1846 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
365 
waste, barren lands of some of the southern states, 
would produce this shrub in great abundance. 
It is easily cultivated, and requires little care, and 
We should suppose would prove profitable, since nut- 
galls form an important item among our imports. 
The first species usually attains a height of 8 to 15 
feet, and rarely forms a tree of 20 feet high and six or 
eight inches in diameter. The second species is usually 
from 5 to 12 feet high, being usually a little less than 
the last species, and furnishing an abundance of fruit 
and foliage when four feet high. These shrubs, with 
even tolerable care from being broken down, are rapid 
growers, making several feet of wood during a single 
season, though growing slower as they advance in age. 
Young plants grow with little care, and either seeds or 
the young shrubs can be readily obtained. 
OPERATION OF PLASTER. 
Mu. Tucker —There seems to be a great diversity 
of opinion as to the reason why plaster or gypsum fails 
to benefit such a large portion of our Atlantic coast, 
Long Island, and New-Jersey, particularly. Mr. Ruf¬ 
fin of Virginia, in a work on Calcareous Manures, ad¬ 
vances a theory based on his experience as a practical 
farmer, that appears to me to be more satisfactory than 
any other I have seen, and I am somewhat surprised 
that his theory has never found its way into our nor¬ 
thern agricultural journals. 
I made a visit to Virginia last winter, preparatory to 
removing there, and while there I made particular in¬ 
quiries in relation to the extensive marl formation 
which underlays nearly the whole eastern portion of 
the state, below the falls of the rivers, and its effects upon 
the soil. I found it to be extensively and profitably used, 
and producing important and permanent changes in the 
soil; so much so, that clover cannot be made to grow at 
all until marl, or its equivalent, lime, is applied. The 
marl contains from 30 to 80 per cent, lime, which is 
the principal if not the only fertilizer contained in its 
composition. I inquired how plaster succeeded on clo¬ 
ver, and the almost invariable replj' was, it does no 
good whatever until the land is marled or limed. I in¬ 
quired the reason of this, and was referred to Mr. Ruf¬ 
fin’s work on Calcareous Manures. I there found what 
appeared to me to be a very satisfactory reason, and 
I will give you a brief abstract. He says that the most 
of the soils of eastern Virginia, were found upon analy¬ 
sis, to contain but a slight trace of calcareous matter, 
and with the exception of the land along the margins 
of the rivers, which he terms neutral soils, he calls 
them all acid soils; and the presence of sorrel on 
the land he considers an indication of acid soils. Sor¬ 
rel grows abundantly on all land which he terms acid. 
Oxalic acid is the acid of sorrel. Now, sowing on 
plaster in the usual quantity, that being a sulphate of 
lime, the oxalic acid has a strong chemical affinity for 
the lime; the lime leaves its combination with the 
sulphur, and combines with the oxalic acid, and forms 
an oxalate of lime, and sets the sulphur free to combine 
with iron or any other ingredient that it can find. Ap¬ 
ply a good dressing of marl or lime, and it combines 
with the acid and neutralizes or destroys it, and as a proof 
of this, sorrel is no longer found. Plaster applied then 
is left free to act, and produces the most satisfactory re¬ 
sults, frequently doubling the crop. 
Long Island and New-Jersey have soils somewhat 
similar to Virginia. I ean speak more confidently of 
Long Island, as that is my place of residence; its! 
soils produce sorrel plentifully. Lime has been used 
but little, and in many cases with no perceptible effect, 
and plaster, with a few isolated exceptions, has totally 
Failed. I hope that some of your Long Island and other 
readers who are similarly situated, will make the ex¬ 
periment, and see if like causes will produce like ef¬ 
fects. The experiment need not cost them but little 
money or labor. 
While on a recent visit to Dutchess Co., a friend in¬ 
formed me that the prevailing opinion in that county 
was, that plaster applied to one field, injured an un¬ 
plastered field adjoining, as much as it benefitted the 
one that it was applied to, and that some went so far as to 
say that if a piece of woodland was left amidst cleared 
land, and that cleared land plastered, the timber com¬ 
menced decaying and dying. He told me of an instance 
that went strongly to prove the truth of that opinion. 
An old farmer had a very fine meadow, in a creek bot¬ 
tom. He commraenced plastering his upland lying 
around, and adjoining it. His meadow, which had 
never before failed to produce luxurious crops of grass, 
began to fail, and continued to do so until it was hardly 
worth mowing. He then commenced plastering it, 
and its ancient fertility was at once restored. Now 
what can be the cause of that? Perhaps our chemists 
are the most proper persons to judge; but I can give 
my own opinions, as they do not cost much. The idea 
at once occurred to me that it might be caused by the 
absorption of ammonia from the surrounding atmos¬ 
phere, by the plaster, (as ammonia and sulphuric acid 
have a strong affinity for each other,) that the unplas¬ 
tered land was deprived of its due share from that 
source, as plants are said to derive a large share of their 
ammonia from the atmosphere. Perhaps some of your 
able correspondents can enlighten us as to the cause of 
it. G. P. Lewis. 
Huntington, L. I., Oct. 14 th, 1846. 
PLANTATIONS OF PINES. 
There are quite extensive tracts of country, espe 
cially along the sea-board, which now lie nearly in a 
state of barrenness, that might be made to yield a tole¬ 
rable income, if planted in trees. It might be difficult 
to make hard-wood trees flourish on these light lands, 
but pines would generally grow without much trouble. 
In the easterly part of Massachusetts, many plantations 
of pine have been formed on old lands, which, though 
formerly cultivated, had become wholly worthless for 
agricultural purposes. The Barnstable County, (Mass.,) 
Agricultural Society, lately awarded a premium to Mr. 
Amos Otis, of Barnstable, for two plantations of pines. 
Believing that his account of the mode of planting, &c., 
will be valuable to others, we give from the Sandwich 
Observer, the substance of a paper submitted to the 
society mentioned. The Pitch pine, was the kind cho¬ 
sen in this case, but the process of cultivation would 
probably answer equally well for White pine. It will 
be noticed that the value of the land is stated to have 
been only from one dollar to two dollars per acre, be¬ 
fore being planted with trees; and that after an outlay 
in planting of only thre.e dollars per acre, it is made to 
pay an annual income of one dollar per acre, for twenty- 
seven years. . 
The two lots of pines which I offer for examination, 
are situate in the East Parish in Barnstable, and contain, 
one two acres, and the other seventeen. The suface is 
uneven, and covered with moss; and excepting a few 
acres has not been cultivated for many j r ears. The soil 
is mostly a gravelly loam, and is not what is generally 
called a pine soil. The trees on the north side of the 
two acre lot, were planted in April, 1833, and now 
average thirteen feet in height, and measure one foot 
from the ground, four and one-half inches in diameter. 
Those on the south side were planted the next year, and 
average twelve feet in height and four inches in diame¬ 
ter. The seventeen acre lot was planted in the years 
1840, ’41, and ’42. Nearly all the trees are of the last 
planting, and they average nearly four feet in height. 
The exact number of trees on each acre I cannot 
state; but I estimate that the average is much greater 
than is required by the rules of the society. There are 
some open places, but on most of the ground there are 
as many trees as it would be profitable to allow to re¬ 
main. On one acre where the soil is much better than 
the rest, and in the bottoms, there are no trees. The 
pitch pine will not grow in still green sward, and 
where the surface is a loose barren sand it does not 
flourish. 
