1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



203 



Thorough Drainiag. 



irrigation. 



The Royal Agricultural Society of England 

 is still urging the importance, and encouragieg 

 the practice of deep and thorough draining of all 

 moist lands. Pipes sunk two and a half feet deep 

 were regarded as low ep.cugh a few years since ; 

 but larger expetience lias denwnstrated the su- 

 periority of drains four feet ft-om the surface. — 

 With such a hydrostatic pressure above the open 

 tube, one of two inches in diameter will carry 

 off twice as much water as it would if a foot and 

 a half rklgher up, or nearer the top of the ground. 

 Few are fully aware of the great benefits that 

 accrue from the removal of all stagnant water, 

 whether above or below the surface of improved 

 land. On all clayey soils, or those that have a 

 bard pan subsoil, draining is found to be useful. 

 If a farmer were able to irrigate every field when 

 too 4ry, and drain it when too wet, it would add 

 immensely lo his choices of always growing 

 m©st abundant crops. Our hot summer sun and 

 quite common lack of timely rains, render irri- 

 gation of far greater importance in this country 

 than in England. There are hundreds of small 

 streams that might be turned from their natural 

 beds at a trifling expense, and made to water 

 and fertilize hundreds of acres. The govern- 

 ment of Egypt is now expending some eight or 

 ten millions of dollars in darning the Nile and 

 cutting canals to use water for agricultural pur- 

 poses. To carry it on to still higher levels, sev- j 

 eral enormous steam engines are making in Eng- 1 

 land to be used to pump this indispensable liquid j 

 to an elevation high enough to water thousands ! 

 of acres above the high water mark of the Nile, i 



American agriculturists are in their infancy so i 

 far as understanding the advantages of removing j 

 all excess of water by draining, and all deficien- 1 

 cy by irrigation, is concerned. One half of the \ 

 land now so poorly managed, if cultivated with i 

 all practical skill, and attainable science, would | 

 yield a nett profit twice as large as is now ob- j 

 tained. Instead of striving to make every rod j 

 of land yield its maximum product, the common j 

 effort is to struggle to get tlie biggest farm in j 

 the neighborhood or town. A broad surface isj 

 coveted above all things. 



Charcoal. — Pounded charcoal, or the refuse 

 of the heap, should be thickly strewed over every 

 place where filth is allowed to accumulate. It 

 absorbs the bad smell, and makes an excellent ma- 

 nure of what otherwise would not only be useless 

 but offensive. It also prevents the larvte of in- 

 sects from becoming flies or moths. Pigs like to 

 eat charcoal, and are thought to fatten on it ; and 

 in the course of the summer months, 1 frequently 

 have a bushel or so at a time thrown over the pen. 

 It makes the manure so much more valuable that 

 I find it worth while to buy it for the purpose; 

 and in doing so the pens are never offensive. — 



American Agriculturiit. 



Analysis of Soils. —■ Agricultural School. 



Dr. Lee — Dear Sir: — I am favored with your 

 note of the 9th inst., containing some of your 

 views touching the establisnment of an Agricul- 

 tural School at Pvochester. 



You do not over-rate the importance to the 

 agriculturist of having correct analyses of the 

 soil he cultivates, as I can testify from experi- 

 ence. Had my different fields been analyzed 

 for the past three years, and manured with ref- 

 erence to the crops to be grown thereon, supply- 

 ing instead of stable manure those inorganic sub- 

 stances that were needed, it would have been 

 hundreds if not thousands of dollars in my pocket. 



Please to consider me a subscriber to the 

 amount of $100, or $500 should the latter sum 

 be necessary, upon the terms specified in your 

 note, and believe me 



Your ob't serv't, 



J. W. BiSSELX, 



Rochester, July, 1847. 



Mr. BissELL is the owner of a large nui-sery, 

 a part of which is on land that lacks lime. He 

 was not aware of this fact till he got the writer 

 to analyze his soil. Of the mineral elements 

 found in the bark of an apple tree, fifty-one and 

 a half are j;w.re lime united to carbonic and other 

 acids. In the heart wood the amount qf pure 

 lime is over 36 per cent.; in the sap wood 18.63 

 per cent. Estimating this alkaline base with its 

 associate acids, and more than half of the ash of 

 this tree is lime.* 



If we remember rightly, Mr. Bissell inform- 

 ed us that he had lost some 17,000 small apple 

 trees grafted, choice fruit, on the land we exam- 

 ined. Hence, he truly says, that it would have 

 been hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in his 

 pocket if he had been early informed by critical 

 analyses just what his soil lacked, and his fruit 

 trees must have to flourish in the same. Where 

 lime exists in a soil in a free, available form lo 

 the extent of one part in one hundred thousand, 

 we find no difiiculty but labor to separate and 

 weigh it. 



The following is the result of the analysis of a 

 better sample of Mr. B.'s nursery soil : 



Water of absorption, 3.00 



Organic matter, 5.94 



Alumina, - 4,26 



Oxide of iron, 3.56 



Silica, 79.00 



Lime, 1.50 



Carbonic acid, 44 



Sulphuric acid, 27 



Chlorine 19 



Phosphoric acid combined with alumina, 



iron, and lime, 17 



Magnesia, 32 



Potash and Soda, traces. 



Loss, 1.33 



100.00 



We thank Mr. Bissell for his good opinion 



* See American Journal of Agriculture, and Science, by 

 Dr. Emmons, Albany, forApriU 



