12 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



not so to be. They should all open into, and en- 

 circle a common yard, having a southern aspect, 

 and containing a good range of open sheds for young 

 cattle, &c. The importance of this cannot be over 

 estimated. As we now write, our kindling enthusiasm 

 for agricultural improvement is nipped in the bud 

 when we think of the miserably arranged farm build- 

 ings common throughout the length and breadth of 

 the land. We have innumerable handsome barns 

 with domes, Venetian shutters and glass windows, 

 which an Englishman would mistake for a dissenting 

 chapel or a country school house, but we have very 

 few really good, well arranged, substantial farm build 

 rugs. We do not desire to see expensive buildings, 

 but such as are simple, plain, and substantially ar- 

 ranged for convenience, utility and profit. You can- 

 not make the most profit on your farms, inasmuch as 

 you cannot make good manure, the sheet anchor of 

 all good husbandry, without them. 



Another requisite for carrying out our system is — 

 « good wheel-barrow. Reader, you probably have 

 not got one. Few farmers have. Perhaps you have 

 a common dirt barrow. This is better than nothing, 

 «ertainly, but is not worthy a place in any respecta- 



ble barn-yard. Do get a good one, with a" large flat 

 bottom, a high front-piece and deep side boar<>-s 

 which can bo taken off at pleasure. Such a one aa 

 is represented in the annexed cut. Then when you 

 clean out your stables, do not throw the litter close 

 to the entrance, where it will lie in a loose heap, and 

 spoil by rapid fermentation, but get your new wheel- 

 barrow and take the litter to a distant part of the 

 yard where it will be mixed with the litter of the pig 

 pens, cov/hjuse and sheep fold. The advantages of 

 guch a mixture we have already explained. 



Tho system of managing manure here imperfectly 

 fetched is adapted ratiier to a wheat growiug section, 

 and for farms where a large quantity of straw is 

 raised, and which is all used on the farm, than to the 

 New England States, where scarcely enough straw is 

 produced for bedding, even when the most rigid econ 

 omy is practised. We have no great love for manure 

 cellars, but where straw is scarce and muck plentiful, 

 they have some advantages. In them, as in the open 

 yard, the chief objects of the farmer must be to ab 

 sorb all the urine, and prevent a too rapid fermenta- 

 tion of the dung. If a considerable number of cows 

 and hogs are kept, and their manure is well mixed 

 with tbe horse dung, the latter will be easily accom- 

 plished ; and by spreading a Rttle muck over the surface 

 of the heap occasionally, all the ammonia can be re- 

 tained; but where horse dung is loosely thrown into the 

 cellar, it will rapidly decompose, and much ammonia 

 will be given ofl". It is vain to suppose that the cellar 

 can be kept so close as to prevent the escape of am- 

 monia. The only way this can be accomplished is 

 by employing the so called fixers — sulphate of lime 

 ( in solution, as we have said, is the best — or by the 

 \ «ae ot ftbaorbents, straw, muck, charcoal, &c. 



We cannot resist the conviction, however, that far- 

 mers as a general rule, will not employ chemical 

 means to retain the ammonia in manure, and we be- 

 lieve there is less necessity for doing so than is com- 

 monly supposed by scientific writer.s, if the manure 

 heap is judiciously managed. Prof. Wolff says: "By 

 maintaining the manure moderately moist through- 

 out its entire mass, a fertilizer will be produced, pre- 

 serving almost entirely the original virtue of the ma- 

 nure, and in a form well adapted to promote the 

 growth of crops; and this without employing chem- 

 ical fixing-agents, as plaster, sulphuric acid, &c., whose 

 application on a large scale is often too costly and 

 troublesome. Swamp muck, peat, brown-coal pow- 

 der, or any earth rich in vegetable matter may be 

 economically employed to assist in retaining ammonia. 

 Whichever material be used, it should be stre.^ed as 

 a thin coating over the surface of the manure, from 

 time to time during the summer; and be kept mod- 

 erately moist by occasional drenchings with the con- 

 tents of the cistern." 



Although Prof. Wolff thinks that " where yard 

 manure and compos s are skillfully prepared, the loss 

 of ammonia is vury slight, even without the use of 

 fixing agent.«," yet he cites the experiment of Dr. 

 Krutzsfk to show the extent to which ammonia ia 

 given off when common liquid manure is allowed to 

 ferment unmixed with fixing or absorbing agents. 

 fie found that the solid residue remaiuiiig after the 

 evaporation of perfectly putrid yard liquid, gave 3| 

 per cent, of ammonia, while the same liquid treated 

 with an acid (fixer) tieFore evaporation gave a residue 

 which contained 12 1 per cent, of ammonia. In the 

 Eothamsted experiments, if we recollect right, sheep 

 urine, evaporated without acid, lost even a still great- 

 er amount of ammonia. Tet we should be careful 

 how we apply such results to common practice. It 

 is known that water will hold a large quantity of am- 

 monia, and we believe the loss of "this spirit-like 

 essence ot the farm, ever struggling to be free," from 

 fermenting common barn-yard drainings is much less 

 than the above figures indicate, ytt it is sufficiently 

 great to warrant the use of any cheap method &i fix- 

 ing it, such as the one we have suggested by the em- 

 ployment of sulphate of lime in solution. , 

 We would just add that though we dwell so 

 much on the importance of nitrogen in the manure, 

 we do not underi'ate the value of the inorganic ele- 

 ments, which are of course indispensable to the growth 

 of all plants. We speak more directly about nitro- 

 gen, because we think it of greatest importance, and 

 because we know there is no way of increasi...rr its 

 amount on a farm, without at the same time increas- 

 ing the amount of inorganic elements; and also, that 

 there is no way of judiciou.sly preserving and fermenly- 

 ing the nitrogen without at the same time preserving 

 the inorganic elements aad rendering them in a better- 

 state for assimilation by the plant. Especially is this 

 true ol the phosphates and silicates. Nitrogen and 

 phosphoric acid generally exist in the same ratio in 

 most substances used for food or for manure; while 

 the solubility of the silicates is greatly increased by 

 fermentation in the manure heap. 



Clover Seed. — The fVorkin^ Man, an excellent 

 agricultural paper, published in Indianapolis, Ind., 

 states that the crop of clover seed in that vicinity waa 

 a complete failure last year, the grasshoppers hajv'mg^ 

 destroyed what little the drouth left. 



