AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 233 



Tlic cost of this system of irrigation is about thirty dollars per acre per 

 annum, and the yield four immense crops of grass in twelve months. A 

 portion of this land has not been plowed, drained, leveled, or in any way 

 broken up from its original, or native state. The liquid and liquified ma- 

 nures, have been turned upon the moss, heather, rushes, and weeds, con- 

 verting them all into decayed vegetable matter, and producing instead a 

 luxuriant and sweet grass. After two liquid dressings of three days each, 

 a deposit of black mould was found amidst the roots nearly two inches 

 thick ; this had been carried in suspension in the water. On another por- 

 tion growing Italian rye grass, it was found to have grown two inches in 

 twenty-four hours, and within seven months seventy tons was cut from an 

 acre, without the slightest appearance of exhaustion in the land ; on the 

 contrary, its fertility increases constantly. Before the town sewage was 

 used it would only keep five sheep to the acre, now it will maintain five 

 oxen and twenty sheep, if the crop is cut and carried to them. 



MR. TELFER'S FARM, NEAR AYR. 



This is a small dairy farai of forty acres, about one and a half miles 

 west of the town. The sub-soil is beach gravel with a slight admixture of 

 clay. Water is too abundant, lying dead within twenty inches of the sur- 

 face. The whole arrangement of the stable, steaming room, dairy, &c., are 

 so admirable that it would delight any of you to visit the establishment. 

 I have drawn on the black board a section of the barn, erected to contain 

 forty-eight milk cows, the number kept on the farm. 



No bedding or litter is used here. The cows lie on cocoanut mats. The 

 ventilation is perfect, and the air sweeter than in the majority of the dwel- 

 liug houses in New York. 



It will be seen that behind the cattle there is a long row of perforated 

 plates eighteen inches wide ; the liquid passes through these, and is con- 

 veyed in the hollow semi-circular channels to the tank, placed at the end 

 of the barn, where it is diluted with four times its bulk of water. The 

 cost of the tank did not exceed 6150. An engine, of three horse power, is 

 used to raise the fluid, and also for churning, grinding oats, chopping hay, 

 pumping water to supply the cattle, &c. The comparatively small extent 

 of land only requires the engine to be occasionally used for irrigation ; and 

 as the surface is flat, and the height to which the liquid manure has to be 

 lifted is small, the engine, when in use, is capable of doing the other work 

 of the farm at the same time. The cost of the engine was $300, and there 

 are two pumps for liquid manure, having four inch barrels, and fourteen 

 inch stroke, making twenty-five strokes per minute ; the capability of the 

 pumps is therefore about 31 1 gallons per minute, or about 19,000 gallons 

 per day of ten hours. The quantity of the liquid laid on at each applica- 

 tion is about 5,000 gallons per acre, so that the whole farm could be cov- 

 ered in ten days if required, so far as the power of the pumps are concerned. 



