726 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



of wheat can come in. These precaulions against 

 evaporation, with placing the pummer cleanings 

 under cover, or at least where it may be trodden 

 hard, may be resorted to without a great Bacrifice 

 o(" litter or vegetable manure. 



Infinitely the most abundant Eource of artificial 

 manure within the reacli of a bread eluff farmer, 

 is that raised in farm-pens during the winter. 

 Skill and industry in this single point would as 

 suddenly, but more permanently, improve the 

 face of our country, as paint does that of a wrin- 

 kled hag. 



Of these pens, each with a shelter, there should 

 be at least five or equivalent divisions for cattle, 

 beeves, sheep and calves, muttons and hogs, A 

 disposition of them ought to be made upon a cal- 

 culation of economy, as to the combined objects of 

 collecting the litter, carrying out the manure and 

 feeding the animals. Alter the Indian corn crop 

 is planted, that portion of it excepted, for which 

 the manure of the farm-yards is intended, these 

 animals should be placed on their summer's esta- 

 blishment ; every other species of labor on the 

 farm should cease, until the harvest of manure is 

 secured, and its security against evaporation should 

 be an object of as much solicitude, as the security 

 of hay against rain. On making a breach in the 

 body of manure, the olfactory nerves will advise 

 you of the necessity of precautions against this loss. 

 The.=e are, to remove the manure in regular divi- 

 visions, and not by wounding and mangling it in 

 different places, create channels for the escape of 

 its richest qualities. To deposite it in straight 

 rows, and at regular distances across the whole 

 field to be manured, that the manure first carried 

 out, may be immediately spread and ploughed in 

 after one row is finished. And to spread and 

 plough in well each row, without waiting for a suc- 

 ceeding one. The object is to secure the manure 

 against evaporation as soon as possible after it is 

 exposed to it. 



iVly general rule is to deposite the loads, consist- 

 ing of as much as four common oxen can draw, 

 in squares at ten yards distant from each other, 

 80 that the extreme distance in spreading it, will 

 be five from the centre of each heap. But this 

 general rule admits of important exceptions, if 

 the land fluctuates in fertility, the loads may be 

 deposited at twelve yards' distance, which is a good 

 dressings and if it is accompanied with gypsum, 

 the quantity to an acre may be diminished one 

 fifth, in consideration of its aid. 



For some years I have used gypsum wiih the 

 coarse manure of the farm yards, and I think it 

 the most beneficial mode of using it. The ma- 

 nure carried out each day is ploughed in, before 

 which one bushel of gypsum to the acre, ground 

 fine, is sown on it, after it is spread. 



The reader will recollect that the ground to be 

 manured has been fallowed into high ridges, five 

 feet and a half wide, having a deep and wide 

 water furrow between each ridge. Over this un- 

 even surface, the coarse manure being spread as 

 equally as possible, and sown with gypsum, the 

 ridge is to be reserved by the same three furrows 

 and the same two ploughs with vrhich it was form- 

 ed, each drawn by four horses. On both sides ol 

 the deep furrow, with the mould board towards it, 

 a deep and wide furrow is to be run by a large 

 plough, cutting on Urn right side with one share, 

 ■3 aa to throw the earth It raises by its mould board 



into this old deep furrow, and to form precisely in 

 it, a neat ridge or list on which to plant the corn. 

 And the large trowel-hoe-plough, with its two 

 mould boards, splits the summit of the fallow ridge, 

 and throws its earth and manure into the two fijr- 

 rows made on each side by the preceding plough. 

 If these ploughs are of the proper kinds, and the 

 operation is well performed, the manure is secured 

 in the best manner against evaporation, the ground 

 is placed in fine tilth, and unless it is of a very un- 

 yielding texture, shallovy^ culture thereafter will 

 secure a crop, equal to the capacity of the land. 



A considerable saving of labor may be made by 

 a very simple iuslrument for raising the manure 

 into the carls and scattering the heaps ; and by di- 

 viding and balancing the laborers so judiciously, 

 that loading, carting, spreading and ploughing 

 may proceed, without having too few laborers at 

 one work, and too many at another. The instru- 

 ment is precisely a hilling hoe, except that three 

 strong square iron prongs are substituted for the 

 blade. These sink from the usual elevation of a 

 hand hoe by their own weight, into the bed of 

 coarse farm-yard manure, easily rend from ita 

 edge or its surface a mass of manure equal to the 

 strength of the laborer, hold it well in raising, and 

 by a small jolt, from the helve's falling on the top 

 of the cart, drop it therein with certainty. In 

 scattering the heaps, they take up the manure, 

 and hold it suflicienlly to aid the action of throw- 

 ing it two or three yards. Over edged instruments 

 their advantages are infinite, as coarse manure 

 must be cut and chopped to pieces with great 

 labor, before these will raise or scatter it ; as seve- 

 ral strokes are often necessary to obtain a hoe or 

 spade full ; and as their contents often fall off in 

 being raised. And over the pitchfork with a hori- 

 zontal handle, their pre-eminence is little less, as 

 they save the labor of stooping, and possess in a 

 far greater degree the powers of a lever. These 

 pronged hoes are only unfit to scrape together and 

 raise the small quantity of fine manure, which 

 falls to the bottom as the coarse is removed. Hoes 

 and spades collect this as usual. This verj' sim- 

 ple instrument, a three-pronged hoe, helved in the 

 same angle as a common hilling hoe, has, I think, 

 enabled me for some years to carry out and spread 

 my farm yard manure in half the time it had pre- 

 viously occupied. For many purposes it is also an 

 excellent garden hoe. 



Some time may be saved and some skill exerted, 

 even in the simple object of laying off the ground 

 to receive the loads of manure. Being ridged, 

 these ridges and furrows must be the course of the 

 rows of manure, to avoid the inconvenience of 

 crossing them. The person dividing the ground 

 for receiving manure ibllovvs one, beginning five 

 yards from the edge of his field, if his rows are to 

 be ten apart, and measuring by the step, which he 

 must by experiments have reduced to considerable 

 accuracy; he digs a hole as he proceeds at one 

 stroke v/ith a hoe, at each spot on which a load is 

 to be deposited. At the same lime he watches 

 the quality of the land, and lessens or extends the 

 distances between his holes, according to that cri- 

 terion. 



It is unnecessary to consider whether the ani- 

 mal and vegetable manure I have been treating 

 of, ought to be ranked among the auxiliaries of 

 the atmospherical, or the aimospherical degraded 

 . into an auxiliary of theirs. For my part, 11 i was 



