2111 HARRIS & HURD, Proprietors. The Farm. Organism of Soils, 46.366 No. 1. SULLIVAN D. HARRIS, Editor. sow on plaster. Plaster and vegetable manure will do well together. Lime and manure will not. If the vegetable matter in the soil is exhausted so that it requires vegetable ma And their adaptations to Crops and Live nure, and the land is overcharged with Stock. [Gen. L. V. Bierce has placed in our hands a copy of his address delivered at several fairs in Portage Co. this season. The Gen. runs considerably to practical science, and the following extracts from the address embody a good exhibit of information in this line, for a lawyer. ED. FIELD NOTES.] Farming should be carried on so as to make the land more productive each year. Lands, in England, that have been cultivated for two hundred years, now produce from forty to fifty bushels of wheat to the acre-and some lands, there, have produced as high as eighty bushels. The reason why all parts of the earth are not equally productive, aside from the difference in climate, is owing to the chemical properties of the soil, and their adaptation to the growth of plants. The peculiar study of a good farmer is to understand this difference, and the proper remedies to be applied in order to correct any natural deficiency, or to maintain a proper balance. If there is too much sulphuric acid in the soil, it will be seen, and produce sorrel, sour dock, fern, and sour grass. If clover is sown on such land, it will be slow to catch-and catch in patches, and the roots be thrown out of the ground by frost. Such will be the effect on strawberry plants, which are frequently found two or three inches out of the ground in the Spring.On such land apply lime, and keep off plaster. If the land is destitute of sulphuric acid, worn out, and the vegetable matter in the soil exhausted, keep off the lime-it will destroy the little fertility there may be in it. On such land apply vegetable manure; then sulphuric acid so as to require lime, put the manure on three or four months before the application of the lime, so that the manure may become incorporated with the soil before the lime disengages the fertilizing properties from it. Some farmers, too, sow lime with their wheat. At the risk of being contradicted by some, I say this is wrong—at least, it is not economical. Unless it is made of fossil limestone, it is too gross for the wheat to use. Before wheat can use lime to advantage, the lime must be prepared by some more gross feeding plant. Sow land to clover, and then if it wants lime, sow lime. Clover, being a gross feeder, will draw up. the lime, and incorporate it in its own body then plow the clover under, and the lime, having been refined by passing through the growth of clover, is fitted to be drawn up the rootlets of the wheat. To know whether lime is good for land, it is necessary, then, not only to know the constituents of the land, but of what kind of stone the lime is made. Two per cent. of lime made from the common blue limestone, will burn up vegetation, and render land entirely barren, while the best crops of wheat in England are raised on soils in which there is fifty and sixty per cent. of lime. The reason is our blue limestone is too crude to be used by plants of a higher order. That in England is made from fossil limestone-that is, from sea shells, and by passing through the animal organism, has been refined, and fitted for plants. To make myself understood: A fence rail or a rock, will produce moss, but not wheat, In the growth of the moss, particles of the rail or rock are used, and incorporated in the moa, -but still they are not sufficiently refined to produce plants of a higher order. To produce such plants, the moss must be rotted, when the dust will produce plants of an order higher than moss, but not as high as wheat. By continuing this system of refinement, it will, at length, be sufficiently refined to produce wheat. It is on this principle that lime made from the blue lime stone is too gross for wheat, and should be first passed through the organism of clover, when it is fitted for wheat. : highly charged with sulphuric acid, or destitute of it. A little observation is sufficient to ascertain this fact. If there is iron rust in the soil, or on the stones, or on top of the water standing on the soil, it indicates sulphuric acid. If grass seed sown over it is slow to catch, or sod over, or catches in patches, it indicates sulphuric acid. If the roots of clover, and herdsgrass in the Spring stand 2 or 3 inches out of the ground, and in detached parcels, with bare ground between, it is the work of sulphuric acid. The acid has killed the Among the most important considera- grass on the bare spots, and eat it up. On tions with the farmer are the various modes such land put on lime, and keep off plaster. of preparing his fields in their annual til- The reason I have before given-plaster lage, and the best, and most economical being composed of sulphuric acid and lime fertilizers to be applied to them to prevent by putting this on, more acid is added the exhaustion of the soil, and consequent where there is already too much. By apbarrenness. The first thing to be consid-plying lime, it combines with the acid and ered is the nature and constituents of the soil itself. To treat a clay soil as we would a dry, sandy one, is as inappropriate as to give hay to a hog, or buttermilk to a horse. A clay soil is too compact, and requires unrotted manure plowed into it to separate the particles of earth, and make the soil loose. A sandy soil is too loose, and leaches. Manure applied to such land will leach down through it, and be lost. On such land clay and leached ashes are the best application, as they puddle it and prevent leaching. Muck land requires a different treatment from either, In our muck swamps there is a kind of resinous matter that prevents the vegetable matter from decomposition. On such land the first application should be lime, which combines with the resinous matter, and forms soap, which will then aid in decomposing the vegetable matter, and if the water is drained off, it will form a first rate soil. Where lime is scarce and expensive, a system of drainage, and then digging off the surface, and placing it in heaps to rot, will effect the same object in part, but will not make as good a soil as when mixed with lime. The reason is, that such land has a large element of acid in it, which requires an alkali to neutralize it. Ashes, for this purpose, are good, and the farmer who sells his ashes is robbing his farm. For a little temporary convenience he is inflicting a lasting injury on his soil, that will be seen, and felt, years after he is in his grave. Another matter that requires a serious examination, in forming an opinion as to what his land requires, is one to which I have already referred-whether his land is forms plaster, thus neutralizing the acid.On land deficient in sulphuric acid, plaster is good, as the acid in the plaster aids in decomposing the vegetable matter in the soil, and fits it for nourishing the plants. When there is an excess of sulphuric acid, it eats up the vegetation, both dead and living. This is the reason why soils overcharged with acid are always deficient in vegetable matter- unless in the case of muck-swamp land, to which, with the reason for it, I have already referred. The presence of this acid is the cause of sorrel, sour dock, and sour grass. The land is literaly sour, and Nature is trying to throw it off through these excrescences. The rule, then, is if your land produces sorrel, sour dock, and sour grass, it has too much acid in it, and wants lime-if destitute of acid, it wants plaster. Intimately connected with this subject, is a question often asked-Does white clover turn to sorrel, or sorrel turn to white clover? Appearances often indicate such changes. but sorrel can no more turn to clover, or clover to sorrel, than a horse can turn into a sheep. Having occasion, a few years ago, to turf over a bank, I procured my turf from the sides of the road. Soon after, there came up the most perfect crop of snake tooth sorrel I ever saw. The leaves so completely covered the earth that not anything but sorrel was to be seen. For an experiment, I sowed on it a bountiful supply of air slaked lime, until it looked as if covered with snow. In a few weeks there was not a sorrel leaf to be seen, but as beautiful a crop of white clover as a farmer could desire. White clover and sorrel require the same kind of land, except that sorrel requires one ingredient in the soil that is fatal to clover. Sorrel requires a large amount of acid in the soil-clover does not. Take a piece of land that produces sorrel, and lime it freely, and the sorrel will die for want of acid, and white clover will come in. Supply the acid again, and the clover will die and sorrel again come in. A person may thus change from sorrel to white clover, and from clover to sorrel-not by one turning into the other, but by changing the ingredients that enter into their composition. The sulphuric acid is caused by the decomposition of iron in the soil. Iron in the soil, when fully oxydized, or completely changed to rust, is good for plants-but while passing through the chemical changes to arrive at that state, it produces the acid. When fully oxydized, or rusted, it is goodbefore that, it is sour and bad. The great object of every person, then, having land containing a large amount of iron, should be to dissolve the iron and change it to rust as soon as possible. This can be done by subsoil plowing, bringing up the iron from below, and exposing it to the action of the atmosphere. This, by oxydizing, or rusting it, will destroy the acid. The application of lime to it will greatly hasten the operation. This is one of the great benefits of subsoiling. Many plants require a large amount of sand in their composition. The outside coat of straw, the cornstalk and sugar cane are mostly composed of sand. In the common scouring rush, sand is so abundant that fire may be struck from it. Pure sand has been procured by burning wheat straw in a receiver, so as to prevent the escape of any particles by the combustion. The sand used in the formation of plants has to be drawn up from the earth by the rootlets-and must, of course, be in a liquid state. To render it liquid, potash is necessary, which may be supplied by ashes. This shows the importance of keeping all the ashes a person can make, and applying them to his land. Another necessary ingredient of the soil, without which plants and animals cannot exist, is phosphate of lime. This is the same substance as bones, and is the material of which they are composed. This substance is composed of phosporic acid and lime, chemically combined. If land is destitute of either lime or phosphoric acid the phosphate of lime cannot exist, and the land is destitute of the material for the formation of bones. Phosphate of lime is drawn up from the soil by the roots of plants; be comes incorporated in the plant, is eaten by animals, and, in the form of bones, becomes a part of the animal organism. The young of most animals, both before and after birth, derive the material for their development from the mother. Therefore, unless the mother possesses the material required for their development, she cannot impart it to her young. Suppose the land on which a cow is pastured does not possess phosphate of lime-how is her offspring to obtain the material for its bones? Unless we endow them with the divine attribute of Deity to create something out of nothing, the offspring must grow up a heap of flesh, but deficient in bones-as weak and helpless as a potato vine that grows in the dark. A cow takes from the earth each year as much phosphate of lime as will make fiftytwo pounds of bones. It becomrs incorporated with the body, and enters largely into the milk, giving it body and richness. The young take it in the form of milk, and it forms bones and healthy animals. If the phosphate of lime is wanting in the milk, it is but water filtered through a cow, possessing neither nourishment, nor the material for the development of the young. The want of phosphate of lime in the soil is the reason why milk men in cities are compelled to thicken their milk with chalk or magnesia. Children raised on it lack the material for bones-which is the reason why children raised in cities form so puny a race, compared with the rosy-cheeked erubescent specimens of humanity in the country. To prevent the exhaustion of phosphate of lime in the soil, farmers should save all the old bones, and either reduce them to bone dust, or by composting them with ashes, dissolve them, and apply them to the soil at the rate of fifty-two pounds of bones to each acre, yearly. One dollar's worth of old thus applied, is worth ten dollars of stable manure. The milk of cows kept stabled, or in pastures destitute of phosphate of lime, becomes putrid, and the effect of it on infants and children, who use it as a daily food, is weakness, sickness and premature death. The subject of phosphate of lime in the soil is one of the most important to the farmer. It furnishes richness and nourishment to milk, bones for animals, and flour to the wheat kernel. No grain can mature without it. The truth of these propositions can be seen in cattle and vegetables. Thus, the large boned and fully developed cattle are from the chalky regions of England-or the lime regions of Pickaway, Sandusky, برود Kentucky, or other lime regions. Our soil is wanting in lime-and cattle may be kept fat, but will dwindle in size, and bone. Wheat, too, grown on land destitute of phosphate of lime, but rich in other ingredients, may show a large growth of stalk, but the heads will be as empty as a charity box. If the lime is made from fossil limestone, it should be sown and dragged in with the wheat. If it is made from blue, or unorganized limestone, it should be refined by a growth of clover and plowed in with the clover. A deficiency of phosphate of lime may also be seen in root crops-such as beets and parsnips-showing large tops, but the roots all branches. All must see the necessity of lime in the soil-and if it is reduced below one per cent., or one part in a hundred, all the stable mannre in the world would not make it produce wheat. A large crop of stalks may be obtained, but no fully developed heads. When the lime in the soil is so diminished that it will not produce wheat, oats and potatoes will flourish, as they require, comparatively, little lime. A crop of oats takes from an acre of land 96 pounds of sand, 22 of phosphoric acid, 6 of sulphuric acid, 9 of magnesia, 4 of soda, 6 of common salt, 36 of potash, and twelve of lime. One half the weight of potato ashes is potash, and about one seventh is sulphuric acid. In oats and potatoes, but a small portion of the ingredients required for wheat are found-but they draw largely on potash and the acids, which wheat does not want. As oats and potatoes draw so largely on the soil for potash, phosphoric and sulphuric acid, every farmer should know the quantity his soil contains, and the amount each crop draws from it, so as to avoid exhausting it. There is, on an average, about one-fourth of a pound of potash to every one hundred pounds of soil-1-8 of a pound of phosphoric acid, and 1-16 of a pound of sulphuric acid. If oats and potatoes are continually raised on the same land, and the crops removed without returning an eqvivalent, they will soon exhaust the potash and phosphoric acid. Continued wheat cropping will exhaust the lime-continued corn cropping will exhaust the sulphuric acid. This shows the necessity of a rotation of crops, and that the rotation should be based on scientific principles. A rotation of crops of the same character would do no good. A rotation of wheat and potatoes is good, as the potatoes use the potash that wheat does not want, but use very little sand and lime that wheat does want. Grass, cabbage, melons and potatoes use the clay and potash; but during the growth of those plants, the sand aud lime have time to replenish, and the soil is again prepared for wheat. Every farmer, then, should study his soil, and learn its component parts. He should learn the component parts of the different crops he wishes to raise, and will then know what crops his soil is fitted for; and if his land is deficient in any ingredient that is needed, to supply it. He will learn that in the rotation of crops, corn should never follow buckwheat. It will diminish his crop at least one-fourth. Potatoes are the best crop to precede corn-grass the next, corn itself next, oats next, and last of all buckwheat. In short, a crop should never follow another that has drawn from the earth the minerals required for the development of the succeeding crop. Sulphur, too, is an important ingredient in the soil-especially in land used for sheep pasture. There are 5 pounds of sulphur in every 100 pounds of wool. If the sulphur is not in the soil the sheep cannot get it, and the wool will be deficient. The plants draw the sulphur from the soil, and it is eaten by the sheep, thus furnishing nu. triment for the wool. If sulphur is wanted in the soil, gypsum or plaster should be applied-which contains the required ingredient in the form of sulphuric acid. Sheep should never be kept on limestone land. Lime will combine with the oil in the wool, and change it to soap, rendering the wool harsh and brittle. It is on this account that the native English sheep have long, coarse, hairy fleeces.* Iron, too, is an important ingredient in the soil-for animals and vegetables. All the red color, in the blood of animals, is iron. The iron is drawn from the earth by the plants, and is eaten by animals, and becomes a component part of the animal. It the soil is deficient in iron, the plants necessarily become so, and man and beast and vegetation suffer for the want of it. In the human races the want of this ingredient produces debility-which is weakness without apparent disease; in the horse, yellow water, in the peace tree, "the yellows." The remedy for all is iron. To man it is given in the form of sour drops; to horses, in a muriate tincture of iron; to peach trees, in iron scales from a blacksmith's anvil, or copperas water poured on the roots. For trees so affected, scrape the earth away from the roots, and pour on each half a peck of iron |