icily, and a great loss follow. Apply a single 
Landful of this mixture to a MU. I Lave 
sometimes added to the above quantity one 
bnshel of salt, well mixed. Immediately 
after the finst hoeing is a very good time to 
apply tins to the com. I should rather ap¬ 
ply the lime separately, either before or 
after. Try this rule and see the happy re¬ 
sults.” 
R. Isbell of Tullmadge, (State not given,) 
writes:—“ My advice would be to mix with 
lime, half and half, and make an application 
immediately after the com comes up, and 
another between first and second hocings— 
say one pint to the hill. I have tried this 
mode of cultivating com, and have come to 
tlie conclusion that three applications as 
above spoken of, is fully equal, for the pres- 
ent crop, to a heavy dressing of barn yard 
manure put on broadcast 
I fully agree with your correspondent in 
the same number of Rural as to covering 
manure deep under sod. I would not object 
in stiff clay soils to plowing in beech or oak 
brush to the depth of a foot, if it could be 
done. One of the best applications 1 ever 
saw made upon a stiff clay soil was rye 
straw thrown into the furrow while the plow 
was passing round. Anything that will 
separate cluv soil Is beneficial, and the more 
fertilizing powder it contains the better. I 
have always had good success in using 
coarse manures, except iu seasons of severe 
drouth. But never manure sod before turn¬ 
ing over; would much prefer putting on 
seventy-five bushels of lime to the acre and 
plow about eight inches. 
“ We feel the need of lime as a fertilizer 
here more than any one thing, but cannot 
obtain it at a price that will warrant a full 
application. Fresh lime should be used, and 
this wc cannot obtain for less than twenty 
cents per bushel at the kiln, five miles dis¬ 
tant. We not only want lime for growing 
wheat, but for renovating our old meadows 
and pastures. Will some one give us the 
best mode of applying lime upon wheat 
grounds ? Also the best mode of compound¬ 
ing with other ingredients V” 
ulous. We have only to carry out this prin¬ 
ciple far enough to show in the most con¬ 
vincing manner its utter absurdity; for by a 
vastly great number of “progressions” the 
point will be arrived at, when a grain of 
"progressed” phosphate shall equal a ton 
of mineral phosphate! 
In conclusion, I beg to assure your corre¬ 
spondent “ E. W. S.” that what I have 
penned down iu this paper is not “a personal 
affair.” Some of his statements I believe 
were erroneous — calculated to mislead 
farmers, both in theory and practice. To 
correct those errors was the “ motive power” 
that moved me to write this long article. 
How far I have succeeded iu my good inten¬ 
tions, I leave to the decision of the readers 
of the Rural New-Yorker. 
Warner, N. II., 1809. Levi Bartlett. 
ference in the yield from different manures. 
Rhoades & Co.’s Ammoniated gave the 
heaviest yield, and the mineral superphos¬ 
phate the next; but only falling short of 
Kho.vdeh A Co.’s oiU pound. Now, here is 
proof, “strong as Holy Writ,” that mineral 
superphosphate iu this trial does possess a 
manorial value equal to bone phosphates. 
A few r weeks since I received from. Dr. 
N. A. Pratt, Chemist of the Sulphuric Acid 
and Superphosphate Company of Charles¬ 
ton, 8. C., a pamphlet, of forty-two pages on 
the deposits of phosphate of lime, &c., &c., 
in South Carolina, in which lie says “ there 
b annually manufactured in England alone 
from one hundred and seventy-five to one 
hundred and eighty thousand tons of super¬ 
phosphates.” 
No doubt a very large portion of this 
superphosphate is made from mineral phos¬ 
phate, for Prof. 8 . W. Johnson, in his re¬ 
cently published book, “ How Crops Grow,” 
says:—“ In the mineral kingdom tricalcle 
phosphate is the chief ingredient of apatite 
and phosphorite. These minerals arc em¬ 
ployed iu the preparation of the so-called 
superphosphate of lime, which is consumed to 
an enormous extent as a turnip fertilizer.” 
The British “ rent and tytbe paying farmers 
of England" would not, purchase these min¬ 
eral superphosphates ifas“ inert and useless," 
as E. W. 8. says. Saltpeter is a compound 
of nitric acid with potash. It is met with in 
the surface soil of many districts in Upper 
India, and is separated by leaching the soil 
with water and subsequently evaporating 
(or boiling down) the clear liquid thua ob¬ 
tained The potash is derived from the soil 
and the nitric acid from the atmosphere, 
neither having “ progressed " at all by hav¬ 
ing previously made part aud parcel of 
either animal or vegetable structures. 
Saltpeter can readily he obtained in what 
is termed artificial niter beds—by pulling up 
a pile composed of ashes, soil, and animal 
matter—such as night soil, the offal from 
the slaughter house, or the carcass of some 
defunct animal, occasionally wetting the 
heap with stale urine. In the course of ten 
about a ton of roots, was due to the sulphur | 
of the add, or to the more solvent nature of 
the super-phosphate, or both, cannot be ex¬ 
plained. Bones with sulphuric acid, eleven- 
hundred weight to the acre, yield 81,898 
pounds of loots, being an increase of 1,029 
pounds over that of the mineral phosphate. 
Bones finely powdered, twelve hundred 
weight to the acre, 80,18"), increase over plat 
No. 1 21,837 pounds. Stable dung, twenty- 
two Ions per acre, 89,476; gain 25,478. 
It is to be recollected that, the land upon 
which these comparative experiments were 
made, had been cropped ten or eleven years 
successively, without any kind of manure. 
This cropping, however, had not been car¬ 
ried on with nnv reference to the trial of the 
above experiments, but for other purposes. 
Under such a course of cropping, it seems 
quite evident that some of the fertilizing in¬ 
gredients of the soil must have been pretty 
effectually used up. It. is to be presumed 
none will call in question the accuracy of 
Professor D.’s experiments as recorded by 
him, and it docs establish the fact, that, on 
the soil he experimented with, mineral phos¬ 
phate alone, applied at the rate of twelve 
cwt. per acre, did yield 28,080 lbs of turnips, 
while the same quality of soil without ma¬ 
nure yielded only 14,290 pounds of roots. 
The trial also proved that the bone super¬ 
phosphate was but a trifle better than the 
super phosphate made from the Spanish 
phosphorite. 
Some years ago a deposit of mineral phos¬ 
phate of lime was discovered in Hurdetown, 
N. J., by Dr. C. T. Jackson and Mr. Al¬ 
ger, of Boston. 3Ir. Alger forwarded to 
me about 200 pounds of the finely ground 
mineral, for the purpose of testing its man- 
uriul value on my farm and garden crops. 
The raw material was pretty liberally ap¬ 
plied to various crops, but the results were 
not very marked. A portion of it, however, 
was treated with sulphuric acid. The 
ground mineral was very fine, and about the 
color of ashes; but when made into super¬ 
phosphate it became as white as slaked 
lime. This was used on corn and Swedish 
turnips. Iu the early part of the season the 
corn which received the superphosphate was 
evidently larger than that receiving the raw 
mineral and those rows receiving neither. 
Where the mineral superphosphate was 
used in alternate chills for turnips, (purple 
topped hybrid,) it exhibited most favorable 
results; the difference, however, between 
the turnips that received the phosphorite 
and those that, received none, was in propor¬ 
tion to the poorness of the soil! Several 
feet in width of land on the north end of the 
drills was but a poor gravelly subsoil. In 
this poor sod, the bulbs having no phos¬ 
phate did not, upon an average, obtain a size 
larger than English walnut*, while those in 
the drills that received a liberal supply of 
superphosphate were six or eight inches in 
diameter, with, corresponding tops. The in¬ 
creased size of the turnipB In those drills 
manured with mineral over those that had 
unquestionably due to the favora- 
uimstriitl (L 
MINERAL COMPARED WITH OR¬ 
GANIC MANURES. 
APPLYING HEN MANURE, 
and the mineral phosphate alone,—with tine 
bone dust, alone, and bone dust ami ushes, 
and various other concentrated manures,— 
Including Peruvian and four or five plios- 
phatic. guanos, fish pomace, &c. Aud most 
of the above named were not used in homeo¬ 
pathic doses, but by the barrel and the bug. 
Now, with all due respect to your corre¬ 
spondent, E. W. S., he is laboring under a 
serious mistake in some of his statements, 
aud also in his views of the “ progression of 
primaries.” E. \V. S. sayn:—“ Natural phos¬ 
phate of lime from rock has often been re- 
d iced to powder and applied to the soil as a 
fertilizer, but found to be inert and useless, 
while phosphate of lime from bones is one 
of the most valuable of manures. England 
imported plmsphatic rock from Estremadura, 
hoping it would take the place of bones, but 
found it nearly valueless. * * * It is not 
dL-p ited ut this day by any experimenter 
tirn a fertilizer derived from organic or veg¬ 
etable or animal remains is superior to the 
same derived from its natural mineral.” 
Your correspondent, J. P., in the Rural 
of March 0th, In commenting upon the latter 
part of tlie above sentence, very truly says: 
“ This doctrine has never found favor with 
either scientific or practical men, for the sim¬ 
ple reason that tlie facts are all against it.” 
And 60 arc tlie facts against the preceding 
statement, that the mineral from Estrama- 
dura was " found nearly valueless,” as I will 
show by facts that cannot be disputed. 
In 1842 Prof. Danbkrrey, Professor of 
Chemistry at Oxford, volunteered to explore 
the locality in Spain where it was said to be 
eo abundant. The phosphorite, the object 
of the journey, was found at a place called 
Dagrossan, in the interior of Eetramaduva, 
eo far removed from the coast as to leave 
small hope of its being possible to export it 
profitably, even if it were in great abund¬ 
ance. But it proved to be only a vein of 
some six feet in thickness, and it. was not all 
pure throughout the vein. Prof. D. was al¬ 
lowed to dig and carry away any quantity 
he liked. He took away four mule loads of 
two hundred pounds each, which be brought, 
to Engl and, and tried carefully conducted 
experiment*} with it, in contrast with other 
manures. The results of the experiments 
are published in the sixth volume of the 
English Ag. Society, from which I quote the 
following: 
“ In order to ascertain tlio fertilizing qualities 
of the B;mulsh phosphorite, relatively to other 
well known tnaaaros, a selection was made of 
thirteen different plats of ground, all of which 
might bo reorardert as In a groat degree exhaust¬ 
ed,!) a viug boon cropped for ieu or eleven years 
without the applicntloo of any kind of manure, 
The kind and quality of the several manures, 
Stated below, showing that whilst In every tu- 
Sfcanoo h considerable Increase of crop was ob¬ 
tained by tho addition of thoso forthizors, the 
Spanish phosphorite, ©specially when its action 
was qutokeuod by the addition of sulphuric acid, 
proved nearly aseilleaciouH as bones t hemselves, 
unless, Indeed, when the latter were Very finely 
ground. Now. ustbO Spanish phosphorite, which 
appears to aot, so bon olid ally, is wholly destitute 
Of organic matter, It seems to follow that the 
more valuable portion at least of wbut is applied 
to tho land when bones are scattered over It, is 
the phosphate of lime, and not, as gome have 
supposed, the oil, gelatine, Ac." 
As it would occupy loo much space here 
to copy the whole table of the Professor's 
figures, 6howing the weight and increase of 
the crop on the twelve plats receiving the 
different kinds of manures, I will only give 
those having a direct hearing upon the ques¬ 
tion. Tlie unmanured plat yielded at tlie 
rate of 14,298 pounds of trimmed roots per 
acre. The plat receiving at the rate of ton 
hundred weight, of shavings of bones, yield¬ 
ed 19,239 pounds of roots, being an increase 
of 4,941 pounds per acre. Spanish phos¬ 
phorite applied alone, twelve hundred weight 
to the .acre, produced 28,030 pounds, being a 
gain of 14.341 of turnips over the plat 
unmanured, lacking but a few pounds of 
doubling the crop. Spanish phosphorite 
with sulphuric acid, twelve hundred weight 
to the acre, gave a yield of 30,630 pounds — 
an increase over the unmanured plat of 
16,571 pounds, and 2,000 pounds over the 
plat that received an equal amount of the 
raw phosphorite; whether this increase of 
THE POTATO HUMBUG 
Friend Moore Do you know that I 
have made a fortune — that I have become 
suddenly rich t I will tell you bow it hap¬ 
pened. You will recollect that I have tried 
many experiments with potatoes, at one 
time having over a hundred varieties, all 
growing in my experimental grounds nicely 
labelled, like plants in a nursery. 1 spent 
days aud months In testing the productive¬ 
ness of the different sorts, the best distance 
to plant to 6eciHo tlie largest crop, and tho 
effects of guano, plaster, ashes and other 
manures. Perhaps you will remember how 
I used to take the scales to the field at plant¬ 
ing time to weigh out the manure, and at 
harvest time to ascertain the exact product. 
The results of some of these experiments 
were published iu tho Rural, years ago. 
This, however, did not make me rich,—for 
while I spent a good deal of time and money 
in the work, the public had tho benefit, “ free 
gratis for nothing.” 
The way the fortune was made was in this 
wise:—About four years since, Albert 
Brehee, of Vermont., sent me a few seedling 
potatoes of seven or eight varieties, num¬ 
bered from one to eight The number one 
has since been disseminated as the Early 
Rose, and is an excellent early potato. The 
No. 2 has been called Bremers Prolific, and 
I believe is to be sold at several hundred 
dollars a bushel. That is a pretty good thing, 
as 1 have quite a lot of them; but the big¬ 
gest thing of all is I ho No. 4, Just named 
B. K. Bliss & 
none was 
ble action of the mineral superphosphate. 
Now it seems clear, from Prof. Danberkey’s 
and my own experiments, that the mineral 
phosphate of lime does possess a mauurial 
value nearly equal to that of bones tor the 
turnip crops, the opinion of E. W. S. to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 
But 1 have another fact to substantiate the 
above. Last spring 8. L. Goodalk, Secre¬ 
tary of the Maine Board of Agriculture, for¬ 
warded to me seventeen different kinds of 
commercial, artificial and concentrated ma¬ 
nures, and among the lot was a package of 
mineral superphosphate of lime; also a 
package of finely ground mineral phosphate, 
and eome in the stone or unground state. 
He wrote that the mineral phosphate con¬ 
tains from ninety-tivo to ninety-five percent, 
of phosphate of lime. This he had made 
iuio mineral superphosphate. The fine, 
ground, dry, natural mineral, he says, “ is 
very insoluble in its natural slate; would 
probably stay in the ground fifty yearn before 
yielding up its phosphoric acid.” Not wish¬ 
ing to wait so long for returns, I have not 
made use of it; but intend to give it a dose 
of sulphuric acid between this and seed 
time. But I used a portion of (he prepared 
mineral superphosphate fur my corn crop, 
hist season, in a comparative experiment, 
with the following named manures, viz.: 
Duncan A McKellar’s Glasgow Company 
Fertilizer, N. Y.; Cumberland Superphos¬ 
phate, Maine; Rhoades & Co.’s Ammoniated, 
and Rhoades' Standard {Superphosphate; 
Andrew Coe’s Superphosphate, Baltimore; 
ashes and fine bone dust wetted with hot 
water six weeks before using; Peruvian 
guano; fine lieu dung and dry ashes; mine¬ 
ral superphosphate; fish pomace; sulphate 
of ammonia; Cuban, Alta Vela aud Baker’s 
Island pho pbated guano. 
The experiment was conducted with care. 
The corn, perfectly dry and ripe, was har¬ 
vested 20ih of October. The corn was 
husked in the field, and that from each kind 
of manure and the same number of hills or 
rows was weighed, and noted down as soon 
as weighed. It is unnecessary to go into 
figures here. There was a good deal of dif- 
Breseds King of the EarNes. 
Son write to the London Gardener’s Maga¬ 
zine that this is selling,— or rather, “the 
grower has been induced to part with a few 
at §50 a tuber." 
Tliia is where I get the fortune. I have 
about three bushels, I think. There are somo 
two hundred potatoes in the bushel, which 
at §50 each gives §10,000 a bushel, or 
§30,000 for the lot. Hurrah for the hum — 
King of the Earlm. 
I sec that the parties before mentioned 
write London Gardener’s Magazine that the 
King of the Earlm “ is said by the grower to 
be a week earlier than the Early Rose.” I 
have seen several statements in this country 
of what this variety is said to be. 
If I had the thirty thousand dollars on 
hand, instead of the three bushels of pota¬ 
toes, I should say that three season’s expe¬ 
rience has taught me that Breseds King of the 
Earlm is not only not a week earlier than the 
Early Rose, but more than two weeks later. 
If you think this statement will damage my 
thirty thousand, or the thirty thousand that 
any one else is trying to make, I fully au¬ 
thorize you to leave out the objectionablo 
words, and put iu stars or daggers, or dashes 
in their place — anything that will not do 
mischief. James Vick. 
Rochester, N. Y., 1869. 
lions;) put these ingredients on the barn 
floor and mix thoroughly, and leave in a 
snug pile. Each kind should be dry when 
put together; let it lie twenty-four hours, 
then try and see if the lamps of hen manure 
are slacked; if not, let it lie another six or 
twelve hours. This mass will generate heat 
rapidly; if allowed to lie too long, the 
ammonia will be set free and pass off rap- 
Rustic Fence.—Will some ouo give directions 
for making a rustic fcucc, and tell the beat time 
to cut branches, so that bark will adhere firmly? 
—H. M. L. 
