ISf^S] 



F A R M K R S^ R I^ G 1 S T K R 



15 



For the l-'armer's Kegidter. 



March i:?//t, 1838. 



For tho Iii-si fillepn or twenty years, onr crojjs of 

 coni hiive liiv>n ttiatfriiilly slioiteiieil, and ospocinl- 

 ly ht^s lilt' lahor of niiikinii; ihcni siiUR), heen nuich 

 iiu;reat!eil, liy ili« nilacks ofii piiiall worm, not uti- 

 K|)tiy (frurii ils i=izf und liirin) c.iille.d the wire 

 worm — hy soiiu"! called llie web-worm. Tliis lit- 

 tle aniniiil lives durini; the winter in the pith of 

 weeds ; espefially the stick-weed, and has been 

 1<nown ill liiis pari oi' ihe siaie o;ily since tlie prac- 

 tice of eiiclosihjr and non-Vfrazinir. I can remem- 

 ber well its (list appearance. Il is not the cut- 

 worm, so injurious to newly planted tobacco and 

 younw calibaire phirils; nor does it work ils injury 

 in the same way; but it assails the corn as soon as 

 it comes up, just in the bud, where the roots and 

 stalk spriiiijr out, and eats inio the liud; not always 

 e/iY/rp/j/ killing ihe plant — hut so enfeebling it as 

 to remierit worihless. Every one remembers how 

 filial this liitle worm proved to be last year; and, no 

 doubt, any plan proposed to avert the evil will be 

 tried, if it be neither expensive nor troublesome. 

 Such is one F suggest now, viz : — simplv to 

 eteep the seed-corn twenty-tour hours in a strong 

 decoction o(" tobacco; any refuse tobacco, or eviMi 

 stalks, will answer. Having suffered exceeJinijIy 

 from this worm last year, and finding that two 

 of my neighbors did not sutfe-r at all, 1 inquired 

 the cause, and was informed that the use of to- 

 bacco juice as recommended abo\e had the only 

 assignable cause Kir their exemption from the in- 

 jury ,so severely lelt by me and many others. I 

 understand from ihem, they had used this remedy 

 for some time, by the advice of Mr. William 

 Skipwith, formerly of Cumberland county, whom 

 I had long known as a goad cultivator; and whose 

 land, from a long continued system of enclosing 

 and not grazintr, was peculiarly foul, and liable to 

 injury f. oni the worm. 



One of the numbers of your Register, some 

 lime last spring, spoke of the great injury sustain- 

 ed by iMr. Carter of Shirley, ti'om this or a simi- 

 lar worm. If Mr. Carter will use the preventive, 

 I propose, and it should prove efiectual, I shall 

 be well rewarded for the little trouble of making 

 this communication, by the reflection that he has 

 been (however inadequately) rewarded for the 

 great benefits he has conferred on agriculture, both 

 tiirough your paper and by his example. 



Arator. 



From Dr. Granville's Report to the Thames' Improvement Com- 

 pany. 



ON THE VAU'E OF HUMAN EXCREMENTS AS 

 MANURE. 



This very question having been submitted a 

 few years since to the consideration of the late 

 Professor Henibstadt, of Berlin, by the Saxon and 

 Prussian authorities, who were desirous to apply 

 the contents of the city drains and cess-pools to 

 the recovery of barren and sandy lands, in the 

 environs of Berlin and Dresden — that eminent ag- 

 riculturist undertook, in conjunction with other 

 learned men and practical farmers, a series of ex- 

 periments, which were carried on for a great length 



of time, and were varied in every possililc way, 

 in order to av'oid all sources of (allacy. Tfie re- 

 sults of those experimenis, Iltmibstadi afterwards 

 published, andlhey led to extensive a<rriciillural 

 operations, all of which proved successliil. Profes- 

 so'- Scuiihler, the writer of the mosl esieemed and 

 certainly inosl able -'I'reaiiseon Agronomia,' or ihe 

 Itesi nioiie of knowing and treating every species 

 of land, r('|)caied and added to ihe exfterimeiils of 

 Hembsiadt, from which he oblained alike resnils. 

 These fie published in a tabular lorin. which has 

 since passed inio ihe hands of all ihe large prac- 

 tical farmers in Germany, and have llirnied ihe 

 ba.-iis of instruction on manuring, in the harnis of 

 professors of agriculture, whom many of tlieconii- 

 nen al governiiKMits have, with infinile advantage, 

 established in institutions purpost-ly formed to dis 

 seminate useful and [iraclical truilis in the art of 

 arming. Frotn that table the lljllovving fiicis may 

 be collected. 



If a given (juantily of land sown, and vvilhout 

 manure, yields three times the seed employed, 

 then tlie same quantity of land will produce 

 5 limes the (juanliiy of sown, when manured 

 with old herbage, putrid grass or leaves, gar- 

 den stuti, &,c. 

 7 times with cow dung, 

 9 limes vvilh |}igeon's dung. 

 10 limes with horse dung, 

 12 limes wiih human urine, 

 12 limes vvilh goat's dung, 

 12 times with sheep's dung, and 

 14 times with human manure, or bullock's blood. 



But if the land be of such quality as to |)ro- 

 duce, without manure, five times the sown quantity 

 — then the horse dung manure will yield fourteen, 

 and human manure nineteen and two-thirds the 

 sown (juanlity. * 



In addiiion to this information, it was ascertain- 

 ed that the mist imporlant crops — those, I mean, 

 wliich yield most profit— such as flax, lor example, 

 so extensively cultivated in lioth Flanders, can 

 only be obtained m abundance, and of the finest 

 quality, by employing human manure. 



Bui by far the most imporlant point of practical 

 knowledge in this matter, put forward by the same 

 great auihorities, and the truth ol' which was after- 

 wards confirmed to me by more than one great 

 farmer in East Elanders, is, that while the~ ma- 

 nuring with human soil has produced fourteen 

 times the quantity sown, where horse horse dung 

 has yielded ten — the proportion of the human or 

 Flemish manure employed, was to that of the 

 horse dung, as one to Cive only; so that with one 

 ton of the Flemish, a larger produce is obiained, 

 than with five tons of stafile manure. These in- 

 disputable truths being once ascertained, let us 

 see how they would work practically in this coun- 

 try. 



In England a ton of good stable manure sells 

 for five shillings. Now an acre of arable land in 

 an ordinary slate of cultivation in England, is ma- 



* It is curious how ttiis corresponds witfi one of the 

 experiments made by Mr. Burrows, an intelligent 

 Norfolk farmer, wfio received the gold medal from the 

 Society of Arts, for them. On four acres of broad- 

 cast wheat, iVIr. Burrows obtained 14 quarters and a 

 fraction of wheat, hoving emploped one quarter as 

 seed. Had he manured fiis land with Flemish ma- 

 nure, instead of 14 quarters, he would have obtained 

 19 2-3 quarters for the one he employed. 



