282 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of ammonia at 19 cents, makes potash worth 



4 cents per pound ; the price of pot-ashes can- 

 not serve as a guide for they are never used for 

 agricultural purposes. Four cents is certainly 

 hfgh enough for this country if it is correct for 

 Germany. 



Phosphoric acid is reckoned by Stockhardt at 

 2 cents per lb., and I have used this estimate in 

 allowing for the phosphoric acid in guano. , 

 Crushed bones sell at $1.00 per 100 pounds and 

 less. When they are fresh they contain about 



5 per cent of potential ammonia, and 25 per 

 cent of phosphoric acid, reckoning the former at 

 13 cents per pound, we account of 65 cents, 

 leaving 35 cents as the value of 25 pounds of 

 phosphoric acid. This gives a value of 1^- cents. 

 When we consider the quantities of refuse phos- 

 phoric acid in the used up bone-black of the su- 

 p-ar refineries, and the cheaper price of boiled 

 bones, we shall do injustice to the farmer rather 

 than to the manufacturer, when we assume H 

 cents, as the value of acid per pound. The 

 above refers to phosphoric acid when saturated 

 with lime or magnesia and thus insoluble in 

 water. Soluble phosphoric acid is of much 

 greater value, from its greater rapidity of ac- 

 tion. To convert 25 pounds of insoluble phos- 

 phoric acid, (bone earth phosphate,) into inso- 

 luble phosphoric acid, (su])er- phosphate,) re- 

 quires 30 pounds of oil of vitriol ; which at 2* 

 cents per pound, would make 25 pounds of so- 

 luble phosphoric acid, worth 25 to 60 cents, say 

 $1, or 4 cents per pound, cost of preparation in- 

 cluded. 



Prof. Hay in a paper on Super-phosphate of 

 Lime in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, vol. XII, 1851, rated phos- 

 phoric acid in the state of insolul)le phosphate 

 of lime at 3 cents per pound, and super-phos- 

 phate at 8| cents, or double the prices I have 

 been led to adopt. He calculated the latter 

 however from the selling price of a commercial 

 super-phosphate, which is obviously no criterion 

 for the farmer. 



It is plain that it is no easy matter to estimate 

 the matter the value of a manure, since so many | 

 things influence our decisions, and I do not for a 

 moment suppose that the prices these calcula- 

 tions have led me to, are strictly correct, but 

 they doubtless are not very far from the truth 

 and at all events may serve us in comparing the 

 different fertilizers whose composition will be 

 made known in future numbers of the Home- 

 stead. 



It is the duty of farmers themselves to insti- 

 tute such inquiries as may enable them to de- 

 cide how much they can afford to pay per pound 

 for these substances. This, it strikes me, is 

 leo-itimate business for a State Agricultural 

 Society. 



Yale Analytical Laboratory, ) 

 May 20th, 1856. j 



Note. — Sulphoric acid cannot be obtained 

 in Richmond at that price. 



THE BEST PLOUGH. 

 Some time since we notified the class of in- 

 venters that a premium of twenty-five dollars 

 y/ould be offered for a plough to clean out water 

 furrows and grade ofi" their sides. In that pa- 

 per we gave specifications of what the implement 

 would be required to accomplish. It will prove 

 exceedingly valuable to all who till stifi" clay lands 

 that require bedding, and, we think, will find a 

 ready sale at a moderate price, if it comes up to 

 the specifications. 



As an aid to such as may be inclined to com- 

 pete for this premium, we publish the following 

 account of such an implement, which we have 

 recently found in the third volume of British 

 Husbandry, p. 131. 



In addition to the common plough, Mr. Stick- 

 ney possesses a most valuable one for the pur- 

 pose of clearing out the furrows between the 

 ridges, after the wheat crop has been sown and 

 harrowed in ; or, indeed, at any other period, 

 when it is necessrry to have the land as dry as 

 possible. The manner in which he procured 

 this implement shall be given in his own words. 

 "I saw an account in an agricultural publica- 

 tion of a millwright going to visit a farmer.* 

 The farmer complained to him of the difficulty 

 he had long experienced, in his strong and re- 

 tentive soils, of clearing out his furrows be- 

 tween one land and another, of the clods and 

 the crumbs of soil which fell back again after 

 the operation of the common plough, and there- 

 by obstructed the proper discharge of the wa- 

 ter from his land. This statement excited my 

 attention, for I had long experienced the same 

 difficulty. The millwright requested the farmer 

 to take a spade, and put a portion of the furrow 

 exactly in the position he would wish the whole 

 to be in ; he did so — and the millwright soon 

 produced an implement which performed the 

 operation in a very expeditious and complete 

 'manner. I stated this circumstance to the Hol- 

 derness Agricultural Society, one object of 

 which is to introduce implements or machinery 

 from a distance, of which we may have a good 

 character, but which are unknown in our own 

 neighbourhood. It was ordered by the society, 

 tried by the members, and found to answer the 

 character given of it ; and it is now in the hands 

 of many farmers in the Holderness district. I 

 would not be without it for many times its cost, 

 and I consider it to have greatly benefited my 

 farm." This implement, called by Mr. Stick- 

 ney, the " boat- plough," is not over-rated in 

 value. It is so admirably constructed as to 

 leave the land exactly in the form in which a 



* Farmer's Magazine, vol. vi, p. 200, contains 

 the history of this plough, which was invented 

 by the ingenious Mr. Gladstone of Castle Doug- 

 las, N. B. 



