46 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



gen in fine proportions of relative weight or meas- 

 ure,- besides forming a part of the atmosphere 

 which is the prime sustainer of both animal and 

 vegetable life. , It .also unites with hydrogen in 

 two proportions — fonuing, in one instance, water, 

 without which no vegetable can be produced, and 

 with carbon, with wliich it forms two compounds 

 — carbonic acid, a principle of vast utility in the 

 nutrimental economy of plants, and without which 

 no vegetable substance could be made to grow. 

 Let us, for the sake of greater j«rspicuity, exam- 

 ine, chemically, the substance of that valuable and 

 important fruit— the apple. We will take, f jr thia 

 purpose, the Tolman tweeting: — 



Pulp. Epidermis. 



Percentage of water 84.75 t>i 20 



1)0. dry matter 15 25 38.80 



Do. ash .• 0,2G -. . . 0.72 



ho. ash calcined on dry matter. 1.70.5 1.956 



Percentase of water and dry matter. 



Percentage of water 81 .52 



Do. dry matter 18.48 



Composition of the Ash. 

 With 

 Carbonic Acid. 



Carbonic acid 17.62 



Silica 1 43 



Phosphate of iron 1.82. . ... 



Phosphoric acid 11.51 



Li cue 4 05 



Magnesia 1 4f) 



Potash 34.34 



So.la 15.77 



Chlorine 1.71 



Sulphuric acid 5.44 



Organic matter thrown down by 



liiirate of silver 4.20 



Without 

 Carbonic Acid. 



..1.750 

 ..2 227 

 . 14.0r3 

 . .4 9.56 

 -.1.786 

 .4.^.016 

 .19295 

 ..2(;92 

 ..€ 656 



99.35 



...5.139 

 101.000 



One more instance, that of hay, will suffice. 



One hundred parts of hay, dried at 212'^ — 116 2 



parts dried in air, are found by analysis to contain 



Carbon 45.8 



Hydrogen 5.0 



O.Kvgen 38 7 



Nitrogen 1.5 



Ashes. 9.0 



100.0 

 16.2 water. 



The formation of manures is a chemical process. 

 and the action of chemical laws is recognized in 

 every department of husbandry, from the time the 

 seed is l)uried in the soil, and its starch is trans 

 formed itito saccharine matter — the primary indi- 

 cation of generative life, till the mature fruit falls. 

 a completed result, perfect in all its development.^ 

 and parts, to the ground. The history of this sci- 

 ence is curious. It was once Ah'hcmy, by the prac- 

 tice of which, its deluded professors attempted the 

 attainment of unlimited powers of self-reward. It 

 ,is tr.iceable to the earlier physicians of Arabia, 

 amimg whom it first took root, and who consumed 

 their lives in the laborious but vain eff.n't to "fix 

 mercury'" which they believed to contain the 

 "germ of all curative influences," and to be the 

 "b.isis of all other metals." They had recourse 

 to many ingenious experiments to "catch the fly- 

 ing bird of Hermes," and to discover the "Univer- 

 sal Elixir," wljich was to confer upon the possess- 

 or the power of transmuting base metals into gold, 

 of prolonging indefinitely, the period of human ex- 

 istence, and of investing mortals with the beauty 

 and bloom of unfading youth. Such dreams, how- 

 ever, have long since been dispelled, and the sci 

 enco of chemistry turned to purposes of practical 

 usefulness and utility. n. d. w. 



ErAY—CUBIC FEET IN A TON. 



I observe you allow 1,000 cubic feet for a ton of 

 hay, by measure. In Vermont, our hay, according 

 to bulk, may be mure weighty. A godd portitm 

 of it, either in stack or mow, 20 by 20 feet square, 

 (me foot thick, will weigh a ton ; that is 400 cuV^ic 

 feet. Of our lighter meadow hay 500 feet are al- 

 hjwed for a ton. There is awide difference in the 

 weiglit and value of hay in diffdrent seasons. This* 

 year, the same quality and bulk is much heavier 

 than last, and the increased intrinsic value in the 

 same number of pounds in this year's production. 



Our State will produce only about half a crop of 

 hay this season. Grains look well, and the root 

 crops of all kinds never looked better. Potatoes 

 are uncommonly fine, and if free from rot, might 

 be quite low in price. The farmers in the nortliern 

 part of New York have also planted an unusual 

 quantity of potatoes — from 10 to 100 acres in one 

 field.— S. W. Jlwett, Middlebury, Yt.— The Plow. 



PROGRESSION. 



David T. Stevens, of Lewiston Falls, Maine, 

 gives notice that he will visit " any or all the 

 towns within the limits of their Agricultural So- 

 ciety, the ensuing winter, and lecture on tlie sub- 

 ject of Agriculture.." That's the true way, friend 

 Stevens, to arouse the masses to a sense of the 

 importance of their vocation. We have urged this 

 practice for years, but the helpers are still few. 



Mr. Stevens recently read an Address before the 

 West Lincoln Agricultural Society, which we 

 have perused in the Farmer and Mechanic, pub- 

 lished at Lewiston Falls, and which abounds in 

 practical suggestions and forcible illustrations. 

 Among the clergy may be found some of the best 

 farmers and gardeners in the couiitry ; and in 

 connection with their good examples on the soil, 

 they are performing a noble work with the tongue 

 and pen in their respective parishes, and through 

 the agricultural journals. 



PREJUDICE AGAINST FARMING. 

 [E.vtrHcled from W. 11. Seward's address at Rutland ] 



Nature has left all the human faculties in one 

 sense incomplete, to be perfected by general edu- 

 cation and )>y training tor special and di.~tinct pur- 

 suits. She lias left those faculties not hss incom- 

 plete and without more adaptation, in the farmer's 

 case than in any other. Her laws are general, 

 inflexible. Erutes only have perfect instincts. 

 .Man can be nothing, and indeed can do nothing at 

 all, but ])y tlie guidance of cultivated reason. 

 Notwithstanding aduiitted differences of natural 

 capacity, and of tastes and inchnations, it is never- 

 theless practically and generally true that success, 

 and even distinction and eminence, in any voca- 

 tion, is proportioned to the measure of culture, 

 training, industry and perseverance brought into 

 exercise. So he will bo the best farmer, and even 

 the best woodsman or well-digger, as be will be 

 the best liwyt-r, the gi'eatest la^ro. and the great- 

 est statesman, who shall have studied most widely 

 ■md profoundly, and shall have labored most cure- 

 fully and most assiduously. 



There is another prejudice even more injurious 



