AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS TIIE MOST IIEALTIIY , THE MOST USEFUL , MAT) OT jJ/OST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF J//lA r .-~ Waislws.v. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEN & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
v 0 L • XI. ] NEW-YORK. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER. 5. l252 
FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, (fc., 
SEE LAST PAGE. 
NITRATE OF SODA, OR CUBIC NITRE. 
ITS VALUE AS A TOP-DRESSING.—A NEW OPENING 
FOR COMMERCIAL MEN. 
For some time past we have been watching 
the various experiments made to test the value 
of nitrate of soda as a fertilizer. We have long 
been convinced, from theoretical considerations, 
that the nitrates, as a class, must be very valu¬ 
able manures, if applied at the right time and 
in the right manner; but owing to several re¬ 
corded failures in the practical tests, we have 
sometimes almost doubted the accuracy of our 
conclusions. During the past two years, several 
important farm experiments were made in dif¬ 
ferent parts of England and Scotland, and in 
several places on the Continent, and the records 
of the present season will give us the results of 
several hundreds more. Should these actual 
experiments, made by careful, investigating, and 
practical men, taken as a whole, prove that true 
which science has indicated, we shall have an¬ 
other to add to the long list of advantages aris¬ 
ing from the combined efforts of scientific and 
practical farmers. 
Whatever theory we may adopt in regard to 
the necessity of certain mineral constituents, we 
feel very confident that it is profitable to add 
nitrogenous manures to our soils, in very many, 
if not in most cases. The beneficial effects 
arising from the application of urine, guano, and 
other ammoniacal substances, leave no room to 
doubt this. On this account, we hail with plea¬ 
sure any new source of this class of fertilizers. 
Saltpetre (nitrate of potash) has often been ap¬ 
plied as a top-dressing to plants with very favor¬ 
able results, though attended with occasional fail¬ 
ures ; but the high price of this salt, owing to 
limited sources of supply, has prevented any very 
extensive experiments being made, which could 
decide how far it would benefit crops, and under 
"hat ciicumstances it gives injurious results 
Enough is however already known to prove, 
that if saltpetre could be obtained in unlimited 
quantities, and at a low price, it would for many 
crops be a most valuable fertilizer. Actual ex¬ 
periments, both in England and Germany, seem 
to indicate that, pound for pound, nitrate of 
potash and nitrate of soda exceed the best 
guano in good effects upon several crops. 
Nitrate of potash (saltpetre) is composed of 
nitric acid (aqua forth ) and potash. Nitric 
acid is composed of nitrogen and oxygen. One 
hundred parts of nitrate of potash contain 13.8 
parts of nitrogen. This is nearly as much 
nitrogen as is found in 100 parts of the best 
Peruvian guano. 
Nitrate of soda (often called cubic nitre) is 
composed of nitric acid and soda, and every 100 
parts of nitrate of soda contain 16.4 parts of 
nitrogen. If then we only look for beneficial 
effects from the nitrogen contained in them, 
nitrate of soda is about one fifth more valuable 
than the same quantity of nitrate of potash or 
saltpetre. Further, while nitrate of potash can 
only be obtained in limited quantities, and 
nearly all that is produced is demanded for the 
manufacture of gunpowder, nitrate of soda is 
now held at a much lower price, and recent dis¬ 
coveries pretty strongly indicate that it can be 
procured at a much cheaper rate still, and in 
unlimited quantities. 
Large tracts of country on the western coast 
of South America, in Bolivia, and especially in 
the southern part of Peru, are literally encrusted 
over with vast beds of nitrate of soda. These 
beds are situated inland, and all that has been 
yet exported has been purified at the spot where 
found, and then transported to the sea-coast on 
the backs of mules. Further, the water and 
fuel used in the process of purification has been 
carried from the sea by the same expensive 
mode of transportation ; so that a great part of 
the cost of the article has resulted from the ex¬ 
pense of purification. With all this expense, 
the article is delivered in England for about $75 
per ton of 2240 lbs. (Owing to the limited im¬ 
portations into this country, and the small de¬ 
mand, we believe it has not been furnished here 
for less than four cents a pound, and at present 
the price is somewhat higher than this.) 
The native nitrate of soda contains only from 
10 to 30 per cent, of foreign substances, and 
these impurities are probably not injurious to 
the soil, but, on the contrary, beneficial; so that 
for agricultural uses, the expensive process of 
purification may be entirely dispensed with, and 
we doubt not the native product may be profit¬ 
ably delivered in this country for less than two 
cents per pound, even without increased facili¬ 
ties for transporting it from the native mines to 
the sea-board. But its price maybe cheapened 
still further by the construction of a wagon- 
road, or, better still, a short railroad inland from 
the sea-coast. 
In the last volume of the Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, Mr. Pusey, a distinguished 
practical and scientific English farmer, says : 
The rough material lies on the surface within 
a few miles of the shore, not near Iquique only, 
but along a wide range of coast, and is passed 
almost in sight by our steamers. It may be dug 
like gravel, and I cannot see why it should not 
come to England for 6 1. instead of 16/. per ton, 
as the price of the pure nitrate existing in this 
unrefined ore. A few miles of common cart- 
road is all that is wanted. If the country had 
happily belonged to men of the United States, 
there would have been a railroad from La 
Noria to Iquique already. Let us trust some 
merchant or some company will undertake the 
venture, which must at once, if successful, effect 
another desirable object, and greatly lower the 
price of guano; for happily this wide tract of 
nitrate-bed, provided by nature, is not capable, 
of being monopolized, like the guano islands, by 
any government of Peru. N ay, if that govern¬ 
ment should feel called upon to interpose im¬ 
pediments, a rival source of nitrate exists in the 
contiguous desert of Atacama, within the terri¬ 
tory of Bolivia. 
We hope some of our enterprising country¬ 
men will speedily act upon the hints above 
thrown out, and be found foremost in this prom¬ 
ising field. In proportion as this article becomes 
more abundant, new applications to other pur¬ 
poses than agriculture will be opened. We 
shall be happy to furnish any information in 
our possession, or which we can procure, to any 
person who may be disposed to look into this 
matter. 
In a future article, we shall present some of 
the results obtained, as well as some remarks 
in reference to the proper time and mode of 
applying nitrate of soda to different crops. 
-toe- 
LETTERS FROM PROF. NASH.-No, 2 . 
Losdos, September 6,1853. 
The annual exhibition of the Royal Agricul' 
tural Society was held at Gloucester on the 13 th, 
14th, and 15th of July. You have, no doubt, 
seen full and accurate accounts of tho proceed¬ 
ings in British publications; and have, before 
this time, given such portions of them to your 
readers as you deemed would interest and in¬ 
struct. 
It is not my purpose to repeat what you and 
your readers must already have seen. It may, 
however, be a matter of some interest to you 
and them, to know how these things strike an 
American, and to ascertain what improvements 
here transpiring are real improvements ; and to 
sift from those which are real, such as would bear 
transporting to our own soil and climate. 
So very kind, hearty, and wide-open has been 
the reception I have experienced from British 
agriculturists, that I should feel almost disquali¬ 
fied for criticism, had any thing specially faulty 
presented itself; but as few faults appeared, and 
those such as “leaned to virtue’s side,” I shall 
have no difficulty on this score. While I say 
what I hope may be of some little benefit to my 
osvn countrymen, I shall have occasion to say 
nothing which British farmers need suppose to 
be “ set down in malice.” 
The ground occcupied for the exhibition was 
near Gloucester; it manifestly had not been se 
lected for the special benefit of the cabs and 
omnibuses, ( busses , as they call them here,) 
but for the convenience of the public. Tho ar¬ 
rangement of the stalls for the exhibition was 
beautiful. From whatever point you took a 
view of the large enclosure, the eye of taste was 
gratified ; and—what does, and always should, 
please Americans—the whole was done economi¬ 
cally. It was the easiest thing in the world to see, 
that for the same money, or a little more, but 
certainly not less, all might have been made as 
