84 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



The i^pplioation of hard wood ashes, in liberal 

 quantities, to such land as I have spoken of, may 

 cause them to produce a more ready and rapid 

 growth of whatever is to be raised, by decompos- 

 ing the small amount of vegetable matter in the soil; 

 and yet, wliile it ajipears to benefit it very much, 

 it may be hurrying it to a hopeless sterility. 



The exhaustion is chiefly in the organic sub- 

 stances required by the growing plant. (There 

 are lands which form an exception, it is readily 

 admitted.) To supply what is needed, at the 

 cheapest rate, and by the readiest moans, is, I 

 think, the greatest of all questions now before the 

 farmers of New England. It will cause a faithful 

 and careful estimate to be put vipon deep plowing, 

 throughly working the soil, the use of green crops, 

 meadow muck, guano, urine, &c. a. g. c. 



Mason, N. H. 



Remarks. — (a.) We beg leave to call especial at- 

 tention to this part of our correspondent's proposi- 

 tion. He does not believe that inorganic manures 

 are useless, but that they are not absolutely essen- 

 tial on most of our farms in greater quantity. If 

 the idea should become general that a free applica- 

 tion of salt-petre, lime, plaster, superphosphates, 

 guano, &c., were indispensable, it would do more to 

 discourage the farmer and check agricultural pro- 

 gress, than any other doctrine witliin our knowl- 

 edge. No. The farmer, in most cases, has the 

 elements of fertility under his own control, — first 

 in the excretions of his stock carefully preserved, 

 and secondly, in restoring to his fields the organic 

 matter which for untold ages has been washed from 

 them into the valleys at their Ijase. 



(fi.) In the cultivation of most crops the soil is 

 not made sufficiently fine before planting or sow- 

 ing, and the hoed crops are not stirred often enough 

 afterwards. The reason of this is, that we do not 

 yet clearly see where a large portion of the fertil- 

 izers come from that perfect our crops. When 

 we become convinced that they are supplied by 

 the atmosphere that surrounds them and ourselves, 

 then we shall begin to inquire, how they can be 

 arrested, and converted into our grain, grass, and 

 fruit crops. We cannot, here, go into details on 

 this point, but wo beg him who doubts to look at 

 the matter candidly for a moment. 



In riding a single hour on an engine with the 

 engineer, he sees, with his own eyes, that a cord 

 of pitch pine wood is used, together, as he is told 

 with several hundred gallons of water. He looks 

 into the pan under his feet and finds but a mere 

 handfull of ashes there, and wonders what could 

 have become of eight feet of wood and some hu7i- 

 dreds gallons of water in less than sixty minutes I 

 He has seen dense columns of smoke issuing from 

 the murky throat of the machine, and streams of 

 hissing vapor from the steam-whistle — the first 

 of which would have suffocated him immediately, 

 and the latter proved fatal equall}' as quick ; and 

 yet, in this wonderful alom))ic, the Atmosphere, 

 these substances are so suddenly resolved into their 



original elements and compounds, that his friend, 

 standing on a car a little behind him, breathes them 

 with perfect impunity. 



The atmosphere consists of a mixture of oxygen 

 and nitrogen gases, a little car Iconic acid and watery 

 vapor ; but it contains besides many other substan- 

 ces which exercise an important influence upon 

 vegetable life. Volatile matter constantly arises 

 from decaying animal and vegetable substances, 

 from the meadows, manufactories, sewers, and 

 every substance that is perishing. The sea con- 

 stantly sends up a portion of its common salt, 

 and where chemical operations are carried on, vast 

 quantities of gases are constantly carried into the 

 air. What becomes of them ? If they are not re- 

 turned to the plants, where do they go'? Why does 

 not the earth diminish in bulk where so much is ta- 

 ken away, if nothing is returned ? But if they re- 

 turned, in what condition inust the soil be, in order 

 the more freely to receive them? We answer, in a 

 light, fine and porous state, and this brings us 

 back to the point from whence we started, where 

 we will at present leave the subject for the reflec- 

 tion of the reader himself. 



STEAM FAKMIMG. 

 It is pleasant to see that this wonder-working 

 power can bring landlords and mill-owners into so- 

 cial intercourse, honorable to both sides ; it is not 

 less remarkable that it bids fair, ere long, to merge 

 the two great classes in the one class of manufac- 

 ture. In one aspect itis exalting the present man- 

 ufacturers to a level with the lords of the soil — in 

 tlie other it is converting the landlords themselves 

 into master manufiicturers, and their farms into 

 manufactories. The day after Mr. Salt's princely 

 fete, Mr. Mechiwas the invited guest of the Ilerte 

 Agricultural Association. An earl, and a baron, 

 and so forth, were assembled, in expectation of 

 the speech of the day from a London tradesman ; 

 one who had made an irruption from tlie counter 

 (with wealth amassed there) , into the broad acres 

 of the territorial aristocracy. Nor did the guest 

 disappoint the nobility and squires who liad invi- 

 ted him evidently to stimulate their own tenants. 

 He dealt out wholesome suggestions to landlords 

 with large estates, complaining of want of capital 

 to improve ; honestly advising them to sell part of 

 their land, and improve the rest with the money. 

 He rebuked tenants, who, clinging to the old ways, 

 grudged the landlord a fair interest for the money 

 he had laid out ; but the burden of his speech was 

 steam. 



The amount of steam power in any agricultural 

 district he took as the test of its condition. Peo- 

 ple thought him crazy when he first put up a steam 

 engine ; but now, two makers in the village had 

 more than they could do to supply the neighbor- 

 hood fast enough. Lincolnshire and Norfolk far- 

 mers have, some of them, one, two, and even three 

 engines on a farm ! Herts had l)ut made a be- 

 ginning ; he was sure they would soon get deeper 

 into it. But the grand agricultural achievement 

 of steam is yet to come. Its advent is nigh. Mr. 

 Mechi is now building the engine, at a cost of two 

 hundred pounds, which is to plow tlie land and 



