^l)c jTarmcv's iHcintl)lij lltGttor. 



77 



1 1 throwing it over, eager to keep to tlie windward. 



(i Of the carrasses, tiotliing was to be seen but 



ik:!ie bones ; the potato vines bad entirely rotted ; 



•die meadow sods were banllj' to be dislinguislicd 



from liie slable manure ; and nolfiing remained 



in llie stale in wbicii it was placed there, save 



{lie. coal (islies, which I shall herealier esteem, in 



a compost heap, as of no more value than so much 



sand. 



The sides of tlie heap were thrown into the 

 centre, and the whole well mixed and thrown 

 into u compact heap, there to remain imtil next 

 spring, when I intend to spread it on the lami, 

 |iloiigh it in, and plant with potatoes and corn. 

 Jl . Here I have a pile of I'lO loads of powerful 

 \naiune, at an expense of about Hfty dollars, and 

 of doidile the value to the land of inanuie for 

 which 1 have paid heretofore two dollars per load, 

 and hauled it iVom town. 



I would earnestly reconimiud farmers to com- 

 mence the com] ost heap rather than depend up- 

 on the towns for ilieii- supply of manure. A salt 

 or fresh meadow is acci'.<sjble to almost every 

 farmer, and this aliuic, alter l>ing exposed to the 

 Sim .iwhileaiid dried, then saturated with lye from 

 llii! soap boiler's, which any one can have about 

 heiv fur Ihc /mw/rH^, inaUes a strong manure. — 

 The lye finnishes just tlie necessary materials to 

 convert the un adow soils into an active manure, 

 viz : potash. I consider a hogshead of lye of more 

 value in a compost heap than two loads of stable 

 manure. 



Dr. Dana, in his Manual, says: 'The value of 

 s()ent lye has been tested for a series of years, 

 and bus shown its good effects on grass lands, for 

 four or five years after its application." 



Indeed, so valuable is spent lye considered by 

 Dr. Dana, as a manure, that he gives a receipt in 

 his Manual, whereby llie farmer may himself pre- 

 pare it, should he live too remote from the soap 

 lioiler. In many towns in New England the lye 

 is sold to the farmer as high as twenty-five cents 

 per barrel ; and one farmer writes me that he 

 li.uys and hauls it eight miles to mix in his com- 

 'post heaps. Vet, nolwiihstanding its fertilizing 

 |)roperties, thousands of hogsheads are allowed 

 lo (low in our gutters to the river, the citizen turn- 

 ing up bis nose ! s be passes it, and the farmer 

 crossing it with his team in pursuit of manure at 

 tuo dollars per loail, when he has meadows that 

 need ditching at home, and maierials all about 

 him for a co.npost heap. 



Louden, in his Encyclopetlia of Agriculture, 

 says, that the carcass of one dead horse will eon- 

 vert twenty Ions of loam into a powerful manure ; 

 and yel how many carcasses are thrown into the 

 IMerriinacU dining the year, or suffered to remain 

 in the pasture, fooil for birds of prey and infect- 

 ing the air for miles around. 



There are few farms in the country, the crops 

 of which may not be doubled by the application 

 of manure. Farmers all admit this; but then, 

 say they, we cannot afford to pay the price that 

 is demanded for manure. 



Let them go to work in earnest and form their 

 compost heaps ; first cover a space sixteen by 

 twenty feet with meadow sods one foot high ; 

 leave this to the action of the suii (or a month or 

 two; then saturate it with a hogshead or two of 

 lye, spread six inches of stable manure on the top 

 of this, and cover it with potato vines, chip ma- 

 nure, weeds, or meadow mud, saturate this as be- 

 fore with lye, next a layer of stable mamjre, and 

 so on, till the heap is seven or eight (eet high. 

 Let it remain a year, and upon opening it, at the 

 end of that period, my word for it the compost 

 heap will not be neclecled the next year. 



DAVID WOOD. 



Woodland, near JSTewhwi/port, Sept. 23, 1845. 



DA^ilEL p. king's statement. 



To the Convniltee on Farms : 



Gentlemen : — Helbre the first of July I had no 

 iniention of inviting you to visit my farm, but then 

 learning that there bad been no entry which 

 would secure a report from you, I was unwilling 

 that the Society shoiihl lose the benefit of a re- 

 port, (or I think farmers derive their best hints 

 iVom the observations and experience of practical 

 farmers endiodied in such reports. 



I am far iVoni thinking my management the 

 best, or among the best, but as it has fully answer- 

 ed my reasonable expectations, I will as briefly 

 as possible, state it. 



My farm has great variety of soil, but the cul- 



tivated lands are mostly a gravelly loam. I have 

 about fifty acres in mowing, tillage and orchard, 

 lwenly-liv(! acres in meadow, one-l<)urlh of which 

 is peal, seventy-(ive acres in iiasture, and several 

 Irai'ts of wood land. I lormerly plaiileil from 

 seven to ten acres each year, but I havi; found it 

 more prolltable to raise hay than corn or potatoes: 

 this last June (or thirty cwt. hay delivered in the 

 barn, I received in my grain bins forty bushels 

 of good yellow flat corn : the bay cost me in la- 

 bor and all (iiir charges twelve dollars; to raise 

 the; corn would have cost me twenty-live dollars 

 at least. 



15y recurring to my journal,* (lor 1 have long 

 kept a sort of diary in which 1 have noted the 

 employments of each day, the time of planting, 

 hoeing and harvesting, the amount of crops, the 

 cost of animals, current receipts and expendi- 

 tures, &c.,) I find that since the (irst of April 1 

 have expended lor labor two hundred and five 

 dollars, and one-third of this has been expended 

 in making walls, ditches and perniauent improve- 

 ments. I have kept two pair of oxen, one horse 

 and ten cows: one pair oi'oxen which two years 

 ago cost me (ifty dollars I have sold to the butch- 

 er for one hundred and five dollars; four cows 

 which cost Ibrty-lhree, I have sold for seventy- 

 eight dollars, and I have received in exchange 

 of cows thirty dollars. 1 have kept no account 

 of the milk and butter used and sold, which has 

 been less than the usual (piantity. 1 have (bur 

 liit swine worth seventy-five dollars, which one 

 year ago cost six dollars; their manure paid (or 

 all the grain they have consumed. 1 have raised 

 one hundred and filiy-eight bushels corn, ninety- 

 five bushels of oats, thirty bushels of rye and one 

 hundred and twenty bushels o( potatoes ; of car- 

 rots, turnips and beets about two hundred and 

 fifty bushels, and of other vegetables and fruits 

 an abundance. Some years I have had three or 

 (bur hundred bushels of good apples, this year 

 not more than thirty. I have cut ihirly-one tons 

 of English hay which was made and .secured with 

 fifty-five days labor; I used a horse rake which 

 paid for itself in one week ; my crop was dimin- 

 ished by the drought from one-lbiirth to one-third. 

 My meadow hay was a fine crop and got in good 

 order; I have sold twelve loads of meadow hay 

 and straw, and have by estimation fodder enough, 

 corn (odder included, to keep my stock and some 

 twelve or (iiteen tons to spare. 1 have carried to 

 market twelve cords of wood, always taking a 

 return load of manure. I purchase annually about 

 forty-five dollars worth of manure, which I nev- 

 er use without eoniposling. I have used for plant- 

 ing, sowing and top dressing, two hundred and 

 eighty loads of comiiost. In the barn yard and 

 |iig pens I make about one hundred and ten loads, 

 and at leisure limes get out peat muck and cart 

 it into the field where it is to be used. I then 

 mix one cord stable or barn yard dung, preferring 

 tlie stable, with (bur cords of muck; al"ter lying 

 till the heap heals, it is again thrown over and a 

 few feet of licsh dung or spent ashes added if 

 necessary. 1 have Ibiinil this compost belter than 

 clear manure and eipial to any thing except pig 

 manure (or corn and potatoes on gravelly or san- 

 dy loams. I have now on hand more than one 

 hunched loads ol this compost besides a good 

 supply in the barn and pig yards, and 1 could not 

 fariii without it. With this kind of manure I this 

 year had sixty bushels o( corn to the acre, wilh- 

 out any extra labor or care. One-fourth of an 

 acre produced at the rate of seventy bushels,and 

 I raised fifiy-five bushels uf oats on one acre; no 

 great yields certainly ; but the expense of culti- 

 vation too was moderate. All the laud on which 

 I have this year raised potatoes, corn anil oats, 

 has been since ploughed, manured, and laid down 

 with rye and grass seed, with the exception of 

 one acre of meadow, wliiih in April I sowed with 

 oils and grass seed after spieadiiig three hunijred 

 lbs. of guano ; the oat straw was very rank and 

 the grass has started handsomely. I have tried 

 guano, salt, saltpetre and ashes this season, but I 

 (iirbear to speak further of results, because you, 

 gentlemen, have seen them, and will determine 

 fir yourselves. 



.My corn land I usually plant but one year; it 

 is always ploughed in the fall because the teaiti 



*The iidvantages of keepinc a journal to a farmer are many. 

 By liirning to the pages of past years he will be reminded of 

 work which should be done in its season ; he will see where 

 he has erred and profit from his experience; he will know 

 wheie his money, sometimes difficult lo account for, goes. 



is in better condition for work, tnore vegetable 

 nialter is ploughed under and the soil sooner be- 

 comes mellow. I have practised ploughing in 

 August or September for rye ; laid the furrow 

 flat, rolled it, spread on (iom twenty-five lo thirty 

 loads of compost, (thirty bushels to' the load ) har- 

 rowi'd well, then sowed one peck of herds grass 

 and one bushel of red top, lirnshed it and then 

 laid all smooth with a loaded roller. My rye and 

 grass have always ilone well ; the straw selling 

 from seven dollars to ten dollars peracre, and ihe 

 grain bringing ten per cent, more than the south- 

 ern. Directly after taking o(Va crop of hay, ear- 

 ly in July, I have inverted the sod, rolled, harrow- 

 ed in a good coat of compost, sowed one peck 

 of millet to the acre, brushed, then sown grass 

 seed, clover, herds, red top, and brushed and roll- 

 ed smooth. I have never fiiiled of getting a ton 

 of millet fodder to the acre, and when the (iost 

 has delayed (or about seventy days from the time 

 of sowing, thirty or forty bushels of millet seed 

 to the acre, and the next year imd for several years 

 a good crop of hay. But it is not prudent to sow 

 millet after the tenth of July, on account of the 

 frost; it should not be sown belbre the middle 

 of May ; best sown in June. In August I plough- 

 ed two acres of land which was this year mow- 

 ed ; rolled it flat ; spread sixty loads of compost, 

 harrowed it well, sowed one-half bushel herds 

 grass and two bushels red top, ihen brushed and 

 rolled it smooth ; ibis process has always succeed- 

 ed with me. 



In planting my corn the present season, instead 

 of cross furrowing, I ran the plough but one way, 

 and not so deep as to ilisturh the sod, nearly fill- 

 ed the furrows, which were lour feet distant in 

 part of the field, with my common compost, in 

 part with pig manure, then dropped the kernels 

 in the (urrows, six inches apart, and covered, 

 leaving the surface of the ground even ; in May 

 went between the rows with the cultivator and 

 hoe, and again the last of June, but making no 

 bill, and this, with the exception of pulling by 

 hand a few weeds, was all the culture. The crop, 

 as you witnessed, was clean and heavy. 



In October, 1842,1 ploughed three acres of field 

 land, which had been in grass five years, and roll- 

 eil it. In May following harrowed it and spread 

 seventy loads of compost, which was well liar- 

 rowed, then marked the hills (bur feet apart each 

 way, (hopped the corn and covered ; in June 

 went through «ith Ihe cultivator and hoe, and 

 late in July sowed grass seed among the standing 

 corn, went through with the cultivator and hoe, 

 making no hills; in October the corn was cut up 

 close, and the ground i oiled with a loaded roller. 

 On one acre I had one hundred and two baskets 

 of good corn, and the crops of grass have been 

 lair. 1 have since (bllowed this plan with better 

 success when I have used more and belter com- 

 post. 



I have this year let five acres of meadow and 

 three pasture lots. I have top dressed my re- 

 claimed meadows w ith a compost of loam and 

 warm manure, ami have fiirtlier extended my ex- 

 periments in reclaiming meadows. 1 have at- 

 tempted some improvements on bushy and mossy 

 pastures, which now piouiise well ; on these I 

 liave sown winter and miiliicole rye wilh some 

 spiirry and common grass seed. 



I have raised no large crops, the expense and 

 labor have bi!en moderale, and I have the satis- 

 fiietion of thiukiiig thai mv llirrn is in an improv- 

 ing condition. DANIEL r. KING. 



Danvers, JVov. ith, 1845. 



From the N. Y. Farmer and Mechanic. 

 Steel. 



Steel is composed of iron and carbon, in which 

 the proportion of the latter is (rom five to one 

 per cent., and even less, in some kinds. Steel 

 may be distinguished (i-oin iron by its fine grain ; 

 its snsceplibiliiy of hardening by immersion, 

 when hot, inio cold water; ami with certainly, 

 by the action of dilute nitric acid, which leaves 

 a black spot on steel, and on iron a spot which 

 is lighter colored in proprotion as the iron con- 

 tains less carbon. 



There are many varieties of steel, the princi- 

 pal of which are : 



jVatiiral Steel, which is obtained by reducing 

 the rich and pure kinds of iron oie with char- 

 coal, and reltning the cast iron, so as to deprive 

 it of a sufficient portion of carbon to bring it lo 

 a malleable stale. It is made principally in Ger- 



