MANAGEMENT OF MANURE. 



535 



ably injured. The salted land appeared always 

 moist, and the trrowth of everything upon it was 

 vcrv rapid. We found great difficultj' in keep- 

 ing" the weeds down. After three successful 

 hoeings, we were obliged in August to give it a 

 band weeding. Spring of 1840, intended to 

 have stocked the land down for meadow ; but 

 thinking it too rich for oats, planted potatoes 

 without manure. Crop good. The effects of 

 the salt still very apparent. Adjudged to be 

 one-third more potatoes where the land was 

 salted."' 



" Spring of 1841, sowed a part of the lot to 

 oats, the remainder to potatoes and onions, with- 

 out manure. The onions were a great crop. 

 The summer was very dry. but they did not suf- 

 fer, while other crops in this neighborhood, on 

 similar soils, were nearly destroyed by the 

 drouth. The oats were a heavy crop, and much 

 lodged on the salted part. The clover grew 

 well, and pi-oduced a fine crop of fall feed. This 

 1 cannot account for, except by supposing that 

 the salt kept the land moist, or attracted moisture 

 from the atmosphere, as I know of no other 

 piece of laud in the town that was well seeded 

 last year : it was almo.st an entire failure ; and 

 the most of the land stocked down last spring 

 has been or will be plowed up in the spring to 

 be seeded. 



" We sowed salt the same spring on a part of 

 our meadows. The grass was evidently im- 

 proved, the result satisfactory, and we shall con- 

 tinue to use it on our meadows." ^ 



At a farmers' conference meeting, held at Mar- 

 cellus, Onondaga County, in November la-st, Mr. 

 Brown, President of the County Agricultural So- 

 ciety, said. '■ he had used salt as a manure with 

 great benefit. He sows it broadca.st upon wheat 

 and grass at the rate of three to five bushels to 

 the acre. On grass he would sow it in the fall 

 — for wheat he would sow it just before the 

 wheat is sown. He found that three bushels of 

 salt to the acre on his wheat field, occasioned an 

 increase of seventeen bu.shels of wheat to the 

 acre over that which had no salt. The soil was 

 a strong loam with a stiff subsoil." 



Cuthbert W.Johnson, a distinguished agricul- 

 tural writer, strongly recommends salt as a ma- 

 imre, at the rate of from ten to twenty bushels 

 to the acre, to be so\\'n some two or three weeks 

 before the seed is put into the ground. He says 

 the benefits are as follows: 1st. \Vhen used in 

 small quantities it promotes putrefaction. 2d. 

 By destroying grubs and weeds. 3d. As a con- 

 stituent on direct food. 4th. As a stimulant to 

 the absorbent vessels. 5th. By preventing in- 

 jury from sudden transitions of^ temperature. 

 6th. Bn' keeping the soil moist." 



It would seem from all the facts I have been 

 able to collect, that salt corrujits vegetable .sub- 

 stances when mixed in small (juantities, but pre- 

 serves them -when it predominates in a mass ; 

 that in dry seasons its effects are more apparent, 

 and whether it attracts moisture from the atmo- 

 sphere, or whether it acts as a stimulant or con- 

 diment, is of little consequence so long as its ef- 

 fects are certain. 



On account of the small quantity of salt, in 

 weight, required for manuring lands, it is no in- 

 considerable recommendation, because on that 

 account it may with ease be conveyed to the 

 most rough, steep and mountainous parts, to 

 which the more bulky and heavy manures most 

 in use could not be carried, but with infinite la- 

 bor, and at an expense far exceeding all the ad- 

 vantages to be effected fi-om it. 



For a top dressing, a composition of^alt and 

 lime, 4 bushels of the former and 12 of the latter, 

 to the acre, has been highly recommended for 

 gi-ass lands infested with mo.s.s, and promoting a 

 more vigorous growth of grass. Its beneficial 

 eflects on asparagus beds are well known to gar- 

 deners, giving a deeper color and a more vigor- 

 ous growth to the jilants. 



Salt itself is considered, by some, rather too 

 harsh in its nature, but mixed with ashes, say 

 six of dry ashes to ten of salt, well mixed to- 

 gether, which is sufficient for an acre, and spread 

 upon the furrow and harrowed in. By being 

 thus mixed, one particle incorporates and molli- 

 fies the other, and if conveyed into the earth by 

 a soapy, smooth method, will prove the real en- 

 richer the earth wants, to send forth vegetation. 



MANAGEMENT OF MANURE. 



It is always best when made under shelter, 

 and perhaps no better can be made, otherthings 

 being equal, than in Mr. Warnes's system of 

 box-feeding, v^herc the litter accumulates under 

 the animal, and is applied in quantity sufficient 

 to absorb all the urine. It is surprising what a 

 (piantity of excellent manure may thus be made. 

 An ox in a box 10 feet square, and well littered 

 every morning, will rise in its shed only about 

 three inches a week, but the manure below it is 

 hard, compressed, and will monthly, when 

 turned out, form a heap of at least six cubic 

 yards of first-rate material, containing, as it does, 

 the whole of the urine. We clean out our boxes 

 month.ly, cart the materials to heaps in the fields 

 for our turnips and other root crops; and in 

 turning it over mix and cover it well with the 

 earth on which it is laid. It is taken always to 

 that part of the field where there is the thickest 

 soil, that the land may not suflerfrom being thus 

 robbed. The sheep-dung, the .sheep being fed 

 under sheds, is allowed to accumulate for a 

 month also, and is taken awaj' to heaps in like 

 manner. The stable-dung, and that from the 

 cattle stalls cleaned out everj- day, is taken to 

 a heap by the liquid-manure tank, with the 

 contents of which it is soaked whenever the 

 tank is full, and it is also well soaked when it 

 is carted away in spring to the field. Dung, 

 as we understand, does not contain, irhe7i per- 

 fcctli/ freak, much ammoniacal matter, but it 

 contains that (mucous matter and urea) which 

 forms (chiefly carbonate of) ammonia during the 

 process of putrefaction which almost immedi- 

 ately ensues ; and it has been contended that if 

 spread out in the field, when perfectly fresh, 

 on the surface, or at most under a very slight 

 covering of earth, its nitrogen compounds would 

 form nitrates, and not compounds of ammonia, 

 and thus be as available as vegetable food, 

 with less ri.sk of waste. Nitrates are very 

 rarely found in our soils, and that is against 

 the theory, but the doctrine is nevertheless a 

 fair subject for experiment, and to test it, when 

 clearing out the cattle boxes, let, say 30 tons, be 

 spread at once on an acre of plowed stubble 

 for the Svvcde crop of the ensuing sea.son, 

 and another 30 tons put in a heap on the land 

 and turned, mixing with earth, &:c. according to 

 rule, and then in April or May plow it in on an 

 adjoining acre — the resulting'crop, if managed 

 alike in every other respect, will tell the truth 

 on this point. Farm manure may be consid- 

 ered, on the average, as containing'about 10 lbs. 

 of nitrogen in the ton ; this, in the ordinary 



