1847. 



GENEVE FARMER. 



155 



so as to supply this important element in corn 

 stalks, and the stems of timothy, oats, and wheat, 

 is what the reader should learn in this lesson, if 

 he does not already understand how nature ope- 

 rates in this matter. The presence of the alka- 

 lies, potash, or soda, is indispensable in the soil, 

 to aid in dissolving fine particles of silicious sand. 



Fifthly, The analyses we have made show, 

 that crops which have long roots, reaching to the 

 sub-soil, like clover, corn, beans, parsneps, and 

 carrots, and extracting therefrom lime and other 

 alkaline minerals, are better adapted to this open 

 soil than short rooted plants, which draw their 

 nourishment from the surface soil exclusively. 

 These crops should be fed to sheep, cows, and 

 other domestic animals on the fields, that their 

 treading upon the land may make it more com- 

 pact, whilst their droppings will add fertilizing 

 elements drawn alike from the sub-soil and the 

 atmosphere. 



The application of 10 bushels of unleached 

 ashes, 6 of lime, 3 of salt, 1 of gypsum, and 1 of 

 burnt bones, well pulverized, to an acre of this 

 land, will greatly increase its productiveness. — 

 It will be much better for sheep to eat clover, or 

 any other crop, on the land, and leave the ma- 

 nure thereon, than to plow in green plants of any 

 kind to ferment and smir without the correction 

 of alkalies. 



Clover, peas, beans, carrots, turneps, potatoes, 

 oats, and corn, are the crops on which we sliould 

 mainly rely on this farm, provided the specimens 

 sent us are fair samples of the soil on its general 

 surface. 



If any of our readers wish to have their soils 

 analyzed at a mere nominal price, they had bet- 

 ter not let present opportunity pass. The writer 

 has a call from a distant State for his profession- 

 al services, which he thinks of answering. It is 

 a curious fact that he receives twenty dollars for 

 writing political articles for the perusal of farm- 

 ers, where he gets one for investigating the com- 

 position of their soils at no inconsiderable expense 

 for apparatus and chemicals. We do not com- 

 plain of this, for it is much pleasanter to sit by a 

 table and write, than to toil over the poisonous 

 fumes of boiling acids, searching for the things 

 which God has appointed to make the necessary 

 food of all that live, whether vegetables or ani- 

 mals. 



Large Pigs — Bekkshire Breed. — Timothy 

 Brockway stages in the Boston Cultivator, that 

 Messrs. John & Samuel Foot, of Bradford, Ct., 

 killed four pigs last fall, two of which were nine 

 months and twenty days old, an"! the ct' ei- t.vo 

 were nine months and tweniy-eight days old, 

 whose dressed weights were 401, 419, 423, 473 

 pounds. It is stated that they were got by Mr. 

 Brockway's "Improved Berkshire" boar, which 

 took the premium at the iVew Haven show in 

 1845. The pigs were all of one litter. 



Barley. 



The value of barley for making pork and feed- 

 ing other animals is not duly estimated by the 

 generality of farmers in Western New York. — 

 As a summer crop its culture can often be made 

 quite profitable. It delights in a rich loamy soil, 

 which is more inclined to clay than sand. 100 

 grains of barley meal give, on burning, 3 grains 

 of ash. lOi) grains of this ash contain, of 



Silica, 29.67 



Pliosphoric acid, 36.80 



Sulphuric atid, 0.16 



Chlorine, 0.15 



Per-oxide Iron, 0.8.3 



Lime, 3.2:1 



Magnesia, 4.30 



i'otush, 16.00 



Soda 8.86 



100.00 

 This analysis was made by Prof. Thompson-, 

 of Glasgow. German chemists have found some- 

 thing less than 3 per cent, of ash in 100 parts of 

 dry barley. In a good soil adapted to the plant, 

 the quantity found by Dr. T. may be regarded as 

 an average. Supposing that all the straw was 

 returned to the soil either directly, or in the 

 shape of manure, 2000 lbs. of barley, after it was 

 thoroughly dried at 212® taken from an acre, . 

 (equivalent to 49 or 50 bushels,) would remove 

 from the earth 60 lbs. of its most valuable mine- 

 rals. Among these would be 17.80 lbs. of solu- 

 ble silica or tJint, which exists mainly in the hull 

 of barley. The most valuable earthy element in 

 the seed of this grain, as in all others, is phos- 

 plioric acid. Of this, 2000 lbs, of barley remove 

 from the soil 22 lbs. If barley be fed to swine, 

 horses, or other domestic animals, and all their 

 solid and liquid manure be carried back on the 

 field that produced the crop, the land will be 

 made richer for the operation. This result ac- 

 crues not from the mistaken idea that all or near- 

 ly all the matter removed in a crop, can be car- 

 ried back in the manure, which the crop will 

 yield when fed to animals. All animals literally 

 burn their food in theii- warmed bodies, the gas- 

 ses and vapor formed by the combustion esca- 

 ping through the lungs in expired air. 100 lbs, 

 of dry food will make less than 50 lbs. of dry 

 dung and salts in urine. How, then, can the 

 removal of 100 lbs. of barley, corn, or wheat, 

 from a piece of ground, and the return of only 

 40 lbs. of the same matter enrich the soil ? This 

 question we greatly desire that every child, 

 whether male or female, 14 years old, should be 

 able to answer correctly. We are pained and 

 mortified at our poor success in persuading those 

 that till the earth that schools to teach the laws 

 of nature which govern the growth of cereal and 

 other cultivated plants, ought to be establised and 

 supported for the benefit of agriculture. But let 

 that pass; while we ask again zo/it/ it is that a 

 f u-mer may take 1000 lbs. of barley from a field, 

 and by restoring only QTie-tenih of the same, 



