No. 10. 



Essfii/s on ^grtculture. 



325 



liiiic and plastfr,) upon tliri'O acres of pasture land of 

 Khi'k Si.-a vvhi'at; and I snweil tliroc bushels and a 

 lialf of Black Sija wlwat, prepared in tlie above in('n- 

 tioned way, upon about one acre and liveeighllis of 

 ground; and tin; one busbel ajid twelve quarts of 'I'ca 

 wheat I prepared and sowed as above, upon about one 

 acre and one eighth of an acre of land ; and the half 

 husliel of red boarded wheat was prepared and sowed 

 as above, on about one quarter of an acre of land.— 

 The Tea wheat and Ulack fii-.a. wheat upon the old 

 ground were sowed on the thirteenth and fourteenth 

 days of April ; the half bushel of red bearded wheal 

 was sowed about the middle of May; the fjur nnl n 

 half biishtts upon the pasture land, on the tkirtietk day of 

 May; and upon this piece of pasture land I sowed 

 mixed lime and plaster about four bushels, when the 

 wheat was about one foot hi^h. 



On the first day of July, I discovered a few of the 

 yellowish flies, or what are called weevils, at or a little 

 before sunset; ami fiuilin;; them to he very active, \ 

 felt desirous to find out how they performed so much 

 mischief So I put on my glasses and saw them climb 

 tijitlie head of wheat, and when QttheuppiT part of the 

 hull which covers the kernel when grown would m:ike a 

 small stay, putting their tail or stiug under the upper 

 edgeof the hull, whib;. to appearance, the fly would puj^h 

 back, and that iust.ant fluttering the wings, making a 

 Btop of but a few seconds, and then hastening towards 

 the top of the head, making his short intervals at the 

 upper part of each hull as he passed upward. Upon 

 the second day there was a considerable increase of 

 these flies upon the wheat heads early in the morning, 

 «nd again towards evening, busily performing in the 

 same manner as on the first appearance. The third 

 ttay they had tnuch increased from what they were the 

 day before ; and having hi^ard that lime sown upon the 

 wheat would be of service, I immediately threw on 

 about one bushel of slaked lime upon the wheat while 

 it was wet with dew, upon about a half an acre of the 

 wheat. The fourth day morning, I again visited this 

 piece of wheat where I sowed the lime, iind upon a 

 careful examination, I found but one weevil or fly upon 

 the wheat, until [ came where I had sowed no lime, 

 where, to my surprise. I believe there were as many 

 as a dozen of those yellowish flies upon every head of' 

 wheat. This discovery caused nie immediately to 

 comtnence sowing on more lime, and not having 

 enough to finish the piece, I then had recourse to ashes, 

 which I threw on in much haste, fearing that these in- 

 sects, being then so active and numerous, would en- 

 tirely destroy our wheat crop. The fifth day morning, 

 1 again carefully examined our wheat, and found only 

 tliree of those flies, which on the fourth inst. were so 

 very numerous. Upon the sixth day, as before, I ex- 

 amined carefully, and found none ; neither did I see 

 any of those flies afterwards. 



The wheat sown upon the pasture land on the thir- 

 tieth of May, not being headed until after the depar- 

 tdre of those unweicoine visiters, they had no opportu- 

 nity of injuring any part of it. After reaping and 

 threshing. I winnowed up. Beginning at the half 

 bushel of red bearded, which had no lime sown upon 

 it, I had only two bushels, it being almost entirely 

 destroyed by the weevil. Of the Tea wheat, which 

 grew- from one bushel and twelve quarts, I cleaned up 

 twenty-two bushels. From the three bushels and a 

 half of Black Sea wheat. I cleaned up fifty-three bush- 

 els of good wheat, of a round full kernel. From the 

 last sown piece upon the pasture land without mauuie, 

 I cleaneil up sixty-two bushels anil a half of wheat: 

 this was not quite so plump and full as 1 have seen, 

 on account of the drought, which, in all, amounts to 

 one hundred and thirty-nine bushels ami a h.tlf. 



S.\MUEL TaLLANT. 

 Canterbury, March 8lh. 1S39. 



[The reader will bear in mind that in this 



latitude the season is usually from two to 



four weeks in advance; so that we prepare 



our ground and plant much earlier than our 



brother farmers in New Hampshire.] 



Science must combine \yith practice to 

 make a good farmer. 



For the Tanners' Cabinet. 



EKNays on Agriculture. 



No. IV.* 



MAONESIAN EARTH. 



In a former communication, on the charac- 

 ter of the earths chiefly concerned in the pro- 

 duction of vegetation, I took occasion to re- 

 mark that magnesian earth was so limited in 

 its extent, that a passing notice of its exist- 

 ence would be sufficient. The circumstance, 

 however, of its being so frequently found in 

 combination with lime in its mineralized .state, 

 and consequently in its application in agri- 

 culture, it would probably be necos.sary to 

 take such a brief notice of some of its proper- 

 ties as will justify forming correct conclusion.s 

 respecting its practical effects. It is a me- 

 tallic substance,, called magnesium, which 

 combines with oxygen gas with avidity, flirm- 

 ing an oxide of magnesium ; with water it 

 forms a hydrate, which, by a union with car- 

 bonic acid gas, becomes a carbonate of mag- 

 nesium — like lime, it is usually found in a 

 state of carbonate, and, like lime, the carbonic 

 acid may be separated by heat; thus far they 

 appear to possess very similar properties. — 

 They differ, however, very materially in their 

 agricultural effects. Their operation can only 

 be understood from a knowledge of the con- 

 stituents of the food of plants. Lime may, 

 probably, be considered as one, as it and car- 

 bon appears to form the principal part of all 

 vegetables. Magnesia has very rarely, if 

 ever, been discovered in vegetables — conse- 

 quently cannot be considered as an essential 

 of their food, or calculated to promote vege- 

 tation. Hence its application may prove per- 

 nicious to a certain extent by combining with 

 as much, or more, carbonic acid than the same 

 quantity of lime would require to prepare it 

 to be taken up by the absorbents, and thrown 

 into the general circulation to promote their 

 growth. From what has been said, it ap- 

 pears that the u.se of magnesia in agriculture 

 is unpleasant, inasmuch as the purchase-mo- 

 ney paid for a worse than useless substance 

 is entirely lost. Its effects are pernicious by 

 ab.^orbinsr and retaining carbonic acid, there- 

 by denrivins: vegetation of so much carbon, 

 which would otherwise have been furnished 

 to promote vegetation. When magnesium 

 becomes saturated with carbonic acid, it is 

 necessarily rendered inert, and ceases to pro- 

 duce any further active effect on vegetation. 

 Joseph Clovd. 



* The preceding essays, or numbers, may be found 

 on the followinir named pages of the Cabinet. No. I. 

 General Remarks, page 1G9. No. IF. Earths and Soils, 

 page 20-2. No. Ilf. Lime, page ^Xi. Hereafter the ar- 

 ticles from Mr. Cloud will appear under the general 

 head of Essays on Agriculture. 



