Connecticut western news., 1873-03-21
Farm, Garden and Household.
LinaiAw Land.

a-syg Liming Land.
 Will you allow me to .propound one or two questions for your consideration, which have been induced by reading in the agricultural department of the Weekly Tribune of Jan. 8, some ex- perlments by Pennsylvania farmer Ill regard to lining land. Says this correspondent sI have found exactly the same results on strips of land treat ed with lime and wood ashes alternate ly." Now, then, lime being an alkaline substance, or largely so, will not plants, ill the absence of potash in the soil, mako use of lime as a substitute. and use it with equal effect. Common salt being about one-half soda, an alkali, will not these two substances, lime and salt, used on land fully supply the place of potash ?-[W. P. Gates, Wind ham Co.,, Conn.
 Reply by s. ". Johnson, author of ''Ho,c Crops Feed"
 duce the same effect on a soil. is due te the fact that they are commonly almost identical in composition Shell-lime and lime burned from many limestones contain, independently of mat tors introduced by fuel, less than ono per cent. of other ingredients. Limestones are, how ever, often admixed with clay, sand. or carbon ate of magnesia and the impure lime obtained from them is, after stacking and exposure quite like leached tCood-dshes in all essential points of composition. Unleached wood-ashes contain, of course some 10 to 15 per cent of potash Gas carbonate chiefy) in addition. The action of leached ashes must, therefore be nearly that of ordinary lime when the latter is used after air-slaking, or when it is applied in light doses or on soils whose quality does not admit of much alteration by the chemical ener- gies of quicklime.
 Mir. Gates first question, viz whether, in the absence of potash from the soil, plants will not make use of lime substitute, and use it with equal effect, is one which can be answered with the most positive certainty, no! The numerous and exact experiments which have been carried out with extraordinary labor and patience by Prince Salm-H -Hortnear, Sachs, Knop, and many others of the German agricul- tural chemists during the last 20 years, have demonstrated that lime and potash are gener- ally indispensable to plant growth. These ex- periments have altogether failed to give any in- dication that one of these alkalies can be sub stituted for the other in the plant. The evi- dence on that subject cannot be given in less than book-limits, being contained in large number of detailed journal articles. It is to be regretted that none of these are to be found in account of the results of these investigations is contained in "How Crops Grow, pp. 166 to 172.
 Before proceeding to the second question, it must be remembered that while lime cannot take the place nor fulfill the offices of potash tn the plant it may in certain cases take the place of potash in manure. If the soil is defi- clent in potash no quantity of lime can be substitute for it, but if on the other hand, the soil bo deficient not in potash absolutely, but in available potash, !. e., in potash which is ob tainable or digestible by the plant then lime serves as a substitute for manuring with pot ash, by making available the potash which exists in the soil, but only in insouble forms. Plainly, it amounts to the same thing, whether we apply to the soil fertilizer containing soluble potash, or chemical agent which hberates and makes soluble the potash of feldspar, mica, and other materials that are part of the soil.
 The second question as to common salt is an- swered for the most part in the foregoing para graphs. Potash is Q substance for which noth- an alkal often absent from and generally un- essential to the growth of plants Even marine or salt-strand plants grow perfectly in absence of soda. Just, however, as lime may accom- plish the solution of potash in the soil and render it attainable to vegetation, in sufficient quantity and with sufficient rapidity to make possible the development of . crop, which might fail in it's absence, 50 salt and all saline fertilizers operate, and thus salt, neither of whose ingredients is required by many crops, sometimes has 8 strikngly beneficial action when applied as 8 fertilizer. E. Wolff analysed samples of buckwheat raised from the same soil and seed, one of which was manured with common salt, two others with carbonate and nitrate of potash respectively, and one was un- manured. The unmanured contained in it's ash 36.4 per cent. of potash, and 4.6 of salt that manured with salt contained 3S.6 per cent of potash and three of salt. Those to which potash-salt were added contained 40.1 and 424 per cent of potash and 3.2 and 3.8 of soda. The effect of salt was to increase the propor- tion of potash rather than that of soda.
 Agricultural Notes.
 The cry which we heard some time ago that farming, as a whole, does not pay, has ceased, because those who could not make it pay have starved to death or gone into some other line of business.
 If your COWS eat wood, we should think 1t an indication that they do'not get green food enough. Give them turnips, beets, carrots, or potatoes once a day and see if they do not leave off eating their managers.
 It is said that the Farmers Club at Avon, H., saved 8, 900 last year by pur- chasing their supplies of implements, groceries, etc., in bulk. One of their number acts as agent, and is allowed & commission of three per cent. for his services.
 The cattle of New-England and the Middle States command the highest prices in the markets. Three year old steers in Maine average value of $83 :; in Rhode Island, $66 in Massachu- setts, $65 In New Hampshire, $63. 88 ]; in Vermont, $63; in Connecticut, $55,- 50, and in New York, $52. An average Texas steer is worth only $11.54, and a Florida steer, $14.40.
 The experience of each passing sea- son adds proof that corn, as well as other grains, can be more be more advadtage- ously improved by selecting the largest ears and best-formed kernels for seed, and by careful cultivation, and abundant manuring, than by taking pains to in- troduce new varities from distance. Corn is not deteriorated by long &C., climatization, but is by careless husband " and neglect to "se1ect the fittest. '" An old author who wrote before the Christian era knew how 1t was himself, and said: "I have seen seeds for a long time selected, and with much labor cull- ed out, nevestheless to degenerate un- less the largest were year by year care fully chosen by the hand"
 Tho G0ma nIH Hnrrnr