FARMERS' REGISTER 



is3 



tliat might otherwise eeeape from that. Brakes 

 and weeds of any kind are valuable. These I 

 make use of, to the extent they are attainable, 

 when in a green state, as I consider green vege- 

 table substances, lor this purpose, (ar more valu- 

 able than dry. Potato tops, when pulled lor 

 early use, belbre they become dry and shriveled, I 

 consider equal il" not superior to any other green 

 substance lor this purpose. Pea vines 1 usually 

 put inio my hog yard after the peas are thrashed 

 off, and if some are put in belbre being thrashed, 

 they are as gralelully received by the inmates of' 

 the yard. '1 he quantity of manure made by my 

 hogs is, lor each one, double that made by each 

 cow lor the same period of time. The quantity 

 of vegetable matter suitable for manure, that re- 

 mains in most crops after the liuit and grain are se- 

 lected, and the amount of manure that can be 

 obtained if this matter is carefully collected and 

 carted to the pens of hoirs and other animals are 

 indeed astonishing. " The expressed cane," says 

 J. H. Cowper, in an able communication to the 

 Southern Agriculturist, " tops and leaves, from 

 an acre of cane yield about 10,000 lbs. of dry 

 vegetable matter. An acre of corn including 

 blades, stalks, husks, and cobs, gives about 3500 

 lbs., when the yield of corn has been 20 bushels ; 

 and the after crop of peas 1000 lbs. — together 4500 

 lbs. An acre of solid peas 2000 lbs. The potato 

 vines, pumpkins, and turnips, being eaten green, 

 contribute only to the production ol fluid manure. 

 The total quantity ofvegetable matter to be applied 

 to the manuring of 16 acres in crop, will therelbre 

 be — 



4 acres in corn, at 4500 lbs. per acre, - 



1 acre in peas and turnips, 



3 acres in cane, .... 



18,000 lbs. 

 2,000 " 

 30,000 « 



51^,000 



which, if merely rotted by the rain, will yield 

 100,000 lbs. of manure, and if rotted by urine and 

 dung of stock from 150,000 to 200,000 lbs. or at 

 least 25,000 lbs. of manure to each of the lour 

 acres proposed to be manured." 



We are inclined to dwell still longer on the sub- 

 ject of manure, because its great importance, and 

 the proper modes of collecting the greatest quan- 

 tity, seem in many pon ions of our country to be 

 wholly overlooked. Especially is this the case 

 throughout the western states. Trusting to the 

 extreme luxuriance of the soil, the lands of many 

 farmers are burdened with one exhausting crop 

 afier another, until at length the productiveness 

 of the farm is materially reduced, and finally 

 measures are necessarily resorted to, to improve 

 an impoverished condition of the soil which proper 

 manuring would have prevented altogether. Ma- 

 ny persons seem to consider a yard where the 

 dung of animals can be collected, sufficient Ibr all 

 purposes — little dreaming that upon the construc- 

 tion of this enclosure depends both the quality and 

 quantity of the manure ; that successive rains may 

 be gradually washing away the most fertilizing 

 portions of their yard, or excessive fermentation 

 causing the escape of gases which, if possible, 

 should always be retained. The dung of animals, 

 when intended for manure, should be protected 

 as far as practicable from exposure to the air. 

 " He," says Arthur Young, Esq., " who is witliin 

 the Bpliere of the scent of his dunghill, smells that 



which his crop would have eaten, had he per- 

 miited il. Instead of manuring the land, he ma- 

 nures the atmosphere, and belbre his dunghill is 



finished, another parish and perhaps a 

 county." " As lew exhalations," remarks 



another 

 Fes- 

 senden,* " as possible, ought to be suffered to 

 i rise from the excrements of animals. Fresh ma- 

 [ nure ought to be kept as carefully Irom the sun and 

 rain, asgrass which has been cut lor hay." But how 

 ! are these objects to be eflecied? The answer ia 

 i an easy one. Prevent the rain from draining ofi 

 ' the best portions of the manure, by constructing 

 i a yard in a dishy Ibrm, lowest in the centre, so 

 j that the urine of the animals may be collected in 

 a reservoir and retained ; and prevent fermentation, 

 I or absorb its products by occasionally scattering 

 I over the dungheap a quantity of the same earth 

 I with which the yard is bedded. " Earth," re- 

 marks the author of the letters of Agricola, " is a 

 powerJijl absorber of all the gases which arise 

 from putrelaciion." Put a layer of common soil 

 along the top of a fermenting dunghill, from 

 twelve to eighteen inches thick, and allow it to 

 remain there while the process is carrying on with 

 activity, and alterwards separate it carefully from 

 the heap, and it will have been impregnated with 

 the most iertilizing virtues. The composts which 

 of late have attracted such universal attention, 

 and occupied so large a place in all agricultural 

 publications, originated in the discovery of the 

 absorbing power ol the earth, and in the appli- 

 cation of it to the most beneficial purposes. A 

 skilful agriculturist would no more think of 

 allowing a violent I'ermentation to be going on 

 in his dunghill, unmixed with earth, or other 

 matter, to fix and secure the gaseous elements, 

 than the distiller would suffer his apparatus to 

 be set at work, without surmounting his etill 

 with the worm, to cool and condense the rare- 

 fied spirit which ascends to evaporation. In both, 

 the most precious matter is that which assumes 

 the aerilbrm state ; and to behold it escaping 

 with unconcerned indifference is a demonstratioa 

 of the most profound ignorance. 



A slight fermentation in a dunghill, may indeed 

 be advantageous in causing the woody fibre, con- 

 tained in many of the substances deposited there, 

 to decay and dissolve, but wooden fibre is the 

 only vegetable mailer that requires this process to 

 render il nutritive to plants. In the straw of chaff 

 and litter, as well as the leaves and other products 

 of the forest — which may be advantageously placed 

 in barn yards Ibr conversion to manure — will 

 be Ibund considerable portions of fibrous matter, 

 which must be fermented to be uselul. it there- 

 fore becomes a matter of great importance to as- 

 certain correctly how far this process of fermen- 

 tation should be allowed to proceed. On this 

 point Sir Humphry Davy remarket :—'' In all 

 cases where dung is fermenting, there are simple 

 tests by which the rapidity of the process, and 

 consequently the injury done may be discovered. 

 If a thermometer, plunged inio the dung, does 

 not rise to above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, there is 

 little danger of much aerilbrm matter flying oH'. 



" When a piece of paper, moistened in muriatic 

 acid held over the steam arising from the dung- 



* Viffe Complete Farmer, p. 173. 

 t Vide Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, republished 

 in the Farmers' Register. 



