106 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



It 



the universal neglect to obey this law of nature, 

 which is a law of God, that impoverishes ao many 

 millions of acres of American soils. The twenty -two 

 millions of people now in the United States annually 

 consume, or otherwise waste, enough of the elements 

 of bread and meat, wool and cotton, tobacco and sugar 

 cane, to form 600,000,000 bushels of wheat. All 

 these elements of fertility arc extracted from tlie 

 surface of the earth, and never restored. If we allow 

 only the quantity given to southern slaves, thirteen 

 biif-hels to each on a plantation, old and young, the 

 aggregate consumed by 22,000,000 of persons is 

 286,000,000 bushels per annum. The quantity of 

 fertilizing atoms, directly or indirectly wasted in pro- 

 visions, vegetables, and fruits, is ten per cent, greater 

 than in brcad-stuffe. The ten or twelve millions of 

 acres planted every year in cotton, tobacco, and sugar 

 cane, lose each the equivalent of twenty bushels of 

 wheat. After traveling carefully over the whole 

 ground, estimating the number now employed in 

 tillage and husbandry in the free and slave States, 

 and the several crops exported as well as consumed 

 at home, our annual consumption drawn from the 

 soil and not restored, is found to be equal to one 

 thousand million bushels of corn. The number of 

 laborers constantly employed in deteriorating the 

 natural fruitfulness of the earth in thirty States, 

 increases at the rate of some 200,000 a year. 



There are 100,000,000 acres of land in the plant- 

 ing and grain growing States, which includes the 

 whole, whose natural fertility, or supply of bone 

 earth, potash, gypsum, magnesia, and soluble flint, 

 can not be made good for ten dollars an acre, or for 

 one thousand millions of dollars. 



Number of persons empivyed en 1840. 

 In agriculture, 3 ,/ll>.951 



In manufactures and trades, 791,749 



In commerce, 117, GOP 



In learned professions, 65,255 



In navigating the ocean, 56,021 



In navifrating the rivers, lakes, and canals, 32,27(> 



in pensions, 20,793 



In mining, 15,210 



Total .1,098,918 



By adding the natural increase to the tillers of the 

 earth, the increase by emigrants from Europe and 

 Canada, and the gain by the annexation of Texas, 

 and it will be found that 5,000,000 laborers are now 

 employed in agriculture in the United Stales, this 

 side of New Mexico. Before we can possibly per- 

 suade one half to do as much to enrich the earth as 

 the other moiety do to impoverish it, twenty-five 

 years will elapse, when five millions of laborers will 

 still be impioyed in exhausting American soils. 

 " Uncle Sam" has a magnificent farm ; bat his chil- 

 dren manage it very badly. 



The raw material for making a bushel of wheat, is 

 worth from ten to thirty cents, according to its abund- 

 ance in the soil and the location of the land. In 

 England, where the average crops of wheat are about 

 twice as large as in this country, an acre consumes 

 some 25 lbs. of phosphoric acid, G2J lbs. ammonia, 

 30 lbs. pure potash, 117 lbs. soluble silica, lOJ lbs. 

 Bulphuric acid, beside other important elements. At 

 the cheapest rate, the ammonia alone is set down at 

 £1 lis. 3d., or about :P7.60. If we have a right to 

 assume that a good living is wortli as much in the 

 United States as in England, and that no generation 

 has more than a life lease in the earth which it culti- 



vates, and is bound to leave the soil as fertile as it 

 foimd it, then to waste the elements of bread and 

 meat, wool and cotton, as we now do, is one of the 

 gravest offences against the inalienable rights of 

 posterity. We compel our children and grand-chil- 

 dren to give far more labor for a bushel of whe^at than 

 we do,- if we impoverish one acre of arable land which 

 they must cultivate. The safest and best property 

 which a man can leave for his children, is a farm 

 rich in all the elements of wheat, giving them a 

 thorough profession il education how to render it for- 

 ever exceedingly productive, and at a small expense. 

 It requires less wit to rob the soil than to rob a bank 

 or granary ; and some day it will be thought equally 

 dishonest. 



DTJBABn,TTY OF BONE MANtXHE. 



At the last meeting of the Probus (Eng.) Farmers* Club, a 

 paper on the analysis of l!ie soils of Carnwinick Ynrm — tlie 

 property and in the occupation of C. A. T. Hawkins, Esq.. 

 was read by Mr. Kakkeek. Its object was to show the 

 durability of bone manure for a period often years. 



It appears that, in 1835, a piece of w.aste ground was taken 

 from the common, and prepared fur turncps, the lar^Eer part 

 of which was manured with hone dust, at the rate of three 

 quarters (twenty -four bushels) to the acre. (The whole of 

 the turnep plants were destroyed by the fly; consequently, 

 little or none of the bone dust was used in that crop.) In 

 the two following years it was successively cropped with 

 oats, and with the last crop, laid down to permanent pasture, 

 in which state it has remained over since. At the present 

 period, theetVectof the bone dust can be plainly distinguished 

 — the land having a rich green sward, while the adjoining 

 part, where no bone dust has been applied, has a coarse, 

 sterile appearance. This, and a great many other experi- 

 ments of the same cliaracter, made by the manriper of the 

 farm, in all of which the cfl'cct of the bone was ei|nally visi- 

 ble, induced the Club to send a simple of the soil from ouch 

 part of the field on which the first named experiment w.is 

 made, to Mr. lIuNr, now curator of the .Museum of Economic 

 Geology, to be analysed, in order to ascertain if tho bone 

 could be detected at the present time. It .should be observed 

 that Mr. Hunt was kept altogether ignorant of the object of 

 the Club, and that the result was perfectly satisfactory, inas- 

 much as he readily detected the bone in that portion of the 

 field on which it had been applied ten years before. The 

 following arc the analyses : 



No. 1. No. 2. 



Water, eraporated bystoTe drying 14 OG 14.18 



Vegetable and animal matters bamt off... . 12 01 12 05 



Silica nnil silicious grit 49 &4 49 50 



OjiJc of iron 7 03 7 00 



Carbonate of lime. . l.Of. 106 



Carbonate of magnesia. 0.25 0.35 



Sulph.ite of lime 1.05 104 



MuriatM 54 64 



Alumina 7.10 6.C4 



Phosphate of lime 10 75 



Phoiphatc of maguejia, 0.00 05 



Potash 100 127 



Humus and soluble alkalies 6.0O 6.17 



Mr. Kafkeek contended, from these analyses, that the 

 experiment went to prove an important fact, which had been 

 a disputed question among agriculturists, viz : that the prin- 

 cipal manuring properties of bone existed in the earthy mat- 

 tt-rs. which constitute about two-thirds of hone, and not in 

 the uily and p.liitinous parts constituting the remaining third. 

 .4n interesting discussion eiisui-d on the euliject of the 

 analyses, the Club being of opinion that the or^-inic parts of 

 bone evidently had a powerful elTect as manure, but that it 

 was next to an impossibility Ihnt any other than the earthy 

 matter could have remained ao long in the lanil — the whole 

 of the animal matter having probably been consumed by the 

 two cnips of oaLs — and thoyngreid with .Mr. Kaiikekk, 

 that the principal manuring properties of bone eiist in tho 

 earthy phosphates. — London Agricuiturnl Gazette. 



The above instructive article calls forcibly to mind 

 an incident in our chemical ex|)eriencc in Georgia, 

 something over a year ago. Two parcels of miner- 

 als, having precisely the same appearance, were sent 

 for analyses, with tlie implied understanding that 



Is 



I 



