1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



1G3 



Richmond aiul Petersl)ur<r, and probably all the 

 other towns at the falfs oi' our rivers. Particular 

 individuals, by lavish use- cf the cheap and rich 

 manure ortlie public stables, have hiji-hly, thoua;h 

 but (or a short time, improved some of these lands, 

 and reaped heavy crojis, and, possibly, made great 

 prolits. 15ut still the demand ibr such manure by 

 the hungry, yet wasteiul soil, is continual, and if it 

 is not freqiicnily repealed, the original povertysoon 

 returns. But lew persons have used these means, 

 to much extent, and nwst bpighboririi!: residents 

 are satisfied that the town numure iB too costly to 

 be carted to their (;u-ms.. Yet though the riciiest 

 stable manure, (richest because it is principally of 

 animal matter,) may be bought ii'om the tavern 

 and livery s!ables at 12^ cents for the largest sin- 

 gle horse loads' (20' to 25 bushels,) it mostly ro(s 

 away in bulks in the stable yards, for want of 

 regular purchasers even at that low price. 'So it 

 is however — li'om the Utile town manure carried 

 to neiii'hhoring farms, the little permanency of ei- 

 lect of vvhat is used, and the general impression 

 that it is not worth using — it fesulis that most of 

 the lands, lying eveti wiihin the short distance of a 

 mile li'om the towns, are wretchedly poor, and 

 yield but little for the support of the town, either 

 in grain, grass, or garden vegetables for market. 

 Indeed it may well be doubted, whether a large? 

 proportion of the population oi' the vicinity do 

 not buy (or obtain otherwise) li'om the town, as 

 much provision as they sell t,o it. This state of 

 things has continued, with ,but little actual im- 

 provement, as long as these towns have stood; 

 and it may safely be predicted, that unless calca- 

 reous manure? are used to fix the otherwise fleet- 

 ing value of the putrescent matters, that the gen- 

 eral condition of things will never be much better. 

 It is not then s'range, that with the neighboring 

 farms so poverty-stricken, the town markets should 

 be badly supplied, and at high prices, with all the 

 small articles of daily purchase and consumption, 

 which, though small, make up the greater part of 

 the comfort, and (at usual prices) capse the greater 

 part of the expense of living. Just let the reader 

 imagine vvhat would be the difference in these re- 

 spects, if the lands surrounding each, town, for as 

 much as six miles distance, were as rich as they 

 well could be, and produced in abundance, clover 

 and other grasses, a lull supply of garden vegeta- 

 bles and other small articles for the daily markets, 

 besides their large crops of grain and other staple 

 products. The comforts of all the persons living 

 in town, so far as they depend on food, would be 

 greatly increased, while the expenses of living 

 would be made less than at present — and yet the 

 suppliers of the market would be better rewarded 

 than by the present miserable system, because 

 rich land and good farming can always undersell 

 the poor and unproductive; and a market gene- 

 rally well supplied is a more sure, and therefore a 

 better place of sale, than where demand is irregular 

 and, of course, prices irregular, though often very 

 high. It will be under such a state of improvement 

 that market gardens and market farms will be profit- 

 ably kept — and the towns will be abundantly sup- 

 plied, and from their neighborhood, with milk, 

 cream, butter, eggs, fowls, and fi'esh meals of ltd 

 young animals, as well as with vegetables. The 

 surplus product of hay, grain, and other field crops, 

 of such highly enriched districts, would make no 

 small addition to the sales and the export trade o^ 



the towns, and would serve to increase their popu- 

 lation, and thus iurnish a still increased demand for 

 the products of the neighboring lands. It is also 

 probable, that i/the fish, of the rivers which fiow 

 by towns, were not driven away by the fillhiness of 

 the water, that their nundters would be the greater 

 on account of the neighborhood of a town, (and the 

 abundance of food thrown into the water,) instead 

 of being reduced 'ahnost to nothing, as is notori- 

 ously the case. Even the shad, and other fish of 

 passage^ whose instinct strongly impels them to 

 seek tlije higher waters of rivers, to dpposite their 

 spawn, are mostly deterred from passing through 

 the flood of* filthy water that a tdwn supplies; and 

 the people on the upper waters suffer thereby a 

 privation, as do the townsmen by the driving to 

 a distance the more fixed residents of our fresh water 

 rivers. 



It may however be reasonably objected, by those 

 who have not studied'the qualities of soils and ma- 

 nures, that too much value is countedon li'om the 

 use of this proposed compound matter. It would 

 be unnecessary here to ri^peat at length all the 

 grounds on which that estimate is ((Dunded. For 

 the amopnt of early asd annual increase to be ex- 

 pected liora marl on naturally poor soils, and for 

 the permanency of its efliects, I relt-rtothe reason- 

 ing and the facts presented in the Esmy on Calca- 

 reous Manures, and also to the opinions of the' 

 hundreds' of farmers in lower Virginia who are 

 now thus improvins'their lands. For the chemi- 

 cal power of calcareous ea,rth in combining with, 

 and preserving from waste, putrescent matters, 1 

 refer to the general reasoning on this head in the 

 Essay, and the statements made in the first of 

 these coinmunications. As to the enriching value 

 of human excrements, it is knov/n, in Europe and 

 in China,- that they are the richest of all. In 

 England, it is stated in agricultural books, that two 

 wagon loads is a sufiicient dressing for an acre — 

 probably because more at once would be hurtful to 

 the crop. In France, there are in operation regu- 

 lar establishments set up by private adventurers,, 

 for desiccating, and thus|)reparing for use, the pro- 

 ducts of the privies and public sewers of large ci- 

 ties; and sufiicient profits are made to support these 

 establishments, by selling the dried manure (pov- 

 drette) to th^ farmers. Its great richness, in small 

 weight and bulk, makes it v/ell suiteil for distant 

 transportation, and extensive sale. From the ac- 

 counts that I have read of these establishments, it 

 may be inferred that much previous decomposi- 

 tion, waste of value, and extrication of ofi'erisive' 

 effluvia, must take place in the material, bclbre it 

 is brought to the desiccating establishment — and 

 that 'both the previous and subsequent manual 

 operations must be highly disagreeable and disgust- 

 ing. Besides, the desiccation seems to be sought 

 more by mechanical than by chemical means — and 

 any dry pulverized earthy matter is used to absorb 

 the fluid and to make the mixture dry. There does 

 not seem to be ,much choice in the earthy sub- 

 stances. Thus they propose gypsum, and hurnt^ 

 earth, and quicklimie, as well as chalk, rubbish of 

 demolished buildings, and coal and wood ashes. 

 The first two of these substances, according to 

 my views, would be but of little effect, acting as 

 they do only mechanically; thequickli.ne, (which 

 it seems is preferred,) would be decidedly injuri- 

 ous; and the mild calcareous character of the lat- 

 ter substances would render them, only, proper for 



