MANUFACTURE OF MANURE, &C. 



133 



first strike, came, and he said nothing- ; this they 

 thought fatal, but still they remained fixed to 

 tlic spot The second strike was out ; tlie sugar- 

 maker carefully stirred the first, and then ad- 

 vancing toward the assembled crowd, told them 

 witli all the gravity of his craft, •' Gentlemen, it 

 grains!" "It grains!" was repeated bj' all. — 

 They rushed in to see the wonder, and when 

 convinced of the fact, scattered in all directions, 

 gi'ecting evei-y body they met, with " It grains !" 

 And from the Balize to the Dubuque, from the 

 Wabash to the Yellow Stone, the great, the all- 

 ab.sorbing news of the colony was, that the 

 juice of the cane had grained in Lower Louis- 

 iana. It did grain, it has continued to grain ; it 

 has gi-ained the last season, at the rate of two 

 hundred and fifteen millions of pounds, and if 

 no untovvard action of go%'emment prevents it, 

 in ten years it will grain to the extent of much 

 more than double that quantity. Prepare there- 

 fore to meet foreign competition. I tell you we 

 can do so, as well as tlie wine growers of France, 

 provided we improve the time that is left us. 

 and remain true to tlie spirit of our national 

 race. 



The innate faculty of our people to subdue 

 the physical world, their energy and selfreli- 

 ance. their habitual disregard of discomfort, dif- 

 ficulties and dangers, have made other nations 

 say of us, that we alone could instil heroism in 

 the common pursuits of life. With heroic de- 

 termination then, speed the plov^^ ; bear in mind 

 that to go ahead without ever toting difficulties 

 into the account, and by that means to succeed 

 when others dare not undertake, is emphatically 

 the AMERICAN SYSTEM. 



Manufacture of Manure. — I think I may 

 affirm, from what I frequently witness in the 

 mode of making and managing manure, that 

 many do not sufficiently consider the great dif- 

 ference between strong and weak manure, in 

 its fractifymg quality, and durable effects in 

 invigorating die land to which it is applied ; and 

 diis is an important thing for every flinner to 

 well understand. If straw and hay only, with- 

 out cake or corn, compo.se the manure that is 

 taken to the land, (and many, to my knowledge, 

 even of tliose ■who could well afibrd to buy them, 

 continue this bad practice,) comparatively it is 

 as sour small beer to a man who has an exti-a- 

 ordinary task of labor to perform, and needs the 

 aid of a powerful .stimulant to enable him to ac- 

 complish it. As the man would fall .-^liort under 

 such treatment, so does the laud fail in like 

 manner. Now if I can show that the com given 

 to stock upon a fann, is all returned in extra 

 produce, besides manifold advantages, which 

 your saijacious readers will readily discover, 

 surely all that have the means of entering upon 

 this system will do so. 1 will take my own 

 business for an example. I shall this winter use 

 100 quarters of com upon my stock, exclusive 

 of horses. I calculate the manure I shall make 

 with which tliis corn is incoi-porated, will ma- 

 nure well 36 acres, and as my sjstem of farming 

 is three crops and a fallow, three crops will be 

 gathered before the same land will be manured 

 again. I will ask any practical farmer, may I not 

 reasonably calculate upon a quarter of com per 

 acre more upon each of the three croos, than I 

 might have expected had I put on the same 

 land the same quantity of manure of the weak 

 kind, made from hay and 8tra^v alone ? As- 

 (289) 



Burning, then, that I get one quarter of com more 

 in e.ich of the three crops by using the com, 

 the 3G acres in the three years rctuni 108 quar- 

 tens extra produce for the 100 expended. Of 

 course it will he obvious to evei-y practical man, 

 that rich manures should not lie in the yard, ex- 

 posed to the washing of heavy rains, but made 

 principally under cover, and frequently col- 

 lected into a heap, and well secured until taken 

 to the land, and especial care taken that the 

 feiTuentatiou does not become too rapid ; to pre- 

 vent v^-hich anything may be mixed when it is 

 put together that is likely to check and cool it. 

 I use sand when I cannot obtain anytliing better 

 for that puiiiose. and to cover the heap over to 

 prevent it being weakened by evaporation. A 

 fanner does not require a philosopher or a che- 

 mist to inform him wherein die strength of 

 manure consists; he lias only to refer to his 

 cattle-stalls, his pig-sty, and dove-cote ; it is there 

 seen that the manure that contains the most 

 corn in proportion to other matter composing 

 it. is invariably found to be the strongest and 

 best, [A Farmer, in Bell's Weekly Messenger. 



The following facts arc worth the considera- 

 tion of the Members of Clubs : 



Destruction of Sparrows and other 

 Birds. — Mr. Bradley, in his general treatise on 

 Husbandry and Gardening, shows that a pair of 

 sparrows during the time they have their young 

 to feed, desti'oy on an average every week 3,360 

 caterpillars. The calculation he founded on ac- 

 tual obsen'ation, having remarked that the two 

 parents carried to the nest forty caterpillars, &:c., 

 iScc, in an hour. These birds likewise feed their 

 young ■\^'ith buttei-flies, and other winged in- 

 sects, each of which, if not destroyed in this 

 manner, would be the parent of hundreds of 

 caterpillars. — [A correspondent of ours, who has 

 paid much attention to the rearing of butterflies, 

 &c., in order to obtain perfect specimens for 

 an entomological cabinet, had 840 caterpillars 

 hatched from the eggs laid by one female, of this 

 ti'ibe of insects, in the course of a iew days.] — 

 A gentleman writing on the use of birds, in the 

 " Horticultural Register," states that the gold- 

 crested wren, willow-wren, or haj'-birds, and 

 chiff-chaff, eat insects only. Where they are 

 plentiful, they may be of great u.se in thinning, 

 on their fir.st appearance, wheat-flies, blue dol- 

 phins, hop-flies, and the pea plant aphides. — 

 This is important, for one of these insects killed 

 on their first appearance will prevent the breed- 

 ing of thousands. Gardeners are prejudiced 

 against the hay-bird, or chcn-j'-chopper, but it 

 does not taste either cherries or strawberries, 

 but the cherry plant louse, which ravages cher- 

 ry leaves in April. Nightingales eat insects 

 only ; so do the win-chat, the stone-chat, w heat- 

 ear, pippits, and wag-tails. Every means should, 

 therefore, be taken to encourage them to breed, 

 by protecting their nests. The principal insect- 

 eating birds, which partially eat fruits or seeds, 

 are tlie common ■svren, house and hedge-spar- 

 rows, red-breast, chaffinch, black-cap, garden- 

 warbler, and the greater and lesser wliite- 

 throats, also the tomtits. The march-tits eat in- 

 sects chiefly, but also eat farinaceous seed.s, as 

 those of the sun-flower, or peck a bit of ripe 

 pear or apple ; but such damage is trifling, and 

 is a reward which should not be grudged, con- 

 sidering the great good which they do both to 

 die farmer and gardener. 



