No. 11. 



Chemistry applied to Agriculture. 



359 



of the furrow, it being made narrow and sharp, 

 for the purpose of forcing its way into a re- 

 tentive or stony subsoil ; but which at the 

 depth of ten inches or a foot, will be found 

 capable of breaking the whole width, lifting 

 it up like a little earthquake, and mashing it 

 completely in its fall. 1 declare it makes one 

 feel savage-like, to find to what extent our 

 parsimonious habits are carrying us; the sav- 

 ing of expense being a besetting sin, which 

 indeed, needs to be repented of; but which 

 we scarcely hear of, except in the profession 

 of agriculture. The manufacturer, the ma- 

 chinist, the mariner and the commercial man, 

 are content to commit their substance to the 

 guidance of their several occupations, calcu- 

 lating that the more capital is judiciously 

 employed, the greater will be their profits; 

 while poor agriculture — the only business 

 that will not pay interest for capital invested, 

 is doomed to be cheated, reviled and degraded 

 by every species of fraud and chicanery, not 

 even being thought worthy to be entrusted 

 with skill, capital, or enterprise, and yet, ex- 

 pected to i\xrnh\\ *'• something for nothing.'''' 

 But I will not despair; I will do my duty and 

 debit my crops with the expense, and when 

 a pair of strong horses are not sufficient to put 

 my subsoil plough down to the beam, why I will 



fut on four, and acquaint you with the result. 

 n the meantime, I have debited the crop of 

 corn on my ten acres with the cost of the 

 new plough — eleven dollars — and do not de- 

 spair of making 100 per cent, profit upon that, 

 the present year. R, P, 



Montgomery Co., May 25, 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 " Chemistry applied to Agriculture." 



Mr. Editor, — I transcribe and forward for 

 insertion in the future pages of the Cabinet, 

 extracts from " Liebig's Chemistry applied to 

 Agriculture," a work which is about to create 

 a new era in the science of agriculture, which 

 every farmer cannot too attentively peruse, 

 and which none can read without being struck 

 with the justice and truth of many of his 

 views, explaining clearly as they do, many 

 phenomena heretofore inexplicable, and offer- 

 ing a guide to future operations in that sci- 

 ence so important to the well-being of mankind. 



" It is impossible," says Professor Lindly, 

 ** for any one acquainted with gardening (and 

 what is farming but gardening on a large 

 scale) not to perceive the immense import- 

 ance of these considerations, (speaking of his 

 explanation of the necessity of a rotation of 

 crops), which show, that by adopting the mo- 

 dern notion, that the action of soil is chiefly 

 mechanical, the science of horticulture has 

 been carried backward instead of being ad- 

 vanced ; and that the most careful examina- 

 tions of the chemical nature both of the soil 



in which a plant grows and of the plant itself, 

 must be the foundation of all exact and eco- 

 nomical methods of cultivation." 



Professor Liebig says: "Any great im- 

 provement in this most important of all arts 

 is inconceivable without a deeper and more 

 perfect acquaintance with the substances 

 which nourish plants, and with the sources 

 from whence they are derived ; and no other 

 cause can be discovered to account for the 

 fluctuating and uncertain state of our know- 

 ledge on this subject up to the present time, 

 than that modern physiology has not kept 

 pace with the rapid progress of chemistry." 

 Speaking of the apathy and supineness of 

 those who should be most interested in 

 every discovery of the chemist, every new 

 light thrown upon the art of culture, he says: 

 "Agriculture has hitherto never sought aid 

 from chemical principles, based on the know- 

 ledge of those substances which plants ex- 

 tract from the soil on which they grow, and 

 of those restored to the soil by means of ma- 

 nure. The discovery of such principles will 

 be the task of a future generation, for what 

 can be expected from the present, which re- 

 coils, with seeming distrust and aversion, 

 from all means of assistance offered it by 

 chemistry, and which does not understand 

 the art of making a rational application of 

 chemical discoveries'?" S. T. 



Cranberries.— Cultivated cranberries were 

 exhibited by S. Bates, of Billingham, Norfolk 

 county, Mass., which were grown on his own 

 land. He states that low land is best for 

 them, prepared in the same manner as for 

 grain, the wild cranberry being transplanted 

 into it in rows 20 inches apart. At first 

 they require a slight hoeing ; afterwards they 

 spread and cover the ground, producing crops 

 annually thereafter without farther culture ; 

 and in this condition they are more produc- 

 tive, the fruit being larger and finer than in 

 their wild state, the yield being from 200 to 

 300 bushels per acre, and worth on an ave- 

 rage in the Boston market, one dollar a bushel. 

 A damp soil, or when wet predominates, haa 

 generally been considered essential, but Mr. 

 B. thinks this is not necessary to their suc- 

 cessful cultivation ; early spring is the best 

 time for transplanting. — Mon. Vis. 



Composts. — T have tried the earth taken 

 from ditches in the meadows, but never found 

 any benefit from it; but when carried in large 

 quantities into my hog-sty and barn-yard in 

 the autumn, and turned up in the spring and 

 used for manuring corn, &c., I have found a 

 load of this earth-mixture as beneficial as a 

 load of unmixed manure from the yard or 

 hog-sty; and after a year's exposure, have 

 never found unmixed dung better. — Branson, 



