1S57. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



335 



in daily use, yet comparatively how slowly ihey 

 wear, simply because the heat to which they are 

 exposed, removes all moisture before it can oxide 

 or rust them. For this end, a coating of lead paint 

 is as efficient as heat ; but as the carbonate of lead 

 which enters into all paints is poisonous, don't ap- 

 ])ly it to the inside of any vessel used to contain ar- 

 ticles for eating or drinking. Paint on tin dries 

 very slowly, but will bear a great deal of wear when 

 dried. ' G. 



SANDY LAND-AMALGAMATION. 



Any soil which is found upon analysis to contain 

 more than eighty parts in a hundred of silex, is de- 

 nominated sandy land. Soils so constituted are 

 rarelv found to be productive, unless improved by 

 amalgamation, or mixture. Rye and buckwheat 

 are the only grains which can be cultivated on them 

 with any degree of success, in their natural state, 

 and even these are not by any means sure of pro- 

 ducing a remunerating crop, except in favorable 

 seasons. Potatoes sometimes do well on this kind 

 of soil, provided it be liberally manured ; the tu- 

 bers grown on it are generally of an excellent qual- 

 ity, dry and mealy, and much superior for table use 

 to those produce! on heavier and more affluent soil. 



By allowing such land a period of repose, or lay- 

 ing it down to perennial pasture — which admits of 

 the accumulation of humus — it rapidly recovers, 

 and on being again subjected to tillage, will pro- 

 duce one or two excellent crops of rye, buckwheat, 

 or potatoes, without the stimulation of manurial 

 applications. 



It may be laid down as an axiom, that all arena- 

 ceous or sandy soils lose, at least, one part in a hun- 

 dred of their positive value, for productive purpos- 

 es, by the increase of a hundredth part in the pro- 

 portion of silicious matter. When the soil is so 

 light as to be blown by the winds, it possesses but 

 a mere negative value, and can only be reclaimed 

 and rendered suitable for cultivation by an admix- 

 ture of argillaceous or clayey matter. 



In many sandy soils, beside the pure native silex, 

 we find other matters, such, for instance, as carbo- 

 nate of lime. This usually manifests itself in the 

 form of calcareous sand — sand containing a portion 

 of lime — which is far less insoluble than the silici- 

 ous, and exerts, in all cases, an invigorating and 

 healthful influence, both upon the soil and crops. 



Of the fifty-three varieties of soil produced by 

 the artificial combination of elements, experiment- 

 ed on by Tillet, that which appeared to be most 

 congenial to the cereals, was composed of three- 

 eighths potter's clay, one-half shell or fossil marl, 

 and one-eighth of silex, or common sand. 



Where a soil is found to contain a too profuse 

 quantity or per centum of silex — a fact easily ascer- 

 tained by visual inspection without the assistance 

 of chemical tests, the remedy is to be found in 

 amalgamation, or mixing with it a sufficient quan- 



tity of good clay, to bring it to the required con- 

 sistence. 



All sandy soils when ameliorated in this way, are 

 found to possess a high value, and as they lose their 

 original character, become permanently productive 

 and rich in proportion to the thoroughness or com- 

 pleteness with which the modification of texture 

 and character is effected. 



Sandy lands, thus improved, produce Indian corn, 

 and the several kinds of grain, more bountifully, 

 oftentimes, than some of the best conditioned natural 

 soils ; they are also excellent for pasturage. For 

 carrots, beets, swedes, mangels, and parsnips, they 

 are among the best lands we have. They will pro- 

 duce fine crops of grass for two or three years, but 

 will not continue them like the clayey loam soils, or 

 soils of a granite formation. 



The expense in effecting this change is consider- 

 able, but when the improvement is effected, it is a 

 permanent one. We know of some examples of 

 the kind which continue to give great satisfaction. 



PURE AIK AND SLEEP. 



Dr. Arnott, in his Physics, states that canary birds 

 suspended near the top of a curtained bedstead 

 where persons are sleeping, will generally be found 

 dead in the morning from the eflects of carbonic 

 acid gas, generated in respiration. He set forth 

 this as a fact, to show the necessity of breathing 

 pure air in sleeping apartments, and a sweeping ar- 

 gument against the old-fashioned, high-curtained 

 bedsteads. A healthy man respires about twenty 

 times in a minute, and inhales in that period about 

 seven hundred cubic inches of air; this he exhales 

 again in the form of carbonic acid gas and water, 

 which vitiates the atmosphere. Three and one- 

 half per cent, of carbonic acid gas in the air ren- 

 ders it unfit for the support of life ; this shows how 

 necessary it is to provide a supply of pure air for 

 the support of respiration. 



There are also certain facts which go to prove 

 that more danger exists — that there is a greater 

 proneness to disease — during sleep than in the 

 waking state. In Turkey and Hindostan, if a per- 

 son falls asleep in the neighborhood of a poppy 

 field, over which the wind is blowing towards him, 

 he is liable to "sleep the sleep which knows no wak- 

 ing." The peasants of Italy who fall asleep in the 

 neighborhood of the Pontine marshes are invaria- 

 bly smitten with fever. Even travellers who pass 

 the night in the Campagna du Roma inevitably be- 

 come more or less affected with the noxious air, 

 while those who pass through without stopping es- 

 cape the marsh fever. Those who have travelled 

 in tropical climes, and who have been attacked with 

 bilious fevers', uniformly ascribe the cause of their 

 sufferings to night exposure in the open air. 



An English traveller in Abyssynia has asserted 

 that he could live in health in that sickly climate, 

 by a proper selection of the situation where he 

 slept every night. There is abundant evidence, it 

 would appear, which goes to prove that by proper 

 attention to the place where, and the circumstances 

 under which persons sleep, many diseases may be 

 avoided. — Scienfijic American. 



