266 
ERIE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SHOW. 
The weather was unpropitious, yet we see that 
the entries of articles were far more numerous, 
and the amount of money received from the farm¬ 
ers for membership much greater, than at any pre¬ 
vious Show of the Society—this is gratifying. 
We have given such long lists of premiums of The 
State Agricultural Society, and the county societies 
are so numerous, that it must not be expected of 
us to copy them hereafter. We shall be obliged 
to confine ourselves merely to ^report of new and 
interesting facts, and such extracts from addresses 
as strike us as best calculated to advance the 
general cause of agriculture. Dr. Lee’s address 
was of a high order. We subjoin an extract, 
showing the great value of charcoal as a manure, 
and the facility of augmenting the crop of wheat 
to an average of 50 bushels per acre, under an im¬ 
proved system of cultivation. 
I have stated to you that most plants require, in 
addition to water and carbon, a portion of nitrogen. 
This also comes from a gaseous substance in the 
atmosphere. Although nitrogen forms the largest 
element in the air, (79 per cent.,) yet it has been 
pretty well settled that plants do not obtain their 
nitrogen by decomposing common air, but derive 
it from ammonia* which is furnished to the atmo¬ 
sphere in great abundance by a world of decompo¬ 
sing vegetables, and animals. It is the ammonia 
that escapes from putrefying substances that caus¬ 
es their offensive smell. Now, again, comes up 
the practical question : How are we to collect this 
highly volatile gas, and transform it at the cheap¬ 
est rate, into wheat, beans, cheese, and wool, of 
which it is an important element? Rain water 
has a strong affinity for ammonia—which is a 
compound of 14 parts of nitrogen and 3 of hydro¬ 
gen. Water at 50° will absorb 650 times its bulk 
of this vegetable food. Every rain, then, brings 
considerable quantities of it to the ground. It is 
the ammonia in rain water that imparts to it its 
peculiar softness in washing the hands or clothes. 
It is the ammonia in snow that makes it valuable 
as a manure ; and it is the ammonia in rain water 
that causes it to putrefy in some degree, like an 
animal substance, when water is permitted to 
stand in warm weather in a close vessel above 
ground. The first fall of rain after a long drought 
is much the richest in this gas. Being extremely 
volatile, it escapes into the air again after a warm 
shower much quicker than water evaporates. 
What then will aid the cultivator of plants, and 
seize this volatile ammonia, as lime does carbonic 
acid, and hold it permanently about their roots, in 
such a shape that it will feed them all they need, 
and no more ? For an excess of this stimulating 
alkali, like an excess of salt in our food, will de¬ 
stroy life instead of supporting it. 
Common charcoal is the cheapest, and therefore 
the best material to apply to cultivated fields for 
this purpose. It will absorb 90 times its bulk of 
ammonia, and will give it out slowly to the vital 
attraction of the roots of plants. Most of you 
know that charcoal will correct the taint in meat- 
will purify rain water in a suitable cistern, so as 
to render it the purest water for culinary purposes. 
Such charcoal should be often renewed in filtering 
cisterns, and when saturated with ammonia, is an 
extremely valuable manure. The liberal applica¬ 
tion of this well-known substance to the wheat 
fields in France, has mainly, in connexion with 
the use of lime, added within the last ten years 
100,000,090 bushels to the annual crop of wheat 
grown in that kingdom. The charcoal should be 
sown in May, at the rate of 75 bushels per acre, 
well pulverized. This subject is one of vast prac¬ 
tical importance. By studying the science of agri¬ 
culture, you may grow fifty bushels of good wheat 
on any acre of your land, I have good reason to be¬ 
lieve, every year, bating of course extreme casu- 
alities. 
You all know that a single kernel of wheat, 
will, sometimes, when its fecundity is highly stim¬ 
ulated, send up 20 stalks, and that each stalk will 
bear a head containing 100 kernels. Here is a 
yield of 2,000 fold. Nature then has rendered it 
practicable to harvest 2,000 bushek of good wheat 
from one bushel of seed. The most skeptical 
among you will not deny that 2,000 kernels have 
been produced from one kernel, and that the same 
natural causes that produce such a result in one 
instance, will ever operate, at all times, under 
like circumstances, in the same manner. Hence, 
it is but reasonable to say, that nature is quite as 
willing to produce 50 bushels of good wheat on an 
acre of ground every year, mark me, if her laws he 
obeyed , as she is to grow fifty bushels of weeds 
every year on the same ground. 
The Peach-Tree Worm. —This worm can be 
destroyed by growing the tanzy, wormwood, or 
any bitter plant or shrub, around the peach-tree. 
A dozen sprouts or so are quite sufficient for pro¬ 
tection, and it is best to set them out in the spring 
of the year. Saltpetre mixed with salt at the 
rate of two ounces of the former to one pound of 
the latter, and spread around the trunk of the 
tree, will destroy the worm, and prevent the yel¬ 
lows. Yerdigris mixed with oil and poured into 
the holes and then plugged, we have seen also 
recommended. This is said to be certain death to 
the worm, without danger of injuring the trees. 
Notwithstanding this assertion, we should be very 
careful in the use of verdigris. 
Inaccuracies.— We are glad to see that our 
Barclay street neighbor, the Spirit of the Times, 
has taken up this subject. In its columns of the 
28th October, after expunging the terms “ Old Sir 
Archey, Old Eclipse,” and “sired by,” it says: 
Many write “ foalded” for foaled , “ tract” for track , 
(course is a still better term than track,) “ sorrel” 
for chesnut, “ full brother or sister” for oiv?i broth¬ 
er or sister, “ blooded” stock, for Mood stock, “ put 
to” for bred to, “ raised,” when applied to horses, 
for bred or reared. We hope the Spirit will con¬ 
tinue its “ greetings” in all these matters, for no 
one is more au fait or more capable. 
