254 ' Try Salt— Boiling Oats—Sand or Lady Pea. Vol. 111. 



ready evidences enough of its utility, but that 

 so many are yet holding back with a strange 

 and suicidal incredulity. It was therefore with 

 pleasure that I read the statement of Mr. R. 

 M. Black set forth in your last Cabinet, there- 

 by showing conclusively that lime is the 

 cheapest, most prompt, and efficient manure 

 that can be applied to the soil of Delaware, 

 (unless it should be in her marl regions, which 

 are now under a fair course of experiment 

 with this valuable mineral, and 1 hope before 

 long to be able to give you a very favorable 

 account of the result.) But to return — it is 

 creditable to Mr. Black that he has broken 

 through the old customs of his vicinity, and 

 that he has furthermore not hid his light un 

 der a bushel, but has favored the farming 

 public with an account of his experiments. 

 But interest makes keen critics of us all, and 

 in the detail of his operations Mr. Black, 

 though minute, has not been so circumstan- 

 tial as many could have wished; for example, 

 he does not state whether the whole 25 acres 

 were manured previous to liming, or whether 

 he manured only the twenty that were limed, 

 leaving the 5 without any dressing at all, 

 which I do not suppose was the case, as it 

 would not have been a fair experiment. But 

 if the 5 acres were manured, how is it that 

 the produce in 183.5 was greater without ma- 

 nure than in 1838, after it had been ma- 

 nured ? Could the difference be caused by the 

 season ] Or were the 5 acres originally poor- 

 er than the rest of the land] In which case 

 the trial cannot be called a fair one. 



I hope, therefore, we shall hear again from 

 Mr. Black upon these points. I have no 

 doubt whatever of fairness in the experiment, 

 yet as these inferences may be drawn from 

 the statement in question, he will at once 

 perceive their importance, and that the test 

 of the whole affair hinges upon the treatment 

 of the 5 acres, and their previous condition. 

 Yours, &,c. Calcium. 



Middletown, Del., Feb. 26, 1839. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Try Salt. 



There are many well attested cases on re- 

 cord, and I think some of them in the Cabi- 

 net, of the benefit derived to grain and grass 

 by the application of small quantities of com- 

 mon salt, say from two to three bushels to the 

 acre. Who, now will undertake to try the 

 experiment this spring, on a small portion of 

 wheat and also on grass. Procure a bushel, 

 it won't cost much, and put one half of it on 

 wheat, and the other on grass, and make re- 

 port of the result through the Cabinet. The 

 cost of tfiis experiment would be less than 

 one dollar; try it, and that soon too, the ear- 

 lier the better, and let us know whether it is 

 for good or evil. S. I 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Boiling Oats. 



A farmer, who last autumn had a boiler 

 holding about forty-five gallons, enclo.sed in 

 brick work, with grate, &:c., and who used it 

 to good effect in boiling corn, &c. for his fat- 

 tening hogs; has since applied it for boiling 

 oats, which is afterwards mixed with cut hay 

 or straw, and fed to his milch cows. The 

 result of this mode of feeding them has been 

 highly satisfactory and encouraging, and. ia 

 believed to furnish a fair remuneration for 

 expense and trouble. A few weeks since, be- 

 mg desirous of salting his cattle, he injudi- 

 ciously put about two quarts of salt into the 

 boiler, with the water and oats, and continued 

 the boiling for the usual length of time, but 

 with a very different result fiom what he had 

 before experienced. 



In his previous boiling operations without 

 salt, the oats were much swelled and enlarged, 

 but when the salt was present, the grains 

 refused to obey the usual law of absorption 

 and enlargement, and continued about of their 

 usual dimensions; the .salt water remaining 

 mixed with the oats in the boiler, but not ab- 

 sorbed by the grain. The first thought was 

 that the oats, being of a superior kind, (the 

 large potatoe oat) to that previously used, 

 which was the common oat usually sown, the 

 effect might be occasioned by the difference 

 in the grain ; but on trial since without the 

 presence of salt, with the same kind of grain, 

 the usual swelling and enlargement took 

 place. From this it appears evident that salt 

 or brine in some way produces the effect of 

 preventing the grain from absorbing the wa- 

 ter. Can any of the readers of the Cabinet 

 furnish a satisfactory reason for the production 

 of such a result? ' O. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Sand or L.ady Pea. 



It appears, by an article signed O., in the 

 3rd Vol., 4ih No., page 11.5, of the Cabinet, 

 that (with the exception of Indian not given,) 

 peas and beans rate highest on the catalogue 

 of nutritives, containing from 89 to 92 per 

 cent. Now as the pea or rather bean, at the 

 head of this article, will grow on the poorest 

 sandy land, and produce from 15 to 25 bush- 

 els per acre, I think the article might be cul- 

 tivated with great advantage in the pine lands 

 of New Jersey, and other places too remote 

 from lime, marl or other manures, to bear the 

 expense of their application, without which, 

 a good crop of corn cannot be expected : and 

 as peas and beans are used in England as we 

 use corn, for the fattening of hogs, would it not 

 be well for the inhabitants of such districts 

 to follow their example and eee if they can- 

 not have their pork-tubs as well filled for 



