1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



361 



ed that shall so siulderily and surely enricli the 

 farmer? In reply io \h\s. I will simply give my 

 own experience, and by it endeavor to convince 

 the reneciin<i; larmer what amount can, and in 

 fact lian heen made from means mcomparably 

 more limited Ihan is generally imasiined possible. 



Previous to 1S29 I had followed in Philadelphia 

 a sedentary occupation, whicii, by excessive ap- 

 plication in it. had so enleebled my constitution, 

 that I was obliged to seek in the country lor that 

 measure of health which I miuht no lonnjer hope 

 for in the city. Sol boufiht, with my scanty sav- 

 ings, a small place often and a half acres, and 

 moved upon it the same fall, of 1829. 



Not beinir acqiminted with farming, I hired a 

 man to plough two and a half acres, and sow it 

 in rye. The cost of seed and labor, in putting in, 

 gatherinir. and thrashingthe said crop, was $S 56 

 cents. The crop yielded five and a half bushels 

 of very poor black rye, fit only for hay feed — say 

 at forty cents per bushel, (as good rye was then 

 selling at filly-six cents per bushel,) was worth 

 S2 02 cents, and the net loss sustained upon 

 farming the ground was .§6 36 cents. The sea- 

 son was moderately good for grain, and the two 

 and a half acres rather a favorable specimen of 

 the rest of my land ! I planted a potato patch 

 the following spring (1830,) of about one-fburih 

 of an acre, which I manured in the hills with one 

 Joad of marl only, and the crop yielded but three 

 and a half bushels ! 



Being a total stranger to the nature and charac- 

 ter of soils, but having previously, fi-om some 

 cause, entertained the notion that land in general 

 produced about twenty-five bushels of wheat, or 

 forty bushels of corn, or four or five loads of hay 

 to the acre, the conviction I had now received of 

 the absolute worthlessness of my land fell upon 

 me like the shock of a thunder-clap. Discouraged 

 by the greatness of my disappointment, but not 

 quite confoimded. I determined that manure, in 

 future, should be every thing to me, and stand in 

 the stead of both land and crop. Being greatly 

 improved in health, by the change ofsituation and 

 exercise, I plied my avocation with increased dili- 

 gence for the maintenance of my f uTiily, and made 

 it tlie amusement of my leisure hours and leisure 

 moments to collect from every corner, and panne! 

 of fence, every thing that I imagined could fur- 

 nish a vegetable nutriment, and placed it in my 

 cow-yard, so combined with the litter as to absorb 

 and retain every thing of a putrescent character 

 that might be deposited there. By such means I 

 have gone on, every year increasing the quantity 

 of manure, to an extent that I believe has asto- 

 nished most of our neighbors. The fbllowinur is 

 a sketch of the means I possessed, and the me- 

 thods I took to obtain manure for the present year. 



I commenced last summer by collecting into the 

 outer part of my hog-pen every thing of the weed 

 kind I could find about the place, till I had a layer 

 about twelve inches deep, which I covered with a 

 layer of earth about five inches thick, continuing 

 the process till the pen was filled to about two and 

 a-half (eet deep. In the fall I littered my loose 

 corn-cobs and the principal part of the buckwheat 

 straw into the pen, interspersed with layers of 

 earth in the same manner. The two stalls of my 

 stables 1 served also the same, taking care to save 

 therein all the chaff and refuse straw after thrash- 

 ing. In these stalls I poured weekly, through the 



Vol. VT.-46 



fall and winter, (for I had no cattle in them except 

 in bad storms,) the soap-suds and such putrescent 

 fluids that might be obtained, keeping the corners, 

 and outsides, and under the mangers, carefully sa- 

 turated. 



As soon as my corn was gathered in the fall, I 

 cut the stubs close to the ground, and wheeled 

 them immediately, while yet heavy, into the barn- 

 yard, where 1 packed them in every part of it, and 

 also under the shed, being an area of ground about 

 (brty feet by twenty, and in a finv days covered 

 them also with a Inyer of earth, from a fence-row 

 close by, to the de[)t!i of about eight or ten inches. 

 Upon this earth I Ibddered my cattle during the 

 winter, occasionally depositing more earth upon 

 the litter as it collected there. 



Your readers will readily judge, that the object 

 of all this preparation was not so much for the 

 sake of saving the materials collected there as to 

 obtain a menstruum., or rather spo7ig"e, if I may so 

 call it, calculated to absorb and retain all the unne 

 deposited in the yard during the winter. The 

 compost masses, however, or layers, thus collected 

 together, are not to be considered as manure pre- 

 pared for the soil, but only as materials that require 

 to be thoroughly m/xed, inorder to reduce them 

 to a state fitted for a rapid and complete incorpo- 

 ration with the soil. Accordingly, with this view, 

 I commenced late in April the operation of turn- 

 ing it, which, from its having become closely pack- 

 ed to the depth of twenty inches, with the stalks 

 at the bottom, could only be done with the aid of 

 a grubbing hoe, turning it in strips about a foot 

 wide, reaching across the yard, and throwmg the 

 loosened manure back a sufficient space to allow 

 a trench between, wide enough to work in. After 

 removing the whole cover from the stalks along a 

 strip, as before mientioned, they were easily grub- 

 bed up, first cutting them through all along the 

 solid edire of the strip with the hoe, it being made 

 pretty sharp for the purpose. In addition to this 

 pile of yard manure, I have also emptied the con- 

 tents of my hog-pen and stables, extending the 

 pile several feet, and lying upon the ground, when 

 first loosened, more than two and a half feet deep. 

 Of this manure I have used sixteen loads thi-s 

 spring, for truck and garden, and, judging from 

 the size of the pile yet remaining, there cannot be 

 less than sixty loads, which, being turned once 

 more, 1 intend to use for wheat next fall. 



In this manner, from only three head of cattle, 

 and thefattenii\g of four hogs, I have made from 

 seventy to eighty-two horse loads of manure, the 

 highly fertilizing properties of which are abun- 

 dantly attested by my own former experience. I 

 will not say that it is stronger than the best barn- 

 yard manure, but fiom its closer affinity to the na- 

 ture of the soil, and greater facility for being ra- 

 pidly combined and incorporated, without loss by 

 evaporation, I have no doubt it will be frequently 

 I'bund, upon trial, more effective and more durable. 



In tlie process of turning manure, thus prepar- 

 ed, I hold it of the highest importance to mix well 

 the earthy and vegetable parts together. Few 

 persons are perhaps av^^are how rapidly the earth 

 lacilitates vegetable decomposition, and to what a 

 su rprisin Of degree ii a6sor6s the excess of fertiiiz- 

 ing effluvia, which must otherwise be evaporated 

 during the process of decomposition. This circum- 

 stance, I believe, taken in connexion with the 

 careful economizing of all animal excretions, con- 



