248 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
2MitmcEtt Agriculturist. 
New-York, Wednesday, December 28,1852. 
The subscriptions of very few of our readers 
expire with the close of the year, and we need 
not call upon them to renew. There are, how¬ 
ever, many of their neighbors who are accus¬ 
tomed to subscribe for some periodical at this 
season, and we ask those who can recommend 
the American Agriculturist to others, to do this 
especially at the present time. Some of your 
neighbors have never taken an agricultural 
paper, and others are not yet alive to the value 
of a weeldy periodical of an elevated character. 
A little effort on your part, which will cost but 
a little time, may induce several of these per¬ 
sons to become subscribers, and while they will 
be benefited by this course, you will also be 
benefited in return by the increased intelligence 
of those around you. 
-* O I-- 
NEW YEAR’S PRESENTS. 
We have a host of friends among our readers 
all over the country, who would no doubt de¬ 
light in giving us some token of their regard, 
at this annual season of gifts, were they so 
near us as to make it convenient. We will 
suggest a plan by which they can do this with¬ 
out cost. The most acceptable present we can 
receive will be a new subscriber from each one 
who now takes our paper. May we not ask each 
of our subscribers to remember us in this way ? 
One new subscriber from you, and you, kind 
reader, will double our present list, and give us 
increased facilities for adding to the interest 
and permanent value of your paper. Some of 
you can send us a dozen or twenty new names, 
and thus make up for those who are unsuccess¬ 
ful in getting any new ones. 
-- 0 0 6 - 
THE NAMES ARE COMING IN. 
Within a few days we have received several 
hundreds of new subscribers. To those who 
have been active in producing this result we 
return our sincere thanks. Our readers may 
depend upon our renewed and increased exer¬ 
tions in the future. We aim at nothing less 
than making the Agriculturist unequaled for 
its variety of sound, practical information. 
REMEMBER THAT SON, BROTHER, OR 
FRIEND AT A DISTANCE. 
Make him fifty-two presents in the form of a 
weekly periodical, and each week he will be 
reminded of you as he receives his paper. You 
can do this by sending his name to this office 
with the same amount as you have paid for 
your own paper. If you are the member of a 
club, you can add other names to the club, and 
the paper will be sent to any office you may 
direct upon the same terms. 
--* o *- 
ORDER SPECIMEN COPIES. 
Any person who may wish to send a speci¬ 
men paper to a friend, can do so without losing 
his own paper, by forwarding the name to us, and 
we will send any one number indicated without 
expense. We wish every farmer in the country 
to see a copy of our paper, and will be obliged 
to those who will send us in lists of names of 
those to whom we can forward specimen copies. 
On account of the Holidays, the Cattle Mar¬ 
kets for this and next week are held on Tues¬ 
day, instead of Monday as is customary. In or¬ 
der to give reports of these for the current 
week, we are obliged to go to press one day 
later, and mail the present and next number 
on Wednesday instead of Tuesday evening. 
-- 
Snip Great Republic on Fire !—On another 
page will be found a description of the ship 
Great Republic, but as we go to press this no¬ 
ble structure is in flames, with no hope of sav¬ 
ing the ship, or any part of the valuable cargo 
on board, the stowage of which had just been 
finished, preparatory to hauling out and sailing 
on this day. She was the largest merchant 
ship ever constructed, and was an ornament to 
our country, and the pride of every American 
citizen. 
The Hutchinsons. —These popular vocalists 
have commenced a series of Wednesday evening 
concerts at the Tabernacle. We listened to 
them, for the twentieth time at least, on Thurs¬ 
day evening last, and with no lessening of the 
pleasure we have enjoyed so often during the 
last dozen years, as our path has crossed theirs 
in various parts of the country. Their music 
comes from the heart, and reaches the hearts of 
their always large audiences. There is in all 
their songs a chasteness, as well as a beauty and 
benevolence of sentiment, which finds a pleasing 
response in every listener. Their voices were 
developed and toned amid the healthful exer¬ 
cises of the good old farm in their “ mount¬ 
ain home,” a place admirably calculated to 
strengthen the muscular frame, and to give 
vigor and energy to the whole man, phy¬ 
sical, moral, and intellectual. Long may the 
Hutchinsons, the farmer’s sons, continue to 
enjoy that popular favor, of which they have 
engrossed so large a share for many years past. 
- o O 0 - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
SUPER-PHOSPHATE OF LIME. 
Messrs. Editors :—I am grateful to you for 
your article on this subject; it will be useful to 
thousands, because the subject is so important, 
and is treated so plainly. AVhy don’t those who 
write for the people, write with the like plain¬ 
ness ? Let the sentimental authors indite so as 
to please their sentimental readers, who seek for 
idle amusement instead of rational information; 
let dealers in hocus pocus, who seek to tickle the 
ear rather than to improve or satisfy the mind, 
mount to the clouds in their balloons of misty 
words and bubble-like ideas; but let the hon¬ 
est common sense man, who writes for the 
farmers, write so that common sense people 
may understand him. Why annoy the people 
with long-wordy articles, speeches, and books? 
It is not the multitude of words, but the ideas 
which are really valued now-a-days; for he is 
foolish who would search a bushel of chaff for a 
grain of wheat. Still, some will talk, 
“Ye gods ! how they will talk 
and some are silly enough to listen to their 
hurdy-gurdy noise. Why call sheep “ the 
wooly people,” information on fruit trees “ a 
dissertation on the science of pomology,” and 
why call salt “chloride of sodium?” The wri¬ 
ters most admired use a plain and familiar a, 
b, ab, sort of style? they do not, 
“With words of learned length and thundering sound 
Amaze the gaping rustics standing round.” 
I do not pretend to be a critic; I am only an 
old farmer, and my object is to entreat every 
one, who wishes to do us plain farmers good, 
first to understand his subject, and then treat it 
plainly, and briefly, and honestly, so that each 
and all of us may profit by it, and live to bless 
him. 
But to return to what I set out with. There 
are some points on which please give us a little 
more information, in regard to phosphate of 
lime. 
How small should the bones be broken ? How 
many quarts of the liquid will a bushel of broken 
bones produce ? How many quarts of liquid, 
made into powder in the way you state, should 
be added to say 20 bushels of fine, dry earth or 
dung? How many bushels of such compound 
should be used to the acre ? Upon what crops 
and soils has it the best effect? Whether 
should it be sown and harrowed in with the 
seed, or sown after the seed has sprung up? 
What valuable results of its use to crops have 
come to your knowledge ? 
I mean to try it; for I think we farmers should 
ourselves be reasoning experimenters, and not 
remain clod-hoppers for ever. 
Yours, respectfully, 
Wankeslia, Wisconsin, ) ThOMAS JOHNSTON. 
Nov. 30, 1853. t 
The finer the bones are broken the better. 
Where a bone mill is at hand it is better to 
grind them; but our article was designed for 
those who are not thus situated. The coarser 
the bones, the longer time, and the more stirring 
will be needed. Sometimes large bones will not 
be fully dissolved during an entire year, while 
a few hours or days at most is sufficient for 
dissolving those finely ground. We recom¬ 
mended to pour off for use the liquid which 
contains the portions already dissolved, and to 
leave the undissolved portions to be subjected 
to the newly added acid. 
We purposely avoided giving any definite 
rules as to the quantity of liquid, &c., because 
these are unnecessary, and only serve to render 
the process more difficult. After preparing the 
liquid, with two or more measures of water to 
one of the acid, put in all the broken bones 
you can punch into it. You can easily estimate 
about how many bushels of bones have been 
dissolved in a given quantity of the liquid. 
From two to five bushels of bones may be used 
to the acre as an experimental trial. Some 
soils require much more than others. A large 
or smaller quantity of muck or earth, according 
to its dryness and richness, may be used for 
absorbing the liquid. It is better to use at least 
a cart-load or more for each bushel of bones, as 
the phosphate will thus be more finely divided. 
It may be applied broad-cast on the surface at 
any time, or it may be plowed or harrowed in; 
but it is preferable to put it as near the seed as 
possible, for a much less quantity will in this 
case be required to produce an immediate effect. 
If it is well mixed with a large quantity of muck 
or other divisor, a handful may be put into the 
hill in direct contact with the seed. 
On some soils almost all crops have been 
benefited by applying this fertilizer. Theo¬ 
retically the grain crops should be most benefi¬ 
ted, but in practice the most marked, paying 
results, have thus far been obtained from its 
application to turnips. During the past season, 
a friend of ours obtained a very good crop of 
corn from a poor sandy soil, by putting into 
each hill with the seed a handful of muck mixed 
with the liquid super-phosphate of lime. 
Although this fertilizer has been often tried 
with favorable results, yet there are needed a 
great number of experiments, before precise 
practical rules for its use can be laid down with 
any degree of certainty. We hope every one 
