)L. V. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEIl.^ 



Published by John B. Russell at No. .Vi North .M;irl;et Stioct, ^llll|)oeitt! Fama-il Hall). — Tho»ia3 ii. I'V-Ssem^km, Editor. 



BOSTON, I tUDAY, 1 EBSIUARY 2, 1827. 



No. 28. 



IIGINAL PAPERS 



rOB THE NEW EKGLAHD FARMER. 



HE CULTIVATION OF WHEAT IN 

 NEW ENUJiAND. 



tteinpts continue to be made in New Eng- 

 ainsl the maiiilost intentions of nature, to 

 te wheat, I beg leave to otVer a few obscr- 

 as to the best means of rendering these at- 

 ufcful. 



the exception of a strip of country, fifteen 

 broad, extending- through the west part of 

 Island to Boston, — two tier of to\Tns on 

 3t side of Lake Champlain, in Vermont, — 

 which are transitions — and a belt of old 

 ndstone, reaching from the Vermont line to 

 town, on Connecticut river, — the whole of 

 ncrland is primitive formation. The e.xcep- 

 wliich seem to e.xist in the alluvial flats, on 

 irgins of ri^jers and streams, are not real ; 

 ese alluvions are made up of the debris, 

 omposed particles of priiniiive rocks, and 

 ible matters brought down by the waters, or 

 ulated upon the surface — the streams tak- 

 leir rise exclusively in, t>nd flowing through, 

 ive formations. The soils of this formation 

 eetitute, with very partial e.xceptions, of cal- 

 us matter, which is a requisite constituent of 

 1 wheat soil. Among its rocks are found no 

 m, transition or secondary lime stone, or- 

 remains, or the elementary malter.of the glu- 

 wheat : And the little which art coutil fur- 

 i neglected or wasted. The soil possesses 

 me character as the rocks from which it is 

 iposed. 



organi-ed, that is, all vegetable and animal 

 irs, are capable of being converted into tlie 

 of plants. The best manure for any particu- 

 oecies, hov.ever, is the decayed plants of its 

 pecies : because thc»e contain the elemeiita- 

 itter which is to form the new plant. Com- 

 putrescent manures contain food for all 

 s, though they do not contain all the food 

 1 some plants require. Animal bones, and 

 hells of the eggs of birds, have lime for their 

 ; and it is a fact well established in physiolo- 

 hat did not lime, in some form, enter into the 

 ituents of the food of animals, both the bone 

 the shell would be imperfect. Many plants 

 ire a spceifc manure, which other plants do 

 jonsume, or yield on analysis. Thus wheat 

 ires the elementary matters of gluten and 

 phate of lime, which it yields on analysis and 

 h most other plants do not take up or afford. 

 36 elements, therefore, must exist naturally in 

 soil, or be supplied by art, to insure a gool 

 of wheat. The straw of wheat, on analysis. 

 und to contain, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, 

 lemenfs of common stable manure. Hence 

 e is no difficulty of raising an abundant crop 

 heat straw, on primitive soils, with the aid of 

 mon manure. The starch of wheat contains 

 same elements as the straw ; but the gluten 

 he flour, which may be easily separated from 

 starch by washing, and which gives to wheat 

 jeculiar value over other grain, contains, in ad- 

 m'to the common elements of vegetable mat- 



tor, nitrogen, a constituent of animal matter. — 

 Gluten consiilute.s I'rom a fourth to a fifth part of 

 wheat ; and nitrogen, or azote, fifteen per cent of 

 the gluten. For a more ample elucidation of the 

 doctrine of specific manures, I refer to Grison- 

 waithe's Now Theory of Agricidturc, first publish- 

 ed in If^'^O : or to part ii. book ii. sect. 3, of Lou- 

 don's Encyc. of Cardcning, — the whole of which 

 section, Mr Editor, might be usefully transplanted 

 into your Farmer. 



The deductions wliich I make from these pre- 

 mises, arc, 



1. That the soils of New England being of 

 primitive formation, are not naturally adapted to 

 the culture of wheat, because they do not contain 

 all the elements of this valuable grain. And 



2. Tliat this natural defect can be remedied 

 only by the application of animal manures, or ma- 

 nures containing the elements of animal matter. 



It will be found on examination, that all the 

 country delineated upon M'Clure's geological map 

 as primiiii-e, is bad for the raising of wheat ; and 

 that the reputation of the transition, for the cul- 

 ture of this grain, is but little better than the 

 primitive. I distinctly recollect when the charac- 

 ter of the lake towns in Vermont stood tolerable 

 high, for the quantity and quality of their wheat ; 

 but a recent tour into that district has shown me 

 a diminution in quantity, and a great deterioration 

 in quality. The grain appeared shrivelled, the 

 flour black, and very deficient in gluten ; and I do 

 not think, that in travelling two hundred miles, I 

 savv any bread, made from the wheat of that state, 

 whiter, or of better quality, than bread which I 

 have seen made from rye flour. This deteriora- 

 tion I ascribe to the exhaustion in the soil, by re- 

 peated cropjiings, of the small quantity of the pa- 

 bulum, or specific food of wheat, which naturally 

 exists in the transition formation, and the neglect 

 of the cultivator to restore it. 



How, then, is this animal matter to be supplied to 

 the soil'? The elements of gluten exiet in bones, 

 urine, horn, hair, night soil, in the refuse of the 

 tanner, morocco dresser, tallow chandler, soap- 

 boiler, the offal of the butcher, the dung of fov.'ls, 

 soot, woollen rags, fish, &c. And the proper ap 

 plication of these substances, in sufficient quanti- 

 ties, will ensure a crop of wheat. I will suggest 

 a few remarks upon a part of these. 



1. Bones have become an important material for 

 fertilizing lands in the hands of the English farm- 

 er. Ship-loads of them aie annually imported from 

 Holland, and in one neighbourhood in Yorkshire 

 three mills have been constructed exclusi^'ely for 

 the purpose of pounding and grinding them. Bone 

 dust is sold through the country, to the farmer, at 

 3s. 6(/. per bushel, including freight, and is applied 

 at the rate of from 10 to 211 bushels the acre, most 

 on the poorest ground. It answers best on light 

 soils ; and its beneficial effects are found to last 

 many years. One farmer uses 1200 bushels every 

 year. [See Loudon's Gardener's Mag-azinc, for 

 Jw/i/ 182tJ.] Immense quantities of bones might be 

 collected about Boston and other towns, and the 

 poor and cliildren might be profitably employed in 

 gathering and breaking them with hammers until 

 mills for grinding them should be constructed. 

 Their immediate effects are in proportion to their 



fiiioncss ; but the durability of tlieir benefit-! is in 

 proportion to their size ; for the larger the pieces, 

 the longer they arc in decomposing, and in im- 

 parting fertility to the soil. And even if buried 

 entire, would bo found of great service. Bones 

 contain 50 per cent, of decomposable animal mat- 

 ter, ■^7 phosphate, and 10 carbonate of lime. 



2. Urine possesses strong fertilizing powers, and 

 abounds in animal matter ; and this must be the 

 principal resource in New England for wheat lands 

 The Flemish farmers, according to Or Radclific, 

 enrich a moiety of their grounds with liquid ma- 

 nure. Though it must be remembered that their 

 cattle are soiled undt;r cover during the summer. 

 The stables and sheds are paved, and the urine is 

 collected in tanks or cisterns, into which it flows 

 through gutters or pipes. It is applied to the 

 grounds, in the manner in which the streets are 

 watered in New York and elsewhere, by a man 

 with a horse and cart ; or is taken out in barrels 

 by men, with two [joIos made fast to the bilfre of 

 the cask, and extending horizontally and parallel. 

 The New England farmer can adopt the Flemish 

 mode ; or he maj' realize partial advantages, by 

 constructing a concave or hollow cattle yard, v/ith 

 a bottom impervious to water ; keeping it well lit- 

 tered, and applying the manure before it undergoes 

 much fermentation. The litter becomes saturated 

 with the urine und carbonaceous li-^ujds of the 

 yard, and imparts them to the soil. Fermentation 

 generates ammoniacal gas, which being volatile, 

 the animal matter is lost if the mass is suffered to 

 undergo mucb decomposition in the yard. .It can- 

 not be too often repeated, that urine comprises 

 one half of the manure of animals ; and that he 

 who suffers his manure to rot in his yard, loses 

 the best half of the remainder. Fresh urine 

 should be diluted with doable its quantity of wa- 

 ter before it is applied. 



•3. Horn contains a larger qsantity of decompo- 

 sable animal matter than bone, and is one of the 

 most powerful manures. It can be had in only 

 small quantities, and consists, principally, of shav- 

 ings from the comb-maker, with the addition, 

 sometimes, of the butts and pith. 



I have fulfilled my intention, Mr P^ditor, of sug- 

 gesting to my Yankee brethren, what I consider 

 the best applications for remedying the defects of 

 tlieir soils for wheat culture. The substances 

 which I have enumerated all contain the elements 

 of the gluteu of wheat. They will know better 

 than I do, the quantities of each which arc within 

 their contto', and they can be at no loss how to 

 apply them. I will barely repeat, that animal mat- 

 ters decompose more readily than vegetables: 

 and that where they are united, the first escape 

 in the incipiont stages of fermentation, in the form 

 of a volatile gas. J. BUEL. 



Jlbany, Jen. 24, 1827. 



RECLAIMED MARSHES. 

 JVo. U. 

 Some of the advantages of the salt marshes, 

 which are along our coast, about our coves, and 

 at the mouths of our rivers, and fresh streams, have 

 been mentioned. These indeed seem often provi- 

 dentially so placed, as to relieve the disadvantage 

 of those, who cultivate a sandy and barren, or a 



