234 



Magnesian Lime. — Farming. 



Vol. VI. 



edly written by practical men, wherein it is 

 repeatedly set forth that all magnesian lime 

 is deleterious to vegjetation.and that each one 

 whose liming has not answered his expecta- 

 tion, refers his disappointment to this cause. 

 He takes up the reports of the different geo- 

 logical surveys lately made in this country, 

 and learns from them, as well as the pages of 

 the Cabinet, that a very large proportion of 

 the limestones of our country are magnesian, 

 and many of them higiily so. Would not 

 such a person probably reason thus : — I am 

 very poor as well as my land. This lime is 

 a very expensive thing. 1 shall probably get 

 of this bad kind, as I am no judge of the arti- 

 cle. I shall lay out my last dolhir, and pro- 

 bably make tny land even worse tlian it now 

 is. Would he be likely to lime under such 

 views? Would he not more probably toil on 

 from year to year as poor as lie began — still 

 afraid to apply the great renovator to his 

 soil ? To such, however, we would repeat, 

 what we have already said, that all the be- 

 nefit which has been derived from lime as a 

 manure to Pennsylvania, and to a great part 

 of New .Jersey and Delaware, has been de- 

 rived from magnesian lime. This is fact and 

 experience ; the other is but theory based on 

 a narrow foundation. Tlicn let not this bug- 

 bear of magnesian lime, set up by those who 

 seem to be profoundly ignorant of what is 

 passing around them, deter you from follow- 

 ing the bright example set you by the en- 

 lightened farmers of south-enstern Pennsyl- 

 vania. Put on your magnesian lime in such 

 quantities as their experience may have 

 pointed out. Shut your ears against this 

 senseless clamour, and after you have faith- 

 fully done your part, trust the rest to the 

 silent, unseen, mysterious operation of those 

 laws which govern the material world, with 

 the full assurance that you will reap a rich 

 reward. S. LEVifis. 



Doc. 28, 1841. 



Farming. 



The operations on a farm require incessant 

 toil ; the corporeal machine must bo in con- 

 etant motion. It therefore behooves farmers 

 to work head-work. How many of us can 

 see, after performing an important agricultu- 

 ral operation, that with a little study, we 

 might have accomplished it with much less 

 labour. We are too apt to misapply our 

 strength, and waste our energies in some fa- 

 vourite scheme of redeeming our soil, which 

 a little mental exertion would have rendered 

 a light and healthful exercise. 



There are several ways in which almost 

 every farming operation can bo performed. 

 The old road, the turnpike, and the rail-road ; 



some will not travel the turnpike on account 

 of the toll, and many prefer the old road be- 

 cause they are better acquainted with the 

 track. And yet a man of moderate ingenuity 

 may soon become a skilful engineer, and be 

 able to traverse the rail-road with velocity 

 and safety. 



The Yankees are proverbial for their in- 

 genuity and enterprise, and every farmer, 

 like the great and good Washington, should 

 mark out his farming operations for years in 

 advance. If a field is to be laid out and bro- 

 ken up a year or two hence, he should, at his 

 leisure, or when no other avocation presses, 

 dig and draw his rocks to a line — dig the 

 trench and fill up with small stones — destroy 

 the bushes, &,c. So likewise if he intends to 

 reclaim a swamp which has laid dormant 

 since the days of old Adam, he should ditch 

 and plough, or cast on his sward, and prepare 

 his compost at a season of the year when he 

 can do nothing else to advantage. If he in- 

 tends to till a sandy loam, and convert it into 

 a fertile field, he should prepare the basis of 

 his compost-heap the year beforehand, which 

 should consist of mud, clay, with vegetable or 

 animal manure, which a little e.xpcrience will 

 teach him how to apply to the best advantage. 

 No farmer need be at a loss for materials to 

 enrich his fields — ditch-mud, soil from the 

 road-side, and hedge-rows around his fields, 

 will supply him with the basis of a rich com- 

 post — these carried into his barn-yard and 

 hog-sty, in proper seasons and in sntiicient 

 quantities, he will soon succeed in rendering 

 his farm productive. Every farmer should 

 be provided with a barn-cellar, a shelter for 

 his manure, and a work-shop for his swine. 

 Materials for their employment can be ob- 

 tained from a thousand sources ; all vegetable 

 matter, weeds, straw, coarse grasses, brakes, 

 mud and loam, will by them be converted into 

 the most fertilizing manure, and these sub- 

 stances cin be collected when there is no- 

 thing suffering to call your attention else- J 

 where. There is no more important or pro- j 

 Stable labour on the farm; but how to do it I 

 right, requires head-work as well as bodil)| 

 toil. — Plymouth Rock. ' 



It must be admitted as a principle of agri- 

 culture, that those substances which have 

 been removed from a soil must and ought to 

 be completely restored to it, and whether this 1 

 restoration be effected by means of excre- j 

 monts, ashes or bones, is, in a great measure, •' 

 indifferent. The time will come, when j 

 fields will be manured with a solution of j 

 glass (silicate of potassa) with the ashes of" 

 burnt straw; and with salts of phosphoric 

 acid prepared in chemical manufactories. — 

 Liebii^. 



