250 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



JAN. !i% 1S40. 



AND HORTICDLTCRAL REGISTER. 



Boston, Wednisday, January 22, 1840. 



We publish the subjoined letter for its contents, which 

 will be found instructive ; and for another good rea- 

 , son, to which we invite the special attention of our 

 friends. We mean in particular, as an answer to the 

 circular, which three months sinoe we addressed to the 

 farmers, soliciting the information which they could give 

 us respecting the application of sundry manures, partic- 

 ularly lime, marl, bone dust, ashes, gypsum, and com- 

 posts of peat and, other materials. We knew that many 

 farmers can give us on these subjects much valuable in- 

 formation, and we again request their attention to it. — 

 We beg them to favor us in their way by letter per mail, 

 with the results of their experience, promising them 

 that we will give no names to the public without their 

 consent, and make no use of their communications but 

 such as may meet their approbation. H. C. 



Mr Colman— When I received your circular request- 

 ing information on the uses of composts and mineral 

 manures, it was my intention to have taken a tour 

 among our farmers, and collected the result of their ex- 

 perience with regard to these things. But my leisure 

 hai, very unexpectedly, been occupied in a different 

 way. I shall therefore not be able to communicate to 

 many fiicts to you with regard to these things as I 

 should be glad to. Such as I have, however, it is a 

 pleasure to communicate. 



We have never tried the composts for field culture to 

 a very great extent, but have repeatedly taken the black 

 earth from swamps and mixed it with lime or house ash- 

 es, probably in proportion of one-third of the latter. The 

 two substances should be well incorporated, and lie ex- 

 posed to the sun a few days in email heaps, say of one 

 load each, previous to being applied. We ♦avo found 

 this much more beneficial to all garden cropj than ani- 

 mal manure in any state, and almost invariably a pre- 

 yentive of insects. There can be no doubt but it would 

 be found a superior article for field culture, especially 

 for turnips. Two years since, when removing the sur- 

 face, (which is very dark for eighteen inches in depth,) 

 from the iron mines, we caused the laborers to pile the 

 turf and soil in separate places from the subsoil, that at 

 a convenient season we might remove it to some of the 

 land of a different variety. In some of these heaps we 

 put lime, though in quantities too small to h.ive much 

 effect. We have used this earth and its small quantity 

 of lime (not one bushel of the latter to ten of the former,) 

 for various crops, and have found it very good for ruta 

 bagas, wheat and grass. That without lime we have 

 found valuable for potatoes, if put in the hill. From one 

 quarter of an acre where this was applied, last spring, 

 with a spoonful of plaster thrown upon it, we harvested 

 sixty bushels ; a good crop for the season. The soil on 

 which this experiment was tried, was an exhausted loam. 

 We tried that with lime for corn on a loam by the side 

 of hog manure on one side and stable manure on the 

 other. That manured with compost was about three- 

 fourths as heavy as the former, and ripened ^yell. We 

 cannot recommend it for use to the exclusion of animal 

 manures, but where, as there is every where, a lack of 

 them, we think it well worthy of the farmer's notice. 

 Probably had our experiment been made with pure 

 swamp mud instead of a soil that has been under culti- 

 vation for half a century, it would have succeeded much 

 better than it now did. 



We find a great benefit in mixing the manures of dif- 



ferent animals. Horse manure is too hot and dry for 

 most soils. Hog manure is too strong, and encourages 

 too great a growth for good earing; but when these are 

 mixed with those of cattle and sheep, their objectiona- 

 ble qualities as single manures are imparted to the oth- 

 ers, and the qualities of all increased. Earths thrown 

 in with them becniiie a part of them and increase their 

 quantity. 



Bone dust. — The first experiment with this article 

 hereabouts which has ever come to my knowledge, has 

 been tried on a field of turnips this season. The land 

 was one of our clayry hills. After the turnips were 

 sown, the dust, at the rate of about four bushels to an 

 acre, was sown along the drills of all except two in the 

 centre. These through the season shewed that they had 

 been slighted, and at harvest time they showed their 

 resentment by refusing to yield the cultivator a single 

 turnip for his labor. Those on the part dusted were 

 large and as clean as we ever saw. We have no doubt 

 but bone du?t will eventually become a very common 

 manure in the country. 



Yours, Ac. W. BACON 



Mount Osceola, Dec. 26, 1839. 



AGRICULTURAL MEETING. 



The Agricultural Society of Westboro' and its vicinity 

 assembled on Thursday, 2d inst. and held a meeting in 

 the Town Hall in the afternoon, where an address was 

 delivered, and adjourned until five o'clock, when they 

 sat down to a sumptuous repast. They met again at a 

 public hall in the evening for an intellectual feast and 

 held a discussion on a subject which had been before as- 

 signed for consideration. 



The question presented to the meeting was — What is 

 the operation of the alkalies, lime, ashes, and gypsum 

 upon vegetation .' 



The discussion was opened by Dr Burnet, in a lucid 

 and instructive exposition of his views, coinciding in the 

 main with the views of Dr Dana on this subject, as giv- 

 en in the second report of Prof. Hitchcock, in his re-ex- 

 amination of the Economical Geology of Massachusetts. 

 Dr Burnet was followed by Messrs Brigham, Mr Ford, 

 Mr Chamberlain, Mr Denny, Mr Church, Mr Fay and 

 other gentlemen ; and the evening was spent in perfect 

 good humor, and was altogether adapted to promote in- 

 quiry, experiment, and agricultural enterprise and im- 

 provement. 



Dr Burnet gave it as his opinion that the operation of 

 all the alkaline manures is the same ; that they are not 

 in themselves the food of plants; and that their princi- 

 pal use is t<j render the vegetable pabulum, the food of 

 plants, scientifically denominated gcine, soluble, and put 

 it in a condition to be taken up by iheir roots. The 

 question before the meeting was as to what is the nature 

 of the operation of these substances. Several gentle- 

 men went into the statement of facts within their own 

 experience, to illustrate their actual effects, as indeed 

 in the limited range of human inquiries, the best means 

 of arriving at some correct notions of the mode of their 

 operation. 



These facts were iiighly interesting. There was 

 scarcely an exception to the conviction that ashes in their 

 application were almost invariably beneficial and povv. 

 erful. Mr Church had found no perceptible advantage 

 from them when applied round the corn on the surface 

 at the time of hoeing. Mr Ford had found great bene- 

 fit from this application. The circumstance of this dif- 

 ference in the results is not easily determined, as all the 

 circumstances of the case were not minutely staled. It 

 would seem in Mr Ford's case that rain fell immediate- 

 ly after the a(>plication of the ashes, and their efficacy 

 upon the crop appeared to follow at once. It is easy to 



suppose that this rain may have contributed to carry the 

 efficacious ingredients of the ashes at once in a liquid 

 form to the roots of the plants : but we hazaid no theo- 

 ry of its operation. 



Several gentlemen had applied lime, most of them in 

 some mixed form, either compounded with mud or peat, 

 or as in Mr Fay's case, in a compound of lime one half, 

 ashes one quarter, and gypsum one quarter ; but as well 

 as we can remember, there was not a case mentioned 

 where it had been applied separately and in such a form 

 that its efficacy or inefficacy could be fairly tested, 

 that it had proved evidently efficient. The statement 

 of Mr Brigham seemed conclusive, that in its appli- 

 cation to a crop of wheat, although its effects were not 

 seen upon the wheat, yet upon the grasses, which fol- 

 lowed the succeeding year, the effects were decisive and 

 highly beneficial. 



We do not undertake to give any thing like a report 

 of the discussion on this subject. We can only say that 

 it was conducted with perfect urbanity and mutual grat- 

 ification and advantage. 



This society has made a capital beginning ; and if 

 they can but keep up the spirit with which they have 

 begun, the meetings will prove occasions not only of 

 agreeable entertainment as matter of social intercourse, 

 but directly promotive of the agricultural improvement 

 of the vicinity and the State. We are happy in think- 

 ing that some men have got hold of the handles of the 

 plough in this case, who will not be disposed to look 

 back. H. C. 



ELECTION OF GOVERNOR. 



The Legislature of the State assembled on WedneS' 

 day, the first day of January, and opened the session. — 

 The division of parties approaching nearly to an equali- 

 ty, the perfection of the organization of the government 

 has proceeded slowly. The matter, howc\er, was com- 

 pleted on Saturday, by the inauguration of Marcus Mor- 

 ton as Governor, and George Hull as Lieut. Governor 

 of Massachusetts for the current year. 



It is not for us to enter the political arena, if we had 

 the disposition to do it ; but we have not the disposition* 

 We will not refrain from saying, however, that we be- 

 lieve that neither Massachusetts norany other Slate oy- 

 er had a more accomplished, punctual, conscientious, 

 faithful magistrate than has just left the chair of Slate ; 

 and we think it would be impossible for the bitterest 

 enemy, if he has any enemies, to point to a single act of 

 omission or commission, marked by intentional error. 

 Mistakes of judgment there may have been; but if any 

 have occurred, they are as few as ever marks the course 

 of any man. He retires under ihe enviable conscious- 

 ness, the highest and purest reward which any good 

 man can ask or desire, of having faithfully performed 

 his duly and fulfilled his trust; and of having failed in 

 no respect whatever ofmeeting the high expeitations of 

 those by whose suffrages he was elevated lo office. 



He has been displaced not for any fiiilure in duty or 

 through any distrust of his eminent qualifications for 

 any place of trust and office to which his fellow-citizens 

 may see fit to advance him ; but in the struggles ofpar- 

 ties and the evenly balanced condition in which they 

 stand to each other at the present time in the State, he 

 has failed of his election ; and the popular voice has 

 placed another gentleman in power. In our form of so- 

 cial arrangement and government, it becomes the duty 

 of every good citizen in such a case to acquiesce cheer- 

 fully in the lawful decision of the majority. 



It is a subjecl of honest pride and of just congratula- 

 tion, that the State has many excellent and intelligent 

 citizens, in every respect qualified to discharge with 

 honor to themselves and benefit to the community, tho 

 duties which it may demand of them. In this case we 

 have reason lo congratulate the commonwealth and 

 country on the elevation to the highest office of dignity 

 and authority in the commonwealth, of a gentleman, 

 who by his exemplary and irreproachable character, his 

 legal acquirements, his long experience, his eminent 

 talents, and his intelligent and himorable performance 

 of tho public duties in which through life he has been 

 engaged, is Iiighly qualified for the trust which has de- 

 volved upon him. It becomes every good citizen to re- 

 gard him with the respect due to his character and the 



