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UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
LIBRARY

SPECIAL
COLLECTIONS

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TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

Mmtrit^n ^arfrultnral M&f^oti^tion

? ART I .

NEW YORK!

1846.

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OFFICERS FOR 1846.

PRESIDENT.

HON. LUTHER BRADISH.

VICE PRESIDENTS.

Hon. THEO. FRELINGHUYSEN, STEPHEN WHITNEY, Esq.,

JAMES LENOX, Esq., SHEPHERD KNAPP, Esq.,

JAMES BOORMAN, Esq., VICE CHANCELLOR McCOUN,

A. H. STEVENS, M. D., CYRUS MASON, D. D.,

THOMAS A. EMMET, Esq., W. A. SEELEY, Esq.,

HUGH MAXWELL, Esq., J. S. LIVINGSTON, Esq.,

HONORARY CONSULTING OFFICERS.

Major LE CONTE, U. S. A., F. L. S., . Entomology and Zoology. —

Professor RENWICK, LL. D., ... Mechanical Philosophy.

W. C. REDFIELD, Esq., Geology. —

Professor TORREY, M. D., Botany. -

Professor DRAPER, M. D., Physiology.

Professor LOOMIS, Meteorology.

D. P. GARDNER, M. D., Chemistry.

D. J. BROWN, Esq., Arboriculture.

JOHN JOHNSON, Esq., Rnral Architecture. —

C. C. GRICE, L. V. C Veterinary Surgery.

treasurer.
A. P. HALSEY, Esq., Bank of New York.

corresponding secretary.
ANDREW H. GREEN, Esq.

recording secretary.
R. OGDEN DOREMUS, Esq.

executive committee.
Hon. LUTHER BRADISH, . ARCHIBALD RUSSELL, Esq.,

Hon. THEO. FRELINGHUYSEN, ( ex officio. Col. EDWARD CLARK.
JAMES LENOX, Esq., S SHEPHERD KNAPP, Esq.

R. L. PELL, Esq. Chairman. R- K. DELAFIELD, Esq.

Prof. J. W. DRAPER, D. P. GARDNER, M. D., Secretary.

\

REPORT OF AN ADDRESS ON RAIN STORMS.

ERRATA, Etc.

P.»,. 91 line 24— For Arm.trfon? read Armsiron?.

" 24' " 1— For calcarious read calcareous.

.< .. ' in the taWe-For Lupms read 1-".P;"S^

„ .< place a -n.ma after t^p.ns or alovvmg,-. ^^^ ^^^^_^_,

:: fe: rer'-J"":..;-;:^^^^^---'-""^

:: ^^' ^I^:,:;:!rr;^::tf 'A^fiS^^-ona a., of page six,v. between ,he ,hird and fourth
lines from .he bottom ot page fi"";? -^'^- , ; ■„ .^.-h tnantter as to prevent the action

.. 59, the two last lines Bhoald read e ^j^^^^ J^'^^^^, „„, „k,^. „,ey fix ..r change the solu-
of the decomposmg agents ; but the acw m_^ fv
ble into permanently insoluble substances.

ocean. Un the afteniooH of the fourth, a most destructive tornado was experienced in the northern
part of Ohio, being almost exactly in the centre of the general storm. On the second and third of
February, the centre of the storm was nearly stationary. On the fourth and fifth it traveled North,
sixty-two degrees East, at the rate of sixty-two miles per hour. The storm of Febraary 16, traveled
in a direction North, fifty-three degrees East, at the rate of twenty-three miles per hour. In both of
those storms, the wind, after it became violent and there was a considerable fall of the barometer,
manifested a tendency to revolve about a centre, with a motion spirally inward.

Professor Loomis remarked upon the importance of numerous and well concerted observations
spread all over the United States ; and upon the imperfection of the observations made at the
Academies in the State of New- York. The Academies are not furnished with barometers, and the
observations of the wind are very loose and unsatisfactory. He showed the inadequacy of such
observations for the purpose of investigating the phenomena of storms, and hoped that the Associa-
tion would use its influence to induce the Board of Regents to re-organise the system upon a scale

more in accordance with the claims of science.

2

REPORT OF AN ADDRESS ON RAIN STORMS.

DELIVERED BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION, MAT, 1845, BT

ELIAS LOOMIS, A. M.

PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW-TOEE.
HONORARY CONSULTING METEOROLOGIST OF THE ASSOCIATION.

Professor Loom is called the attention of the Association to the recent progress of Meteor-
ology, and particularly to some remarkable phenomena of two storms which occurred in Februaiy,
1842. Both of these stonns were of great extent. The first, which occurred about the fourth of
the month, was remarkable for the amount of rain and an elevated temperature ; the other, which
occurred about the sixteenth, was remarkable for the strength of the wind and the fall of the
barometer. On the morning of Februaiy 3, rain was falling over an area extending uninterupt-
edly from the Gulf of Mexico, on the South, to a great distance beyond the St. Lawrence, on the
North ; and from beyond the Mississippi, on the West, to an unknown distance in the Atlantic
ocean. On the afternoon of the fourth, a most destructive tornado was experienced in the northern
part of Ohio, being almost exactly in the centre of the general storm. On the second and third of
February, the centre of the storm was nearly stationaiy. On the fourth and fifth it traveled North,
sixty-two degrees East, at the rate of sixty-two miles per hour. The storm of Febraary 16, traveled
in a direction North, fifty-three degrees East, at the rate of twenty-three miles per hour. In both of
those storms, the wind, after it became violent and there was a considerable fall of the barometer,
manifested a tendency to revolve about a centre, with a motion spirally inward.

Professor Loom is remarked upon the importance of numerous and well concerted observations
spread all over the United States ; and upon the imperfection of the observations made at the
Academies in the State of New- York. The Academies are not furnished with barometers, and the
observations of the wind are very loose and unsatisfactory. He showed the inadequacy of such
observations for the purpose of investigating the phenomena of storms, and hoped that the Associa-
tion would use its influence to induce the Board of Regents to re-organise the system upon a scale

more in accordance with the claims of science.

2

At the Meeting of the Association in June, 1845,

On motion of Mr. Green, a Committee was appointed to call the attention of the Regents of
the University of New- York to the plan proposed by Professor Loomis.

The Committee, consisting of Mr. Green, Professor Loomis and Mr. W. C. Redfield, subse-
quently presented the following Memorial for the consideration of the Board of Regents.

\

MEMORIAL

OF THE COMMITTEE ON METEOROLOGY,
TO THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW-YORK, FOR THE PUKPOSE OF SUGGESTING AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE

OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE ACADEMIES OF THE STATE.

The undersigned have been appointed, by the American Agricuhural Association, a Committee
to call your attention to some improvements in the present system of Meteorological Observations at
the Academies of this State.

In order to exhibit this subject in its proper hght, it is necessary to present an historical sketch
of the progress of Meteorological Observations in the United States. Previous to the year 1819, no
systematic effort had been made in this country for the promotion of Meteorology. Registers had
been kept by various private individuals, but they were not numerous, nor was there any concerted
action. In 1819, under the direction of the then Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, a system of
Meteorological Observations was commenced at the different Military Posts, Avhich has contmued to
the present time. This was a very important movement, and was prompted by a most liberal spirit.
It has fiunished us with an approximate knowledge of the mean temperature of a considerable
number of stations, many of them remote from the more populous parts of the United States. It
should, however, be remembered that the instruments provided never exceeded a thermometer and a
rain-guage.

In 1825, this system of observations was mtroduced into the State of New- York, almost without
modification. Each of the Academies incorporated by the Board of Regents was furnished with a
thermometer and a rain-guage ; and was required to keep a register after a prescribed form, in order
to be entitled to a dividend of the public fund. This system has now contiimed for twenty years,
and the number of Academies reporting has increased from ten to forty. The plan was highly
creditable to the public spirit and scientific taste of New- York. It was a movement in advance of
public sentiment in the other States, and the observations were, perhaps, as extensive as it was
expedient to undertake at that time. These obsei-vations have determined, with considerable

8

accuracy, the mean temperature of the State. The Annual Reports of the Regents contain a vast
amoimt of important Meteorological statistics, and they are often quoted with high commendation in
Europe. The Empire State has thus reared to herself a monument, to which all her citizens may
point with honest pride.

It is but recently that Meteorology has begun to claim the character of a science. The
observations which have been made in this country and in Em'ope, have been analysed, and have
led to important general conclusions. We can now distinctly see the foundations of a beautiful
science ; and it is one more intimately connected with the comfort and convenience of society at
large, than almost any other. The discoveries already made indicate to us the kind of observation
which is called for, to iusiure further progress. The system adopted at the Militaiy Posts, and at the
Academies of New- York is behind the present demands of science. Observations of the barometer
are equally important with those of the thermometer, and a greater degree of minuteness and
precision is called for in the observations generally.

More recently, the State of Pennsylvania has set a noble example to her sister States. In 1837,
the Legislature of that State appropriated fom- thousand dollars for the advancement of Meteorology ;
and out of this sum, which Avas placed at the disposal of a Joint Committee of the American
Philosophical Society and Franklin Institute, a barometer, two common thermometers, a self-
registering thermometer and a raiu-guage were purchased for each comity in the Slate, to be placed
in the hands of some skillful observer, who should volunteer to keep a journal of the weather,
according to a common form prescribed by the Committee. The obsei-vations were commenced with
little delay, and have been regularly continued. Here are made observations of the barometer and
thermometer three times a day ; of the self-registering thermometer, the winds estimated for sixteen
points of the compass ; depth of rain ; and at some stations, obsei"vations of the dew point.

Within tlie past two years the observations at the Military Posts have been re-organised upon a
system more in accordance with the claims of science. They now comprise observations of the
barometer, attached thermometer, external thermometer, and wet bulb thermometer ; direction and
force of the wind ; direction, velocity and amount of clouds, each at four hours of the day, viz —
sunrise, 9 a. m., 3 p. m. and 9 p. m. ; together with the amount of rain, and the times of its beginning
and ending.

A similar system in the State of New- York would give a fresh impulse to the science of
Meteorology. That branch of the science which is at present exciting the deepest interest, is the
subject of storms. We have learned enough of their phenomena to see clearly tlie proper path
to be pursued if we would discover their laws. Violent storms extend over a large area. Hence
we need a very extensive and concerted system of observation. It is to be hoped that the exam-

pies of New- York and Pennsylvania may be imitated by other States ; but even if they should
not, the labor expended here would not be lost. We have, first, the observations of the Gteneral
Government at about sixty posts, stretching along the entire Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico,
the Indian Territory beyond the Mississippi, and the chain of the Northern Lakes. Next come
the observations of the large States, New- York and Pennsylvania ; and then we have amateur
observers, pretty numerous in New-England, scattered more sparingly over the South and West.
We wish to see the whole United States covered with observers at distances from each other not
exceeding fifty miles. Nor do we despair of such a result. The science is rapidly advancing, and
every new discovery adds fresh stimulus to old observers, and encourages others to enter the field.
If the Board of Regents would re-organize the system of obsei-vations in this State upon a scale
corresponding to the present demands of science, we believe they would be sustained by an enlight-
ened public sentiment. If the expense of the instruments should be deemed a serious objection,
we would suggest that complete observations at half the present stations would be far more valuable
than those we are now receiving. It is desirable that the stations be distributed over the State at
equal distances geographically, rather than with reference to population. If the Board of Regents
should think favorably of the object of this Memorial, we should be glad to make some fiu'ther
suggestions with regard to the details of the system.

A Second Memorial of the Committee on Meteorology.

The Board of Regents having invited a more detailed statement of the contemplated system
of observations, the following paper was subsequently presented to the Board.

If it shall be decided to revise the present system of Meteorological Obsei-vations in this State,
the following are some of the points which Avill call for consideration.

I. The number and position of the stations of observation.

II. The instruments employed.

III. The kind of observations.

IV. The hours of observations.

V. Specific instructions to observers.

/. The number and position of the Stations.

The first principle which it is desirable to carry out, as far as can be done consistently with
other considerations, is to locate the stations at equal distances from each other. Two registers from

10

the same place are not more valuable than one, if judiciously kept. Moreover, the importance of a
Meteorological post is scarcely at all enhanced by its proximity to a great centre of population ; yet
large towns may have the advantage of furnishing a greater number of competent observers. "What-
ever system is adopted, it ought to be arranged with a view to permanence. The value of
Meteorological observations is exceedingly impaired by frequent changes of instruments, of stations,
or horns of observation. It ought to be calculated that the system which is now introduced should
continue unchanged for at least twenty years. Hence it is important to select stations where no
interruption of the observations need be anticipated for want of a competent observer. A large
town, or a flourishing Uterary institution will furnish the best security against such a contingency ;
and Colleges can generally be depended upon more safely than Academies. We think it desirable
that the distance of the stations from each other should not exceed fifty miles ; and were we not
deterred by the consideration of expense, we might reconunend a less distance. The final selec-
tion of the stations will of course be influenced by many considerations iniknown to this com-
mittee. We would venture, however, to propose the following list as mdicating our opinion with
regard to the number of stations and their geographical position.

To complete the system, a few other stations are desirable where no Academies are located ;
for example, the middle of Long Island ; the southern part of Hamilton County ; the southern
part of St. Lawrence Comity ; and the western part of Tioga County. Perhaps at some of these
places volmiteer observers might be foimd, according to the system in Pennsylvania.

//. The Instruments to be employed.

1. A barometer at each station we consider indispensable to carry out the proposed system.

2. A standard thermometer.

11 •

3. A second thermometer to be used as a wet-bulb thermometer. A knowledge of the moist-
ure of the air is well nigh as important as a knowledge of its temperature or weight. Various
instnunents have been used for this purpose, but the wet-bulb thermometer is recommended by
considerations of economy and convenience.

4. A pair of self-registering thermometers.

It is very desirable to know the greatest heat and cold of every day, and we can never be
sure of attaming this object without self-registering instruments. Such instrmnents would there-
fore furnish most important observations, although the remaining observations woidd still be
valuable without them.

5. A Rain-gauge.

6. A Vane.

The vane is a most important Meteorological instrument ; but it is generally so badly made that
it may, perhaps, be best for the State to provide them all of uniform construction. The most useful
form of an instrument not self-registering is probably the following. Let the vane be firmly attached
to an upright revolving shaft, to whose lower extremity is seemed a graduated circle. A fixed index
will then point out exactly the direction of the wind at the time of observation. Such an instrument
might be provided at very moderate expense. But whatever form be adopted, the cardinal points of
the compass should be carefully determined by Astronomical observations ; or by the magnetic
needle, in which case allowance should be made for the variation.

The following is an estimate of the expense of a set of instriunents for a single station.

A standard barometer made by Newman, of London, costs $ 100. A cheap barometer may
be obtained for $ 10. A barometer which will furnish satisfactory results may be obtained for
about $20.

Two thermometers of a good construction wiU cost $2 25 each. A pair of self-registering
thermometers will cost $ 5 00. A rain-gauge, $ 2 50 ; makuig the price of one set of instru-
ments, #32 00.

At this rate, the instrmnents for twenty-one stations would cost $ 672 ; but if the instruments
now in use at the different Academies are considered sufficiently trustworthy, something might be
saved from this estimate. The construction of the instruments should be superintended throughout
by some competent gentleman of science, as without good instruments, the labor expended in
observing them will be well nigh lost.

/// The kind of Observations.
The observations will of course extend to all the instrmnents furnished ; besides which, certain

# 12

valuable observations may be made without instruments. Among these may be mentioned the
character of the clouds — the quarter from which they come — proportion of the entire heavens
covered — also the force of the wind, etc.

IV. Hours of Observation.

A great variety of objects are to be accomplished by Meteorological observations, all of which
can only be secured by observations made at every hour of the twenty-foiu. We should be glad to
see such a labor undertaken at some of the Academies in this State ; but of course could not think
of recommending it for general adoption. For most purposes, observations in the night are quite
as valuable as during the day ; and particularly in tracing the effects of a storm, it is important that
there should be no very long interval between two successive observations. For this reason, it is
desirable that one observation should be made as early in the morning and another as late in tlie
evening as is consistent with general convenience. Sunrise and 9 p. m. fulfill these conditions, and
are besides recommended by other considerations. 9 a. m. is an important hour, because it furnishes
very nearly the mean temperature of the day, and 3 p. m. is very near the hour of greatest heat. We
accordingly recommend four hours of observation, viz. sunrise, 9 a. m., 3 and 9 p. m.

It is desirable that special observations should be made whenever any extraordinary phenomena
occur. For example, if the barometer is unusually high or low, the time and amomit of the maxi-
mum or minimum should be entered mider " Remarks." So also in a great storm, the precise instant
of the wind's changing should be recorded, etc.

V. Instructions to be issued to Observers.

In case this system should be introduced, it will of course become necessary to issue specific
instructions with respect to the proper position of the instruments, and the mode of using them. We
will not enter upon this subject at present, but we will suggest that before the instruments are distri-
buted to the Academies, they should all be carefully compared with some acknowledged standard at
Albany or New- York, and a record of the comparison be preserved in an official form for subsequent
reference. Columbia College is in possession of one of Newman's Standards, and we are not aware
of any other in the State.

It will probably be best to have printed forms distributed to all the observers. We forward a
form as a sample, which, however, we do not recommend without some modification.
All which is respectfully submitted.

Signed, Andrew H. Green,

Elias Loomis, ). Committee.

W. C. Redfield,

THE CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE ROTATION OF CROPS.

PEONODWOED BEFORE THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION, MARCH 4th, 1846, BY

D. P. GARDNER, M. D.,

HONORARY CONSTJLTING CHEMIST OP THE ASSOCIATION, iVTEMBER OF THE LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, ETC.
FORMERLY PROF. OP CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN HAMPDEN SIDNEY COLLEGE, VA.

Mr. President and Gentlemen :

It is necessary to premise this memoir by explaining that the Executive Committee had
expected a communication from another gentleman and did not until a late hour throw the burden
upon me, but my desire to gratify them has induced me to hazard the criticisms of the Association —
tempered, as I know they will be — by the circumstances of the case. I have selected the subject of
the rotation of crops partly because opportmiities have fallen in my way to witness some facts which
are commonly overlooked by writers on this topic, and because I regard it as a question of pure
chemistry. I propose to search after general principles only, for if these can be determined, particular
cases or the rotation suited to any district of country will be determined by a little consideration.
This is moreover the only way whereby the subject can be discussed so as to be of utility to the
whole country, the agriculture of which it is the object of your association to advance. A local
rotation is hampered with considerations of expediency, with the price of land and of labor, the
merchantable crops, the profit or loss of grazing, which oifer obstructions to reaching any generaliza-
tion ; but whereas every crop and agricultural process is profitable in some part of our widely
extended coimtry, it is proper that such considerations should be dismissed, and introduced only in
reaching particular cases. I know that in this day practical disquisitions are considered superior to
all others, but if we make no effort to group facts scattered abmrdantly aroimd us, the ait can never
advance. Your Association has the noble object in view of reaching principles in agriculture, and
therefore I have no hesitation in presenting a theoretical memoir, the design of which is to attempt
the deduction of the principles of rotation.

4

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/. The Object and Necessity of Rotation.

That no doubt may arise of the object to be gained by systems of rotation I will advance a
definition which may guide us in the following discussion. The object of a rotation is the produc-
tion of the greatest profit in crops with the least exhaustion of the soil. The views entertained by
practical men on the subject are however by no means fixed ; in many parts of the country it is
imagined that the only condition of a rotation is that the same plant be not cultivated annually, and
that a succession of corn, wheat and oats is as much a system of rotation as any olher plan — it is
indeed a rotation, but not a system.

How far there is any practical necessity for rotations is also a point in much doubt. We are
often assured by good farmers that given crops as corn, wheat, hemp, have been grown in certain
districts from time immemorial. These are exceptions to a general rule and of no force whatever ;
they prove that there are spots on the earth's surface of extraordinary fertility, or, what is more
frequently the case, that in such districts there is some cause of reparation, by freshets, irrigation, or
the washings of adjacent hillsides. Wherever the fertility of new lands, which results from the
growth of forests or accumulation of uncut grasses for centuries, is exhausted and the soil reduced to
a state similar to the subsoil, it is necessary to adopt some means to increase its yield, either by
manures or a system of rotation. That this condition is ultimately reached in uplands will be readily
granted ; the only point worthy of further consideration is how far a rotation will economize manure
already in the soil in new lands, or manure added artificially. This is the immediate subject of the
memoir.

Experience and analogy have led men to adopt rotations wherever agriculture has been prac-
ticed for a length of time. Experience has fully demonstrated that no plant will continue to luxu-
riate under ordinary circumstances for an indefinite period. To this rule trees are only an apparent
exception, for they submit in time to new species when left in a natural state ; they live indeed for
centuries because by the great development of their roots they penetrate year after year into new
strata of soil ; but it is well known that in northern forests the birch and maple follow the pine, and
in more temperate regions the pine succeeds the oak and allied genera.

Analogy is remotely a guide to rotations in the case of forests, but if we observe the phenomena
of vegetation on new lands it becomes extremely instructive. The planter of the south-west makes
haste to cultivate cotton on his new lands, because, for a few seasons he is not overwhelmed with
grasses, but is called upon to combat annual weeds easily overshadowed by his crop. If a portion
of new land be left waste we discover that a succession of plants invades its surface and not certain
species, we find that however convenient the seeds may be, the plants of the first year give place in

15

time to new genera. To this point I have paid particular attention in Virginia, and find that how-
ever the species may vary in different soils, there is a sequence of natural families sufficiently
apparent. Where the land is remarkably rich, the plants first developed are species of the families
ChenopodiaceEe, Solanacese, Polygonaceai — these give place to Malvaceae, Compositae, and Umbelli-
ferse; and finally species of Leguminosas, Rosacese, and Graminese succeed. It is not asserted that
other families are absent, but these are so fully developed as to be characteristic of the vegetation.
This natural succession differs with the latitude, soil, and degree of moisture ; but whatever may be
the families, it is sufficiently apparent that the i:)lants of new soils, or rich weeds as they are called,
give place sooner or later to those of the barrens. Nor is this the only evidence of a natural rotation.
After a season when the roots of grasses have produced a mat of vegetable fibres, is it not well known
that the meadow becomes infested with wild onions, buttercups, (Rantmcuhis,) thistles, and other
weeds, which, if not exterminated, soon overwhelm the grasses ? Hence the prudent husbandman
adds ashes or lime, and scarifies his meadows ; for by these means the roots are rapidly decomposed,
and the soil brought back to a state of composition favorable to the development of grasses : or if he
be conducting a rotation, he ploughs the meadow, and thus acquires by art a natural coat of manure,
of great service to such cultivated crops as, like the Chenopodiaceae, require a soil rich in organic
matters.

II. Explanation of the foregoing natio-al rotation.

The difficulty of making certain plants grow after each other in the same soil, was said to arise
from the mutual repulsion of plants, and explained by Von Humbolt, Plenk and De Candolle,
by reference to the experiments of Brugman and Macaire. These naturalists discovered that the
root of a plant growing in Avater, throws out a dark mucilaginous fluid which they called its excre-
ment. Thus the excrementitious deposit of any plant is supposed to be inimical to the growth of its
species, and also to some others ; but may on the other hand be of service to an entirely different
family. De Candolle saw in these reputed facts the explanation of rotations, which he therefore
resolved into die art of discovering such a succession of crops, that each might flourish on the organic
remains of its predecessors. Clean fallows were also commended as a means of hastening the decom-
position of excrementitious matters.

But it is neither satisfactorily shown that excrementitious matters accumulate in the soil nor
that they are inimical to the growth of the species. Macaire, Braconnot and others have failed
to obtain positive evidence of such dejections, when a soil was employed instead of water, and
Alfred Gyde states that plants are benefitted by watering with a solution of their excrementitious

16

matters. Some, as Boussaingatlt, go so far as to regard the dark mucilaginous matters said to be
exuded by roots in water as the eifect of a diseased action, denying the excretion, but this cannot be
maintained, for amphibious plants as mints, cress, Myosotis palustris and other species, which are
not placed in an abnormal situation when growing in water, yield this substance. The experiments
of Gyde appear also explicit on this point. If we are to receive the theory of Dutrochet, that the
penetration of tlie soil fluid through the roots is a phenomenon of Endosmosis, there is a necessity of
admitting the passage outwards of a portion of the elaborated sap, which Gyde states to be identical
in composition with the excrementitious matters collected by himself That none should be obtained
from sand, or soil, under certain circumstances, is not surprising, for the exposure of the exuded
matter, over a large surface and in contact with oxygen absorbed from the air, would rapidly change
it into a new body capable of escaping the ordinary tests — in the same way that alcohol by mere
exposure over an extended surface is rapidly converted into acetic acid by oxydation. Although it
is premature to deny that a portion of elaborated sap does escape from the root of some plants, it is
very evident that this does not create a deposit injurious to the future growth of the species and is
not the principle on which rotations are to be devised-

The natural succession of plants is connected with the presence of organic matter in the soil.
The richest weeds which first occupy the surface having the greatest necessity for it, and thus
through successive groups to the grasses and forest trees which grow well without any portion in
the soil. Other elements of fertility being present, the Chenopodiaceous and allied families thrive
only in such localities as yield azotized matters, since they cannot grow without a supply from'the
soil. This surmise is sanctioned by the obvious presence of organic matters in the soils where they
grow, and by the fact that some species exhale ammoniacal gases, but it is fully established by the
experiments of Boussaingault. This chemist grew clover, peas, wheat and oats in a soil
completely destitute of organic matter and supplied them with distilled water only ; the clover and
peas were found to double their azotized matter during growth, whilst the oats and wheat gained
none whatever. As there was but one source of azote present, the atmosphere, it is apparent that the
former have the capacity of supplying themselves therefrom, whilst the grain plants are altogether
dependent on the soil. Hence in a soil charged with organic matters, rich in azote, those plants
which require a supply by their roots will grow freely, and so far exhaust it in time as to render it
unfit for the species, which is succeeded by an intermediate class, and finally by the Graminie, Legumi-
nosee, and others capable of subsisting on aerial azote, and so far from exhausting, adding it to the soil.
From this function of plants, we see an explanation of the natural rotation, and what is of more
moment, a means of adapting our succession of crops to the accumulation as well as removal of
azotized matters.

^

]7

HI. The Rotation, of One Principle.

BoussAiNGAULT, Payen and the majority of French agriculttirists estimate the vahie of
manmes by the amount of azote they contain ; and there is not, for general purposes, a more useful
test. Therefore the great object of manuring is with them the application of azote to the soil,
and the great — if not the sole — principle in rotations the economy of this body. As some crops
gain azote from the air, as clovers and grasses, these sei've an important purpose in such a plan by
concurring with manm'e in supplying food for the cerealia -and such crops as exhaust the soil.
According to Boussaingault we should therefore, in a system of rotation, introduce crops in such
order that after the manure a highly exhausting plant as Avheat may come and this be succeeded
by others of less affinity for nitrogen, and again by those which draw their supplies from the air and
are the ameliorating crops of this class of agriculturists. The soil now recruited by clover, lucem,
grass, etc., will bear another azotized crop and the system is at an end.

There is something charmingly simple and plausible in this rotation of one principle, and its
author has done much to establish it by appeal to practice. It is, moreover, identical with the
natural rotation observed in new lands, and thus appears to challenge opposition. But there is a
capital difference between any artificial and the natural rotation, in this particular, that in the latter case
the plants die on the spot and are not removed hence, and Avhatever exhaustion arises from removing
the crop is arrested. Our corn, wheat and oats not only draw azote from the soil but other bodies,
and these are entirely withdrawn from the spot, Avhilst only the azote is removed by the natural
succession of plants. Of the inorganic or saline matters much more is often withdrawn, that of
azote ; hence, whilst the new land is exhausted of but one element of fertility, the cultivated field
loses more.

The greatest objection to this view of rotation is its opposition to experience, for it will be seen
that a system, perfectly proper, according to this theory of one principle is inadmissible in ordinary
practice. No one who is acquamted with the subject would expect much from the following succes-
sion : manitre, corn, oats, beans, buckwheat, clover, wheat — yet it is a system in which the azotized
matter of the manure would be well economized and the soil rather enriched in this respect. But
the farmer knows that such a succession of seed crops would soon render his land valueless,
whether organic matter were accumulated or otherwise. The one principle rotation is not, there-
fore, acceptable to the understanding of theoretical nor to the experience of practical agriculturists.

,0 ^^^ <^A

18

IV. The Prece])ts of Practical Wi-iters.

The points advanced by practical writers as Thaer, Low, Stephens and Rham, as the
principles of rotations are of considerable moment, especially in the field, but are no more than
sm-mises for the most part. They may be resolved into the three following assertions and precepts :

1. That each plant requires a particular food and should therefore be repeated at as long
intervals as possible.

2. That seed crops being peculiarly exhausting are to be interchanged with green or forage
crops and roots.

3. That plants which require hoe tillage, being cleaning crops, should follow those which are
sown broadcast and encom-age weeds.

In these positions we recognize the imperfect observations of farmers ; each one is true within
certain limits, and excepting the last, Avhicli is only a practical expedient, it is impossible through
them to reach any general principle. That each plant requires a particular food is an assertion
merely which, so far from carrying conviction, is altogether denied by some practical men and,
whether true or false, is beyond the means of these writers to prove. The second assertion, that
seed crops are exhausting, is sustained by experience ; but in what way they are exhausting is not
stated, and without this information the assertion is of little value. As we have remarked, the third
position is a practical expedient only, because both seed and forage plants may be hoed crops, as
corn, beans, cotton — tobacco, turnips, cabbages.

Hence the precepts of practical writers resolve themselves into the two points, that the same
and allied species should be cultivated at as long intervals as expedient and that seed plants are to
be as seldom introduced as possible. Both these positions are of practical value, but they do not
merely labor under the defect of conveying no precise information, but may be used in forming
schemes of rotation of no economy whatever. Thus the following plan is perfectly conformable
with these precepts, but very objectionable.

Manure, corn, tobacco, oats with clover, wheat, beans.

or, as in the rotation for clay lands, by Mr. Rham,

Manure, roots, oats with clover, beans, wheat.

In the first a seed crop is followed by a foliage crop, but both of these are exhausting ; in
the second, beans are succeeded by wheat, both exhausting, but — and this is the imperfection of
such arbitrary precepts — ^the exhaustion in every case is not of the same kind or degree. We
are informed that certain crops are exhausting, but not of what ; they impoverish the earth, yet we

19

have no knowledge imparted of what substances. It is not enough to say of manure, for this is a
compost of all the bodies necessary for plants. If we still further advance the speculations of prac-
tical men and assert that the exhaustion is of organic matter or humus, the position is denied by the
second precept, for seed crops such as beans are exhausting whilst they require little humus
— whilst on the other hand, many forage plants as cabbages, turnips, beets, are not seeds crops, but
exhausting. We do not deny that excellent rotations devised by practical men do exist, but we do
deny that every rotation based upon the foregoing indefinite precepts is necessarily good, and if they
be no guide without the assistance of experience gained at great cost and by separate observations in
the field, they are worse than useless. The defect of the precepts rests in this, that Ave are not
informed in what respect the food of different plants varies, nor in what particular seed crops exhaust
the soil. The apologists of the system may assert that these are remote facts not within the reach
of the propomiders, but this being the case the time has now arrived when a closer approximation to
truth may be made and the former precepts abandoned or improved by modern investigation.

F. Of the Exhausting Qualities of Crops.

The soil may be exhausted to such a degree that it will cease to produce certain forage plants
without the introduction of a single seed crop. If we enrich any field so that it produces tobacco
and follow this crop by cabbages, turnips, flax, taking no seed from either, we speedily reach a
period when none of these plants will yield a remunerating crop. This is one kind of exhaustion,
but it is not complete exhaustion, for corn, wheat, oats, beans and clover seed may be obtained in
good quantity from the same field. On the other hand, a few crops of hemp seed, linseed, corn, oil
grains, wheat, will lam down the land to barrenness ; but this exhaustion is altogether different from
the preceding ; it is, in truth, the specific exhaustion produced by seed crops, and it matters not
which are the seeds. Hence there are two distinct kinds of exhaustion well known to practical men
and it behoves us, who desire the advancement of agriculture, to make the line of demarkation
betw^n them bold and distinct. There are other kinds of exhaustion to which we shall refer
presently.

In a paper I had the honor of reading before the Association last year, I made a thorough
examination into the nature of the exhaustion of lands by seed crops. The object of the commu-
nication was to prove the following points :

1. That all seeds contain an excess of phosphoric acid, amounting usually to thirty-five or
forty per cent, of the entire ash, nearly the whole of the ash being in many cases phosphates ;
this was demonstrated in the case of corn, wheat, beans, hemp seed, flax, peas, cotton and other

20

plants. It was also shown that the straw and haulm seldom contain more than one to tln-ee per
cent, of phosphoric acid, this substance being segregated in the seed. For the analytical evidence
of these positions I beg to refer to the Farmer's Dictionary, in which the admitted analyses of all
plants hitherto examined Avill be found.

2. That phosphoric acid is the least developed of all the mineral bodies of the soil, being seldom
present to the extent of 0.5 per cent, and usually less than 0.1 per cent., in good soils.

3. That many soils containing from five to twelve per cent, of humus are known to be
steril.

4. That the amount of phosphoric acid removed by given seed crops far exceeds that removed
by the ordmary forage crops, being often five times as great.

The evidence of these positions was set forth at length in that communication and is therefore
not worthy of repetition. The principle which I believe was fairly reached, and admitted, was that
seed crops exhaust the soil of phosphoric acid — the deprivation of which is easily perceived, even
in the best lands. It is not necessary for me to advance further evidence of this fact before
your Association.

If it be admitted that phosphoric acid is segregated in the seeds, it is evident that the
exhaustion eifected by foliage plants, as tbbacco, cabbages, flax, hemp, etc., not intended for seed
and of the root crops, with perhaps the exception of turnips, is due to another cause. The experi-
ments of BoussAiNGAULT and our own observations on natural rotations will now throw light on
this other kind of exhaustion. Some plants draw all their azote from organized matters in the soil,
others from the air ; some families of plants appear only on rich soils and around dung-hills, whilst
others inhabit the mineral earth destitute of organic matters. It is evident that j^hosphoric acid has
nothing to do with this peculiarity, for none is removed from the soil, the dead plants restoring it ;
there is a diminution only in volatile matters or in the azotized products of the decaying organic
matter. Let us cultivate a few crojjs of cabbages or tobacco on a rich spot of land, how soon will
the organic matter disappear ! Practical men may tell us diat this is because the crops are hoed
and the soil exposed to the sun, but this is not the cause ; the hoeing improves the plant becajise by
introducing air it hastens the decomposition of the organic matters of the soil or assists the fixation
of atmospheric nitrogen. {See Mulder. Journ. fur. Pract. Chcm. XXXII. p. 344). AVhen putres-
cent manures are added to tobacco, potatoes and similar crops, the indication is to furnish azotized
matters, and is altogether different from the object in view when it is added to wheat and certain
grain crops. But if this point requires further evidence we may appeal to those plants which
exhaust the soil differently under different circumstances. A flax crop raised for its fibre exhausts
tlie soil of azote and may be followed by corn or beans, but if it be allowed to mature seeds it

21

exhausts the soil doubly of azotized matter and phosphoric acid, and cannot be succeeded by corn
except in tlae richest soils. Hemp raised for fibre may be cultivated many years in a soil containing
much humus but the seed crops are rapidly exhausting.

Hence we have crops which exhaust the soil of azotized matters — crops which remove an
excess of phosphoric acid — and grasses and clovers, cut before bearing seeds, which exhaust the soil
of neither of these essential bodies but on the other hand enrich it in organic matters. Many culti-
vated plants, as corn, wheat, cotton, hemp, flax, cabbages, etc. raised for seed, exhaust in both respects
and are therefore peculiarly expensive crops. With this amount of information, based on experience
and several hundred analyses, we have the means of rendering intelligible the precepts of practical
writers on the succession of crops.

Precept first resolves itself into the principle, that plants exhaust the soil unequally in respect to
azotized matters and must therefore be so adjusted that the most exhausting should recur as seldom
as possible.

Precept second. Seed crops, which exhaust the soil of phosphoric acid, are to be interchanged
with herbage plants, which do not remove as nmch of this important substance.

These directions have now assumed a definite form and are an explicit guide to the well
informed farmer ; he at once perceives that there are, over and above the precepts of expediency as to
hoed or cleaning crops and deep rooted crops, classes of plants which differ remarkably from each
other in their action on his fields. 1. Seed crops which exhaust the soil of azote. 2. Seed crops
which do not exhaust the soil of azote. 3. Exhausting forage and root crops. 4. Crops which
neither exhaust the soil of humus nor phosphates, but renovate the azote. With this amount of
knowledge he can shape a fair system of rotation, whatever may be his crops — he can introduce
indigo, cotton, tobacco, corn, bene, oil plants and many others which are not found in the arbitrary
tables given by Low, Thaer, and Stephens or falsely placed by Buel and Armsrtong. But
if we recur to our definition of the object of arotation — the production of the greatest profit in
crops, with the least exhaustion of the soil or manure — we find that there is yet something wanting
in the principles of rotation. In the fourth class above, we have plants Avhich neither exhaust the
soil of azote nor phosphoric acid ; it now becomes necessary to know in what respect they do exhaust
it, so as to satisfy the economical condition of impoverishing the soil in the least degree.

VI. Plants Exercise a Natural Affinity for Specific Saline Matters.

It has been already shown that the seeds of cultivated plants cannot be matured without phos-
phoric acid, and we find upon examination that this is not the only instance in which a distinct

22

partiality is evinced by vegetables for certain mineral bodies. Chemical analyses and the observa-
tions of naturalists assure us of this fact. It is notorious that the plants of salt marshes are distinct
from those which are found near fresh waters. In Switzerland, the appearance of certain species of
clover is known to indicate marl. The plants indigenous to clays, sands or calcarious soils are
distinct, and if they be not instantly recognized it arises from the fact that most lands contain an
admixture of all the mineral substances essential to fertility. From the analyses of chemists, now
extended to several hundred, we find that there is also evidence of the affinity of plants for certain
bases ; thus it is sufficiently clear that Composite, Umbelliferous, Amentaceous, Gramineous and
Chenopodiaceous plants prefer potash ; Leguminious, Rosaceous, Solanaceous and Rubaceous plants
affect lime ; the families of Cruciferte, Asphodeleae and Liliaceje select soda. Every person knows
that oaks, maples and walnuts yield more potashes than pines. The study of this subject is not,
however, completed ; there are many points to be considered whicii tend to involve the inquiry in
difficulty. It may be said that Davy was the first wlio drew attention to this topic, in a chemical
point of view, in the cases of gypsum and clover, oats and silica. Little had Pecn done to this time
imtil LiEBiG resuscitating the views of Dundonald and Davy showed the affinity of several
plants for certain bases. He enumerates grass, oats, wheat, barley, tobacco, peas, potatoes, clover,
corn, turnips and the .Terusalem artichoke. This kind of classification has occupied much of my
attention for several years, and has been dwelt upon in my lectures in the University, and for the rea-
sons I have already advanced I beg to extend the number of plants to the families above enumerated,
in which several are also placed in a situation different from that of Liebig ; the subject is, however,
far from decided and probably the exceptions to grouping in families may be greater than the advan-
tages gained. Whatever grouping may be expedient, it is not to be forgotten that several circum-
stances are to be considered in making use of any analysis for the purpose of determining the place
of a plant : these are —

I. That there exists an unquestionable isomorphism amongst many of the mineral bodies :
thus — potash, soda, oxide of ammonium and hydrate of lime — lime and magnesia — sesqui-oxide
of iron, sesqui-oxide of manganese and alumina — sulphuric and selenic acids — phosphoric and
arsenic acids — are respectively isomorphous groups. Hence soda may replace potash ; hydrate of
lime may be present in place of either soda or potash. That this displacement or substitution does
occur in nature is abundantly proved. Thus soda has been found to replace the potash of the oak
in Long Island, on the sea coast. Marine plants, as the salsosas, transplanted to an inland situation
arc found to contain potash. Tobaccos from various 'sources, analyzed by Bertiher, yielded
potash as a base, whilst specimens examined by Freseniu.? and Will yielded sixty per cent, of
lime and magnesia salts.

23

2. The different parts of the same plant yield an excess of dissimilar salts : the potatoe tuber
contains eighty-six per cent, of potash salts — the tops sixty-one per cent, of lime salts. In the same
way, the roots, foliage and seeds of other plants give indications of an affinity for different minerals.

Hence it follows that analyses will differ with the nature of the soil on which the plant has been
produced, and with the part examined, or if every portion be examined with the part used in excess.
As it is usual to publish the mere analysis without designating the soil, or variety of the plant,
it is necessary in arriving at trustworthy conclusions to look somewhat further than this. There-
fore, in reaching my position, I have kept in view two points — the natural habitat of the plant and
the circumstances under which its produce becomes of great excellence. Thus in the analysis of
the onion by Fourcroy and Vauquelin, lime salts predominate ; Cadet found sixty-four per
cent, of potash salts in the garlic; but I venture to place the family to which the onion belongs
{Asphoddcn) amongst the soda plants, because it is well known that asparagus, many kinds of onion
and other genera are indigenous to the sea coast and salt marshes, and because the Spanish onion
which excels all others is cultivated in lands irrigated by salt water. Cruciferous plants are soda
plants characterized by a remarkable affinity for sulphur, yet in the analyses of the ashes of turnips
and cabbages- they appear to be potash plants, that base acting as a substitute ; I arrive at the
conclusion that they prefer soda, from the fact that cabbages and many other cruciferous plants
delight in situations near the sea shore. A gentleman well known to this Association has recently
shown that the grapes cultivated near the low salt plains of New- Jersey contain soda instead of
potash salts, and are in consequence of a very inferior flavor. Another interesting case of the influ-
ence of the bases on the flavor of plants exists in the case of tobacco. The Ficnch government
agents, finding that the tobaccos from the United States had becopie decidedly inferior to the old
samples, submitted specimens to the examination of M. Pelouze, who ascertained that lime salts
predominated in the inferior specimens in the place of the potash salts obtained by Berthier.

In determining the place of a plant in the saline groups, I have for the must part selected the
ashes of leaves as the true guide, because, in the first place, the leaf is the important organ of vegeta-
tion in which the sap is elaborated and the future growth of the plant provided for ; and secondly,
because there is reason to suspect that some part of the saline matter of the roots may be, like that
of the bark of trees, a refuse portion. It is true, that in the case of potatoes, the leaves are not
removed and the saline matters of the tubers only are taken from the ground, and therefore econom-
ically considered this saline matter should be estimated, but the marked effects of lime in the culture
of potatoes, on the tubers as well as the leaves, makes it evident that this base is the one that is
essential, and that, although potash salts are giren in the analysis of Sprengel, it appears to arise
more from the mixed nature of the soil than the predilection of the plant, and the lime salts would

24

be found in the tubers as well as in the leaves, on calcarious soils. If the view of Raspail be coiTect,
that the presence of saline matters in tissues is the essential of their organization and the true source
of their distinction from the mere proximate principles of which they are composed, it is a necessary
consequence that the organizing portion of the plant — the leaf — should contain the essential saline
matters, without which, or other isomorphous substitutes, it could not be developed nor carry on its
functions ; and if the leaf does not flourish the plant cannot attain perfection. In this view of the
case, it is proper to determine the situation of plants in the saline groups according to the analysis of
the leaf, if they be cultivated for foliage or roots only, unless the amount of mineral matter removed
by the roots be very much the greatest.

The influence of cultivation is not to be overlooked in grouping plants. Under natural circum-
stances all the grain-bearing plants require little azotized matter, but from the development which
many, such as wheat and barley, have acquired, they have become azotized plants, and are not to be
maintained in their present state without a large supply of this food made to the roots. Many
garden vegetables are also of this kind ; the cabbage in nature consists of a few tough leaves and
inhabits soils of ordinary fertility on the sea side ; its present luxurious development, by which it
attains a weight certainly a hundred times greater in several varieties, is the result of supplying
food to the root in tillage, and if the supply be diminished the characters of the variety are soon lost
and the vegetable degenerates.

The followino- table will show the position of most cultivated plants, so far as evidence exists at
present. The conditions under which the classification has been made should be borne in mind.

Plants requiring much azote
in the soil,

'^Seed bearing

> Foliage or root crops,

Lime,

Potash,

Soda with
Sulphur,

Lime,

Potash,

Soda with
. Sulphur,

Hemp seed, Cotton, Hop,
cultivated Peas.

Com, Madia, Wheat, Rice,
Oats, Barley.

Rape seed, Colza, Mustard
seed. Linseed.

( Tobacco, Potatoes, Hemp,
\ Indigo, Madder.

( Sugar cane. Carrots, Parsnips,
( Mangel-wurzel, Beets, Spinach.

^ Turnips, Kohlrabi, Ruta baga,
\ Cabbages, Onions, Asparagus.

Plants requiring little or no
azote in the soil,

Seed bearing

Foliage or root crops,

Lime,
Potash,

Lime,
Potash,

Field Beans, Pindars,
Vetches.

Rye, German and Polish Millet,
Buckwheat.

■ PoiTiaceous fruits, Lupiiis for fallow-
ing Clovers, Spurry, Lucern, Sain-
' foin ; all cut before seed.

k Meadow Grasses,
I Jerusalem Artichoke.

25

Thus the table presents ten groups of plants to be employed in a rotation, which are variously
exhausting of saline matters and exhausting or ameliorating as respects azote.

VII. On the Chemical Principles of Rotatioii.

In purchasing a farm we do not merely aim to gain possession of a superficies on which plants
may be set : the object is to obtain such a natural compost of mineral and organic matters as may
afford nutriment to plants, in the most perfect manner and for the longest time. If, in a particular
locality, there be but one or two remunerating crops our object is to secure a soil which will best
feed these. The affinities of plants have been already set forth, whereby a judgment may be formed
of the fitness of the farm. In converting the minerals of the earth into crops we must adopt such a
system as not to exhaust it too rapidly in one respect, without drawing any resources from another
part. If in a situation where every crop is marketable, we adopt a series which takes from the earth
only phosphoric acid, we do ourselves injustice by turning to no advantage the purchase of azote,
lime, potash and sulphur in the soil.

By a well digested succession of crops we economize each body of the soil, converting it into
money without loss or improvidence. As we have paid for every kind of plant-food in the earth
we incur a loss by allowing any part to remain unappropriated. Instead of cultivating one crop and
going abroad for manure in a year or two, by cautious economy, we obtain that manure at home.
The soil presents us with a magazine of saline matters or plant-food, for the most part in an insolu-
ble condition. Annually, the dews of evening and showers act on the insoluble materials, and
dissolve a portion : by tillage and judicious management more is rendered available. If the crops do
not appropriate all the parts rendered soluble, some percolate into the soil and are wasted. The expo-
sure of the earth, and most crops, rapidly deprive it of organic matter, and it becomes unfit for the
growth of many, and diminished in fertility for all plants. By carelessness much waste is thus
brought about, and this likewise occurs if manures be used. Farm-yard manme is but a condensed
fertile soil, it merely wants the sand and clay which are for the most part mechanical components of
lands, and contains the saline and azotized matters constituting the plant-food. Guano represents the
soil also, but the fertilizing ingredients are here extremely condensed.

Wlien a good farm, or stable manure, or guano is purchased, we obtain azotized matter, phos-
phoric acid, salts of lime, of potash, of soda and compound, of sulphur, all of which will be lost to
the surface tillage, by volatilization, or percolation in solution, if neglected ; or all of which may be
reaped in harvests if judiciously managed. This end is to be accomplished only by a suitable rota-
tion, which is tlierefore, as we have heretofore asserted, an economical expedient only.

26

As we are engaged in discussing general principles, it is no part of the subject to consider the
case of particular soils and manures ; but it may be remarked with regard to these, that if the soil be
peculiar, as calcareous, green sand, etc., or the accessible manures, as gypsum, marl, refuse fish, be not
perfect composts, the rotation must be adapted to the case and does not require the elaborate system
necessary for more complex soils and manures. AYe.must either give such land the complex
character of the most fertile soils, an expensive process, or adapt the crops to meet its defects. But
an opinion is not to be hastily formed of the nature of any soil ; we may readily ascertain if clay or
sand predominate, if it be rich in organic matter or lime, but before an accurate conclusion can be
reached we must be certain that it does not contain alkaline silicates, phosphoric or sulphuric acid,
and these are not readily detected even in the richest soils.

When the land or maniu-e contains every kind of plant-food in legitimate proportion, with no
great excess of any, as is the case in good soils, the problem to be solved is the system of rotation
which shall economize all these ingredients. As to the question of market, it is local ; nor do
we consider whether grazing be adopted or the crops directly sold, as this in no way interferes with
the principles in hand. If we sell oxen, sheep or wool, we deprive the soil of certain of its saline
and organic matters, and the rotation must be filled up so as not to waste stich as are not sold in this
form. If we employ complex manures, true economy does not alter the rotation, each crop is
enlarged, but the substances removed from the land or lost will be similar. It may be well to con-
sider one point more fully. If a short rotation be adopted to improve the soil, a time will arrive
when the improvement being effected, a new class of more exhausting plants may be introduced, but
these are in all cases introduced according to the same principles. There is nothing gained after the
soil lias reached a certain tilth in continuing the improving system, the object is now to reap our
reward ; but to do this in such a way that at the end of the rotation the soil shall not have fallen
below a certain standard, it is then to be refreshed either by manure, meadow grasses, luccrn or other
suitable means not now under consideration, but belonging to the topic of improving the soil, and
not that of rotations.

Tiie farm having reached its high point of tillage, by suitable means, is now to be cropped for
profit, and reduced thereby to a certain practical standard — what are the general principles on which
this cropping is to be conducted? Obviously by a system of rotation, during which every saline
and azotized matter that liecomes soluble is removed, and no part is wasted. This can be accom-
plished only by introducing such crops as have severally an aflinity for the various kinds of plant
nutriment, and adapting them to the proportion of food present in the soil. Phosphoric acid is the
rare ingredient of soils and manures, excepting guano and bones, the former of which contains 12
and the latter 25 per cent, of tiiis body. Next after this is the azotized matter which forms a small

27

per centage of vegetable mould (0. 5 to 3. 0 per cent.) and is therefore to be removed cautiously.
Sulphuric acid is present to some extent iu all soils, abounding inaiost in ancient marls and gypseous
formations. The supplies of lime and alkalies are very much greater than any of the preceding
bodies ; the former attaining 10 and the latter 4 to 5 per cent, in rich alluvial lands. The extent to
■which we may remove these in a rotation is as their probable amount in the soil, which may be
taken in general terms after the following rates per cent., in a perfect alluvial soil. Phosphoric acid
0. 20 — azotized matter 0. 25 — sulphuric acid 0. 10 — alkalies 2. 00 — lime and magnesia '5. 00. In
estimating the consumption we must know the amount and kind of bodies removed with each crop.
The difference of average crops in this respect is remarkably striking, and the subject has been fully
detailed in my lectiu-es in the University. It may be proper, here, to adduce by way of illustration,
a few cases. A crop of wheat of 25 bushels with straw removes 123 lbs. of inorganic matters, con-
sisting of about 12 lbs. of phosphoric acid, 90 lbs. of silica, 15 lbs. of alkaline salts. A crop of
lucern of two tons removes 425 lbs. of mineral bodies, of which about 250 lbs. are lime, 20 lbs.
sulphuric acid. Eight hundred bushels of beets remove about 360 lbs. of ashes, of which 316 lbs.
are alkaline salts.

It would be tedious and out of place to read here the tables upon which these calculations are
made ; it may be enough to state that they have been made, and that they form one of the
necessary items of knowledge in constructing a perfect rotation. In addition to this, every expedient
used by practical men, as the introduction of cleaning crops, green fallows, depasturing fall crops,
the employment of roots, etc., are to be attended to in carrying out the design of the rotation — the
economy of the mineral and organic aliments of the soil. These expedients do not however,
constitute principles to be incorporated in the system, but are only practical adjuncts to be used or
otherwise according to local circumstances.

Recurring to the foregoing explanation of the two precepts deduced from practical writers, we
find that they are sustained by the attraction of particular plants for certain aliments, and are there-
fore two principles for the government of rotations. To these we now add a further precept, that
in the employment of foliage or root crops, to economize phosphoric acid, such as succeed each other,
should differ in respect to their affinity for lime, alkalies and sulphur. Thus we have attained the
following principles :

1. Seed crops exhaust the soil of phosphoric acid ; and are to be introduced at intervals from
each other as remote as may be expedient.

2. Certain plants require a large proportion of azotized matter from the soil ; and are therefore
to follow the application of the manure or to open the rotation in rich soils.

3. Certain crops recruit the soil, as respects azotized matter ; and are to be employed after its
partial exhaustion.

28

4. Foliage and root crops differ in their affinities for saline matters, and the amount which
they remove from the soil ; and should be so introduced in a rotation as to economize those which are
rendered soluble. These are also ameliorating or exhausting as respects azotized matters, and are to
be selected in such a manner as to fulfill the indications of the second and third principle.

It may be proper to test the accuracy and practical value of these principles, by examining a
rotation of imdoubted value. For this purpose I have selected the Norfolk system, because it is well
known to be the most successful ever devised ; it has raised entire counties in England from sterility
to the highest prosperity, and has extended wherever the soil and market were available. It consists
of the following succession : first year, manure, followed by turnips ; second year, barley sown with
clover ; third 3rear, clover, the first crop cut, then depastured and ploughed for wheat ; fourth year,
wheat, succeeded by manure and turnips, as before. In this system the manure is followed by the
plant requiring the most azotized matter, this is also a soda and sulphuric acid crop. Barley, the
second crop, requires very much less azotized matter and exhausts the soil of only a limited amount
of phosphoric acid and potash. This is succeeded by a lime plant, clover, which recruits the azotized
matter and loosens the soil by its long roots. Wheat, which completes the rotation, is a potash and
phosphoric acid crop, requiring a medium supply of organic matter. This rotation, when we con-
sider the soil and the manures used, the former siliceous and the latter farm-yard compost and bone
earth, is a perfect embodiment of the foregoing principles. Reached entirely by experimental means,
it is strictly conformable with science ; and is a striking illustration of the correctness of the doctrine,
that rotations form a chemical study, which, originating with Chaptal, has been maintained to
our day.

In conclusion, I beg to present a few instances of the application of these principles in the con-
struction of rotations. The plants proposed for the several soils are indicated by the probable excess
of mineral matters and phosphoric acid therein. The crops which may be substituted are placed
vertically under the principal plant. There is in the rotation for clay soils, a mechanical impediment,
arising from the difficulty of keeping them in tilth, which influences the pleui ; and in sandy soils,
also, it is necessary that too many hoed crops be not introduced, and that grazing be practised to ren-
der the soil compact. The rotations given are applicable north of Carolina.

29

I. t-'A Rotation for Good Mixed Soils.

First Year
Corn.

Manure — or the
in the liighest condition

e soil {
ition. f

Second Year.

Third Year.

Clovers,
Grasses.

Fourth Year.
Potatoes.

Fifth Year.

Oats, Clovers,
Rye, Grasses.
Barley,

Wheat, Carrots,
Oats, Parsnips.
Barley,

II. A Rotation for Rich Calcarious Soils.

First Year. Second Year. Third Year. Fourth Year.

Clovers.

Manures, etc.

Potatoes, Wheat, Clovers,
Hemp, Barley,

Tobacco. Beets,

Fifth Year.

ni. A Rotation for Rich Silicious Soils.

First Year. Second Year.

Manures, etc.

Turnips, Rye, Grasses,
Rutabaga, Oats, ^ (Spurry.)
Beets, etc. Barley.

Third Year.

Fourth Year.

Fifth Year.

Grasses fed off. Com, Jerusalem Artichoke,

(Spurry, •' " ) Wheat, Rye.

Buckwheat.

IV. A Rotation for Clay Soils

First Year
Com.

Manures, etc.

Seco

nd Year.

Third Year.
Clover,

Fourth Year.
Potatoes.

Fifth Year.

Oats,

Clover,

Wheat,

Rye,

or Grasses.

Grasses.

_ Beets.

Barley,

Oats,

Beans.

HOP CULTURE.*

A PAPES READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN AGRICaLTURAL ASSOCIATION, MAY, 1846, BY

ANDREW H. GREEN, Esa.,

COKRESPONDING SECEETAEY OF THE ASSOCIATION, ETC., ETC.

The treatise which has suggested this paper is entitled " An Exposition of the Cultiue of
Hops, as the same is practised by Baron Maximilian Von Speck-Sternburg, on his estate at St,
Veit, near Landshut, in Upper Bavaria, Leipsic, 1840 ; " it was received a short time since by the
Association, accompanied with a very pohte letter from its intelligent author, and refereed by the
Association to me for an opinion as to its value. As there is much in this work that is pecu-
liarly adapted to the country for which it was written ; it will, perhaps, be mmecessary to occupy the
Association in hearing an entire translation of it. I shall, therefore, select only the portions valuable
to our agriculturists and present with them in this communication such other useful information
on the subject as I have been able to collect from reliable sources.

The Hop {Humtdus Lupulus) is a slender climbing plant with fibrous pereimial root and
annual twining stem ; it is diaecious, that is, some of the individuals are male and some female, each
of which have respectively flowers of different construction ; the male or staminiferous flowers, which
grow on the stalk quite distinct from the female flower, prepare the pollen, or fertilizing dust, and
afterwards wither away when the dust has escaped from the anthers and been committed to the
air to be conveyed to the female flowers, which are in the form of strobili, or cones, consisting of
scales, havmg at their base the germ of the future seed ; the male plants are usually rejected in
cultivation. There is but one species, having a number of varieties — the green bind, white bind and

* Darstellung des Hopfenbaiiea wie derselbe nach Anordnung des FREinEREN Max. von SrECK-STEKSBCKG Ordensritter,
Mitgleid mehrer gelehrten Geselschaften und Ritterguterbesitzer, auf seinem Gute St. Veit bei Landshut in Oberbayem betrieben
wild. Leipzig, 1840.

31

red biiid. The aggregate fruits of the Hiimulus Lupulus are strobiles or calkins ; in commerce
termed hops. The lupuline glands or grains commonly termed yellow powder or lupulin are the
most valuable part of the strobule.

It is a native of Britain and most parts of Europe.* It is no where cultivated in the East, and
although it grows wild in Asia, its flowers are put to no useful purpose. The generic name,
humulus, is formed from humus, " fresh earth," the hop growing only in rich soils, and the specific
name, lupulus, is a contraction from lupus salictarius, a name by which it was formerly called,
because it grew among the willows, to which, by twining around and choking up, it proved as
destructive as the wolf to the flock. The current name hop seems to proceed from the Anglo-
Saxon, happen, to cUmb.

There has been much legislation in England on this plant ; its cultivation was forbidden by
Hemy VI. Brewers were forbidden to use them in beer by Henry VIII., and grounds were set apart
for their cultivation by Edward VI. In the time of James I. an act was passed to prevent the
importation of bad hops. A duty of £1 was laid on them in 1690 ; the concealment of them is now
attended with a penalty of £20 ; and any person cutting ofl" hop binds is, if convicted, guilty of felony
without benefit of clergy. Without question the hop is indigenous to this country, being frequently
found growing wild. The best soil for its production is a rich sandy, gravelly loam — some say
containing much calcarious matter. Baron Von Speck says that his grounds are found by analysis
to contain not the least particle of lime.f It should be rich to a considerable depth or made so
artificially ; the sub soil must be dry, and one of a porous rocky character is preferred. A southern
exposure on a declivity or m a well sheltered valley is desirable. Old rich pastures make good hop
gardens. The soil should be highly enriched and most thoroughly ploughed and harrowed. Baron
Von Speck says, in Summer and Autumn, before planting, the land which was mostly in lucern'
was twice plentifully and twice ordinarily manm-ed, and ploughed in broad beds, with a four horse
plough, very deep set, passed twice in each furrow.| In the Spring it was again repeatedly ploughed
and divided into beds. A very large quantity of the richest fertilizing matter should be incorporated

* The following distich, from Baker's Chronicle, has led to the impression that it is not a native of Britain : —

" Hops, Reformation, bays and beer
Came into England all in one year."

t Die angewandten Reagenzien zeigten in beiden Bodenarten kaum eine Spur von Kalk.

X Schon im Sommer und Herbst vor der Anlage wurde das Land, welches meistens Luzernfeld war, zweimal stark, zweimal
gewohnlich gedungt, und dann zweimal 1 1-2 Fusz lief in breite Beete gepflugt welches letztere man durch zvvei hintereinander
In einer Furche fahrende vierspannige, Pfliige, die tief gestellt waren, bewerkstelligte.

32

with the soil ; a succession of green crops, such as rye, cut green, or fed off with sheep, and early-
turnips are an excellent preparation for the land. It is far better to occupy two or three years in
preparing the ground than to plant in an unprepared soil.

After the ground is in proper order, the rows are marked out about six feet apart each way,
north and south, east and west, taking great care that they are straight, as this precaution saves much
trouble and confusion in the after cultirre. Circular holes are then made eight inches deep and one
and one-half to two feet in diameter. Four roots are then laid crosswise in the hole, or as the Baron
says, " stick them in the soil leaning inward towards the pole ; " if this is not done they spread
too much, and it is difficult to confine the shoots within proper space for poling. About the time
for corn-planting is the proper time for setting them. The roots for planting are obtained as soon as
the Spring opens by ploughing within a foot of the hill on each side and laying the roots bare with
a hoe and selecting only those of the last year's growth, cutting them about eighteen niches in
length ; these are called trimmings and are necessary to be carefully removed from the root, whether
used or not ; as they will not be wanted for several weeks after cutting, they may be kept in the
cellar or by bmying in the ground ; the plants are sometimes raised in beds in the garden and may
be raised from the seed. Care should be taken to have but one sort in a plantation, except where
the grounds are very extensive, when it may be advantageous to have an earlier and later sort, that
they may ripen in succession.

In about a week or ten days the hops will make their appearance, and the cultivation the first
year Avill consist in subduing the weeds and keeping the ground well stirred. The vines produce
some hops the first year, bvit they are not generally considered worth gathering. Early in the
second year the hills are opened and the roots examined. If the gromid is not sufficiently rich, as
soon as Spring opens, the hop-field should receive a dressing of well rotted manure or compost
spread broadcast in the rows, or put in the hill, as is most advisable ; this is done by opening the
ground a few inches from the roots and mixing the soil with the dressing ; after this the setting of
the poles is immediately commenced, so as not to injiu-e the vines, which will soon start from the
roots and show themselves above the earth. The second year generally gives two-thirds of a crop
and in the third year the plant is in good bearing, and will last six to eight years. It has, in some
places, been the practice to root out the male plants, as worthless. That it is well to rear a number
of male plants among the others to ensure the fertilization of all the seeds may be proved in various
ways ; but an appeal to the result of the opposite practice is most convincing. A bushel of hops
collected from the plants of the fourth year raised from the seed weighed thirty-six pomids, there
being male plants near, while a bushel grown iji a garden where the male plants were all eradi-

33

cated, weighed only twenty-two pounds ; besides the greater quantity of hops thus obtained, the
aroma and the strength of the bitter are much greater.

The poles are usually about thirty feet high and three inches in diameter, of hemlock or
chestnut, cut in the winter one year before using, before the bark begins to peel, to give them an
opportunity to dry, by which they are rendered much lighter and more easily handled ; the bark is
left on to enable the tendril to take hold : if the pole is smooth the hop often slips down. In setting,
two poles should be placed in each hill, standing two feet apart ; sometimes three are allowed, in
which case they should be placed in such a way as to leave an opening toward the South for the
free circulation of air. After the poles are set, the vines soon appear ; those which spring up first are
not saved for bearing, as they are apt to die very soon ; they should be cut away, or, what is
better, be buried in the earth ; if cut, they often bleed, and are much injured. In Germany, six
persons will make holes and set poles for one thousand hills in one day.

Two vines are allowed to one pole, making four in each hill. When about two feet long, they
are turned around the pole, (with the course of the sun,) and fastened to it with woolen yarn. In
Germany, half-withered rushes are used, as any strong material is apt to injure them ; the yarn
should not be tied, but merely twisted. If any are blown down, they should be carefully replaced ;
and when the vine is too high to be reached from the ground, a step-ladder is used. Baron Von
Speck thinks it judicious to preserve two reserve tendrils, for fear of an accident to those selected.
He says it is better to have two persons engaged in tying, as it is more convenient, and the work
goes on more rapidly.

Immediately after tying the vines, the usual work of hoeing and ploughing commences, the
weeds must be kept down, and the hop slightly hilled. The cultivator may be now very usefully
employed ; after which, the ground should be hoed, and left as level as possible. The picking is the
next operation of the hop-grower. The proper time for gathering is, when the flower begins to turn
yellow, and the seed brown, which, in New York, is about the 10th of September. The picking
should never occupy more than twenty days. A light box, about ten to fifteen feet long, three feet
high, and two feet wide at bottom, and three at the top, is carried into the field ; the hop-vine is cut
off about two feet from the ground, and the pole laid lengthwise across this box. Several women or
children may be occupied, at one time, on one pole. After the vine is cut, the end that is left in the
ground should be tied in a knot to prevent bleeding. In this country hops are picked without any
regard to quality, but in England, where they are more particular, they are divided into three sorts :
The green, which are not quite ripe, the light, yellow-brown, which are in perfection, and the very
dark, which are past their prime. Some go even further, and make several qualities, according to

34

color and fragrance. The dew should be entirely off before the picking commences, otherwise, the
hop might become musty, or take so long in drying as to lose fragrance. No leaves, or long stems,
should be left on the hop. The Baron's method is to strip tlie pole, and carry vine and all into a
large, clear place for picking. The drying commences immediately after picking, as the hop some-
times spoils, if left forty-eight hours. It is usually dried in a kiln, which should be well fumigated
with brimstone before using; of late, it is dried in rooms heated with stoves. Beech, birch, or maple
charcoal, perfectly charred, ought to be used in diying. Pine is ruinous to the flavor of the hop.

When the leaves are brittle, and rub off easily, they are sufficiently dried, and after remainmg
eight or ten days, are ready for bagging. If bagged immediately after drying, the leaves break ; by
laying on the floor for a few days they are toughened. The hop is subject to the depredation of the
grub-worm, which sometimes destroys whole fields. Lime is said to be an effectual preventive. The
fly is also very destructive. The grounds are also much damaged by hail storms, after one of which
it is necessary to go through the field to trim the vines and replace them on the poles. After
picking, the poles are usually stacked in convenient places, for use in the following year.

This plant is used in a variety of ways, principally, however, in the manufacture of malt liquors,
and is found to possess in itself elements of activity not contained in many other materials which have
been employed in its stead. It combines the properties of astringency, bitterness, and aroma ; besides its
diuretic and narcotic principles, it imparts to the beverage a tonic quality, and an agreeable flavor, modi-
fying the bitterness with a warm, stimulant property. The application of this vegetable in the manu-
facture of malt liquor, is to remove from the beer the active principle of its fermentation, for which
purpose a certain quantity of hops are boiled with the wort before it is set to ferment, and no other
material has been found to supply its place ; as its essential oil conveys a pleasing flavor, and prevents
the fluid from running into the acetous, or putrid fermentation. Experience has proved the salutary
effect of bitter on the digestive organs ; hence the use of hops in malt liquors — diminishing their
noxious effects, invigorating the stomach, and promoting digestion.

Previous to the use of hops, ground ivy, quassia, gentian, wormwood, horehound and heath
were used in making beer. In parts of Germany, broom-top is resorted to. A bitter wood was once
imported into England from Jamaica, as a substitute for hops, but was discouraged and finally pre-
vented, by the imposition of a duty of £ 80 per ton upon it. The amount of hops consmned in Eng-
land as an ingredient in beer, in 1845, was 30,000,000 pounds.

The taste of beer-diinkers must have very materially changed since their first introduction ;
at that time the citizens of Loudon petitioned Parliament that their use might be prohibited.

35

as a nuisance, in common with Newcastle coals : one as spoiling the taste of the drinli, and the other
offending by a disagreeable smell.*

In 1845, the excise duty on hops raised in England was £ 285,526 3s. 7d., or about one and
a half million of dollars : in the same year 48,058 acres were cultivated in the United Kingdom.

Hop culture in our own comitry is principally confined to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont
Massachusetts and New York. Some of inferior quality are raised in Ohio and Indiana. The
climate of New York is peculiarly favorable to then perfection, and the hops of this state are
acknowledged by brewers of all countries to be very superior, and they command twenty per cent,
more in the market than any other hops. The coimty of Otsego is celebrated for the excellence of
its hops, and they are probably the best that are grown.

The following table Avill exhibit the exports of this plant from the city of New York, for
several years past:

In the year 1837 there were exported from this city 3,333 bales.

1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845

3,250
1,423
426
444
5,296
2,842
3,098
3,052

The average weight of a bale is about 200 pounds.
These were mostly shipped on foreign accoimt to Germany and France, but very few go to England
and those only in bond. The duty now imposed on American hops, in England, is £4 10s. or $21 60
per 112 pounds, and five per cent, added for inward charges — or, about twenty cents per pound.

* They began to be appreciated very early, however, as we learn from the praises bestowed by the poet :

" The hop for his profit I thus do exalt,
It strengtheneth drink and it breweth malt,
And being well brewed, well kept it will last,
And drawing abide, if you draw not too fast.

Trusse's 539 Points of Good Husbandry, 1557.

36

Last year, two bales of New York grown hops were sent to London as a sample ; a committee
of brewers was appointed to examine them, and they arrived at the conclusion that these hops were
fifty per cent, stronger in aroma than those of England. The committee waited on Sir Robert
Peel, with this conclusion, and in the new tariff a decrease of the duty to just one half, or £2 5s,
per 112 lbs. is proposed. A reduction of the duty has been advocated in England, for a long time, on
the ground that a diminution in the cost of hops would induce the brewers to use nothing else in
their malting ; but the protective agricultural interests have, as yet, proved too strong for the manu-
facturers. It is believed that, with the proposed reduction of duty in England, this article will become
one of the principal articles of export from this State ; indeed, farmers in this State have, in anticipa-
tion of it, already laid out grounds enough to increase the export thirty-three per cent, within two
years. The average product, per acre, in England, according to the London Mark Lane Express, is,
for the last twenty years, less than 500 pounds per acre, while the average of the American harvest
is 1400 pounds per acre.

The average value of hops in tliis market, for a series of years, is 16 cents per pound. They
can now be reared at a cost of 8 cents per pound. The whole cost of raising 112 pounds would be
$8 96, to which add, for the purposed duty, say $10 89, for freight $2 50, and all other charges $3,
making, in all, at the utmost, $22 85 as the cost, landed in London. The average price of English
hops is 44 cents per pound, making the cost of 112 pounds $48 25 ; equal to more than twice what
it would cOst us to land in London an article, which, according to the London brewers, is 50 per
cent, superior in strength of aroma, leaving a margin of $25.40 per 112 pounds, for profit. If the
English tariff is modified, as proposed, here is a great and most profitable market opened to our agri-
culturalists, and one which, from their well-known enterprize, they will bo ready to occupy.

In 1845, 12,000 bales were reared in the United States, and from yards set out this year there
will be an increase, to about 15,000 to 18,000 bales. The hops of New York, it has already been
said, are the best. They are now worth 25 cts. per pound in market ; those of New England stand
next, and bring 20 cts. Those of the West are the poorest, being deficient in the lupulin, or flower,
the most essential property of the plant. The dry, hot weather of New York is more favorable to the
process of curing, upon which greatly depends the superiority of the crop.

The hop is a soporific, and pillows have been made of them to produce sleep. In Spring,
the young shoots are eaten as asparagus ; in Sweden, the vines are made into cloth, and a decoc-
tion of the roots are accounted a good sudorific. The Baron Von Speck says that sheep and
horned cattle, when they become accustomed, will greedily eat the leaves, and during the hop-haiwest

37

they serve as a healthy, evening fodder for a flock of 1400 sheep ; and he uses the tendrils as
for yrain and straw binding.

The governments of the several States have established inspections for their hops. Our own
State has sustained a compulsory inspection until within a few years ; that is, all hops sold in this
State were compelled to pass the scrutiny of the State inspector. The Legislature has, within a
few years, abolished the compulsory feature in all our inspections ; leaving those only who desire to
seek the benefit derived in a foreign country from the brand of a State officer. The operation of
the inspection is, as I am informed by the present inspector, very prejudicial to the character of our
hops abroad, as many inferior hops are sent here from other States, and are exported, after being
branded by their owners as " New York first class." Foreign merchants are not long in discovering
the deceit attempted to be practised upon them, and the result is very detrimental to the interests of
hop-growers in this State, who have, with the consumers and shippers — certainly the only parties
concerned — ^petitioned the Legislature to restore the compulsory feature. This is not the proper
place to discuss the propriety of such restoration, and the opinion here expressed is that of another.

In inspecting, hops are divided into first, second, and third classes, aind refuse ; which latter is
only used by mainufaeturers in setting colors, &g. The second and third classes are usually of same
quality O'f hops as the first class, but are injured by carelessness in curing and picking. Mr. G. W.
Ryckman, who has had much experience in the use of the hop, in his former very extensive brewery
at Albany, and to whom I am indebted for much information, recommends, in picking, that the hop
be divided into three classes. The first class to consist of such as are picked in the first third
number of the days of the whole picking ; the second class to comprise those gathered in the second
third number of the days ; and the third ch'iss the remainder. The first class will be of a greener
eolor, audi better for export to Germany ; the second class will be preferred in the mainufacture of
pale ale ; and the third better for porter.

Notwithstanding the great superiority of American hops, they often do not command as high a
price in foreign markets as English hops, owing to the extreme negligence of many growers in
picking and curing. BTany consumers judge of the quality by the appearance to the eye ; and those
not cleanly picked are condemned, though superior in strength and' flavor. A letter from a dis-
tinguished merchant of the north of Europe says:— "You promise much, on the score of more
vigilant inspection of hops. We prefer the American hops to any other raised, and if you would
establish the reputation they so well deserve from their superior quality, they would command the
market."

10

38

It is to be hoped that our farmers will soon find relief from the burdensome restrictions of the
English tariif, which weighs heavily upon their interests. The population of that country want
our agricultural products to supply their daily necessaries, and an abolition of the heavy duties
now imposed will give an impetus, not only to hop culture, but to every otiier branch of
agricultuial industry.

ON THE USE OF VARIOUS MANURES.

A COMMUNICATION READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION, DECEMBER, 1845, BY

R. L. PELL, Esq.

Of Pelham, Ulster County, New York.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association:

Having been requested by several of our members, to state to you my experience in the
manufacture and use of manure and cultivation of wheat, I herewith comply. By analysis it
has been discovered that all the cereal grains — all cruciferous and leguminous plants — all trees
and shrubs, require in the soil certain chemical substances, in different quantities, according to
the character of the plant. Those substances are eleven in number, viz. : — Potash, Soda, Lime,
Magnesia, Alumina, Oxide of Iron, Oxide of Manganese, Silica, Sulphuric Acid, Phosphoric
Acid and Chlorme. If one of these is entirely absent from a soil, it may not grow any of
the cultivated plants ; therefore the absolute necessity in the present age of analysis. You might
add to your soil several chemicals and still not add the required one. Thus it is that so much
valuable land in our State will not grow wheat, when, were the soil analyzed, the farmer might
by an addition of perhaps potash, lime, or some other simple substance, make his land produce
fine crops of that invaluable grain. The reason that rye and buckwheat will grow after wheat
ceases, is that they require less lime and other chemical substances than wheat ; at last you
can raise no crop — the five finger vine takes possession of yoiu soil and you consider it
worn out and useless ; when, by an expense perhaps of three dollars to the acre, it would
produce you thirty bushels of wheat.

40

I had a piece of land that would not grow white beans, which, by the addition of fifty
cents worth of two simple substances, yielded me at the rate of seventy-eight and three-quarter
bushels of wheat, weighing sixty-four pounds to the bushel per acre, a small space being
measured of the finest plants. I have grown wheat as an illustration of the applicability of
straw as a manure, on a pane of glass by merely covering it with straw ; the straw contained
the principles of vegetable life — the substances already named — and the wheat contained the
same ; therefore, by applying the straw, as it decomposed, the requisites of growth were
yielded to the grain, and it grew beautifully. Therefore it Avas I impressed on the minds of
farmers that they might sell the grain but by no means the straw. I am now, and have
been all Summer, buying straw of my neighbors, at one cent to two cents a bundle, which is
thrown on my cow-yard, as an absorbent, and becomes in six months a rich and most
valuable manure ; that which is long and tmdecomposed is used for hoed crops, such as potatoes
and com ; the decomposed and well-rotted as a dressing on the surface, mixed with guano,
charcoal, ashes, etc. The same principle will apply to all. If you grow rye, return the
straw to the field and plough it under ; when rooted, it will grow rye even in ground too
poor previously to grow any crop. When digging potatoes, cutting com, etc., the haulm and
tops should be returned to tire soil ; it will need no other manure, and will produce the following
year the like crops if planted in the same ground. When trimming vines leave the tendrils
and leaves at the roots of your vines, and they will require no other attention at your hands.
If you would give tO' fruit trees a manure most suitable to them, burn the trimmed limbs and
branches and return to the tree the ashes. The crop will be abundant. The reason why
the manure of neat cattle is so nutritious to grass lands, is that the cattle are mainly fed
on grass and, therefore, you return like to like ; for the same reason horse manure is by far
the most valuable on cereal grains,, he being chiefly fed on farinaceous matter. In Weathers-
field, the great onion district of Connecticut, they grow onions year after year on the same
ground, and for that purpose leave the tops on the beds from whence they take the roots.
If in Virginia the tops of the tobacco plant had been left on the soil and little more care been
used immense tracts in that State now deserted and barren, would have still yielded profuse
crops of that plant and have enriched hundreds. It was never intended that the land should
be stripped of all enriching matters, and thus those grasping all are punished.

For some years I have been engaged in endeavoring to grow crops superior to those
grown in my vicinity and, for that purpose, have placed upon my soil composts composed of

41

many substances, as until recently we have known little of chemistiy as applied to agriculture,
analyzing soils, etc. Frequently, my results were marvelous ; but I knew not from what
cause — whether they were produced by one of the manures used, or by all. Consequently I
did not dare leave out a single substance, but rather added others. In one instance I applied
my composition to a common squash vine, and produced a squash which was exhibited at
the State Fair held in 1844, weighing the enormous weight of two hundred and one pounds,
the heaviest on record by, I suppose, some fifty pounds. I applied it late in the season to a
cabbage, which was also presented, weighing forty-four pomids, and to other roots, all of which
received premiums. To wheat, and it weighed sixty-four and a half pounds to the bushel ;
to rye, and it weighed sixty ; to oats, and they weighed forty-four and a half, thirty-two
being the standard. When Sprengel's Analysis appeared showing that eleven substances were
absolutely necessary to all good soils, I found my accidental composition contained them all,
and twenty other enriching essentials. Previous to five years since, my orchards only bore
fruit the intervening year. Since that time these, properly attended to, have borne every year
and every year the fruit grew finer than the year previous and more abundant. The last Avas
not my bearing year, nor was it the bearing year throughout the county ; still my crop, for
the number of trees experimented on, was most plentiful. The trees not attended to, though
directly alongside of those which were bending to the earth with fruit, were entirely barren.
The season, too, has been most unpropitious, as we have not had from April to October
sufficient rain to moisten the earth to the depth of three inches ; notwithstanding, the compo-
sition applied kept the roots constantly moist, and thus protected the crop from destruction. I
prefer infinitely a manure composed of decomposed vegetable matter, such as grass, weeds,
straw, leaves, hair, etc., to the manure of neat cattle, for the reason that the food eaten by
stock goes to form all the animal economy ; whereas if rotted, and the ammonia is preserved
by means of charcoal dust, you have all the chemical substances unadulterated and pure, and,
when added to the soil, it receives a ten-fold benefit. I once placed a dozen fowls that had
been killed by a mink, at the roots of a peach tree. The growth was prodigious, and the
leaves were still green when every other tree in the orchard had shed its leaves some time
before. I would call the attention of the Society to what 1 consider a most valuable manure,
and one that is within the reach of all to a limited extent. Having occasion, last Winter,
to visit a bone establishment, I was told by the occupant that it had been declared a nuisance,
and that he was on the point of removing to the East River on account of the smell arising from
the liquid left after boiling bones, which liquid he was obliged to remove at once to the Hudson and

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if he was fortunate enough to reach that receptacle for all the filth of the city before it cooled,
no disagreeable effusion arose. I informed this person that I could put him in the way of
making one of the most valuable manures of this liquid — for when it cooled it formed a
thick jelly, and contained of course all the most enriching substances boiled out of the
bones. This is accomplished by the addition of pounded charcoal. I have used this com-
post to great advantage, and sown broad-cast on meadow lands. It is so devoid of obnoxious
smell as to be carried willingly by sloops eighty miles up the Hudson. Charcoal is one
of the most wonderful absorbents we have ; as a manure I consider it very valuable. It
absorbs from the atmosphere oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia, and while the weather
is dry holds all the.se valuable stimulants ; when rain comes it takes in eighty per cent, of
water and releases the other gases which are carried down into the earth by the water. When
it becomes dry the water is released, and the other gases imbibed. When used around
trees, green-house plants, shrubs, grain or grass, it will invariably be found, on taking up the
plant, closely adhering to the roots. I have had trees packed in it, and after a passage of
eighty days they have been found perfectly green, and in most beautiful order, when others
of the same species packed in matting, boxes, etc., have been perfectly dead. I first used
it in 1840, and take pride in saying that I was among, if not the first, to make mention of
its valuable qualities as a manure in this country. If spread over the compost heap, stable
floors, barn yards, etc., it will absorb all the ammonia, prevent the waste of gases exhaling
from it, and thus form itself into a very valuable compost. I saved apples packed in it
last fall until this fall perfectly. Ashes, as a manure, I have found of great advantage on
sandy soils. I have seen land so poor that it would not actually produce eight bushels of
corn to the acre made to yield forty-five, merely by the application of ashes, properly
applied. On some soils leached is as valuable as unleached. In fact there is scarcely a
manure more valuable than ashes in a sandy soil, except perhaps marly clay. It makes a
soil hold moisture, which is a great desideratum on a sandy soil. You may have noticed
that it is much used on Long Island and in Jersey on light sandy soils, to very great
advantage. It stimulates growth, like plaster when first used on land. If sown broad-cast on
land, in grass a difference in growth will be almost immediately perceptible, and the yield in
hay will pay the whole expense of ashing, say forty bushels to the acre, which will yield
to the soil precisely what grass most requires, viz.: silicate of potash,, for the formation of their
stems — without which such formation is impossible. Ashes neutralize acids in soils, which

43

is their chemical action. Their mechanical action is rendering soils less tenacious. Ashes
may be used in most composts to great advantage, as tlie alkali excites decomposition.

Lime has been used on my farm to great advantage. I have sown seven to eight thousand
bushels within the last six years and give decided preference to the oyster shell, for the reason
that it contains no magnesia, which most of the stone limes do. I do not know whether it
has been noticed, but I think it has a tendency to lessen the growth of the stem and leaves of
plants and increase the fruit and seeds. Four years since I manured a fifteen acre lot with oyster
shell lime, using three hundred bushels to the acre, on land that would not before grow anything
more valuable than Johnswort. That year the wheat grown on it weighed sixty-four pounds to
the bushel. I seeded it with one bushel of clover seed and half a bushel of timothy to the
acre, and the first year after, cut two and a half tons and the second year three tons of hay
to the acre. After mowing I usually top dress with a dry composition, and my afterwork is
half as valuable as the first cutting, which is used for soiling stock. Lime is used on my
farm to great advantage in potatoe culture. To it 1 attribute my success in that branch of
agriculture. My potatoes never rot in the ground, when all the neighboring fields are entirely
destroyed ; they keep all Winter, and are generally very mealy and fine. This year they were
very good, but not as large as usual, owing to the severe drought experienced throughout the
Spring, Summer and Fall. I am clearly of opinion that the rot is caused by insects which
the lime destroys. Bone manure I have likewise used to some extent, and can confidently
recommend its use, particularly in soils long cultivated destitute of phosphate of lime. It is
probably the most efficacious substance that can be used on a perfectly worn-out soil. It will
be found of more advantage on a dry calcarious soil than on one containing much alumina
I usually mix it with earth and allow it to ferment before spreading it on the land, and
use from twelve to thirty bushels to the acre. I have found it of more advantage to
the turnip crop than any other. In compost it is particularly valuable, yielding phosphates.
As to its durability, personally, I can say nothing. Dr. Stanly, Bishop of Norwich, says : —
" Lands in Cheshire bone dusted twenty years ago, show almost to a yard where this manure
was applied." I hope the day is not far distant when the exportation of bones to foreign
countries may cease.

Farm yard manure, if properly managed, is the most important to farmer. This varies
much in value. Two farmers may keep a stock of twenty cows each, and still the manure
made in the yard of one may be inferior to that made in the yard of the other ; the one

44

■will feed his stock all Winter on straw and turnips, and consider himself much better
off and wiser than the other who feeds on oil cake and hay. The manure of the latter
will be one half more valuable than the former and a consequent difference will be
perceived in the growth of crops upon which it is placed. Therefore it is that human
ordure is more valuable than any other manure, as man lives on a variety of food,
all containing in the greatest degree fertilizing ingredients. Why is it then that the citizens
of New York permit such a valuable and enriching substance to be thrown off the docks?
How could the sui'jilus revenue of the city be better employed than by establishing a depot
for its collection, where by the most simple process it could be converted into a portable and
most valuable manure? Soap boilers' waste, coal ashes, ammoniacal liquor from the gas houses,
butchers' offal, charcoal dealers' dust, and street dirt might all be preserved, and produce, instead
of cost, after the first year, an enormous income to the city. The reason so little has been
said on this subject is that absurd and ridiculous prejudices are entertained by many, who
imagine a disagreeable taste is imparted to the vegetables grown under its influence.
Recently France, Belgium, and other nations, have passed strict laws prohibiting, its waste
under pain of imprisonment. Eastern nations have used it from time immemorial ; the
excrement from cattle being used by them as fuel, consequently this fertilizer became indispen-
sable. In China it is dried and sold to the farmers at high prices throughout that immense
empire, and has for ages been there considered as the most valuable of all manures. England
and the United States may be considered the only two nations totally behind the age in that
respect. In England all the filth of the large towns and cities is led off by the shortest
possible route to the rivers, if there happen to be any passing through them. In London,
particularly, sewers are constructed to lead it into the Thames. In all our cities and
towns the example of the mother country is being followed. I have in several instances
tried this manure, in comparison with others, and have invariably found that it increased the
crop three-fold. Arthur Young placed six loads of night soil upon an acre of potatoes, and
the yield was six hundred and fifty bushels ; he manured another with one hundred and twenty
cart loads of horse manure, and the yield was four hundred and eighty bushels. It behoves
this Society, existing for the express purpose of improving agriculture, to move in this
business, and use our strenuous exertions to persuade the authorities of our city to set
apart a piece of unoccupied ground on the outskirts of the town, and direct that all refuse
matter to be carried there, which, thoroughly incorporated with the substances before named,

45

will produce a compost invaluable to the ao^riculturalist. I hope the Society will appoint a
committee to investigate this matter.

All the weeds of a farmer should be carried to the barn yard. If too far removed, they
may be collected in a corner of the field and converted into manure in forty hours, thus : —
Form a bed of weeds twelve inches thick and cover them with a thin layer of quicklime
one and a half inches in thickness — then weeds and lime in succession until all your weeds
are disposed of — after which cover the whole with muck or ch arcoal dust ; fermentation
immediately takes place, greaA heat ensues, and if the heap is not well covered to keep out
air, ignition is possible.

Farmers meet with serious loss by feeding their stock with the haulm of potatoes, cabbage
beet and turnip tops, for the reason that they contain at least seventy per cent, of water,
consequently are poor feed for animals. On the other hand, if buried or ploughed under, their
moisture causes rapid decomposition, and the manure, for reasons before stated, is more
valuable than that of farm yard. In Italy the inhabitants are in the habit of sowing
tares, buckwheat and other crops which, when in flower, are ploughed in for manure. They
seemed particularly partial to lupins, which extract azotized matters from the atmosphere and
yield them to the earth. The seeds of lupins are frequently boiled and sold as manure. It
grows like the bean, bearing pods, but it is so bitter that animals will not eat it.

I know it is unpopular to say aught against guano, a manure so much favored in
foreign countries, still, as I was one who received a parcel from this Society to
experiment with, I am in duty bound, after having tried it to my heart's content, to
state at least the result. In the first place my gardener planted three rows of onions
across a bed sixty-seven feet long in drills, which were partially filled with guano, and
alongside three drills the same length without any manure, the bed being rich. The
result was those without grew the best and produced the largest bulbs ; some of the other
were killed. He planted three rows of beets sixty-seven feet long with and three without ;
many of those planted with it died outright. He planted three rows of salad with and three
without; those with guano died in three days. Three rows of potatoes were planted with and
three without, and no perceptible difference observed. Ten rows of corn, one hundred feet
long, were planted with guano, and ten rows, one hundred feet long, with soot ; those with
guano died to a plant. Lima beans were killed by it, grass was killed, cabbages improved,
cauliflowers injured, peas destroyed, strawberries injured, raspberries injured. It is useless to
mention other articles, but safe to say every garden product I used it upon, and they were

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many say twenty-one different kinds of vegetables and plants, were either killed within one
week or materially injured. In composts I foimd it very valuable ; diluted with water and
poured upon meadow land it produced a wonderful effect, making the grass grow astonishingly.
It presented likewise a much greener appearance than the grass adjoining. Dissolved in water
and used sparingly on green-house plants, it was found to increase their growth and give
them a beautiful green appearance. Upon the whole I am sorry I ever had anything to do with
it, and have now on hand nearly two tons, which will probably long occupy space in my
laboratory — a memento of the gulls once inhabiting the shores of Peru.

WHEAT CULTURE IN WESTERN NEW YORK.

OOMMUNIOATED TO THE ASSOCIATION, APRIL, 1845, BY

GEN. R. HARMON, Jr.,

Of Wheatland, Monroe County, New York.

The soil that I have under cultivation is probably as well adapted to the production of
line wheat as any in the country. It is a gravelly loam, with limestone of small size or
gravel up to lumps of several pounds weight. It is what has been called the hard oak opening.
My system of cultivation is a three years shift. Clover is invariably sown on wheat in March
or April, about eight pounds to the acre ; and as soon as the ground is dry, in April, one
bushel of plaster is added to the acre. The next year pasture or mow. The third year, in
June, plough seven or eight inches deep- The clover should be mostly eaten off when
ploughed. The turning under of a great growth of clover I believe to be injurious
to the next crop of wheat. If fed off with sheep the manure they leave is worth more than
if the clover had been turned under in its green state. In turning under green clover there
is in the next crop frequently a coarseness in the leaf and straw that is not favorable to the
production of a fine quality of grain. I go over the ground thus ploughed with a cultivator ;
harrow three or four times by the first of September ; then cross-plough, and sow on the
furrow from the tenth to the fifteenth of the month ; then harrow it in with the cultivator
harrow. It buries the wheat deeper than the common harrow, giving the plant a more
vigorous appearance, rendering it less liable to injury by the thawing and freezing of the soil
in March and April. Wheat for seed should be selected from that part of the field which is
first ripe, and where it ripens evenly; all lodged or rusty straw should be rejected, for wheat

48

from such straw does not fully mature. It will grow as soon as any other, but grain of
superior quality is seldom obtained from such seed. All small or imperfect seed should be
sifted out and nothing but the best sown. Twenty-four hours before the wheat is sown it
should be washed in a concentrated brine. After draining a few minutes mix with each bushel
two quarts of newly slacked lime, and then sow one and one fourth bushels of seed to the acre.

The above is my course of operation. My average crop for several years past has been over
twenty bushels per acre of very superior quality, mostly sold lor seed ; the past season being over
1100 bushels. My price has uniformly been twenty-five cents over the millers. One great difficulty
in the way of farmers improving their wheat crops is the sowing of poor grain mixed with other
seeds. While at the State Fair at Poughkeepsie, in 1844, I saw several barrels of wheat of
different varieties all mixed with so much cockle and chess that a Wheatland miller would not
take such for flouring as first quality. The man that had it said it was sent to him from
Western New York for seed, and he was trying to sell it as such. As long as such seed is sown
we shall have those farmers that believe wheat will degenerate into chess.

In selecting the best Winter variety, I will name the ones that I believe will do best on the
different soils where wheat is sown. There are some varieties that succeed better on some soils
than others. If the soil is rich clay loam it is important to sow a small and early variety,
as the Kentucky white, better known as Hutchinson wheat ; the Mediterranean, or the Wheatland
red. If the soil be a sandy or gravelly loam the improved white Flint, old Genessee red chaff, bold
Saul's wheat, and Flint. In selecting the variety that will do best on all soils I am confident
that the white Flint stands first for quantity, producing more flour of superior quality than
any other of nearly forty different varieties that I have had under cultivation. I know of no
Spring variety that will equal the Winter kinds where they succeed well. In some sections
of the country none but Spring varieties will succeed. The Black Sea, red chaff and bearded,
are the hardiest and most productive of any of the Spring varieties of good quality. The
Tea wheat is a very beautiful Spring wheat, with white chaff and a bald white berry, but it
is not as productive as the Black Sea ; the quality is, however, much superior.

I will endeavor to arrange a case of wheat specimens this season for the Association. I have
about forty different varieties of wheat now under cultivation, from which I can arrange one.

ON THE DISEASES, DECAY AND PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.

By EDWARD CLARK, A. M.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association ;

I propose, on this occasion, to make some remarks on timber and timber trees, some of
the diseases to which in either form they are subject, and point out some of the preventives
which may be economically' applied.

The subject is broad and fertile, and merits a much more close and extended investigation
than the circumstances under which we have convened will permit. My aim will, therefore, be
merely to give a general outline, and leave deficiencies or details to be supplied by those
who may be more directly interested in it. My object is practical utility. I shall, conse-
quently, avoid technicalities, as far as my subject will permit, in order that I may be more
generally understood.

The forest trees which in one way or another may be made to contribute to the conve-
niences and comforts of man, to say nothing of art and elegance, are exceedingly numerous ;
but a comparatively small portion of them, however, possess the character of durability when
dressed into timber and applied to ordinary exposure. It is proper in this place to state that,
by the term timber I mean to be understood, all varieties of trees suitable for building pur-
poses, which have been felled by the axe or accidentally and roughly dressed or hewed.

The trees of our country, which claim to be more particularly noticed as applicable when
reduced to timber for durable use, may be enumerated in the following order, viz. : The oak,
pine, chestnut, cedar, cypress and locust. Others, it is true, may be added to the list ; but

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the limits which I am forced to prescribe to myself in the discussion of the subject, will
not allow me to treat of them except in a general manner. 1 shall therefore, confine my
remarks chiefly to the oak, because from its more extensive application in subservience to the
the wants of social beings, it holds the most important rank among them. I shall, neverthe-
less, refer to such other trees as may be pertinent to the occasion.

The family of oaks is very numerous, amounting to somewhere about one hundred and
forty species. Few of them have, however, been found profitably available for building
purposes, or generally in rural economy ; the number, nevertheless, may be considerably
increased, if needed, by the appUcation of the means indicated by science, to which a more
particular reference will be had in the sequel.

Of the white oak, {Qiicrcus alba,) with which I shall commence, though a volume might
be profitably written, little at this time need be said, because its character or properties are gene-
rally well understood. Deprived of its alburnum or sappy portion, well seasoned before use
and kept in a dry atmosphere, it is for general purposes of building the most valuable of
any other hitherto known.

This tree frequently grows in forests to the height of one hundred and twenty or thirty
feet ; but in openings it spreads into branches and seldom attains more than one half or two-thirds
that elevation. The girth at the felling point varies according to soil, frequently exceeding
twelve and even fifteen feet. It is of great value, particularly in ship building.

There is, however, a veiy material difference in the quality of oak timber — that for instance
prepared from trees which grow in openings, or isolated measurably from all other trees, is
more compact in its organic structure, stronger and more durable than that taken from dense
forests. Again, those which grow in an atmosphere charged generally with sea water, or in a
soil slightly impregnated with the chlorate of soda and which, consequently, contains salts of
that material, are far less perishable tlian those produced under different circumstances, and which
assimilate the salts of potash instead of those of soda. These qualities are again modified
by the conditions of the producing soil ; if dry, or somewhat elevated, the growth will be much
slower than in low, moist lands, and, consequently, they will be more valuable or durable.

These remarks respecting the character or properties of the white oak apply also to the
chestnut tree, {Castanea Americana,) — and are facts well known to our experienced ship-builders
— and I have no doubt they will, with equal propriety to most other timber trees similarly
circumstanced.

51

The live oak (Quercus viretis) is to our country, of the oak family, next in importance
to the white oak ; it is indigenous to the southern portion of the United States, and is found
in its greatest perfection in low, moist, loamy soils. This tree lives to a veiy great age,
frequently exceeding eight or ten centuries, if the yearly annular accretions are to be depended
on as authority. It generally grows to the height of forty or fifty feet ; the trunk, large ;
branches, large and long; and from the strength and toughness of its fibres, and its great
durability, the timber from it has obtained a preference for ship building to that of any other
tree known.

This tree, not anywhere extensively to be foimd, is already becoming scarce in
the neighborhood of navigable waters. Its great value in a national point of view, its
limited development and its exceedingly slow growth, render its preservation and cultivation
an object deserving the prompt and efficient attention of our government. In fact it is an
obligation which the present owes to the prospective greatness of the future, and as human
nature is constituted it should be elaborately cancelled.

There are several other oaks which may be used for timber, particularly if subjected to
some mineralizing process, such, for instance, as the yellow oak, (Q. acuminata,) chestnut white
oak, (Q. prims,) black oak, (Q. tinctoria,) etc., but the woody fibres of them all want the
strength and elasticity which so eminently characterize those of the white and live oaks.

In addition to these differences in the quality of wood others are presented of quite as
much importance in the form of diseases, and require some notice, more particularly as the
woodman, who is either paid by the day or labors at a certain rate for felling and dressing
trees into timber, is wholly indifferent to quality, except so far as it may be the more easily
worked, and thus present the fairest outward form.

Some builders are equally indifferent ' in regard to the quality of timber, and apply that
which is diseased, or in a perishing state, with that which is sound to btiilding purposes,
without reference to consequences. Hence the frequent losses and disappointments which accrue
and to which I shall again refer.

One of the most prevalent diseases to which trees are subject, is the solidification or closing
up of the pores next to the pith, from which it extends outwardly towards the alburnum. In
the first stages it is manifested by dottiness ; afterwards the woody fibres which are afiected,
undergo the various changes of decomposition, and they become hollow to a greater or less

52

extent in their trunks. Tliis disease, by preventing the circulation, impairs the fibres and
renders the timber obtained from such trees unfit for use, except for temporary purposes.

Another disease, if I may so term it, is prematurity ; it is indicated by the death of the
lops and topmost branches of trees. Whole forests sometimes present this appearance. It
arises from a rock-bound or shallow soil, which does not furnish the necessary nutritive
substances. Trees so affected do not grow large, nor are they rendered unfit for some uses in
rural economy ; the chief loss arises from the perishing portions, which can seldom be applied
to advantage even for fuel.

This diagnosis was well understood by the early settlers of some districts of our country,
as is manifested by the ui- reclaimed lands of this character which are frequently to be met with.

Trees from old age present the same aspect not unfrequently as those just described.
In such cases the duramen or heart, as it is generally named, will have partially lost its
strength, toughness and elasticity ; they are only fit for the most common uses.

They are also sometimes aflfected by frosts and tempestuous winds, which render them
cuppy near their centres, or, in other words, separate the woody fibres of a few years' accretion
into annular and not unfrequently into broomy divisions. This disease does not generally
aifect the wood far up the trunk of trees, and is, therefore, remedial by lopping off.

There are other diseases to which trees are liable, such as maims, rind galls and excres-
cences, but I will pass over these to the decay, or to the more important ones to which timber
is subject, and then notice some of the preventatives which chemical science has revealed.

If trees, when felled, be suffered to remain for a season on the ground, the temperature
being favorable, a partial decomposition of the caseous and soluble portions of the woody fibres
follows and sometimes very speedily, particularly in the alburnum ; but as this should never
be employed in building, except for the most temporary purposes, unless chemically prepared
it would scarcely be necessary to refer to diis exterior change, were it not in its progressive
state a certain criterion by which to judge of the condition of the more perfect wood.

But the constituents of diflerent genera and species differ in substances and proportions
so materially as greatly to modify these changes, retarding or accelerating them according
to the organism acted on.

, Thus, some species of the pine may lay so exposed for a succession of years without
sustaining any injury — except in their sappy coverings ; while the oak and most other hard
v/ood trees similarly exposed soon exhibit signs of deterioration and decay.

53

These changes, it is true, do not universally follow, for trees sometimes fall on soft
peat or marl beds, gradually settle into, ad are preserved for indefinite periods of time by
the saline antiseptics whicli are contained in them.

Sometimes, however, when so exposed, the vegetable tissues become slowly dissolved and
are replaced by silico-aluminous depositions which exactly resemble them and which aie in com-
mon language wrongly denominated petrifactions.

The decay before referred to is much more perceptible in trees that have bark on
than when it has been removed; besides, when stripped they are seldom attacked by worms
and borers, which, unless care be taken to prevent their action, prove energetic agents in the
work of vegetable decomposition.

Timber so affected, though subsequently seasoned, is more liable to decay than that which
has been seasoned properly and with care before use, especially if exposed to a confined,
heated and moist atmosphere, such as is frequently presented in the holds of ships, particularly
in low latitudes. Thus exposed, decomposition recommences, and the result is one variety of
the dry rot or a total breaking up of the woody structure into powder.

Timber that is perfectly sound after long exposure is also subject to this disease, that of
the live oak perhaps only excepted. It has been represented as the work of animalcnla, but if
present, they result from and are not the cause of decay in timber any more than they are
in dead animal substances, where they are known to abound in great numbers.

It has also been ascribed to fungi, which no doubt are the destructive agents of wood
under some circumstances ; but in such, as before referred to, it arises, beyond a doubt, from
the entire decomposition of the adhesive substances Avhich are assimilated during the growth
of trees and firmly bind the fibres together. The destruction of these substances being
complete the organism ceases and nothing remains but the residuary powders.

Some of the timber brought to our market will, if examined, be found to have suffered
from some of the diseases before described, but it generally commands as high a price as
that which is perfectly sound, probably because the purchaser is ignorant that any difference
in the quality exists ; but the carpenter who uses such timber is inexcusable ! particularly
in the structure and repair of ships, and merits punishment for it as much as the house-
breaker or incendiary.

This subject is of great moment, taken in connection with the wants and relations of

civilized life, but one which, I regret to say, attracts very litde attention from those who are

most immediately interested in the durability of timber.

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la ship building the great mistake heretofore experienced has arisen from the commixture
of more perishable or decayed timber with that which was sound and durable. This is
exemplified by the condition of some of our old sliips when broken up. In liouse
building error?, though not so fatal to life and property, are often c().iiniiti(d : witness, lor
instance, the warped and kimbo positions now presented by country dwellings that were once
elegant and symmetrical.

The evil does not end here. Of the thousand houses now being erected in the city of
New York and its suburbs, not one, I will venture to assort, has the beams on which the
floors are being laid well seasoned ; the consequence is, after the buildings are finished,
they shrink from the base boards, and leave openings for the intrusion not only of currents
of cold air, but for mice and various creeping things.

The use of unsound timber may, and no doubt does frequently, arise from the sheer
ignorance of the workman ; sometimes, however, it may be ascribed to design, in his selecting
that which is more easily Avrought in preference to durable quality.

Where the disposition exists, a slight attention to the condition of timber before use would
in many cases prevent serious loss and evil. It is of the first importance both to our
government and to many individuals concerned in its use, that disinterested inspectors should
have the selection of all timber required in ship building, and the use of any other
should be strictly prohibited. With the practice of such precautions a great improvement in
ship and all other building could not fail to follow.

But to guard effectually against the decay of timber something more than a close inspection
will be found necessary, and to this science points with imcrring certainty.

It consists in filling the sap vessels of timber with some antiseptic substance or substances
which shall fix the caseous and soluble portions permanently, or, by imiting with them,
arrest their putrifactive tendency.

Substances of this character are numerous ; but in their selection a strict regard should
be had to economy. Mr. Kyan first introduced the practice of preserving timber by filling
its pores with corrosive sublimate or oxymuriate of mercury ; hence the term of kyanizing.
This process has been abandoned and cheaper ones substituted for it. Among them may be
included all the sulphates and sulphate-triple salts, which contain an excess of acid; dilute
sulphurous and sulphuric acid, concentrated vegetable acds, some of the volatile oils, pitch,
uurectified creosote, most of the metallic and some of the alkaline and earthy salts. In fact
any substance that will act upon the caseous or albuminous j)ortions of timber and change

55

them into insoluble matter, will preserve it from decomposition for almost any length of time.

What is most remarkable in these chancres, is that the sappy portions of timber are
rendered by most processes quite as enduring as the duramen or more solid parts. Before
describing any of the processes of preserving timber, I will make a remark or two on the
season best adapted for cutting- and seasoning of timber.

Various opinions are entertained in respect to the most appropriate season for felling trees
for timber. If felled after the leaves have dropped, in Autumn, and before the sap commences
to flow, say in February or March, (I speak of tropical climates,) the bark adheres firmly to
the aburnum, and will if kept dry under cover, continue to do so several successive seasons.
Fuel of this description is decidedly preferable to that which is cut at a time when the sap
is in circulation and which invariably looses its bark in seasoning ; and, by a parity of reasoning,
timber cut, dressed, and kept dry in a similar manner should be preferred to that which was
cut, etc., while the sap flowed.

There is another substantial reason why trees felled at the season of the recession of the
sap should be preferred, which is, if the authority of those who have made vegetable physi-
ology a study may be relied on, "that the sap vessels furnish no materials to trees for
immediate assimilation after the middle or latter part of August, but transmit and deposit
magazines of starch, etc., for the future growth of trees when the warm weather accedes and
the sap vessels renew their accretory functions.

If such be the fact, as the circulation of the sap must measurably cease to flow in trees
which have been felled during the prevalence of frosts, it follows as a necessary consequence
that timber from trees which contain starch will be less liable to decomposition than that in
which the starch has been converted to saccharine matter, because it is removed a stage farther
from such change — provided they both be similarly treated.

But when trees have been felled, dressed into timber, and placed under cover for air-
seasoning, or in water for water-seasoning, with proper expedition, there can be no very
important difference in respect to the period of the year in which they have been subjected to
the leveling action of the woodman, becanse the fluids in the sap vessels, in the first case,
become so inspissated, or rather concentrated, as to possess antiseptic properties, which can only
be disturbed by change of condition; and in the second case, they become so diluted, if exposed
for a sufficient length of tin i^, as to possess few if any of the elements of speedy and
direct decay.

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This leads to some remarks on the seasoning of timber. When trees have been felled
they should at once be roughly hewed and placed under cover, some distance above the
ground, in order to enable a free circulation of air and the slow evaporation of the water in the
sap vessels, so as to prevent as far as practicable the checks or openings of the woody fibres,
which, if left exposed to the influence of the solar action, are often so large and numerous
as greatly to impair the value of timber.

Or, if to be water-seasoned, the timber should, if practicable, be immersed longitudinally
or parallel to the course of running water. So circumstanced, the sap in the vascular
organism is soon displaced by water, and this change of occupancy is continued till the timber
is fully seasoned or deprived of its immediate putrifactive agents. This change will also
take place in timber submersed in still water, but a greater length of time is necessary for
its accomplishment. Sea water is sometimes employed for tlie same purpose ; but it is too
impure, imparting to timber which has been seasoned in it a disagreeable viscosity, particu-
larly when placed in moist situations.

It is, when artificially prepared — that is, from salt deprived, by recrystalization, of its
magnesia, lime and sulphuric acid, and is dissolved to a saturation in rain or river water — the
cheapest, and one of the best preservatives of timber ; next to this, copperas (sulphate of iron)
and alum (super-sulphate of potash and alumina) may be ranked as cheap and valuable. All
used singly, or the two latter, with some other saline preparation, which will reciprocally
decompose each other, and deposit one or both of their bases in the sap vessels of the timber.
When either of these substances are to be applied, singly, it will be necessary to prepare
reservoirs of sufficient capacity to contain the timber required to be operated on.

These reservoirs may be formed by banking in portions of flat land from the floodings
of tide water, or by excavating the earth and puddling to prevent leakage. They should
be wholly isolated from surrounding water ; but circumstanced so that a supply may at all
times be at command to replace the ordinary consumption and losses occasioned by evaporation
and otherwise.

When prepared and filled with saturated solutions either of common salt, (chlorate of soda,)
or copperas, or alum, or any other material which may be preferred, the timber is to be
placed in the reservoirs, there to remain until the sap vessels have become filled with the
solution presented and until required for use.

But should this process fail, strong, air-tight wooden or iron vessels, filled first with
timber, then with the requisite saline solution, and then exhausted by means of the common
air pump, or expanded by heat so as to expel the air from the sap vessels, would be found

57

every way competent to fill the sap cells of timber with preservative substances, and in no
case at the expense of mucli power. Such an arratigement would, besides, be eminently
adapted for the coloring and hardening of wood for cabinet work, pavements, railroads and
for various other purposes. With this view I have made some experiments which promise
well. I have also directed my attention to the protection of timber against the destractive
action of the ship worm, ( Teredo navalis,) on which subjects I intend, as soon as convenient
to report the results to the association.

It may here be asked, what antiseptics are best adapted for reciprocal decomposition
when presented to each other within the walls of the sap vessels? The answer, as I view
the subject, is, that wood intended to be preserved by artificial means, if the saving of expense
be ail object, should, in the first place, be submerged in a solution of an alum composed of
oil of vitriol, (sulphuric acid,) iron, clay (or alumina) and water, or in one of common
copperas, (sulphate of iron,) until the sap cells have become filled, when it is to be removed
and thoroughly air-diied under cover. It may next be immersed in any saline solution that
will decompose that first applied, and when fully saturated be removed to a dry place under
cover and there be suffered to season till required for use.

In lieu of the above named articles, blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) and common
alum, (super-sulphate of potash and alumina,) may be used, and to those which do not contain
an excess of sulphuric acid, a small quantity of this article may be beneficially added ; in
fact, if greatly diluted, it is of itself a powerful antiseptic. The solution in the second
reservoir, for completing the process, may be composed either of tlie acetate of lime or the
chlorate of lime, which on timber prepared as before described being placed in it, will
penetrate its sap cells and occasion a reciprocal decomposition of the salts used.

If copperas be used in the first place and acetate of lime in the second, sulphate of

lime and acetate of iron will result. The former in combination with the prot-oxide of

iron is insoluble and alone sufficiently so to answer the purpose of its application, viz. : the

closing of the sap vessels. The latter will remain in a fluid state till the aqueous portion

evaporates, but in every state subject to be decomposed by oxygen as far as it may be

present. Hence, it is one of the most valuable antiseptics that can be provided, because

decomposition cannot take place unless this gas be present, and this salt (acetate of iron)

will continue to absorb or combine with it till it is wholly decomposed or converted to a

percetate. A change, protected as it would be by the woody fibres and by the partial closure

of the sap cells, is not likely to take place in the course of many ages.

15

58

Many experiments have yet to be made before we arrive at a knowledge of the cheapest
and best preparation for the preservation of timber.

The essential desiderata are — the expulsion of the sap from timber, the conversion of its
soluble to insoluble portions, and the closing up, as far as practicable, of the sap vessels.
The salts most economical and at present usually applied contain an excess of sulphuric
acid. If it be not present to excess, it should be added, as before remarked, for it is to its
coagulating property, exerted on caseous or albuminous portions of timber, that its efficacy
chiefly depends. The metallic sulphates, if costs are to be taken into the estimate, are
therefore preferable to any other with which experiments have hitherto been made.

Soaps from the metallic, earthy and alkaline salts have not, so far as my knowledge
extends, been tr4ed. I am now experimenting on some of them and believe they may be
as useful for the preservation of timber as any other substance whatever, and they can cer-
tainly be applied at a much less expense than any other with which I am acquainted. lint
with these wo must become further acquainted before we can determine their real value.

If the process of M. Boucherie be adopted and timber which has been previously
charged with sulphate of iron be subjected to his water-tight sack apparatus, filled with an
aqueous solution of quicklime, in such manner as to coerce its passage through its sap
vessels, we shall have a compound of sulphate of lime and prot-oxide of iron formed at once
in them, and perhaps at a cheaper rate than any other that can be devised.

It was my intention to have dwelled somewhat upon the best practical modes for coloring
timber, but I have already much exceeded the limits which I had prescribed for the discussion
of this and the other subjects proposed. I shall, therefore, be compelled to omit its consi-
deration for some future occasion.

With this knowledge in respect to making a proper selection and preservation of timber
before him, the ship and wharf builder, the carpenter and farmer, have it in their powev
to render their building and fencing materials very durable, almost imperishable, and that,
too, if the importance of the measure be properly regarded, at a very inconsiderable expense^

This subject is particularly worthy the attention of our govermnent, both in respect to
the treatment of timber designed' for the construction of ships and piers, and also for the
preservation of vessels of war when laid up in ordinary.

In time of peace, it will be generally conceded that a national marine composed of small
war vessels answers equally well numerically as the larger classes of sliips for the naval
service, while they are maintained at a much less relative expense. If this be correct, ar.d

59

the policy of retaining the smaller vessels in commission, or a portion of them during the
continuance of peace while the larger ones are to be laid up, be adopted, then the question
arises as to which will be the most economical measure for the government to pursue. Either
to suffer our uncommissioned ships to decay at our wharves, and when wanted if worthy
to repair or partially rebuild them ; or, at a comparatively small expense, preserve them against
decay so that at any time they may, with a small outlay on short notice, be re-commissioned
for any public emergency? The answer cannot be mistaken, and the process is cheap, simple
and certain.

It consists, in the first place, of divesting such vessels of their entire rigging and spars,
closing them water-tight on all sides, filling them with a saturated solution, either of common
salt,, copperas, or such other antiseptic substance as may be preferred, and sinking them in
fresh water, or in docks containing any solution similar to that with which they had been
previously charged, even with or below thoir main decks, to suit the exigencies demanded by
the occasion ; but copperas will be decidedly better than the others- mentioned, for the reasons
before stated.

Piers may be constructed in some of our navigable fresh water streams, such for instance
as the Potomac or James rivers, to protect them from ice, and they could be raised and fitted
for service at the pleasure of the government in a very short time.

The material used in this manner for the preservation of ships would cost a mere trifle
if compared with the ordinary expenses of repairs to which our marine as now managed
is subject.

The solution so applied may when ships are wanted ba transferred to earthy reservoirs
on shore, and always be ready for repeated future use.

There could be no decay in the timber of ships so treated ; the copper in or on their
bottoms would remain entire, or undecomposad ; or, if without copper sheating, they would
be exempt from the depredations of insects ; and, if copperas be the antiseptic used, such
vessels would when brought into active service be strictly entitled to the name of ironsides :
they would be very nearly incombustible as well as imperishable.

Timber that has been previously air-seasoned will be more speedily saturated than if
r-ecently dressed or water-seasoned.

It should be here remarked that common salt doss not change the properties of the
woody constituents ; it merely combines or rather mixes with tloe fluids, and penetrates into
the soluble portions in such manner as to prevent the action of copperas and alum ; they fix
or change the soluble permanently insoluble substances.

60

If I am correct, we have either of those two salts, that is, in the sulphate of iron and the
super-sulphate of potash and alumina, applied separately, the desideratum essential to the
preservation of wood ; their application is not expensive, nor need there be any waste of
material, nor diminution beyond what is absorbed by the timber conformably to the object
proposed.

Of these two substances the salt of iron or copperas is to be preferred, because it costs
less and will be found equally efficient. A triple acid — not known in commerce, but which
can readily be prepared, and is as highly antiseptic as the super sulphate of potash and
alumina — is an alum composed of water, sulphuric acid, iron and clay. It will be found
when made on a large >scale not much if any more expensive than copperas.

When desirable to subject timber to the action of two saline substances with a view to
obtain the precipitation of their bases in the sap vessels, two reservoirs will be found necessary ;
that is, one to contain each of the salts in solution and into one of which the timber is
to be first placed, and afterwards, when the sap vessels are full, it is to be removed to the other.

This process has been heretofore practiced, but was found not to answer the object
contemplated, because after the vessels had become filled with a solution of one salt the
precipitation which followed the introduction of another solution closed the orifices, and pre-
vented the access of a further supply to the deeper cells of the wood. In consequence of this
artificial means have been resorted to and the process is now found to be highly beneficial
though attended with considerable expense.

But where time is no important consideration, as with governments, if proper attention be
given to the process ; such as sinking one end of the timber to a considerably greater depth
i I the reservoir than the other, and, when thoroughly charged, removing- it from the solution
and suffering it to become perfectly dry before it be placed in the other saline preparation. I
believe the former process may be made to answer the purpose equally well, and may be
effected much more economically.

This difference in the elevation of the ends of a piece of timber may be readily increased
till it becomes perpendicular, and throughout every degree of the change the forces acting in the
sap vessels, viz.: the pressure of the fluids in the reservoir against the air in them and
capillary attraction are increased; certainly the former, and this force could be considerably
angmented by depressing the timber in a vertical position to a greater depth, insomuch that
no doubt remains in my mind as to the efficacy of the preservation of timber by the mode
above described.

'[i^-n

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