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art or nature, to a degree which gives a good
return in grass, clover, or weeds, and this vege
tation be allowed to rot on the field, the loss of
organic matter effected by tillage and cropping
may be fully compensated. When forest leaves,
weeds, insects, and cultivated plants rot on the
ground, or in the soil, it may interest some read
ers to be told what substances are formed in the
operation. To have a clear idea of the products
of vegetable and animal decay or putrefaction,
one must not forget the fact that all vegetables
and all animals are formed of only four simple
elementary bodies, of which pure water consti
tutes two, viz: oxygen and hydrogen. It is true
that both plants and animals have other ingre
dients in their tissues and structure, such as
sulphur, phosphorus, iron, lime, chlorine, potash,
&c., but these are not endowed with the same
indefinite and, apparently, infinite powers of
combination which characterize carbon, nitro
gen, and the elements of water. Had the pos
sible combinations of these constituents of all
living things in the vegetable and animal king
doms been as limited as those witnessed in met
als, the present Flora and Fauna of the world
never could have existed. There are some
200,000 (more or less) different races of insects
and larger animals, and nearly 100,000 different
plants, formed essentially of water, atmospheric
air, and carbon. It is on this account that when
one plant or animal dies and rots, its atoms will
feed and nourish any growing plant, and that in
turn will feed and nourish growing animals.—
Infinite wisdom is not less displayed in the
economy with which matter is repeatedly en
dowed with life in th<? systems of plants and an
imals, tlian in the infinite variety developed from
different combinations of only four elementary
bodies. There is probably not an atom on the
surface of the planet, which is capable of organ
ization, that has not been many times endowed
with vitality. Every time we breathe, our
bodies lose a part of their solids.
Humic substances are divided by Mulder into
such as are soluble in alkalies, and may be pre
cipitated by acids, and such as are insoluble iu
alkaline solutions. The former he divides into
three classes, according to their composition:
Ist, such as consist of carbon, and the. elements
of water in the proportion that these elements
exist in water. 2d, carbon and the elements of
water, in which there is more hydrogen than
the oxygen requires to form water. 3d, those
in which there is an excess of oxygen. In all
these compounds of carbon and the elements of
water, the combining number of atoms of carbon
is 40. Thus ulmic acid (first obtained from elm,
ulmus) consists of 40 atoms of carbon, 14 of hy
drogen, and 12 oxygen. Ulmin has the same
composition, with 2 atoms more of water. In
the above compounds there is an excess of hy
drogen, taking water as the standard. Humic
acid has 40 carbon, 12 hydrogen, and 12 oxygen.
This is simply carbon combined chemically with
12 atoms of water. Ilumin differs from humic
acid in having 15 atoms of water in place of 12.
Geic acid has the same composition, with an ex
cess of 2 atoms of oxygen. Formic acid (first
obtained from ants) differs widely from the above
in having 2 atoms of carbon combined with 1 of
hydrogen and 2of oxygen. Crenic and apocre
nic aciils, which exist iu all good soils, contain
nitrogen in addition to carbon and the elements
of water. These acids were first found by Ber
zelius, in spring water, and took their name
from krene, the Greek for spring. The following
is the composition of those acids:
Apocrenic acid C. 48 IT. 12 O. 24 X. 5.
Crenic acid C. 24 11. 12 O. 16 N. 4.
C. stands for carbon. 11. for hydrogen, O. for
oxygen, and N. for nitrogen. Chemists disagree
as to the atomic composition of these acids.—
Sir Robert Kane, at page 040, gives the follow
ing description of them: 1 ‘Crenic acid is a pale
yellow, gummy mass, of an astringent taste,
very soluble in alcohol and water. Its formula
is X. C. 14, 11. 16, O. 12. By exposure to air it
changes into apocrenic acid, which is brown, of
an astringent taste, reddens litmus, and is much
less soluble in alcohol and water than crenic acid;
its formula is N. 6, C. 28, 11. 14, 0.6.” Mulder
seems to regard whatever of nitrogen there is
combined with these acids as a base or ammonia.*
The natural process called “nitrification in
soils” is more important in a practical point of
view than many suppose. In this operation, at
mospheric air, which costs nothing, and water,
which is equally cheap, play conspicuous parts.
The hydrogen in the water and the nitrogen in
the air form ammonia , an article worth some 10
cents a pound for making wheat. Xitrc, or salt
petre, consists of potash and nitric acid. The
last named substance is composed of nitrogen
atld oxygen, united in the proportion of 14 parts
of nitrogen with 40 of oxygen. How the alka
lies, potash and soda, and alkaline earths, lime
and magnesia, promote the formation of nitric
acid or nitrification in porous soils, will be ex
plained hereafter. At present we desire to give
the agricultural reader a correct impression of
the nature and properties of the organic or com
bustible elements of his crops. In his Chemis
try of Vegetable and Animal Physiology, at
pago 170, Mulder remarks:
“It deserves particular notice that hydrogen
is always liberated whenever those substances
which are the most generally diffused in the veg
etable kingdom aro changed into constituents
of the soil—that is, when cellulose, starch, gum,
sugar, &c., are in a state of decay. First, these
substances are converted into ulmic acid, and
that again becomes humic acid; from this, geic
acid is formed, which again produces apocrenic
acid; and from that, finally, crenic acid is de
rived. This whole series of transformations
must be passed through before the organic sub
stance is converted into carbonic acid and water.
Tho whole process consists in an oxidation,
(combining with more oxygen,) and so may be
called a slow combustion. It is evident, from
the composition of the five substances mention
ed, that during the formation of humus, a new
quantity of oxygen is continually fixed.”
The products of this slow combustion are
partly soluble, and in a condition to enter the
roots of growing plants to nourish them, and
partly insoluble. If all mould was soluble in
water, it would disappear* in' a heavy rain as
readily as a mass of snow melts in a warm day.
On the other hand, if the residuum of vegetables
was quite insoluble, it could never enter the
minute pores in the roots of plants, and would
be worthless as food for all succeeding genera
tions. Providence has made the solubility of
the remains of all living beings just right.
Change but slightly the general law which
governs their dissolution, and the extinction of
all plants and animals would soon follow. In
crease or diminish in any sensible degree tho vi
tal air which surrounds the planet, and all vitali
ty must shortly cease to be. Change the rela
tive proportions of oxygen and hydrogen in
water from what they now are, and it would no
longer be water, and all plants and animals must
perish. Improvements in husbandry can only
be effected by the more careful and diligent
study of the laws of nature, and ever complying
with all their requirements. Some plants and
♦The Bnbstanccs above briefly described all result from
the slow decomposition of plants and animals on the
surface of the earth and in the soil.
xk& g@TC®EK3ffi vxs&s mm bx&ssxdb.
forest trees are much better adapted by nature to
live on a thin sterile soil than others, and will,
in skilful hands, augment the organic matter in
the earth where they grow. In forest culture,
a barren soil is often planted with small pines,
which in the course of time create a covering of
black mould. This mould is drawn from the at
mosphere by the decomposition of carbonic acid
and water. The economical production of a rich
mould where little exists, is a point to be inves
tigated with great care. To effect this purpose,
one needs to understand the mineral or incom
bustible elements of plants, and the various con
ditions in which they exist in the soil. Al
though these elements may be found in the re
siduum of decaying vegetables and animals, yet
they most abound in sand and clay.
CHAPTER 11.
Sand in Soils. —Any earthy mineral in a gra
nulated form in the soil is called sand. Grains
of sand can be produced by the breaking up of
almost all kinds of rocks, by frost, and other
mechanical forces, and grinding and rolling their
fragments over one another in moving water.
In studying sand and clay, it is important to
bear in mind the fact that all islands and contin
nents have long been the beds of seas or
oceans, and subject to the mechanical action of
vast bodies of moving water for indefinite geo
logical eras, or ages. The thickness of sedi
mentary rocks, which contain fossil plants and
animals, is between six and seven miles. In
Pennsylvania, fossiliferous rocks beneath the
highest coal measures are 40,000 feet, or more
than seven and a half miles, in thickness. (See
Professor Roger's Report on the Geology of
Pennsylvania for 1838, page 82).
In the peninsula of Tauris, Pallas describes a
continued series of primary strata inclined 45“
over a distance of 86 miles, which would give a
perpendicular thickness of more than 68 miles.
(Lyell’s Principles of Geology, volume 2, page
443).
In Xew England, primary rocks have been
measured to the depth of 20 miles, (llichcoek’s
Geology, page 70).
The same volcanic forces, deep in the bosom
of the earth, which now elevate volcanic moun
tains, have, in the course of time, forced up
from the depths of the sea all stratified and
primary or igneous rocks. Volcanic heat, and
the immense mass of water that surrounds the
globe—a quantity sufficient to cover every part
of it a mile and a half in depth—have been the
prominent physical agents of Providence, act
ing in unison with other causes, to bring our
planet into its present condition. As all sand
and gravel are derived from the abrasion of
rocks, the readiest way to learn the nature of the
sand in one's soil is to trace it back to the pa
rent rocks from which it came, and study their
composition. All rocks have been formed either
of melted minerals, cooled under greater or less
pressure, or of sediment deposited in water.—
The former aro denominated igneous rocks, from
ignis, “fire;” and the latter sedimentary rocks.
The latter are frequently called cujueous, from
agua. “water,” and fossiliferous, or “fossil-bear
ing," because they contain an incalculable num
ber of fossil animals and plants, and were de
posited in water. Dr. Buckland estimates the
thickness of fossil-bearing rocks over the con
tinent of Europe at ten miles. (Bridgewater
Treatise, volume 1, page 37).
Xearly all sand in soils is derived from water
formed sandstone, or fire-formed granite and
other rocks of an igneous origin. The purest
and sharpest sand is called silica, from the La
tin silex, “flint.” Silica is a simple mineral,
which has acid properties, and is formed by the
chemical union of two atoms of oxygen with
one of a simple elementary base called silicon or
silicium* Silica is often denominated silicic
acid, because it combines readily with potash,
soda, lime, alumina, iron, and magnesia, to form
permanent chemical compounds, called silicales
of potash, soda, Sic. In 100 parts of pure flint
sand, there arc 52 of oxygen and 48 of silicon.
As some three-quarters—perhaps 80 percent.—
of all rocks, taken in the aggregate, are silica,
the reader will see that the crust of the earth is
more than half oxygen, or Vital air. This fact
will more clearly appear when we come to study
the composition of clay. Every farmer knows
that pure sand is remarkably insoluble in water;
yet about 67 per cent, of the ash of the stems
of wheat, rye, oats, barley, maize, and sugar
cane is pure flint, or silica. 'While a little sand
is found in soils in the form of pure silica—
derived, perhaps, from crystallized quartz or
flint—its mass consists of silicates of alumina,
lime, iron, potash, soda, magnesia, and mangan
ese, and usually in a condition to resist the sol
vent power of strong acids.
A knowledge of the character of the rocks
which formed the sand will enable the agricultu
rist tojudge of its probable composition. If the
soil has been washed down by highlands, either
mountains or hills, by a river or smaller streams,
it is called alluvium, or alluvion ; and the owner
must study tfle nature of the rocks upon which
the rains and snows fell that washed the sedi
ment down to his farm. If his soil can be
traced to no such source, and lies on an eleva
ted plain, a hill, or mountain, it is probably dilu
tion in its origin, and must be traced cither to
the action of glaciers, as maintained by Profes
sor Agassiz; to ancient tidal currents and ice
bergs, as contended for by Sir Charles Lyell •, or
to the upheaval of the earth at some point far
north of the United States, which caused a sud
den rush of waters southward, bearing with it ;
granite boulders and a vast mass of loose earth, j
as is believed by Professor Emmons. It is for- j
eign to our purpose to discuss, in this connection, I
the various theories advanced by geologists of j
the highest distinction to account for what is !
known as the “drift formation .” That the loose I
earthy matter, which in many places has a thick- j
ness of several hundred feet, came from the •
north, both on this continent and that of Eu
rope, is conceded by all. Thus the deep basin j
of Lake Ontario is mostly scooped out of a soft j
sand rock called Medina sandstone. Boulders of
this rock, which is peculiar and well known, are j
found ten, twenty, and even thirty miles south 1
of its bed, scattered over the earth in great pro- j
fusion, and upon lime and slate rocks hundreds i
of feet in thickness. So much of the Medina j
sandstone, ground into fine sand, is spread over ,
large areas of lime rock from one to ten feet
deep, that the soil is as destitute of lime as it !
would be if the lime rock were fifty miles dis
tant. There is, however, a marked difference in
the sandy soils north and west of the Allegha- i
ny mountains and those lying on the Atlantic
slope from Maine to Alabama. The sand of the
latter is derived mostly from rocks of an j
igneous origin, the former from rocks of an aque- j
ous origin. The poorest sands can be found in ;
the Atlantic States, where granite abounds ; the
richest in western Xew York and Pennsylvania,
and in the Western States, where the rocks arc
all fossiliferous, or abound in the remains of
plants and animals. The extent or quantity of
these remains in solid rocks and drift deposites,
from which the surface of the earth is mainly
formed, often imparts to it high and enduring
♦fresenius's Quantitive Analysis.
ertility. There are districts in the southern At
lantic and Gulf States where this fact is strik
ingly exemplified. When the earthy elements of
crops happen to abound in a dry sandy soil, it is
remarkable for productiveness ; but the misfor
tune is, that such soils are usually too porous,
! open, and inclined to leach and part with their ele
ments of fertility. Hence the importance of
| clay and lime to mix with sand in forming an ar
: able soil. Vegetable mould alone will not an
swer a good purpose.
All sandstone rocks were once in the condi
tion of fine loose sand. This was consolidated,
partly by the pressure of a mountain weight to
which beds or strata of sand are subjected in
the depths of the ocean, and partly by the infil
tration of soluble minerals,'as iron, lime, ormag
anese. which are precipitated or crystalized
among hs particles. All sedimentary rocks
were derived from those of an igneous origin,
which atmospheric air, frost, electricity, water,
solar 'light, and vegetation have disintegrated
and converted into sand, or clay, or dissolved
minerals. When we consider the fact ihat por
tions of the earth’s crust subside as far below
the common level of its surface as any part is el
evated above in mountains, the opinion expressed
by Lyell, that fossiliferous strata often sink deep
enough to be melted and finally crystalized into
granite again, seems not improbable. If this
view bo correct, then we may say that granite
and all plutonie and volcanic rocks are formed
by the subsidence, melting, and cooling of sedi
mentary strata. There are now some 300 vol
canoes on the globe which are known ; and so
numerous are extinct ones, or their effects, that
geologists find no reason to believe that the planet
has ever been exempt-front their powerful action.
For the crust of the earth to be always rising
up, and nowhere subsiding, must obviously
create immense vacancies below its surface. Xo
such spaces are believed to exist; and the evi
dence of the sinking of the surface, over exten
sive districts, below the lovel of the sea, is abun
dant and conclusive. (See Lyell’s Elements of
Geology, volume 1, page 430, and before.)
Rocks, the elements of which were melted by
internal heat, are divided by authors into threo
classes, viz: plutonie, of which granite and sie
nite are types; metamorphic, of which marble
and some slates and sandstones are representa
tives; and volcanic, which are subdivided into
ancient and modern, and appear in a variety of
forms. Basalt and trap belong to the ancient
family; while the recent or modern volcanic
rocks are found in the vicinity of all active
volcanoes. When decomposed, all rocks yield
either sand, clay, or both, besraes other mine
rals. Plutonic rocks are unstratified, and often
denominated “primary,” because they were once
thought to be in all cases older than sedimenta
ry and stratified rocks. More careful and ex
tended researches have shown that granite has
been forced up, and as it were, injected into
masses of fossiliferous strata, in away to prove
that the latter are the older of the two. Indeed,
metamorphic rocks are nothing but stratified,
aqueous deposites, metamorphosed, (changed by
heat,) from the action of plutonie or melted mat
ter into a crystalline form. Thus common lime
rock, it is believed, may be transformed into
marble, if it be placed in contact with a mass of
intensely-heated granite, and both cooled under
great pressure. In this operation all traces of
the remains of shell fish and other animals in
the limestone will be effaced. Few studies are
so interesting as the phenomena exhibited by
different rocks, whether we trace their origin
and present condition to the action of fire, or
water, or to the joint agency of both. The ele
vation of granite and other mountains is as slow
an operation as their wearing down through the
corroding influence of oxygen, carbonic acid, the
growth of mosses, the expansion of freezing
water, and the washings of fain and melted
snow. In large districts of Auvergne, in France,
the decay of granite is so rapid that Dolomieu
called it the “la maladie du granite." The disin
tegration is produced by the escape of carbonic
acid gas from numerous fissures in the rocks,
which attacks the silicates of potash, soda, lime,
and magnesia in granite andsienite, and liberates
the silica or silicic acid. In this operation the
silicate of alumina is not decomposed, but re
mains as pure pipe or poreelaine clay, called kao
lin. All organic substances which yield carbo
nic acid promote the elimination of potash and
soda from their before insoluble combinations
with silica; but the time comes when all the al
kalies that can be separated by decaying vege
tation or manure are consumed in the growth of
cultivated plants or washed out of the soil by til
lage. The first decompounding of granite is
to separate it into three minerals, called feldspar,
mica, and silica. Sienite differs from granite in
having the mineral called hornblende, in place of
•mica„in its composition. The three minerals —
feldspar, mica, and hornblende —are very com
plex substances which yield not only alumina,
(the base of all clays,) but iron, manganese,
lime, potash, soda, magnesia, phosphorus, sul
phur, chlorine, and fluoric acid, and doubtless
other elementary bodies liko copper, gold, and
other metals. The elementary substances
found in plutonie rocks are very variable. Their
analyses ought to be repeated by some skilful
chemist with all the improved processes for de
tecting minute quantities of chlorides, sulphates,
phosphates, and other salts, which in the old
way were not noticed, or vaguely estimated.
Mineralogists two kinds of feldspar:
Ist, potash feldspar; 2d, soda feldspar, which is
also called albite, from its whiteness.
Potash feldspar Albite.
Silica 65.21 69.09
Alumina 18.13 19.22
Potash 16.66
Soda 11.69
100.00 100.00
Feldspar and albite are readily distinguished
from quartz by the circumstance that they do
not scratch glass, and generally may be marked
by the point of a kßife. In sienite, feldspar is
the predominating mineral. Porphyry is a hard
rock having numerous crystals of feldspar, which
give it a beautiful appearance when worked.
Feldspar being an abundant mineral, and the
source of much of the clay in soils, we give the
formula of several varieties, as calculated by
Berzelius:
Feldspar... ,K O Si. 0» + Al.» O' . 8 (Si. 0» ).
Albite No. O Si. O* + AL« O' . 8 (SI. O* ).
Porcelain spar No. O SLO* +Al.' O' Si. O' +8 fa. O 2
(Si. O' ). + 2 (Al. • O' Si. O').
K 0 stand for potash; the words mean that
the substance referred to consists of an atom of
potassium (kalium) chemically combined with
one of oxygen. Hence, the letters k o mean
simple potash. Si.. O* mean silicic acid, or a
substance formed by the chemical union of an
atom of silicium or silcion with three atoms of
oxygen. Fresenius makes silicic acid to consist
of silicion and 2of oxygen, instead of 3. All.*
O' stand for alumina, and mean that two atoms
of aluminum unite with three of oxygen to form
that substance. Xa. O stand for soda, and
mean that an atom of pure soda is a compound
of sodium ( natrium ) and oxygen. Ca. O stand
for lime, and indicate the fact than an atom of
lime is formed by the union of one of calcium
(its metallic base) with an atom of oxygen. Di
vested of technicalities, potash feldspar is sim
ply a silicate of alumina and potash, just as alum
is a sulphate of the same bases. Soda feldspar
(albite) is a silicate of alumina and soda: and
porcelain-spar is the same mineral united with
lime and two additional atoms of silicate of alu
mina.
Mica is often called “isinglas,” and is distin
guished by its bright, shining appearance,
and the ease with which it may be split into ex
ceedingly thin scales. It is found of different
colors, from coal-black to perfect wliitenes.
Mineralogists divide it into potash-mica, magne
sia-mica, and litliia-mica. Rose has analysed the
first, Klaproth the second, and Gmelin the third,
with the following results:
Potash M. Magnesia it. Lithia M.
Silica 47.50 42.50. 49.06
Alumina 37.20 11.50 33.610
Oxide of iron 3.20 22.00
Oxide of manganese. ..0.90 2.00 1.420
Potash : 9.60 10.00 4.186
Magnesia 9.00 0.408
Oxide of lithium
Aydrofluoric acid 0.56 3.445
Water 2.63 1.00 4.184
The chemical composition of mica in any of
its forms is not uniform. The above will give a
fair idea of the general constitution of this mine
ral. It contains more alumina than feldspar,
and yields magnesia, which feldspar does not.
Hornblende is a dark-colored, weighty mine
ral, which is tough and not easily wrought un
der the chisel. It is sometimes found in regular
crystals of various colors, and may be distin
guished from mica by refusing to split when
heated in tho blaze of a candle, and from quartz
and feldspar by its darker color. It abounds
both in basalt and sienite. The folowing are the
results of two analyses:
Basaltic hornblende. Sienitic hornblende.
Silica 42.24 45.69
Alumina 13.92 12.18
Lime 12.24 13.83
Magnesia 13.74 lS’.lfl
Protoxide of iron 14.59 7.32
Oxide of maganeso 0.33 0.22
Fluoric acid l5O.
97.06 99.53
We have only to assume the decomposition of
a large amount of hornblende to account for the
existence of the vast qualities of lime, iron, and
magnesia known to all who have paid any at
tention to the minerals in tho earth’s crust. Be
fore we proceed to study these and the other
earthy elements of cultivated plants, it is proper
to consider some of the peculiarities of c lay.
— t «i
MILLET CULTURE.
Mr. Editor: Being a reader of your valuable
paper, and of late having seen many articles in
different papers on the value and manner of cul
tivating millet, I will give you my experience
and the results. In 1851 I had a dairy of forty
five cow's, and having been obliged the year lie
fore to buy most of my fodder for a dairy of
about tho same number, I cast about to see if
I could not find something that I could raise in
the place of hay that I could keep my cows on,
and keep them in good condition, and at the
same time get a good supply of milk from them
for market (as milk dairying was my business).
I sowed corn and found it an excellent substitute;
but to keep so many cow's on it required too
much labor, and after mid-winter it became too
dry and harsh, and did not give much milk. In
1851 I sowed four acres of millet (four quarts
per acre) the 16th of June, and had as much fod
der as from any eight acres of grass that year—
and it was a good year for hay. I have raised
from four to eight acres every year since, and.
have invariably had good crops of not only fod-’
der or hay, or straw equal to as many tons of tho
best timothy hay, but from twenty to thirty
bushels of seed to the acre, equal to as many
bushels of corn to feed any kind of domes
tic animals. I feed the most of my seed,
after having it ground, to milch cows, pre
ferring it to Indian meal, as making more milk
and of as rich quality. The last season I had
six acres of millet which has been worth more
than SSO per acre, or S3OO for the six acres. I
have fed thirty-five cow's on the straw since the
25th of January, and have enough left to last
until the Ist of May, and got 120 bushels of seed
from the lot. The ripest of the seed, some six
ty bushels, I have sold for seed, and the balance
I am now feeding to my horses, and find
they do as well on the meal put on cut hay and
straw as they did when I fed an equal quantity
of corn and oat-meal.
Xow’ for the manner of raising it :—I have
raised it on green sward, turned over at my con
venience any time late in the fall or in the
spring up to the time of sowing ; I then har
row until mellow, then put on from twelve to
eighteen quarts of seed per acre, and as much
fine manure as I can spare, from five to fifteen
good wagon loads per acre, and sow about the
middle of June, and I am sure to have double
the amount of hay that the same land in similar
condition would produce in meadow. It will
stand the drouth better than any other crop I
ever raised; in fact, it wants hot, dry weather
for it to grow in; if it is moist enough for it to
come up, there is but little danger, os the last
two years have proved. After the seed is sown
and well dragged or cultivated, the ground
should be well rolled, as we get a good deal of
dry weather about that time, and if not rolled it
may be too dry for the seed to grow ; but after
it is once up, I think there is but but little dan
ger of a failure of a crop. The time of cutting
that I have practiced is as soon as I get through
with my oats—say the last of August, or when
about half of the heads have seed matured
enough to grow. The stalk will be green and
full of juice. I cradle it, let lay one or two days
to wilt, and stack it up as I do oats, put on a cap,
and let it cure in the stack ; it will then be as
bright as the best topping of corn, and any ani
mal will eat it as readily as any other forage.
Buffalo, X. Y. T. B. Shepard.
The above letter was written to the Editor
several years ago. Tho millet referred to is the
German, or Hungarian variety, which is an old
and a good forage plant.
Receipts for Testing Eggs.—There is no
difficulty whatever in testing eggs; they are
mostly examined by a candle. Another way to
tell good eggs is to put them in a pail of water,
and if they are good they will lay on their sides,
always; if bad, they wiU stand on their small
end, the largo end always uppermost, unless
they have been shaken considerably, when they
will stand either end up. Therefore, a bad egg
can be told by the way it rests in water—always
end up, never on its side. Any egg that lies
flat is good to eat, and can be depended upon.—
An ordinary mode is to take them into a room
moderately dark, and hold them between the
eye and a candle or lamp. If tho egg be good
—that is, if the albumen is still unaffected—a
light will shine through a reddish glow; while,
if affected, it will be opaque or dark.
Springfield Republican.
FOWL MEADOW GRASS.
We lately gave an article on the Fowl Meadow
Grass, stating it to be a species of Red Top. A
specimen brought to our office, as the true grass,
was certainly the latter; and a late New York
writer of authority had stated the same thing.
We are glad, therefore, to be able to give a cor
rect account of this little known grass, from the
pen of Dr. Wheatland, of Massachusetts, ad
dressed to Mr. Holmes. This clears up all diffi
culty, and may be strictly relied upon. But we
do not believe that any of the hue grass is to be
found in Michigan, unless the seed has been pro
cured from the East. If it is a native of this
State, we should like to ascertain the fact; and
would be glad to receive specimens when in
flower.
For the Farmer '» Companion.
Sir: The Fowl Meadow Grass is the Agrostis
Manama of Linnaeus— A kiterifolia of Michaux.
In the Botany of the State of New York it is
described by Prof. Torrey under the name of
Mahlenberyia Mexkana avis —“Rhicoma creep
ing; culm 2 feet or more high, much branched,
with numerous nodes, often genicvilate; the
branches erect, numerous; leaves 2 and 3 lines
wide, smooth; sheaths compressed, loose;pani
cles numerous, elongated, with the branches op
pressed, exserted or sheathed at the base; spike
lets about lines long, pale green or dull pur
plish ; glumes rough on the keel, attenuated to
a slender point; paleae either a little longer than
the glumes, or about their length, sometimes
spotted, the upper one tapering to a short subu
late tip; stamens three; earropsis cylindrical,
oblong.
“Moist meadows, the borders of fields and cul
tivated grounds.”
The attention of agriculturists and others has
frequently been directed to this grass—its uses
and its value.
Rev. Jared Eliot, of Kilingworth, Conn., in his
third essay on Field Husbandry, published in
1751, says:
“There are two sorts of grass which are na
tives of the country, which I would recommend;
these are Ileid Grass (known in Pennsylvania
by the namo of Timothy-Grata), the other is
Fowl Meadow, sometimes called Dttck-Grass, and
sometimes Swamp-wire-Grass. It is said that
Herd-Grass was first found in a swamp in Pis
cataqua by one Herd, who propagated the same;
that Fowl Meadow Grass was brought into a
poor piece of meadow in Dedham by ducks and
other wild water fowls, and therefore called by
such an odd name. It is supposed to be brought
into the meadows at Hartford by the annual
floods, and called there Swamp-wire-Grass Os
these t\wj sorts of natural grass, tlie Fowl Grass
is much The best; it grows tall and thick, makes
a more soft and pliable hay than Herd Grass,
and consequently will be more fit for pressing,
in order to ship off with our horses; besides, it
is a good grass, not greatly inferior to Knglish
grass. It yields a good burthen—three loads to
the acre. It must be sowed in low moist land ;
our drained land, when it is of sufficient age, is
land very agreeable to this sort of grass.
“This grass has another good quality, which
renders it very valuable in a country where help
is so much wanting; it will not spoil or suffer,
although it stand beyond the common times for
mowing. Clover will be lost in a great measure
if it bo not cut in the proper season; Spire
Grass, commonly called English Grass, if it
stand too long, will be little better than Rye
Straw; ifthis outstand the time, it is best to let
it stand till there comes up a second growth, and
then it will do tolerably well; but this Fowl
Grass may be mowed at any time from July to
Ocnbpr.”
Rev. Mr. Eliot further remarks in his fourth
essay, published in 1753: “In a former essay I
mentioned the strange and peculiar property of
Fowl Meadow Grass, that it will hold out to be
in season for cutting from the beginning of July
till some time in October; this I wondered at,
but viewing some of it attentively, I think I
have found the reason of it: when it is grown
about three feet high, it then falls down, but
doth not rot like other grass when lodged; in a
little time after it is thus fallen dowm, at every
joint it puts forth a new branch; now, to main
tain this young brood of suckers, there must be
a plentiful course of sap conveyed through the
main stem, or straw; by this means the grass is
kept green, and fit for mow'ing all tills long
period.”
Hon. John Lowell, in a letter to the trustees
of the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion
of Agriculture, on the grasses, printed in the
New England Farmer, Feb. 16, 1831, speaking
of this grass, says: “There is one Yankee grass
unknown to many of you, but well known to the
owner of the extensive meadows on the Charles
River —the Fowl Meadow Grass. If this tndy
Yankee grass could be translated to all the mea
dow bottoms, the naturally moist, cold, half peaty
lands of New England, their produce would be
at least doubled. It is difficult to procure its
seed. It is not for sale in sufficient quantities; •
whether from its ripening with difficulty or from
whatever causes, it is not always a certain pro
ducer ; but still its value is beyond all calcula
tion. Low meadows are chiefly furnished with
the different species of Carex, a coarse, sharp,
worthless grass, on which no animals but those
which are nearly famished will feed, and on
which those who do feed constantly decline.—
We have, then, one species of grass not usually
cultivated, which is of inestimable value. It is
no idle speculation, but sober fact; and unless
a defender of ignorance will maintain that the
Fowl Meadow Grass can only flourish in the
Dedham meadows, our agricidture has'much to
gain by the active, earnest, assiduous propaga
tion of this grass.”
Florin, or Bent Grass, is Agrostis alba var.
stolinifera.
Red-top, or Herd Grass of Pennsylvania, is
Agrostis vulgaris.
Henry Wheatland, M. D.,
Sec’y of Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.
- ii-
Thick or Thin Sowing.—l am about to “flag”
great part of a field of Wheat drilled with
pecks of seed per acre. It is too thick. Had
I sown 2 bushels it would have gone down in
the Grass. The field was in Wheat in 1857 and
Beans in 1858. So much for deep cultivation,
drainage, and cleanliness. A thick crop is not
always the result of a thick sowing. Much
money is lost by sowing large quantities on
highly fanned lauds. If I were-to catechise a
farmer I should say: How many bushels of crop
do you get for one bushel of seed V A Russian
nobleman told me to-day he got 2 to 2| for one.
I replied that my crops which he was looking
at would most probably yield 40 for one. In
Oats and Wheat we need not be alarmed at
Russian productions just yet. His land was
sandy and boggy, in the same province as StJ
Petersburgli. Hoeing and weeding is not a
Russian practice, consequently they are sure at
any rate of a good crop of weeds. —J. J. Melchi,
Tiptree, Eng.
June, 1850.
tr Now is the time to sow turnips, and pre
pare land for sowing winter grain.
103