340 



Stubborn Facts. — Manure. 



Vol. VII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Stubborn Facts. 



1. The green-sand marl works wonders 

 on the lands of Jersey, even to the very 

 shores of the Delaware, and vast quantities 

 of this valuable article are brought down 

 the Rancocas creek every year, for the sup- 

 ply of places adjacent; but convey it to the 

 opposite side of the river, and within sight 

 of the scene of its most perfect operations; 

 apply it to any crop, and at any season ofi 

 the year, and no good whatever, will result 

 from its most careful use.* The same expe-| 

 riment has also been made on the lands of| 

 Blockley alms-house, on the west side of 

 Schuylkill, without the least sign of benefit, 

 from the most expensive dressing. 



2. Plaster, so beneficial and of such very 

 general use in the United States, has not 

 been known to be of service in England, 

 either as a top, or any other dressing. 



3. Bones, which are in such universal de- 

 mand in England, and which are furnished 

 from this country in the greatest abundance, 

 paying amply for many miles of land car- 

 riage, in addition to the expenses of freight 

 across the Atlantic, have been tried in this 

 country, and found " wanting," even after 

 the most liberal and careful application ; — 

 while in England, six bushels of bone-dust 

 drilled amongst the turnip seed for an acre 

 of sterile upland soil, is sufficient to quadru- 

 ple the crop, and leave the most lasting ef- 

 fects for future years. 



4. Lime, although generally considered 

 of the greatest importance to the agricul- 

 ture of a country, has often been known to 

 disappoint the expectations of its friends. 

 It is declared to be useless in the Eastern 

 States, for what reason, it is difficult at pre- 

 sent to conjecture. Hence arises, in all 

 probability, a portion of that discrepancy in 

 public opinion, regarding its real value, and 

 the wide and very discordant statements 

 that have arisen, respecting its baneful or 

 beneficial influence ; many persons, even 

 now, considering it a septic, while others 

 are as strongly of the opinion that it is anti- 

 septic in its nature. These are stubborn 

 facts, which should teach us prudence in 

 judging the opinions of others, and caution 

 in the formation of our own. Z. 



May 18th, 1843. 



* Although our correspondent speaks positively 

 upon this subject, we are not aware that fair and tho- 

 rough trials have been made, to establish the proposi- 

 tion, that the green-sand marl does no good on this 

 side the Delaware, on soils apparently similar to th ise 

 in Jersey, upon which it produces the greatest and 

 most lasting effects. It is upon the cold, heavy, fiat, 



Manure. 



We find the following useful suggestions 

 in a late English paper: 



" It is well known that in a close stable, 

 where there are a good many horses, there 

 is a very pungent smell, affecting the eyes 

 and nose, more particularly when the stable 

 is being cleaned out. This smell is occa- 

 sioned by the flying off of ammonia, which 

 is the very essence and value of manure, 

 and which volatilizes or flies off at a very 

 low temperature — even the warmth of the 

 manure in a stable will send it off, and it 

 goes off in great quantities by the common 

 heat of the manure in a farm-yard, whether 

 thrown up in heaps or not. There is, how- 

 ever, a very cheap and simple remedy for 

 this. Before you begin to clear out your 

 stable, dissolve some common salt in water; 

 if a four-horse stable, say four pounds of salt, 

 dissolved in two buckets of water and poured 

 through the nose of a watering pan over the 

 stable floor, an hour or so before you begin 

 to move the manure, and the volatile salts 

 of ammonia will become fixed salts, from 

 their having united with the muriatic acid 

 of the common salt, and the soda thus libe- 

 rated from the salt, will quickly absorb car- 

 bonic acid, forming carbonate of soda; thus 

 you will retain with your manure the am- 

 monia which would otherwise have flown 

 away, and you have also a new and most 

 important agent thus introduced, viz., the 

 carbonate of sola. As this is a most power- 

 ful solvent of all vegetable fibre, and seeing 

 that all manures have to be rendered soluble 

 before they can act upon vegetation, it will 

 be at once apparent that the carbonate of 

 soda so introduced, must be a most powerful 

 and valuable agent." 



Air slacked lime is innoxious to grow- 

 ing plants generally, if we except mosses 

 and lichens, to which it is fatal. Hence it 

 is constantly employed by gardeners, to dust 

 their peas and other crops, liable to be in- 

 fested by slugs, and also to remove moss, 

 &c, from gooseberry and currant bushes, 

 which it speedily and effectually cleanses. 

 Mixed with coal soot, it causes the extrica- 

 tion of much ammonia, and therefore should 

 never be added to liquid urinous manures, 

 as it volatilizes their ammonia. — Farmer's 

 Magazine. 



quick-sandy, but well drained lands of that State, 

 that we rind the most astonishing results from its ap- 

 plication. We would much like to be more particu- 

 larly advised of the results of particular and recent 

 trials of this marl in Pennsylvania.— Ed. 



