I.. XXI. KO. 40. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



387 



remnrk, however, we finJ (by jjoiiijf to bo sure ] from llio siidden trunsitions of tempornture, orul by 



|eat « ny oil" for il,) one very striking exccplion. incroasinjj the moisliire of dry hot soils. It liiis a 



leached ashes, transported thither fioni every specific cllcct upon all plants of the cabboKO and 



in New England, and all the way from the onion tribe : nothing is more bcncflciiil to an uspara- 



|adas, " are bought up on L. Island at an cx-jgus bed; and it is suggested to those who cunsnlt 



e of from 35 to M cents a bushel, and consid- i ibcir own interests by rearing the most valuable 



a profitable investment at that."— Cu/<. vol. C, i kinds of fruits, to try the experiment cautiously, of 



applying salt or brine in moderate (|uantilies about 

 the roots of their trees. — Funn. Cab. 



Whether, however, it will bo expedient for far- 



lio most profitable use of this manure, when 

 ied directly to crops, is probably on light sili- 



8 soils — ashes being admirably calculated not ! "icrs to introduce this manure in general practice. 



to improve the texture of such soils, but to 

 ish to them just that kind of organic matter in 

 ch they are most liable to be deficient. They 



be applied, however, with certain benefit to 

 soil, and th^t either by spreading them upon 

 surface of grass or grain lands, or by applying 



to the hill or drills in the case of hoed crops. 



practice of dropping a handful in the hill at 

 time of planting, has been practised by many 

 iiers, and with excellent results. But perhaps 

 r highest value will be found in the compost 



since being capable of liberating a large 

 unt of nitrogen, they will greatly promote the 

 ess of fermentation. " One bushel of ashes 

 tains 5 1-3 lbs. of potash, a quantity sufficient 

 ecompose 200 lbs. of peat earth." — Gray's El- 

 ls, p.3lS. 



SALTPETRE. 



ji] Saltpetre, as a manure, has been employed in 

 way of experiment, by several of our enterpri- 

 ' farmers, and in some instances with signal 

 lefit to the crops to which it has been applied ; 

 use however has been abandoned by the most 

 iciuus, as being more expensive than profitable. 

 at a solution of this may be serviceable for 

 king seed corn, has been established by the ex- 

 ience of many of our farmers. That it may also 

 employed eftectually, to banish the canker-worm 

 n our apple orchards, appears from an experi- 

 nt made by O. M. Whipple, Esq. of Lowell — an 

 ount of wh.ch may be found in Colman's Fourth 

 port, p. 33.5. 



Considerable quantities ofthia subject frequent- 

 nccumulate ia combination with earth, under old 

 Idings, particularly barns and horse sheds — 

 en available in this form, the expense of saving 

 J applying it will alwavs be exceeded by the 

 ifit. 



COMMO.'f SALT. 



Common salt, highly recommended as a manure 

 some, has been as much depreciated by others, 

 d hence, when directly applied, is considered as 

 Boubtful fertilizer by almost all. The obscurity 

 regard to its use, however, rests chiefly on the 

 lantity which ought to be employed. The result 

 comparative experiments made in Germany, 

 owed that a very fow pounds per acre were suffi- 

 fnt to produce a largely increased return ofgrass, 

 aile in England il has been beneficially applied 

 thin the wide limits of from 5 to 20 bushels per 

 re, and when used for cleaning the land in au- 

 mn of 30 bushels an acre. — Appendix to Johnson 

 5. 



Employed in moderate quantities in composts, 

 It is highly promotive of fermentation ; applied 

 aerally late in the fall, or early in the spring, is 

 ry destructive to worms and insects; used in the 

 rm of a brine for soaking seed wheat, it prevents 

 le smut ; and it otherwise acts beneficially — by 

 iraulating the absorbent vessels of plants, or im- 

 arting to them direct food : by preventing injury 



even il it suits one's particular soil, is wholly to be 

 decided by a reference to its comparative expen 

 siveness. 



This substance, consisting chiefly of geino, n 

 trogcn, and the salts of lime, potash, soda, ammo- 



ly question being, how far tlio benefits will repay 

 the expense of application. 'I'lio earthy mutcriulg 



arc to plants what the etoninch is to animals the 



recipient of food, and the laboratory of the main 

 process of nutrition. The presence of clay, limo 

 and sand, are all essential in the soil, to enable it 

 lo perform its hecltbful fi.nclions. Where either 

 of those is naturally deficient, it may bo artificially 

 supplied with manifest advantage." — lb. 



COMPOSTS. 



Mr Timothy Benedict, of Pittsfield, in the full 

 of 1841, prepared a compost heap of swamp muck 

 and lime, by mixing one bushel of the latter with 

 a common load of the former, taken fresh from the 

 bed. The last spring, ho applied this to a portion 

 of his cornfield, a shovelful to the hill, treating the 

 remainder of the field in similar way with common 

 nia, is ranked by Dr. Dana "among the most pow. stable manure. When examined by the agricul- 

 erful of manures in the class consisting of geine tural committee in September, it appeared that tho 

 and salts." He observes: "On the principles compost bed had been equally efficacious as the 

 adopted for determining the value of manures, the ! manure. The crop was a luxuriant one, and re- 



salts in J 00 lbs. of socit are equal to one ton of 

 cow-dung. Its nitrogen gives in a value, compared 

 with cow-dung, as 40 to 1." — Manual, p. 101. 

 A most satisfactory experiment with this sub 



ceived the second premium of the Society. 



Ashes and muck, in the proportion of 4 or 5 

 bushels of the former to a common load of the lat- 

 ter, form a very valuable compost. If the muck 



stance has been tried by the writer the present '''^ '" '^ 'i"'' P°'*''^'^''C'l state, the materials maybe 



year. From two to three quarts of soot, which had 

 been collected from the fire-place the last autumn, 

 and lain exposed to the weather through the win- 

 ter, was, some lime in April, carefully incorpora- 

 ted with the soil about the roots of an egg plum 

 tree, which though it had borne fruit repeatedly, 

 had attained but a very email size, and had not, in 

 the last seven years put out so many inches of 

 new wood. The result has been, that, by actual 

 measurement, it has sent forth numerous shoots 

 the past season, from two to three feet long, and 

 one to the length of four feet and a half. 



SAND, GRAVFL AND CLAY. 



Pure sand and gravel, from the obvious tenden- 

 cy they have to separate the particles, and thus in- 

 crease the porosity of a tenacious and compact 

 soil, may readily be supposed to possess no incon- 

 siderable influence in improving such lands as by 

 retaining too much water on their surface, are ren- 

 dered unpleasant and difficult of cultivation, and 

 to a greater or less degree unfruitful. It might 

 also be taken for granted that pure clay would be 

 alike beneficial when employed to give solidity to 

 such light and porous soils as are incapable of re- 

 taining manures, and exposed to sutfer severely 

 from drought. 



"On sandy soils, a load of clay properly incor- 

 porated, will produce a greater, because a more 

 lusting efl^ect, than a load of manure. Of this the 

 fine farm formerly owned by Judge Buel, is an ex- 

 ample. This was originally a hungry, porous sand. 

 To give it tenacity jand proper retentiveness of 

 moisture. Judge Buel covered his fields with clay 

 from the Albany clay-banks, at the rate of from 

 20 to 30 loads per acre ; and his experience con- 

 vinced him that a load of such clay (it contained 

 from 20 to 30 per cent, of lime,) was of more ben- 

 efit than a load of barnyard manure. He distribu- 

 ted his clay as fast as drawn, upon the sward or 

 surface, where it was decomposed by the rains 

 and frosts, when it was pulverized by the roller, 

 and further distributed by the harrow." — Cultiva- 

 tor, vol. 9, p. 45. 



"Even sand upon clay, or clay upon sand, are 

 beneficial applications to improve the soil ; the on- 



thoroughly blended together, and applied at once 

 to the soil. But if the muck be of a strono- tex- 

 ture, and contain much vegetable fibre, some time 

 will be necessary for its decomposition. Leached 

 ashes will answer the purpose equally as well as 

 lime, if a somewhat larger proportion be employed. 

 To this compost too high a valuation can hardly 

 be attached. A series of experiments (amounting 

 to 29 in number,) instituted the past season, by the 

 editor of the New England Farmer, has resulted 

 in showing it to be second in the scale of composts 

 only to one "composted of both the dung and 

 ti'rine of cattle, horses, hogs and human beings, 



mixed with straw and muck" in a barn cellar. See 



the Farmer, vol. 21, p. 157. 



Finally, it may be remarked in relation to com- 

 post heaps, that the more heterogeneous their ma- 

 terials, the more rapid and perfect will be their de- 

 composition ; since the greater the number of affin- 

 ities brought into play, the greater will be the 

 struggle between the particles of the mass to in- 

 dulge their "likings and antipathies" in making 

 election of their future (though it may be very tem- 

 porary) associates. Let not the manufacturer of 

 composts, then, be afraid of laying under contribu- 

 tion too many of the sources of animal, vegetable 

 and mineral substances capable of being made to 

 fatten his plants and to "gladden the soil." 



Occasion will be taken, in concluding, simply to 

 express the sentiment, that would the present race 

 of cultivators of the soil but "come to the light" 

 which science is shedding upon their profession, 

 and in accordance with its teachings, put in full 

 requisition the resources of fertility which every 

 where abound around them, another generation 

 would inherit from their hands a land of garden 

 spots, and "shout tho merry harvest home" on 

 fields where now is only heard tho sad, monoto- 

 nous complaint of "hard, hard times." — Foole's 

 Essay on Manures, in Berkshire Farmer. 



Slow Poison Some opponent of stimulating 



drinks told an old gentleman that coffee was a poi- 

 son. " It must be a very slow one," he replied, 

 for I have been using it seventy years, and never 

 thought it injured me. — Tenn. .IgricuU. 



