152 



Carefulness in Living. — What is Blight? 



Vol. XI. 



gases from a brick kiln burning about half 

 a mile from my farm. On one occasion, 

 when my men were at work in the field, 

 there was a gentle breeze attended with 

 fog coming from the kiln, and causing a 

 strong smell, which was perceived all over 

 my vineyard. The men could hardly stay 

 there. On the next day I found the vine 

 leaves greatly injured. The leaves on my 

 orchard were partly killed. I noticed that 

 this occurred on the leaves which contained 

 some moisture. In June, last year, the 

 leaves looked as if fire had passed over 

 them, I had no fruit scarcely in the whole 

 orchard, consisting of twelve acres. Seven- 

 eighths of the young unripe fruit fell off. 

 When these gases come over the farm with- 

 out there being at the time dew, fog, or rain, 

 there appears to be no damage. Last June, 

 the crop of apples in this orchard was very 

 promising, but when they were as large as 

 marbles, the kiln was burning, and there 

 was a fog — the smoke from the kiln spread 

 over the orchard, and the whole crop of 

 fruit was cut off — the apples all fell off. The 

 sap of the trees became diseased; the injury 

 was far greater than any ever caused by ca- 

 terpillars. I found forest trees and crops of 

 grain much damaged by the same cause. If 

 the fruit trees should happen to be in blos- 

 som when these gases were in the air, the 

 destruction of fruit would occur fifteen miles 

 in the direction of the wind. Orchards have 

 been killed ten miles ofi^" by it. During the 

 burning of these brick kilns, great volumes 

 of gas escape for twelve hours together. 

 Whether it be the carbonic acid gas, phos- 

 phuretted hydrogen, or sulphurous acid, I 

 cannot decide, but the injury is felt for 

 many miles. Half an acre of carrots, su- 

 gar beets, &c., were injured in one night. 

 It affects injuriously all vegetation near 

 Haverstraw. Orchards are killed for three 

 miles. The farmers thought the evil was 

 the plant louse or some other insect. 



Prof. Mapes. — Do the brick burners use 

 coal? 



Dr. Underhill. — Yes, Sir! Fine coal — but 

 they begin the burning with wood. My 

 Newtown pippins are the most injured. 

 They are rendered rusty, gnarly, spotted 

 with rough and dark spots. 



John Conklin's orchard has had nearly 

 1000 trees killed by the kiln gases, a quar- 

 ter of a mile off. 



Prof. Mapes. — I have listened to the in- 

 genious and no doubt, accurate, observations 

 of Dr. Underhill, and I will endeavour to 

 give the rationale of this case. Coal is 

 ground up with the clay by brick makers, 

 By application of adequate heat, alum is 

 formed from the alumina of bricks and pot 



ash. The coal contains sulphur, which 

 heated, combines with oxygen, forming sul- 

 phuric acid. Thus from clay — the alumina 



we have alum, of which infinistessimal 

 atoms are carried off in the air. It is an 

 error to suppose that the gases could travel 

 in the air ten miles. The fine atoms of 

 alum may — which being deposited upon 

 'eaves moistened by dew, fog or rain, would 

 dissolve and directly damage the leaves. 



Dr. Field. — I burned some sulphur in my 

 garden, for medical purposes, and found that 

 the fumes had caused immediate injury to 

 plants within twenty to forty feet off. There 

 was not heat enough to do the damage at 

 all. 



Dr. Underhill. — The smell from the kilns 

 was strong, and plainly of carbonic acid and 

 of carburetted hydrogen. — Farmer and Me- 

 chanic. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Carefulness in Living. 



I LATELY met with the following senti- 

 ment, or rather, advice of Dr. Franklin, and 

 I think it is so practically valuable, that the 

 readers of the Cabinet might be served with 

 matter not worth half so n)uch. We use 

 our credit liberally, and forget that what it 

 supplies us with is not our own, and are thus 

 led into an expenditure which others too 

 often must pay for. Farmers may find it 

 easier to keep out, than get out of debt. 



" Beware of thinking all your own that 

 you j7ossess, and of living accordingly. 

 This is a mistake that many people who 

 have credit fall into. To prevent this, keep 

 an exact account for some time, both of your 

 expenses and your income. If you take the 

 pains at first to enumerate particulars, it 

 will have this good effect: you will disco- 

 ver how wonderfully, small, trifling expenses 

 amount up to large sums; and will discern 

 what might have been, and may be for the 

 future saved, without occasioning any great 

 inconvenience." 



What is Blight 1 — It is a sun-stroke, or 

 a frost-bite, a plague of insects, or of fungi, 

 a paralysis of the root, or a gust of bad air; 

 it is wetness, it is dryness, it is heat, it is 

 cold, it is plethora, it is starvation ; in short, 

 it is anything that destroys or disfigures foli- 

 age. Can a definition be more perfect"! We 

 should expunge the word as a substantive 

 term from our language, and only use it in 

 its adjective sense. — Vr. Lindley. 



