736 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ANTS— SOILS— MANURES, &c. 



That all Ent^Iand may it beleeve and see. 

 Her honor'd Kins-man Esquire Ferrar 

 To confirme and make the wonder greater 

 Ten more likewise hath sent her, ^vhich he found 

 On stately Oakes, and Shrubs that kiss the ground 

 And Doctor Russell that learned Pliisitian 

 Hath with his, made a fall addition. 

 For things more slowly do affect the minde 

 Which eares do heare then those that ies do find 

 Now from smoke Virginia shall be raised 

 And throughout the World be duly praised. 

 Ah Blest be God that now in his tlue time 

 This Silken light apparently doth shine 

 Then come, Oh come with sacred Lays 

 Let us sound the Almighty's praise. J. F. 



TO DESTROY ANTS ON PEACH TREES. 



From the Corresponding Gardener's Magazine. 

 Take thin slices of whcaten bread (say \ oz. 

 ■wejfjht,) dry il slowly, but well, that it may easily 

 pulverize in a mortar ; take ^ oz. fine loaf sugar, 

 pulverize it also ; add to the two former in<iredients 

 \ OZ. of oxide of arsenic, commonly called levi<i;a- 

 fed mercury; triturate the whole well in the mor- 

 tar, then put it into a clean dry fclass bottle : of 

 course the bottle should be labelled with the word 

 "Poison." Very small portions of this poison 

 may be applied on fragments of glass or the flat 

 side of an oyster shell. The smell of recentoyster 

 shells is also an excellent decoy for ants. Small 

 bell-glasses, such as are used to strike cuttings 

 under, oi' small garden flower-pots, may be put 

 over the deposite of poison, to prevent moisture from 

 rendering it pasty, as well as to hinder any domes- 

 tic animals from taking it. If small portions are 

 laid down at intervals of four or six hours, it will 

 not become glutinous, in which case the ants can- 

 not separate it. If bell-glasses are used to cover 

 the poison, any curious spectator may see the 

 avidity with which the ants carry off the poison to 

 feed their young. This preparation is equally efB- 

 cacious for crickets. Gentreineii and gardeners 

 should be aware that this mercurial poison is 

 equally fatal to vegetable as animal life. Should 

 it be laid on the surface of the soil, round the stem 

 of an orange-tree or other plant, it will corrode the 

 bark and alburnumj to the certain destruction of 

 the plant. 



ALTERATION OF SOILS. 



From the Cultivator. 

 Extract from a communicatian of H. Hickock 



Esq. to the State ^'Igricultural Society of Neio 



York. 



" Some years since a lot of land came into my 

 possession, on which much expense had been in- 

 curred to improve it as a garden without an)' suc- 

 cess. The laud was a coarse gravel, through which 

 water would run as through a sieve. The gravel 

 contained a portion of iron, which operated as a 

 cement of its ingredients. I drew on to the lot 

 several loads of clay, and a small quantity of leached 

 ashes, the alkali in which might have had a liltle 

 efTect; manure from a horse stable, was spread 

 over the whole, and tlic mass was turned under 

 Avith a spade. The soil improved for three years, 

 Avhen it became perfect. Upy,^ examination, no 

 clay, and scarcely any gravel could be discovered. 

 The soil, which had been extremely drv, was by 

 this treatment supplied with an unaccustomed de- 

 gree of moisture. The iron, M'hich was the ce- 



ment of the gravel, decomposed the water, ab- 

 sorbed its oxygen, and was converted into what is 

 called iron rust. I'hus the gravel was resolved 

 into its original constituents, and combined with 

 the other materials, formed a warm, dark and rich 

 soil, at less expense than had been formerly laid 

 out on it without any benefit. 



" Many kinds of rocky knolls, whose bare sum- 

 mits disfigure our fields, may, often with very lit- 

 tle trouble and expense, be converted into excel- 

 lent soil. Of these kinds are soft granite, a soft 

 variety of graywhack, a shelly and argillaceous 

 limestone, and all the varieties commonly called 

 slate-rock. Their conversion into soil may be 

 effected in a variety of ways. A neighbor had his 

 fields deformed with bare slate-rock knolls, he had 

 also a large quantity of pomace, which lay as a 

 nuisance against the building which contained his 

 cider press; he was advised to cart the pomace on 

 to tlie bare knolls in his fields. The rock which 

 formed tiie knolls contained a portioij of iron, and 

 the advice was given, in expectation that the acid 

 in the pomace, by its action on the iron, would ef- 

 fect the decomposition of the rock. He informed 

 me that in one instance he had done so, that he had 

 observed that the rock had mostly disappeared, but 

 that he had been wholly at a loss to account for it. 

 This was eight or ten years ago ; he has since in- 

 formed me that he had complied with the advice 

 given, on a field which he had then ploughed up, 

 and that whenever the })lough touched the spots 

 which had been covered Vvith pomace, it sunk 

 down to the beam, and that after it passed such 

 spots it rose to the surface. • In this instance, by 

 the removal of a nuisance, more land was acquired, 

 and an increase of crops, without any additional 

 fence, and with less trouble in cultivation." 



APPLICATION OF MANURES. 



From the Cultivator. 

 Extracts from the Address to the State Agricultu- 

 ral Society, by the President, J. Buel. 



" In regard to the question, in what condition 

 are manures most economically applied, I am sen- 

 sible that a difference of opinion exists, many con- 

 tending, even on philosophical grounds, that it is 

 most wise to apply them after they have under- 

 gone fermentation. If the question was merely, 

 whether a load of fermented or unlermented dung 

 is of the greatest intrinsic value, in ordinary cases 

 the former would be entitled to the preference, be- 

 cause it contains the greatest quantity of vegetable 

 tbod. But the correct way to state the question 

 would be this: Will ^re loads of rotted manure 

 impart greater fertility than ten loads that are un- 

 rolled t The nundiers ought rather to be five and 

 fifteen — for I think common dung suffers a dimi- 

 nution of two-thirds, instead of one-half, in volume, 

 by a thorough process of rotting.* It will assist 

 in determining the question if we ascertain what 



* During the violent fermentation which is necessary 

 for reducing farm-yard manure to the state in which it 

 is called sliort muck, not only a large quantity of fluid, 

 but of gaseous mater, is lost; so much so that the 

 dung is reduced one-half or two-thirds in weight, and 

 the principal elastic matter disengaged in carbonic acid, 

 witli some ammonia ; and both these, if retained by the 

 moisture in the soil, as has been stated before, are capa- 

 ble of becoming a useful nourishment for plants. — Davy. 



