1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



499 



and then turns to and lays out his money in large 

 sums upon some little f^irm, from year to year. 

 and yet gets small crops compared with the large 

 espenditure^ and thinks that by so doing ho is a 

 farmer ; and if he gets a large crop at a very large 

 cost that he is a great farmer, we remember a say- 

 ing of Uncle Tim, that "That fellow never can 

 liecomc a former, no how." 



Again, when we see a man who docs nothing on 

 a fiirra, not even to oversee the work of a farm, 

 but is shut up from year to year almost, among 

 learned essays and dissertations, all prepared to 

 enligliten our dark corner of the professional world, 

 we think what old father Blunt used to say when 

 he saAV sucli a thing. " Well now there," he 

 would say, " that are is just the thing that can't 

 be done no way, for that are fellow never can 

 make himself a farmer." 



The sum and substance, in simple and com- 

 pound, of all this matter, is just this, as w^ look 

 at it. Th-e man who, with good health, and a 

 good soil to work upon, cannot make his farm a 

 means of real and positive income, without lessen- 

 ing the value of the form, is no farmer. Still, he 

 may overcome all these deficiencies, and if so, he 

 can become a farmer. If he investigates princi- 

 ples, by his practice lae will prove those principles, 

 and be able thereby to improve his farming. 



A farm which should be held at any valuation 

 equal to a single red cent, must be a farm .which 

 can be made to produce, from year to year, a suf- 

 ficient amount to pay for the labor of cultivating 

 it — the cost of team work upon it, the wear of im 

 plements, the value of manures applied to it, the 

 taxes, the interest of its cost or valuation, and 

 something besMes. A farm that cannot be made 

 to do so much is worth nothing, onlj to help hold 

 the world together. 



We may conrider a small farm as worth $1000, 

 and then put it upon debt and credit as follows : 



Farm. — Dr. 



To interest on $'.000 $60 



Taxes , 8 



Team work, borse and oxen 50 



Manure 40 



Labor 150 



Wear of impiemeuts 10 



And the amount will be ,.$318 



We may give credit to it as follows : 



Farm, — Cr. 



To Hay §8 ■ 



Corn 25 



Potatoes 20 



All other field and garden crops 60 



Pasturing 20 



And the amount will be = S205 



Now suppose the owner to have his farm free 

 of debt when he begins his effort at farming on 

 such a farm, we may subtract from the debtor 

 table the amount of interest on the $1000 which 

 it cost ; and $G0 taken from $-318 would leave 

 $258. This would leave the farmer who f)ur- 

 efaases a farm at such a price, and cultivates it 

 with such a return, the same as being without 

 property and paying interest on a debt of $883,33 ; 

 for the expenses of liis farm would be $53 yearly 

 more than the farm would pay. 



There is a great deal of such farming. To this 

 subject we direct attention, because farming for 

 pleasure and not for profit is not making formin" 

 a business. The true farmer makes farming a 

 business, not a play for his amusement. He must 

 also make it a profitable business. 



Most of the farms of New England are doubtless 

 oapil)le of being made profitable to the owners 

 and cultivators. Many of them now fall far short 

 of it. This marks and measures the defective 

 state of our agriculture. 



A true farmer is one who has become so well 

 skilled in his Inisiness that he can make enough 

 from the cultivation of a good-soiled farm to meet 

 all expenses, pay interest, deal with all men with- 

 out niggardly littleness, contribute an honorable 

 share to the generous interests of the times, and 

 lay up something with which to meet any extrar 

 ordinary call, or do a necessary good deed at a 

 moment's warning. Too little of our farming now 

 meets this idea. 

 ^Mason, N. H. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ANTHRACITE COAL ASHES. 



Mr. Editor; — Can you inform a constant reader 

 of your valuable paper, whether the ashes of An- 

 thracite Coal, are of use for agricultural purposes? 

 Can they be used to advantage on land moderate- 

 ly light? Are they good for trees'? Should the 

 coarser parts be sifted out before using 1 



An answer to these questions will greatly oblige 

 one who has in vain attempted to obtain satisfae- 

 tory information from his neighbors. 



NewionviUe. 



Remarks. — We have no doubt that the ashes of 

 anthracite coal are valuable fertilizers. Where 

 spread on somewhat low English grass land, fine 

 results have been realized ; about trees they keep 

 the ground light and porous, and really add fertil- 

 izing matter, valuable to th^ tree, as will be seen 

 by the analyses below. 



The composition of the ash of anthracite will va- 

 ry, of course, like that of the coal itself. The fol- 

 lowing analyses by Prof. Norton of Yale College, 

 were made from several pecks of ashes, obtained 

 from a grate in which the coal had been burned 

 in the usual way, due precaution being observed 

 not to intermingle the ash with any vegetable re- 

 mains from the fuel employed in building the fires. 

 Th^ constituents of 100 parts of the ashes of white 

 and red <!?)al yielded of 



White Ask. Red Ash. 



Matter insoluble in acids 88.68 65 65 



Soluble silica 0.09 1.24 " 



Alumina 3.36 4.24 



Iron 4.03 5.83 



Lii.ie 2 11 0.16 



Magnesia 0.19 2.01 



Soda 0.22 0.16 



Potash 0.15 0.11 



Phosphoric acid 0.20 0.27 



Sulphuric acid 0.86 0.43 



Chlorine 0.09 c.Ol 



99.98 100.11 



These close and interesting analyses, says Pro- 

 fessor Norton, afford us much light upon the 

 constitution of coal ash, and enable the chemist 

 who has studied these subjects to say at once and 

 with confidence, that this ash is of some value as 

 a manure, and should by all means be so applied 

 in cases where it can be obtainel chcajly. 



In an analysis by M. KL.\PROTn, he found coal 



