303 STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FERTILIZERS. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



It was a question with me for a long time how to dispose of the suds and 

 slops from the house so as to keep them out of sight and have no unpleasant 

 smell about the premises. After trying several plans, I adopted the following, 

 which fills the bill : 



I took a large dry goods box and put a partition in it, leaving the small end 

 wide enough to admit a pail. In the partition I left several seams to let the 

 water pass through. I then nailed a strip along the top of the partition, and 

 to this the covers were hinged. At a convenient distance from the kitchen I 

 dug a hole a little larger than the box and within six inciies of being as deep. 

 I put in an inch or two of clay and wet it up like mortar, then put in the box 

 with the large part next the house. The space all around was filled with wet 

 clay and well tramped. A wheelbarrow load of manure was then put in the 

 large end, and it was ready for all kinds of slops. When I want to water my 

 plants, I find the best kind of liquid manure in the small end of the box, and 

 it is replenished every day from the house. No unsightly pile of filth is decom- 

 posing in the sun, and no unpleasant smell is ever noticed. Last spring I 

 planted a canna near the box, on the side toward the house, and it grew to an 

 immense size, hiding the box from view. We never discover any smell about 

 the box except when the covers are lifted ; but as I was afraid there might be, 

 I put in a pound or more of copperas occasionally. Several times during the 

 season I clean out the box and supply fresh manure. We never put in salt, 

 lime, or ashes. Matthew Crawford. 



POULTRY GUANO APPRECIATED. 



I am often surprised that farmers pay so little attention to poultry, and still 

 more that they should be so careless about saving the droppings from the roost. 

 I have for many years been in the habit of getting all I could of this valuable 

 manure; last season I succeeded in collecting about fourteen tons, almost 

 entirely pure. My method with it is as follows: It is carefully gathered up 

 and stored in barrels or boxes, put in a dry place and left there until we are 

 nearly ready to use it. When thrown from the boxes or barrels it is in an 

 almost solid or compact mass. We take some of our dry and fine street manure 

 (or fine, dry earth will answer) and mix about three parts of it to one of the 

 poultry guano, and work the whole over until it is both fine and nearly dry; 

 after this working there is nothing disagreeable about it, and 1 never heard one 

 of the hands object to handling it. When thus prepared, it is an exceedingly 

 valuable fertilizer; I have never known it to fail upon any crop. The largest 

 yield of potatoes I ever saw (640 busliels i^er acre) was fertilized with a single 

 handful of this compost upon each hill, after coming through the ground. — 

 J. M. Smith ill N. Y. Tribune. 



