NEW ENGLAND FARMJER. 



July M, 18Q6. 



tion. Make small heaps of weeds in balks or al- 

 leys, and cover them with earth, and in a short 

 time they will give you beds of compost manures- 

 Green fern [brakes] are recommended by Mr. 

 Knight and others as very useful for this purpose 

 as they contain more fertilizing substance, or tood 

 for plants, than most vegetables. Mr Knight says 

 "any given quantity of vegetable matter can, gen- 

 erally, be employed in its recent and organized 

 state with much more advantage than when it has 

 been decomposed, and no inconsiderable part of 

 its component parts has been dissipated and lost 

 during the progress of the putrifactive fermenta- 

 tion." But the best use which can be made ot 

 brakes, generally speaking, is to give them to 

 swine, see New England Farmer vol. I. page 378, 

 and vol. III. page 383. 



DISEASE IN PEAR TREES. 



Mr Pessenden — For some years past I have 

 paid some attention to the cultivation of fruit, par- 

 ticularly apples and pears. 



I have within two or three years discovered a 

 difficulty attending my pear trees, which threatens 

 an entire loss of them, unless a remedy can be 

 found. On some of my trees which are from three 

 to six inches in diameter, and thrifty, many of the 

 branches will wither, and the leaves have the ap- 

 pearance of being scorched with fire. On a close 

 examination with a knife, I find the bark turned 

 of a brown colour, and dead on the branch thus 

 affected, while it will remain fresh and the branch- 

 es between this and the tree appear apparently 

 healthy. 



•This difficulty appears to be extending gradual- 

 ly over some of my trees ; a few of which are en- 

 tirely dead, and otiiers in part. 



I have critically examined the roots, branches, 

 &c. and cannot discover the cause, and of course 

 do not know what to apply for a remedy. 



If you, or any of your correspondents can point 

 out the cause, and a remedy for tne evil 



"^jaffdgeton, (Me.) July 1, 1826. 



It will 

 J. P. 



THE SEASON. 



Mr Fessenden — The farmers' prospect in this 

 vicinity wears rather a gloomy cast. The worms 

 and insects have destroyed all kinds of garden 

 sauce. The excessive heat and drought of the last 

 season destroyed many of the grass roots — and 

 the long dry spring of this season has kept back 

 the few that survived the winter. Tlie rains we 

 liave had within three weeks past revived our 

 hopes a little ; but these hopes have now failed us 

 in consequence of the innumerable grasshoppers 

 that are sweeping all before them. Some farmers 

 have already mown handsome fields of wheat and 

 other grains for fodder, to save it from these insa- 

 tiable marauders. Corn looks very promising, but 

 it is feared it will bo much injured by these lon"- 

 legged gentry before it ripens. 



Yours, &c. L. BARTLETT. 



Warner, (JV. H.) July 9. 



or their digestive power?. A hog will receive no j I will now suggest a cheap and pntcticable mode 

 injury but great benefit, from free access to a he^'p'oi' providing food for vegetables, commensurate to 

 of corn or" wheat, where a horse or cow will be , t!io means of every farmer of ordinary enterprize ; 

 apt to destroy themselves by excess. The goat and that my suggestions may not be deemed the- 

 will thrive upon the boughs and bark of trees, oretical, I will add, tliat I '-practise what I 

 where the hog would starve. The powerful ro-; preach." 



bust maize will repay, in the increase of its grain, ^ The cattle yard should be located on the south 

 for a heavy dressing of strong dung ; for which' side of, and adjoining the baru. Sheds, substau- 

 ithe more delicate wheat will requite you with very tial stone walls, or close board fences, should be 

 little but straw. The potatoe feeds ravenously, ; erected at least on the east and west sides, to 

 and grows luxuriantly, upon the coarsest litter ; shelter the cattle from cold winds and storms — 

 while many of the more tender exotics will thrive the si^e proportioned to the stock to be kept in it. 

 only on food upon which fermentation has ex- Excavate the centre in a concave form, placing 

 hausted its powers. But here the analogy stops : the earth removed upon the edges or lowe.-,t sides. 

 For while the food of the one is consumed in a ■ leaving the borders ten or twelve feet broad, 

 sound, healthy, and generally solid state, the food of a horizontal level, to feed the stock upon, and 

 of the other, before it becomes aliment, must un- ,from two to five feet higher than the centre. — 

 dergo the process of putrefaction or decomposi- This may be done with a plough and scraper, or 

 tion and be reduced to a liquid or Eeriform state, shovel and hand-barrow, after the ground is brok- 

 I 'have gone into the analogy between animals en up with the jdougli. I used the former, and 

 and veo-etables thus far, to impress upon tlie minds , was employed a day and a half, with two hands 

 of our farmers the importance of saving, and of and a team, in fitting two to my mind. When the 

 applying the food of their vegetables with the soil is not sufficiently compact to hold water, the 

 same care and economy that they do the food ot bottom should be bedded with six or eight inches 

 their animals. How scrupulously careful is the 'Pf clay, well beat down, and covered with gravel 

 good husbandman of the jiroduce of liis farm, des- 'or sand. This last bbour is seldom required, ex- 

 tined to nourish and fatten his animals; and yet tept where the ground is very porous. My yards 

 how often careless of the food which can alone are constructed on a small loam, resting ou a clay 

 nourish and mature his plants ; while his fields >iibsoil. Here should be annually depo-^itcd, as 

 are o-leaned, and his grain, hay and roots careful- -hey can be conveniently collected, tlie weeds, 

 ly housed, and economically dispensed to his uni- , 5oarse grass, and brake of the farm ; and also the 

 mals, the food of his vegetables is suflerod to pumpkin vines and potatoe tops. The quantity of 

 waste on every part of his farm. Stercoraries we these upon a farm is very great, and are collected 

 have none. The urine of the stock, which consti-iand brought to the yard with little trouble by the 

 tutes a moiety of the manure of animals, is all lost.! teams returning from tlie fields. And here also 

 The slovenly and wasteful practice of feeding at should be fed out, or strewed as litter, the hay, 

 stacks in the fields— where the sole of the grass ; >talks and husks of Indian corn, pea and bean 

 is broken, the fodder wasted, and the dung of lit- [ fftulm, and the straw of grain not wanted in the 

 tie effect is still pursued. And finally, the little , stivbles. To still further augment tlie mass, leach- 

 manure which does accumulate in tlie yaid,, is ed ashes and swamp earth may be added to advan- 

 suffered to lie till it has lost full half of its fertil- tage. These materials will absorb the liquid of 

 i„i„s p.operties, or rotted the cills of the barn ; j the yard, and, becoming incorporated with the e.\- 

 wlicn it is injudiciously applied, or the barn re- i crementit'ous matter, double or treble the ordina- 

 moved to get clear of the nuisance. Again — ry quantity- of manure. During the continuance 

 none but a slothful farmer will permit the flocks of frost, tie excavation gives no inconvenience; 

 of his neighbors to rob his own of their food ; yet and when the weather is soft, the borders afford 

 he often sees, but with feeble efforts to prevent it, ample roon for the cattle. In this w ay the urine 

 his plants smothered by pestiferous weeds, and 's saved, atd the waste incident to rains, &c. pro- 

 plundered of the food which is essential to their ' vented, llie cattle should be kept constantly 

 liealth and vigor. A weed consumes as much food ^-^''^ed in winter, except when let out to water, 

 as a useful plant. — This, to be sure, is the dark ] f nd the yard frequently replenished with dry lit- 

 side of the picture ; yet the original may be found ter. Upon this plan, from ten to twelve loads of 



REMARKS ON THE CONSTRUCTION AiND 

 MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE YARDS. 



Vegetables, like animals, cannot thrive or sub- 

 sist without food ; and upon the quantity and qual- 

 ity of this depends the health and vigor of the veg- 

 etable, as well as of the animal. Both subsist 

 upon animal and vegetable matter — both may be 

 surfeited with excess — both may be injured by 

 food Dot adapted to their habits, their appetites, 



in every town, and in almost every neighborhood, unfermented manure may be obtained every spring 

 Is it surprising that under such management, ^°' ^'"^^ animal ; and if the stable manure is 

 our arable grounds should grow poor, and refuse fP^'ead over the yard, llie quality of the dung will 

 to labour its accustomed reward ? Can it be con- j 

 sidered strange, that those who thus neglect to 

 feed their plants, should feel the evil of light purs- 

 es, as well as of light crops .' Constant draining or 

 evaporation, without returning any thing, would 

 in time exhaust the ocean of its waters. A con- 

 stant cropping of the soil, without returning any 

 in 



be improved, and the quantity proportionably in- 

 creased. Any excess of liquid that may remain 

 after the dung is removed in the spring, can be 

 profitably applied to grass, grain or garden crops. 

 It is used extensively in Flanders, and in other 

 parts of Europe. 

 Having explained my method of procuring and 

 thing to It, will in like manner exhaust it°of i'ts ' P''®^*''^'"^ '''^ food of vegetables, I will proceed 

 vegetable food, and gradually induce sterility.— i *" ^*ate my practice in feeding or applying it. It 

 Neither sand, clay, lime or magnesia— which are ''f ^'^®"' ^"^'^y ^P""?' to such hoed crops as will 

 the elements of all soils— nor any combination of ''° ^^'J' "^P°" ^°'"^^^ ♦°'"^' (/">' vegetable hogs and 

 part or all of them, is alone capable of producing 

 healthy plants. It is the animal and vegetable 

 matter accumulated upon its bosom, or which art 

 deposits there — with the auxiliary aid of these ma- 

 terials diffused in the atmosphere — that enables 

 the earth to teem with vegetable life, and yield its 

 tribute to man and beast. 



goats.) These are corn, potatoes, ruta baga, beans 

 and cabbages. These consume the coarser parti- 

 cles of the manure, which would have been lost 

 during the summer in the yard ; while the plough, 

 harrow and hoe eradicate the weeds which sprin" 

 from the seeds it scatters. The finer parts of the 

 food are preserved in the soil, to nourish the small 



