1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



529 



by "burning" the common chalk or lime stone. 

 It is rarely chemically pure, containing, almost 

 invariably, a quantity of sand or clay, or both, 

 ■with the red oxide of iron. These, however, 

 exist in too limited quantities materially to in- 

 fluence its fertilizing powers, as may be seen 

 by the following analysis : — 



Carbonate of lime 95.05 parts. 



Water 1.65 " 



Silica 1.12 " 



Alumina l.UO " 



Oxide of iron 0.75 " 



One hundred parts of common chalk con- 

 tain : — 



Lime 56.5 parts. 



Carbonic acid 43.0 " 



Water 0.5 " 



Some clay loams, that have been highly ma- 

 nured and cultivated for several years, become 

 inert, like an overfed man or animal, and re- 

 fuse to yield fair crops. A heavy dressing of 

 lime, or sometimes sand, will stimulate them 

 into a remarkable activity, which will continue 

 two or three years without the application of 

 much manure. 



QUAILS AND GROUSE. 

 In dressing some Quails and Prairie Chickens 

 once, which were sent us by a friend from the 

 prairies of Illinois, we had the curiosity to 

 open the crops of some of them to see what 

 was there. In the crops of the grouse we 

 found plenty of evidence that they had visited 

 the corn-fields of the farmers, as they were par- 

 tially tilled with the yellow flat corn which is 

 so extensively cultivated in that State. 



In the crop of the quails we found a variety 

 of food, and among It acoriis. Some of them 

 were perfect and of a size altogether inconven- 

 ient to be swallowed whole, by such a bird, 

 we should think, and others in various stages 

 of the digestive process. 



The husk or outside of a thoroughly-ripened 

 acorn seems like sand, and may be composed 

 much like the surface of a straw of the wheat 

 plant. It is hard enough to destroy the fine 

 edge of a knife upon cutting it, and yet, the 

 entire surface of some of the acorns as large 

 as the end of one''s little finger, was eaten 

 away, as though it had been triturated in some 

 vessel with gravel stones. In others, the shell 

 was entirely gone, while others were reduced 

 in various degrees. 



What a finely-adjusted and powerful mill it 



must be to convert such flint-like substances 

 into a soft and slippery pulp. 



While looking at a large Ostrich in a me- 

 nagerie, once, a small boy stood by with a pair 

 of woolen mittens in his hand. The African 

 eyed them curiously for a moment, made a 

 thrust, and the boy was minus one mitten ! 

 We could see it going the circuit down his 

 long neck to the crop ! 



But of all the gormandizing that we ever 

 knew or heard of, was that of a sea gull, 

 which we took from Cape Ann and sent into 

 the country. Half a mile from the house 

 where he was kept, there was a large pond, 

 and once each day he would take wings, go 

 there and make the water fly at a great rate. 

 After having got through with his ablutions he 

 would return at once to the house. His appe- 

 tite was enormous. After having eaten four 

 or five good sized perch one day, and a large 

 piece of soap which the men had just been using 

 before going to dinner, one of the boys who 

 stood by, said, "darn him, I believe he would 

 swallow my jack-knife." "Throw it to him," 

 said another. So the knife was thrown, and 

 caught by the gull before it touched the 

 ground, and went down into the abyss with the 

 perch and the soap ! But the boy had lost his 

 knife, and was in trouble, so one of the men 

 caught up the gull, and gently manipulating 

 the crop and throat, soon brought out the 

 jack-knife as good as ever. 



The reader is referred to an interesting ar- 

 ticle on another page, on How Fowls Grind 

 their Food. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CHEMICAL TERMS— No. IV. 



Ammonia, is a transparent, colorless gas, 

 possessing an acrid taste and an exceedingly 

 pungent smell. It is compO!«ed of one vol- 

 ume of nitrogen and three volumes of hydro- 

 gen, chemically combined. From these three 

 volumes of hydrogen and one of nitrogen, not 

 four volumes of ammoniacal gas are formed, 

 but only two ; that is, the ammonia occupies 

 but half the space of the gases from which it 

 is formed. It is easily obtained by the action 

 of lime on muriate of ammonia, or sal ammo- 

 niac. It is produced when animal substances 

 are heated with exclusion of air. These sub- 

 stances alwavs contain nitrogen and hydrogen, 

 which at the moment of being set fi'ee by heat, 

 combine with each other, forming ammonia. 

 It is also evolved in the form of carbonate of 

 ammonia from all vegetable and animal sub- 

 stances containing nitrogen, during the pro- 



