THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Ill 



he has spent much lime in the fields, and would 

 tell what he has found there. It is a common 

 notion that there is nothing like Aog- 7nanure ; lift 

 does not believe it. Used once to tliiuk ihul 

 horse manure was poor stuff— but if it be proper- 

 ly composted with litter and urine it will last longer 

 than any other manure. We are deceived in 

 regard to hog manure— it works quick— bui does 

 not last. One cow properly tended and littered 

 will make twice as much manure as one hog. 

 Neither will make much unless they are well (ed. 

 Many old maxims are not sound, and such as 

 are unsound should be discarded. Most people 

 in letting farms, make it a rule that the hay shall 

 not be sold. But he would let a tenant sell half 

 the hay, if he would not raise grain. The grains 

 are the great exhausters. You may make any 

 farm manure itseli; provided you sell half the 

 hay, if you do not raise grain, and if you save 

 all the liquid manure. Sheep manure he has al- 

 ways found to be light stuff— and where his sheep 

 run upon the mowing lands in autumn, and leed 

 close, he gets not more than half as much hay 

 the next year as on other lands. Some say that 

 a cow will eat as much as ten sheep : he vi-ould 

 say she will eat but Utile more than five sheep. 



Mr. Stanley, of Attleboro', said that people are 

 o^en deceived in regard to their o^vn practices. 

 We put much more materials (or manure into 

 the hog pen than we put into the heap of cow 

 manure. Did we mix as much muck, earth, &c. 

 with the cow dung as we do with the hog dung, 

 vve should find that the barn manure would not 

 last longer than that from the hog yard. If we 

 put ten loads of materials into the yard for one 

 hog, the manure will be weak ; if we put but 

 three or four, it will be good. It is best always 

 to put m enough to absorb all the liquids. For 

 each hog he would put in two or three loads as 

 soon as the yard was cleaned out in the sprincr, 

 and would add as much more at different times 

 during the summer. If he wanted to put his hoo- 

 naanure on cold clay land?, he would put gravel 

 mto his hog yard. 



Vegetable manures.— Many farmers miss it in 

 not turning the sward often enough : much ma- 

 nure grows upon the land. But it will not grow 

 upon the field lor more than three or four years. 

 Ihis manure consists of the stubs, roots and 

 leaves ol the grass. There will be no more of 

 It at the end of seven years, than at the end of 

 Jour. 1 here/ore if you do not plough up after 

 mowmg three or four years, you lose the oppor- 

 tunity of making in this way. The quantity of 

 vegetable matter upon the acre is said to be about 

 twelve tons. 



A gentleman in his neighborhood, who is a 

 good and successful farmer, puts half of his ma- 

 nure— the long manure— upon the sward, and 

 turns It under. Manures also in the hill. Takes 

 ott the corn m autumn, harrows the ground, and 

 puts in rye and hay seed. His crops of rye have 



^i "°^ ' ^°^ '^'^ grass has done well. 



Mr Putnam (Editor) said the practice just 

 described was such as he had followed for years. 

 We turned down one half of his manure— the 

 long manure— and let it remain there under sod 

 lor hve or six years. The corn had done well- 

 very well— and the grass (which he sovved amono 

 the cornin July,) had done well the first two 

 years, and m the third and fourih held out better 



'hanit had ever done before on the same fields. 

 This plan of turning half the manure under the 

 sod, he liked on warm lands, but on cold ones he 

 would keep il nearer the suriiicfe, 



Mr. Buckminster would like to know what was 

 the experience of farmers as to the comparative 

 benefits of spreading all the manure lor corn, and 

 of putting a part in the hill. He used once to 

 think ihat he could not bury his manure too deep, 

 but he was mistaken. Has wailed seven years 

 to hear from some that he buried, but no accounts 

 Horn it have yet been received. He thinks it 

 belter to lorm our manures into composts and 

 keep it pretty near (he surface. 



Air. Gardner, of Sekonk, said it is customary 

 in his vicinity to spread part of the manure on 

 ihe surface and plough it in— and to put part in the 

 hill. The best farmers have been accustomed to 

 do this, and by this process they obtain their 

 best crops. The spreading of all the manure is 

 now more common than formerly. 



Mr. Putnam said he had made an experiment 

 in 1839. Half the manure (4 cords per acre,) 

 was turned under the sod. Then, on a part of 

 the field, the remaining half of the manure was 

 put in the hill ; on another part the manure was 

 spread on the surlace of the furrovvs and harrow- 

 ed in. The corn manured in the hill did best in 

 June, was much the largest in the early part of 

 July, but in October, the part where the manure 

 was all spread gave 31 bushels, where that ma- 

 nured in the hill gave 30. Had he have judged 

 by the eye, and with the impressions upon his 

 mind made by the early part ol the growth, he 

 probably should have said that the part manured 

 in the hill did best ; but the half bushel told a 

 different story. 



Mr. Lathrop, of South Hadley, thinks the ques- 

 tion, as to the proper place lor the manure, turns 

 upon the wetness or dryness of the soil. He 

 would not manure in the hill on light lands, but 

 he would on heavy. There can be no general rule. 

 He would advise every farmer to have his horse 

 manure thrown into the hog yard ; the hogs keep 

 it from burning, and make it worth double what 

 it would be if burned. 



In his vicinity, much of the long manure ia 

 spread upon the mowing lands. These lands 

 are also plastered, and then two good crops are 

 taken from them each year. He alluded parti- 

 cularly to several lots of land which, thus treated, 

 give four tons and more [)er acre, annually, for 

 many successive years. 



PARTICULAR RESULTS OF FARMING IN MAS- 

 SACHUSETTS. 



From Colman's Fourth Report of the Agriculture of Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Facts are in general so interesting and so im- 

 portant, that I am always desirous of recording 

 them, leaving it to others to make such inferences 

 from them as they may deem proper. My prin- 

 cipal solicitude is, that they should be well attest- 

 ed, and of such a character as to suggest useful 

 instruction to others. They are the only infallible 

 teachers and their lessons cannot be controverted. 

 It may be safely asserted that there is nothing 

 which has been done which cannot be done 

 again ; and under the same circumstances and 

 influences, the same results will Jbllow. These 



