200 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



O^The subjoined communication from one w'.io 

 iinilPs in an eminent derjree the experience of tlio 

 practical, witli the wisdom of tlio scientific farmer, 

 will be perused with pleasure by those of onr read- 

 ers who have no antipathy to science as an aid to 

 the f.irnier — and we hope nil of them are free of 

 such an unworthy, not to say silly feeling. If any 

 of them do entertain it, we shall never cater for its 

 1,'ratitication, however much in this respect we may 

 differ from the conductors of other presses we 

 mi^ht name. "A little learnintj," it has been truly 

 said, "is a dangerous thinii;" — but it becomes abso- 

 lutely loathsome ivhen, instead of advising others 

 to seek- light, it uses its influence to keep them in 

 the dark, leaching them to spurn as "onlij theory," 

 the recommendations of those more highly favored 

 with intelligence and qualified by study and experi- 

 ment to impart wisdom to others. 



The views of our respected correspondent rela- 

 tive to the importance of a knowledge of scientific 

 principles to the farmer, commend themselves to 

 every candid and reflective mind. The aid of one 

 such man as he, will have more eff'ect in promoting 

 the application of scientific principles to our hus- 

 bandry, than the combined efl'.irts of a host of the 

 disciples of the Jack Cade school can have to pre- 

 vent it. 



We hope to hear from our correspondent again, 



and more fully, upon lime as a manure and Unst 



he may be disposed, whenever opportunity offers, 

 to communicate his views on other topics pertain- 

 ing to thp farm, for the benefit of our readers. 

 While we thank him for this favor, ive are inclined 

 like Oliver Twist, to hold out our hand and ask 

 for "more." — Ed. 



THE AID OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE • 

 LIA1E AS A MANURE, &.C. 

 Mr Breck— [ always read the "sayings and 

 doings" of the agricultural meetings at your° State 

 House, with much pleasure, and regret that you do 

 not report more fully the remarks of the various 



FEB. 14, IHi 



then it is thrown i.nto a large heap, for the pur| 

 as he says, of rotting it and preparing it t 

 carted out in October or November, to^be sp: 

 upon grecii-sward and plowed in for a corn 

 ihe next season. The past season, his boys, p; 

 by way of frolic, threw up the pile some t2 o 

 feet in height, and in a few days they got the 

 mentation upon the high steam pressure priiic 

 and the way in which the ammonia and carb 

 atid escaped, ought to have been a cmilion 

 farmer whose corn crops do not average ove 

 bushels per acre. But there is an old saying 

 there 's no great loss without some small gain ; 

 in this case, the water in the heap was decom 

 ed, its hydrogen combined with the nitrogen, 

 formed ammonia ; and its oxygen with the car 



sneakers as mnsf nf .!,„.>, i k . •-■■"- says, in uis latner s days thev always had corn and 



bpeaiierb, as most or 1 em are doubt ess nrnptip-i ' ■ . n i ... . 



farmers whose eynprion,.o "7 """"'"'f' P"'='";'^' , grain to sell ; but no!« he frequently has to purchase 

 farmers, « nose experience and know edrro mnat Ko .l. t> . . .', .■' T_ 



farmers, whose experience and knowledge must be 

 of great interest to the farming community at large. 

 In the N. E. Farmer of the 24th inst,, you ha°ve 

 given a synopsis of the remarks at the second 

 ineetintr, upon manures — a subject that lies at the 

 foundr,iioii of successful farming. And from the 

 remarks quoted from the "Traveller," 1 infer that 

 what is called scientific farming, or the application 

 of chemical principles to the subject, was not con- 

 sidered, by at least some of the speakers, as prac- 

 tically of much use. Perhaps I may be wrong in 

 my conclusions, but I am a New England farmer, 

 and one that either holds the plow 6r°drives ; nnd 

 I feel'a deep interest in the prosperity and welfare 

 of my brother farmers here in " the cold and sterile 

 North," and in these times, with the low price of 

 produce, and fur the better enabling us to compete 

 with the farmers of the fertile West, it behoves us 

 to take advantage of every discovery that science 

 can nfford. ' ! 



Now, every person of common observation 

 knows, or believes, that that the w/iole planetary 

 system is g.iverued by certain fixed and invariable 

 law.-, and by the labors and investigations of sci- 

 rntitic men, thtsc laws have been so far discover- 

 ed, that an Hslrcmomor can calculate to the fraction 

 of a second, when celestial phenomena are to re- 

 cur, after the lapse of long periods of time. And 

 can any one suppose that the laws that govern the 

 vegetable world are any less certain and fixed, than 



those that direct the movements of the planetary 

 system ? For one, I believe they are no less defi- 

 nite ; and for the most skilful and economical man- 

 agement of a farm, the cultivator should possess a 

 good knowledge of those scientific principles, as 

 developed and brought to boar upon the subject 

 within a very few years past, by the labors and re- 

 searches of numerous scientific men, both in Eu- 

 rope and this country. Chemistry and geology, as 

 connected with agriculture, are of great impm-lance 

 lo the farmer, and by their application to the sub- 

 ject, the " why and the wherefore" of many things 

 that were once dark and mysterious, are rendered 

 clear as the noonday sun. 



The elements that enter into the composition of 



vegetation, are but few in number, but are suscep- , „„„„ - „„u ..^ ^xy^ren witn tne car 



tible of an infinily of combinations, nnd of yielding and formed carbonic acid <ras. This process v 

 an endless variety of products. These elements, on till the moisiure of the heap was nearly exp< 

 their names, nature, &c. &c., are very familiarly ! ed, and the gases had escaped into the air- 



the materials left were well " fire-fanged," and 

 heap was much lighter to shovel over and cart 

 — here was the small gain I 



Now, if either of these farmers understood 

 true principles of agriculture, they would pursn 

 very ditferent course. Probably they are aw 

 that their growing corn or potatoes do not 

 their food as the boa constrictor does a rabbit, 

 yet they are as ignorant of the elements that e.'tl 

 into and form the growth of their plants, as the 

 dians were when the colonists landed at Plymo 

 Dr. Dana and others assure us that " the ni 

 gen present in the manure expresses its true 

 ue." If so, it is important that it be saved for 

 benefit of the crops. It is not pretended by 

 one that it is taken into the plant by the lea 

 from the atmosphere, but enters by the roots in 

 Union with water. During fermentation of n 

 nure, nitrogen is evolved and combines with 

 drogen and forms ammonia ; and dissolved by 

 ter, it is absorbed by the rootlets of plants ; i 

 one of the most plausible theories of its use i 

 action upon vegetation, that I have ever read 

 in a communication published in the London F 

 nier's Magazine, Dec. No. 1843, entitled, "An 

 Theory of the Action of Azote : by Edw'ard Ad 

 son." I should be much gratified to see it 

 published in your paper, and have the opinions 

 Drs. Dana and Jackson or Mr Teschemacher, u( 

 the views of the writer. 



I observed near the commencement of this i 

 per, that by the application of science, we learr 

 the why and wherefore of many things that or 

 were dark and mysterious. By analysis, the C( 



stituents of various plants are 'ascertained so, 



yield a considerable portion of gypsum, that 

 sulphuric acid and lime. Clover contains notal 

 ^ortlons of it, and experience has proved beyond 

 doubt that it is a valuable application to a clov 

 ley. Observation, too, confirms the fact ; i 

 wherever the rocks in the soil contain much si 

 phur and iron, they are slowly decomposed hy t 

 action of the oxygen of the air and water, and foi 

 sulphates of potash, lime, iron, &c. The rains a 

 spring waters wash these sulphates from the h 

 sides, and spray them over the low L'round.s. and 

 fuch snots clover and white honeysuckle are foui 

 to flourish luxuriantly year after year, among i. 

 wild and coarse grasses, in very wet and cold soi 

 The reason is, they find in these sulphates a co 

 genial food or element. And I have no doubt 

 such lands were thrown into beds or otherwi 

 drained and sowed with clover and honey.suck 

 seed, and occasionally irrigated with the water th 



explained in the excellent treatise oii manures, by 

 Dr. Dana, which you are now publishing. And I 

 think there is no farmer so wise but that he might 

 be- greatly benefited by the study of this and simi- 

 lar works, that can now be easily and cheaply ob- 

 tained. The Doctor, in the outset, very truly tells 

 us the whole doctrine and law of agriculture is, 

 first, "that plants need certain substances which 

 are essential to their growth": and, second, that 

 "manure contains all those substances which 

 plants want." But the grand difficulty with far- 

 mers is, a deficiency of manure, and generally 

 their limited knowledge of chemistry prevents 

 their "looking beyond the barnyard for it." But 

 with a good knowledge of it, a farmer's only ex- 

 cuse for a deficiency of manure ivoiild be — indo- 

 lence. There are but few who are willing to ac- 

 knowledge the true cause — ignorance ; but the 

 practice of too many proclaim it; an instance or 

 two of which I will relate. 



A farmer, with a naturally good farm, complains 

 that it is much less productive than formerly. He 

 says, in his father's days they always had corn and 



them. By many he is considered a good farmer ; 

 but let us take a look about his premises, and see 

 how he manages. Why, every year after making 

 soap for family use, the bones after being boiled 

 in lye, (nnd he generally kills one or twobeef crea- 

 tures, beside sheep and hogs,) are carefully gath- 

 ered and piled up to bleach year after year, and 

 gives one an idea of what the prophet Ezckiel saw 

 in one of his visions. The leached ashes areas 

 carefully thrown into a heap till some loads have 

 accumulated, and near by is a large heap of lime 

 mortar taken from the walls of an old house he 

 pulled down several years since. He probably 

 considers the above materials poison, though I be- 

 lieve they are not labelled as such. In the spring 

 his manure heaps from the hovel windows, are 

 carted out into a field, and left through the sum- 

 mer without any covering, or addition of muck or 

 loam. He saye it gets well rotted during the sum- 

 mer, without rotting the end of his barn, as it 

 would if left against it. 



Another, whose farm adjoins, pursues a some- 

 what different course. He has several acres of 

 wetland that he mows; the crop consisting of 

 brakes and coarse gras.-es. During the winter, 

 this is thrown into hi.< yard, nnd makes a good lit- 

 ter for his stock : by the time his cattle are turned 

 out to pasture, his yard is covered to the ileplh of 

 12 or 1,5 inches with manure and litter: this re- 

 mains in the yard till August or first of September : 



