1853 . 
205 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Seed for Large Crops of Oats. 
Messrs. Editors—I hold that we practical and 
reading farmers, whenever we discover in your 
correspondents, what we deem to be an error, 
either in theory or practice, we should inquire in¬ 
to it, and learn the whys and wherefores of what 
we cannot approve until further explained, or we 
become better enlightened upon the subject. 
In the May No. of the Cultivator now before me, 
in a description of crops in Caledonia county Vt., 
your correspondent says: “many of the farmers 
are in favor of heavy seeding with oats, where the 
land is rich and well prepared. Five and six 
bushels are commonly sown on an acre. Large 
crops are raised in this county ; the average yield 
per acre is about sixty bushels. The best farmers 
get from 75 to 100 bushels.” 
The yield here spoken of indicates .a strong 
soil and a high cultivation; but why this large, 
and with us, uncommon seeding? There must be 
some peculiarity in the soil, or in the kind of seed 
used, or the result would be a much less crop by 
such an abundant over seeding. My location is 
upon the alluvial bottom lands on Connecticut 
river, a soil not surpassed iu the world for corn, 
oats and grass. Caledonia is also a river county, 
though about one degree further north. I proba¬ 
bly prepare my lands for a crop, as well as most 
farmers in Vermont, and was formerly in the hab¬ 
it of sowing three and three and a half-bushels to 
the acre, but experience has taught me that two 
bushels to the acre is better than any larger quan¬ 
tity, especially whenever I am desirous of seeding 
down to grass with the oat crop, which with me 
is pretty generally the case; and I never fail of a 
good catch of the grass, and a heavy crop of oats, 
or what we call here a heavy yield, from 60 to80 
bushels per acre. 
My experience is this. Whenever I have seed¬ 
ed with three bushels or over to the acre, in a soil 
of high tilth, the stalks grow thick and close, 
and not having sufficient space to expand, they 
do not attain strength enough to hold themselves 
up, hut fall down upon the ground, as the heads 
begin to fill, smothering the young and tender 
grass, the straw rusting; and not unfrequently 
another short, green crop of oats will be found 
springing up through the first growl h of straw, 
and a partial if not a general blight of the whole 
crop. But with a seeding of two bushels to the 
acre, the straw expands, becomes strong and vi¬ 
gorous, holds itself up until the heads mature, 
and are of great length, well filled, the kernel 
plump and heavy, and whenever the straw does 
fall, it is but partial, not flat, and the grass seed¬ 
ing is saved. I know there is much in the sea¬ 
sons; a wet time, heavy showers and wind, or a 
severe and protracted drouth, all effect this crop; 
but the seeding with five or six bushels to the 
acre on our river soil, would be sufficient of itself 
to destroy all hopes of getting the first bushel of 
merchantable oats in return. 
It is very probable that upon the elevated lands 
in Caledbnia county, the soil and the climate be¬ 
ing colder than here, lying full one degree north, 
that a heavier seeding is required; the growth is 
less rapid and the crop does not mature so early; 
yet I cannot divest myself of the opininion that 
this seeding with five or six bushels to the acre, 
in any locality, or upon any soils in Vermont at 
least, is an extreme that might as well he avoided. 
J. W. Colburn. Springfield , Vermont , May 3. 
Nitrogen in Plants. 
The source of nitrogen in'plants, has long been 
a theme of discussion among scientific men, and 
has a most interesting connection with agricult ure. 
The atmosphere is four-fifths nitrogen, and we 
know that the leaves of plants have the power of 
absorbing some gases from it, (carbonic acid, for 
example,) decomposing them, and using apart or 
the whole in the vegetable economy; and in this 
way we might suppose that nitrogen would also be 
assimilated. 
Priestly, and others, quite early in the history of 
organic chemistry, advanced this as the source, 
and many to the present day have believed that a 
part, if not the whole, might be derived in this 
way. 
This gas forms a part of many very energetic 
compounds, yet in its pure state it is decidedly 
negative in its properties, its affinities feeble, and 
it is not prone to form direct combinations. This 
was noticed, and hence doubts arose as to its be¬ 
ing able to directly aid the plant in its growth. 
De Saussure proved that ammonia existed in the 
atmosphere,' and suggested that as the source from 
which nitrogen was obtained. It was afterwards 
found in rain water. 
Experiments soon proved that its compounds 
were decomposed by plants, and were valuable 
fertilizers. Hence the use of guano and other ma¬ 
nures, which either contain it, or yield it by de¬ 
cay, has become general and extensive. Some 
have also supposed that the nitrates would yield 
to vegetation the nitrogen of their nitric acid. 
Concerning these opinions, the chemical world 
has long been agitated, and agriculture has felt 
this agitation. Each theory has been defended by 
men of profound learning and great celebrity, 
without either being able to prove, by satifactory 
experiments, his theory, until very recently the 
experiments of a young French chemist, M. Ville, 
have decided the question. I have seen no men¬ 
tion of it in our agricultural papers, so I will give 
the leading features of the experiments and their 
results, from a published communication of Leon 
Toucaud, in October last, only translating the 
parts of most general interest. 
The apparatus consisted essentially of a large bell 
glass, with an attached aspirateur, also of large 
dimensions. Within the bell glass, in pots, some 
seeds were planted in white sand, to which had 
been added a quantity of the ashes derived from 
the same species. The pots were supplied with 
distilled water. Each day the aspirateur caused 
a known volume of air to enter the bell; a small 
quantity of carbonic acid was also supplied, suffi¬ 
cient for the wants of the plant. Simultaneous 
with the operation of this apparatus, another expe¬ 
riment was conducted to determine the amount of 
ammonia in the same quantity of air that was ad¬ 
mitted to the plant in the bell, while it was under¬ 
going the successive phases of its growth. In some 
of the experiments, small but known quantities of 
ammonia were introduced in solution in the water; 
but in all the experiments noted, at the conclusion 
the plants were analysed and found to contain 
more nitrogen than existed in the form of ammo¬ 
nia in the air, and in the water which had been 
added, or by the decomposition of the original 
seeds. This was the nature of the experiments in 
1849 and ’50. In 1851 the experiment was changed. 
All the air admitted to the plant was deprived of 
its ammonia, by first passing it through sulphuric 
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