No. 151.] 377 



without perceiving any superiority in growth over the first year, and 

 that they had determined not to use any more of it. Now, the fact 

 is, if they used 500 pounds to the acre, a sufficient quantity of sul- 

 phuric acid was added to the soil, to last any crop you could put on 

 the land for four years, and consequently any additional quantity 

 was superfluous and perhaps hurtful. 



If you cannot readily obtain plaster, no better substitute can be 

 found than anthracite coal ashes; they contain ten per cent of sulphate 

 of lime, ten per cent of lime and sand, together with oxide of iron^. 

 alumina, azote, silica, magnesia, oxide of manganese, sulphuret of 

 iron, and alkaline salts. Sixty bushels of coal ashes per acre would 

 be equal to six bushels of plaster, (as far as sulphuric acid is (Con- 

 cerned), for grasses. I can assure you there is no manure that I have 

 tried, the effects of which are more immediate and certain than coal 

 ashes on certain soils. Last summer I experimented w^ith it upon 

 clover and timothy grass, and likewise upon trees, with great suc- 

 cess, and recommend its use to all. 



The proper plan for young farmers would be, when they purchase 

 a farm, to become acquainted with the properties of the soil by an- 

 alysis. They should understand analysis themselves, to some degree, 

 if not, for $20 they may have their soils analysed, instead of pro- 

 ceeding in the dark, wasting manure, seed and time, they will know 

 precisely the substance deficient, and by applying it, will frequently 

 produce great results at a small cost. 



Next to lime, the substance most probably absent in all cultivated 

 soils, will be bone earth. By all the analysis recently made, bone 

 earth and potash are found in less quantities than any other sub- 

 stance, except perhaps lime. They are both indispensable to all 

 crops; I would therefore advise the frequent use of bone dust, lime 

 and ashes, upon all soils that have been long under cultivation. 



It is the want of these three substances, particularly, that has render- 

 ed the soils of all our old States once so fertile, and almost inexhaus- 

 tible in the estimation of the first settlers, now barren wastes. The 

 old countries, too, may beheld up as examples; the island of Sicily 

 once the granary of Southern Europe, now imports its breadstuffs; 

 the soil of Italy, in the neighborhood of Rome, once affording food 

 for hundreds of thousands, is now sterile. Such will be the case in 

 the whole of Europe as well as in this country, if the present sys- 

 tem of arranging drains in all the large cities, to carry millions of 

 dollars worth of the most fertilizing and enriching manures into the 



