750 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



way on the one hundred acres, but the second, and 

 forever afierwards, he will make more, and this 

 with less labor. As to a scarcity of manure, this 

 is imaginary. Go to the woods, swamps and 

 marshes — they are inexhaustible. Il'five hundred 

 bushels of corn can be made on ten acres of" well 

 manured and cultivated land, it is clear that it will 

 be more profiiable than to make the same quantity 

 on fifty acres, and that it can be done, is not a mat- 

 ter ot" doubt. The evil then, is not the inability to 

 manure, nor the scarcity of marmre, but the at- 

 tempt To cultivate too much land, which is a vio- 

 lation ofa princi|Ole in aii'i'iculture, on the strict ob- 

 servance of which, the prosperity of the farmer en- 

 tirely depends. 



To preserve rj-e, and secure it from insects, rats 

 and other disasters, nothiiii]; more is necessary than 

 to let it remain in i he chaff after thrashino;. [n this 

 slate it has been kept lor years, perfectly sound. 



Instrument for measuring land. 



Let a pair of wooden compasses be made, and 

 braced so as to represent the letter A — when 

 standing upright, to be about breast high, and the 

 feet to stride exactly six (eet. With such an in- 

 strument, made so light as to be twirled round with 

 ease, ii'om tijot to f()at, and the strides counted as 

 the measurer walks along, any square piece of 

 ground may be measured, by thus striding off the 

 two sides with the compasses, and multiplying the 

 one side by the other, [in yards,] and then dividing 

 by 4S40, the number of square yards in an acre. 



Oats. 



If they are ever so stout, mow (not reap) them 

 when beginning to turn yellow, dry them well, and 

 thrash them as much as you please, and the cattle 

 will prefer the straw to the best meadow hay; this 

 prevents their shattering in harvesting besides, and 

 the grain is not only heavier, but much brighter. 

 If they are permitted to stand until quite ripe, the 

 straw will be almost worthless. A suflicient quan- 

 tity for seed should be suffered to come to full ma- 

 turity before they are harvested. 



In reading agricultural works I ain in the habit 

 of noting down whatever I may consider valuable, 

 in a book, kept fiir that purpose. Having thrown 

 t'lgether some of those items, I herewith transmit 

 them. 



INCOGNITO. 



ERROR OF THE PREVAI.EKT OPINION THAT 

 THE nUEEnON (mAGNESIAn) LIMESTONE 

 IS INJUniOUS TO LAND, EXCEPT IN SMALL 

 QUANTITIES. 



[The lime spoken of below, lias been referred to 

 by almost every writer on lime, or on agriculture in 

 general, from the time that Tennant first announced 

 the supposed cause of its supposed injurious effects, 

 (in 1800) to the present day. The neigliboring far- 

 mers believed and maintained that more than twenty- 

 five or thirty bushels to the acre of the Breedon lime 

 was hurtful to land, while other lime was used without 



damage, even to the amount of four hundred bushels. 

 Mr. Tennant analyzed several of the limestones which 

 had tfiis bad character, and found them to contain a 

 large proportion of magnesia — and thence he jumped 

 to the conclusion that magnesia was injurious to land. 

 This, as a striking illustration of the value of chemical 

 science to agriculture, has been continually quoted 

 since, as good authority, both for the fact and the rea- 

 soning. Even Davy mentions this discovery of Ten- 

 nant's opinion with much respect, both in his intro- 

 ductory lecture, and in that on the properties of lime 

 as manure. Yet Davy's own facts, as stated in con- 

 nexion, do not sustain this opinion of the injury pro- 

 duced by magnesia in lime. He says — 



"In making some inquiries concerning this subject, 

 I found that there were cases in which this magnesian 

 limestone was used with good effect. Amongst some 

 specimens of limestone which Lord Somerviile put 

 nito my hands, two, marked as peculiarly good, proved 

 to be magnesian limestones. And lime made from the 

 Breedon fimestoue is used in Leicestershire, where it 

 is called hot lime; and I have been informed by far- 

 mers in the neighborhood of the quarry, that thry em- 

 ploy it advantageously in small quantities, seldom more 

 than twenty-five or thirty bushels to the acre. And that 

 they find it may be used with good effect in laro^er quan- 

 tities, upon rich land." — Jlgr. Chem. Lect.rii. 



The writer of the following extract is evidently no 

 chemist, but is a practical farmer, and apparently an 

 intelligent one. His deductions may be (and some 

 certainly are) worthless — but the fact itself, from which 

 he draws them, seems certain, viz : that the Breedon 

 lime may be safely and advantageously used in large 

 quantities — the long established ignorant opinions of 

 the country, and the scientific discovery of Mr. Ten- 

 nant, to the contrary notwithstanding. 



We do not mean, by these remarks, to convey the 

 opinion that it is not improper, and often actually and 

 greatly injurious to land, to apply quick lime in large 

 quantities, whether it contain magnesia or not. But 

 in the statement of Mr. Donaldson, there is presented 

 a new fact of some importance — and we desire our 

 readers to use it to strengthen the force of this general 

 truth — that before we give credit to scientific expla- 

 nations of, and deductions from supposed facts, we 

 ought to be sure of the truth of the facts themselves.] 



Extract from the Britisli Farmers' Magazine, for Jarmary, liS37. 



In speaking of the application of lime, in vol. i., 

 he [the author of British Husbandry] says that the 

 farmers in Leicestershire have found, that if they 

 apply more than twenty-five or thirty bushels per 

 acre of lime ft-om the blue magnesian stone of 

 Breedon rock in that county, the bad effects are 

 visible on tlie alier crops for several years. Far- 

 mers are suflicienlly opinionated and prejudiced 

 without adding to it; and it is surprising (he so- 

 ciety under whose patronage the volume is pub- 

 lished, should lend their authority to propagate 

 such a palpable lidsehood. The writer of this ar- 

 ticle farmed f)r several years, in the immediate 

 neighborhood of Breedon, on a soil of loamy clay, 

 that had been severely scourged by a Ibrmer ten- 

 ant. The first year, two fields, of "ten acres each, 

 were fiillowed for green crops, and lime fi'om Bree- 

 don was brought forward in JVlaj', at the rate of two 



