The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1844-08-08

soils. equal % sisbie apag. Well nox.
alirr yoas patience 10 going over these
pages, hope you VI ] end yoar reward
IN tbs slaiemeni. To Be snne Il might
hare been ssid q oars. and % hare done
with H. b0l hoped. reader, and ! am
sure have not heea Disappointed. thsi
you Ike 70 dive lillIe into he reason Of
things. and fell Ii.si you had farmrd tho
long By The rule Of thumb. 70 Be satisfied
shai il was the rnsd either 10 improve
mens o. profit Aad 50 among your frsi
attempts >. imPrUsing your worn-oul
lands, always supPosing you have no. .
ban-cellar. hogs. and swamp-m 80
spdy called By one Of your self-msde
practical men. the . farmers locomotive"
| presume you may like 70 know the
portions IN which you may mir swamp
muck and slksli. You can hardly 90
urong here by using TOO much; The great
danger Is, you will. use 100 lille slksli.
But calculating on The proportion of mould
in fresh dug swamp muck. of peat. d may
be stated - rule, grounded on The guam
tiiy Of quickening power in cord Of stable
manure. that every cord OF sw.mp-muck
requires eiThi bushels Of common ashes.
or thirty pounds Of common puiash, or
twenty pounds Of white or coda ash. TO
convert !, into manure equal, cord Tor cord,
10 that from your stable. Dig up your
peat in The fall. le, il lay over winter TO
Gall 10 powder, calculate your quantity
when fresh dug. and allow nothing for
shrinking in The spring; when your alkli Is
70 be well mixed in with The mould. and.
after shoselling over for few weeks, use
il ss YOU would stable manure.
These quantities nf ashes and slkali are
the lowest which may be advised. Three
or four times this amour, may be used
with sdyaniage, but both the quantity oi
alkaIi aud The number Of loads per acre,
must and will be Determined by each for
himself. Il is a question of why's and
means, rather than Of practice. But sup
posing the smallest quantity Of ashes or Of
slkali 10 be used which we have advised,
then AZ least Eve cords Of the compos
should be used per acre. This may b,
applied 10 any soil. light or heavy. Blu
there is another form Of this same swamp
muck and alkali. which should be used on
~ on light, loamy. sand, soils, TO produc,
ils greatest benefit, though even on heav,
soils. " act very wet, il may be u.ed viii
great advantage. This IS compos, .
one cord Of spent ashes 10 three cords o
swamp-muck. This IL decidedly The bes
mixture which has yei been tried. w,
have in this all that mixture Of varion
salts and mould which plants want, ans
both BY the action of the monld and b,
that Of the air, the alkali Of the spent ash
es. which no teaching would extract. i
soon let loose, and produces all The ei
fec.s Of so much clear potash or soda.
| have thus. reader, given you few o
the ways by which you may convert you
), peat boys and swamps into manure, wher
you have neither rat,le nor hogs. | hav,
not though, il sorth while to go into thi'
subject further and give direction for lint
and salt, or other matters which might b.
used. l have given you the most com
, mon. and those we'll known and al hand
all you w"ni, then, 10 apply these prin
ciples Of forming composts, is to give then
that liile attention which will enable you
! TO understand them. And the rest mus
be left 10 your practical common sense
without some share of which, farming
like everything else, would be vanity ant
vexation Of spirit.
| would here, reader, take my leave 81
you, and in The hope that we may again
meet to have another talk. There are q
great many other points relating 10 ma
nure. which can be understood only altel
we have made ourselves somewhat &C.
quainted with the chemistry Of soil.
! hen, having explained that. before the
full action of manure can be understood,
we must proceed step further, and con-
slider wha. changes The place in growing
crops, and the effects Of these growing
crops upon soil and manure the guam.
,tity and kind Of salts they extract. and
how soil is exhausted. This would lead
to the consideration Of the quantity and
kind Of manure to be applied to different
soils, and the value of different manures.
But there is one other important matter
belonging TO our subject. Crops ex.
haus, land. but fa,,en animals. Now this
last properly belongs to that part of our
subject relating to the changes occurring
in vegetables, and their power Of exhaust
ing the soil. It will be seen. therefore
tina, the whole covers the ground called
Agricultural Chemistry. The Essay i:
only is frs, part. lfi. meets your ac'
Cep,ance, ] trust it may encourage its au'
thor to draw up its second par, on soils
and its third part on The effect Of crop.
on soil, and their value as food for am.
mails.
I
Gep. Waddy Thompson, Of South Carolina,