1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



125 



necticut and its tributary streams ; take the other | 

 thousands of acres of salt marsh on the shores of 

 the ocean ; take the many thousands of acfes of i 

 fresh meadows — on all these, abundant opportuni-! 

 ty will be found for the use of such machines. 

 Merely because this gentleman's premises are so 

 situated that he cannot use them, is no good rea- 

 son why others should not. I was greatly aston- 

 ished, to hear an eminent farmer from Worcester 

 county say, that he was confident mowers could 

 not be used on half the farms in the Common- 

 wealth. He did not pretend to say they could not 

 be used on his farm, for he admitted, that he had 

 tried every kind that he had heard of, and they had 

 worked well with him. If they had tvorkedtvell 

 with him, why may they not be made to work as 

 well with others ? I think the gentleman was a lit- 

 tle too much incUned to the opposite in the ground 

 he took ; because others had put them forward 

 with approbation. If I have the right idea of that 

 gentleman as a farmer, he will be among the last to 

 discard the use offaiihfuUt/ built and ivell managed 

 mowing machines. I am clearly of the opinion that 

 our farmers are about to find in these implements, 

 the best means of labor-saving they have ever ex- 

 perienced. P. 

 January 25, 1856. 



FOURTH LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTU- 

 RAL MEETING. 



Reported for the Farmer by E. H. Rockwell. 



The fourth regular meeting of the Legislative Ag- 

 ricultural Society was held on Tuesday evening, in 

 the Hall of the House of Rejiresentatives. The 

 number in attendance was respectable, though not 

 quite equal to that at the last meeting. The sub- 

 ject for discussion was Manures, and their prepar- 

 ation. At 20 minutes after 7 o'clock, the meeting 

 was called to order by Dr. FlSHER, of Fitchburg, 

 Chairman of the Executive Committee, who invited 

 Hon. Simon Brown to take the chair, who, on do- 

 ing so, expressed his gratification that there was a 

 more general desire to find something to be used 

 on farms as fertiHzers, that would enable farmers 

 to reap larger crops. The attention of scientific 

 men, as wtII as that of farmers, has been turned to 

 the subject. Guano, lime, bone dust, phosphate of 

 lime and various specifics have been suggested and 

 tried, but they have not always been found to an- 

 swer the desired purpose. Guano applied to the 

 soil may produce a good crop for one year, and fail 

 to do so the second, and so it is with many other 

 fertilizers. Suppose something could be found 

 which is cheap, and to which all can have access, 

 that would almost invariably result in 2)roducing 

 better crops, and it would l)e thought a great point 

 gained to secure it. He had no doubt such a fer- 

 tilizer could be found within the reach of all, a fer- 

 tilizer that could be used without stint, and one 

 which would, at the same time, greatly improve the 

 mechanical condition of the soil, and secure larger 

 crops of all kinds. 



That substance lies near almost every ftxrm in the 



commonwealth, and is nothing more nor less than 

 the meadow muck, sometimes called humus, and 

 sometimes geine ; but best known as swamp or peat 

 muck. 



The material of which this muck is composed was 

 stated to be mosses, coarse grass, leaves, aquatic 

 plants, and even branches and trunks of trees gone 

 to decay, and of the fine mould and mineral matter 

 which has been washed down from the hills in the 

 vicinity. 



The effect of this muck on heavy lands is to 

 make them lighter, and being black, it attracts and 

 absorbs heat and makes cold lands warmer. Then 

 it contains nearly all the salts which cow dung 

 does, and is worth nearly as much as the fresh 

 droppings of the stalls and the farm. When piled 

 up in heaps it will not ferment and rot as cow dung 

 does, because it does not contain ammonia, as that 

 does ; or if it does, it is in an inert state, and does 

 not act on the compost heap. But that fermenta- 

 tion may be readily brought about by either potash, 

 soda ash, or house ashes. Either of them will 

 cause ammonia to be evolved, and then the heap 

 becomes exceedingly valuable. It not only attracts 

 heat, but it cools rapidly, so tha I after a hot sum- 

 mer day, when a great amount of heat has been at- 

 tracted and absorbed by rapid cooling, moisture 

 is deposited, and thus the plants have the benefit 

 of that moisture. 



It should not be used immediately upon being 

 dug, but it is a good practice to take it from the 

 swamp in the autumn or winter and let it remain 

 in heaps, of the depth of a foot or more until the 

 next spring before it is spread upon the soil. It is 

 well to mix salt and lime or potash with it, putting 

 30 pounds of potash to a cord ; or 15 or 20 pounds 

 of soda ash ; or 8 or 10 bushels of house ashes. 

 This, overhauled once or twice and thoroughly 

 mixed and pulverized, will make one of the best 

 possible manures for any farm. He believed with 

 Dr. Dana, "that in whatever view we regard peat 

 muck, it is the basis on which rests the whole art 

 of agriculture. It is this which causes the great 

 difierence of physical characters. The chemical 

 characters are uniform. If, then, geine (or peat 

 muck) is the soul of fertility, if it makes soil hot, 

 cold, wet, dry, heavy or light, the proportion and 

 state in which it exists in soil becomes an agricul- 

 tural problem of the highest value." 



Mr. Brown then closed with expressing the 

 hope that gentlemen present would freely give the 

 results of their experience and observation on the 

 general subject of manures and their application. 



Mr. Dodge, of Sutton, regarded the subject of 

 manures as of the first importance. He thought 

 that there was scarcely a farmer in the State who 

 did not lose manure from his barn-yard, or neglect 

 to save it, to the value of $5 every year ; and if 

 each one lost as much from not saving from his 



