^ ) 2S4 THE GENESEE FAEMEE. (] pj 



gen, &c., and is worth, we think, about as much as 13|- lbs of dried peat. The potash 

 you so anxiously inquire after Mr. Joiinscn did not find. Even admitting the manure 

 to be made as Mr. Mapes states, we do not see how it could contain more than half a 

 per cent, of potash. 



Another charge brought against Mr. Johxsox is, that he found 37 per cent, of sul- 

 phate of lime, and that, to let his readers know what it was, he called it "gypsum" or 

 "plaster." It is admitted that this amount of plaster is present, but it is stated that it 

 was not added, but is necessarily present — superphosphate can not be made without it. 

 This is all true, and Mr. Johnson said nothing to the contrary. He found 37 per cent, 

 of " plaster," and so wrote it down in his analysis. Does Mr. Mapes intend us to 

 understand that his artificially made plaster is any better than we obtain from natural 

 sources for $2.50 per ton ? This is the last error charged to Mr. Johnson. 



We must again apologize to that gentleman for taking any notice of so ridiculous and 

 contemptible an attack on his reputation as a chemist. The manner, however, in which 

 the article is heralded and paraded by Mr. Mapes would lead agi-iculturists to think 

 that this criticism was well founded, and that Mr. Johnson had made great chemical 

 and analytical mistakes. On the contrary, his analysis is the only one that we have 

 seen which shows the real value of the "improved superphosphate of lime" — it is the 

 only one that gives us the percentage of soluble superphosphate of lime and of the 

 ammonia. — J. H. 



Washington's Wealth — The Mount Vernon Estate. — The following extract is 

 taken from an old book published by Russell & West, Boston, in the year 1800, 

 entitled "Washington's Political Legacies," and dedicated by the editors to Mrs. Martha 

 Washington : 



" General "Washixgton was at one time probably one of the greatest land-holders in the United 

 States. His annual receipt from his estates amounted, in 1776, to four thousand pounds sterling. 

 His property, at the same period, was estimated to be worth one hundred and sixty thousand pounds 

 sterling, which is a very large sum in federal money, and was considered a very great fortune at 

 that early day in this country for any one man to possess. 



"His estate at Mount Vernon alone was computed in 1787 to consist of nine thousand acres of 

 land, of which enough was in cultivation to produce, in a single year, ten thousand busliels of corn, 

 and seven thousand bushels of wheat. In a succeeding year he raised two hundred lambs, sowed 

 twenty-seven bushels of flax seed, and planted seven hundred bushels of potatoes. He desisted, it 

 is said, from planting tobacco, which was then extensively raised in Virginia, for the purpose of 

 setting an example, by employing his extensive means in the introduction and fostering of such 

 articles of domestic use and necessity as would ultimately tend to the best advantage of his country. 

 His domestics, at the same time, were industriously employed in manufacturing woolen cloth and 

 linen in su eient quantities to clothe his numerous household, which numbered nearly one thou- 

 sand persons." 



.-o~» 



Digging "Wells in Quick Sand. — Thinking that it may be of importance to some of your readers, 

 I will give some of my experience in digging Avells in quick sand. My father was digging a well 

 where the quick sand run in so bad that he was led to contrive some way to remedy the evil result- 

 ing from it. His plan is, (when you get down where the sand runs in so as to prevent working at 

 advantage) to make a platform to lay the wall on out of plank by pinning them together; place 

 this on the bottom, and then lay a wall of good hard brick and waterdime. When you get above 

 where there will be any danger of the sand caving in, you can go on and dig tlie well as deep as 

 you please, and the wall will settle down as fast as you take out the sand under it. We have set- 

 tlc:d a well two feet after it had stood for years. I was led to send this from hearing of the difficulty 

 they ha»J in dig^^ing wells at Geneva. A Farmer's Son. — Seneca Falls, JV. Y. 



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