300 [Assembly 



Prof. Mapes — The Crown Point article is said to have sulphate 

 of iron mixed with it. Doctor Jackson, of Boston, sa} s that he 

 can partially purify it by removing that sulphate. Alger, of 

 Boston, is said to have bought that mine. Dr. Jackson says 

 they produce from it the super phosphate of lime, which is bet- 

 ter than the phosphate. I apply it, and find much better effects 

 than guau'i and charcoal. Ohio wheat crop has already fallen 

 from thirty-five bushels per acre to fifteen, and that of 2C«vv'-York 

 from thirty bushels to twelve per acre. Only add the super 

 phosphate, &c., and the crop will be restored. Now, what an 

 amount of these are carried olf from Ohio in wheat, bone, pot- 

 ash, Sac. It may become difficult to obtain an adequate t>upply 

 ot the phosphate hereafter. If the bone used for manure is about 

 three-fifths dissolved it becomes honey-combed and the roots of 

 plants readily penetrate it and tear it to pieces. What special 

 manure I use, I buy here. 



Dr. Antisell — Many of Western New-York farmers say they 

 prefer leached ashes ! to it as manure. 



Prof. Mapes — Yet notwithstanding that error they have what 

 they don't understand ; they have the soluble silicates in them 

 and therefore furnish the coat of grain stems, so that the farmer 

 who puts leached ashes on his oat fields has oats that won't lodge, 

 although he knows not wliy. We see thrown away here thou- 

 sands of tons of sulphate of potash. Why, I have known a gut- 

 ter carefully made to get rid of precious liquid manure into the 

 North River. Let a lecturer on scientific agriculture beware. 

 He will be told that he is crazing the heads of young men. The 

 old violent prejudices are alive yet ! At Princeton, in New-Jer- 

 sey, the door of the lecture room (cm Agriculture) isthown open, 

 but no farmers enter it. If a lecturer use such words as oxygen 

 and hydrogen he might as well cut his own throat. If he would 

 succeed in gaining the ear and the belief of these men he must 

 get at them gently. The late Judge Biiell combined knowhdge 

 and method in giving it out, and he thus was enabled to render 

 fliat vast benefit to the cause which he did. 



Guano is good on the "Virgitiia lands generally, but to put it on 

 and plough it into soils deiicient in organic materials, is a perfect 



