746 



F A R M E R S' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



— and of less than the fourth of an acre » i our 

 own state. The C'ongnree beats the Ohio! What 

 will not care/u/ CLihnre do? We do not know — 

 and pause for the answer. 



For the Paimers' Rpgister. 



VISCELLANGOUS REMARKS ON PRACTICAL 

 AGRICULTURIi:. 



("Continued from page 668,) 



Manure, and its application. — The price and char- 

 acter of labor in this country. 



The inexperienced farmer, ambitious, perhaps, 

 to excel in his new vocation, and solicitous to ob- 

 tain information, reads with avidiiy the works o( 

 Sir John Sinclair, Arthur Younir, and other cele- 

 brated, though theoretical British agriculturists, and 

 IS apt to adopt a system predicated upon their lucu- 

 brations — one ruinous in our country, because 

 neither adapted to our climate nor our high labor. 

 Let two facts ever be presented in prominent relief 

 to the Virginia agriculturist, in every survey he 

 may make upon his farm, or estimate of the pro- 

 bable fate of untried expedients. First, that ours 

 is a dry climate; secondly, that the price of labor is 

 extravagantly high, whether considered in refer- 

 ence to the charixes of white hirelings, or to capital 

 inve.sted in purchase of slaves. Whereas, in Eng- 

 land the climate is humid, and labor comparative- 

 ly cheap. A system which would operate profita- 

 bly in the latter country, might prove hiirhly inju- 

 rious here. The difference of climate, then, will 

 induce a prudent man, lo avoid, or abandon, the 

 wasteful use of manure for top-dressing, while if 

 he riirhtly counts ihe cost, he will also shun the 

 erection of ingenious sheds, expensive stercoraries. 

 and all the quackery of absurd, componnded mix-, 

 tures of manureiJ, as utterly unfitted to oiu- means, 

 the enormous charge of labor, and to every prac- 

 tical plan of [)r()fit. 



In conseijiience of our burning suns and arid 

 poils, we must continually uruard aijainsi. ifi;; evap- 

 oration of manures, if we look to marnuiiiff as a 

 part o! nur system of titrrnino:. The most com- 

 mon cause ol loss is by Ihe exhalation of its most 

 valuable ingredieiiis ; and in the absence of much 

 science, or experience, one would ihink the firsf 

 blush of common sense would admonish us (hat 

 by spreadinc it thinly over a large surfiice, exposed 

 to the sun and wind, the escape of the volatile 

 matter of manure was invited. The loss becomes 

 instanianeoiis, as it is almost entire. Excepiioiis 

 exist, crrowinnp out of the different characters of 

 manures, which may recommend its use in this 

 way. Liquid or semi-liquid m;inures, which are 

 immediately absorbed by ihe ground, and act pow- 

 erfully, may be ibus applied, or leached ashes, or 

 gypsum. Lime or fresh ashes, in any quamitv, 

 are too caustic (br lopdressintr. When applied in 

 that way in Englan.l, where an unclouded' day is 

 pcarcelv known, the fi-equenf showers which iiill, 

 neutralize their acrid properties and ihey act ad- 

 vantageously. By incorp;rating them with the 

 eoil, the natural humidiiv of the eanh, effects that 

 in the process of liuie which is speedilvconsumma- 

 ted in Enclan<l, Sco(l;uid, and Holland, by the 

 moisture of climate. But io the firm of ma- 

 nure most frequently use<l— a form which I would 

 Mcommend, a half decomposed state— the kind 



spirit of the manure (if I may so speak) is just 

 held long enough in suspense near the surface to 

 take wiii<is and Hy away. 



If I have any credit as a farmer, it is for the 

 quantity of manure which 1 annually make and 

 apply; and I do without hesitation de[)recate the 

 practice of top dressing, as scarcely renumeraiing 

 the farmer lor the expense, and as on one invol- 

 ving a loss of Ihree-fourihs of the manure. I have 

 tried it frequently, yielding to the o|iinion of those 

 around me, for it. has its advocates, and 1 can safe- 

 ly say I have never observed a very perceptible 

 eiiect except upon the growing crop to which it 

 was applied. Nay more, I am not certain that in- 

 jury did not somelimes result from its application 

 to the vvheat, from the number of flies and insects 

 of various kinds which it would collect the first 

 warm days of spring, which would prey upon 

 and deposit their egus in the tender plants of ihe 

 grain. From ihe mode I pursue, ihe land is ben- 

 efited six or seven years. Isl, I haul out in the 

 spring of the year the manure of the corn-stalks 

 and liiter of my farn)-yard in a putrescent state, 

 which I ploucrh under for my com. Coarse as it 

 may be, I find it g'eatly siiraulates the growth of 

 the corn. In ihe fall of the year, when I culti- 

 vate this same ground in wheal, I find this ma- 

 nure thorouirhly decomposed and friable, and it 

 acts well upon my wheat, and several succeed- 

 ing; crops of grass &c. 2d. On my summer fallows, 

 the manure is hauled when it is better rotted: it 

 is thrown in hea[)s, say about 20 loads to the acre, 

 and lianiis are em[)loyed to sjiread it just before 

 slirriiiiT it in. The wheal beino- ssfierwards shovel- 

 led in, the manure is pretty well blended with the 

 soil, and the land ren)ains in good tihh for years. 

 So fiir fi-oni top dressing, all my care is directed to 

 put it under the surface, as quick as possible. 



Having adverted, to 'he dissimilarity of England 

 and this country, in respect to climate, and labor, 

 and the inappositeness of the same system to 

 both, let us not be discouraged by the apparent 

 disadvantages of our agricultural condition. We 

 have an inliiiitude of means to collect masses of 

 manures and to collect ihem cheaply, not within 

 the reach of the Eni>'lish farmers, and that too 

 without manufactories of bone powder, clay kilns, 

 Parisian poudretie, or laborious scraping together 

 of rags, feathers, hair, ant-hills, rabbit and piijeons' 

 oflal. Indian corn is an untiring agent in the for- 

 mation of manure when properly directed. John 

 Taylor, through wieldinsj; the pen of an enthusi- 

 ast upon the subject of corn culture, did not say 

 too much in iiiJ liivor, when he reirarded it as a pro- 

 lific source of manure. Ccaisiderinii ii as ! do, an 

 exhaustiu!!: crop, even under his four-shift system, 

 never;heles.s the recuperative powers of the ma- 

 nure manuficiiired fiom if, counterbalance the 

 evils of its impovcrishin<r nature — pre-supposing 

 however, that a judicious use is made of it. When 

 I see then, a^' I frequently do, in the valley of 

 Virixinia. where tillaijiJ in the main is superior to 

 many o'her sections, corn-stalks left standing in 

 the field, the whole winter, drying and washing 

 and cumbering the (rround when cut down in 

 March, I unvoluniarily indulge in the soliloquy of 

 Poor Richard — "that fanner does not work it 

 right." The loss of fodder and manure thus wast- 

 ed, under dilierent manairement, would change 

 the aspect, and treble Hie produce of a farm. Nor ia 

 there any savin*; of labor if the ground is to be 



