1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



123 



(SMtor'0 (Stable. 



GiTi?jG Ckedit. — The Albany Cultivator and American Agricul- 

 turist have had considerable to say reprobating the common prac- 

 tice of copying articles, and using other men's knowledge with- 

 out giving due credit We have suffered depredations of this Isind 

 so long, that th^y very rarely provoke a passing remark. It would 

 be an easy task to fill a volume with plagiarisms perpetrated on the 

 senior editor of this paper. In 18-t5 and 1846 we published in the 

 Genesee Farmer sundry articles on the culture of wheat, show- 

 ing, from our chemical researches, the intimate relation that sub- 

 sists between clover and this important cereal. On page 56, vol- 

 ume 7, we use the following language : 



'• There are 7.7 lbs. of ash in 100 lbs. of dry clover. If this crop 

 be taken from a field for a number of years, without making resti- 

 tution, it will be found quite exhausting, notwithstanding the 

 power of clover to draw its organic nourishment Irom the atmos- 

 phere. An acre of stout clover, when perfectly dry. has been known 

 to weigh 3693 lbs., containing 284 lbs. of ash. This is some 60 lbs. 

 more than is removed from an acre in a fair crop of wheat. It is 

 Useful to study the mineral elements of this plant in connection 

 with those of wheat. In 284 lbs. of the ash of clover there are of 



Phosphoric Acid. 18.00 lbs. 



Sulrihuric Acid, 7.00 



Chlorine, 7.00 



Lime 70.00 



Magnesia 18.00 



Potash and Soda, 77.00 



Silica 15.00 



Oxide of Iron and Alumnia, 00.90 



Carbonic Acid, 71.00 



283.90 lbs. 

 " Throwing out of the account the 71 lbs. of carbonic acid, we 

 have 213 lbs of earthy matter. An acre of wheat needs, to form 

 both seed and straw, 17 lbs. of phosphoric acid An acre of good 

 clover will furnish 18 lbs. That quantity of wheat needs 2 lbs of 

 sulphuric acid. An acre of clover will supply 7 lbs. The former 

 needs 1 lb. of chlorine— a substance th,at forms GO percent, in com- 

 mon salt. Clover will furnish 7 lbs. Wheat (an acre) needs 16 

 lbs of lime. Clover will supply 70 lbs. Wheat need.s 13 lbs. rff 

 magnesia. Clover will .■'upply 18 lbs. Wheat needs 24 lbs. of pot- 

 ash and soda ; (and an excess.) Clover will fumi.^h 77 lbs. 

 Wheat needs 121 lbs. of silica ; of which clover can furnish only 

 15 lbs. Except silica, or sand, it will be seen that an acre of good 

 clover yields all the several minerals needed by a crop of wheat ; 

 and some of the most valu.tble ones, iu largo excess. In its organic 

 element;-, the supply is not less abundant. 



Caibon. Oxygen. iTydiosien. Nilrosfn. 



Clover has in 3693 lbs. 1750 ]'396 1.S.5 78 



Wheat crop, 3124 lbs., 1487 1262 171 32 



'■ It is particularly worthy of note that clo.er yields more 

 than twlo'! as much idtrnc^en as both the wheat and straw reouire 

 It is proper to state that to make 3693 lb,-?, of perfectly dry clorer 

 one must have 4675 lbs of common clover hay. But iu plowing 

 in clover for wheat, we gain all the stubble and roots, in addition 

 to what the scythe clip? in mowing." 



The editor of the Michigan Farmer, without so much as naming 

 this journal at all, in his -prize essay on wheat culture," published 

 in January, has made some professional reputation by following 

 our language and ideas thus closely ; 



Wheat. Clover. 



" Phosphoric Acid 17 lbs. 18 Iba. 



Sulphuric Acid, 2 7 



Chlorine, 1 7 



Lime, 17 70 



Magnesia, 13 18 



Potash and Soda 24 77 



Silica, .' 115 15 



'■ Thus it appears that all these mineral elements, except sand, 

 the clover plant supplies more than the wheat plant lakes away, 

 and one of them, which, perhaps, is the most important of all, viz : 

 lime, It supplies four times the amount which the wheat crop re- 

 quires. And these elements are drawn, to a great extent, from a 

 depth' where they previously lay in an unavailable state. There 

 is a deficiency in the quantity of silica, or sand, which the clover 

 plant furnishes, but in this there is no deficieucy in our ordiuary 

 ■Vfheat lands, except that it exist.'j there in an insoluble, and there- 

 fore unavailable state. But if the clover plant furnishes the ma- 

 terial to dissolve it, it does the same thing as to supply it, and this 

 is just what it does. Potash is the very element to bring it into 

 requisition, and of this element the clover plant furnishes three 

 times as much as the wheat crop requires. 



" While the clover thus largely exceeds the wheat crop in the 

 mineral elements it contains, it also furnishes a somewhat larger 

 amount of all the organic elements, drawn mostly from the atmos- 

 phere, viz : carbon, oxygen, hydrogen ivnd nitrogen. Of nitrogen, 

 the clover crop contains two and a half times as much as the wheat 

 crop, and this is an element more frequently deficient in the soil, 

 more diflicult to be supplied, and, we may add, more important to / 



make the other element"! available, than, perhaps any other al- 

 of wheat "' °"^^ '° *^® ™''" proportion of 32 lbs. to an acre 



Had the Genesee Farmer been copied throughout the essay, the 

 writer would have escaped the errors which impair the value of 

 his performance. Wo must do him the justice to remark that he 

 gives "Dr. Lee" credit for his analyses, but for nothing more. 

 In the '■ Supplement to the Prize Es.say," which appears in the 

 April number of the Michigan Farmer, the editor adopts our re- 

 marks almost verbatim, on the relative advantages of turning in 

 clover with the plow to enrich land, and feeding it to domestic 

 animals and applying the manure, without giving the least credit. 

 What we had to say on (he subject, was based on chemical re- 

 searches, which cost both time and money, and for which we were 

 paid nothing. After working several y ears in We,?tern New York, 

 we took, in 1847, a fair apparatus for the analysis of soils to Geor- 

 gia, but did not realize enough to pay the breakage of glass-r.are 

 in getting it out and back to Washington, while two years in Au- 

 gusta. 



These facts are named, not in the way of complaint, but that 

 our numerous readers out west (who are a.lso readers of agricul- 

 tural journals there which habitually throw stones at the Genesee 

 Farmer,) may judge rightly of the motives of its assailants. We 

 wish them all prosperity and shall never place a straw in their 

 way. The closer they adhere to the t.-nchings of this journal, 

 whether with or without credit, the more prizes they wiU win. 



New York State Fair. -During the pa.«t month. John Dei..*.- 

 FiELD, of Seneca Co, President of the State Agricultiir.il Society, 

 Col. SHER-nooD, of Auburn, and J. D. Dlrnett, of Syracuse, 

 visited our city for the purpose of selecting ground for the next 

 State Fair. They were entertained by a committee of citizens, 

 who had designated several places as among the most eligible for 

 the purpose. We were much gratified by this visit of these sterling 

 friends of agriculture, and hope to enjoy their society often during 

 the coming season. It is the intention of our citizens and the offi- 

 cers of the Society, to make the coming exhibition creditable to the 

 Society, and to the reputation of the •• Genesee Valley." 



Premiums — In consequence of the early day at which we are 

 compelled to put our paper to press, wo are unable to announce 

 our premiums this month as we intended to do. We are compell- 

 ed to stereotype the Farmer before the 15th. and even with this ar- 

 rangement some of our subscribers have too much cause to com- 

 plain of the late arrival of their papers. The premiums will be 

 awarded nest month. 



New York and Erie Railro.id.— This invaluable work ap- 

 proaches its completion. Cars will soon run from Dunkirk, on 

 Lake Erie, to the city of New York, save the ferry across the Hud- 

 son from Jersey city. The luggage or baggage of passengers will 

 bo checked through from New York to Cleveland, Toledo. Detroit, 

 Milwaukie and Chicago. '■ Competition is the life of business." 



Melancholy Death of John S. Skinner, Esq. — Since our last 

 paper went to press, John S. Skinner, Es(J., the founder of the 

 American Farmer, iu Baltimore in 1819, (the oldest agricultural 

 journal in America) met with an accident in that city which sud- 

 denly terminated his valuable life in the midst of its greatest use- 

 fulness. In going out of a room in the interior of the Post office, 

 he unfortunately opened a wrong door and stepping rut, fell into a 

 cellar and received such injuries, a fracture of the skull and oth- 

 ers, that he never spoke afterwards. The deceased was widely 

 known and esteemed for his intigrity, talents, industry, and life- 

 long devotion to the advancement of agriculture. His labors have 

 been eminently useful to his country ; and nothing but the lack 

 of space prevents us from expressing, at much greater length, our 

 appreciation of his worth as a man, and distinguished services as 

 an agricultural writer. At the time of his death he was editor 

 and proprietor of •■' The Plow, the Loom and the Anvil," published 

 in Philadelphia. 



Death of Gov. Isaac Hill, op New Hampshire. — Mr, Hill, foun- 

 der of the " Farmer's Monthly Visitor," and an agricultural wri- 

 ter widely known, has died, in Washington city, of a pulmonary 

 complaint, within a few weeks of the present writing. As a polit- 

 ical jouru.alist and Senator in Congress, he acquired a national 

 reputation. As an agriculturist, his efforts were well directed and 

 reasonably succosstul. 



