318 [Assembly 



Enough has been said to show that if the decomposition of 

 these rocks could be waited for, there is in them abundance of 

 supply for the wants of plants, and that it only requires judicious 

 cultivation to bring out these so far latent elements, existing truly 

 in the soil, but so locked up as to be immediately unavailable to 

 plants. Now, these will all disintegrate by the action of oxygen, 

 of frost and water, and it is only necessary so to adapt cultiva- 

 tion as to bring them into a state favorable to the reception of the 

 gases of the atmosphere, on the one hand, and the locked up ele- 

 ments of soil on the other. To cultivate such soils so as to foster 

 and bring out the principles of self-supply, to grow sucli plants 

 as shall take the least of what is so supplied in the smallest de- 

 gree, is to carry out, as far as possible, the restoration of exhaust- 

 ed land without manure. 



It is with great pleasure that we take these remarks from a 



pamphlet, which will never be seen by more than a few dozen 



men, and diffuse them in our newspapers, for the benefit of tens 



of thousands of readers. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



[From the Loadon Farmers' Magaxin«> June, 1851.] 



Frauds in Manure. — An " eminent Professor of one of the Uni- 

 versities" recently certified that a preparation of bones and acid 

 contained 43 per cent of soluble phosphoric acid, a quantity 

 which he must have known was impossible! An eminent chemist 

 signs his name to any analysis sent to him, provided it be accom- 

 panied with a post-office order of ten shillings and sixpence! An- 

 other gentleman of the same cloth refused to certify that a mix- 

 ture, 90 per cent of which was soot, was not the best possible 

 manure for all and every crop without a fee of twenty guineas! 

 With such doings among scientific men it would be surprising if 

 the practicals were far behind. Accordingly we find some enter- 

 prising individuals, at a little town in Norfolk, grinding tanners' 

 bark and selling it as guano for £Q 6s. per ton, (upwards of $31.) 

 In a town in Yorkshire, a large manufactory is now going on pre- 

 paring a mixture of soot and human excrements, and for which, 

 whilst the intrinsic value may be JEl, they have no difficulty in 



