178 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



plowed part requiring much more labor to prepare 

 it, and all through the season double the time was 

 required to keep it clean of grass and weeds. At 

 hai'vest it was judged by competent men that the 

 fall-plowed piece would yield forty bushels to the 

 acre, and the sj^J'^^a'P^owed fifty — or ten bushels 

 more. 



One of my neighbors commenced plowing early 

 in March on a piece of diy land, for the purpose 

 of testing the question as to the advantage of 

 plowing just before planting. He left alternate 

 lands or strips unplowed through the piece, until 

 he was ready to plant, the fu-st of May. The re- 

 sult was decidedly in favor of the last plowed 

 pieces in the crop, as well as in the care of it. 

 The above facts have been repeatedly verified in 

 my own experience, so that I have come to con- 

 sider them incontrovertible. I hope this subject 

 will not be passed by in silence by observing far- 

 mers, but that we shall have their views and ex- 

 perience to enable us wisely to answer this all 

 importaJit question to many — when shall we plow ? 



liochester, Mass., Nov., 1861. o. K. 



COE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME. 



During the last four or five weeks, we have been 

 favored with several articles upon this subject, 

 £i"om correspondents in various portions of the 

 State, giving their experience in the use of this 

 phosphate as a fertilizer. We have also been re- 

 quested to state what the results of its use have 

 been on our own farm. 



Last spring we procured several bags of this 

 lime of Parker, Gannett & Osgood, and used 

 it upon various crops, and with such results as to 

 decide us to try it again, which we mean to do 

 the coming season. It was used, side by side, 

 with various other agents, such as beef scraps, 

 corn-meal, woolen rags, cobs soaked in urine, 

 guano, and a compost of night soil, and it was 

 not excelled by any of them, excepting the latter. 

 The whole field was moderately dressed Avith hen 

 manure. Where the night soil compost was used, 

 the corn was heavier than on any other portion of 

 the field. We used the superphosphate on peas, 

 beans, turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, cabbages, 

 and other plants, and found it answering an ad- 

 mirable purpose with them all. But we gained, 

 especially, what is most desired, an early start in 

 the corn crop, which is often the turning point of 

 profit or loss in that staple article. Where it was 

 properly applied to this crop it stimulated germi- 

 nation, brouglit the corn out of the ground with 

 stocky and vigorous stems, and gave it an unusual 

 vitality for several succeeding weeks. Any fertil- 

 izer that will do this, is of decided importance to 

 the farmer. But a serious mistake is often made 

 in its application. Instead of spreading it over a 

 surface of 12 to 20 inches, and thoroughly min- 

 gling it M'ith the soil, it is thrown down in a mass, 

 and the seed cast upon it, so that if the tender 

 germ is not checked, it grows away from the 



phosphate into soil that has not been fertilized 

 by it. 



During a journey into New Hampshire in the 

 month of June last, a good farmer invited us to 

 look at some experiments he was making with this 

 fertilizer. Side by side, on good land, he had 

 manured the rows, one with a common shovel full 

 of excellent barn manure, and the other with a 

 gill of Coe's superphosphate, and where the latter 

 was applied, the corn had made an average growth 

 of d.foot more than the other. In another town, 

 in a field of corn which we were called to look at, 

 the diff"erence was nearly as striking. We do not 

 suppose that this difference would continue through 

 all stages of the crop, but it ensures that early 

 growth which will generally secure the plants from 

 unseasonable frosts, and thus give us a crop. 



These results so much increased our interest in 

 the article, that we made investigations sufficient 

 to satisfy us that the article is really what it pur- 

 ports to be, — that is, bones dissolved by sulphuric 

 acid, by a process so perfect as to preserve all the 

 animal matter contained in the bones as well as 

 the bone itself, — and that no other matter is in- 

 troduced to increase the bulk and lessen the fer- 

 tilizing power of the principal agents. 



In November last, we applied 200 pounds to an 

 acre of exhausted pasture, upon which we intend 

 to sow clover seed as soon as the snow is off", and 

 harrow the ground. We have, also, applied two 

 quarts of the superphosphate to each of 75 young 

 apple trees that stand in grass land, scattering it 

 over a diameter of 12 feet immediately under the 

 tree. The results of these experiments will be 

 carefully -watched and reported to the reader. 



New Method of Smelting Iron. — A Bel- 

 gian is reported to have discovered a new method 

 of smelting iron, which promises great results. 

 The essential principal consists in a process of ex- 

 haustion in preference to a blast. The result is 

 that less time is required to liquefy the metal than 

 in the ordinary process ; that when cast it is sur- 

 prisingly superior in quality to ordinary iron ; that, 

 bulk for bulk, it weighs much heavier ; and that 

 excellent cutlery can be forged at once from it, 

 without the intermediate process of conversion 

 into steel. A leading English iron master is 

 building a furnace for smelting on this new plan, 

 and specimens will ere long be in the market. 



AVeigiit of Manure. — A solid foot of half- 

 rotted manure will weigh, upon an average, 56 

 pounds. If it is coarse or dry, it will average 48 

 pounds to the foot. A load of manure, or 36 cu- 

 bic feet, of first quality, will weigh 2,016 pounds ; 

 second quality, 1,728 pounds. Weight to the acre 

 — eight loads of first kind, weighing 16,128 pounds, 

 will give 108 pounds to each square rod, and less 

 than 2i pounds to each square foot. Five loads 

 will give 63 pounds to the rod. An acre contain- 

 ing 43,560 square feet, the calculation of pounds 

 per foot, of any quantity per acre, is easily made. 



