423 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



be added, through the medium of ashes. Guano owes its cele- 

 brity to this fact. 



I consider the pomace from my cider mills an excellent 

 manure, it contains a large per centage of azote, and either de- 

 composed with lime, or composted, makes a fine fertilizer, parti- 

 cularly for orchards, for which purpose I prefer it to farm yard 

 manure. 



I have noticed one fact in agriculture that is remarkable. It is 

 this : if two farmers living contiguou.-; to each other, treat their 

 land differently as respi'cts cultivation and manuring, the differ- 

 ence will be perceived by the most casual observer. That is to 

 say, if one plows deep, and manures high, and the other does, 

 neither, the highly cultivated land will draw all the floating 

 gases from the neighboring land, and annually impoverish it, 

 until it becomes perfectly barren. 



By experience with the thermometer, last summer, when the 

 sun was shining bright, and the open air indicated a temperature 

 of eighty degrees in the shade, I thrust it in the ground, and it 

 ran up to 1 40 degrees in a very short time, showing that nature 

 was supplying the roots of plants with the proper warmth to 

 induce proper growth. There was a great difference between 

 dark and light soils in this respect, the light indicating at that 

 time, 12 o'clock A. M., 130 degrees, the dark 140. At 5 o'clock 

 P. M. the light sandy soil still indicated 130 degrees, and the 

 dark soil 110 degrees, showing that the sandy, soil retains heat 

 much longer. At 7 o'clock P. M the dark soil was covered with 

 dew, when not a particle could be found on the light sandy soil. 

 This experiment has induced me to think, that the agriculturist 

 possesses entire control over his lands, by plowing, subsoiling, 

 top dressing, changing the color by the admixture of sand and 

 muck, rendering it porous, or close, by casting on gravel or clay, 

 wet or dry by underdraining, supplying by art the mineral con- 

 stituents withheld by nature. Thus he may alter the chemical 

 constitution of his farm, as well as its physical qualities. When 

 the rays of the snn pass through the atmosphere, they do not heat 

 it to any very great degree, but by impinging against the earth 

 they heat it, and from this heat the lower stratum of air derives 

 its temperature. If our liquid manures were led to the roots of 

 plants, through iron or lead pipes, perforated above, I think the 

 production would be so prodigious that Ave would not count the 

 cost. Farmers do not pay sufficient attention to the hygrometrlc 

 property of soils. If I were selecting a f^rm, it Avould be one 

 capable of attracting moisture from the atmosphere rapidly, and 



