The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-11-07

equal value every where, or even 0i any value
under sII conceivable circumstances. And yet
j doubt that hill or dry plain can be found
ten miles inland, on which first application
iof plaster to the extent of two hundred pounds
per acre, would not be repaid in the very, next
crop, more especially if that crop were clover.
Wherever ground plaster may be had for less
than 500 per ton las it can be in most parts of
the Union); hold that each farmer who has
not vet tried it should buy at least one ton, ap-
ply it to ten acres in strips of two rods width,
alternating with like bredth left unsown, and
carefully watch the result. If no benefit IS
realized, he may safely conclude, not that plas-
ter is humbug, but that his land does not
need it, or that he has not known how and
when to apply it. In my own case, judge
that have bought no other fertilizer that paid
so amply and speedily as plaster.
As to lime I ain not so confident In any
district where it is burned, so that the refuse
from the kilns may be bought unslacked and
scarcely yet cold, for 6 few cents per bushel,
there 1 cannot doubt the profit of its applica-
ton to. almost any dry soil, but especially one
well supplied with vegetable matter-a drained
bog or swamp for example. The English ap-
ply it profusely TO heavy clays TO break them
up and render them friable; and they would
not persist in so doing without reason. Wher-
ever the spontaneous growth OF sorrei ana 0tnsr
acid plants indicates deficiency OF aksii,
there I Judge that lime would prove servicea-
ble. If unIeached wood ashes could be had as
cheaply, would much prefer them, especially
on sandy or gravelly soils; but, as no sensible
cultivator of'such soils ever sold his ashes,
they are rarely to be had in considerable guam
titles, except in the cities or larger villages
which still relies mainly on wood for Its fuel;
i consider every bushel OF ashes from " WOOD
burned within doors worth to farmer half the
price of bushel of corn, since, by judiciously
applying it, he may increase his corn crop
bushel per bushel. AS to lime, regard we'll
burned oyster-shells as worth to the farmer
twice as much by weight as the average OF lime
uuaried from LEDGE though this is quite di-
verse in quality. Where it is mingled or heav..
ily charged with magnesia, its agricultural
value is slight, if not questionable. Yet plants
need lime, feed upon il, thrive byit, and have
known large crops of wheat grown successfully
on field whereof the soil for at least two feet
downward was at least nine-tenths broken lime
stone, resting on solid bed rock of that same.
I apprehend that lime is destined to play a
very important part in the renovation of our
worn-out farms, though it may never be used
80 bountifully here as in England. The late
Prof Mapes calculated that, since mineral par
ticles act on vegetation only by their surfaces,
and our lime is many times finer than the Brit
ish, an application Of 30 bushels per acre here
was equivalent to one of $50 bushels of that
burned from the coarser chalk of the British
Isles.
have q very high opinion of salt as fertil-
izer 1t may not be wanted near the coast,
where saline spray is often driven inland for
miles; but estimate its value at twenty-five
cents per bushel on my place, which is some
twenty miles from Long Island Sound and
nearly twice as far from the broad ocean. That
is to say, consider ten bushels of salt per acre,
applied to my fields, one-half in each of two
successive years, about the best S23 worth OF
plant food that money will buy me. And al
most any farmer can obtain refuse salt from
importers, manufacturers, tanners, repackers or
dealers who buy salt meats or fish by the bar
rel and sell them out by retail, if he will but
INQUIRE and be patient I could always buy all
I wanted in New York at or below fifteen cents
per bushel, and have had carload at time
given me by one who had no use for such salt,
but urgent need of the room it occupied. Such
wind falls come every year to those who are
looking for them.
One of these days (but not in my day. we
shall have great pumping works beside our
harbors, sounds or infets, lifting sea-water by
the thousand gallons up to height whence
pipes or tubes will convey it, aided only by
grayitation, to plains and valleys far inland,
Which it will be allowed gently to overflow,
irrigate and fertilize If, after time, fresh
water shall be deemed desirable in its turn,
then the salt of the sea-water will be percipita.
ted on its passage by some cheap chemical
agency, and only the thus freshened water
reach the soil.
The prominence given to phosphates, and to
phosphate substances, in our day is fully lusti-
fed. In rude ages when cultivation was desul-
tory and crops scanty and capricious, while an
imals decayed where they died, and bones were
thrown anywhere SO that they should not be In
the way, there was little need of applying
phosphates to the farmers fields and no call
for them. At length, all is changed. For half
a century England quietly bought up the bones
of all animals that died on or near our seaboard
and applied them to the fertilization of her
fields, while our farms, through the sale of milk
and of living or slaughtered animals, were
steadily losing all that hers were gaining
When we at length, awoke to the suicidal mad
ness of this display of Ignorance and needless
ness on our part we had to recover the leeway
thus made; and have no doubt that we had,
and still have, meadows and pastures which
would still give fair crops of grass, but on
which sound.boned, strong OK could with
difficulty be reared. Hence the policy and
necessity of applying phosphates, in some form,
to the well-worn fields of our older States-a
necessity which is not at all felt in newer re-
gions and on virgin Soils
AS to the ordinary farm-yard manures, no
one need be told that they are excellent, so far
as they go-that he is fortunate indeed who
can obtain them in abundance and at little
cost. They contain in available form most Of Of
the ingredients required by ordinary soils to tit
them for producing excellent crops, or, more
accurately, they embody most of the elements
of plants in such form that plants may readily
absorb aud thrive upon them. You may have
them in abundance, yet still need certain min,
eral additions to your soil-lime, sulphur and
phosphorus especially-but q very small outlay
will suffice for all that you need of these, if you
have in abundance farm-yard manures, so that
these be we'll rotted and wisely applied. He