58 



THE FARIVIER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



April, 1842. 



bv two ladies, who, at an actual expense of .9100 

 15, have the imst season produced a crop «oitl 

 nearly $500, beside the state bounty, (50 cts. per 

 lb ) which, it is understood, is anfficient to pay 

 all the expenses of production, besides the inter- 

 est on the investment of $1000 for land, trees 

 and cocoonery. Some other fine specimens 

 were also exhibited." 



" The Steam Excavator," originally invented 

 by Wm. S. Otis, for the purpose of excavating 

 earth for canals, roads, &lc. received the following 

 high commendation from the intelligent commit- 

 tee a[ipointed to report upon it. 



" It is calculated to do the work of 1.50 men. 

 Allowing for stoppages, &c. one minute is suffi- 

 cient to load a car containing li cubic yards. 

 This would give ;»00 cubic yards per day of ten 

 hoins. 



"The interest on the cost, wear and tear, la- 

 bor, &c. is $13 50 per day, which if we call $20 

 per day, gives us the labor of 150 men for less 

 than 14 cents per day each. The steam engine 

 by which it is moved is 14 horse power, and is 

 easily managed by two men. It works well in 

 clay, sand, gravel, and all soils. Being jilaced 

 upon a car, its position is easily changed, and 

 advances or recedes in the manner of a locomo- 

 tive as the case may require." 



"Sixteen acres of cabbages, planted on the 

 farm of Lambert Wyckoff bv Peter Walsh, in 

 Bush wick, Kinsrs Co., produced 61,120 heads, 

 which sold for .S2,434 77. 



"The sod was turned over in tlie fall, and 

 cro.ss-ploughed in the spring. Fifty cart loads 

 of street manure from New York city was put 

 on an acre, at a cosi, delivered on the farm, of 40 

 cents pen load, and the whole cost of cultivation 

 $10 per acre." 



"Cultivated Cranberries were exhibited by S. 

 Bates, Billinghaiii, Norfolk Co. Mass. grown on 

 his own land. He states that ' low meadow land 

 is best for them, prepared in the first instance in 

 the same manner as for grain. The wild cran- 

 berry is transplanted into this in rows 20 inches 

 apart. At first they require a slight hoeing, af- 

 tcirwards they spread and cover the field, produ- 

 cing crops annually thereafter without (in-ther 

 cidture. In this condition tliey produce (nuch 

 larger and finer fruit tlian in their wild slate, the 

 yield being from 200 to .300 bushels per acre, 

 worth on an average in the Boston market at 

 least one dollar per bushel.' A damp soil, or 

 when wet predominated, has generally been con- 

 sidered necessary, but Mr. Bates thinks this not 

 essential to their successful cull^vation ; any soil, 

 unless when inclined to bake, vvdl answer. Ear- 

 ly in the spring is the best time for Irnnsplanting." 



From the N. Y. American Agriculturist. 

 Geology applied to Ag;riculture. 

 Among the subjects claiming the attention of 

 farmers, after an intimate knowledge of the di- 

 rect process of planting and securing their crops, 

 and the proper application of the ordinary ma- 

 nures, and the raising and matining of their firm 

 stork, we would place a general and finiiliar 

 knowledge of Geology. And the reason of it is 

 perfectly obvious. In its general character 4t 

 embraces, not only the solid structure of our 

 globe, its vast and almost illimitable ranges of 

 rocks, the sterile mountains and barren deserts, 

 but it comes home to every farmer's own business. 

 Every portion of the soil he cultivates, the male- 

 rials of his manures, and all the constituent por- 

 tions of his vegetable products— yes, and of his 

 animals also, in other condiinatiniis, are the legit- 

 imate subject of the Geologist. .\ knowledge of 

 these materials, and their coml)ination.i, their e.x- 

 istence in the various soils that may be subject to 

 his cultivation, the character of "tlie stinmlants 

 and nianm-es, (other than animal and vegetable,) 

 Buch as lime, peat, marl,gypsuin, &r. necessary to 

 enable bim to afford tbegreatest crops ; all these 

 are not merely instructing the man of science, 

 but are directly and highly beneficial to the prac- 

 tical husbandman. 



In the fintherance of a ta.ste for geological in- 

 formation and the means of affording it, to sav 

 nothing of the great and important discoveries of 

 mines and quarries and salt springs ; and beds 

 of gypsmn, marl, peat, and coal ; we conceive the 

 State Geological SiU'Veys have done more for 



the benefit of the farming interest, than the ex- 

 penditure of the same amount of money in any 

 other way whatevei-. In corroboration of the 

 practical bearing of this subject, we subjoin some 

 observations from one who is high in authority 

 in this department of science. 

 Extract from Professor Joknson^s lecture on Geology 



as applied to Agriculture. 



" From the detritus of certain rocks, we find 

 clay, lime, and sand mixed, consstituting a soi 

 best fitted for growing crops. The soil performs 

 various functions in regard to vegetation, one 

 very important one to which I will allude. If 

 you burn a tree, a certain portion of ashes is ob- 

 tained, or take any vegetable matter whatever 

 and burn it, a certain quantity of ash soda, and 

 silicious matter. These substances are all de- 

 rived from the soil. Now, observe if a plant 

 contains lime, it cannot grow upon sand ; if pot- 

 ash, it cannot grow upon lime; thus a fertile soil 

 must contain soda and potash, and, among other 

 important substances, also phosphate of lime. 

 Geology tells us in what rocks the soda, and pot- 

 ash, and phosphate of lime exist ; and it tells us 

 what we are to add in any case, or which of all 

 these ingredients are requisite to form a soil. 

 In the common farm yard manure you add all 

 the ingredients required, potash, soda, and lime. 

 .^11 the vegetable substances contain a certain 

 quantity of phosphate of lime: now, all animals 

 fed upon grass, and their bones contain a cer- 

 tain quantity of phosphate of lime, and this must 

 be derived from the soil. Geologists have found 

 animals of a former age embedded in the solid 

 rock. Bones have been found in large quantities; 

 and if you suppose one clay rock contained a large 

 quantity of the bones of these animals, you are 

 bled to conclude that the earth of hones will 

 not be wanting in the soil that is formed from it. 

 Without them, animals can neither bo nourish- 

 ed nor grow. And here we have reason shown 

 why some soils that are appaVently as good as 

 others, should not be capable of producing good 

 herbage equally capable of fattening cattle,' and 

 increasing their size, with rocks, which among 

 other substances, contain the phosphate in suffi- 

 cient abundance. In some remote period of 

 time all rocks that occur in masses have been 

 melted and thrown up in their present state; 

 they are in fact lava, and their capability of being 



Ited. arises chiefly li-om their containing pot- 

 ash and soda. Certain plants cannot erow with- 

 out potash and soda ; and hence it is that the soils 

 formed by the crumbling down of these rocks, 

 ire more fertile than others. The watt;r trick- 

 ing down, carries the soda and potash alotig with 

 it, and thus enables soils to sustain vegetallon, 

 which it otherwise would not have been able to 

 Certain sand stones, the red, fi)r instance, 

 are full of the particles of these un.straf 'died rock. 

 Great layers of shining little particles are discov- 

 ered, which arc known by the name of mien, 

 bich renders it susceptible of very rem.Trk.ihle 

 applications In soiiio c.ises ii ncciirs in the fcnni 

 of a rock in tlnn Immts, and when this mass is 

 taken out and exposed to the air, it crumbles in- 

 fo fine powder, and is full of these particles. — 

 Chemists have shewn this mica contains a cpn- 

 siderable quantity of potash, and when applied 

 to grass lands, it forms a most important top dres- 

 , increasing the growth of the cras.s. In 

 Zealand and Sweden, the beech trie prows 

 luxuriantly, and this is attributed to the mica in 

 the soil. The most natural application to land is 

 the farm yard manure, but when this cannot be 

 obtained, some other manure must be had re- 

 course to. In some regions destitute of lime and 

 reqifu'ing manure, where there is nothing hut 

 slate, granite, and some magnesia rocks available, 

 I have recommended crushing the granite to a 

 powder and applying it in a finely comminuted 

 state as a top dressing, believing it will prove a 

 beneficial application, as containing so 'many of 

 these substances which the land requires before 

 it can grow vegetables." 



The constituent principles of these intractable, 

 and so far as vegetation is concerned, apparently 

 useless appendages to a soil, the rocks that sur- 

 round, and loose stones that sometimes abound 

 in it. have been found on analysis by chemists, 

 to afl^ord several ofthe constituent principles of^ 

 vegetation, without which, they can live but a 

 short time, and can never afford the fiill and ma- 

 tured fruits which are the objectsof their cultiva- 

 tion, The whole mass of sojl.o, and the loose 



earth, and drifting sands, that constitute so large 

 a portion ofthe surface of our globe, is very |irop- 

 erly supposed by geologists to have once constitu- 

 ted solid rock, but which the various causes here- 

 tofore and now operating, have coverted into their 

 present condition. But of these changes it is 

 not our pm-pose now to speak,our intention being 

 simply to reiterate and further illustrate the fact 

 above stated by Prof Johnson, that many of them 

 abound in those principles, essential to the fer- 

 tility of soils. It is found for instance, that the 

 mica above mentioned, which is an important 

 fossil from its very extensive distribution as an 

 ingredient in granite, mica slate, and other ag- 

 gregate rocks, consists of silex, 48-3; alumina,36,8; 

 oxide of iron, 4-5; potash 9-2; fluoric acid, 1-8. Here 

 we have nearly one-tenth ofthe entire mass pure 

 potash, one ofthe most stimulating and valuable 

 manures, and of the silex and almnina nearly one 

 half is pure oxygen, a large and es.sential ingre- 

 dient of every vegetable. This, however, is yiel- 

 ded up only under peculiar circuitistaiices. 

 Finite, considerably dift'used, is nearly identical 

 with mica, wanting only its fluoric acid. 



Felspar, another fossil extensively perva- 

 ding the globe, being next to quartz and oxide 

 of iron, the most abundant of minerals, and con- 

 stituting a large portion of Granite, is composed 

 of silex, 6(3 ; alumina, 17 ; potash, 12; with the 

 addition of a little lime and iron. 



Some varieties of clay slate or argillaceous slate 

 afford potash, and nearly all the clays afford some 



Jade of Nepheitic stone contains about eight 

 per cent of potash. 



Elaoliie or Fettstein has siiiecn or eighteen per 

 cent of potash. 



Lazulite or Lapis Lauzi, the beautiful azure 

 stone used for Mosaic work, the powder of which 

 aflRjrds the paint known as ultramafine, exceed- 

 ing all other pigments in beauty and durability, 

 according to one analy.sis, affords carbonate of 

 lime, (connnon limestone,) and sulphate of lime, 

 (Plaster of Paris.) 



Ilaune, another beautiful mineral of a sky blue 

 color, affords fifteen percent of potash. 



Leucite afforrls twenty-one per cent of potash. 



Sod.i, .so essential to productive soils, exists in 

 many ofthe minerals. 



The almost universal dissemination of com- 

 mon limestone, and the extensive, though less 

 generally diffused sulphate of lime, or gypsum, is 

 well known, which, by their almost impercepti- 

 ble decomposition, aflfbrd stimulus and nutrition 

 to the growing vegetation. ' 



Thus it will bo seen that Geology, but a few 

 years since considered as an ab.struse science, or 

 at liMst as in no degree connected with agricui- 

 tine, is by subsequent developements, shown to 

 have a direct and intimate connection with it. 

 The experience of every farmer, shows him the 

 great benefit derived from the apjilicnlion of 

 ashes as a manure ; and these are hut the earthy 

 /wiY.? of the plants which hnve been derived in 

 the last instance from the soils, but remotely from 

 the rocks. They are princijiles as es.sential to 

 the sustenance of plants, and constituting as 

 necessary portions of them, as the carbon, o.vygen 

 and hydrogen, which furnishes the nutrition lo 

 animal.H consuming them. Thus, Prof. Johnson, 

 in his Chemical Agriculture, has shown that the 

 ashes of the fi)llowing articles, after being dried 

 at a temperature of 2.30 Fahrenheit, being a heat 

 ■e that of boiling water, constituted of oats, 

 4 per cent ; clover .seed, 3 ; peas, 3; wheat, 2i ; 

 potatoes, 1.5 ; hay, 10 percent. 



The above are some of the fiicts es.sential to 

 the scientific farmer, which under certain cir- 

 cumstances may have an important bearing on 

 his practical operations. 



Illuminatio.n in the West.— Already, from 

 the aid chemistry has afforded to agriculture, 

 has the West begun to turn their productions in- 

 to new and more profitable forms than have been 

 'leretofore given them. Tallow and lard are | 



ubjected to a great pressure, by which the fat is ; 

 separated into two principles, one a pure oil litpiid 

 at all times and equal to " winter strained ;"and 

 another, a compact firm matter, analogous to, 

 and said to be equal to, spermaceti. Oil is also 



urnisbed of the finest quality from corn ; and 

 from castor oil, abundantly produced there, " the 

 best s[ierm candles" are "mannfactured. 



