k 130 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



June 



ed Uri that he applied quick lime at the rate of 200 bti 

 per acre : there are some 1400 acres in the farm. The 

 lime was hauled several miles, and the experience of 

 many years has proved the operation to be a profit- 

 able investment. Tlie land was badly exhausted in 

 tobacco culture, before the revolution. It now pro- 

 duces excellent clover and wheat. We have visited 

 the plantation of Gov. IIammonp, of Soutii Carolina, 

 on which have been spread over 300,000 bushels of 

 unburnt marl, composed of marine shells, more or less 

 finelv comminuted. In this case, the result has been 

 equally satisfactory. Gov. H, applies about 200 bu. 

 per acre. More lime is used in New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, than in 

 any other part of the Uniyn. Its high price, and the 

 equal lack of other elements necessary to the growth 

 of cultivated plants, diminish the consumption of cal- 

 careous manure. \V"here the cost of the article is a 

 serious impediment, much less should be applied to 

 an acre : even five bushels will pay well in addition 

 to other ingredients. The ten thousand miles of 

 railway now completed, must obviate the difficulty of 

 procuring lime in many States, and we hope tiiat all 

 farmers will give this mineral a fair trial. Land that 

 abounds in organic matter or mould, requires more 

 lime than a soil which possesses very little. Wet 

 pieces of ground which have recently been drained, 

 arc peculiarly benefitted by a liberal dressing of caus- 

 tic lime, which may cither be harrowed or plowed in, 

 as circumstances may seem to favor. Moderate 

 doses, and often repeated, is a better practice than 

 large ones at distant intervals. 



Recent discoveries by Prof. Way, and others in 

 Englan 1, go to prove the necessity of lime in the soil 

 not merely as an element of nutrition to be taken in- 

 to the circulation of plants, but as an ingredient 

 which is indispensable for the most favorable action 

 of manure of every kind that fields ammonia. Ey 

 decomposing salts of lime, such as the carbonate, sul- 

 phate and chloride, in the earth, ammonia is arrested 

 and retained to feed and nourish vegetation. Stable 

 manure operates much better on land that contains 

 from one to three per cent of lime, than on that which 

 contains only one-tenth of the proportions named. 

 Every observing farmer knows that any given ("pian- 

 tity of manure does produce equal results on all fields. 

 Hence the question has been much discussed whether 

 a man will make most money to apply his manure on 

 his best or on his poorest land. As a general thing, 

 the gain from the manure will be greater on good 

 than on poor soils. Largo experience, in countries 

 where arable land is less abundant than in this, has 

 shown the wisdom of limeing poor fields and thor- 

 oughly incorporating the alkaline mineral with the 

 earth, before applying manure. If the dead clay con- 

 tains any alum, lime will convert its sulphuric aci;l 

 into gypsum ; if it contains copperas, gyjjsum will 

 also be formed. If it possesses any phosphate of 

 alumina, or iron, as poor soils often do, then lime 

 forms bone-earth by combining with the phosphoric 

 acid. Suppose the earth be nearly pure sand, alum- 

 ina, (clay,) and iron — the commonest sort of poor 

 land^ — and lacks vegetable matter, and all fertilizing 

 acids and alkalies, even then it is advisable to apply 

 lime, not in the expectation that it will alone suilice 

 to renovate sterile earth, hut to prepare it for the re- 

 ception of organic manures. Lime is truly one of 

 the staples of fertility, and those that can readily 

 command it should see that all their pastures, mea- 

 dows aiid tilled fields do not lack calcareous matter. 



THE EOONOMIOAL USES OF PEAT. 



The Journal of the Ilighlnnd Agricultural Society 

 for the last quarter, contains an exceedingly instruc- 

 tive paper from Dr. ANUBaso.v, Chemist to the Soci- 

 ety, on the "Economical Uses of Peat." The 

 researches of Dr. A. were directed t-i the object of 

 determining, by careful expi-riments, the actu'al and 

 relative powers of dried peat and peat charcoal to ab- 

 sorb and retain ammonia, and other gaseous bodies, 

 which escape from nightsoil, stable manure, and 

 other putrescent substances. His Report fills fifteen 

 pages in the Journal named, and it ought to be repro- 

 duced in this country. We can find room only for 

 the results obtained, with little of the details of the 

 processes and experiments. We will state, however, 

 tiiat peat, for making coal, is cut into pieces equal to 

 the half of a cubic foot and placed on trays or baskets 

 of wicker-work, one above another, to dry. It is then 

 carried to the building in which the burning takes 

 place, where it is arranged over furnaces and still far- 

 ther dried six or eight days. The furnaces in which 

 it is carbonized may be described as a sort of pyra- 

 midal boxes of sheet iron of variable length, and 

 about five feet wide at the bottom, gradually taperincr 

 to about a foot at the top where there is a sort of vent- 

 hole. These pyramidal furnaces are open at the 

 bottom and stand in trays also of sheet-iron. They 

 are filled by tilting them on their sides, when the dry 

 peat is carefully packed in, and retained in by bars 

 which pass across the bottom ; and after being fired 

 ihey are returned into an upright position. The 

 combustion is allowed to go on until the flame ceases, 

 which generally requires from five to six hours. 

 Water is then let into the tray so as to exclude all 

 air I'rom the furnace, and thus extinguish the remain- 

 ing charcoal. The reader will see that this is a very 

 simple apparatus and must be elTectual. The water 

 in the tray does not rise high enough to reach the 

 peat, or coal in the furnace. When it is cooled down 

 suHiciontly, the coal is removed and put through large 

 sieves, the larger pieces being employed as fuel and 

 the fine powder as a deodorizer. In Ireland, the cost 

 of production appears to be as follows : 



£ 5. d. 

 Draining the bog and cutting the turf to produce 



u ion of drieij peat 16 



I'.irking on the trays and wagons, and conveyance 



to the i'urnace-house, *.. (12 



Wear and tear, &c., 6 



£0 4 



It requires four tons of peat to make one ton of 

 coal. 



£ s. d. 



Four tons of peat, at 4*., .^ 16 



Labor, and expense of burning, 4 6 



(Grinding nnd sifinig, - - 2 6 



£13 

 By the above figures it will be seen that a ton of 

 peat coal costs nearly six times more than a ton of 

 air dried peat. 



We must now pass over much that is valuable to 

 reach the comparative power of dry peat and peat 

 coal to absorb ammonia. 



" Experinunt 1. A glass tube about half an inch 

 in diameter, liaJ a piece of cloth tied over its lower 

 end, and was filled to the depth of about twelve inches 

 with Irish pc.it charcoal and a solution of ammonia, 

 containing 2.42 grains to the cubic inch, poured into 

 it. The first drop of fluid that pasted through it was 



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