Vt>I,. XXI. NO. 41. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



32A 



For the N. E. Fanner. 



POUDRETTE THE OTHER SIDE. 



Mr Editor — " Agricala" to Farmers, can be no 

 ler than one that "has a particular interest" in 



Lodi Manufactiirinif Company, wliose oflice (as 



is particular to mention,) is at " -13 Liberty 



et, New York. 

 As you say you have had no practical acquain- 

 ce with the Lodi Co.'s poudrelle, and I /i«i'e, 



ill j;ive you the result of my experiments with 



article. 

 I drilled for ruta baga, and applied to each row 



rnately in the field, poudrctte, leached ashes 

 i ground bones. The rows with poudrette were 

 'erior to either the bone or ashed rows. 

 For corn, I used poudrctte in the hill, manure in 



hill, and ashes and plaster in the hill, on alter- 

 ,e lands in the same field. The corn where I 

 3d poudrette, was not half as much as either the 

 led and plastered, or manured portions. 

 For potatoes, I used it in the hill as for corn, and 



crop of potatoes was nearly as good from the 

 iidretle land, as from that ashed and plastered. 

 I used five or six barrels, and was particular to 

 low the directions, and not use tlie article with 

 after other manures. 



I consider the " getting up" of the I<odi company, 

 d their whole proceeding, as at least an attempt 

 impose upon community. They havea^eaibed 

 their establishment. Peat is a good absorbent 

 and this with coal-ashes and a little night-soil, 

 ill make a barrel of " poudrette" very quick, as 

 ell as cheap. 



It is much more satisfactory to the readers of 

 e various agricultural journals to see articles or 

 limals U(/i'cr(iie(i (if for sale,) than to see them 

 iffed in the form of a communication, by the one 

 ho has them for sale, or by a friend of his, and 

 len saying that a _/"tiP can be obtained of Mr such 

 a one, at a price generally about four times their 

 alue. We have had quite enough of this, even 

 1 regard to the inimitable Berkshires. 

 Yours, respectfully, 



STEADY HABITS. 



Hartford Co., Ct., April Is/, 1843. 



fl^/^'We should much have liked the name of the 

 writer of this article. The facts here staled are 

 nportant, if true. As the communication is anon- 

 mous, we have no opinion in regard to its correct- 

 less. Without any positive knowledge upon the 

 ubject, we have seen and heard statements that 

 ead us to suppose that the Lodi Co. manufacture 

 ks good poudrette as any in this country. If the 

 iction of theirs is no beter than the preceding ar- 

 icle indicates, then farmers will find but little in- 

 Jucement to pay the prices for it that are now 

 isked. 



We have no intention, by these remarks, to ad- 

 vise them either way. Poudrette may be made a 

 good, a valuable manure ; but whether the art is 

 yet understood in this country, is perhaps not yet 

 established. Some accounts of the effects of pou- 

 drette are favorable, and others unfavorable. More 

 experiments are needed before we are ready either 

 to discard or to recommend it unqualifiedly. — Ed. 

 N. E. F. 



Youth, especially female youth, gives a poetic 

 tinge — a softened coloring to its sorrows ; thus 

 the sea, when the morning sun shines upon it, is 

 covered, even in the storm, with rainbows. — Ritcher. 



ALKALIES. 



Connected wiili agricultural philosophy, tlio al- 

 kalies lire subjects of the deepest interest. 



The salts of potash and sodn, and of the alka- 

 line earths or mineral.i, lime, aluniine, and even 

 magnesia, can be obtained, by burning and certain 

 chemical processes, from parts of the structure of 

 all plants. This shows the great importance of al- 

 kalies and alkaline substances to the growtli and 

 welfare of every product of the soil. It follows 

 also, that with every crop removed, a portion of 

 the potash, &c. must be removed from the land. 

 To componsalo for such losses, nslies, farm-yard 

 manure, &c., supply alkalies to the soil, along with 

 other fertilizing substances. 



Plants growing on n soil containing a due mi.t- 

 tnre of earthy ingredients, always select a propor- 

 tion of each, according to their several capacities 

 or wants. It is a fact of the highest practical val- 

 ue to the agriculturist to know, that where a soil 

 which originally contained all the elements essen- 

 tial to the production of a crop, becomes exhaust- 

 ed of one alkaline or earthy element, another may 

 be substituted. Where, for example, there is a 

 deficiency in a soil of the alkaline earth — lime, 

 the addition of potash, soda or magnesia, all of 

 which exist in the ashes of wood and other vegeta- 

 ble substances, may be resorted to for the purpose 

 of making it up. 



The perfect developement of a plant is, accord- 

 ing to Liobig, dependent on the presrnce of due 

 proportions cf the alkalies or alkaline earths, since 

 when these substances are totally wanting, its 

 growth will be arrested, and when they are only 

 deficient it must be impeded. " Let us compare," 

 says this eminent chemist, " two kinds of trees, 

 the wood of which contains unequal quantities of 

 alkaline bases, and we shall find that one of these 

 grows luxuriantly in several soils, upon which the 

 others are scarcely able to vegetate. For exam- 

 ple, 10,000 parts of oak wood yield 250 parts of 

 ashes, the same quantity of fir-wood only 83, of 

 linden-wood 500, of rye 440, and of the herb of the 

 potato plant 1500 parts. 



" Firs and pines find a sufficient quantity of alka- 

 lies in granitic and barren sandy soils, in which 

 oaks will not grow ; and wheat thrives in soils fa- 

 vorable for the linden tree, because the bases, 

 which are necessary to bring it to complete matu- 

 rity, exist there in sufficient quantity. The accu- 

 racy of these conclusions, so highly important to 

 agriculture, and to the cultivation of forests, can 

 be proved by the most evident facts. 



" All kinds of grasses contain in the outer parts 

 of their leaves and stalk, a large quantity of sili- 

 cic acid and potash, in the form of acid silicate 

 of potash. The proportion of this salt does not 

 vary perceptibly in the soil of corn-fields, because 

 it is again conveyed to them as manure in the form 

 of putrefying straw. But this is not the case in a 

 meadow, and hence we never find a luxuriant crop 

 of grass on sandy and calcareous soils which con- 

 tain little potash, evidently because one of the con- 

 stituents indispensable to the growth of the plants 

 is wanting. 



" But when we increase the crop of grass in a 

 meadow by means of gypsum, we remove a greater 

 quantity of potash with the hay that can, under the 

 same circumstances, be restored. Hence it hap- 

 pens, that after the lapse of several years, the crops 

 of grass on the meadows manured with gypsum di- 

 minish, owing to the deficiency of potash. But if 



the meadow ho strewed from time to time with 

 Hood ashes, even llie lixiviated ashes, which have 

 been used by sonplidilLrs, then the grass thrives 

 as luxuriantly as before. Tlie ashes aro only a 

 means of restoring the potash. 



"The woodcutters in the vicinity of Heidelberg, 

 have the privilege of cultivating the soil for their 

 own use, al'icr felling the trees, used for making 

 tan. Before sowing the land thus obtained, the 

 branches, roots, and leaves are always burned, and 

 the ashes used as a manure, which is found to he 

 quite indispensable for the growth of the grain. 

 The soil itself, upon which the oats grow in this 

 district, consists of sandstone ; and although the 

 trees find in it a quantity of alkaline earths suffi- 

 cient for their own sustenance, yet in its ordinary 

 condition it is incapable of producing grain. 



" The experience of a proprietor of land in the 

 vicinity of Goltingen, offers a most remarkable ex- 

 ample of the incapability of a soil to produce wheat 

 or grasses in general, when it fails in any one of 

 the materials necessary to their growth. In order 

 to obtain potash, ho planted his whole land with 

 wormwood, the ashes of which are well known to 

 contain a large proportion of the carbonate of that 

 alkali. The consequence was, that he rendered 

 his land quite incapable of bearing grain for many 

 years, in consequence of having entirely deprived 

 the soil of its potash." — Johrtson's Farmer's Ency- 

 clopedia. 



Blackwood's Opinion of Moustaches. — There is 

 an affectation among the vulgar clever, of wearing 

 the mustache, which they clip and cut a la Van- 

 dyke ; this is uselul, as affording a ready means of 

 distinguishing between a man of talent and an ass 

 — the former, trusting to his head, goes clean shav- 

 ed, and looks like an Englishman : the latter, 

 whose strength lies altogether in his hair, exhausts 

 the power of Macassar in endeavoring to make 

 himself as like an ourang-outang as possible. 



Blackwood's Opinion of Smoking. — Another thing 

 must be observed by all who would successfully 

 ape the gentleman : never to smoke a cigar in the 

 street in mid-day. No better sign can you have 

 than this of a fellow reckless of decency and be- 

 havior. A gentleman smokes, if he smokes at all, 

 where he offends not the olfactories of the passers 

 by. Nothing, he is aware, approaches more nearly 

 the most offensive, personal insult, than to compel 

 ladies and gentlemen to inhale, after you, the 

 ejected fragrance of your penny Cuba or your 

 three-penny mild Havana. 



JVew England Winters. — In the last number of 

 the Gazette, we had an extract from one of Cur- 

 wen's Letters, in which he stated, on the authority 

 of Dr. Holyoke, " that the winter of 79 "80, ex- 

 ceeded any since 1740. It began before the mid- 

 dle of December, and lasted till June nearly ; no 

 vegetation taking place till the last week in May." 



The Boston Mail states, on the authority of an 

 aged farmer in Worcester county, that in the year 

 l/S.*!, the snow held on to the depth of four feet 

 until the 20thof April. It then suddenly thawed 

 off, and summer came on apace ; and no year be- 

 fore or since, within his memory, has equalled that 

 one in productiveness. — Salem Gaz. 



Why is sympathy like blind-man's buff? Be- 

 cause it 's a fellow-feeling for a fellow-creature. 



