SUNDRY QUERIES. 
339 
SUNDRY queries. 
Observing your invitation to subscribers to 
send you questions of general interest as con¬ 
nected with agriculture, I have taken the liber¬ 
ty to propose the following for your considera¬ 
tion, and if worthy of a place in your journal, 
it is hoped that you, or some one else, will fa¬ 
vor us with appropriate answers.— 
1. Will plaster of Paris, (sulphate of lime,) 
be active, as a fertiliser, in cases where carbon¬ 
ate of ammonia is not present in sufficient 
quantity in the manure to decompose the whole 
of it? ( a ) 
2. Will the carbonate of ammonia, resulting 
from the above, and the residue of the plaster, 
(carbonate of lime,) remain neutral to the other 
ingredients in farmyard manure ? ( b) 
3. Will sulphuric acid have any influence in 
the formation of nitrates in a compost heap, or 
in the fermentation of manure? (c) 
4. In localities, where night soil, urine, soap¬ 
suds, soot, ashes, swamp muck, hen manure, 
pig dung, &c., exist in considerable quantities, 
can salt at 25 cents, and lime at 31 cents per 
bushel, be economically applied in composts or 
other manures on a farm? ( d ) 
5. Can the barometer be relied upon as a 
means of foretelling the state or changes of the 
weather, and if so, what are the principal rules 
for ascertaining such changes ? (e) 
6. bias any one turned his attention to the 
construction of a cheap barometer afforded 
at such a price as will come within the means 
of the common farmer? (/) 
7. Are there any offices or societies in your 
city for assisting persons in finding employment 
in farming and gardening, with a scale of prices, 
capabilities, &c., by which a farmer may know 
on what terms he can hire? (g) 
A Young Farmer. 
Greenfield Hill , Ct., Sept., 1850. 
(a) Yes. Plaster will always act as a nutri¬ 
ment for clover a'nd broad-leaved plants, wheth¬ 
er ammonia be present or not. 
(b) Certainly. They have no power of de¬ 
composing farmyard manure. 
(c) Sulphuric acid, in any quantity, will check 
fermentation. It never aids it; and a compost 
heap never lies long enough to form nitrates. 
The formation of these is a slow process, and 
they are more perfectly carried out by the use 
of alkalies, as potash, than by any acid. 
( d ) Scarcely economical, at these prices. 
Lime should never be mixed, in a caustic state, 
with any compost containing urine nor with 
the droppings from any animal. 
(e) The practical rules for ascertaining the 
changes of the weather by means of a barom¬ 
eter, as laid down by philosophers, are as fol¬ 
lows :— 
1. The rising of the mercury presages, in 
general, fair weather; and its falling, foul weath¬ 
er, as rain, snow, high winds, and storms. 
2. In very hot weather, especially if the wind 
is south, the sudden falling of the mercury fore¬ 
tells thunder. 
3. In winter, the rising indicates frost; and 
in frosty weather, if the mercury falls three or 
four divisions, there will follow a thaw; but if 
it rises in a continued frost, snow may be ex¬ 
pected. 
4. When foul weather happens soon after the 
falling of the mercury, it will not be of long 
duration; nor are we to expect a continuance of 
fair weather, when it soon succeeds the rising of 
the quicksilver. 
5. If, in foul weather, the mercury rises con¬ 
siderably, and continues rising for two or three 
days before the foul weather is over, a continu¬ 
ance of fair weather may be expected to follow. 
6. In fair weather, when the mercury falls 
much and low, and continues falling for two or 
three days before rain comes, much wet must 
be expected, and probably high winds. 
7. The unsettled motion of the mercury indi¬ 
cates changeable weather. 
8. Respecting the words Rain, Fair, &c., en¬ 
graved on the register plate of the barometer, it 
may be observed, that they cannot be strictly 
relied upon to correspond exactly with the state 
of the weather, though it will, in general, agree 
with them as to the mercury rising and falling. 
(/) Barometers can be purchased at the 
mathematical and philosophical instrument 
stores, for prices varying from $10 to $25. The 
storm glass, described at p. 338 of the present 
volume, can be furnished by any chemist or 
apothecary, for 50 cents or less. 
( g ) We know of none. 
CULTURE OF GRAPES. 
Why is it that we are so backward, as a na¬ 
tion, in the cultivation of this wholesome and 
delicious fruit ? In passing up the Hudson Riv¬ 
er the other day, in company with a friend just 
returned from a tour on the Rhine, he informed 
us that land there as rocky and as steep as the 
roughest hills of the Hudson, was worth several 
hundred dollars an acre for growing grapes; 
and it is his opinion that our soil and climate 
are quite equal, if not superior, to the famous 
banks of the Rhine. But in attempting the cul¬ 
tivation of the grape, we have committed a 
fundamental error, and that is in placing our 
principal dependence on foreign varieties. Had 
one fourth of the money been spent in the pro¬ 
duction of native seedlings, which has been in 
abortive efforts in cultivating foreign vines, we 
should doubtless, ere this, have had many first- 
rate sorts, producing abundantly all over the 
United States. 
Another great mistake we have commit¬ 
ted, is, that those who have attempted the pro¬ 
duction of native seedlings have condemned 
them too soon ; and generally speaking, if they 
did not prove, on first trial, a good table grape, 
they would abandon them as worthless. Now 
it is known that several of the choicest kinds' 
of wine grapes are worthless for the table; the 
taste, therefore, is no criterion of their value 
for this purpose; and the probability is, that 
many a seedling, which would have produced 
good wine, has been prematurely condemned, 
because not palatable for the table. 
Still another great mistake has been made in 
