15 



what is tlie effect of plaster on clover according to the character of the soil, and 

 the season, and the kind of plaster. 



4. Manures. — The first colnmn, nnder this heading in the table, shows a fair 

 progress in the use of barn-yard manure. Maryland and Illinois are the only 

 States below the general average, and the decrease in these is very slight. New 

 Hampshii'e, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Kentucky, are about a half-tenth 

 above the average, whilst all the other States range from one to four-tenths above 

 it. Our correspondents by letter bear general testimony to the increasing in- 

 terest felt for the saving of this manure. With increasing means farmers are 

 giving more attention to sheltering their stock, and with this care comes one of 

 the best profits of stock raising — the greater amount and better quality of ma- 

 nure. Still there is room for a greater ratio of progress, even when labor is so 

 scarce, for the high prices everywhere prevailing for agricultural products de- 

 mand the best economy in feeding; and bow better can this be observed than 

 that increase of shelters, which stops only when every head of stock is reposing 

 in its stall during the winter nights? If there is any one thing that should be 

 regarded more than another, as a standard of superior f;inning, it is this provision 

 for stock ; and where it is wanting, no matter how rich the soil, it is an evidence 

 of the practice of that agriculture wliich recklessly exhausts the soil. 



The second question, under the head of manures, relates to the increase or 

 decrease of guano and the phosphates. The column that embodies the answers 

 is not satisfactory, for it represents a decrease. This, we are assured, is in con- 

 sequence of the high price of guano, and the opinion of excellent farmers near 

 the sea-board has been adverse to its use at high prices. But both these maniires 

 are so often adulterated by dishonest dealers that the reputation of all is injured. 

 If commerce is protected by inspectors of the quantity and quality of articles, 

 why is not agriculture also in the quality of those articles which no personal in- 

 spection of the purchaser can shield him against imposition ? 



These evils must find their remedy, under such want of protection, m the 

 greater tise of clover and plaster, and in the more careful saving of bones, which 

 might easily and profitably be done, from the family up to the slaugbtering 

 houses, where so many are lost through neglect. The refining of sorghum mo- 

 lasses will oompel this saving, that bone charcoal may be had, which is used for 

 manure when no longer suited for refining purposes. The establishment of bone 

 charcoal manufactories at packing and slaughtering houses will cause a general 

 saving of bones, and in this way our agriculture receives its necessary supply of 

 this manure. 



We have laid before our readers the successful result of the use of clover and 

 plaster, both in the large increase of the product and in its exemption from rust. 

 We here add another of the use of barn-yard manure, attended with like advan- 

 tages. It is taken from the §ame article on the wheat plant : 



Mr. George D. Hendricks, of Preble county, Ohio, in stating from his prac- 

 tical experience the necessity of early cutting wheat when severely injured by 

 rust, says : "Field No. 2 being only half set, injured by the fly and freezing 

 out, produced teji bushels to the acre, weighing 5io pounds ; but in this field, and 

 in the poorest point in it, (clay land,) I had manured one acre in the centre of 

 the field, and on which was, at least, thirtij bushels of No. 1 wheat: neither the 

 rust nor fly had affected it." Every farmer has seen how beneficial manure is 

 to enable the plant to overcome the attacks of the fly. Whether the manure 

 gives a sap distasteful to the larvte of the fly, or simply pushes the growth so 

 rapidly that the plant sustains uninjured its attack, all know how beneficial 

 manure is when used in this way. It sustains the plant against the rust, by 

 rapidly hastening its maturity. What it effects in the yield is seen in the above 

 statement. Surely such compensating results should stimulate every fanner to 

 constant vigilance in making, saving, and properly applying manures. 



5. Ploughing. — Everything that has lived decays after death, until it disap- 



