18154. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



187 



NTTRE — SALTPETBE. 



The beneficial effect of nitre upon vegetation 

 has been understood from the earliest periods of 

 which we have any account. It is the result of 

 the union of nitric acid with potash, and in many 

 parts of the world it is found in a natural state, 

 and in immense quantities, and requiring only to 

 be dug up and leached, and afterwards crystal- 

 ized, to be ready for use. It is also frequently 

 produced artificially by means of "nitre beds," and 

 naturally under old buildings, deep cellars, &c. 



The principal materials needed; in the construc- 

 tion of nitre-beds are potash, which is supplied by 

 vegetable substances in a state of decay, animal 

 matter, which will give out ammonia, and this in 

 turn, part with its nitrogen, and form, with oxy- 

 gen, the nitric acid, which unites with the potash 

 of the ashes, or decaying vegetable matter, and 

 thus forms NITRE. 



Most farmers are acquainted with the very great 

 value of soils taken from beneath tie-ups, stables, 

 and other places of a like description, in which 

 animals have been sheltered for many years, for 

 manurial purposes, and have no doubt been sur- 

 prised, on applying them to crops, by the sudden 

 and sustained effects which they have produced. 

 This is the result of nitre. The urine of the ani- 

 mals has filtered through the floor, together with 

 a certain portion of the solid voidings, and having 

 been constantly and effectually protected from 

 the wasting influences of atmospheric action, the 

 decompositions and recombinations requisite to 

 the formation of nitre have gone on uninterrupt- 

 edly year after year, till the soil has become im- 

 pregnated with richness, surpassing in degree that 

 of the finest compost, or the most energetic sta- 

 ble manure. 



It is stated in a European publication of much 

 merit, and as the result of actual experiment, that 

 the solid excrement of about twenty cows and 

 mules, in layers of four inches thick, with alter- 

 nating layers of chalky soil, of similar thickness, 

 and wet occasionally with the liquid voidings of 

 the same animals, will produce from ten to twelve 

 thousand pounds of saltpetre in four years. The 

 bed, however*, must be protected, and occasional- 

 ly shovelled over. At the end of two years, the 

 heap will be resolved to a fine, rich mould. It is 

 then left for two years more, frequently turned, 

 but not wet with urine during the last few months. 

 In the formation of these beds, the "chalky soil" 

 is not indispensably necessary, for experiment has 

 proved, as well as science, that ashes, unleached, 

 or leached, are better. 



The following definite rules are laid down for 

 the formation of beds, where this substitute is to 

 be used : 



Take one cord of clean cow dung, one cord of 



leached ashes, one cord of loam, or swamp muck* 

 Mix the ashes and loam or muck well together, 

 and having hard rammed the barn cellar floor, or 

 that under a shed, put a layer on it of these mixed 

 materials, four inches thick, then a layer of dung 

 four inches thick, then another layer of mixture, ' 

 and so on alternately, until the pile is four or five 

 feet high, topping off with loam. Wet it over 

 occasionally with urine, keeping it about as moist 

 as garden loam, and turning it over occasionally. 



If the foregoing process be adopted, the con- 

 tents of the heap will become excellent compost 

 the second year, and may be spread as a top- 

 dressing, or applied like short manure to every 

 description of field crops, with a certainty of the 

 best results. In the vicinity of powder works,* 

 in which large quantities of nitre are consumed, 

 we have frequently noticed the bags from which 

 the nitre had been emptied, spread, before show- 

 ers, or during storms, over the surface of mowing 

 lands. The nitre impregnates the texture of 

 these bags, and the rain washes it out and car- 

 ries it into the soil, which acknowledges its re- 

 ceipt by a most luxuriant and beautiful crop. 



Several years ago, when the potato rot pre- 

 vailed to its greatest extent, we used saltpetre 

 freely as a dressing and secured fine crops of po- 

 tatoes both in quantity and quality. Very little 

 rot occurred among them, while directly over the 

 fence, in a neighbor's field, on the same kind of 

 soil, and the use of the same variety of potatoe, 

 the White Chenango, more than three-fourths of 

 the whole crop rotted ! 



Cannot some of our farmers produce this sub- 

 stance at a cheaper rate, and find better results 

 from it, too, than they can from most of the spe- 

 cific fertilizers now in use ? Where wood ashes 

 can be cheaply and readily obtained, we believe 

 they can. 



DESTROY THE CATERPILLARS ! 



Their name is legion, this spring, and they have 

 begun their work early. Our people — we are sor- 

 ry to say — do not yet appreciate the injury which 

 they inflict upon the crops. This is evident in the 

 culpable neglect which is almost everywhere seen, 

 in the hundreds of filthy nests which are annually 

 left undisturbed on the trees. An apple tree that 

 is despoiled of its leaves this year, not only loses 

 its growth and crop of fruit, but can scarcely re- 

 cover its vigor again "for two or three years to 

 come. Harris says, "There are perhaps no in- 

 sects which are so commonly and so universally 

 destructive as caterpillars ; they are inferior only 

 to locusts in voracity, and equal or exceed them 

 on their powers of increase, and in general are 

 far more widely spread over vegetation." They 

 are the young of moths and butterflies, and there 

 are several hundred species in the New England 



