330 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ceive, because it so much resembles some other minerals. It has 

 no taste, is insoluble in water, and not liable to alteration by ex- 

 posure to air, bears strong heat unchanged, but in very high heat 

 takes the form of semi-transparent enamel, or rather porcelain. 

 It is dissolved by sulphuric, nitric, muriatic, fluoric, and some 

 vegetable acids. Fourcroy and Vauquelin, show that these acids 

 , can take away only forty per cent of it, and that the remainder 

 is combined with the phosphoric acid, thus making super-phos- 

 phate of lime ^ which is composed of 41 of the acid and 59 of the 

 lime. 



Dr. Waterbury said that within four or five years there had 

 been a change of practice with many of the best farmers of Con- 

 necticut in regard to shocking grain, a change which he believed 

 to be founded on correct principles, and which was said by those 

 who had practiced it to lead to improved results. He quoted 

 from a correspondent : 



" Instead of first j)utting it into open or Dutch shocks, and af- 

 terwards into cap shocks, or small stacks, the sheaves are simply 

 set up on their buts, near enough to each other to prevent them 

 from being blown down, and allowed to stand in these groups of 

 ten or twelve, until they ai-e diy enough to l)e made into mow. 

 Notwithstanding what is said by some of your agricultural cor- 

 respondents, in the agricultural journals, in regard to the sjorout- 

 ing of wheat in the ear, standing, I must doubt it; for after forty 

 years experience with grain crops, I have never known it happen 

 unless the grain had been blown down and lodged. In order to 

 grow, grain must be more than wet; it must be in contact with 

 something to encourage the formation of roots, and must be, to 

 a certain extent, secluded from light. In the common method of 

 shocking, these circumstances that favor sprouting are all pre- 

 sent, as the sheaves are, in the first place, left out because they 

 are too damp to go in, and in the second place, the stouts never 

 perfectly shed rain — so that it is necessary when grain is in cap 

 shock frequently to open it and set it out to dry. Now, by sim- 

 ply setting up the sheaves, without putting the heads together, 

 the grain is almost as free from any disposition to sprout as it is 

 while standing uncut. The heads do not remain long wet at any 

 one time, as the wind, between showers, dries them out in a few 

 minutes. They are not in contact with anything to encourage 

 the disposition to sprout, do not heat in the least, and are freely 

 exposed to the light. The old fashioned cap shock often sheaves 

 has very generally given place to that of five, as the disposition 



