AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
101 
interior. At present prices, the drain upon 
the Eastern States to pay for these vast sup¬ 
plies is a serious hindrance to their prosper¬ 
ity. Millions of dollars have thus been re¬ 
quired during the last year over and above 
the sum that it would have cost even that 
generally thrifty and well-paid people to 
raise the same amount of similar food. 
This consideration surely should induce 
them to enter upon its cultivation the present 
year with industry and energy. The pros¬ 
pect of a reduction of present prices should 
be considered quite too slight by every man 
of sense and forethought to neglect any op¬ 
portunity to raise a patch of wheat, corn, 
barley, or rye. Everywhere in the North 
all these grains will grow and flourish, ex¬ 
cepting corn in the most northern part of 
Maine. Let every one then try his hand at 
one or the other as occasion may present. 
Let every man who owns an acre of arable 
soil at least raise as much bread as he and 
his family require. In this way starvation 
prices may be remedied and a possible fam¬ 
ine be averted. But if things go on in the 
old way nobody knows where we shall come 
out a year hence. 
\V e now find that the wheat crop within 
100 to 200 miles of the sea-board, from New- 
York to Virginia, has suffered very much 
from the dry, windy weather for upwards of 
two months past; little or no snow having 
been on the ground. Farther west there 
has been more snow during February, and 
March, and their wheat is looking tolerably, 
and may turn out a good average ; but all 
along the Atlantic coast, we fear the crop is 
too much injured already to yield anything 
like a full average. 
The truth is, wheat is rather an uncertain 
crop with us ; and unless we can overcome 
the attacks of the “insects,” hit upon some 
improved method of cultivation, or the sea¬ 
sons grow better,] it is destined at some fu¬ 
ture day to become an article of luxury, 
which none but those pretty well off will be 
able to indulge in. 
GYPSUM AND SALT. 
To the Farmers of Nottinghamshire : ' 
Gentlemen —None of the sulphates of the 
various earths and metals occur so abund¬ 
antly in the natural state as the sulphate of 
lime, or gypsum. 
You are no doubt all aware that there are 
several quarries in our own immediate neigh¬ 
borhood from which large quantities are an¬ 
nually procured, and in Derbyshire it is 
still more abundant. Some of the beds in 
Derbyshire are exceedingly pure ; and very 
large quantities in the unburnt state, ground 
to a fine powder, not only for adulterating 
articles of food and luxury, such as flour, 
sugar, lozenges, &c., but also for mixing 
with Peruvian guano—a trick which, I am 
sorry to say, has been known to be practised 
to an enormous extent. 
The chemical composition of gypsum is 
lime 28 parts, sulphuric acid 40 parts, and 
water 18 parts. It is a compound, therefore, 
capable of supplying both lime, sulphur, and 
sulphuric acid to plants. 
When gypsum is burnt it loses all its water, 
and is converted into plaster of Paris, the 
uses of which are too well known to require 
explanation. 
Burnt gypsum dissolves with greater diffi- 
cuity than unburnt, but both require a 
large amount of water for their solution. A 
gallon of water will only take up about 3 
drachms of unburnt gypsum, so that, valua¬ 
ble as it may be as a manure, large quanti. 
ties at a time can never be needed. A dress. 
ing of 3 cwt. per acre, whether applied to 
clover, which on certain descriptions of land 
it so greatly benefits, or to other green crops 
requiring sulphur, will be found to be ample. 
The addition of gypsum to the dung heap 
is very valuable for improving the quality of 
the manure and assisting a little in the fix¬ 
ing of ammonia ; I say a little because it on¬ 
ly acts in the presence of a great deal of 
moisture, which, in the case before us, is 
rather an evil than an advantage. As a fixer 
of ammonia in the tank its effects are more 
observable, because there is more liquid far 
its solution. In this state, therefore, it pro¬ 
duces the greatest benefit; but the refuse 
salt cakes of the nitric and muriatic acid 
are far more valuable for this purpose. 
The benefits which arise from the use of 
common salt are due to the chlorine and 
sodium which it contains. All fertile soils 
and all edible plants contain it; but its 
solubility favors its easy removal from the 
soil, hence the need of its being applied more 
frequently than gypsum. 
When mixed with farm-yard manure as I 
have previously directed, 'it improves the 
quality, causes a more complete -decompo¬ 
sition of the manure, and furnishes the best 
mode of supplying it to the soil. Salt and 
lime mixed together in some cases are not 
to be despised. These mutually decom¬ 
pose each other, forming a muriate of lime 
and carbonate of soda. The carbonic acid, 
as fast as it is absorbed from the atmosphere 
by the lime, goes over to the soda contained 
in the common salt, at the same time the 
muriatic acid with which the soda is asso¬ 
ciated transfers itself to the lime, forming a 
muriate of lime ; thus you will perceive 
that the soda and lime exchange their acids. 
Such a compost as this is most destructive 
to insect life, but it is requisite that the lime 
and salt should remain together several 
months before the change becomes complete. 
Salt acts in a similar way with gypsum, 
for when these two are in contact for any 
length of time they are converted into sul¬ 
phate of soda and muriate of lime. 
The sulphate of soda is much more solu¬ 
ble than the sulphate of lime, hence the ad¬ 
vantage of applying salt and gypsum to the 
soil after thay have been mixed together 
several months, thereby enabling the plant to 
take up the sulphur more readily and in 
greater abundance. A portion of the soda 
here liberated would be returned again to 
the soil, and have a tendency to combine 
with or decompose the silicates contained 
therein, rendering them more soluble and in 
a fit state to be taken up by plants. It is 
probably owing to this property which it 
possesses that the straw of wheat is ren¬ 
dered so bright and stiff after a dressing of 
salt. 
I will now draw your attention for a short 
time to what is usually termed the “clover 
sickness.” 
It having been disputed by several of the 
most influential farmers in the neighborhood 
that lime exercises any beneficial influence 
upon the clover plant, and one gentleman 
even going so far as to assert that Professor 
Liebig committed an error in classifying it 
among the family of lime plants at all; let 
us endeavor to make out what are the con¬ 
stituents requisite for the production of a 
good crop of clover, which, perhaps, may be 
a guide as to the kind of management which 
ought to be employed in this particular in¬ 
stance. By argument and investigation we 
can only arrive at the truth ; and when we 
are in possession of the knowledge of in¬ 
gredients removed from the soil by theclover 
crop, we must naturally infer that the ab¬ 
sence or deficiency of the substances which 
enter into its composition will be a hindrance 
to its full and perfect development. 
According to the annalysis of the late 
Mr. Haywood, of Sheffield (whose melan¬ 
choly death you will recollect having been 
recorded only a few months ago), two tuns 
of clover remove from the soil— 
Nitrogen. 132 lbs. 
Phosphoric acid . 20 “ 
Alkalies (potash and soda). 01 “ 
Earths (principally lime). 140 “ 
Silica. 10 “ 
Sulphur. 0 “ 
Before I proceed any further I should 
wish you to understand that nitrogen, the 
first-mentioned component part of clover, 
may be represented in the soil by organic 
matter—such as vegetable fiber, farm-yard 
manure, or in fact by any other substance 
capable of producing ammonia,.all of which 
must contain nitrogen , which, as I have ex¬ 
plained in a former letter, is converted by 
the properties of lime, first into nitric acid 
and subsequently into nitrate of lime. I 
need scarcely say that the treatment of the 
land must vary according to its nature ; 
thus a good marly or loamy soil will gener¬ 
ally contain a sufficiency of the alkalies, a 
sandy or gravelly soil quite enough of sili¬ 
ca in a soluble state after it has been well 
limed, or a soil full of vegetable matter will 
for the most part be found to contain the re¬ 
quisite quantity of nitrogen ; but as we can¬ 
not arrive at any accurate conclusions with 
regard to the treatment of the different kinds 
of soil without first having them analyzed, 
1 can only give you a general prescription, 
which will answer in every case, because it 
will supply all the ingredients which are re¬ 
quired. For the clover crop then I would 
recommend a dressing of 4 cwt. of super¬ 
phosphate of lime, 1 cwt. of common salt, 
1 cwt. of gypsum, and 4- cwt. of potash, or 
1 cwt. of wood ashes. The superphosphate, 
when properly prepared, will furnish all the 
organic matter and phosphoric acid ; the salt 
will aid greatly in supplying the alkalies, 
provided the land contains plenty of lime, 
which, as you have seen, will- convert the 
salt into carbonate of soda, in which case 
the potash or wood ashes may partly be 
dispensed with ; and the gypsum will afford 
the necessary quantity of lime. But, in 
addition to all these, the mechanical state of 
the soil has also something to do with healthy 
and luxuriant growth of this valuable crop. 
Who has not observed that clover arrives at 
the highest degree of perfection where the 
ground has been well trodden and rendered 
comparatively solid by the feet of animals % 
And, therefore, where the soil is light and of 
a porous texture, a good rolling with a heavy 
roll or Crosskill will be found to be of great 
benefit. 
These are the necessary conditions, ac¬ 
cording to my idea, for the production of a 
good crop of clover, which, if strictly ad¬ 
hered to, will in the generality of cases be 
attended with success, and we then shall not 
hear so many complaints about the “clover 
sickness ” as hitherto ; for it must ever be 
borne in mind that when a plant is furnished 
with all the necessary articles of food , the 
land being at the same time in a proper con¬ 
dition, it is then, and then only, that you 
may reasonably expect a first-rate crop. 
I have now treated upon the principal ma¬ 
nures in general use, with the exception 
perhaps, of the sewerage of large towns, 
which, in the absence of the means of appli¬ 
cation, it would here be useless to dwell 
upon. With regard to this subject, however, 
I will just remark that thousands, nay, I 
might almost say millions of pounds’ worth 
of manure is annually carried away by the 
rivers of this country, and entirely lost, so 
far as we are concerned; but I trust the 
period may not be far distant when these 
wasted manures will also be made subserv¬ 
ient to the increased production of the soil. 
Mark-Lane Express.} Sam’l Parr. 
