the Southern planter. 



81 



be those containing much potash. But is 

 it so? We believe practical experience 

 answers no. The carcasses of animals, 

 abounding in ammonia and phosphoric 

 acid, are found to produce an astonishing- 

 ly beneficial effect on the growth of grape 

 vines; and bone-dust, which contains a 

 large quantity of phosphoric acid and 

 ammonia, and very little potash, is a high- 

 ly esteemed manure. A short time since, 

 an intelligent gentleman of this city, a 

 close observer and successful fruit-grower, 

 informed us that a few years ago he 

 buried a considerable quantity of horn- 

 piths beneath his grape vines. Having to 

 remove his vines sometime afterwards, he 

 found that the roots had pushed through 

 the soil to the horn-piths, and literally en- 

 cased them with a dense mat of small 

 fibrous roots. The vine was evidently 

 fond of this kind of food, and imbibed it 

 in large quantities. Now, horn-piths 

 abound in ammonia and phosphoric acid, 

 and contain very little potash! And thus, 

 while as Mr. Wilder says : " Nearly a 

 quarter part of the pear, [Richardson 

 found 54.69 per cent, of potash in the ash 

 of the pear,] the grape and fhe straw- 

 berry consists of potash," we are not war- 

 ranted in concluding that it is the potash 

 which abounds in new soils," that "pe- 

 culiarly adapts them tj. the production 

 of these fruits." The turnip plant abounds 

 in potash, (from 40 to 50 per cent, of the 

 ash) while it contains comparatively little 



a special manure for turnips, and 

 used for this purpose, while phosphate 

 of lime has an astonishing effect on 

 them— one manufacturer alone, as he 

 himself informed us, selling 12,000 tons 

 of superphosphate of lime for this purpose, 

 last year, in Great Britain. All who have 

 used superphosphate of lime for turnips, 

 must have observed that when the turnip 

 came in direct contact with the superphos- 

 phate, an immense number of small 

 fibrous roots are thrown out, as in the case 

 of the vines mentioned above. Further- 

 more, we have seen the roots of the 

 turnip pushed out, laterally, between three 

 and four feet long, in order to reach su- 

 perphosphate. Now we know that super- 

 phosphate is a special manure for turnips, 

 and is it not probable, from the facts men- 

 tioned above, that phosphates and ammo- 

 nia, rather than potash, are the special 

 6 



manures for the vine ? Do not these facts 

 warrant us in . asking such influential 

 writers on horticulture as Mr. Wilder, to 

 give this whole subject of "special ma- 

 nures," and soil analyses, a careful recon- 

 sideration ? 



From the Farm Journal. 



Impositions Upon Farmers. 



Messrs. Editors : — An examination of 

 the published volumes ,of our different 

 agricultural periodicals for the last eight 

 or ten years would demonstrate with un- 

 mistakeable clearness, a leading charac- 

 teristic of a very large number of our farm- 

 ers, viz : an earnest seeking after the new; 

 the progressive. This spirit of inquiry 

 is commendable, and if it were possible to 

 have it always directed in the proper 

 channel, far more desirable results would 

 long since have been attained. But, un- 

 fortunately, in this mad chase after novel- 

 ties — this spirit of speculation, for such is 

 perhaps the most appropriate title for it — 

 how many have lost not merely their cash 

 investments and their time, but their con- 

 fidence not only in that which is of doubt- 

 ful utility, but in those things which sound 

 judgment and ample experience have de- 

 monstrated to be valuable and important. 



There are in every class in society 

 many speculators — Barnums — men who 

 do a thriving business with little or no other 

 capital than the credulity of those upon 

 whom their impositions are practiced, and 



phosphate of lime; and yet potash is not'Mt is to be regretted that farmers are not 



exempt from the tricks of these imposters. 

 Compared with these cheats, Barnum 

 sinks into comparative insignificance. He 

 realized perhaps more from his exhibition 

 of the " Woolly Horse," "Joyce Heath," 

 &c, than they generally do from their 

 worthless wares, but their victims suffer 

 to an incalculably greater extent. Twenty- 

 five cents enabled any one to gratify his 

 curiosity in regard to the "Woolly Horse," 

 but an hundred times that amount is in- 

 sufficient to remunerate the farmer, who 

 invests time, labor and money in very 

 many of these agricultural speculations, 

 only to find in the end that he has been 

 miserably duped. Who does not remem- 

 ber the Morus Multicaulis speculation, 

 and the ruin it entailed upon thousands of 

 honest, well-meaning men. The Rohan 

 Potatoe was an imposition of the same 

 character; and almost everyday startling 



