108 
CHARCOAL AND ITS USES. 
may here remark incidentally, that American oil¬ 
cake is the best for grazing purposes, and on this 
account used very extensively by many of our 
principal breeders. 
The principle upon which I graze is simply 
this, constantly to change, and always improve , 
when I do change, the feed of my bullocks. Thus 
when my bullocks are being what we term “ top¬ 
ped up,” (the last stage of fattening,) they are 
feeding on the best hay or clover I have, beet-root, 
oil-cake, and perhaps bean-meal. In February 
and March they are ripe or ready for the butcher— 
they being just two years old. Their weight will 
vary from 750 to 850 lbs. 
I will now, as nearly as I am able, lay before 
you the expense which I consider these beasts 
have been to me during these two years. 
£. 
1st Year.—I calculate the prime cost 
s. 
d. 
of the calf at 
1 
0 
0 
Keep from January to May 
10 
0 
Do. from May to October - 
1 
0 
0 
2d Year.—Keep from Oct. to May 
2 
2 
0 
Do. from May to October - 
2 
10 
0 
Cost of fattening - 
12 
0 
0 
£19 2s. 0 d. 
Supposing my fat beef to be worth 7s. 6 d. per 
stone of 14 lbs., that at 800 lbs. would be £21 7s. 
6£, thus leaving me £2 5s. 6d. profit besides the 
manure, the value of which it would be difficult 
to estimate. Suffice it to say, that if we obtain 
the manure only , as our profit, we consider our¬ 
selves amply repaid for our outlay. In making 
inquiries of butehers and graziers during my hith¬ 
erto somewhat limited travels in this country, I 
have been surprised to learn that artificial food is 
seldom or ever used to force your beef to market, 
and that consequently, it is four to five years old 
before fit for the butcher.* When expressing my 
astonishment at this, I have invariably been 3 met 
with the answer: “ The price of meat will not 
warrant, our going to much expense in fattening 
our beasts in this country.” Now, sir, I would re¬ 
spectfully submit, through your columns, to the 
farmers of this country, whether it would not be 
preferable to obtain two returns for their money 
instead, of one ; or to be content with small profits 
every two years, instead of larger ones every five ,* 
besides improving to an inconceivable extent, the 
quality of their farmyard manure. 
The above calculation is of course not at all ap¬ 
plicable to grazing in America ; I have merely in¬ 
serted it to show the relative bearings of expense 
and returns attendant on forcing beef in England. 
Another advantage belonging to fattening early, I 
consider to be lessening the risk and chances of 
loss or accidents to the beast. It is fair to sup¬ 
pose that five years will be more prolific in casu¬ 
alties than two. 
I have thus laid before your readers a subject 
which I believe worthy their attention and con¬ 
sideration; and I feel convinced they will receive 
* Note. —The writer might have said with greater truth, 
five to six years old, which tells still more strongly against 
our slow, wasteful, half-starving method of rearing and 
fatting cattle.—-E d. 
my observations and hints in the same spirit which 
influenced me in writing them—the pure spirit of 
good feeling, and a sincere desire to see the agri¬ 
culture of the world prosper and advance. 
Dendy Sharwood. 
New York , Jan. 10 th, 1844. 
CHARCOAL AND ITS USES. 
Five years since, I received from Italy several 
hundred mulberry trees, comprising the rarest and 
most tender varieties—packed in pulverised char¬ 
coal dust, in tight boxes. On their arrival, I found 
the roots as well as the buds had grown to the 
length of six inches. The growth was of course per¬ 
fectly white, and when exposed to the atmosphere 
wilted immediately—the trees were in the most 
perfect order. 
This led me to try various experiments with 
charcoal dust; such as striking soft wooded gera¬ 
niums, of one summer’s growth, wax plants, 
grape cuttings, and various other plants, with 
complete success. I likewise use it in growing 
vegetables, planting grape-vines, trees, shrubs, 
&:c.—in considerable quantities on strawberry beds,, 
potato fields, grass and wheat lands, sown broad¬ 
cast. Last February I cut a young grape-vine into 
a single eye, in the open garden, and freely ma¬ 
nured it with charcoal dust. Before the 20th of 
August it had grown 32^ feet. My gardener 
soaked a kernel of sweet corn in spirits of ammo¬ 
nia , double F. F., for the space of 20 minutes, and 
planted it in a pot filled with pure pulverised char¬ 
coal dust, which he then thrust in a well-prepared 
hot bed ; in 24 hours it had grown one inch; other 
grains he soaked 25 minutes, and killed the vital 
principle of the kernel. So strong were the fumes 
of the ammonia, that it destroyed a bed of cucum¬ 
bers in 20 minutes, placed in a saucer in the midst 
of the vines under glass. The object in putting it 
there was to kill insects, which it did most effec¬ 
tually in three minutes; and had it been then re¬ 
moved, the probability is the plants would have 
been improved by the gas—there were cucumbers 
on them at the time six inches long. 
Charcoal as a manure will be found invaluable t 
it is pure and incorruptible, absorbs from the at¬ 
mosphere 90 volumes of ammoniacal gas, 55 of 
sulphuretted hydrogen, and 35 of carbonic acid 
gas. By uniting with oxygen, it forms carbonic 
acid gas, and constitutes about 42 per cent, in su¬ 
gar, 41 per cent, in gum, 43 per cent, in wheat 
starch, 52 in oak wood, 51 in beach wood, 46 in 
pure vinegar, 36 in tartaric acid, and 41 in citric 
acid; as carbonic acid gas, it is found in all culti¬ 
vated soils, in all waters, and in the atmosphere. 
It is absorbed by every plant that grows, the car¬ 
bonic acid gas being composed of oxygen and hy¬ 
drogen; it will therefore be readily conceded that 
being necessary to plants, in all stages of their 
growth, there can not be applied to them a sub¬ 
stance more requisite. Charcoal from pine wood 
is the best for agricultural purposes, on account of 
its fine texture, which enables it to absorb moist¬ 
ure, together with the other gases before enumer- 
| ated, more rapidly, and may be easily incorporated 
I with the soil, where it protects plants, not only 
