H84 
Fair of Am. Institute—Heports, 
well. It makes most excellent fodder, and the pea is 
very line for the table. The new pea will be found a 
most valuable acquisition by our planters. None of the 
Northern grasses, of which we hear so much, can com¬ 
pare with the pea for fertilizing our soil. What clo¬ 
ver does for the Northern farmers, the pea does for 
us.— Planter’s Banner, La . 
Animal Manures. —Carcasses consist of bones, 
flesh, fat, and other soft parts. The flesh contains, 
according to chemical analysis, in 100,000 parts, on an 
average, 77,170 parts of water ; 15,800 muscular 
fibre, vessels, and nerves ; 1,900 cellular tissue ; 2,200 
albumen, and serum of blood ; 1,800 osmazome, with 
a little lactite of soda, potash, and chloride of lime ; 
150 mucous matter; 900 phosphate of soda, and 80 
phosphate of lime. The muscular fibre, vessels and 
nerves, the cellular tissue, albumen and serum, osma¬ 
zome and mucous matter, are those substances of the 
flesh which contain abundance of nitrogen, sulphur, 
phosphorus, and chlorine, and possesses a high value 
as a manure. Of much less importance is the fat, 
which in its pure state consists only of carbon, hydro¬ 
gen, and oxygen ; and it would be still less worth if 
there were not the cellular tissue, in which the fat is 
contained, to which the manuring quality of the refuse 
of the tallow melter is to be ascribed. 
The flesh of animals dying a natural death soon 
passes into a state of putrefaction, as it is not defi¬ 
cient in water, and it develops during that process a 
great quantity of ammonia, phosphuretted hydrogen, 
and some other putrid gases, not yet sufficiently 
known ; if, therefore, nothing of these substances is 
to be lost, it must be, as soon as possible, mixed with 
matters which are able to receive and chemically bind 
the gases thus developed. In Belgium the flesh of 
dead animals, or such as have been killed on account 
of being diseased, is cut immediately into small pieces, 
which are divided over the field, and soon covered by 
ploughing them in. Against this procedure nothing 
can be said, provided the soil contains much humic 
acid, by which the developed ammonia can be chemic¬ 
ally fixed. Still it is better to cut the flesh of carcasses 
in small pieces, and put it, with moist soil rich in hu¬ 
mus, into a hole where it may rot, by which means all 
the ammonia will be chemically fixed. The bones 
also, which do not require to be bared of flesh, may 
be equally placed in the hole, and afterwards taken 
cut and used by themselves. We generally find it 
stated that carcasses should be mixed up with quick¬ 
lime, and thrown into a ditch, where they may decay ; 
but this occasions a considerable loss of fertilizing ma¬ 
terials, because the greatest portion of the nitrogen es¬ 
capes. For if a portion of it combines with the oxy¬ 
gen of the atmospheric air, and forms nitric acid, which 
may enter into chemical combination with lime and 
ammonia, and so becomes nitrate of lime and ammo¬ 
nia ; still most of the nitrogen combines with hydro¬ 
gen, and escapes under the form of ammonia. If ni¬ 
trogen is not to be wasted, no lime should be added, nor 
is it at all necessary, if the carcasses have been mixed 
with soil rich in humus. 
The Entrails of dead animals are to be treated in 
the same way as the flesh, if they are to yield the 
greatest advantage as manures. After they have been 
frequently worked up with humus soil, and are proper¬ 
ly decayed, they form an admirable top-dressing; but 
must always be used in small quantities, or they will 
make vegetation push too luxuriantly.— Sprengel. 
To keep Sweet Potatoes. —Level a dry piece of 
earth, so as to form a circle of six feet in diameter$ 
cover it with dry hay, and on this empty the potatoes 
until they form a cone of 4 or 5 feet high. Over this 
scatter dry grass, and over the grass, place corn stalks. 
Cover the whole with earth about a foot deep, without 
any opening. Insert in the ground, around the pile, 
four forked posts, on which rails may be placed to sup¬ 
port boards to protect the pile from rain.— Plant. Ban. 
NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
A Geological Report upon the Fourche Cove and its 
immediate vicinity, by Byrd Powell, M. D., with a 
Geological Map, Little Rock, Arkansas .—We are in¬ 
debted to W. W. Stevenson, Esq., for the Above brief, 
though valuable report. The author has well set forth 
the money-saving benefits resulting from a knowledge 
of science, in the following remarks. 
“ Geology lies at the foundation of a large portion of 
those great improvements by which society is civilized 
and placed in advance of barbarism. The improve¬ 
ment of a country in canals, rail-roads, mining opera¬ 
tions, and in the discovery of those natural productions 
which are indispensable to the arts of civilized society, 
must advance very slowly, empyrically, and expensive¬ 
ly, unless guided by the lights of Geology. 
“ In Pennsylvania, at the Mauchchunk Coal Mines, a 
company lost, in one enterprize, $80,000, which could 
have been prevented by three hours’ labor of a practi¬ 
cal geologist; or, if the company had possessed such a 
knowledge of the science as should constitute a part of 
the education of every gentleman, the occurrence could 
not have happened. Blunders of equal magnitude, but 
not of equal expense, are committed, to my own know¬ 
ledge, in every part of this country, in digging and 
boring for salt and fresh waters. It not unfrequently 
happens, furthermore, that articles, indispensable to 
domestic life, are imported, when, at the same time, 
they exist, perhaps, upon our own possessions. In confir¬ 
mation of this remark, we have before us the fact, that 
roof slate has been freighted here from the north, while 
the same article exists in abundance within three miles 
of the city. It is also true that a comparatively fra¬ 
gile and decomposable sand-stone has been brought 
from Cincinnati to this place, for architectural purpo¬ 
ses, when a granite of a more beautiful and enduring 
character, and admirably adapted to the same purpose, 
obtains in great abundance within four miles of the 
city. I think it probable, furthermore, that hydraulic 
lime has been shipped from Louisville to this place, 
when it might have been procured within the corporate 
limits of the city. Finally, the great abundance and 
variety of geological productions used in, and almost 
indispensable to, the arts of civilized society, which I 
have developed in a few weeks, and that, too, within j 
a very small compass, ought to induce every young 
man who is receiving an education, and every gentle¬ 
man of leisure, to devote a liberal portion of his time ! 
to this subject.” We should be happy to increase these ! 
extracts did our limits permit. 
Address delivered before the Ag. Soc. of Newcastle Co. i 
Delaware, by Hon. Jas. M. Garnett, of Virginia .—We 
have been favored by the author with a copy of this ; 
valuable address, which is characterised by his usual i 
sound and practical views. Few men are doing more ' 
for the advancement of an enlightened and profitable 1 
system of husbandry, than Judge Garnett. We regret : 
that a want of room prevents our giving a portion of ; 
this address to our readers. 
We are indebted to an unknown friend for the Con¬ 
stitution and Address of the Rensselaer Co. Ag’l. : 
Society. Also, to Messrs. A. J. Downing & Co. of 
Newburgh, for a better and more systematised cata¬ 
logue of the Fruits and Ornamental Trees and Plants 
of their Nursery, than we have before seen. 
