THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



275 



sulphate of iron may be transported by day as 

 easily as common manure, without incommoding 

 any body. As they form a very rich manure, 

 they can be carried to greater distances than or- 

 dinary dung, and be readily diluted to two de- 

 grees to be used in the liquid form. (By two 

 degrees, are meant two degrees of Beaume's 

 hydrometer, which is graduated to 72 degrees 

 generally — the first degree corresponding with 

 water taken as unity — the last representing a 

 liquid of twice the density of water, so that 2 

 degrees indicates a liquid of a density 1 1-72 

 greater than water.) 



Fecal substances without previous saturation 

 lose their carbonate of ammonia, which volatil- 

 izes, and are thus deprived of their most ener- 

 getic fertilizing element. 



The greater part of human excrements are 

 lost at the present day, because they are not 

 collected with care nor properly treated, on ac- 

 count of the repugnance they inspire. Yet they 

 are of immense importance to agriculture. The 

 solid and liquid excrements of a man may be 

 estimated at 1.65 pounds per day, or 618 pounds 

 per annum, containing 3 per cent, of nitrogen, 

 or 18 pounds, a sufficient quantity, according to 

 Boussingault, to produce 880 pounds of wheat, 

 rye or oats. 



Some portions of a meadow which I watered 

 last year with a solution of ammoniacal salts at 

 one degree, of two quarts to the square yard, 

 still continue to exhibit superior vigor of vege- 

 tation, and will yield double the quantity of hay 

 that the unwatered part will give. The result 

 exceeds my expectations, for I did not think 

 that the action o^a small quantity of ammonia 

 would continue for several years. I no longer 

 doubt that it will be felt for three years at least. 

 Ammoniacal salts may thus be easily made to 

 supply the wants of soils where dung enough 

 is not produced — for if we admit that 880 lbs. 

 of these salts at 5 cents and 3 mills, or about 

 $47, are required to manure two and a half 

 acres for three years, the annual expense would 

 hardly be $16, (about $8 40 per acre,) which 

 would be more than compensated by the in- 

 creased production. 



I am, &C. SCHATTENMANN, 



Director of the Mines of Bouxwillier. 



THE CORRESPONDENTS OF THE PLANTER. 



We take the liberty of making the following 

 extract from a private letter, because we esteem 

 it a tribute justly due the distinguished individual 

 to whom it refers : 



I congratulate you, sir, on the last number of 

 the Planter. Mr. Venable's' communication on 

 the means of preventing the destruction of to- 

 bacco plants by the fly, is worth all the money 



I ever paid you. Mr. Venable is one of my 

 countymen, and I am proud of such a citizen. 

 He is truly an agriculturist, practically as well 

 as theoretically : a communication from his pen 

 is always plain, instructive, and interesting. 

 October 19, 1844. 



INSTANTANEOUS BEER. 



Put to a pint and a half of water four tea- 

 spoonfuls of ginger, a table-spoonful of lemon 

 juice— sweeten it to the taste with syrup or 

 white sugar, and turn it into a junk bottle. — 

 Have ready a cork to fit the bottle, a string or 

 wire to tie it down, and a mallet to drive in the 

 cork. Then put into the bottle a heaping tea- 

 spoonful of the super carbonate of soda, cork it 

 immediately, tie it down, then shake the whole 

 up well, cut the string, and the cork will fly out. 

 Turn it out, and drink immediately. — American 

 Housewife. 



C. N. BEMENT, ESQ.. 

 We are obliged to Mr. Bement for a copy of 

 his address delivered before the Housatonic Agri- 

 cultural Society. It is replete with the sound 

 practical sense for which the author is distin- 

 guished. We make the following extract as 

 illustrative of the benefit to be derived from 



MIXING SOILS. 



" Some nine or ten years ago in the early part 

 of my farming, I had occasion to deepen a well, 

 about six or eight feet. The earth thrown out 

 was a tenacious blue clay, just damp enough to 

 cut into lumps, and adhesive enough to remain 

 so. After finishing the well, the man who had 

 charge of the farm was at a loss to know where 

 to deposit it. Having a bare sandy knoll in one 

 of the fields, which was not inaptly termed 'per- 

 sonal property' from its being wafted about by 

 every breeze, here to day, and there to-morrow r , 

 it occurred to me that the clay would hold the 

 sand and form a soil. I accordingly ordered it 

 deposited there in heaps, the same as if manure. 

 This was in the summer. In the fall the lumps 

 were scattered over the surface and left to the 

 action of the rain and frost. In the spring it 

 was found to have broken down, crumbled and 

 slaked like lime. These heaps were reduced 

 and the clay evenly spread over the surface. The 

 field received a coat of manure, was ploughed, 

 and sown with oats and peas. That where the 

 clay was applied, produced ihe largest and most 

 vigorous growth, of any other part of the field. 

 In the foil it was sown with rye and seeded 

 down with timothy and clover. The rye as 

 well as the clover was much more vigorous and 

 heavier, on that than any other part of the field. 

 In fact, the person who occupied the farm after 



