THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



69 



may readily comprehend how some gas limes 

 may be quite harmless if applied in moderate 

 doses even to growing crops, while others, rich 

 in these soluble and deleterious matters destroy 

 all vegetation. 



It has been supposed that fresh gas lime is 

 valuable on account of the ammonia it contains. 

 "When the gas lime is emptied from the purifi- 

 ers in which it has been exposed to the gas, it 

 has quite a pungent odor of ammonia, but the 

 quantity, though enough to affect the nostrils, 

 is in reality quite too small to have any great 

 manuring value, and quite disappears after a 

 few days exposure to the air. Mr. Twining 

 of this Laboratory, found in a specimen of per- 

 fectly fresh gas lime from the New Haven ga^ 

 works, but 8-10ths of one per cent, of ammonia. 

 In a gas lime from the gas works at Waterbu- 

 ry, Ct., which had been exposed to the air for 

 one week, he found but about 4-100th of one 

 per cent. 



Fresh gas lime may be advantageously used 

 in composing swamp muck, &c. 



By full exposure to the atmosphere, as when 

 scattered over fallow-ground, after a time it be- 

 comes innocuous. The soluble caustic ingredi- 

 ents are converted into no less valuable a sub- 

 stance than gypsum (plaster), ,and then, after its 

 odor and bitter burning taste have disappeared, 

 it acts precisely like a mixture of lime and gyp- 

 sum. How rapidly these changes take place, 

 I have no means of knowing without making 

 actual trial, but should presume that if a dress- 

 ing of gas lime be incorporated thoroughly and 

 uniformly with the soil one week before sowing 

 or planting, no harm could result to the crop. 



In conclusion, your correspondent is recom- 

 mended to use it, if he can get it more cheaply 

 than other lime, at the rate of 50 bushels per 

 acre on heavy soils — or 10 to 20 bushels on 

 light soils — making one application in three or 

 four years. If fresh it should be put on the 

 bare soil and not on a crop. In case of corn or 

 potatoes, it may be scattered between the rows 

 and worked in at hoeing time. If the gas lime 

 is white and tasteless after exposure to air for 

 a time, it may be sown like gypsum. 



It should be remembered that a wet soil will 

 not be much benefitted by lime, nor by any ma- 

 nure, unless in a dry season ; and that a light 

 dry soil is soon spoiled by lime unless a good 

 supply of organic matter be maintained in it, 

 by means of stable manure, muck composts, or 

 green-manuring. Lime and plaster, too, are 

 at the best, even when they exhibit their most 

 extraordinary effects, but partial fertilizing 

 agents. S. W. Johnson. 



the seaports this year, compared with last, up 

 to this period, an estimate of the amount of the 

 deficiency can be formed, and its value ascer- 

 tained by current average prices. Thus, by 

 comparing the deficiency of receipts of produce 

 at Albany this year with those of last year, and 

 fixing the average prices current for each, we 

 shall find, from a careful examination of the 

 official tables, that the total value of the defi- 

 ciency or of the produce retained in the coun- 

 try, below the receipts of last year, amounts to 

 about $17,729,986. The cotton crop of 1857 no 

 one imagines to be below that of last year, and 

 no doubt exceeds it. Yet the deficiency of re- 

 ceipts at the Southern ports amounts to 331,000 

 bales, which, estimating the bales at 400 pounds 

 each, and the average price at 10 cents per lb., 

 or $40 per bale, gives a total value for the whole 

 retained in the country of $13,250,000. This, 

 added to the value of the deficiences in the re- 

 ceipts at tidewater, Albany, gives the follow- 

 ing results : 



Value of breadstuffs and provisions in the inte- 

 rior, not forthcoming at Albany, $17,729,986 



Value of cotton not forthcoming at 

 the sea-ports. - - 13,240,000 



Total, - - $30,969,986 

 " As the crops have exceeded in amount 

 those of last year, and taking the deficiencies at 

 other points, we may safely estimate the proba- 

 ble total value of produce retained in the inte- 

 rior at about $35,000,000. This amount of ag- 

 ricultural produce must come forward and be 

 superadded to the business of next spring, af- 

 ter allowing it to be equal to what it was dur- 

 ing the past spring, and thus greatly augment 

 the trade of the season, giving increased acti- 

 vity to transportation lines, and renewed life to 

 all branches of trade. — Country Gentleman. 



Produce on Hand. 



We submit to our readers the following calcu- 

 lations from a N. Y. paper of Saturday morn- 

 ing last: — " If we assume, which no one doubts, 

 that the crops of all kinds have been greater 

 this year than they were in 1856, and consider 

 the falling off in receipts at tidewater, or in 



Prospects for Produce. 



Farmers, be not deceived by the stories of the 

 hireling press. You have all, no doubt, seen 

 predictions of low prices in the spring, and 

 confident boasting of the present unparalleled 

 abundance. Now, in plain English, these wri- 

 ters assert what they know to be false. There 

 is no likelihood of lower prices in the spring, 

 and there is not so much produce in the coun- 

 try as Eastern people have been led to believe. 

 But we have already pretty thoroughly explod- 

 ed these stories ; and wherever the Prairie 

 Farmer circulates, the sharpers have found a 

 stumbling block in their way. 



A fact to which we have not yet alluded we 

 now wish to lay before our readers. Accord- 

 ing to the best information which we have been 

 able to gather, ten per cent, of the present 

 potato crop in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and 

 Kentucky, was not gathered when the recent 

 severe weather came on. Of course, but a small 

 portion of it will be worth anything. Much 

 corn was destroyed by the same storm ; and 



