i Ann 9, 1859.] THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE AND AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 319 
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1 P vers in a well organised system of rural economy, momy, at; tained that the analytical proce processes of the chemist were | ex exhausted g gneiss and 3 mica slate soils of Virginia an and 
last rding to his sphere ought to be so. The inadequate to determine th 
D put erect hn buildings on each farm | composition of a soil whieh may 3 wd € * dre eary barrenness ” ” prin capa want of potash, 
eth man and beas ow many landed proprietors | ence betwe en a fertile and a barr The: e pro- | or rather its nitrate. Altho — pio SiL be tain a 
they. y bave performed such an incumbent duty ? " of nitrogen, which, when e gives 
am siy h ft valuable and worthless manures. heen stry E enormous acreage wa compared with what 
Hering resid unsuitable it must be for per^ farmer and | is emet: as competent to measure the value of a would be practicable to add in manures, yet we have the 
‘a r for so many labourers having to reside at too| manure, by measuring the quantity of certain s su - | most 5 0 evidence that this is often in a state 
t a distance from th farm steadings. . Scotch | stances that it con ntains, as it is competent to measure inaccessible to many Plants. The large quantity of 
d sand by me asu ug tl che mists astray as as to the 
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hoard and lodgings. Some farmers udy to make their | province of this science to settle what is the value of | hundredweights 1 per acre of a substance of which 
comfortable; but too many do not. What er ese amt aee but to measure their quantity, and in | tons alre; ady 8 in the soil could not. be the direct 
ese is it than the want of a diffusion of general know ith agricultw vos praetice to poin on the | cause of the incre: > of that f 
ledge, the want of suitable cottages on each farm, and |source of. the Merc tes ached to them. by the | atter. have attr ibuted t to tl 
too low wages in hrec districts, that prevents high | 9 — ts redes id act ion in 
farming A the domestic and social condition of rural from certain ee considerations, founded upon | making other 8 Ker in the soil assimilable 
i being equally alike objeets of admira- | ash deme of an uestionable ^ xactitude, as also upon | by plants. But all minds, 
2 assum ogies with regard to 7 — relation | extricated from the barre bias of „preconceived 
y AR sufficient number of — M fora com-|of the vital 3 to fart elements, chemistry opinions, are now able clear ee. t 
petent staff of labourers on mostly e y farm in | (or rather the chemist) has in times past been led into | cereal c og which follov the use of the salts of 
lof th f Scotis acid, is ** to the fact “ee E 
sime districts i in the north of England. I have already | sometimes assi — a — character, sk gal to | bring to d ant material from which to fi 
you Dow ge sy present 
. social, aud 1 pecuniary point of view. I ob- | ing painful instances on the other, of how ad difficult | 9d. To the tently of each available for commercial 
serv purposes.—The supply of phosphoric acid in bones and 
of the Farm.“ I may state that there are, in that | candid acknowledgment of error. LL phosphates is inexhaustible. lmost every 
district, generally three stewards on a 1000-a acre farm Had ad fasi ing bst j ye brings to our knowledge some new source of this 
which is rented by a gentleman farm m there would be no ubstance. Potash, though not so 1 as an 
who superintends everything on the f ‘a an adding to that soil), RT the other substances article of commerce, is nev 1 57 less so widely diffused 
Mino su pod 3 the m labourers "and a ated chemistry eee oA us a in the of th t be entertained, Our 
who dr a pai of horses cts plant we wahyi o grow upon Had we iik Nee E nitrogen alone do "mited. The 
as time-ke f land upon which such edi was found, then all | nitro oe clog are fast being exhaus i, ais 
lind to the peeled depth. i ery far distant vidi the W i-a 
The majority of the plou ghmen in that district each — „ ogical val ue. This value odd resources * this element will be the jme M ie 
| havi oe, the ploughman’s wifé or some other d (1) ), upon the agar i required to get each in a m vufactories, and the r resi sidual 1 ig: 
m of ak household gets up in ar to prepare chads assimilable VA: lants to the soil; (2 2) upon i 2 that about 
the breakfast and mi ilk the cow before 6 clock. The f each in F positions accessible t para | one vi millionth part ‘of the ee is am — 
gr and feed | (3), upon the amount required by the plant to be and this is slowly abso rb ed by some soils, but with 
E he thei r stalls. He milated ; (4), upon the excess which must exist in "the ws rapidity fo while 
turns to his t, and hi that required by the plant, in order that, the on the other hand ies „are the Jaws | of diffusion that 
] work, n Mb ats "the aute with to horses, at | latter may get what it wants with sufficient rap 
$o'dock. p portions of a loger estate are not 9 upon the ease with which that shi h is once 3d. To the labour required. to “ge et them from » their 
adapted for sate farm arms, owing to portions of it ha | fn ved from the soil can be restored to it again in several sources of supply, and convey them to the roots 
detac he a arm-yard 3 manure, oon Ko.; ee upon the readi- | of the plant in MR. ions able of being assimilated 
ind it, it, or by its por he form of ith rm latter, —The labour of collecting bones and im- 
oblong square. The is a gr at waste of time in walk lost in drai water, or may rting mineral phosphates, and grinding them, and 
to and from th points of f: il is Oy aa finally upon | of bringing 5 he the materials, , Ke, for the manu- 
. Wtes in exte uence» in o opera condary agent „ together with 
peur of an extensive landed diner — — e ge physiol e condition cng the soil, of render- | that of t t f ll 
a requisi ing other substanc: vailable, &e. Had we such an parts of the co hand constitute the most serious 
r Tater cottages with “separate apartments in EN extensive tract of leak 5 did we know che in 72 5 element in the conditions that make phosphoric acid 
Sage. Allow me to a corr espondent, « A | all these seven conditions, ied E rmer or ae po Ae important to the farmer. Potash is no less im- 
SAN E satemena oper vis ‘residing i in Morayshire, for the same the nimum o far 1 were portant as regar rds the labour. required to bring it 
eee g th it ertility ithi 
applicable tothe labourerson that when once in ‘that state he wicht have upon the ue supply. And when we contemplate the gisting E 
is moi tds the farm a debtor and credit sheet, ed posits of guano, and. take into consider 
which would at any ue enable him i see the amount 7 2 to collect, ship, transport, 1 and 
of available capital present in his soil. To complete the distri country, we see that with re; to 
ve etm with from this s 
T Sun Gf 28) — he our suppli itrogen ource, ur is a 
e only have yet to em up peel ik zr ont ar 
of apartments to | food of plants; if experience 
decency and self. supplied in suffici ntity for th 
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sphere, &c.,) then t| — could have no agrie — portance if this fourth condition did not possess a 
value; if such were not the case they would assu nam but analysis shows the presence of a very large 
value dependent upon. the soat conditions specified | percentage of phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen in 
above, A cultivated crops. Chemical analysis is competent to 
Importance or tHe | gested in this paragraph w ill r ested evident how very give an exact knowledge of what the plant has received 
ARI pns — MANURES AND complieated must be the — of fixin ng hs value of and retained at the time of analysis, but it has not yet 
THE ipio — 8 
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Ese j manurial constituents, from a co onsider. of t with what the plant 
p | tl excretes. It has not yet solved 
E enone & clear —— gites y we have chosen, with the valueof the resources o ss that t bein the soil in 
ate to grasp the subtle 88 they we are entirely familar, The subject requires, not m mi) that the rootlets may get a full supply at the 
— —— said to have engraved upon tlie all that aie and ip iuda practice p f the um activity of the growth of the 
y, in the groves of Acade ere the bestow, but i it also i the consideration of im- | plant, nor has [* niet the capabilities of the latter 
jon | portant 3 of political economy. | to geb its constituents from natural sources. 
fan,” o But we have no soils with the resources of which we | we are incompetent. from a simple chemical view of the 
consider, with | are so familiar as we: are et to be with the one | subject to decide what is the Mod gh the quantity of 
F dering. Our ignorance the several manurial consti quired by eiit 
ing, may we this subject was dwelt upon in aiy last letter. Unable vated crops at the hand of the 
^ Some 
mistry. by logical iri to develope the agricultural import- who: were labouring seritur an unfortunate 
science had been | ance of the several manurial constit: ired by bias from conceived d opinions, have been un 
plants, from a consideration of the data afforded b dmit that th 
chemistry, we are obliged to appeal to agricultural | do not correctly express. the value c iE the 
ions that th stood by to enforce the practice to see what value has been attached by the the soil, for those substance es by the i But — 
the inscription implied, much that — laws of the equilibrium of trade to these constituents. d, and who 
end "Write: en upon the question we are con In America, England, and on the continent practical are aware of the facts now presented by agricultural 
* elatio agriculture has es tablished the fact that certain Hu practice, are obliged to admit, however anomalous in 
n betwe een e studies and that of artificial manures haye a great agricultural i ignorance of causes it may seem, that the quan- 
— y has enabled us to decide that this tities given by chemical analysis do not correct 
see Navigation, Land Surv the demands of the plant for those substances 
3 been . — is not more itii to — which m contai in—phosphorie seid; poii De e soil. 19 d may refuse 
stody of chemistry to seientifie and nous. —— the — — bratag halfa crop.of Wheat, the Mere eie of an. 
peri opm rations of all the mine 2 e as 
ity, for t than. 
in total ignorance of exenedingy iy delicate, i it still requir he skill of the | still more anomalous, — Wheat may be grown 
no other science is this prac- | practised: operator to get indubitable. evidence of the | after the Beans. These fücts have received no satis- 
e explanations afforded of | presence of “ traces” ot this soils, | faetory explanation. 
presents, from no other source | and very ae 5 contain arne s quantity o of pem. | bth. Tothe Le ef returning the 8 
of d investiga-| phate to ex th This 
are m |a new e supply.. The quantity. of potash find their 
E not even ex-|soils, im a state assimilable by plants, is 3 very | | way into the m manure 1 5 P ad Pr rn but for 
à p. ree i vain and root rotati — ad fu Bon da ^e of li cim 
; 5 ous; crop con. in ani nes and ve s , the case 
the resonos of the soil it was main - importance that is attached to phosphoric acid. The is . This co! sation 1 de the — na 
