196 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST;. 
PLASTER OF PARIS AS A FIXING AGENT. 
In a previous number I detailed some ex¬ 
periments made upon gypsum (sulphate of 
lime) and carbonate of ammonia, showing 
that they will decompose each other when 
dry , and from this, inferring that the use of 
the former as an ingredient of compost 
heaps, to retain the latter liberated by decay, 
was founded on truly scientific principles. 
Curing the summer I have, extended these 
investigations, and experiment has demon¬ 
strated what was before inferred. 
A few ounces of gypsum or sulphate of 
lime, (dry but not burned,) was exposed to 
the fumes and gasses arising from the vault 
of a privy, for a few weeks, and then care¬ 
fully examined, when it was found to con¬ 
tain a sensible amount of sulphate of am¬ 
monia which had arisen from the absorption 
and decomposition of the carbonate of am¬ 
monia, given off from the decaying night- 
soil. The amount was small, but the con¬ 
ditions of the experiment were such that a 
large amount could not have been expected. 
Yet this small amount proved the theory 
correct. 
Another experiment, still more decisive 
was tried. Some gypsum was spread upon 
a common plate ; this set upon a pile of 
horse-stable manure, a small box inverted 
over it to prevent any manure coming in 
contact with the gypsum, and the whole 
covered with the manure, which was accu¬ 
mulating from day to day. The pile was 
continually undergoing decomposition and 
decay, attended by some heat. At the end 
of some weeks, the gypsum was taken out, 
exposed to the air a day or two, and then 
chemically examined. It was still nearly 
dry, that is, not wet., and contained a very 
notable quantity of sulphate of ammonia and 
carbonate of lime, proving most decisively 
that as carbonate of ammonia was gener¬ 
ated by the decomposition and decay, it was 
absorbed and decomposed by k the gypsum, 
and retained in the form of the sulphate of 
ammonia. 
It has long been known and recognized 
that such decomposition took place when¬ 
ever these materials were in actual contact, 
and dissolved in water, but many have de¬ 
nied that it would take place when dry, and 
hence that gypsum was of no use in a com¬ 
post, or mixed with barn-yard manure, to fix 
the ammonia, for in such cases it was not 
dissolved, but merely moistened generally. 
The experiments published last spring, and 
especially those now mentioned, prove that 
it will retain it, partially at least. When 
they are mixed in piles, the conditions for 
the decomposition are much more favorable 
than in the experiments made, for then 
they are in contact, and moistened, and the 
instant the one is liberated by decay, the 
other decomposes and retains it. 
It is unnecessary here to enumerate in de¬ 
tail the applications, many of which have 
long been used without any doubts of their 
efficacy, by those reaping the advantages. 
It forcibly suggests the use of gypsum with 
guano, and all highly ammonical manures, 
also with barn-yard manures and composts." 
It recommends spreading it over and mixing 
it with piles of stable manure, which are 
accumulating through the summer, and gen¬ 
erally wasting by heating, nearly as fast as 
it accumulates. 
But I will let your practical readers make 
such applications as their good sense will 
dictate. Yours truly, 
Ovid, N. Y., 1854. WM. H. BREWER. 
[Country Gentleman. 
Matches. —The consumption of lucifer 
matches in France, together with the quan¬ 
tity required for exportation, is set down as 
demanding a supply per day of seventy-six 
millions eight hundred thousand matches. 
A LARGE FARM-A CHANGE. 
W t e are pleased to see the passion exhib¬ 
ited in California for patent plows and ox- 
yokes. The people are becoming practical 
in their ideas, directing less time to mining 
and gambling, and more to agricultural pur¬ 
suits. In the vicinity of San Francisco 
there are a few model farms, whose produc¬ 
tiveness will challenge the admiration of the 
world. 
One of these farms belongs to General 
Hutchinson. The General owns a farm of 
50,000 acres, the whole of which, in a few 
years, he intends to have seeded down with 
wheat, dairy-maids and short-horned Dur- 
hams. At the present time he has under 
cultivation about 1,500 acres. This is di¬ 
vided as follows: 600 acres in wheat, 500 in 
barley, and the balance in root and pumpkin 
crops, kitchen garden, &c. Forty plows and 
twenty harrows are used in the breaking up 
of the soil. Twenty-five yokes of working 
oxen and sixty horses are used in plowing, 
harrowing, teaming, threshing, pressing hay 
and other operations that are constantly car¬ 
ried on. Seventy men were employed dur¬ 
ing the harvesting season ; at other times 
forty. Seven reapers have leveled the grain, 
and two of Pitts’s eight horse power threshers 
work in the fields, each machine finishing 
seven hundred bushels per day. Five or six 
mowers were used in cutting hay and grain. 
Six hundred tons of hay have been gathered 
in the finest manner. The hay yard, with 
tts hay presses, is in the very best condition : 
one stack contained nearly two hundred 
tons. Some two hundred tons of hay have 
been pressed, ready for the market; one 
hundred already have been marketed. The 
“ large hay stack” is said to be the largest 
ever got up and finished. It is one hundred 
and sixty paces long, (or ten rods,) about 
twenty feet wide and forty high. We under¬ 
stand this “ pretty little pile” is intended for 
-the use of the stock during the fall plowing. 
In addition to the stock named, there are 
some two hundred head of farm stock, 200 
hogs, and 300 domestic fowls. The dairy 
consists of one hundred and thirty cows, 
and seventy calves. It requires twenty-five 
double teams in constant use, to carry the 
crops to market, and return the materials 
and stock wanted upon the farm. The black- 
smithing shop employs three men, the 
wheelright the same, and every day brings 
new machinery into use; and as at such a 
farm there ever will be repairs wanted, it is 
economy to have a shop that is ready for 
any emergencies. There are ten miles of 
fence finished, and six more will be added 
this autumn. This farm is one of the finest 
in America. It is also one of the best man¬ 
aged. Everything has been reduced to a 
system, the whole of which works with the 
smoothness of well regulated machines. A 
portion of the General’s wheat field gives 
sixty bushels to the acre. Where is Slin- 
gerland now l The estimated receipts of 
Gen. Hutchinson’s farm, for the year 1855, 
are put down at $220,000—nearly as much 
as the gross value of all the truck raised in 
the town of Bethlehem. 
Albany Kniekerbroker. 
The Sugar Crop. —The accounts of the 
Louisiana Sugar Crop, published in the New- 
Orleans papers, are all unfavorable. They 
say the amount of sugar produced will fall 
short at least one-third, compared with last 
year, owing to a deficiency in the juice of 
the cane ; but the quality ofthe sugar manu¬ 
factured, is described as being much better, 
as the juice is richer. Planters are busv, 
grinding and rolling. 
Why is a person knocking at the door like 
an overcoat ? Because he’s a wrapper. 
ARTIFICIAL GUANO. 
The following we clip from an English 
paper and insert it as an item of news. We 
have, however, little faith in the substitute 
for guano here presented. The analysis does 
not show ammonia enough, for we esteem 
this the most valuable and essential element 
in any manure : 
A new patent substitute for guano, con¬ 
sisting of decomposed and concentrate sea¬ 
weed, is about to be introduced by Mr. Long- 
maid, with the view of claiming the prize of 
£1,000 offered by the Royal Agricultural 
Society. The material is reduced to a pow¬ 
der, and rendered suitable to be applied by 
the drill. Many experiments with regard to 
its fertilizing powers are said to have been 
made during the past year, and the subjoined 
analysis of a sample has been furnished by 
Proffessor Way. The process is stated to 
be simple ; the price is estimated at £5 per 
ton or under ; and it is contemplated to 
establish manufactories at various stations 
on the coast. 
Per-centage com¬ 
position of the 
Organic matter: dry manure. 
Soluble 48.13 \ r - Q9 
Insoluble 17.79 \ . b 
Sand, &c. 3.18 
Alumina, with a little peroxide of iron .40 
Phosphate of lime.74 
Sulphate of lime.. 2.05 
Chloride of calcium. 1.22 
Chloride of magnesium. 2.02 
Chloride of sodium. 5.12 
Sulphate of potash. 5.70 
Soda.13.65 
100.00 
Nitrogen... 3.23 
Equal to ammonia.. . 3.92 
MANURES FOR LIGHT AND HEAVY SOILS. 
A very intelligent correspondent—N’lm- 
porte—closes a business letter as follows : 
* * * experiments with “Concentrated 
Fertilizers on Corn,” in November 22 num¬ 
ber, would be more satisfactory if the origi¬ 
nal constituents of the soil were given. Con¬ 
centrated manures, where nitrogen and its 
compounds are in excess, are doubtless the 
most profitable on all loose soils ; but for our 
hard, tenacious calcareous clay, I am con¬ 
vinced, from long experiment in gardening, 
that carbonaceous matter sufficient to keep 
the soil light and friable, will also give to the 
soil, in its decomposition, all the necessary 
inorganic matter and carbonic acid and am¬ 
monia ; while the soil itself is a natural col¬ 
lector and retainer of the latter from the at¬ 
mosphere. I have planted both heavy clay 
and light sandy loams ; while the latter was 
only kept productive by a continual yearly 
supply of nitrogen, the former only stood in 
need of coarse carbonaceous matter, with 
small additions of azote. I have found that 
no matter how abundantly a soil may be 
supplied with all the elements of organic 
structure, if its mechanical structure is not 
perfect and well drained, mangel wurtzells 
of 18 pounds weight can not be grown on it. 
The following curious advertisement ap¬ 
pears in a Western paper : “ Whereas, at 
particular times I may importune my friends 
and others to let me have liquor, which is 
hurtful to me and detrimental to society— 
This is, therefore, to forbid all persons sel¬ 
ling me liquor, or letting me have it on any 
account or pretence ; for if they do, I will 
positively prosecute them, notwithstanding 
any promise I make to the contrary at the 
time they may let me have it.” 
