ON FARMS. 131 



sound, but the yield was not great. I planted one-half an 

 acre, and raised seventy-five bushels. I have milked, this 

 year, four cows, and made, through June, July, and August, 

 twenty-two pounds of butter per week. My orchard is all 

 young, — most of it has just commenced bearing. I have rais- 

 ed, this season, fifty bushels of market apples — Baldwins. 

 Andover, Nov. 16, 1852. JOSEPH HOLT, Jr. 



LEVI BARTLETT'S LETTER. 



Warner, N. H., Dec. 3, 1852. 



Allen W. Dodge, — Dear Sir : The experiments of Professor 

 Way seem to throw much light upon some things connected 

 with agriculture, that were previously rather dark, and not so 

 easily comprehended. Still, I do not think Prof. Way's ex- 

 periments, alone, fully explain the whole phenomena of the 

 fertility of naturally rich soils. We are, I think, equally in- 

 debted to Liebig and Dr. Krocker, for an explanation of a por- 

 tion of the facts Prof. Way's experiments have proved. Lie- 

 big made the discovery of the existence of ammonia in rain wat- 

 er, and Dr. Krocker has, by his analysis, proved the existence 

 of a large amount of ammonia in the soil ; and Prof. Way has 

 shown the capacity of the aluminous portions of soils, for re- 

 taining — fixing, as it were, — the salts and gases, so necessary 

 in rendering a soil fertile. Says Prof Way, this "is a very 

 wonderful property of soil, and appears to be an express provis- 

 ion of nature :" "a power," he remarks, "is here found to re- 

 side in soils, by virtue of which, not only is rain unable to 

 wash out of them those soluble ingredients forming a necessary 

 condition of vegitation ; but even these compounds, Avhen in- 

 troduced artificially by manures, are laid hold of and fixed in 

 the soil, to the absolute p?-ecliisioji of any loss either by rain or 

 evaporation.'''' 



I must beg leave to be excused from going the whole figure 

 with him, in the above strong assertion. Take, for illustra- 

 tion, a strong clay soil, that has been thoroughly underdrained, 

 and then put upon it twenty-five loads per acre, of cattle ma- 



