Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1855-05-10
From the New York Tribune.
SALTpETRE EXPLODED.

Barnum--the Barnum, is Connecticut
farmer. He has passion that way. 1t is
his present hobby .-Su'setmes it Is a Sire
Annlhilator.' and sometimes the Crystal Pal
ace annihilatcs hm.
Last year he had the. hen fever. That
was mis- hobby. He rode it Ill! he spent
about $4,000, and then found thut he had
neither eggs OF chickens for family use. His
neighbours hens that 'stole their nes's,' un-
der the barn or by the side Of the fence,
hutched more chickens than his did, and when
they were grown they were healthy and
goud to eat. while his weie droopiug aud
sicky in their costly huuse.
Fa-m,ng however, was always hobby
, with him. He has been Tor years buying up
the old fields around Bridgeport aud digging
out the stones, Covering the ground with
muck dug ont of all the neighooring swamps.
Ther he bought all the stable manure that
he could get hold of in the village and cared
i; out, .ba, it did not Pay;.it xss half straw
and one fourth water, und it WAS expensive.
That hubby broke down. II has broken down
thousand times before, but the more it
br.ke, the more oljiogyism stuck 10 il. 1t
was an ancient custom OF the land to pIow
shallow and top-dress with stable manure,
sea weed and fish, Digging muck was an
innovation. II was good thing, but 1t did
n 1t pry long transportation. SumeIhins bet-
ter was wanted. Somebody said, use salt
1'hu, did not look reasonable. What virtue
was there in salt to make plants grow! SJme-
body else said, use saiIpetre. But that was
evident nun.ense.--SdtPetre was only to
preserve meat 1T was not manure. Anu.h-
er wise man told him Glauher suits were
good, but wiser ono told him That EPSON
salt. we're better.
"Bless your soul, man. says Barnum, do
you suppose want to physic my land! No,
Sir; want 10 Iced it, aud make it feed me-
So he took to the study of agriculture -
lie toe several learned ayr cultural papers,
and read them, atld--well, lie concluded that
he was hot the only humbug in the world
SO he went off Iecturing upon humbug as
II SCIENCE under the iull impression that he
had boen about as badly hu,hbugged, in the
agricultural hne, hens aud hundred dollar
ducks included, as be ever humbugged any
body with woody horses and Fe,jHe mer-
maids.
Still he was not satisfied. He thought
Cunnec,icnt soil had something in il. and ii
it could be s,imula ed to give it up,ll would
produce something besides daisies anc null
lens.
As he did not need to study his lecture
that came natarai-he bought JohnSon's
Chemistry, Norton's Chemistry and L"ibg's
Chemistry, aud dUvoted his leisure hours Of
a.. uaf Ana IA Il
and most concentrated manure to apply To
his old Ge ds He had already done one very
essential thing; he had plowed the soil deep
or thai IL WAS ever plowed Se;ore; and now
he wanted TO mature better and che per, and
make il mole oductive. So he studied
agricultural chemistry. Therein he learned
three facts:
That an application OF 100 lbs of nitrate Of
potash TO an acre of land had doubled the crop
Of grass.
| Again, he read thst the same quantity ol
sMpaate Of soda had produced the same or a
better effect.
| ttwas also stated that suipkate Of ma9nesia
was still better, and that remarkable effects
had been produced by free use ofmur'ats Of
soda Nitrate of SodG had also done wonders
| The authors suggested that .he farmer
mgkt procure a portion of each of these sui
phates and nitrates aud mix them together,
apd produce cheaper and more concentra-
ted manure than super phosphate OF lime or
( guaNo.
Full Of this idea, farmer Barnrm reformed
to New York and went forthwith to dealer
in drugs, medicines and chemicals, and inqni-
red the price Of the following articles;
4 Nitrate OF potssl-6 cents pound
Nitrate of Soda cents.
Sulphate Of soda--2 cents.
, Sulphate ofmasaesis-2s cents.
e Murists Of so3a--l5 cents,