350 



The Sun. — DanielVs JVew Artificial Manure. 



Vol. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Sun. 



" Tliou Sun, both eye and soul of this great world 1" 

 Mu. Editor, — The exquisite little gem at 

 page 300 of the Cabinet for last month, on the 

 subject of Sunrise, 1 read on Sunday morning 

 last, on the banks of the Brandywine, just as 

 that glorious luminary made his appearance 

 in the east, and for which rich treat I had 

 waited half an hour : but it is quite out of my 

 power to say with what ecstasy I worshipped 

 at the shrine of Nature, or to describe the 

 holy awe by which I felt entranced. The 

 service was the most glorious that I had ever 

 joined in, the hymn on the occasion being 

 Horace Smith's, to the Flowers — see p. 285, 

 3d -vol. of the Cabinet — which was chaunted 

 throughout, without omitting a verse or a 

 line ! The organ, in the absence of thunder, 

 being the deep lowing of the cattle on the 

 surrounding hills, as they " saluted and wel- 

 comed in the rising morn," the birds furnish- 

 ing out the symphony ! Oh, the opportunity 

 was indeed heavenly ! Of a truth, " the man 

 that misses sunrise loses the sweetest part of 

 his existence." 



The present season, like the past winter, 

 has been remarkably friendly to vegetation — 

 what now, indeed, has become of the millions 

 of blight with which the wheat has been af- 

 flicted for past years 1 All are passed away, 

 without the least intervention of man or the 

 influence of the moon ; the sun alone may be 

 said to have accomplished the whole business, 

 for without his enlivening rays, all would 

 have been chaos. No wonder that whole na- 

 tions, in the absence of the knowledge of 

 " Him who made the Sun," should bow down 

 and worship him at his approach. But al- 

 though no one is a more fervent admirer of 

 NATURE than I am, I cannot perform the ser- 

 vice aright, without the aid of that blessed 

 book by which I am taught my duty to its 

 Maker as well as to my fellow-creatures — to 

 " do unto others as I would they should do to 

 me; to forgive my enemies, and do good to 

 them that despitefully use me, rendering good 

 for evil." No, nature and revelation must go 

 hand in hand, and that which God has so in- 

 timately joined together, must not by man be 

 put asunder. 



The poet beautifully expresses the intimate 

 and sacred union, when he says : 

 The rolling Sun, the changing light, 

 And nights and days thy pow'r confess ; 

 But the blest volume Thou hast writ, 

 Reveals thy justice and thy grace. 



Oh ! like the Sun may I fulfil, 

 Th' appointed duties of the day ; 

 With ready mind and active will, 

 March on and keep the heav'nly way ! 



M. 



Daniell's New Artificial Manure. 



At length we have notice of the mode in 

 which this new mixture is formed. The in- 

 gredients are as follow. Any wood mechani- 

 cally reduced to powder — in plain words — 

 sawdust: this is the basis, and it is to be tho- 

 roughly saturated with bituminous matters, of 

 all, or any kind; to this is to be added small 

 proportions of soda and quick-iime, and a very 

 small quantity of sulphur. The principles 

 on which this compound is formed, appear, at 

 first, rather obscure, but one thing is apparent, 

 it is an attempt to make an artificial bitumi- 

 nous coal, and to keep this in a state of slow 

 combustion with only the substitution of soda 

 for the potash of the wood, and the addition 

 of quick-lime. The proportions are not told, 

 nor how long the compost is to remain before 

 used, nor what the bituminous matters are; 

 the only additional information is, that in 

 using, it should be buried two or three inches 

 under the surface of the soil, to prevent the 

 evaporation of the volatile, and valuable parts. 

 Mr. Hall produced a sample of the manure — 

 a coarse, black powder, having a strong smell, 

 somewhat resembling coal tar. Samples of 

 the wheat grown by Mr. Daniell were also 

 exhibited ; and it was stated, in reply to ques- 

 tions, that the crops produced were greater 

 in quantity, better in quality and weight, and 

 produced with one-third the ordinary quantity 

 of seed. If this new manure will give us 

 artificial coal, which will, of itself, enter into 

 slow combustion,* and furnish vegetables 

 with its ammoniacal product, by degrees, as 

 required, it must be of immense importance 

 to agriculture. 



The value of bituminous soot as a manure 

 has never been doubted, but, like many other 

 manures, it has too often been applied in such 

 large quantities, or in such strong solutions, 

 as have rendered it injurious instead of bene- 

 ficial. Bituminous coal contains from 13 to 

 16 per cent, of nitrogen or azote, and from 

 4 to 12 per cent, of hydrogen. When coal 

 is burnt, these two gases unite and form am- 

 monia ; when burnt in the open air, the am- 

 monia goes partly into the atmosphere, and is 

 partly condensed in the soot; but when burnt 

 in retorts, for the purpose of aflxjrding gas for 

 illumination, the ammonia is dissolved in the 

 liquor used for purifying the gas, and is called 

 the ammoniacal liquor of gas-works. The 

 manure will probably be about one-third the 

 price of bone-dust. 



The following account of it was given to the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, and is extracted 

 from the Boston Courier. — New. Gen. Far. 



* By this, are we to understand spontaneous com- 

 bustion ? We would also ask, how is soda to be substi- 

 tuted for the potash already contained in the wood, and 

 for what purpose is the exchange to be made from one 

 alkali to another ? or rather, where is tho necessity for 

 the uddition of soda at all ? Ed. 



