," 



Thus the upper roots may be two or three 

 inches below the general surface of the 

 ground ; and for one or two seasons after 

 transplanting I think it would be quite as 

 well to keep the roots covered a little, and 

 devote additional time and care in searching 

 for the first indication of the presence of a 

 worm ; and I certainly did not mean to advise 

 a neglect of a frequent examination for it; 

 in doing which I would recommend the use 

 of a piece of annealed wire, a few inches 

 long, instead of a piece of tough wood. In 

 ploughing an orchard of young trees, it is not 

 necessary or proper that the plough should 

 run nearer the tree than two or three feet ; 

 a spade will readily turn up the remaining 

 space, and both the roots and the body of the 

 tree will escape injury. 



S. Rhoads, Jr. 



The lovers of sweet flowers may derive 

 advantage from the knowledge, that sandy 

 or gravelly soils promotes the secretion of 

 aroma. Those flowers of the richest per- 

 fume, are natives of sandy lands, Persia, 

 Arabia, &c., and those in pots should there- 

 fore be supplied with a portion of sand or 

 gravel. — Western Farmer. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Foul Air in Stables. 



At the last meeting of the Philadelphia 

 Agricultural Society, a member drew the at- 

 tention of the company to the fact established 

 by Liebig, in his late work, "Organic Che- 

 mistry," that plaster of Paris (gypsum) has 

 the property of absorbing volatile ammonia; 

 and urged upon all those who keep stock, the 

 very simple motle by which their stables 

 could be rendered perfectly sweet, healthy, 

 and inodorous, merely by scattering abroad 

 about a bushel of the pulverized gypsum per 

 month on the floors, by which means the 

 complaints and evils arising from the stench 

 of confined stables — weak eyes, &c., would 

 be prevented, the gypsum used being rendered 

 far more valuable by such application, for the 

 purpose of manure. He also very judiciously 

 remarked, that the hay and fodder, which are 

 generally deposited over our horses in their 

 stables must become greatly contaminated by 

 the penetrating effluvia of ammonia arising 

 from the urine, which also might be remedied 

 by the application above recommended. In 

 Liebig's book, p. 238, are the following ob- 

 servations on this highly important subject. 



" The carbonate of ammonia, formed by 

 the putrefaction of urine, can be fixed or de- 

 prived of its volatility in many ways; if a 

 field be strewed with gypsum, and then with 

 putrefied urine, or the drainings of dunghills, 

 all the carbonate of ammonia will be con- 

 verted into the sulphate, which will remain 

 in the soil. But there are still simpler means 

 of effecting this purpose — gypsum, chloride 

 of calcium, sulphuric or muriatic acid, and 

 super-phosphate of lime, are all substances of 

 a very low price, and completely neutralize 

 the urine, converting its ammonia into salts, 

 which possess no volatility. If a bason filled 

 with concentrated muriatic acid is placed in 

 a common privy, so that its surface is in free 

 communication with the vapours which rise 

 from below, it becomes filled, after a few 

 days, with crystals of muriate of ammonia. 

 The ammonia, the presence of which the or- 

 gans of smell amply testify, combines with 

 the muriatic acid, and loses entirely its vola- 

 tility, and thick clouds or fumes of the salt 

 newly-formed, hang over the bason. In sta- 

 bles, the same may be seen; the ammonia 

 that escapes in this manner is not only en- 

 tirely lost as far as vegetation is conc'erned, 

 but it works also a slow, though not less cer- 

 tain destruction of the walls of the building, 

 for when in contact with the lime of the mor- 

 tar, it is converted into nitric acid, which 

 gradually dissolves the lime; the injury thus 

 done to a building, by the formation of the 

 soluble nitrates, has received, in Germany, a 

 special name — salpeterfrass. 



