1 5 8 



NEW-YORK FARMER AND 



• ■ What groan was that I heard \ Deep groan indeed, 

 With anguish heavy laden, 



The strong man 



lly stronger arm o'erpowered, gasps for breath 

 Like a hard hunted beast. 

 S,-c ! how he tugs for life, and lays about him 

 Mad with hi.* pain ! Eagor he catches hold 

 Of what comes next to hand and grasps it hard 

 Just like a creaturo drowning." — Blair. 



In the precoeding paragraph your critic 13 charged 

 with reproaching the valuable and abundant products 

 of this country. With what justice this charge is 

 made, I shall leave it for the public to decide ; for 

 my own part, I deny it in toto. I have neither re- 

 proached the country, its climate, nor its products ; I 

 have merely asserted that certain of its products are 

 not esteemed valuable or delicious by the people of 

 England. Is this at all saying they are not so to the 

 inhabitants of this or any other country, who may 

 consider them as such 1 A man may prefer a toad- 

 stool to any other vegetable, and to him such a pro- 

 duction is both delicious and valuable. 



Our author might huve saved himself the trouble 

 of quoting what lie has done from Mr. Loudon, re- 

 specting the cottage gardens of England ; such quo- 

 tations only serve to lengthen his story, without pro- 

 ducing any thing else, and therefore reminds us of 

 the well known fable, the Mountain in labor. 



In addition to my former assertions upon this sub- 

 ject, I sav that owing to the superior mild winters 

 and the absence of intense heat in summer, the inha- 

 bitants of England enjoy more of the luxuries of the 

 ::n:den, than the inhabitants of those countries whose 

 winters arc long and severe, and whose summers are 

 intensely hot. 



I conclude these remarks by calling upon the Am. 

 llort. as a gentleman, to inform us who are the for- 

 eigners he alludes to as hooting and sneering, &c. — 

 If he does not so, I shall ever consider him as hav- 

 ing made an unjust, insinuating and cowardly attack 

 upon all foreign horticulturists. 



BETULA ALBA; 



t< 



ART- 180. — On use of G ypsum in j&grit 

 By J. Bl'bi., Esq. of Albany. [Addressed to the 

 Editor of the N. Y. Farmer & Hor. Repository.] 

 Sip, — The extensive application of Plaster of Pa- 

 vis in the interior of this state, to the purposes of 

 husbandry, induces me to hazard a few remarks upon 

 the causes of its fertility, and the soils and crops to 

 which it may be advantageously aprlisd. I perceive 

 that many of our farmers, although slow to adopt this 

 or anv other innovation upon old habits, now that 

 they have become satisfied of the benefit of plaster 

 in some cases, seem to infer that it is useful in all, 

 and thus apply it without " rhyme or reasoft." The 



consequence, I fear, will be to bring it into disrepute 

 and lead to its rejection in cases where its utility is 

 unquestionable. 



The most common opinion is, that this substance 

 benefits crops by drawing moisture from the atmos- 

 phere. This theory proves too much : for if it ha? 

 sostrongan affinity formoisture, it will attract it from 

 the soil as well as from the atmosphere ; and thus rsb 

 the plants, instead of increasing their supply, of this es- 

 sential agent of vegetable developement. But it ha? 

 been proved that gypsum absorbs moisture far less 

 powerfully than putressible manures, or even com- 

 mon soils, and retains it a shorter time. Johnson 

 has given us, in his essay on the use of salt in agri- 

 culture, tables exhibiting the absorbent and retentive 

 powers of different substances. I subjoin an ex- 

 tract in proof of my position : 



r" Horse dung evaporated previously to 

 dryness, at a temperature of 100 & , ab- 

 sorbed, during an exposure of three 

 hours to air saturated with moisture at 

 62°, 



Putrified tan bark, under like circum- 

 stances, (66°,) 

 Unputrified do. 

 Cow dung do. 

 Pig do. do. 

 Sheep do. do. 

 Refuse Salt (60°) 

 Burnt Clay, 



The richest soil (in one hour) 

 Lime (part carbonate) 

 (.Gypsum, 



'Pig dung, evaporated to dryness, at a 

 temperature of 106° (the heat of a me- 

 ridian sun at midsummer) and then 

 moistened with six parts of water, re- 

 quired for being reduced to dryness 

 ^ , again, at the above temperature, 

 ^ Horse dung, ur.der similar circumstan- 

 ces, 



Common Salt, 

 Rich Soil, 



Poor Soil (sileekwls,) 

 Gypsum, 

 Thus it appears, that the absorbent power of horse 

 dung is sixteen times greater than that of gypsum, 

 and its retaining power seven times greater. Let us 

 not lose sight of another important fact which these 

 experiments suggest, viz : That the power of a soil 

 for absorbing and retaining moisture, and of course 

 of resisting draught, is in the ratio of the dung an^ 

 vegetable matter which it contains — rich soils suffer- 

 ing least and poor soi!s most, in dry weather. — 

 Ploughing and hoeing frequently tend very much to 

 increase, or rather to bring into full operation, these 

 qualities of soils for absorbing and retaining moisture. 

 After water has been expelled from plaster of paris 

 by burning or beating, it then again absorbs it pow- 

 erfully — and not only absorbs, but solidities it. Ii is 

 by this process that it is litted for cornices-, busi-. & 



part*. 



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