70 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
missioner thinks it may be profitably increased, in 
fattening wethers und rearing lambs for market. He 
estimates that the former may be fattened 12 weeks, 
upon hay and corn meal, for $2.54; and that they 
will then bring him $5.50 to $6.00—no great profit 
after paying $3.00 in the outset. 
Beef. —The fattening of beef is extensively pursued, 
and the weight of some heavy cattle are recorded. 
Corn meal and potatoes, and in some cases apples, 
are the principal auxiliaries to hay, in the fattening 
process. A peck of meal and a bushel of potatoes 
are fed per day to a pair of fattening oxen. 
. Swine .—The Byfield breed, of some celebrity, ori¬ 
ginated in this county. The practice of cooking 
food for swine is recommended. “In an exact expe¬ 
riment,” says the commissioner, “made by myself a 
few years since in this county, the largest gain as¬ 
certained was more than three pounds live weight; 
that is, 57 lbs. in 18 days. This was obtained on 
pure Indian hasty pudding.” 
Under the head of Neat Cattle , the report details 
the great product of several cows; but as this seems 
to have been owing to high feeding, and select indi¬ 
viduals, rather than to particular breeds, we omit 
these details. The stock most prevalent is a mixed 
breed, termed “native stock,” in which the Devon 
generally preponderates. 
The chapter on Manures is valuable, particular¬ 
ly where, as in Essex, a farmer is content to pay 
$5.50 a cord for cow dung, and cart it four miles. 
Stable dung is in high repute, and sells at a very 
high price; yet there exisis many other sources of 
fertility yet but partially brought into notice, which 
the commissioner names, as clover and other green 
crops, peat earth, sea ooze, sea drift, oyster and clam 
shells converted into lime, the refuse of the manu¬ 
factories of almost every kind, leached ashes, and 
gypsum in the interior. Prof. Hitchcock’s report 
cannot fail to enlighten the farmers of Essex on the 
interesting subject of manures. 
We shall omit, for the present, any further notice 
of the report, and close this article with some sug¬ 
gestions of what we think would be manifest im¬ 
provements in the husbandry of Essex. And, 
First .—The root culture, particularly the ruta baga 
crop, might be beneficially extended, as a material for 
feeding and fattening farm stock, making manure and 
ameliorating the soil. Half a bushel of potatoes and 
half a peck of corn meal are stated to be a ration for 
a fattening bullock. Estimating the average potato 
crop at 160 bushels per acre, and of the corn at 40 
bushels, an acre of each would give 320 rations to a 
fattening ox. Two bushels of ruta baga per diem, 
would be fully an equivalent for the half bushel of po¬ 
tatoes and half peck of corn meal, and we think would 
do more in the fattening process. An acre of ruta 
baga would give about as many rations as the acre 
of potatoes and acre of corn together, and could be 
cultivated and harvested at less expense than either; 
would not be so exhausting as the corn, and would 
add much, probably a third, to the manure. Thus, 
one half of the labor, and one half of the land might 
be saved. 
Second. —By more generally alternating grain, 
grass and roots, for which the soil seems to be gene¬ 
rally adapted, less manure would be required to keep 
up fertility, and the crops would unquestionably all be 
improved. We have treated this subject so fully in 
our article upon the new husbandry, that any further 
remarks are deemed unnecessary at present. 
Third .—The culture of clover, with all small grain 
crops, as a means of dividing and enriching the soil, 
we think would certainly prove beneficial. The tap 
roots of this plant are admirably adapted to the ame¬ 
lioration of the soil; and supposing the ley to afford 
only half the vegetable matter furnished by old green 
sward, it would give six tons of manure to every acre 
which it is employed to fertilize. This, as manure is 
there valued, would be worth at least $20 the acre— 
a very liberal return for 60 or 70 cents expended in 
seed. And where gypsum exercises its magic pow¬ 
ers, this would hardly fail to prove a reasonable re¬ 
sult. 
We shall take an early opportunity of resuming 
our notice of this report. 
Geological Science applied to Agriculture. 
We are obliged to our friend, the Rev. Mr. Cole¬ 
man, for a copy of the last report of Prof. Hitchcock, 
being “A re-examination of the Economical Geology 
of Massachusetts or, in other words, geological sci¬ 
ence rendered subservient to the improvement of ag¬ 
riculture. It is a pamphlet of great interest, and we 
venture to class it among the most valuable works of 
the literature of American husbandry. It discusses 
with ability the sources of fertility, the causes of de¬ 
terioration, and the means of renovating,.our soils.— 
It describes the origin of soilsgives a classification 
of them, and a table of analysis ; explains the proper¬ 
ties of marls and lime,—the theory of their action 
upon soils, and the practical application of this theo¬ 
ry; and it develops the fertilizing properties of marsh 
mud, muck sand, and other natural products, which 
abound in the state, and which may be brought to aid 
agricultural improvement. The work is a happy il¬ 
lustration of the vast benefit which science is capable 
of imparting to our husbandry. 
We had occasion, in the second number of the cur¬ 
rent volume, to speak of the properties of humus, 
otherwise ulmin, or vegetable extract, the great source 
of fertility to soils. In the report before us, this indis¬ 
pensable food of vegetables is denominated geine, a 
name first given to it by Barzelius. The following 
extracts, which are in the language of Dr. Dana, of 
Lowell, will enlighten our readers further on this sub¬ 
ject, and serve to demonstrate, that all animal and 
vegetable substances are convertible into the food of 
plants;—that they constitute the proper food of 
plants;—that all organic matter may be again trans¬ 
muted into organic matter;—and that the alkalies, 
salts and atmospheric air, with which dung more or 
less abounds, are indispensable agents in converting 
dead into living organic matter—into grains, grasses, 
and roots, 
‘•By geine,” says Dr. Dana, “I mean all the decom¬ 
posed organic matter of the soil. It results chiefly from 
vegetable decomposition; animal substances contain a 
similar compound containing azote.” * * “Geine 
exists in two states: soluble and insoluble: soluble both 
in water and in alkali, in alcohol and in acids. The im¬ 
mediate result of recent decomposition of vegetable 
fibre is abundantly soluble in water. It is what is call¬ 
ed solution of vegetable extract. Air converts this so¬ 
luble into solid geine,* still partially soluble in ivater, 
wholly soluble in alkali. Insoluble geine is the result 
of the decomposition of solid geine; but this insoluble 
geine, by the long continued action of air and moisture, 
is again so altered as to become soluble. It is speedily 
converted, by the action of lime, into soluble geine. f— 
Soluble geine acts neither as alkali or acid. It is con 
verted into a substance having acid properties by the ac¬ 
tion of alkali, and in this state combines with earths, 
alkalies and oxides, forming neutral salts, which may 
be termed geates. These are more soluble in water than 
solid geine; especially when they are first formed.— 
Their solubility in cold water is as follows: beginning 
with the easiest, magnesia—lime, manganese, peroxide 
of iron—(it does notunite with protoxide of iron,) alu¬ 
mina, baryta. The geates of the alkaline earths are 
decomposed by carbonated alkali. The geates of alu¬ 
mina and of metallic oxides are soluble in caustic or 
carbonated alkali without decomposition. The geates 
of the alkaline earths, by the action of the carbonic 
acid of the air, become super-geates, always more solu¬ 
ble than neutral salts. Soluble geine, therefore, includes 
the watery solution—the solid extract caused by the 
action of the air on the solution, and the combinations 
of this with alkalies, earths and oxides. Insoluble 
geine includes all the other forms of this substance.” 
“ Soluble geine is the food of plants. Insoluble geine 
becomes food by air and moisture, Hence the reason and 
result of tillage. Hence the reason of employing pearl- 
ash to separate soluble and insoluble geine in analysis.” 
“ These are facts. Will they not lead us to a ration¬ 
al account of the use of clay, lime, ashes and spent ley? 
Will they not account for the superiority of unferment¬ 
ed over fermented dung in some cases? 
“ Geine forms the basis of all the nourishing parts of 
vegetable manures. The relations of soils to heat and 
moisture depend chiefly on geine. It is in fact, under 
its three states of “vegetable extract, geine and carbo¬ 
naceous mould,” the principle which gives fertility to 
soils long after the action of common manure has ceased. 
In these three states it is essentially the same. Of all 
the problems to be solved by agricultural chemistry, 
none is of so great practical importance as the deter¬ 
mination of the quantity of soluble and insoluble geine 
in soils. This is a question of much higher importance 
than the nature and proportion of the earthy consti¬ 
tuents and soluble salts of soils. It lies at the founda¬ 
tion of all successful cultivation. Its importance has 
not been so much overlooked as undervalued. Hence, 
on this point the least light has been reflected from the 
labors of Davy and Chaptal. It needs but a glance at 
any analysis of soils, to see that fertility depends not on 
the proportion of the earthy ingredients.- Among the 
few facts best established in chemical agriculture, are 
these: that a soil, whose earthy part is composed whol¬ 
ly, or chiefly, of one earth; or any soil', with excess of 
salts, is always barren; and that plants grow equally 
well in all soils, destitute of geine, up to the period of 
fructification,—failing of geine, the fruit fails, the plant 
dies. Earths, and salts, and geine, constitute, then, all 
that is essential; and soils will be fertile, in proportion 
as the last is mixed with the first. The earths are the 
plates, the salts the seasoning, and the geine the food of 
plants. The salts can be varied but very little in their 
proportions, without injury. The earths admit of wide 
variety in their nature and proportions. I would re¬ 
solve all into ‘granitic sand;’ by which I mean the 
finely divided, almost impalpable mixture of the detri¬ 
tus of granite, gneiss, mica slate, sienite and argillite; 
the last giving by analysis a compound very similar to 
the former. When we look at the analysis of vegeta¬ 
bles, we find these inorganic principles constant consti¬ 
* Hence the impropriety of summer yarding manures. 
f Hence the use of lime in soils abounding in inert vegeta¬ 
ble matters, or insoluble geine. 
tuents—silica, lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, potash, 
soda, and sulphuric and phosphoric acids. Hence these 
will be found constituents of all soils. The phosphates 
have been overlooked from the known difficulty of de¬ 
tecting phosphoric acid. Phosphate of lime is so easily 
soluble when combined with mucilage or gelantine, that 
it is among the first principles of soils exhausted.— 
Doubtless the good effects, the lasting effects, of bone 
manure, depend more on the phosphate of lime, than 
on its animal portion. Though the same plants grow¬ 
ing in different soils are found to yield variable quanti¬ 
ties of the salts and earthy compounds; yet I believe, 
that accurate analysis will show, that similar parts of 
the same species, at the same age, always contain the 
inorganic principles above named, when grown in soils 
naturally arising from the decomposition of granitic 
rocks. These inorganic substances will be found not 
only in constant quantity, but always in definite propor¬ 
tion to the vegetable portion of each plant. The effect 
of cultivation may depend, therefore, much more on 
the introduction of salts than has generally been sup¬ 
posed. The salts introduce newbreeds. So long as the 
salts and the earths exist in the soil, so long will they 
form voltaic batteries with the roots of growing plants, 
by which the ‘granitic sand’ is decomposed, and the 
nascent earths, in this state readily soluble, are taken 
up by the absorbents of the roots, always a living, ne¬ 
ver a mechanical operation. Hence, so long as the soil 
is granitic, using the term as above defined, so long is 
it as good as on the day of its deposition; salts and geine 
may vary, and must be modified by cultivation. The 
universal diffusion of granitic diluvium will always af¬ 
ford enough of the earthy ingredients. The fertile cha¬ 
racter of soils, I presume, will not be found dependent 
on any particular rock formation on which it reposes. 
Modified they may be, to a certain extent, by peculiar 
formations; but all our granitic rocks afford, when de¬ 
composed, all those inorganic principles which plants de¬ 
mand. This is so true, that on this point the farmer alrea¬ 
dy knows all that chemistry can teach him. Clay and 
sand every one knows: a soil too sandy, too clayey, may 
be modified by mixture; but the best possible mixture 
does not give fertility. That depends on salts and geine, 
[manures.] If these views are correct, the few properties 
of geine which I have mentioned will lead us at once to 
a simple and accurate mode of analyzing soils—a mode 
which determines at once the value of a soil, from its 
quantity of soluble and insoluble vegetable nutriment,— 
a mode, requiring no array of apparatus, nor delicate 
experimental test,—one, which the country gentleman 
may apply with very great accuracy; and, with a little 
modification, perfectly within the reach of any man 
who can drive a team or hold a plough.” 
Professor Hitchcock gives the analysis of 125 spe¬ 
cimens of soils, with the quantity of soluble and in¬ 
soluble geine, salts of lime, and granitic sand found 
in each, and also the absorbent power of each. Only 
seven of these specimens, gave indications, on analy¬ 
sis, of the presence of carbonate of lime, although 
several of them came from limestone districts. After 
a detailed account of the examination of soils, Pro¬ 
fessor Hitchcock adopts the following 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
“Without stopping,” says the report, “to notice some 
things of minor importance, I will state at once the 
most important conclusions that have forced themselves 
upon my mind, from all my examinations and analyses 
of our soils, respecting their deficiencies and the means 
of remedying them. 
“First, the grand desideratum in our soils is calcareous 
matter; that is, carbonate of lime. 
“ The second desideratum is, an additional quantity of 
geine ; that is, a larger supply of the food of plants. 
“Hence, thirdly, the great object of the agricultural 
chemist should be, to discover and bring to light new sup¬ 
plies of both these substances. 
“The discovery of either of them would, indeed, be 
of no small value ; but it is a principle that never ought 
to be lost sight of, that an additional quantity of lime 
in the soil, will commonly require an additional quanti¬ 
ty of organic matter, [manure] and an increase of the 
latter will be far more serviceable, if attended by an 
increase of the former. 
“ These fundamental principles and conclusions I have 
kept in view continually; and will now proceed to show 
with what success I have searched for new sources of 
lime and geine. I shall begin with the former as the 
most important, because the farmer already possesses 
the means of increasing the quantity of his manure, 
but not of obtaining calcareous matter; for, with the 
exception of Berkshire county, Massachusetts is very 
deficient in limestone.” 
We shall resume, hereafter, the subject of this re¬ 
port, and at least enumerate the fertilizing materials 
of which it takes cognizance. 
The North and the South. 
The remark is often made in the southern journals, 
that the north is half a century in advance of them in 
agricultural and rural improvement. From what lit¬ 
tle observation we have been able to make, we are 
inclined to think there is some truth in the remark, 
though there certainly are in the south many indivi¬ 
dual and highly honorable exceptions. The exhaust¬ 
ing system of continual cropping, has been so long 
