AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aghicoltueal Wabehouse.) 



VOL. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 10, 1839. 



[NO. 40. 



N , E. FARMER 



The subjoined communication from Dr C. T. 

 Jackson, the learned geologist of Maine, deserves 

 particular attention ; and I am happy to make the 

 N. E. Farmer the medium of its communication to 

 the public. The subject to which it relates is 

 constantly taking stronger hold upon tiie public 

 attention. Let New Englanders never " give up 

 the ship ;■' nor despair of making her agriculture 

 as improved, as beautiful and productive as it is 

 capable of being rendered. She need not, if she 

 will do herself justice, dread for a moment a com- 

 petition even with the most favored regions in any 

 of the departments of human industry and skill ; 

 and every unfolding of her resources will serve to 

 exalt the respect and to strengthen the attachment 

 of her children to their native home. H. C. 



Boston, Feb. 8, 1839. 

 Mr Hf.nrt Colman, Agricultural Commissioner, — 



Dear Sir^. — Having viewed with great interest 

 the e.Kertions which you and your scientific co- 

 laborer. Prof, H'tchcock, have made in behalf of 

 agriculture and the treatment of soils of Massa- 

 chusetts, I beg leave to offer for your consideration 

 a few remarks on the influence of lime in amending 

 soils so as to render them more capable of pro- 

 ducing heavy crops of wheat. 



The favorable influence of calcareous matter in 

 the production of the crops above mentioned, has 

 since been fully recognized ; but I am of 



amounts really to a large quantity when we con- 

 sider the area in which it exists. 



The influence of lime is probably not yet fully 

 understood, for besides combining with certain 

 animal and vegetable matters forming compounds 

 gradually soluble, and by that means retained in a 

 proper condition for the constant supply of plants, 

 and entering also into the composition of all grains 

 and grasses ; it evidently acts also in a chemical 

 and physical manner in the soil, and upon the root- 

 lets and spongioles of the plants exciting by a 

 gradual electric power the endosmcsis or internal 

 impulse of liquids through the membranes forming 

 the spongioles and cellules of the plants. Re- 

 searches in this department of agricultural science 

 offer a rich harvest of discovery to the physiologist 

 and chemist, but little having yet been done. I 

 have long since projected a series of experiments 

 to elucidate some of the obscure and intricate laws 

 which regulate the above mentioned functions, but 

 constant absence from home during the summer 

 months has as yet prevented my carrying them into 

 full effect. 



The influence of vegetable matters in soils has, 

 I believe, been two commonly over-rated, and the 

 eft'ects of animal manures is not yet fully under- 

 stood. If vegetable humus, soluble and insoluble 

 geine were the sole requisites for luxuriant vege- 

 tation, our peat bogs sj^ould have been covered 

 with the most abundant crops. The fact is how- 

 ever otherwise, and peat alone, although nearly 

 pure vegetable matter, is known to be almost bar- 



0°p'inior't^.'^.t7a7meTs"ao\iors'uffidcntly value the rcn, and" it is found sometimes when used without 

 effects oroduced bv a very small per centage of addition of other matters, to exert a most unfavor- 



effects produced by a very small pi 

 lime in the soil. It has been too commonly sup- 

 posed that enormous quantities were requisite to 

 produce the desired effect, which according to my 

 *bservations, is not the case, for I find that even in 

 the apparently insignificant proportion of one per 

 cent, that carbonate of lime exerts a beneficial 

 effect, and that where the proportion amounts to 

 from two to four per cent, the soil is decidedly 

 luxuriant in cereal grains. 



Let me then call your attention to the actual 

 amount of carbonate of lime contained in a cubic 

 foot of soil assuming its mean specific gravity to 

 be 2,400,* tliat of water being 1,000. 



A cubic foot of water weighs nearly 1000 oz., 

 and hence a cubic foot of soil at the above specific 

 gravity will weigh 2400 oz., which number of ounces 

 being divided by IG, gives the number of pounds 

 equal to 175 to the cubic foot Allowing one per 

 cent, of carbonate of lime in the soil, we shall have 

 1.75 lb. to the cubic foot of soil. 



If it contained four per cent, of carbonate of 

 lime we shall have four pounds to the cubic foot. 



Since, however, the soil is rarely accessible to 

 the roots of plants below the depth of six inches, 

 we will allow in the first case .87 lb. or the amount 

 in one-half cubic foot, and in the second 2 lbs. for 

 the same depth. We see then that an apparently 

 trifling per cent, of carbonate of lime in a soil 



* See the specific gravity of soils of Mass. Prof Hitch- 

 cock's Report. 



able influence on vegetation. Pure silex, alumina 

 lime or gypsum, are also totally barren ; but a 

 combination of these ingredients with a small pro- 

 portion of vegetable matter produces a luxuriant 

 soil. Peat, by proper management, is capable of 

 being converted into a most valuable manure ; but 

 it is essential that it should be saturated with 

 earthy or alcaline bases, and this is most easily 

 effected, as I have formerly described, by making 

 a compost of peat, animal manure and lime, in 

 successive layers, so as to generate a large quantity 

 of ammonia, which combines with the acid matters 

 of the peat and also forms with the carbonic acid 

 gas extricated a large quantity of carboriat'e of 

 ammonia, which is absorbed by tiie peat, and is one 

 of the most powerful saline manures. 



Geate of lime alone is but little soluble, but is 

 perhaps by that very reason retained more perma- 

 nently in the soil and is gradually absorbed by the 

 rootlets of plants. 



Phosphoric acid generally exists in peat, and is 

 by the action of calcareous matter converted into 

 the phosphate of lime, one of the essential con- 

 stituents of gTain. Phosphate of alumina, as sug- 

 gested by my scientific friend, Dr S. L. Dana, also 

 exists in some soils, and by chemical reaction phos- 

 phate of lime may be formed and enter into the 

 composition of the plants by absorption. Animal 

 manures contain both the phosphate and carbonate 

 of lime, and bv fermentation carbonate of ammonia 



is also formed, large quantities of which is lost in 

 the usual mode of keeping barn yard manures un- 

 covered and exposed to rain. 



The loss of the saline matters of manures by 

 solution and infiltration is vastly greater than is 

 commonly supposed by farmers. The evaporation 

 to which so much loss is attributed is but a drop 

 in the bucket in comparison with that of solution. 

 Some maintain that manures never penetrate be- 

 yond the depth of a few inches ; but this is a great 

 error. The most important ingredients, viz. the 

 soluble salts penetrate the earth to enormous depths, 

 and we find animal matters in the well waters of 

 Boston, 150 feet below the surface. I know also 

 of instances where deep well water, formerly free 

 from saline and animal matters, became charged 

 with them two years after the top soil had been 

 cultivated and dressed w-ith animal manures. Hence 

 it is evident that since all the fresh water of our 

 wells infiltrates from tlie top soil that the soluble 

 salts, whether of animal, vegetable or mineral na- 

 ture, will be dissolved and carried down by the 

 action of water, and they are, as I know, easily 

 detected in the water at great depths. Hence the 

 value of a clay substratum in our fields where the 

 the soils are porous ; and the facts coincide with 

 theory as I have frequently had occasion to ob- 

 serve. 



Saline matters act 1st, according to their nature 

 as nutriments to the plants or by rendering soluble 

 certain substances which are alimentary. 2d. By 

 their stimulant and electro-motive power by exci- 

 ting the irT't'-bilitv of the plant, and by producing 

 electro-motive or endosmoinic action in the spon- 

 gioles and cellules. 3d. By stimulating the foliage 

 of plants to absorb a larger amount of carbonic 

 acid from the atmosphere, the latter property being 

 possessed by salts which are not in themselves nu- 

 tritious. 



Thus small quantities of sea salt, gypsum, sul- 

 phate of soda, nitre, &c., act in the latter mode, 

 and they should never be put upon the field until 

 the germination of the seed is completed, nor before 

 the second leaves of certain plants put forth ; nor 

 should they be thrown on the soil at the time when 

 the seed is about to ripen, since these salts act 

 wholly upon the foliage, and promote the absorp- 

 tion of carbonic acid, a gas which is necessarily 

 given off during the ripening action. Hence but 

 very small quantities of saline stimuli are to 

 be used, and they ought to be spread broad cast 

 in powder at the time of the first hoeing of 

 the field, afler the foliage has acquired some de- 

 velopment. 



I would also mention in relation to saline manures 

 that we must bo governed in a measure as to the 

 application by considering the native habitat of the 

 plants under cultivation, and the composition of the 

 soils in question. It is evident that if we would 

 cultivate plants of a maritime origin in the interior 

 of the country that marine salt will exert a bene- 

 ficial tendency. Thus asparagus is a well known 

 plant of maritime origin, requiring the use of sea 

 salt for its full development. Cabbages will also 



