460 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 8 



both these usual errors, but only the one of mak- 

 ing theappUcaliontoo laborious and costly to leave 

 any certain profit. My erroneous and unprofitable 

 applications were very larfje; those made on more 

 correct views, and giving satisfactory resulls, are 

 more recent, and comparatively but small. 



In the beginning of the winter of 1832-3.3, I first 

 commenced the use of leai-litter on a large scale, 

 and with a view of makino: it a regular part of the 

 operations of the farm. My land had then been 

 ail made calcareous, (by shell-marl,) and the 

 soil, therefore, was then fitted, though incapable 

 of it before, to be profitably enriched bj' the 

 use of putrescent manures; and the efiorts to ac- 

 cumulate them, and the care in saving and ap- 

 plying them, (which had been but small while 

 the marling was going on,) had been extended 

 since a year or two, much beyond my previous ha- 

 bits, or the general careless habits of our country, 

 though still they were verj' lar behind what good 

 and improving farming would require. The ofial 

 of the grain crops were all used as food or litter 

 for the larm- teams and a small siock of cattle, and 

 were applied, well or ill, to the crops. My ditiiculties 

 and doubts as to the best mode of securing the 

 value of manure, and sundry experiments on 

 the heaping and iijrmentation, were presented in 

 several pieces which were published anonymously 

 in the Farmers' Register, at page 136, vol. 1, and 

 pages 497 and 669, of vol. IJ. It is enough here 

 to say, that my general mode was to have all the 

 vegetable matters trodden by the stock in the sta- 

 ble and barn-yard ; and the only question in ap- 

 plying was, whether fermented or not, or to what 

 extent and in what manner to carry the fermen- 

 tation of the nmnure. This was the state of 

 things, when, by heaping the leaves in the woods, 

 my bulk of litter was nearly doubled. For so 

 small a stock of mules and cattle as mine, tlie ot- 

 fal of the crops had before furnished more than an 

 abundance of litter, lor profitable admixture with 

 the animal matter. And by adding as much 

 more, of a still poorer material, there was proba- 

 bly not much value gained merely by the mixture, 

 <or more than the, leaves might have had in a se- 

 parate and cheaper application,) and the whole 

 labor of haulmg, in and out, heapinfr, loading, 

 spreading, and ploughing in, was doubled. Tlie 

 portion of benefit due to the leaves alone could 

 not be separately estimated, or fairly appreciated; 

 and, with all the desire (ell to find a favorable re- 

 sult, the whole benefit from the m.anure was not 

 enough to admit of allowing much profit to have 

 been derived from the leaves. Without being 

 able to make any fair estimate of the whole he- 

 nefit derived fi-oui the winter's manure, and not 

 even to approach an estimate of the leaf portion 

 of it, the result^, as to the latter, was altogether 

 discouraging. Tiiere was no evidence that the 

 application had paid for the labor. 



Another mode of application had also been 

 tried on from 10 to 20 acres. It was evident that 

 the passing all the leaves through the cattle-pens 

 would require more labor in th~e after-operations 

 than the larm could spare. Therefore, the leaves, 

 as raked up in the woods, in mid-winter, were 

 hauled directly on the land designed for corn, and 

 dropped as thick as they could be ploughed in to- 

 terably well, after being spread, by ploughs run- 

 ing 6 or 7 inches deep. The quantify to the acre is 

 not rememberedj nor can I say what the supposi- 



tion was of the benefit derived to the next or any 

 succeeding crop, as I did not reside on the farm; 

 and not long after, my personal attention was 

 almost entirely withdrawn. But this is certain, 

 that there was not enough benefit to promise re- 

 ward for that mode of applying leaves. 



These results were discourafjing, and to most 

 persons would have been sufficient proof that 

 leaves were not worth using. But I had been sa- 

 tisfied, fi'om the beginning, that there were great 

 objections to all the methods tried, and that no 

 fair trial could be made, or lijil value known, until 

 these defects of practice were avoided. A small 

 experiment of what was deemed a better method, 

 helped to strengthen my opinion. Still, the 

 wretched superintendence and consequent bad 

 management of my i'arm for some years, and lat- 

 terly the want of spare time, and oilier labor, have 

 prevented the reducing my plans to practice until 

 last winter, and then not to half the extent that is 

 hoped to be reached in the approaching winter, 

 and henceforward. 



The defects, which should be avoided, will first 

 be stated ; and to know these defects, it is neces- 

 sary to recur to the chemical constitution of leaves, 

 in difi'erent conditions, and to the established prin- 

 ciples of the nutrition of plants. It has already 

 been stated, that nothing can act immediately as 

 food for plants, except it be then soluble in water. 

 Therefore, whether it be of the richest rotten 

 farm-yard manure, or of recently-fiallen and un- 

 rotted leaves, the only parts that are ready to serve 

 as food for plants is so much of each as can be dis- 

 solved in water by being soaked in a sufUcient quan- 

 tity, and for a few hours, or days. The soluble pro- 

 portion of the rich and rotten manure would be very 

 large; and of unrotted leaves, very small. But 

 small as rnay be the latter, it is rendered less, if 

 not for the greater pari removed and lost, by every 

 heavy and thoroughly soaking rain that falls, and 

 which must dissolve and carry off, or into the 

 earth below, most of the extractive or soluble parts 

 of the leaves so treated. But the wetting pro- 

 motes decomposition, and consequently, the con- 

 version of insoluble to soluble matter; and when- 

 ever another heavy rain falls, there may be again 

 formed as much or more soluble matter as before, 

 to be again dissolved, and again lost. Thus, 

 though it may take five or six years for the leaves 

 of one year's deposite on poor wood-land, to rot 

 entirely, and though, in thtU time, all the parts 

 may have been successively soluble, and ready to 

 feed plants, still, at any one period the quantity 

 then ready to act was verj^ small, and the value of 

 the whole was made less and less by every suc- 

 cessive rain. Leaves which have been two or 

 three years lying on the ground where they fell, 

 and are rotten and much reduced, appear richer, 

 and more like manure, and perhaps may be more 

 fertilizing at the present, than newer leaves. But 

 still the former have already lost, by decomposi- 

 tion, and washing by the rains, half their bulk, 

 and more than half their strength. 



According then, to this reasoning, the first error 

 which is generally made in collecting leaves, is to 

 prefer the old to the new, and to be regardless of 

 the lapse of time, and exposure to rains, both of 

 the new and the old leaves. 



Some farmers, who regularly collect leaves to 

 litter their stock, and make manure, and who have 

 more wood-land than they need to rake every 



