36 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



of manure during the year. According to this, a 

 hundred hogs (and many farmers keep ili^t num- 

 ber, or even more) will make a thousand loads, 

 and this is enough to enrich tweniy acres of poor 

 land, or to keep ibriy in a stale ol' continual nn- 

 provement. 



I have now finished what 1 had to say as to the 

 stable, the catile shelters, and the hog-pens, as so 

 many sources of manure. But there is another 

 resource wliich, in a treatise of this kind, ought 

 not by any means to be overlooked, and that is 

 the farm pen. It will be conceded, that no larm 

 can be properly conducted, without this indispen- 

 sable appendage. As lo the location of the larm 

 pen, all will agree that it ought to be situated im- 

 mediately adjoining the barns, the stables, the ca - 

 tie shelters, and such other buildings as wc use lor 

 storing away our winter supplies of food. Here 

 the catile are led, and here we deposite the coin 

 stalks, and wheat straw, and damaged provender, 

 and weeds, and litter from the woods, and such 

 other materials as we wish the cattle to tread down 

 and to convert into- manure. This is in fact 

 the great depot of all the raw materials, whicii we 

 intend to work up in the great manure workshop. 

 But if we would conduct the concern with effi- 

 ciency, we must keep a plentiful supply of mate- 

 rials ort' hand; and if with these we mix small 

 quantities of lime, or larger quantities of wood 

 ashes, or even of coal ashes, the quality of the 

 manures will be greatly improved. 



As yei, I have said nothing as to what is com- 

 monly called the liquid manures of our stock. 

 Id older countries, where the population is very 

 dense, and where every foot of tillable land is ne- 

 cessary to raise the (bod needed by the people, 

 and where, oi'course, they cannot command, from 

 the woods and the fields, the quantities of litter 

 which we can, there great care is taken to collect 

 and preserve all the liquids of their stock. For 

 this purpose their stables, both for horses and 

 catile, are furnished with cisterns or tanks, into 

 ivhich all the liquids are carefully drskined ; and 

 after they have undergone the necessary putrelac- 

 laction, are pumped out, and sprinkled over the 

 crops, and great benefit is said to result from the 

 application. But in this country, where popula- 

 tion is lamentably thin, and woods and weeds are 

 lamentably plenty, and large supplies of litter 

 are always at command, I do doubt if a discreet 

 economy would warrant the expense and trouble 

 ol collecting and applying the liquid manures. 

 And my doubt is founded in this, that just in pro- 

 portion as we increase the liquids, we diminish 

 the solids. My theory is, that the liquids are 

 quite as necessary, and even more so, in exciting 

 and hastening the decomposition of the iitier, than 

 the solids are. If therefore we drain away the 

 liquids, we arrest or at least retard the decomposi- 

 tion of tlie litter, and therefore a less quantity of 

 manure is made. No one, I hope, wiil understand 

 me as detracting from the value of liquid ma- 

 nures. My plan is to furnish a sufficiency of litter 

 to absorb the whole. The liquids therefore are 

 not only secured, but they display their great ef- 

 ficacy by rapidly converting the large quantities 

 of litter into a valuable manure. 



But as the term litter occurs very frequently in 

 this treatisi?, perhaps I ought to explain precisely 

 what i mean by it. It is, first, the corn stalks, 

 which ought to be cut down as early ae possible, 



and deposited upon the farm pen, and thereby 

 passing the carls and wagons over them, and 

 the trampling of the cattle, and the rooting of the 

 hogs, they are broken down and made fine ; so 

 that by the next spring a considerable portion of 

 them, perhaps hallj are in a condition to remove 

 from the lop. These are carried to the corn field, 

 and when properly managed are a great aid in 

 the subsequent crop. The balance are left till the 

 fall, when the most of them are sufficiently de- 

 composed to lop-drees the grass lands with. Be- 

 sides this resource for litter, the fields which pro- 

 duced ffmall grain, if in good heart, and none 

 others are worth cultivating, wiH be Ibund, early 

 in the f-dl, well covered with a large crop of the 

 wild carrot and other weeds, intermixed with 

 young clover and other grasses. These ought all 

 to be mowed down, and carefully stowed away 

 as litter for the stable and hog pens, and I know 

 of no material of which a richer and better ma- 

 nure may be made. And then they who cultivate 

 grass on a large scale know that portions of their 

 fields, particularly along ditch banks, and low 

 sunken places, and corners of fences, are much 

 infested with weeds and briers and coarse grass, 

 such as will not make merchantable hay; these ^ 

 ought all to be taken care of in ihe same manner 

 and (or the same purpose. And then last, "though 

 not least," leaves from the woods. When all 

 these sources are cardully husbanded, every one 

 must see, that an immense amount of valuable 

 material will be stored away for the manure pile. 

 Indeed! will venture to affirm that, as a general 

 thing, not one farmer in twenty avails himself of 

 the abundant supplies which he has at his com- 

 mand, to enlarge the stock of his manures. And 

 as (long as this continues to be the case, our land 

 must necessarily remain poor and unproductive. 

 For my part, I would leave ihe song of " hard 

 times,'''' to be sung by the merchants and other 

 traders alone. It is a chant which very illy befits 

 the mouth of the farmer. He, with his rich land, 

 and habits of economy and industry at home, is 1^ 

 an independent man. Whilst, therefore, others 

 harp upon the ruinous exchanges, the scarcity of 

 money, and the villany of the banks, let the farmer 

 look well to his manure pile. Above all, let him 

 feel that his great business is lo add to the fertility 

 of his land every day. Then, when others yield 

 to the pressure of the times and become insolvent, 

 he, with no money deposited to his credit in the 

 banks, but with his fat hogs, his full corn crib, 

 and his barns well stored with all kinds of pro- 

 vender, will remain firm amid the general wreck. 



1 close what I have to say on this branch ofthe 

 subject, with one remark, and that is, that the 

 quantity as well as the quality of manure will 

 be materially affected by the quantity and quality 

 of the food which we give to our stock. If we 

 dole out poor (bod lo them in limited and stinted 

 supplies, the returns in the way of manure 

 will be of the same character. Whereas, if we 

 supply them with generous food and with a libe- 

 ral hand, the returns will be of the same nature. 



2dly. The next thing lo be considered is the beet 

 mode of preserving manure. This is also a very 

 important part of the subject ; for it is surely very 

 bad policy, to waste or destroy that which is so 

 valuable to us, and which it has cost us so much 

 lime and labor to obtain. We should justly con- 

 sider that man a maniac, who would wantonly 



