56 
CULTURE OF POTATOES, ETC.—REVIEW OF LIEBIG, 
new—say a bounty of 15 or 20 cents on the pound 
of cocoons. One dollar on the pound of silk from 
the fibre of the bark, and 50 cents on every ream 
of good printing or writing paper. I am aware of 
the importance of uniform reeling, but we do not 
yet raise enough cocoons to establish filatures 
which will be needed as soon as the cocoons can 
be produced. Will not the proposed bounty, if 
granted, stimulate the new beginner to raise as 
many trees as he can, to feed his early one and 
open crop, save his after foliage for paper, and 
then the bark for clothing? This will be some¬ 
thing new to the people. Will you suggest these 
to General Tallmadge and others in your paper ? 
D. Stebbins. 
Northampton , Mass., Jan. 2,1844. 
We have received the Hampshire Gazette con¬ 
taining No. 1 of the translation from Mr. Frais- 
senet, and shall be obliged if Dr. Stebbins will con¬ 
tinue them ; we will endeavor at least to give a 
synopsis of their contents, for those interested in 
this subject, 
CULTURE OF POTATOES, &c. 
At your request, I send you a specimen of the 
pink-eye kidney potato, which is a fair sample of 
my last year’s crop, together with the mode of 
culture. 
Benefit of Lime in Destroying Insects. —On 
the first of May, the ground, a sandy loam, on 
which turneps had been grown the previous year, 
was plowed very deep, harrowed, and furrowed 
three feet apart—the furrows filled with rotted 
manure, incorporated with oyster-shell lime and 
charcoal dust. The largest potatoes were then 
selected for seed, cut into single sets of one eye 
each, and planted on the manure, eight inches 
apart, and covered with the plow. After this the 
field was top-dressed with lime and charcoal dust, 
in equal quantities, at the rate of 200 bushels to 
the acre, and harrowed. The potatoes were hoed 
and plowed twice during the season. On the 12th 
of October they were dug, and although the fur¬ 
rows were too far apart, and the potato a shy 
bearer, the produce was 432 bushels per acre, free 
from decay or disease. My object in liming, was 
to destroy any worm or insect that might be con¬ 
cealed in the soil. 
Contiguous to the potatoes, I sowed a quarter 
of an acre with ruta-baga seed, in drills. On this 
crop I did not use lime or charcoal dust; the con¬ 
sequence was the entire loss of the crop, which 
was destroyed by worms. Adjoining, I sowed a 
quarter of an acre with orange carrot seed, which 
were soaked in strong ley 12 hours, and sown in 
drills, previously filled with a composition formed 
of ashes, salt, muck, poudrette, lime, and charcoal 
dust, in nearly equal quantities, except salt, a 
small portion of which only was used. The quar¬ 
ter of an acre produced 190 bushels, and would, in 
my opinion, have yielded one third more, had the 
blossoms been cut off. 
Robert L. Pell. 
Pelham , Ulster Co., Jan. 6, 1844. 
REVIEW OF LIEBIG. 
Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and, 
Physiology. Third Edition. 
It is rather more than three years since this re¬ 
markable book was laid before the British Associa¬ 
tion. In that time two editions have been print¬ 
ed ; they have been received on the one hand with 
most extravagant praise, and on the other with 
unmeasured censure. The first was attributable 
to the clearness with which some views that are 
really new, and others that are thought so, were 
brought before the public; the second arose from 
the manner in which Professor Liebig was so ill- 
advised as to attack vegetable Physiologists, of 
whose science he knows much less than they of 
chemistry. The issue of all this has been produc¬ 
tive of much good. Had it not been for English 
trumpets, public attention would never have been 
so strongly directed to Professor Liebig’s excellen¬ 
ces ; and we have to thank the German catcalls 
that his own thoughts have been so advantageously 
turned to the correction of his deficiencies. The 
two together have produced a book infinitely su¬ 
perior to its predecessors, and to a very consider¬ 
able extent unlike them. We hear no more of 
starch consisting of concentric layers of wax and 
amylin; the exaggerations about grand exper¬ 
iments on woods and meadows are omitted, as is 
the materialism about the unimportance of a vital 
principle, (p. 56, ed. 2,) and the offensive observa¬ 
tions upon physiologists. In the place of these 
and other subjects that are cancelled we have a 
very considerable quantity of new matter. A new 
chapter is devoted to the consideration of “ the 
Formation of Arable Land,” another to “Fal¬ 
lows that on the “ Rotation of Crops,” is almost 
entirely rewritten, and so is the chapter on ma¬ 
nures; while a thirteenth chapter is devoted 
specially to a general retrospect of the theories in¬ 
cluded in the previous pages. To these are added 
supplementary chapters on the sources of ammonia, 
and on the questions whether nitric acid is food 
for plants, and whether the nitrogen of the air 
takes a part in vegetation. In an appendix are 
given at length the important experiments of 
Wiegmann and Polstorf on the food of plants. 
In the former editions ammonia was the great 
subject of discussion. As chemists seem agreed in 
considering it improbable that plants should ob¬ 
tain their nitrogen directly from the air, and as 
all plants contain that element, ammonia seems to 
be the only source by which it can be supplied; 
and in all probability this is a just view of the 
case. Nevertheless it is by no means proved that 
larger quantities of ammonia than the atmosphere 
naturally contains are necessary to the most healthy 
vegetation; and although it is certain that matter 
rich in ammoniacal salts is among the most power¬ 
ful of manures, it has by some been supposed that 
other substances constantly present along with the 
ammonia may be of equal or even greater impor¬ 
tance. Such is sulphuretted hydrogen; such are 
phosphates. This opinion is now taken up by 
Professor Liebig, who devotes a whole chapter to 
its consideration. After stating that animal matter 
contains invariably the substances named albumen* 
