32 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
(Original papers.,,from Cantribntors. 
FERTILIZING QUALITIES OF MARLS, BONES, &c. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —In your No. for De¬ 
cember, page 186, the following question is asked: “Is 
it possible that the blue or green clay or marl of New 
Jersey, which is so valuable as a fertilizer, owes its 
power to the ammonia it contains ?” 
I should consider it too certain to call in question its 
possibility. When the ocean deposited large masses of 
shell fish in New Jersey, which constitute their marl 
beds, the fish must necessarily have been deposited in 
the shell, and of course large quantities of ammonia 
been developed during their decomposition,which would 
be absorbed by the soil mixed with the beds. I should 
conclude, a priori, that the green marl beds would con¬ 
tain more ammonia than the white marls, as ammonia 
will give a green hue to most soils. 
Some years since, I advertised for clays to be sent me, 
with the view to the finding of fuller’s earth, describing 
the qualities necessary to the composition. I received a 
great number of samples from several states, and from 
different counties in the same state, amounting to proba¬ 
bly more than two hundred specimens. Among these 
specimens of clay, were several valuable to the farmer 
as fertilizers. A sample of white unctuous clay from 
some part of New Jersey, contained a large quantity of 
free potash. The gentleman who brought it would not 
inform me of its locality, as embedded in the clay was 
found a mass of lignite, fossilized by sulphuret of iron; 
and he expected to make a fortune from this portion of 
the product. 
Another sample of blue friable clay, from a bank of 
our North river, was also brought, containing a large 
quantity of some carbonated alkali, or alkaline earth, 
which would be highly beneficial for agricultural pur¬ 
poses. The gentleman who brought the latter, informed 
me the deposit was deep and extensive. 
In the same No., page 188, there is an article on 
<e Crushed Bones—mode of action.” The writer, on the 
authorities of Sprenglel and Chaptal, assumes that the 
phosphates are the principal fertilizing ingredients in 
bones. I differ entirely from the deduction of those 
celebrated philosophers. It is stated in the table of 
contents, that one-third of the weight of bones is animal 
matter, or gelatine; and I consider their fertilizing pro¬ 
perty to depend greatly more on this constituent product 
than on the two-thirds consisting of phosphate and car¬ 
bonates of lime. I shall give my reasons for this opinion, 
which I think will be satisfactory. There is no doubt 
that phosphate of lime contains some fertilizing pro¬ 
perty, but not one-tenth as much as gelatine, weight for 
weight. 
It is well known that neither phosphorus nor phos¬ 
phoric acid can by any process be converted into ammo¬ 
nia, whilst gelatine is easily converted to it, and affords 
a very large quantity. 
In the making of prussiate of potash, the ingredients 
used are gelatine, horn shavings, or more solid pieces, 
hair of animals, and animal matter generally. The two 
are mixed in an iron vessel, brought to a melted state, 
and stirred during the combustion. The animal matter 
contains the prussine, which in its nascent state is taken 
up by the potash. The great difficulty in the operation 
is to prevent the prussine from changing to ammonia, 
and so great is this tendency, that the most skillful ope¬ 
rator cannot prevent a considerable portion from under¬ 
going that change. I have sold thousands of gallons of 
ammonia, collected during this process. 
Your correspondent quotes from the second Doncaster 
Report, “ That horn shavings are a more powerful ma¬ 
nure than bones, since horn contains only one or two per 
cent, of earthy matter, the remainder being animal mat¬ 
ter or gelatine.” From the third Report, “ That before 
the introduction of crushed bones, the ashes of burned 
bones had been long employed to a small extent in ag¬ 
riculture, but have since fallen almost entirely into dis¬ 
use.” 
Put these two reports together, and what do they 
prove, but that the gelatine taken out of bones by calci¬ 
nation, contains far more fertilizing qualities than the 
ashes of the bones which remain ? 
Bones are boiled for several hours by some of the 
ivory black manufacturers, by which the fat an8 much 
of the gelatine are extracted, yet when distilled in a close 
vessel, a large quantity of ammonia is collected. Cal¬ 
cined bones afford no ammonia. 
It has never come under my notice that phosphorus, 
or phosphates of any description, have ever been de¬ 
tected as a component part of any vegetable matter. 
Prussic acid, on the contrary, is found to be an inherent 
quality in a large class of plants, shrubs, and trees, the 
bitter of leaves, flowers, and kernels, being mostly from 
the presence of this acid, some of them so powerfully 
impregnated as to afford a deadly poison. There is no 
doubt that a much larger class of plants would be poi¬ 
sonous, if prussine had not so great a tendency to change 
into ammonia. 
The progress of science, within the last fifty years, 
has opened to the human mind some faint traces of the 
secrets of nature, sufficient to show that man, in all he 
undertakes, is only a feeble imitator; yet enough has 
been discovered to prove that innumerable operations 
are silently progressing in the laboratory of nature, dis¬ 
playing Infinite Wisdom in the design, Infinite Power in 
the execution, and Infinite Benevolence in the adapta¬ 
tions. Wm. Partridge. 
New-York, Dee. 24, 1841. 
DIVISION OF A FARM AND ROTATION OF CROPS_(Fig. 11.) 
A. House.—B. Barn.—C. o. Gates.—Hyphens (-) 
trees. 
The six interior fields contain 12 acres each. Nos. 
1 and 6, are larger, but balanced by house, barn, &c. 
No. 5, larger, so as to include flat land. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —The above plan and 
rotation system of my farm is submitted to you and the 
farming community, in the hope of receiving your or 
their opinion as regards the system, either in whole or 
in part. Believing that a rotation of crops is the most 
advantageous as well as the most pleasant mode of cul¬ 
tivation, I made it the first object, on my first commence¬ 
ment on a partially cleared level farm, to make a cor¬ 
rect survey of the level part, and then deducted the 
ground occupied by lane and houses, by which I ascer¬ 
tained twelve acres made a complete square field, as 
appears from the plan. The importance of a lane must 
be so apparent to every practical farmer, that it is 
deemed unnecessary to say much on it. In drawing out 
manure, and in the crops, or in driving out and in the 
cows or other stock, the opening of gates between cross 
fences, and safety of crops in the adjoining fields, is of 
great benefit in saving time and means; and the gate 
where the cows pasture may be left open, so that they 
may have free ingress and egress; and last, though 
not least, if you have a bad horse to catch, you can drive 
him out of the field and into the barn in less than no 
time. In order to save ground in lane, I incline the 
gates into the fields, which gives ample space to turn a 
wagon loaded with hay or grain. The gates to be la¬ 
belled, or contain the number of the field it leads to. In 
the corners of a cross fence, plant trees of evergreen and 
other kinds, and thus occupy usefully the part the plow 
cannot reach for shade and shelter, and place a watering 
trough on the line of cross fence, the fence passing 
along its center, so that the two fields pastured as 
above, (Nos. 9 and 10,) are accommodated with water, 
and the stock still kept separated, and protected in a 
measure from heat or cold. The creek field is low, and 
subject to be occasionally overflowed, stands neutral in 
grass. Field No. 1, manured and planted and sowed with 
potatoes and turneps, &c., and corn. It is superfluous to 
say any more, as all speak for themselves in the above 
plan; and it is only necessary to stretch the imagination 
to suppose that each successive season the crops shift one 
step; as, for example, this year No. 1 thoroughly ma¬ 
nured and hoed. No. 2 next, and so on, till in the course 
of ten years No. 1 has produced the successive crops, 
and cries aloud for its share of the farmer’s deposit of 
manure. On each side of lane are trees planted, and 
also on road and line fences. West of house and gar¬ 
den, orchard; front of barns, and north of house, or- 
chard. - 
A PENNSYLVANIA BARN. 
Permit me, as my sheet is not quite full, to say that 
my barn is of stone, with a basement—40 feet by 40— 
basement 30 1-2 by 40 feet—14 feet allowed for horse 
stable off one (east) end, with door in centre, and two 
windows on each side, which, for the better regulation 
of the temperature of stable, is made of movable Ve- 
nitian blinds. The door is jointed and hinged, so that 
it falls back on the wall. The manure is carried off into 
back sheds by another door. The height of stable is 9 
feet, two feet or over above the barn floor, so that hay 
kept over the horses may be thrown into their troughs, 
either cut up or in its natural state, as I have long 
troughs of hollow pine logs that extend the whole dis¬ 
tance. Under the floor and other part of the barn, is a 
root cellar, with hatches over two of the divisions for 
emptying them into their respective places. One divi¬ 
sion, appropriated for potatoes, has a shoot from south 
side outside of building, as they are very troublesome to 
handle, where the operation of unloading a Scotch cart 
load is very soon accomplished. An alley passes through 
center, and a door opens into it from sheds, and there is 
also a door from stable into it. The sheds are as high 
as the horse stable, so that hay for cattle contained over 
them may be fed from barn floor, and give sufficient 
head room when shed contains the winter manure. This 
is only one of those intended to form a square: the other 
adjoining, will form the angle, (30 feet long.) Thence 
north, a barn for grain exclusively, with thrasher in 
southwest angle, and the other running east, similar to 
that above described; east end for cows. I propose a 
division fence through yard and one from south to north 
barn; watering at the junction, so that both yards and 
both stables may be accommodated without mingling— 
thence water to pass on to piggery. Part of the above 
is to be seen executed, and the rest is in a fair way, at 
the premises of your most obedient servant, 
P. Falconer. 
Warren Co., Pa., Oct. 15, 1841. 
CULTURE OF INDIAN CORN. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —I now propose to re¬ 
deem my promise, made some time since, by giving you 
an account of my crop of corn. There were four acres 
in the field—one acre of Dutton, two do. of Brown, and 
one do. of China. The following is the amount of each 
variety per acre. 
1. Dutton—One acre produced 7,711 lbs. ears; 100 
lbs. ears, taken promiscuously, made 82 1-2 lbs. shelled 
com—equal 361 1-2 lbs. shelled corn per acre, or 113 
bushels 33-1-2 lbs. per acre. 
2. Brown Corn.—7,300 lbs. of ears per acre; 100 lbs. 
ears made 81 1-4 lbs. of shelled corn—equal 5,931 1-4 
of shelled corn, making 105 bushels 51 1-4 lbs. per acre. 
There were two acres of this variety in the field; I 
know of no difference in it, but think one acre as good 
as the other. 
3. China Tree Com—third crop, from seed obtained 
of William Thorburn, Esq. of Albany, in the spring of 
1839. It produced 7,020 lbs. ears per acre; 100 lbs. 
ears made 79 1-2 lbs. shelled corn—equal 5,580 3-4 lbs. 
of shelled corn, or 99 bushels 36-3-4 lbs. per acre. 
The above crop of corn was all raised in the same 
field; the Dutton and China were on a part of the field 
that has been under cultivation for a time that extends 
beyond the knowledge of any of the present inhabitants 
of our village. The Brown corn was on a part of the 
field that was broken up to subdue the sweet elder, with 
which it was covered about six years ago, and has been 
under cultivation ever since, with a crop of corn or oats, 
without manure, except the two last summers. The 
China corn grew on the same acre of ground that yielded 
me 100 bushels of Dutton corn in the summer of 1840, 
and 80 bushels in the summer of 1839. For the present 
crop, the ground was plowed late last fall; this spring, 
the ground on which the Dutton and China corn grew, 
had fifteen loads of unfermented stable manure per acre, 
spread broad-cast and plowed in, the ground marked 
across the furrows four feet apart for the China, and 
three feet apart for the Dutton. Corn planted across the 
marking, the same distance apart, making the China corn 
four feet apart each way, and the Dutton three ieet apart 
each way. Seed at the rate of one-half bushel per acre, 
soaked in copperas water and rolled in plaster; the corn 
thinned down to four spears in a hill at the second hoe¬ 
ing. The China com was planted 28th May, Dutton 
corn 29th of May, and the Brown corn 2d and 3d of 
June. The corn was hoed three times, and worked 
twice with the cultivator—no hilling allowed; the 
ground kept as level as possible. I commenced cutting 
up the corn at the ground, the 16th September, and put 
it in small stouts to cure. 
The Brown corn was planted in rows three feet apart, 
and hills from sixteen to eighteen inches apart in the 
row; manured in the hill with fifteen loads unfermented 
manure per acre; three-fourths bush, seed per acre,soaked 
and plastered as the above. A part of this corn failed 
to come up, from bad planting on coarse manure in the 
hill; it was replanted about the 12th June. This corn 
suffered more from drouth than where the manure was 
spread broad-cast; it suffered in earing, also, from being 
left too thick in the hill, causing the ears to be short. 
I was absent from home at the time of hoeing and 
thinning the corn. On my return, about the last of Au¬ 
gust, I saw the fault, and inquired of the man who had 
charge of it, why it was not thinned as I directed; he 
said “ it looked so ower when they hoed it, that the men 
all thought it a pity to destroy it:” so they killed it with 
kindness; but it was too late to remedy the evil, and I 
let it go with from five to ten stalks in a hill. This corn 
was cultivated in all other respects as the above. I 
think with proper management I can get a much larger 
crop of this kind of corn per acre than I have this 
year. 
By measure, the Brown corn will outshell the Dutton, 
as will the China, but they both fall short by weight, as 
will be seen above—the Brown 1 1-4 lbs. in 100 of 
ears, and the China 3 lbs. in 100 of ears. 
The China corn makes a beautiful meal for family use, 
but is too late a variety for elevated lands in this latitude. 
The acre of China corn produces about four tons of fod¬ 
der, the Dutton three tons, and the Brown two tons. The 
Brown corn produces more corn for the amount of stalks 
than any variety that I have cultivated. 
I am anxiously waiting for a statement of the method 
pursued by Mr. Osborn in raising 144 bushels of corn 
and 130 bushels of oats per acre; also Mr. June’s state¬ 
ment in reference to his crop of oats, both of which I 
trust will appear in the Cultivator. I never have had 
any success in raising oats, and am desirous of learning 
how it is done by others, who do succeed. I should b« 
glad to learn something about raising barley: which is 
