of rotted manure was used as of unfermented, whereas in fermentation the manure was 

 probably reduced one half; so that instead of each receiving the same amount of ma- 

 nure, the hills dressed with the rotted dung got twice as much as those ha\Tng the raw 

 manure. To make the experiment satisfactory, the hill dressed with the rotted manure 

 should receive no more thau what would result from the fermentation of the amount 

 given the hill dressed with the raw dung. 



The mixture of hog manure, ashes, lime, and plaster, gives three bushels less than no 

 manure. Such a compound is very well as an experiment, but should on r>o consider- 

 ation be adopted in practice. Many farmers we know still adhere to the barbarous cus- 

 tom of njixing lime and unleached ashes with their barnyard manure, and by so doing 

 drive oft' nearly all the ammonia, thus rendering the manure nearly valueless. For 

 nearly all our cultivated plants ammonia is the most valuable ingredient of a manure ; 

 and to thus foolishly expel it, is, to say the least, supremely ridiculous. 



The application of ashes, lime, sulphur, and saltpetre, is attended with no benefit. 



It has been supposed from the faet that the ash -of potatoes contains a large propor- 

 tion of potash, that potash supplied as manure would be of great value. The above 

 experiments do not sustain this theory. Th^ great benefit attending the application of 

 Peruvian guano (which contains scarcely any potash) to potatoes, is also another fact 

 opposed to this idea. If further experiments corroborate these results, we must conclude, 

 not that potatoes do not require a large amount of potash, but that potash relatively to 

 other constituents is present in the soil in an available condition in suflScient quantity, 

 and that the increase of the potato crop depends on the application of other substances, 

 probably ammonia and phosphates. 



dJ 



DECENNIAL LIMEING. 



In o\ir recent travels through Pennsylvania, we received an interesting account of a farm 

 in Lancaster county which has been one hundred years under cultivation, and during 

 the last fifty has been limed every ten years. It was much exhausted when the use of 

 lime was first resorted to for its renovation, but the application of ten bushels per acre 

 developed elements of fertility before unavailable in the growth of agricultural plants. 

 After the la^se of ten years, the good eftects of the lime disappeared, and a new dose of 

 ten bushels of caustic lime was again administered to each acre. The soil is a gravelly 

 loam, and now yields thirty bushels of wheat per acre. Clover is grown in rotation 

 with wheat, and either turned under with the plow, or the land is manured wifh dung 

 formed by the grass and hay consumed by domestic animals. 



The fact most interesting to practical farmers, is the great benefit derived from the 

 average application of a bushel of lime per acre per annum for a half century, without 

 intermission. Explain this feet as we may, tens of thousands of the best acriculturists 

 in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, periodically apply calcareous 

 matter to renovate their partially impoverished fields. Long and successful experience 

 has taught them the permanent (so far as anything relating to the soil can be perma- 

 nent) advantages of decennial limeing pastures, meadows, and tilled lands. Some re- 

 quire much more lim.e to correct all acidity, and decompose the phosphates of irftn and 

 alumina, which in that form are worthless to the farmer. Combined with lime, phos- 

 phoric acid forms the earthy part of the bones of all animals ; and as this acid very 

 often abounds in soils united with iron, or alumina, or both, from which lime extracts 

 it, forming bone-earth, we see why lime operates the same as pulverised bones. It is 

 true that ground bones contain considerable organic matter from which ammonia is 

 formed, which is exceedingly valuable ; nevertheless, experience seems to prove that by 



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