271 



THE CULTIVATION OF EXHAUSTED 

 LANDS. 



At a meeting of the Farmers' Club in New 

 York, where this subject was under discussion? 

 Mr. Watson, an English farmer, spoke as fol- 

 lows : 



" Three hundred bushels of lime put on an 

 acre of the red soil of Brunswick, New Jersey, 

 I have found to render it fertile. Some men 

 talk of forty bushels of lime on an acre ! I put 

 thirty-five bushels on one-eighth of an acre of 

 that soil, planted various vegetables, had fine 

 crops. The radishes were very remarkable for 

 their fine growth and crispness. All the vege- 

 tables were fine. The neighboring land having 

 no lime, craked in dry weather and a plough 

 could not be made to enter it, while the limed 

 section was light, loose, pulverized and stood 

 the drought well — never flagged in their growth 

 in the hottest season of the year. On the sandy 

 lands of Long Island I would put two or three 

 hundred bushels of clay — that will make it hold 

 water. Marl is still better if they can get it. 

 Take out the muck and freeze it for one winter — 

 fat muck is best ; it will hold water best. But 

 on the poor land put lime. The vegetable power 

 is etherial. All land that cracks under heat 

 ought to have three hundred bushels of lime on 

 an acre ! In my young days I was on a farm 

 which yielded forty bushels of wheat on an acre, 

 (in England.) At length it began to fail. — 

 Couch grass filled the soil. I then began to 

 burn the sod, couch grass sod. I paced the field, 

 began my fires with wood, put on the dried sods, 

 kept the fires supplied, and so burned off the 

 whole field of thirteen acres. I spread the ashes 

 over that field, cultivated it with oats and found 

 that the oat stalks grew as thick as my little 

 finger, with fine long, large heads, but no oats 

 in them at all. I hooked up this crop of straws 

 with the scythe, and put them into my manure 

 heap. Next 3'ear I planted turnips on this field 

 and had turnips of — some of them — fourteen 

 pounds weight. I sold that crop for thirteen 

 pounds sterling an acre ! The next year I 

 planted barley on it, and had sixty-four bushels 

 of barley on an acre, which I sold for ten shil- 

 lings sterling a bushel ! You see that I had 

 too much ashes at first on the field — there was 

 enough for a much greater farm. In Montgo- 

 mery county I have worked land, and spaded it 

 deep, covering in manure as I dug. There my 

 marrowfat peas grew as high as my head, and 

 in this well spaded earth they stood drought 

 perfectly. Paring and burning the surface of 

 soil answers the same purpose as liming it, and 

 it destroys all the weeds, and it gives you a pure 

 soil! For fire prepares well the proper food of 

 plants ! I say, put cold manures on hot soils, 

 and hot manure on cold ones. By making land 



light and loose, you may almost do without ma- 

 nure. I have traced in a well spaded light black 

 soil — the roots of a cabbage running three feet! 

 Now, with short roots, as is often the case, the 

 cabbage would not reach the fiftieth part of the 

 nourishment which it does with those extended 

 roots ! The potato becomes waxy when planted 

 in close, stiff clay soil. The potato cannot make 

 room for its growths — its roots cannot force the 

 supply of proper nourishment into it, and of 

 course it becomes waxy. Let the soil be loose 

 and light and the potato is fine and mealy. 



" I spoke of paring and burning land. If I 

 had put the ashes on my whole farm instead of 

 thirteen acres, I should have cleared two hun- 

 dred pounds sterling more than I did. Soil must 

 be tilled light. Rain does no harm if it can 

 sink through ; but where it finds the soil close 

 it stands in all the little hollows, and there you 

 can see how it injures plants. The soil must 

 let the waters sink through it." 



TO PREVENT THE SMOKING OF A LAMP. 



Smoke is the result of imperfect combustion. 

 Combustion is always imperfect when more 

 matter is decomposed, than is consumed. This 

 is evident from the fact that smoke may be col- 

 lected and burned. To prevent the smoking of 

 a lamp, therefore, it is only necessary to prevent 

 the decomposition of too much oil. This is done 

 by lowering the wick till the blaze terminates 

 without smoke. A little care in trimming a lamp 

 will save expense, (an unnecessary waste of oil,) 

 prevent the blackening of the ceiling, and the 

 offensive and unwholesome smell occasioned by 

 the smoke of a lamp. 



One who Knows. 



IMPORTANT TO HOUSEKEEPERS. 



A lady in Batavia, New York, has discovered 

 a new method of washing clothes, which she 

 highly recommends. We copy it from the New 

 York Tribune : 



" Washing Clothes. — I have lately found 

 a new way of washing, which I think is a great 

 help, although I never saw it in print. It con- 

 sists in using turpentine. My mode of using it, 

 is to take the men's week shirts Sunday even- 

 ing, and put them into cold water to soak until 

 morning, when I place them in a chaldron kettle, 

 with good suds, and add the turpentine, and set 

 them boiling till after breakfast, say one hour. 

 I then take them into a barrel and pound them 

 hard ; rub them on a washboard ; soap them, 

 and lay them by till their time comes to boil 

 again, and spread them on the grass. I use two 

 table-spoonfuls of turpentine to three or four 

 pails of water." 



