THE FARMER AT HOME. ggj 



made water tight, and sufficient quantities of dried muck, loam, clay, 

 and litter, should be stored for the purpose of daily littering the floors, 

 both for the comfort of the cattle, and absorbing the urine ; but during 

 the winter, where such a practice is pursued, the contents of the hovel, 

 if thrown loosely under sheds, are often liable to heat and " firefang," 

 unless trodden down hard ; this can be done by keeping a few hogs 

 upon the manure, or suffering young cattle or sheep to go under the 

 sheds. As the manure does not freeze when thus treated, it can at 

 any convenient time during the winter, be sledded out and placed in 

 large heaps, near where it will be wanted for use ; thus saving much 

 heavy cartage over wet roads and across soft fields in the busy season 

 of spring. In this matter I speak from experience. 



The agricultural value of the urine of a stock of cattle, does not 

 appear to be fully appreciated by farmers generally, if we may judge 

 from the recklessness with which a large portion of it is suffered to 

 run to waste on many farms during the winter season. Carefully con- 

 ducted experiments made some years since, by an intelligent farmer, 

 Charles Alexander, near Peehles, Scotland, proved that while fourteen 

 head of cattle made six loads of solid manure, the urine voided by 

 them in the same time, would saturate seven loads of loam, rendering 

 it of equal value, load for load, with the solid excrements. " He tried 

 this experiment for ten years, and had indiscriminately used in the 

 same field, either the rotted cow-dung or the saturated earth ; and in 

 all the stages of the crop, he had never been able to discover any per- 

 ceptible difference ; he found that his compost lasted in its effects as 

 many years as his best putrescent manure." Said Mr. Coleman, 

 " conclusions of vast importance are deducible from this statement. 

 They speak volumes of instruction ; and if we are willing to learn, 

 they must lead to a very material alteration in the construction of our 

 barns." 



SAW MILLS. In early periods, the trunks of trees were split 

 with wedges, into as many and as thin pieces as possible ; and if it 

 was necessary to have them still thinner, they were hewn on both 

 sides to the proper size. This simple and wasteful manner of making 

 boards has been still continued, in some places, to the present time. 

 Peter the Great, of Russia, endeavored to put a stop to it, by forbid- 

 ding hewn deals to be transported on the river Neva. The saw, how- 

 ever, though so convenient and beneficial, has not been able to banish 

 entirely the practice of splitting timber used in building, or in making 

 furniture and utensils, for we do not speak here of firewood ; and in- 

 deed it must be allowed that this method' is attended with peculiar 

 advantages, which that of sawing can never possess. The wood 

 splitters perform their work more expeditiously than sawyers, and split 

 timber is much stronger than that which has been sawn ; for the fis- 

 sure follows the grain of the wood, and leaves it whole ; whereas the 

 saw, which proceeds in the line chalked out for it; divides the fibres* 

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