

AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NOKTH MARKET STREET, (.(VaRicuLTunAL Wahehohse.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



V01..XM.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, 1842. 



tNO. IS 



N. E. FARMER, 



NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OP CHARCOAL. 



Though l!io importance of mixing charcoal with 

 he food of animals, particularly that of swine, has 

 leen generally acknowledged, and it.s benefits ex- 

 .ensively tested, still it has been supposed that it 

 inly acted aa a corrective to the acid tendency of 

 nod, and facilitated fattening by improving the 

 lealth of the animal. Some experiments are, how- 

 ever, on record, which would seem to show that 

 ;harcoal acts a more important part in the matter 

 han has been usually assigned to it. 



In 1793, a family being driven from New York 

 ly the fever, were absent six or eight weeks be- 

 bre it was deemed prudent to return. A number 

 if fowls confined in a loft in the workshop of the 

 lOuse, were forgotten at the time of leaving, and as 

 t was known that there was nothing provided for 

 heir siibsi.^tence, it was expected on the return 

 hat they wjuld be found starved to death. To 

 he astimishinent of all, the fowls were found alive 

 nd (at, Ihou^'h there was nothing upon which they 

 •ould have fed, except a quantity of charcoal and 

 havings, water being supplied from the grind- 

 tone trough. 



Those facts coming to the knowledge of a gen- 

 leman in New York, aa we learn from the Record- 

 r, he instituted the following experiment. He 

 laced a turkey in a box or enclosure, 4 feet long, 

 I feet wide, and 3 feet high, excluded light as 

 much as could be done, and allowed a freecireula- 

 ion of air, and fed the turkey with soft brick, brok- 

 en fine, pounded charcoal, and six grains of corn 

 •er day. The box was kept locked. At the end 

 fa month, the turkey was killed in the presence 

 f several gentlemen, was large and heavy, and on 

 eing opened was found filled with fat. Nothing, 

 n dissection, was found in the gizzard and entrails 

 ut charcoal and brick. Last winter the experi- 

 aent was repeated, and with the same success. 

 Scvi -'l years since, in fitting out nne of the 

 iverp' . 'd'TS at New York, a pig on h'^-^n' •.■■as 

 lissing, and was supposed to have been lost. The 

 argo was taken on board, slowed, and the vessel 

 ailed. It nas now discovered that the pig was 

 live in the coal hole, but as he could not be got 

 t readily, it was concluded to leave him to his 

 ate. He remained in this retreat until the pas- 

 age was made, when his pigship was found to b? 

 lot only alive and well, but materially improved in 

 ondition, though there was nothing, coal excepted, 

 e could have swallowed. 



When it is remembered that wood, sugar, and 

 everal other substances, some of which are most 

 lutritive, are compounded of nearly the same origi- 

 lal elements, it would seem possible, by anijiial 

 ;hemistry, to convert them to saving life ; though 

 dl experiments with which wood or charcoal failed. 

 The German chemists have converted wood into 

 ■ery palatable bread, by roasting and pulverizing ; 

 lut calcination, it has been supposed, would de- 

 troy whatever powers of nutrition wood ndght 

 )riginnlly contain. The chemical action of vege- 



tables seems unable to produce the least effect on 

 coal, and not the least particle of it has ever been 

 found in the structure of vegetables, though mixed 

 with the earth and water in which plants were 

 growing, in the form of the most impalpable pow- 

 der. Whether animal chemistry is able to do 

 what vegetable organization cannot, remains to be 

 seen; though if there is no mistake in the state- 

 ments alluded to, it would seem probable that this 

 intractable substance is, in some way, made sub- 

 servient to the nutrition of animals. — Genesee Far. 



From the Conn. Farmer's Gazette. 



EXPERIMENT WITH SALTPETRE. 

 Mr Editor — Sir — I saw in your paper an ac- 

 count of Mr Allen's experiment with saltpetre and as 

 he was unsuccessful and lost his labor for his pains, 

 I thought I would give you mine, that people may 

 be induced to make further trial. I have not gone 

 so far in the trial of it as he has, but the result is 

 a little different. My experiment was in planting 

 two acres of corn, with the ground prepared in the 

 usual way. In the first place I took a portion of 

 saltpetre, and made a solution with hot water, and 

 soaked about four quarts of corn from eight o'clock 

 in the evening till six in the morning ; then I took 

 it out and mixed plaster with it, and planted part of 

 it the next day, which came up very well. The 

 remainder I planted the succeeding day, on a colder 

 piece of land than the other, and with it I planted 

 six rows of dry corn. Not more than one half the 

 soaked corn came up, but the dry came up well ; 

 but there was a great difference in the color. That 

 which I planted dry was yellow and sickly, but the 

 other was dark and thrifty. The saltpetre used to 

 soak the corn in, was one pound, which is too 

 much for so small a quantity of corn. If the solu- 

 tion is too strong, it will kill the chit, therefore 

 it will nut come up, and the farmer will lose his 

 labor and seed ; but I think it will be a benefit to 

 use it, if we do not soak it too long in strong pickle, 

 and plant it the day it is soaked ; for it not only 

 helps the growth, but keeps the worms and crows 

 from destroying it. When I hoed the first time, I 

 found the pumpkins, which were not soaked in salt- 

 petre, eat by the worms, while the corn remained 

 untouched ; therefore I think it may be used by the 

 farmers, if they are cautious. 



Yours, G. G. Siiipman. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SALT AS A MA- 

 NURE FOR WHEAT. 



In Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry, already 

 mentioned, are contained some highly important 

 experiments on wheat fields, by William Flenir.g. 

 Mr F. gives the result of eight different kinds of 

 manure on the eighth of a Scotch acre of wheat. 

 The two most important are : Nitrate of Soda, 80 

 lbs., with Rape Dust, .'5 cwt. to the acre, which 

 produced 240 lbs. of wheat, weighing 62 1-4 lbs. 

 per bushel, on one-eighth of an acre. 



Common salt, KJO lbs. to the acre, produced 249 

 lbs. of wheat, weighing 02 lbs. to the bushel, on the 



same quantity of ground. While the same mea- 

 sure of land, without any manure, produced only 

 90 lbs. of wheat, weighing CI lbs. to the b«ishel. 

 The salt is therefore the most economical and pro- 

 ductive manure used by Mr F. in his course of ex- 

 periments. 



Five bushels of Liverpool salt to the acre is said 

 to produce great effect on any crops, either of 

 grass, grain or routs. More than six have been 

 found to be injurious in some instances. The use 

 of salt, as a manure, was early known by the Ro- 

 mans, and other nations of antiquity, but has been 

 little understood, or practiced, in modern times. It 

 is somewhat extraordinary, that this important item 

 in the cultivation of the earth should have gone 

 into disuse, on the sea-coast especially, where the 

 inexhaustible fountains of the great deep are 

 continually dashing their briny billows at the feet 

 of the cultivator. Hut modern experience has de- 

 monstrated its usefulness, wherever it has been 

 tried. 



It is also destructive to insects, the greatest ene- 

 mies of the vegetable kingdom ; and if it had no 

 power as a manure, this nione makes it more valua- 

 ble to the world, than all the preventives which the 

 ingenuity of man has been able to discover against 

 the innumerable hosts of these depredators, with 

 which the earth is infested. 



A thin sprinkling of green sea-weed, salt hay, 

 sedge, or any other marme vegetable, on pasture, 

 old meadows, or plowed land, contains sufficient 

 salt, to produce most surprising effects, if spread 

 so sparse, as to let the grass grow freely through 

 it, and to admit the rays of the sun to the earth. 

 Like every other powerful, concentrated manure, 

 a Hide too viuch destroys vegetation for a time — 

 Conn. Farmer's Gaz. 



BARLEY AFTER POTATOES. 

 We find the opinion is prevalent to some extent, 

 that barley will not succeed well after potatoes ; 

 and a late number of the Maine Farmer, gives 

 some instances of a field sown with barley after 

 potatoes and corn, in which the barley was good 

 after the corn, but a failure after the potatoes. Our 

 experience has been different from this ; having 

 raised as good barley after potatoes, as after any 

 other crop. Last year, wishing to seed down a 

 field on which potatoes and corn had been cultiva- 

 ted the year preceding, it was sown to barley, with 

 herds grass and clover. It was one of the finest 

 crops of barley we have ever raised, and that on 

 the potato ground was at least equal to that from 

 the corn land. We should have no more fears of 

 a failure of barley after potatoes, than of spring or 

 oats ; but should consider our prospect of a good 

 crop of either, a faint one, unless the root crop had 

 been well manured and cultivated. Harley is a 

 very good crop to sow grass seeds with, but wheth- 

 er this or other spring grains are used, if we 

 would Insure success, the roller should be used. — 

 Albany Cult. 



Keep the hogs supplied with muck, turf, loam, &c. 



