£l)c JFarmcr's iHcmtljlij iltsitor. 



183 



Effects of Cropping upon the Soil. 

 May a soil which is naturally fertile be render- 

 ed barren by continued cropping? Yes. If the 

 same kind of cropping be carried on for a long 



time, the laud will gradually become less and 

 Jess productive. 



Give tne an example? — If the same field be 

 cropped year after year with wheat ur oats, it 

 will at last become unable to grow either of 

 these crops. 



Why is this? — Because these crops draw cer- 

 tain substances from the soil in great abundance, 

 and alter a number of years the soil cannot fur- 

 nish these substances in sufficient quantity. 



What substances does grain especially draw 

 from the soil ? — The grain of our corn crops es- 

 pecially exhausts the soil of phosphoric acid and 

 of magnesia. 



How would you remedy such special exhaus- 

 tion ?— By returning to the soil the particular 

 substances my crops bad taken out. 



How would you return the phosphoric acid, 

 for instance? — I would apply bone-dust or gua- 

 no or some other manure in which phosphoric 

 acid abounds. 



But with any kind of cropping, may not a fer- 

 tile soil be at length made an unproductive? — 

 Yes. If the crops are carried off the land, and 

 what they draw from the soil is not restored 

 to it. 



How is this explained ? — Every crop takes 

 uway from the soil a certain quantity of those 

 substances which all plants require. If you are 

 always taking out of a purse, it will at last be- 

 come empty. 



Then you liken exhausted land to an empty 

 purse ? — Yes. The farmer takes his money out 

 of the land in the form of crops, and if he is al- 

 ways taking out and putting nothing in, it must 

 at last become empty or exhausted. 



But if be puts something into the soil now 

 and then, he may continue to crop without ex- 

 hausting it? — Yes. If he put in the proper sub- 

 stances, in the proper quantities, and at the proper 

 time, he may keep up the fertility of his land — 

 perhaps for ever. 



How much of every thing must the farmer 

 put into his land to keep it in its present condi- 

 tion? — He must put in at least as much as he 

 takes out. 



To make bis land better, how much must be 

 put in ? — He must put in more than be takes 

 out. 



But if he is to put into tbe land as much or 

 more than be takes out, where is his profit to 

 come from ? — His profit consists in this, that be 

 takes off the land what he can sell for much 

 money, and he puts in what he can buy for com- 

 paratively little money. 



How do you mean ? — I mean that if I sell my 

 oats, hay, or turnips, I get a much higher price 

 for them than 1 afterwards give when I buy 

 them buck again in the form of horse or cow- 

 dung. 



Then the farmer can really afford to put as 

 much upon his land as he takes off, and yet 

 have a profit? — He can. He puts in what is 

 cheap, and takes off what is dear. 



What do you call the substances which the 

 skilful farmer puts into his land ? — They are 

 called manures, — and when putting them in, the 

 [tinner is said to manure his soil. — Johnston's 

 Catechism of Chemistry. 



s (ty The foregoing speculative illustration of 

 'rofessor Johnston is in the main correct ; but 

 t is not all the truth in relation to the effects of 

 topping upon the soil : it is by no means ne- 

 -ssary that as much should be restored or given 

 itch to the soil as the crop takes from it. Our 

 hiftjsopby is, that more depends upon the ac- 

 "■n of the soil itself than upon what is given 

 nit to it in tbe shape of manures. It is, for 

 lunula, the action of gypsum or plaster rather 

 an any inherent quality derived from the holy 

 ilia article that brings up a free growth of 

 >ver upon a sterile field. A large portion of 

 pry vegetable production is derived from the 

 (rounding atmosphere : that action or material 

 the soil which best secures the value of at- 

 lspheric influences, is the great desideratum 



necessary to secure the farmer's profits. Land 

 cultivated a thousand years is perhaps tbe last 

 year more productive than ever: the material of 

 agricultural production is both indestructible 

 and inexhaustible. No land can be worn out: 

 there is no soil that does not possess the inher- 

 ent properties of sell-restoration. Providence, 

 the great Author of all things, has wisely or- 

 dained for our good what the wisdom of man 

 could never have devised. — Ed. Visitor. 



Salt and Soot. — The power of soot as a top- 

 dressing to either wheat or pasture laud, is ma- 

 terially increased by the admixture of one-fourth 

 of common salt. In the 4th volume page 270, 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, it is 

 stated that fifty-four bushels of soot and six of 

 salt produced larger crops of Altrincham and 

 white Belgian carrots than twenty-three tons of 

 stable manure and twenty-four bushels of bones, 

 at half the cost. It is best to hoe the land, 

 where used as top-dressing for wheat, after tbe 

 soot is spread, as that prevents the evaporation 

 of the ammonia, which is the most essential part 

 of the manure. To mix it with lime is most in- 

 jurious, as that alkali causes the rapid dissipation 

 of the ammonia. Mr. Dimmery, of Stinchombe 

 farm, in Gloucestershire, uses nothing but soot 

 as a manure for potato crops which he grows in 

 drills, using soot at the rate of twenty-five bush- 

 els to the acre. 



Maple Sugar. — A good man will make six or 

 seven hundred pounds in three weeks. The 

 man that took the premium at Auburn in 1840, 

 kept all vessels clean. He run the hot sugar in- 

 to conical vessels, having a half inch bole, plug- 

 ged at bottom, until the sugar was thoroughly 

 hard : then put three layers of woolen cloth on 

 top, and poured on a pint of water every morn- 

 ing for three weeks in succession. The water 

 looked like brown molasses, and the sugar, when 

 done, like loaf sugar. — New England Farmer. 



Statement of Brighton Market for 1818. 



our last — the receipts have barely reached tiliy 

 thousand pounds, and the sales to manufacturers 

 foot up at about the same amount. The com- 

 mencement of the Christmas holidays has a 

 marked effect upon sales, we shall therefore be 

 without any movement of consequence during 

 the next two weeks. Holders are anticipating 

 an advance, predicated on the demand which 

 must exist for California, but we think that fab- 

 rics must advance considerably before manufac- 

 turers can afford to pay higher for the raw ma- 

 terial. In addition to this, the low prices of pro- 

 duce in Europe will necessarily tend to lessen 

 the demand of the grain-growing districts for 

 manufactures. We would add that prices are 

 stiff at our quotations. 



Saxony Fleece, 

 Merino, 



do J to full blood, 

 Common, 



do pulled, No. 1, 



do pulled super, 



Lambs, 



do country pulled, 



do do super, 



do do No. 2, 



— Dry Goods Reporter. 



35 a 38 

 30 a 35 

 28 a 32 

 24 a 26 

 21 a 24 

 2G a 28 

 24 a 26 

 24 a 26 

 28 a 30 

 12 a 15 



40.784 Beef Cattle. 

 20,553 Stores, 

 146,755 Sheep, 

 87,600 Swine, 



43,423 Bee!' Cattle. 

 20,730 Stores, 

 133.550 Sheep, 

 62,015 Swine, 



Sales estimated at $1,590,576 



493,272 



" " " 264,159 



" " " 482,295 



1817. 



£2,830,302 



^Sales estimated at £2,719,462 



38 670 Beef Cattle, 

 15,164 Stores, 

 105,350 Sheep, 

 44.940 Swine, J 



}Si 



1846. 



les estimated at 

 1815. 



48,910 Beef Cattle, ) 

 13,275 Stores, I „ . 



107 960 Sheep, > Sales estimated at 



56,580 Swine, J 



£1,871,113 



£1,893,648 



BoHon, Dec. 30. 

 Wool — There is some inquiry lor good white 

 Smyrna washed, but there is very little here. 

 Sides of 125 hales Syrian washed, and some 

 Buenos Ay res, on terms not made public. The 

 medium grades of American Fleece Wool are in 

 demand, ami the stocks light. 

 Prime Saxony Fleeces, washed, pound, 

 American lull bl I , 



do ja| blood, " 



do 4, and common, " 



Lambs, super, " 



do No. 1, << 



do No. 2, " 



do No. 3, 



Smyrna, washed, pound, 



du unwashed, 



Bengasi, unwashed, " 



Buenos Ay res, unpicked, " 



Crimea. '• 

 Mexican, 



Barbary, •• 

 — Daily Advertiser. 



New York Wool Market, Dec. 23. 

 Wool .Market has been extremely laneuii 



Faneuil Hall Market. 



WHOLESALE. 



Beef, fresh, pound, 



Mutton, fir6t quality, " 



do 2d " 

 Lamb, " 



Veal, " 



Pigs, roasting, 

 Chickens, " 



Turkeys, " 



Geeso, mongrel, 

 Pigeons, dozen, 

 Poik, per 100 pounds, 

 Lard, best, per bbl.. 

 Western, keg, 

 Butter, lump, pound, 



do firkin, " 

 Cheese, new milk, oound, 



do Ibur-tneal, " 

 Eggs, dozen, 

 Apples, barrel, 

 Beans, bushel, 

 Potatoes, barrel, new, 



do Common, 



SEF.D — RETAIL. 

 Clover, Northern, pound, 



Southern, 



White Dutch, 



Lucerne, or French, 

 Hcrdsgrass, bushel, 

 Red Top, Northern, bushel, 



Southern, •' 

 Orchard Grass, " 



Fowl Meadow, <• 



How EASY IT IS TO MAKE A FoRTCNE.— A 



short time since, a gentleman living in Spring- 

 field, III., wanted a new form of bellows— he 

 made it— after walking around it once or twice 

 and viewing it alternatively, lie nodded his bead, 

 and winked his eye, and observed to a friend, " I 

 believe that would make a churn." Willi two 

 tin tubes, two iron cog-wheels, a small crank, a 

 wooden box and a little milk, he made butter in 

 ten minutes. lie sent to Washington and ob- 

 tained a patent— took his churn under his arm 

 and came to this city ; and has been for several 

 days selling patent rights. Yesterday's sales 

 amounted to the trilling Burn f $5,500, and the 

 business of selling is but begun. As he leisure- 

 ly turns the crank of his machine he quietly ob- 

 serves to the admiring circle of spectators around 

 him, " I believe 1 would take fifteen hundred for 

 Wisconsin, ten thousand for Ohio and New York, 

 and (with a smile of satisfaction shifting the 

 crank to the other hand) one thousand for littlo 

 Rhodie," meaning Rhode Island— St. Louis paper. 



The London Horticultural Society is the 

 richest corporation of the kind in the world. Its 

 assets, over £48,000; debt, £0,000; annual in- 

 come, £6,091, ($30,000;) expenses, £5,294. It 

 publishes quarterly transactions, and maintains 

 one or two botanical travellers; and at last sum- 

 mer's exhibition, nearly fourteen thousand visi- 

 tors were admitted by tickets of about a dollar 

 each. 



