228 FARMERS' REGISTER— VEGETABLE MOULD— SALT AS MANURE, &c. 



and the same happy effects were the result — the 

 weavel was driven out. I should have made the 

 experiment public last year, but wished further 

 trial to test its unquestionable certainty. The 

 leaves or twigs should be spread on the bottom of 

 the bin or hogshead, and the wheat poured upon 

 them and also some should be mixed along through 

 the heap. No unpleasant taste or smell is left be- 

 hind. I will insure the whole crop of Georgia for 

 a quarter of a cent a bushel if well mixed with the 

 china leaf. lazy planter. 



April, 1833. 



Veg^etatole Mould. 



The first inroads and fertility on barrenness are 

 made by the smaller lichens, which, as Humboldt 

 has well observed, labor to decompose the scori- 

 fied matter of volcanoes, and the smooth and naked 

 surface of sea deserted rocks, and thus to "extend 

 the dominion of vitality." These little plants will 

 often obtain a footing where nothing else could be 

 attached. So small are many that they are invisi- 

 ble to the naked eye, and the decay of these, when 

 they have flourished and passed through their tran- 

 sient epochs of existence, is destined to form the 

 first exuvial layer of vegetable mould: the suc- 

 cessive generations give successive increments to 

 that soil fi'om which men are to reap their harvests, 

 and cattle to derive their food : from which forests 

 are designed to spring,and from which future navies 

 are to be supplied. 



But how is this frail dust to maintain its station 

 on the smooth and polished rock, when vitality has 

 ceased to exert its influence, and the structure 

 which fixed it has decayed ? This is the point which 

 has been too generally overlooked, and which is 

 the most wonderful provision of all ; the plant, 

 when dying, digs for itself a grave, sculptures in 

 the solid rock a sepulclire in which its dust may 

 rest. 



For chemistry informs us that not only do these 

 lichens consist in parts of gummy matter, which 

 causes their particles to stick together, but that 

 they likewise form, when living, a considerable 

 quantity of oxalic acid, which acid, when by their 

 decay set free, acts upon the rock, and thus is a 

 hollow formed in which the dead matter of the lichen 

 is deposited. Furthermore, the acid, by combin- 

 ing w ith the limestone or other material of the rock, 

 will often produce an important ingredient to the 

 vegetable mould ; and not only this, the moisture 

 thus conveyed into the cracks and crevices of rocks 

 and stones, when frozen, rends them, and by con- 

 tinual degradation, adds more and more to the form- 

 ing soil. Successive generations of those plants 

 successively perform their duties, and at length the 

 barren breakers, or the pumice plains of a volcano, 

 become converted into fruitful fields. — [Professor 

 jBurnett's Lecture. 



Salt used as Manure. 



From the American Farmer. 



Richmond, Va. June 1, 1832. 

 Mr. Smith : — Having long considered salt as 

 one of the cheapest and best manures we could ap- 



})ly to our lands, and having a small lot of very 

 ight sandy land, I determined to apply it in con- 

 junction with clay and a small quantity of lime, 

 which I concluded to add only because it was con- 

 venient to the spot to be manured. I dug from a 



pit two hundred bushels of good red clay, and to a 

 layer of twenty bushels I scattered not quite a peck 

 of ground alum salt and one bushel of oyster shell 

 lime unslacked ; going on until the whole of the 

 clay was used. To the two hundred bushels of 

 clay there were ten of lime and two of salt. The 

 heap remained in that situation until late in April, 

 when I measured an acre of land carefully, which 

 had been ploughed the preceding winter ; on this 

 the mixture was neatly and carefully scattered ; on 

 the adjoining acre I scattered two hundred and 

 twenty bushels of the clay, without the saltor lime ; 

 on the next I scattered ten bushels of lime ; and 

 on the fourth I sov/ed two bushels of ground alum 

 salt. The land was then laid off in rows four feet 

 each way and planted in corn which was thinned 

 to one stalk, and all received the same cultivation. 

 In October the corn from the first acre was gather- 

 ed, and measured thirty-one bushels and one peck. 

 On the secondthere were fifteen bushels and a half; 

 about the quantity the land would have been capa- 

 ble of producing without the addition of lime or 

 other manure. On the third twenty -one bushels 

 and a half peck. And on the last, with salt alone, 

 tuenty-four bushels and a half peck,- making a 

 large difference in favor of the mixture. If the re- 

 sult of this experiment is worth insertion in your 

 useful paper, it perhaps may be of use to the own- 

 ers of the sandy soils in the lower part of Virgi- 

 nia. SANDY LAND. 



[The foregoing piece is republished at the request of 

 a subscriber in King William, who very natvu-ally con- 

 siders the facts stated as highly important, if similar re- 

 sults may be generally expected from the same causes. 

 We presume that the writer has not failed to repeat an 

 experiment so interesting and profitable, on an extend- 

 ed scale : and we shall be pleased to receive for publica- 

 tion the report of liis sviccess.] — Ed. Farm. Reg. 



On Gypsum as a Manure. 



From the Columbia Sentinel. 



Last week we ventured some observations on 

 the proper time for sowing gypsum. This week 

 we propose to go into a consideration of the ques- 

 tion of the usefulness of gypsum as a manure. — 

 There is the more necessity for this, from the fact 

 that a controversy is now going on upon this sub- 

 ject in the Genesee Farmer — one contending for 

 its use, another denying that it is ultimately bene- 

 ficial to the soil after a few applications. If we 

 turn to the ninth volume of the Agricultural Ma- 

 gazine, we will see that comparative trials were 

 made between this and other manures, on a sto- 

 ney clay, mixed with a little loam, to ascertain 

 the best manure for wheat. " A five acre field 

 was divided into five equal parts, exactly an acre 

 in each. They were equally well ploughed and 

 laid down to wheat, after being manured as fol- 

 lows : 



On No. 1 was sown 6J bushels of gypsum. 



On No. 2 was put a compost manure, consisting 

 of lime, rich earth, and dung. 



No. 3 was manured by yarding cattle on it. 



On No. 4 stable dung was thinly spread. 



On No. 5 lime prepared from oyster shells was 

 sown. 



The product was from 



No. 1, forty bushels. 

 No. 2, thirty six bushels, 



