No. 2. Comparative Merits of Charcoal and Barn-yard Manure, SfC. 43 



facilities for transportation, in all directions, 

 both by tide-water navigation artd by rail- 

 road ; which with other advantages, are the 

 basis of the opinion I have expressed above. 

 S. S. Griscom. 



Moorestown, Burlington co., N. J., 

 Eighth month 8th, 1846. 



The Editor has felt considerable interest in the com- 

 munications of his friend S. S. Griscom, and is unwil 

 ling to omit this opportunity of expressing very de- 

 cidedly, that he coincides in the opinion, " that it is a 

 matter of the first importance to the future well being 

 of the new settlers, that Ihey go in sufficient numbers 

 together to form communities of their own, so as to 

 have their own schools, places of worship," &c., &c. 

 It will indeed be impossible to accomplish much good 

 in any other way. It is not enough that new modes 

 of thinking and of operating be carried into the set- 

 tlement; they must be sustained there from year to 

 year, and from generation to generation, beyond the 

 possibility of being put down, or worked out by any 

 surrounding errors: and this, it is obvious, can only 

 be done by the confidence and strength, and mutual 

 support of numbers. The new community or colony 

 should be independent in itself— we do not mean that 

 it should be altogether exclusive,— but it should have 

 sufficiently within itself the elements of progress, and 

 fhus insure the diffusion more and more widely of its 

 own beneficial influences, without the danger of being 

 driven off the ground by the encroachment of exterior 

 and antagonistic ones. If individual families emigrate 

 alone, the result will almost inevitably be, that instead 

 of turning the Virginians into Northern men, they 

 will themselves, or their children, be changed into 

 Virginians. — Ed. 



From the Farmer and Mechanic. 



Comparative Merits of Charcoal and 

 Barn-yard Manure as Fertilizers. 



In the year 1788, my father purchased and 

 removed upon the tract of land in Hanover 

 township, Morris county, N. J. The land, 

 owing to the bad system of cultivation then 

 prevailing, was completely exhausted, and 

 the buildings and fences in a state of dilapi- 

 dation. The foundation of the barn was 

 buried several feet beneath a pile of manure, 

 the accumulation of years: little or none 

 ever having been removed upon the lands. 

 Even the cellar, beneath the farm-house, 

 was half filled with the dung of sheep and 

 other animals, which had been sheltered in 

 it. The former occupant of the farm had 

 abandoned it on account of its supposed 

 sterility, and taken up the line of march for 

 the Valley of the Miami, along with the 

 first caravan of pioneers who accompanied 

 Judge Symmes. 



The barn, before referred to, was removed 

 to another situation soon after its foundation 

 was uncovered, by the removal of the ma- 

 nure to the exhausted fields; and its site, 



owing to the new arrangements of the farm, 

 became the centre of one of its enclosures. 

 During the seventeen years which I aft;er- 

 wards remained upon the farm, the spot 

 could easily be found by the luxuriousness 

 of the grass, or other crops growing thereon; 

 though the abatement in its fertility was 

 evident and rapid. On revisiting the neigh- 

 bourhood in the autumn of 1817, I carefully 

 examined the corn crops then standing upon 

 the spot, and was unable to discover the 

 slightest difl'erence in the growth or product, 

 upon that and other parts of the field. This 

 was about twenty-eight years after the re- 

 moval of the barn. 



Upon the satne farm and upon soil every 

 way inferior, were the remains of several 

 pit-bottoms, where charcoal had been burned 

 before the recollection of any person now in 

 the vicinity, and most probably, judging 

 from appearances, between the years 1760- 

 70. These pit-bottoms were always clothed, 

 when in pasture, with a luxuriant covering 

 of grass, and when brought under tillage, 

 with heavy crops of grain. Eleven years 

 ago I pointed out these facts to the present 

 occupant, and his observations since, coin- 

 cide with my own, previously made; that 

 they retain their fertility, very little im- 

 paired, a period probably of about seventy 

 or eighty, certainly not less than sixty-five 

 or seventy years. 



Here then is an excellent opportunity of 

 observing the comparative value of charcoal 

 and barn-yard manures, as a fertilizer of 

 lands. The former has not, after at least 

 sixty or seventy years exposure, exhausted 

 its powers of production, while the latter- 

 lost its influence entirely in twenty-eight 

 years, and most probably in much less time. 



I have since had many opportunities of 

 observing the effects of charcoal left in piti- 

 bottoms, upon vegetation, one of which only, 

 I will relate. The last season, in the north- 

 ern part of Ohio, was one of uncommon frost 

 and drought. In May, the wheat fields, when 

 promising a luxuriant crop, were cut off by 

 frost; — especially in the valleys, and very 

 much injured in the high lands — which was 

 succeeded by the most severe drought ever 

 experienced in the West. The moiety which 

 escaped both these scourges, was afterwards 

 very much injured by rust. Near the vil- 

 lage of Canton, upon a farm on high ground, 

 which had been mostly cleared of its timber 

 by its conversion into charcoal, it was ob- 

 served that upon the old pit-bottoms, the 

 wheat grew very luxuriantly — was clear of 

 rust — and had ripened plump in the berry; 

 while in the adjacent parts of the field it 

 was short in growth, the stem blackened 

 with rust, and the berry light and shrivelled. 



