46 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. NO. 17., ETC. 
twenty bushels to the acre. The largest crop, 
thirty-seven and a half bushels. 
Sowing Grass Seed. — This he does in the fall, 
or spring, upon the growing wheat, at the rate 
of five quarts each of Timothy and clover to the 
acre. Continue in grass four or five years, and 
then corn, potatoes, peas, and wheat. 
Average Crops of Corn, for five years, 35 bushels; 
oats, 50 bushels; potatoes, 100 bushels through 
the county, and 200 bushels of sweet potatoes. 
He Uses Manure for Potatoes, peas, and wheat, 
but not for corn. He spreads 50 bushels of un- 
slacked lime on the acre, in April or May, upon 
corn land, either before or after planting, as con- 
venient. He turns clover, Timothy, and orchard- 
grass sod six or eight inches deep in the fall, and 
harrows or plows two light furrows together, to 
plant corn. His soil is a sandy loam, made rich 
by lime and manure, and a regular rotation 
of crops. 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.— No. 17. 
What I have already said concerning the 
composition of farmyard manure and its decom- 
position, will lead you to infer that one portion 
must descend, and another ascend, while under- 
going this last process. If it be plowed under 
the surface, the saline portions will be dissolved 
by the action of rains, while the gaseous por- 
tions will ascend, and either be absorbed by the 
earth above, or rise into the air. This last result 
must ensue, when the manure is spread upon the 
surface, so that, in this case, little benefit can be 
obtained from its ammonia or carbon ; as these, 
(with the exception of such portion as may 
chance to be washed into the earth with rain,) 
will pass into the air and be lost. 
But in loose, porous soils, the saline parts may 
descend with the water in which they are dis- 
solved, to such a depth as to be below the reach 
of the roots of plants. It is, however, contended 
by some eminent agriculturists, that the tendency 
of even these portions is upwards, and that the 
surface will be enriched by them when they lie 
buried several feet beneath. As there are some 
very respectable advocates for this theory, who 
bring facts and experiments from their own 
observation and experience, to confirm their 
position, I do not feel at liberty to say it is not 
so; for it is possible that the salts, alter being 
dissolved, may rise on the principle of capillary 
attraction ; though it is quite probable that, in 
the experiments which have been made on this 
point, the gases have acted a more important 
part than they have received credit for. The 
question is an important one, and it is to be 
hoped that it may be soon satisfactorily decided. 
But even if the theory of the ascension of 
manures be incorrect, it does not follow that it 
is more advantageous to apply it on the surface 
than to plow it under ; as in the former case, it 
must be continually giving to the air those gases 
which act as valuable fertilizers when present 
in the soil. 
There is still much to be learned in the science 
of agriculture, as well as much that ought to be 
unlearned, in the present mode of practice. No 
one, therefore, need be deterred from experiment- 
ing and investigating by the thought that there 
are no new discoveries to be made, nor no new 
principles to be established. I have no doubt 
the time will come, when an acre will be made 
to produce twice as much as it now does, with- 
out any more labor or expense in cultivating 
than is now bestowed upon it — a result which 
will be brought about by the superior manage- 
ment of a more enlightened age. 
Trusting that what I have already written will 
suffice as an introduction to the study of agri- 
cultural chemistry, and serve to remove the first 
and most formidable difficulty which the student 
has to encounter in mastering technicalities, I 
will now close my series of letters. To those 
who desire to pursue the subject further, I would 
recommend the reading, or rather study, of John- 
ston's Agricultural Chemistry, a work replete 
with the most valuable practical instruction. 
J. McKinstry. 
Greenport, Columbia Co., N. Y. 
SAVING MANURE. 
A Southern Example, worthy of Northern Imita- 
tion. — My friend Mr. Keeling, who keeps that 
excellent house at Norfolk, the National Hotel, 
has lately bought a farm near town, which he is 
determined to enrich, and this is one of the 
methods he has taken. He has all the ashes 
from the hotel, which are made from bituminous 
coal, put into a pit, and upon this all the urine, 
soap suds, and dish water is thrown as long as 
it will absorb it, and the mass is then hauled out 
and spread upon the land. 
In the privy vault, he has a layer of soil 
spread every week, to which is added a sprink- 
ling of plaster and dissolved copperas, sufficient 
to absorb all the ammonia. After a time, that 
is all taken out and spread upon the land, with- 
out its being at all offensive to handle. Every 
dead animal that comes within his reach is 
buried in a pile of weeds, straw, trash, earth, or 
swamp muck, to fertilise the mass, and in its 
turn, fertilise the soil. He has lately planted 
3,000 bushels of oysters, for the use of the hotel, 
the shells of which, bye and bye, will be burnt, 
and spread upon the land. He is also preparing 
to grind plaster, which is brought here as ballast, 
and can be had for seventy-five cents to a dollar 
a ton. And with these appliances he is deter- 
mined to raise grass, notwithstanding the unfash- 
ionableness of that crop in all the south. 
Now, this gentleman is not a practical farmer, 
but derives his ideas from reading, reflection, and 
common sense ; and I leave it to any one pos- 
sessed of a small share of this latter commodity, 
to say if his ideas are not of a more common- 
sense character than many farmers have, who 
call themselves wholly practical. 
Cure for Hydrophobl4.. — M. Rochet d'Hericourt, 
a French traveller in Abyssinia, found a plant 
there, which is said to be effectual in curing 
this fatal disease. While there, he saw it admin- 
istered to a soldier and three dogs laboring under 
