1888] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



101 



J\Junli;«len, Alewives, or llanlheads, as they arc' 

 called, come to tlie shores in the early part ol' the 

 seat=on, in ijfreal nunibors, and are easily taken in 

 seines. In the southern parts of this stale, and in 

 Rhode Island, they are used in great quantities; 

 cither spread upon the grass land, or laid near to, or 

 placed in, the hill of co1-n. They are very pow- 

 erful; but their elfects not lasting. The animal 

 matter contained in them is considerable; and the 

 bones are composed of phosphate of lime, which 

 is a strong and active manure. The great objec- 

 tion to their use is, that to a person not interested, 

 they render the air extremely offensive. Not so 

 to those who find a profit in their application. To 

 most men, a golden breeze is always fragrant. 

 There are other marine manures of great value. 

 1 have found sea sand, put in the hill of potatoes, 

 in low land, of great etticacy. My experience in 

 this matter is not singular. Tlie silicious matter 

 divides the soil; and the salt which adheres to it 

 serves to stimulate the plant. Sea sand has been 

 used with advantage at Sandy Bay. The marine 

 plants are used with very beneficial results. The 

 eel-grass is of little value excepting as litter. 

 Nothing seems more grateful or healthful to swine 

 than an abundance of this grass in their sties. It 

 serves to increase the compost heap; but it becomes 

 light and does not leave much when dried. Rock 

 weed and kelp are valuable when ploughed in; 

 but they are used to most advantage when ap- 

 plied directly as a top-dressing upon grass land. 

 Then their effects are remarkable, and no more 

 efficacious manure can be used. If left in heaps 

 for any length of time, they soon become heated 

 and decomposed; and are gone. 



The relLise of the comb manufactories, horn 

 tips and horn shavings, are greatly valued as ma- 

 nures. The refuse of the glue manufactories, are 

 used with great advantage. Ashes, leeched or 

 crude, have been applied by different individuals 

 with various success. A farmer of high autho- 

 rity, in Newberry, stales: — "I think leeched 

 ashes very valuable to spread on grass land; like- 

 wise for onions and grain. 1 use twenty or thirty 

 cart loads. I gave tliis year three dollars per load 

 of fifty bushels." A respectable farmer states, 

 that he deems them of no use, unless applied in 

 conjunction with other manure, and then of great 

 efficacy. In their application upon a rich loam to 

 corn, both in the hill and spread round the hill at 

 the first hoeincp, I have seen no beneficial results 

 from them. The experience of J. Buel, Esq., of 

 Albany, he told me, in the use of ashes, coincides 

 with mine. Leeched ashes, or soap-boilers' waste, 

 which contains always a quantity of lime, I have 

 used with advantage for wheat. These different 

 results may depend upon soil, season, modes of 

 application, or various circumstances, which we 

 have not yet been able to determine. There can 

 be no doubt of their efficacy and utility in some 

 cases. There are many good authorities to this 

 efliBct. 



The ashes of anthracite coal have been spread 

 upon grass land in Gloucester, with obvious ad- 

 vantage. Peat ashes have been used in New- 

 bury on grass ground with much advantage; but 

 in excess, or when frequently repeated, their ef- 

 fects are stated to be injurious. 



The use of gypsum in the interior of the coun- 

 ty, has been successful; but not so on the sea- 

 board. In Haverhill, Andover, and Methuen, its 



elfects are marked; and, in some cases, are as 

 distinctly observable in parts of a field on which 

 it has been used, where the other parts have been 

 omitted in the distribution, as the enclosure is by 

 the fences. The testimony of an experienced 

 and carcfiil farmer in the interior is subjoined. 

 " As to gypsum, I have used it with good success. 

 It is the opinion of many of our fiirmers that it in- 

 jures the land. But from actual observation, I 

 have been led to believe otherwise. There are pas- 

 tures in our vicinity, in which plaster has been used 

 twenty years without ploughing; and they are now 

 the best pastures in the vicinity, I think, that in 

 some instances, our crops have been doubled by 

 the use of it. We usually apply about two and a 

 half bushels to the acre." This is a large applica- 

 tion ; and it is questionable, whether the benefits 

 are large in proportion to the quantity applied. In 

 Berkshire county, a bushel to an acre is deemed 

 ample. 



Of the ploughing in of green crops for enrich- 

 ing land, 1 know of but one decisive experiment; 

 an^l this made by one of the most intelligent and 

 best friends of the farming interest in the county. 

 This was made in 1832-3; and honored by the 

 premium of the Essex Agricultural Society. This 

 was a crop of buckwheat ploughed m when in full 

 flower. " The committee say, on examining the 

 land on which the experiment had been made, 

 they found the growing crop thereon was in a 

 much more promising and flourishing state, and 

 much better sustained the severity of the drought, 

 t.o v/hich ail lands in that vicinity were then ex- 

 posed, than the crops of corn which were then 

 growing on the contiguous ground of a similar 

 soil; arid which had be'en cultivated and manured 

 in the ordinary manner." Besides the ploughing- 

 in of the green crop, the field was manured in the 

 same manner as the other lands with which it is 

 here compared. 



The price of manure, in Essex county, is extra- 

 ordinary. Three dollars and a half a cord fbr sta- 

 ble manure have been paid at the stables in Me- 

 thuen; ,^4 50 in Andover; and I have known ^6. 

 paid in Salem fbr compost of night soil and muscle 

 bed. A farmer in Middlesex, told me he was con- 

 tent to pay §5 50, fbr unmixed cow manure in 

 Lowell, and cart it a distance of four miles. The 

 expenses and trouble of transportation are oflten 

 fully equal to half the cost of manure. It is sur- 

 prising to find farmers willing to pay such prices; 

 and it would be well to inquire, whether it would 

 not be expedient to keep one man, whose sole bu- 

 siness it should be, whenever the team could be 

 spared, to collect the materials for a compost heap, 

 which are to be found in abundance in almost 

 every vicinity fbr the labor of going after them. 

 At the prices above-named, manure may well be 

 called the gold dust of the farmer. 



I am unvvilling to quit this homely subject with- 

 out remarking, what always strikes me with great 

 (brce, that beautiful and sublime miracle of the 

 divine Providence, by which the very refuse, which 

 man casts out and loathes, returns to bless him 

 in the verdant fields, and the teeming harvests, in 

 the most fragrant flowers, the most delicious fruits, 

 and the most substantial products. 



The use of clover sowed among grain and even 

 among corn for ploughing in as the means of re- 

 novating the soil, has not prevailed within my 

 knowledge in Essex county; but is commended to 



