oil. XXI. NO. 45. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



35.5 



IIAUSTrON OF SOIL BY INDIAN CORN. 



[he Editor of ihe New England Farmer: 

 Jcar Sir — Your last paper contains some re- 

 ks on the e.\liaiistion ol" soil by Indian corn. 

 J actual amount of earths, &c. withdrawn by 

 lbs. of green stalks, is about 78 lbs. From 

 results of Sprengel, (to whom I am chiefly in- 

 ted for the earthy ingredients of the analyses I 

 ly sent you,) I deduce the following proportion 

 ach element in a ton of stalks : 



"corn takes so great an amount of lime, what 



)mes of the theory that wheat fails in New Eng- 

 , because its soil wants that element ? 

 he April No. of the London Annals of Chemis- 

 which I have just received, contains the fol- 

 ng e.xtract from a letter of Hermann, published 

 rdmann's Journal of Pharmacy. Perhaps you 

 like it for your paper. Hermann is an acute 

 list at Moscow. 



Your ob't serv't, 



SAM'L L. DANA. 



iwell, Ms., Jlpril 29, '43. 



I! have just made a discovery, (says Hermann,) 

 h will certainly prove to be of great impor- 



|! in many respects, viz: that the chief part of 



ixtractive components of the juice of plants, 

 herefore those of officinal extracts of plants, 

 ise, consists of the principles of mould ; and 

 I inguished in these juices the following in 

 I :ular : 

 Jlumicacids — [termed in this country, geic 



^ncids;] 

 ^lould deposit acid ; 

 IVpocrenic acid ; 

 'renic acids ; and 

 extractive humus. 



'his discovery will, I hope, decide the quea- 

 at present so much agitated, on the nourish- 

 of plants — as it is highly improbable that 

 mouldy substances contained in the juices of 

 , should not have been absorbed from the 

 II earth (humus,) but formed from carbonic 

 immonia, and water." 

 rmann promises soon, a more detailed account. 



^These results of analyses, which we are 

 ;hankful to Dr. Dana for furnishing, indicate 

 orn is a great exhauster. For if we suppose 

 he Btalks will weigh 5 lbs. per hill, and that 

 tre has four thousand hills^thon the weight 

 Iks upon the acre will be 10 tons, and we 

 multiply the numbers which Dr Dana has 

 hed, by 10, in order to get at the exhaustion 

 by the stalks on an acre. 

 2 result then will show nearly 38 lbs. of pot- 

 30 lbs. of lime, 120 lbs. of alumina, and 541 

 if silex as the quantity required, for the 

 li upon an acre. 



) know of no particular reason for distrusting 

 rrectness of the above analyses, and yet we 



should like much to liavu our own chemists work 

 upon our American corn, in all its different varie- 

 ties. Would there be as much lime in stalks 

 grown upon Massacliu.'iotts soil? Tlio gri-at quan- 

 tity of silex docs not surprise? us, fiir the coating 

 of the stalk by its hardness, shows that it must 

 contain this in large quantities — and yet corn 

 grows well on peat lands, whore silex is apparent- 

 ly almost wanting. How to explain the matter we 

 know not.— Ed. N. E. F. 



For the N. E. Farmor. 



COLLECTING MATERIALS FOR MANURE. 



Mr Editor — In a communication the last sea- 

 son, it was my purpose to give farmers some famil- 

 iar lessons on the subject of collecting materials 

 to enrich fields. Such lessons may be useful to 

 some men, who aro strangely afraid of all instruc- 

 tion reduced to any thing like scientific form. We 

 can appeal to indications in nature and deduce 

 practical principles against which no prejudice 

 will be likely to arise, and which may prove salu- 

 tary guides even under all the light science could 

 shed on the subjects. 



Collections in temporary ponds and peat swamps 

 are manifestly composed of the best portions of the 

 soil of surrounding highlands and vegetable mat- 

 ters in a partially decayed state. No man will 

 doubt Ihe utility of restoring to the high lands 

 what the wind ond water have taken froui them. 

 On the same principle, farmers at this season 

 should search for lodgements by the roadside and 

 in hollows. The rains and winds of winter carry 

 vast quantities of vegetable matters and rich mould 

 into these situations, which if not gathered, soon 

 will be dispersed, and in great measure lost. 



The borders of fields on the sides of stone walls 

 and fences, should as often as once in four or five 

 years be plowed, and the surface carted on to por- 

 tions of the farm where the soil is of somewhat dif- 

 ferent texture. The forest should be made tribu- 

 tary to the barnyard and compost heap, not only 

 in the collection of fallen leaves, but often in the 

 removal of a portion of the surface soil, and this 

 can bo usefully applied to several purposes, without 

 entering the compost heap at all. There is proba- 

 bly no belter material to place under and around 

 young fruit trees: it will also prove a valuable 

 dressing for fields where it is intended a year or, 

 two hence to sow wheat. j 



During the season of vegetation, much can be' 

 accomplished in gathering small bushes, wild 

 grasses and weeds : those mixed with almost any 

 loam, will form a rich compost heap. 



Nearly every farmer can avail himself of the 

 above suggested fesources for increasing his ma- 

 nure heaps and enriching his farm. Can there be 

 any just foundation for the language of complaint 

 we so often hear ? Farmers tells us they would 

 do a great deal more, and cause their farms to pre- 

 sent new and more attractive aspects, if it were in 

 their power to make manure. Is there one among 

 the complainers who avails himself of more than 

 half the resources presented on his own farm ? It 

 \< not the want of means that occasions the diminu- 

 tive appearance of coinpost heaps, — it is want of 

 labor. We attempt the management of large 

 farms without much expense. In saving the wages 

 of laborers, we rob the soil, and in the end its na- 

 kedness is manifested to our shame, disgrace, and 

 often abject poverty. The maxim that " what is 

 worth doing at all, is worth doing well," should 



become a rule with all managers of land. They 

 should always keep their ficidd within the limits of 

 the expense Ihcy are willing to incur in the culti- 

 vation of them. A (cv: well managed nrrcs will 

 yield nmre clear profit than a great farm half fenced 

 and half tilled. If any doubt the corn'ctness of 

 this assertion, we earnestly invite them to make 

 one fair experiment in high cultivation. 



.^prUiOlh, 1843. M. A. 



Learning from "Dud." — It is too often the case 

 in this country, that young men instead of relying 

 on their oivn powers of mind to investigate the dif- 

 ferent subjects connected with agricultural pur- 

 suits, rely solely on the knowledge which their 

 I';ither8 can impart, and never dream of turning 

 aside from the track which others have pursued be- 

 fore them. 



We recollect on one occasion meeting with a 

 farmer whom we invited to subscribe to our jour- 

 nal, and inquiring the price and the objects of the 

 paper, he asked his son, a young man of perhaps 

 sixteen or eighteen years, if he would like to have 

 an agricultural paper; to which he replied, that he 

 wanted a paper that had funny stories in it. On 

 our remarking that a knowledge of his pursuit was 

 of far greater consequence to him than a perusal 

 of funny stories, he very promptly answered, " I 

 can learn enough about farming from Dad." We 

 fear that this opinion is far too prevalent among 

 the sons of farmers in this country, and that they 

 rely more on " Dad" than on their own exertions. 

 We ask farmers to think of these things, and see 

 whether their duty does not require that they place 

 within the reach of the youth under their charge, 

 information which shall enable them not only to 

 make a proper choice of business, but which will 

 qualify them for the proper discharge of the busi- 

 ness of their choice. — Central JVtw York Faimer. 



Cockroaches The following method of destroy- 

 ing these detestable intruders, is at once simple 

 and effective : — Procure from the apothecary a 

 small quantity of that odoriferous vegetable called 

 poke root. Boil it in water, until the juices are 

 extracted, and mingle the liquor with good molas- 

 ses : spread the mixture in large platters or soup- 

 plates ; place these wherever the cockroaches visit, 

 and the enemy will be found slain by fifties and 

 hundreds in the following morning. A gentleman 

 to whom wo arc indebted for this information, 

 states that he slaughtered 575 cockroaches in one 

 night, by tho abovefprocess, and that the root which 

 had been boiled being thrown into a closet, thickly 

 infested by the enemy, the place was quitted en- 

 tirely in a few days, great numbers being left dead 

 upon the field. — Bost. Gaz. 



Industry Every young man should remember 



that tho world always has and always will honor 

 industry — at least that part of the world whose re- 

 spect is worth gaining. The useless idler, or he 

 who seeks exercise in amusements that produce no 

 useful end, may look with scorn upon the smutty 

 laborer engaged in his toil : but his scorn is praise ; 

 his contempt is an honor. Honest industry will se- 

 cure the respect of the wise and good among men, 

 and give the priceless bliss of an easy conscience, 

 peace of mind and health of body. Toil on then, 

 young men. Make your business an amusement : 

 look upon labor as a blessing, not as a curse, and 

 you will have no cause to envy the pampered sons 

 of wealth. — Selected. 



