226 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Oct. 



Prof. Johnston's excellent Lectures on Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry, found that the sulphate of 

 magnesia and the sulphate of lime had precisely 

 the same etiect on a variety of crops ; and in- 

 ferred that the one salt might be used in all cases 

 as a substitute for the other. Had Dr. S. stopped 

 to consider how different must be the operation 

 of an ounce of epsom salts (sulphate of magne- 

 sia) from a like weight of gypsum in the stomach 

 and bowels of a man, he would have discovered 

 the error of his opinion in regard to organising 

 food for man. The sulphur in epsom salts is 

 quite as good for peas or clover as the sulphur in 

 gypsum. But the magnesia of the former can 

 not do the work of the lime of the latter. 



In the September number of the Albany Cul- 

 tivator, Mr. Howard, its editor, notices the soil 

 of a farm belonging to Mr. Johnston near 

 Geneva, which effervesces with acids, and is 

 supposed to abound in lime, and yet it is much 

 benefited by the use of burnt lime. It is not im- 

 probable tliat this soil, on analysis, will be found 

 to contain more carbonate of magnesia than lime; 

 and that the foaming on the application of a 

 strong acid, is owing rather to the decomposition 

 of the former than the latter mineral. Caustic 

 lime possesses properties and exerts influences 

 which do not belong to the natural mild carbon- 

 ate. We should like to examine that portion of 

 Mr. J.'s field to which no lime Wcis applied, in 

 his interesting experiment. The circumstance 

 that wood ashes produce little or no good effect 

 on this farm, seems to indicate that the soil is 

 either quite clayey aud wet, or that it abounds 

 in all the mineral elements of maple, oak, and 

 hickory, as well as of clover, wheat, corn, and 

 potatoes. We have helped to clear a good deal 

 of land, and have seen thousands of acres of vir- 

 gin soil yield their first harvest ; and do not 

 now recollect ever to have found the place where 

 a log heap was burnt, and more or less ashes 

 left on the ground, that did not give a little larg- 

 er wheat, rye, corn, oats, clover, or timothy, than 

 grew elsewhere in the field. 



There are exceptions to all, or nearly all, 

 general rules. But, as wood ashes contain about 

 the same amount of the salts of magnesia which 

 ordinary crops require, we do not hesitate to 

 recommend their application to meadows, pas- 

 tures, and tillage lands, to supply the magnesia 

 taken oft' in hay, grain, milk, and the urine and 

 dung of animals, v/hich are foolishly wasted. — 

 Being very soluble, the' salts of magnesia are 

 extremely liable to dissolve in the water that 

 falls in rain and snow, "and pass with it into the 

 Atlantic ocean. Prof. Johnston says that 100 

 parts of its water contain 3 J of epsom salts (sul- 

 phate of magnesia. ) 



So soon as we get our canals and railroads 

 completed, and all the boys that read the Gene- 

 see Farmer grow up to be men, and know just 

 what is required to form every crop, old Ocean 



will be called on to give back the cream of con- 

 tinents and islands, which a thousand rivers for 

 indefinite ages have never for a moment ceased 

 to pour into her bosom. A few fish, oyster and 

 clam shells, a little guano, and other fertilizers, 

 will not meet the wants of the rapidly augment- 

 ing millions of our race. The water of the 

 ocean must be evaporated and its salts carried 

 back to the cultivated fields from which the rains 

 of heaven wash so many millions of tons in the 

 course of time. How much magnesia and other 

 elements of wheat, think you, kind reader, the 

 Genesee River has poured into the basin of 

 Lake Ontario, to flow thence into the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, within the last ten thousand years ? 

 Every gallon of the water of this river contains 

 an appreciable quantity of magnesia. The whole 

 Onondaga Salt Group abounds in this mineral. 

 Some of the wells in this county furnish epsom 

 and glauber salts enough to physic strangers not 

 accustomed to the use of their saline liquids. 



By irrigating his meadows with the water of 

 the river Sauer, M. Boussingault was able to 

 take off in hay annually, without injury, the fol- 

 lowing minerals : 



Phosphoric acid, 1254 lbs. 



Sulphuric acid, 627 " 



Chlorine,. 602 " 



Lime,.. 4155 '' 



Magnesia, 1672 ' ' 



Potash and Soda, 5456 " 



Silica, 7312 " 



The hay was fed to beasts fattening for beef, 

 and the above minerals were carefully saved in 

 the shape of manure, and made into wheat and 

 other grain, which were sent annually to market. 

 Without the salts from the Sauer the system 

 could not work ten years. Most of the salts of 

 magnesia contained in the food of animals escape 

 from their systems by the urinary passage. 



"Lime Mania." 



The attentive reader of this journal will rec- 

 ollect that we commented, in the August number 

 of the Farmer, on some remarks in the Massa- 

 chusetts Ploughman on the action of ?me, and 

 asserting its small value as a fertilizer. That 

 journal copies what we said and makes the 

 following reply under the heading — '■'■ JAme m 

 Mania : " I 



Such are the arguments that are relied on fo prove that I 

 lime is the most important article which a farmer can pro- » 

 cure for his fields 1 



It will be seen that the writer docs not attempt to prove ^ 

 that lime hastens the decomposition of othT materials (a 1 

 position which most of the advocates of lime assume) but f 

 asserts that " no other clement, &,c., has been so generally « 

 and so successfully used ns a fertilizer, both in this country '* 

 and in Europe, as this same mineral calledUme" 



This we utterly deny, and should like to have some evi- 

 dence of it before the writer proceeds any farther. Can the 

 Genesee Farmer pretend that lime has been more generally 

 applied and wiili more success to enrich lands than the ex- 

 crements of horned cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs ? Can 

 he make us all believe that lime is more enriching than the 

 putrid flesh of land animals or fish ? Or that it has longer 

 been in use .' i 



Oh, no, but "bones cannot be formed without lime," 



