' ^ND HORTICULTUflAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY ..OSEPH B RE^FX^^NO. 52 NORT H MARKET STREET, iAo..o......ry^:::;;;:;^ 



It. xvin.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 19, 1840. 



N . E . F A R M E R . 



For the New England Farmer. 



SCIENCE APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 

 :hemistry has been styled "the secret prorc vs 

 le matter, that from which the forms of thii.gs 

 :inate." It is a science as universal in its ope- 

 ons as the combination of diiferent simples in 

 ung compound substances. Hence, the air we 

 ithe, the earth we walk upon, the rain that coni- 

 down from heaven and watereth the earth, the 

 we eat and the raiment we put on— in short, 

 y thing, not only those which render our exist- 

 ! comfortable, but those which form its enjoy- 

 t, are the result of its operations and subject to 

 aws. Even ourselves, " fearfully and wonder- 

 • made," a curious compound of undefinable en- 

 3g mind, and perishable, incongruous matter, 

 3 within its sphere, and possess enough of its' 

 )tle agencies" to invite the research of the most 

 3vering to an occupation for life. In fact, we 

 in a grand laboratory, where chemical action 

 ntinually gping on, not in a sinprle set of them, 

 a a stupendous whole, and where it will con- 

 I to go forward, until the ma-ss of matter ..n 

 h It operates shall, by a grand e.xplosi<in. be 

 ^■n Hack tr d.aos. MinU truly may csc^, -;he 

 trophe of rum, and the clayey crucible in 

 h It e.xperienced its remodeling and assimila- 

 ; but in all things else the amalgamation must 

 iraplete. 



n it for a moment be imagined that a science 

 general operations and such visible effect-j 

 e unimportant to a farmer ? Take his soils • 

 ire the result of a chemical combination of 

 3, say the disintegrated parts of rocks and vege- 

 matter in a decayed or decaying condition. 

 all rocks, as the sciences which claim more 

 ular kindred with them w,ll determine, are 

 )mposed of the same material, consequently 

 irths which collect around them must differ 

 portion as the sources from which they orio-i. 

 and the early productions of vegetation a°re 

 IS the peculiar nature of the earths most natu- 

 s.xcites, and these possessed again of different 

 tuents in their decay, both of leaves, and 

 the parent stalk hag fulfilled its maturin- pre- 

 form soils of varieties differing from those 



are the effects of different circumstances. 

 a soil on which the dark hemlock sheds its 

 ohage, differs from that which sends thetow- 

 pine niajestically high: that of the maple 



from the ash ; the oak from the elm, and so 



la in high regions have usually less depth and 

 ns a proportionably greater amount of earthy 

 ■than those of lower territory, from the fact 

 5getable patter is easily brought down by 

 i«'s of spring and rains of autumn, and de- 

 i m places which nature seems to have pro- 

 for Its reception. These soils are usually of, 

 «t fertile character, yet they must in some 

 !, vary in proportion with the mountains and I 



forests whence they originate. Thus we see the 

 valley of one river more fertile than that of another 

 —a circumstance which chemistry can obviate bv 

 determining what the lacking quality is, and how 

 It mr.y be provided, or introducing plants adapted 

 to that peculiar soil. The analysis of soils, suffi- 

 cient to determine their productive qualities, is a 

 va-y simple process, and soon passed through! In 

 irder to perform it, the farmer need not be°at e.x- 

 pv^nse for an extensive apparatus, nor restrict his 

 cperations to drams and pennyweights. His busi- 

 ■iess is of a u'holesalt nature; his observation can 

 mark the changes of soil, and by analyzing a small 

 portion of a particular one, the character of the 

 whole is sufficiently determined for general purposes. 

 Soils which in a state of nature, are sometimes 

 of a character^ which renders them worthless, by a | 

 chemical process are rendered fertile. Take our 

 swamps, which are to be found in almost every 

 town, some of which have bottoms as deep as west- 

 ern prairies, and " as rich as mud" ; yet in a state 

 ot nature they are almost as worthless as the desert 

 of Sahara for agricultural purposes. How are they 

 to be made the most profitable of the farmer's do- 

 mains .' They must be cleared and drained, to be 

 sure; but when all this is done there is yet one 

 tiling lacking, for they are as barren as an ash- 

 heap. W.hatis"the one thing needful".' V/e 

 respond, not only to show that cUmistry has a rem- 

 edy, but also to assure those who pretend that our 

 State surveys are useless operations, by givinsr an 

 anecdote. 



Somewhere in Massachusetts, {we could tell 

 where,) an old gentleman who had tilled the earth 

 carefully and laboriously, until his "threescore 

 years and ten" had nearly vanished, pointed the 

 Commissioner of the geological survey to a piece 

 of very deep rich muck land, and complained bit- 

 terly that with all his industry, he could make it 

 produce nothing but weeds. With his usual tact, 

 the Commissioner assured him the only reason why 

 his labors were not requited, was that his land was 

 too rich. " Too rich !" said the veteran farmer, " it 

 can't be : we wish to make our land aa rich as pos- 

 sible, and labor incessantly to promote this objeot." 

 Had he been acquainted with the beautiful opera- 

 tions of chemistry, how it applies itself to every 

 part of the operations of agriculture, ho might per 

 haps have saved himself much labor, and a rich 

 harvest from his land through many years. More 

 by the same labors he might have increased tht- 

 value of his surrounding fields, by barterino- from 

 them their sterility, and repaying load for load from 

 the rich deposite from his muck bed. This was all 

 that was necessary to scatter fertility all around 

 him— simply to carry off this rich vegetable matter 

 which had been accumulating for ages, and repla- 

 cing in its stead his sands or loam, or whatever 

 that savored of barrenness. 



Lands from mismanagement may acquire a dis- 

 eased and sickly as well as an exhausted state- 

 I hey may become too sour, too bitter, or some other ' 

 of the evils which bad -management induces may i 

 attack them. Then are they like a diseased sto- 

 mach, totally out of order. Usual applications will 



tlVO. 3.1. 



have no eflect. They, like the sick maiiTmust be 

 dealt with according to the disease. And here we 

 j ask leave to introduce another anecdote, in support 

 j of our sentiment that chemistry is an important sci- 

 ence for the farmer. One of that ancient and hon- 

 orable fraternity was one day heard to complain by 

 a son then m college, that such a piece of land pro- 

 duced but "leelle." "Lime it," said the son 

 "Lime it!" said the old man, " you, when you have 

 not done a day's work on the farm in three years 

 come from college, and to repay your father's toil 

 in your behalf, undertake to teach him how to farm 

 It ' " Limt it," said the son—" the soil is too sour : 

 anal'kah will neutralize an acid, and your field will 

 be productive." The father at length tried the 

 experiment, and saw a good effect, and so thorough- 

 ly was he convinced of the utility of this science in 

 agriculture, that he said his sons might all go to 

 college to learn to be farmers, if they all give as- 

 surance of similar acquirements. 



Chemistry in agriculture applies itself in a thou- 

 I sand ways and produces a thousand good ellects — 

 Nature is a great workshop, where she is cortinu 

 ally carrying forward her operations. Economy is 

 a umversal law in all her dominions. She forms 

 nothing in vain, and where the purposes of its for- 

 mation are answered, and it moulders back to de- 

 cay, she does not admit of the least waste in all its ' 

 parts. Sao cac-ies out with the nicest precision the 

 salutary injunction, " gather up the fragments. That 

 nothing may be lost." Hence what is not available 

 in one part of her operations, is applied to another: 

 and so in her grand concerns, each filis a " -i-.m of 

 the stupendous whole." To imitate and assist her 

 in carrying this law into effect, is a part of the ser- 

 vice of the farmer, and in proportion as he does his 

 duty, will his labors be rewarded. But if he is re- 

 miss, if he allows his soils to remain sterile or suf- 

 fers them to become exhausted— if he allows Ins 

 manures to waste their richness on the atmosphere 

 or suffers them to be injudiciously applied to his 

 lands— If he suffers any thing to waste uselessly 

 away, which with due care might benefit his soil, 

 leanness will sot a landmark to his possessions which 

 his neighbor will not try to remove ; famine will 

 enter his premises, and the horrors most likely seize 

 upon hii mind. ^y n 



Mount Osceola, Jan. 27, 18J0. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ROHAN POTATOES. 



Brighlnn, Jan. -^Sth, 1840. 



Mr Brkck— Dear Sir— Much has been s:iid and 

 written about the Rohan Potato, and much, I think 

 sir, which has had a tendency to mislead many as to 

 its quality and productiveness. 



I have waited till I supposed all the " Great 

 Yield of Rohans" had been giving to the public 

 before I dared give you an account of the experi- 

 ment / made the last season, and which I had prom- 

 ised to give you some time since. 



The object I had in view, sir, in making these 

 experiments, was not to see how many pcuiiis I 



