54 



(S;i)e Jiumcr's iHoxitl)lij iMsitor. 



to mnnoge these mamires llinl iiothirg iniiy be 

 ioBI. We shoiilil not nllow itu strength l" be ta- 

 ken Irom it by frost and snow, to be dniineil oft' 

 by rains, or ilissipiileil by the winds. The fer- 

 mentation of tnnnurts is- often allowed to t«l<e 

 place in siicli a manner tliat the most vuhiuble 

 portion i» carried off", and it becomes nearly vvortb- 

 lesH. It has been well said that no llirnier ever 

 gmelled Ids inannrr, without witnessing a waste 

 of bis property. 'J'hn question had been raised 

 in regard to the |>ri)|)riety of composting manures. 

 It wai the opinion of the late Judge Buel, and 

 also of Dome other distinguished farmers, that the 

 piactice was useless. Jt was argued that the 

 richness of the n)anure was lessened by ferment- 

 ation. But there was one great disadvantage at- 

 tending the use of long manure, and that was 

 the seeds of weeds, &c., which would vegetate 

 in the land and annoy the fiu-mer. Fermentation 

 in the compost heap would destroy most of these 

 seeds— and cannot this fermentation be ito con- 

 ducted that no loss will accrue to the farmer? 

 The " best method of applying manures," is an 

 important question. He had had some experi- 

 ence, and had endeavored to observe the effects 

 of different modes. lie had come to these con- 

 clueiong— that it was not proper to bury them 

 very deejily, nor to leave them entirely uncover- 

 ed. His soil was rather sandy, and ploughing in 

 manures to the depth of (J or 7 inches had gen- 

 erally been attended with comparatively little 

 benefit, but when they had been covered 2 or 3 

 inches, the greatest good had been produced. 



Mr. Solham agreed generally with Mr. NotI in 

 regard to the mode of applying manures. But 

 perhaps one rea?>on why that gentleman bad sup- 

 posed there was but little benefit to be derived 

 from ploughing in manures, was, that he did not 

 wait long enoiigh tor the manure to be decom- 

 posed. He thought ployghing in long manures, 

 for a tenacious soil, was highly beneficial. The 

 soil is thus rendere<l more friable and adapted to 

 the circulation of the roots of plants. 



Mr. 8. woidd briefly state his mode of mana- 

 ging barn-yard m.inures. He mixed various kinds 

 together, in the f()llowing manner: First, he put 

 down a layer of manure from the cattle-stalls ; 

 next, a layer from the horse-stables, and next o 

 layer from the slaughter-houses — then the kind 

 first used, and so on alternately till the pile was 

 raised as high as cotlvenient. In this situation it 

 underwent a moilerate fermentation, and when it 

 was carted away for use, it was so cut down that 

 all the various ingredients were mi.\ed well to- 

 gether. He thought it very important that all an- 

 imal manures shrnlld be saved, for ihey undoubt- 

 edly contained all the organic elements of plants 

 — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. 



Mr. Nott asked — " When is it beat to apply ma- 

 nure to a corn-crop .'" 



Dr. Lee answered — when you plant the corn. 

 The experiment sjioken of at one of our meet- 

 ings last winter, by Mr. Humphrey, the M.ayor, 

 was in point. He planted some corn on a very 

 poor, sandy soil, with a small quantity of horn 

 nhavings in the bill. The result was that where 

 the flhavings were applied, he got 60 bushels to 

 the acre, but where the shavings were not ap- 

 plied, he only got 15 bushels. He proposed to a 

 friend of his la.^t winter to soak his corn in mu- 

 riate of ammonia. Hedi<l,and on a poor chestnut 

 ridge he got 94 bushels of corn to the acre. — 

 There are certain salts necessary to the perfec- 

 tion of plants. Wheat contains phosphate of 

 lime, without which it is imperfect. This .sub- 

 elance escapes from animals in their urine. This 

 should he preserved. It is probable that in this 

 wtate there is miHions of pomids of this jihosphate 

 of lime taken from the land annually. This loss 

 must be made good, or the soil will grow poor. 

 Seeds, Dr. L. said, should be steeped in those 

 substances necessary to the perfection of the plant, 

 before sowing. 



Prof. Einmoim said he could not altogether 

 agree with Dr. Leo in sotne points of vegetable 

 economy. He, (Prof. E.) thought plants derived 

 their sustenanco almost entirely through their 

 roots — the roots were evidently designeil to take 

 in the food of the plant — their spongiolcs were 

 extended in every direction for thi.i purpose. — 

 Leaves may ho considered the stomach of the 

 |)lunt, where the food taken through the roots in 

 digested. This is a question of practical impor- 

 tance, for if plants ilerive their nutriment from 

 the atino»pher<!, (hen let manures be applied so 



as to ascend. It was possible that plants may 

 absorb carbonic ai-id by their leaves ; Init whs this 

 their proper function ? 



Dr. Lee replicil that be thought Prof K. bail 

 misunderstood him — it was conceded that planis 

 derive part of their food from the soil. The ques- 

 tion was, how much? If we could know this 

 exactly, we should know just how much manure 

 to apply. It is clear that we must restore more 

 than we lake away. We were at present in the 

 dark about this, but it was liis impression that in 

 taking off 100 lbs. in crops, 80 of the quantity 

 comes from the atmosphere, which would leave 

 90 to be restored. 



Professor Hall said different plants po.^sess dif- 

 ferent powers. Some absorb more from the at- 

 mosphere than other.--. Take peas, for instance : 

 the tops will remain irri^eu and fiourisliing, while 

 an inch or t«o of the stalk near the ground may 

 be rjearly dried up. This shows that they absorb 

 nutriment from the atmosphere. Besides, it was 

 known that plants tloiuish more luxuriantly in 

 the vicinity of odors arising lioiu animal arul 

 vegetable decomposition. A vine would move 

 in the direction of a dung-hill, and flourish bet- 

 ter if suffered to rim over it. Some plants will 

 flourish in pounded glass watered only with dis- 

 tilled water — others will grow viitlioiu the roots 

 being covered at all. 



The President, Mr. Prentice, being called on, 

 observed that the call had been unexpected, and 

 he was not prejiared with any data from which 

 to give the information asked. He would state, 

 however, that the pecidiar manure alluded to, 

 was the refuse of a fur-liictory, and was conq)osed 

 mostly of the fatty substance, or blubber, adher- 

 ing to the skins of seals, with portions of the 

 skins and hair. Of this refuse, there was souie- 

 imes as much as three pomids from a single 

 skin. Owing to the triiiing estimation in which 

 manures bad formerly been held by the farmers 

 in this vicinity, he experienced great difficulty in 

 getting rid of this refuse. He had offered to give 

 it away, and afford any facilities for loading it, 

 &c., but strange as it may seem, the farmers would 

 not take the trouble to cart it away, and he was 

 actually under the necessity of purchasing a piece 

 of land on which to deposit it. Itseftiacts, as had 

 been remarked, were quite remarkable. He had 

 never seen so [)Owerful a manure. He bad ap- 

 plied it with results astonishingly bcneiieial, as a 

 top-dressing to his pasture grounds, but the cfHu- 

 vium from it when applied in that shape, was ex- 

 ceedingly offensive. He had mixed it with the 

 sweepings of the streets, so as to absorb the gas- 

 es; and for cidtivated crops, be jtrelerred to use 

 it in this form, worked into the soil. For a top- 

 dressing to grass, it was perhaps as well to spread 

 it on without mixture. Where he had so applied 

 it, the crop had been increased from one ton to 

 three tons per acre. Care was needed lest loo 

 much shouhl be applied. In one instance where 

 it had been applied to a potatoe-crop, an enor- 

 mous growth of vines was producecl, some of 

 them 8 or 9 feet long, bul very few potatoes. On 

 corn it had dcuie well, when used in moderate 

 quantities — giving, he thought, a third more than 

 he had got by other manures. He had once ap- 

 plied it to his orchard, but put on so nuudi that 

 it destroyed about one-half his trees. He was 

 unable to stale, (iom recollection, the precise 

 quantity he had used per acre in all cases. 



From Ihp AlbiiTiy Cullivntor. 

 Ploughing. 



The season for conunencing active operations 

 in the field having arrived, it may not be out of 

 place to sid)mit a tew remarks on the subject of 

 ploughing, as this is perhaps the most important 

 operation in field culture, and one which shouM 

 be performed with most care and attciuion. No 

 amount of extra labor in the after cultme can cofu- 

 pensato (or a defect in ploughing of the ground : 

 ami be is most certainly an improvident and un- 

 wise farmer who will allow his grounds to lie 

 imperfectly broken up in the preparation (iir a 

 crop. We are aware that in subuiilting oiu- views 

 upon this subject, we shall be met by the remark 

 so often niade, that every body knows how to 

 plough, and that no illreclions are needed upon 

 this point. While it is freely admitted that every 

 man can learn to plough well, it is by no me.ans 

 clear that all do thus perform this branch of their 

 fiuiii labor. Should "o make this admission, we 

 fear that in our ninihles the great nundier of poor- 



ly ploughed fields which may be Itiund in nearly 

 every neighborhood, would be constantly rc- 

 |)roaching us with injustice, while we should get 

 no thanks from the iiluughmcu whose work we 

 bad so unjustly recommended. There has evi- 

 dently lieeii gjeat inqirovement in this branch of" 

 tiuniing in the last five years, more indeed than in 

 ten or even twenty previous ones, but truth re- 

 quires us to say that not one half of the land in 

 this country is well ploughed even in this age of 

 improvement, and when public altentiou is di- 

 rected to new methods in cultivaling the soil as 

 well as to iuqirovemcnts in the mechanic aits. 

 Were we to look for the cause of improvemeul 

 in ploughing, we should midoubtedly be led in 

 our invesligalionslo the ploughing matches which 

 have in the last five yeas been held undfr the di- 

 rectii-'U of the diflerent agriculiural associations 

 as the apjiarent cause of much of the improve- 

 ment wliich is to be seen at the present day. — 

 The origin, thi^ first cause of ihese inqirovemeuls, 

 may doublless be traced to discussions and re- 

 flections which appeared many years ago iu some 

 of the agricidtural journals. To no man are we 

 more indebted for the impetus which lias been 

 triven to this branch of agriculture than to Judge 

 Biiel. In this, as in all things jiertaining to the 

 interests of the farmer, he urged the necessity of 

 advances towards perfection, and the skill which 

 is now so often shown in the operations of the 

 ploughman, shows that the subject has gained 

 much from investigation. 



We would not be unmiiulful of the great aid 

 which agrictilture has received at the hands of 

 mechanical genius, and iu no branch of farm la- 

 bor has science contributed in a greater degree 

 to relieve both man and team from fatigue and 

 toil. Had nothing more been done through the 

 instrumentality of our agricultural societies than 

 the improvements iu the plough, their high aim 

 would have been in no small degree accomplish- 

 ed, and fiirmers would be well repaid for all the 

 time and money expended in their siqiport. To 

 the men who have contributed in so great a de- 

 gree to iuqirove farm iu,plements our warmest 

 thftnks are justly due, and it is really gratil'ying 

 to know that some of these men are receiving a 

 patronage proportionate to their efforts at im- 

 provements. 



In an article tipon this subject, wliich was pub- 

 lished in many of the agricultural papers some 

 three years ago, we remarked that "any man 

 of ordinary strength and good common sense can 

 learn to plough well," and we are happy to see 

 that a great number who at that time did not per- 

 li:)rm their work in a pro[ier manner, are now 

 among our best ploughmen. We have seen no 

 reason to change the ojiinion then expresseil, al- 

 though it would hardly do to reverse the propo- 

 sition, and say that the tnan who does not thus 

 perform his work is destitute of common sense. 

 It m.iy, however, with truth be said that he is 

 blind to his own interests, and very little hope 

 can be enlcrlaineil that he will ever coiitributo 

 his share to the common stock of agricultural 

 knowledge. 



We now beg leave to invite all our readers to 

 accompany us to the field where we can witness 

 the practical operations of the ploughman, and 

 where, unlike the mere theoretical specuhitions 

 iu the oftice or by the fire-side, we can learn from 

 from actual demonstralion the ditfereuce between 

 good and liad ploughing. Here is a field partly 

 liloiighed over, but it is not done exactly accord- 

 to our notion, and we will try our hand at the 



mg - 



work. Those fiiriows are loo crooUcd, the soil 

 is not all properly turned, and then you see one 

 end of the land is finished while the other is ii 

 rod wide. The team must turn scm ral times in 

 the middle of the land Inliiie the work will be 

 completed, t'erluqis we shall not do the «ork 

 belter, hut we'll try, and keep tryiuj; lUitil we suc- 

 ceed. First let us have the plough m good order, 

 the giuiye-wheel properly ailjusted, the moUl- 

 boaril bright luul smooth, then give us the reins 

 and set a stake yonder at the further cud of the 

 land and see if we don't make a straight furrow. 

 There! fifty rods long and as straight as a line ; 

 no crooked plates to spoil the work of the whole 

 laud. Now wi> «ill tmii another fmiow, not on 

 the first, but so the edges will just meet aiul con- 

 tinue to " back turrow," until our land is about 

 half done, then go round the land, keeping every 

 furrow perfectly straight, and straightening all 

 the crooked places, so that one furrow will finish 



