No. 68.J 429 



which are kept, on an average, two hundred cows. This manure 

 runs through open drains to an artificial basin, in the centre of which 

 is placed a pump, high enough for a wagon to pass under. This 

 wagon is furnished with a tight box, in which the liquid is pumped. 

 It is then drawn on the land ; by raising a fixture it can be discharg- 

 ed, and as it runs over a board about a foot wide, placed there for the 

 purpose, it is evenly spread. He never puts this on his growing 

 crops ; great care seems to be necessary in the use of this, as well as 

 other manures ; and there are many examples to be seen on this place, 

 of the evil effects of an excessive use of manure. We were pleased to 

 see this, for here were no kinds of manure employed, except what 

 are of acknowledged benefit. Many of those manures which have 

 been recently recommended, have been used elsewhere, with the most 

 discouraging and ruinous consequences, when the quantity was exces- 

 sive, while small quantities were followed by the most flattering re- 

 sults. Any particular manure, then, should be properly employed, 

 before it is condemned. This liquid, which we were speaking of, is 

 sometimes left to remain until its watery particles evaporate, and then 

 it assumes a consistence which enables them to remove it to another 

 basin, and it is there mixed with weeds and other rubbish from the 

 farm, and also with manure purchased from the city ; but very lit- 

 tle stable manure is purchased. He prefers the street manure from 

 New- York, and estimates it according to the part of the city from 

 whence it is brought. General Johnson prefers the street manure, be- 

 cause it is more suitable to his soil, — not on account of its containing 

 less foul seeds. He thinks that the seeds which manure contains are 

 destroyed by the heating and rotting of the manure, and attributes 

 the abundance of weeds in cultivated lands, to the seeds which exist 

 in the land, — believing that they may remain there in a latent state 

 more than twenty years. To destroy the first growth of weeds, so 

 injurious to such tender plants as carrots, onions, &c., he considers 

 it a good plan to prepare the ground for sowing the seeds, then to 

 cover it with a good coating of rubbish, which should be burned, 

 then the seeds of the weeds, and also furnishes a good top dressing of 

 manure for the young plants. 



He cultivates most of the vegetables sold in the markets ; but his 

 principal crops are rhubarb, cabbages and beets. He has four acres 

 of rhubarb, and prefers the common to any of the improved sort ; at 

 least, they appear to do best on his land. He manures his ground 

 well ; in the spring plows between the rows, and when fit pulls off 

 the stems for market. He pursues this plan until currants and goose- 

 berries are fit for market, and then lets the plants grow undisturbed. 

 The great crop of leaves, some of which are eighteen inches broad, 

 are suffered to fall on the ground, which they do after the first severe 

 frost. He has about six acres of cabbages, and calculates each acre 

 will produce five thousand heads. He plants them three feet one 

 way and two the other, to allow cultivation, which is done with the 

 plow and hoe. His beets are very fine. He calls them the long red 

 French beets. We saw some pulled which measured two feet long, 



