162 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Aprh. 



SIXTH LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL 

 MEETING. 



Reported for the Farmer by H. E. Rockwell. 



The sixth regular meeting of the Legislative Agri- 

 cultural Society was held on Tuesday evening, the 

 number present being about the same as heretofore. 

 The suliject for discussion was, "Preparation and 

 application of Manures." 



The meeting was called to order by Dr. Fisher, 

 who invited E. W. Bull, of Concord, to take the 

 chair. He said he did not consider it so much a 

 question how much land a man cultivates, as how 

 much manure is applied. If a hundred loads are 

 ajiplied to an acre, it may be as profitable as to cul- 

 tivate, a hundred acres, applying one load to an 

 acre. Heavy dressing amends soils, improves 

 their texture, and makes them valuable for a long 

 period of time. 



He thought it necessary to ferment manures. 

 He had tried peat muck, by putting two pounds of 

 muck to one of manure, he had found it more fer- 

 tilizing than manure alone. On a dry soil he did 

 not find it profitable to use unfermented manure, 

 as it would dry up, and its virtues would evaporate. 

 He prepared about forty loads of compost, by mix- 

 ing peat-mud with the manure of one cow and one 

 pig for a year, by the application of which he ob- 

 tained fifty bushels of corn to the acre, where he 

 had never obtained more than thirty before. 



Dr. Fisher thought something might be said to 

 reconcile the differences of opinion as to using ma- 

 nures in a fermented or unfermented state. Un- 

 fermented manm-es do well on a clay soil when the 

 season is drj'. If the season is wet, the manure 

 rather produces acids than ammonia. The impor- 

 tance of using liquid manure, and applying it in a 

 liquid state, was next suggested. For grass, he 

 preferred it to any other form, because, it may be, 

 in that form, thoroughly and equally distributed. 

 He believed that if a cord of manure were leached, 

 and the liquid applied, its effects would be greater 

 than if ajDplied in a solid state. Even to other 

 crops he thought it equally valuable with soUd ma- 

 nure. No man is justified in sending to Peru for 

 guano, while he fails to save the liquid manure of 

 his animals ; because, as he believed, the liquid ma- 

 nure of every grown animal was worth $20 a year. 



R. S. Fay, of Lynn, thought there M-ere difficul- 

 ties in the application of liquid manure which 

 should be better understood than they generally 

 are, before they can be reUed upon. The applica- 

 tion of liquids should not be made to plants until 

 they have acquired some degree of growth, in or- 

 der that it may be immediately taken up by them. 

 It may be applied in such a way as to destroy the 

 crop. Liquid manure of the strength of m-ine, 

 should receive from five to ten times its bulk of wa- 

 ter. If it is applied in a hot sun, much of its am- 

 monia is evolved in the air. It is better therefore. 



to apply it in wet, rainy weather. There are so 

 many circumstances to be be considered in its use, 

 that its application is quite difficult. He had seen 

 an entire farm in Ayrshire, Scotland, of a hundred 

 acres, manm-ed by liquid manure. The crops were 

 very large. On another farm, it is said that five 

 cuttings of ItaHan rye grass were taken in a season, 

 the whole of which produced at the rate of seventy 

 tons per acre. He considered the story too large to be 

 told generally, and he was in the habit of saying 

 thirty-five tons instead of seventy, in order that it 

 might seem more credible. He had seen one farm 

 of forty acres thus manured by irrigation. About 

 two acres were cut at a time, and immediately af- 

 ter cutting, a quantity of the manure was made, by 

 machinery, to flow over so much of the field. Then 

 two or three acres more were cut, and the manure 

 apphed upon it in the same manner as before. 

 Thus the whole field was cut and manured, a little 

 at a time, five or six times in a single season. By 

 this process the grass will become eight inches 

 high, in three or four days. The 7node and time of 

 application of manure is of the utmost importance. 

 He then referred to the practice in Belgium. They 

 there cover manure, at the time of its being put up- 

 on the ground. The manure made in the summer 

 is put in the ground in the autumn. It there as- 

 similates with the soil, and is ready for use in the 

 spring. So the manure made in the winter should 

 be composted in the barn cellar in order to make it 

 fit for use in the spring. With those two simple 

 principles, he thought farmers could not go very 

 far wrong, in applying manure. 



B. V. French, of Braintree, followed. He 

 did not believe farming could be carried on with 

 any profit without manure. Even where lands are 

 rich, there will come a time when manures must be 

 applied. According to Dr. Dana, a cow will make 

 a bushel of manure in a day, by mixing the drop- 

 pings with muck or some similar substance. About 

 seven cords of good manure may be made from a 

 cow in a year, by saving and composting all the ma- 

 nure. When a farmer has made all the manure he 

 can, he might still use more to advantage. He 

 preferred app]3ing the manure to the soil and plow- 

 ing it in, to composting. In order to show of how lit- 

 tle value fermented manure maybe, he stated that he 

 applied five cords of fine manure which had been fer- 

 menting two years, upon one end of a lot, six rods 

 wide, and fifty long, and plowed it in. He then 

 spread long manure over the whole field, equally, 

 but he found no advantage from the five cotds 

 plowed in, that part of the field producing no bet- 

 ter crop than the other. It was an entire failure, 

 as he never saw any benefit from it in the first, sec- 

 ond, third, or any future crop. On a field of poor 

 land he applied three himdred pounds of guano to 

 the acre annually, and had found its results very 

 good for three or four years, in producing rye. 



