146 THE CULTIVATOR. Mat 
averaged a dollar and fifty-eight cents per fleece,- from 
thirty-one breeding ewes, a dollar and ninety-six cents; 
from twenty-five yearling ewes, a dollar and fifty-six 
cents. The two last-named flocks, were sheep selected 
previous to shearing. The cash value of the fleeces, of 
a hundred and forty-four yearlings, (May lambs,) was 
a dollar and forty-two cents each. Eben'r Bridge. 
Pomfret , Windsor Co. } Vt. } March , 1847. 
ON THE USE OF CHARCOAL AS A MANURE. 
Messrs. Editors. —Permit me through the medium 
of your valuable paper, to answer the queries of your 
correspondent, Mr. John Moxon, of Monroe county, 
relative to charcoal as a manure for wheat; mode of 
pulverizing, &c., See. I presume the article Mr. Mox¬ 
on refers to, is the following, which I find page 197, in 
the Dec. number, 1843, instead of page 183, in the 
Cultivator of 1844. 
“I, M. W. Powell, Surveyor, hereby certify, that I 
have measured the ground herein described, beginning at 
an apple tree, and running a northwest course ninety-five 
links, thence a southwest course fifty links, thence east 
thirty links to a line at the north angle, thence east 
seventy links to the place of beginning; the line from 
the base to the north angle being twenty-six links, con¬ 
taining two rods, which is a portion of R. L. Pell's 
wheat lot No. 2. 
;c We, Patrick Farrell and Leonard Latten, hereby 
certify that we gathered, threshed, cleaned, and mea¬ 
sured the wheat grown on the above described two rods 
of ground, belonging to Robert L. Pell, Esq., of Pel¬ 
ham, Ulster Co., and the yield was 31 quarts and 1 
pint, dry measure., We believe if the gleanings had 
been threshed, there would have been one bushel. 
(Signed) Patrick Farrell, 
Leonard Latten.” 
If this is the article Mr. Moxon alludes to, he wishes 
tl particularly to know the nature of the soil where the 
charcoal was used, whether light or heavy, and whether 
it had been manured within four years previous?” 
The surface soil is a sandy loam, with a small ad¬ 
mixture of clay; the subsoil is, composed of clay and 
sand, and is twelve feet deep. By analysis, this soil 
contained all the chemical ingredients necessary to grow 
any of the cerealia; and had not been manured, or culti¬ 
vated, except with grass, for many years. By recent 
analyses of wheat, rye, oats, corn, buckwheat, &c.. it 
appears that they all contain, not only in the stem, but 
kernel:, the following eleven chemical substances, to wit: 
potash, soda, lime, magnesia, alumina, oxide of iron, 
oxide of manganese, silica, sulphuric acid, phosphoric 
acid, and chlorine. If one of these be entirely absent 
from a soil, the cerealia cannot grow in it, they all be¬ 
ing essential to vegetable existence. Carbon is re¬ 
quired likewise to develop the nutritive qualities of the 
plant. In wheat starch, 52.58 per cent, of carbon is 
found, and in oak wood the same; when oak wood is 
burned for the purpose of obtaining charcoal, it is not 
any part of the wood which forms the carbon by igni¬ 
tion, as is vulgarly supposed, but the carbonaceous sub¬ 
stance taken up in its growth; by burning, the carbon 
being less combustible than the other elements, oxygen 
and hydrogen remains. 
If you will take the trouble to examine a sound piece 
of charcoal an eighteenth of an inch in diameter, you 
will find one hundred and fifty pores; an inch in diame¬ 
ter would present over 5,700,000 pores, all of which 
are surrounded by carbon in its original position, as ta¬ 
ken up by the tree in its growing state. Burn this car¬ 
bon and the ashes will contain lime, siiex, clay, and 
alkali; sometimes a minute particle of iron, so that 
when burned to ash, it is precisely the same thing as if 
you were to burn wood in the open air, but not as valu¬ 
able by any means, inasmuch as its gaseous properties 
are at once given to the atmosphere, in the form of car¬ 
bonic acid gas; this gas is the suffocating principle of 
charcoal which renders it so dangerous as fuel. I men¬ 
tion these facts to show you the effect it had upon my 
wheat. The soil had not in it sufficient carbon to sup¬ 
ply 52.58 per cent.; by an application, therefore, of 
that simple substance, the other requisites being pre¬ 
sent, the wheat could not but grow. Its action is per¬ 
manent; during dry weather it absorbs from the atmos¬ 
phere 90 times its own volume of gas, which when rain 
falls, is released, and immediately elaborated by the 
leaves of the plant. The charcoal then becomes charged 
with water to the same amount which is yielded to the 
plant during drouth. 
The lot on which I grew the wheat in question, was 
immediately seeded down with clover and timothy, con¬ 
sequently I have had no opportunity of experimenting 
further upon it. I have, however, tried numerous ex¬ 
periments with wheat, manuring with compounds, and 
highly nitrogenized manures, obtaining 64| lbs. to the 
bushel, and 18 per cent, of gluten, which is the all im¬ 
portant principle. Wheat generally, throughout the 
United States, does not contain much more than 7 per 
cent. That is the reason why our flour will not make 
vermicelli and macaroni. The Italian flour yields from 
10 to 12 per cent.; consequently the Italians make that 
substance in great perfection. 
Second query. “ I have* got a pretty large pit of 
charcoal, and am puzzled how best to pulverize and ap¬ 
ply it.” I would advise that the pit should be sha¬ 
ken up, and coal exposed, to the influence of the sun 
until dry; then draw it into the barn, and spread it 
about two inches thick upon the floor,—pass a granite 
or iron garden roller twice over it, and it will be suffi¬ 
ciently pulverized for agricultural purposes; spread it 
at the rate of one hundred bushels per acre on subsoiled 
land, after the wheat has been sown , and once harrowed, 
then harrow twice and roll once. If your land contains 
the requisite eleven, I will engage you seventy bushels 
of wheat per acre, and it shall weigh 64 lbs., provided 
vou cut it in the milk. A portion of the same field. 
No. 2, cut in the milk, yielded wheat weighing 64| lbs. 
to the bushel, a few acres left standing until the grain 
was ripe, weighed but 52 lbs. 
I am very respectfully, your ob't serv't, 
Rob'd L. Pell. 
Pelham Farm, March 16, 1847. 
Eds. Cultivator —In the March number of the 
Cultivator, page 91, Mr. Moxon, of Monroe county, 
inquires for information as to the use of charcoal for ma¬ 
nure. I will give one trial that I made with it. 
I prepared a piece of eight acres of turf ground by 
summer-fallowing, about the first of September. The 
ground being ready for sowing, I had (100 bushels of 
coal ground', intending to cover the whole; the hands, 
however, got it all on .to about three-fourths of the lot. 
I found, also, about 30 bushels in a tinner's shanty, 
which he was cleaning out; (this was saturated with 
urine.) This added, made 105 bushels to the acre. It 
