the surface. A neighbor had twenty bushels of 

 wheat per acre on laud thus treated, wliile the 

 rest of the field yielded only five. 



Manures. — These are first among the first of 

 requisites in successful fanu manaa^emcnt. They 

 are the strong' moving power in agricultural 

 operations. They are as the great steam engine 

 which drives the vessel onward. Good and 

 clean cultivation is, indeed, all-important ; but it 

 w^ill avail little without a fertile soil ; and this 

 fertility must be created, or kept up, by a co- 

 pious application of manures. For these contri- 

 bute directly, or assist indirectly, to the supply 

 of nearly all the nourishment which plants re- 

 ceive ; it is these, which, produced chiefly fi-om 

 the decay of dead vegetable and animal matter, 

 combine most powerfully to give new life and 

 vigor ; and thus the apparently putrid mass, is 

 the very material which is converted into the 

 most beautiful ibrms of natui-e ; and plants and 

 brilliant flowers spring up from the decay of old 

 forms, and thus a continued succession of de- 

 etraction ami renovation is earned on through 

 an iTnlimited scries of ages. 



Manures possess diifcrent degrees of power, 

 partly from their inherent richness, and partly 

 from the rapidity with which they thro\v off 

 their fertilizing mgredients, in assisting the 

 growth of plants. These are given oiF by solu- 

 tion in water, and in the form of gas ; the one 

 as liquid manure, which, running down, is ab- 

 sorbed bj' the fine roots ; and the other as air, 

 escaping mostly into the atmosphere, and lost. 



The great art, then, of saving and manufactur- 

 ing manure, consists in I'etaining and applying 

 to the best advantage, these .soluble and gaseous 

 portions. Probably more than oneluilf of all 

 the materials \vhich exist in the country, are 

 lost, totally lost, by not attending to the drainage 

 of stables and fanu yards. This could be re- 

 tained bj' a copious application of straw ; by 

 littering with saw-dust, \vhere saw-mills are 

 near ; and more especially by the frequent coat- 

 ing of yards and stables with dried peat and 

 swamp muck, of which many parts of our State 

 furnish inexhaustible supplies. I say dried peat 

 or muck, because if it is already saturated with 

 water, of ^vhich it will often take in five-sixths 

 of its own '.veight, it cannot absorb the liquid 

 portions of the manure. But if it will absorb 

 five-sixths in water, it will, when dried, absorb 

 five-sixths in liquid manure, and both together 

 form a very enriching material. The practice of 

 many fanners, shov^-s how little they are aware 

 of the hundreds they are every year losing by 

 suffering this most valuable of their farm pro- 

 ducts to escape. Indeed, there are not a few 

 who carefully, and very ingeniously, as they 

 suppose, place their bams and cattle yards in 

 such a manner on the sides of hills, that all the 

 drainage from them may pass off out of the 

 way into the neighboring streams ; and some 

 one mentions a farmer, who, with preeminent 

 shrewdness, built his hog pen directly across a 

 stream, that he might at once get the cleanings 

 •washed away, and prevent their accumulation. 

 He of course .succeeded in big wish ; but he 

 might, with almost equal propriety, have built 

 his granary across the stream, so as to shovel 

 the wheat into the water when it increased on 

 his hands. 



The loss of manure by the escnpc of gas is 

 often very groat. The proof of this was finely 

 exhibiteil by Humphrey Davy, in an expen- 

 meiit. performed by filling a large retort from a 

 heap of fermenting manure, placing the beak 

 (G4) 



among the roots of some grass. Nothing but 

 vapor left the vessel, yet in a few days the gra.ss 

 exhibited greater luxuriance round "the beak of 

 the retort than any of the sun-ounding portions. 

 Hence the superiority of unfermented manure — 

 the rich portions arc not yet lost. And hence, 

 too, the importance of preventing this loss by an 

 immediate application and plowing into the soil, 

 and also by mixing it in composts with muck, 

 peat, swamp mud, and even common earth in a 

 dry state, — and of preventing its escape from 

 stables and yards, by a daily strewing with dried 

 peat, lime or plaster. 



The superiority of unfennented manure has 

 just been mentioned, which is by many doubted. 

 But the very facts on which these doubts rest, 

 only prove its efficacy. For, they say, " I have 

 always found fresh manure to be attended with 

 little eifect the first year, while it yet remains 

 fi-esh; but aftenvards, when fermentation and 

 decay had taken place, the benefit was great 

 and striking." But here is the proof at baud, 

 that not until the rich, soluble and gaseous parts 

 had well penetrated and been absorbed by the 

 soil, ^va8 their powerful and invigorating influ- 

 ence exerted upon the growing plants. Fresh 

 manure is generally in a state not readily mixed 

 ■with soils ; it is thrown into large lumps over 

 the surface, some of which are plowed in and 

 others not, but none of them prove of immediate 

 use to the crops. But on the other hand, fer- 

 mented manure, from its ready pulverization, 

 admits of an easy admixture. Let fresh manure 

 be thoroughly ground down and worked into 

 the soil by repeated harrovvings, and two or 

 three plowings, and its influence will be like 

 magic. 



Swamp muck has often been spoken of as 

 manure. But those who expect great and strik- 

 ing results from its application, will be disap- 

 pointed, as the writer has been. Even with 

 ashes, it is much less po\verful than stable ma- 

 nure, not only because it possesses less inherent 

 richness, but because it has less soluble parts, 

 and consequently imparts its .strength more 

 slowly to growing plants. But this quality only 

 makes it the more enduring. By decoction in 

 water, vegetable mold loses a small portion of 

 its weight by solution ; but if the remaining in- 

 soluble portion is exposed to air and moisture a 

 few months, another part may be again dissolv- 

 ed. Thus, peat, muck and all decayed vegeta- 

 ble fibre, becomes a slow but lasting source of 

 nourishment to plants. 



But it i.s, when shoveled out and dried, to be 

 mixed with fanu-yard manure, as a recipient for 

 its evanescent parts, that peat or muck becomes 

 preeminently valuable. Some parts of the State 

 abound ^vith inexhaustible supplies in almost 

 every neighborhood ; many land o\vuers have 

 from twenty to a hundred thousand cubic yai'ds 

 on their farms, lying untouched, while half- 

 starved crops are growing in the adjacent fields. 

 There are whole counties so well supplied with 

 it, that if judiciously applied, it would doubtless 

 double their aggregate products. 



All neat farming, all profitable farming, and 

 all satisfactory farming, must be attended with 

 a careful saving of manures. The people of 

 Flanders have long been distinguished for the 

 neatness and excellence of their fanns, which 

 they have studied to make like gardens. The 

 care with which they collect all refuse materials 

 which may be converted into manure and in- 

 crease their composts, is one of the chief rea- 

 sons of the cleanliness of their towns and rcsi- 



