1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



39 



pecked at her and drove her away. The perse- 

 cuted mother flew down to a perch below, where, 

 ■with her head undtr her winj^ she remained for 

 a short time, and then fell suddenly to the gi'ound. 

 The inmates of the house, who had witnessed the 

 proceeding, immediately went out and ascertained 

 that the dove v/as dead, but no wound was found 

 sufficient to cause death. Possibly she died of 

 a broken heart from the brutal treatment of her 

 false and fickle mate. — Traveller: 



PIiA.WTS MUST HAVE FOOD. 



Veget-ition annually appropriates to itself, and 

 removes from the soil, a portion of nutritive prin- 

 ciples therein containf=d, and if they be removed 

 without compensation in some way, barrenness 

 will ensue. Upon the facilities which the farmer 

 may be able to command to secure an adequate 

 supply of food for his crops, his success must in 

 a great measure depend. 



Manure is a term o' broad application. It was 

 formerly confined chiefly to the excrements of 

 animals, but nov/ has a wider signification, and 

 may be understood as embracing any animal, 

 vegetable, or mineral matter, capable of improv- 

 ing and fertilizing the soil, or of correcting its 

 faults and supplying its defects. Whether arti- 

 ficial fertilizers may or may not be profitably em- 

 ployed, is of far less moment for us to under- 

 stand, than how to make the most of home re- 

 sources ; the true policy being to increase the 

 productiveness of the farm from within itself. 

 To accomplish this, every source of fertilizing 

 material upon the farm should be made to con- 

 tribute, ami care should be taken that nothing be 

 wasted. Not only should the solid excrement of 

 animals, which too often is the sole dependence 

 of the farmer, be properly cared for, but special 

 efforts should be directed to the liquids also, 

 which are not only more exposed to waste, but 

 possess a superiority over others, which renders 

 their loss irreparable. An eminent agricultural 

 writer says: "When it is considered that Avith 

 every pound of ammoni i that escapes, a loss of 

 sixty pounds 'of corn is sustained, and that with 

 every pound of uiine a pound of wheat might be 

 produced, the indifference with which these liquid 

 excrements are regarded is quite incomprehen- 

 sible." Another says : "The quantity of liquid 

 manure produced by one cow annually, is equal 

 to fertilizing an acre and a quarter of ground, 

 producing elfects asdural)le as do th;^ solid evac- 

 uations. A cord of loam, saturated with urine, 

 is equal to a cord of the best dung. If the liquid 

 and solid evacuations, including the litter, are 

 kept se[)arate, and soaking up the liquid by loam, 

 it has lieen found that they will manure land, in 

 proportion by bulk, of seven liquid to six solid, 

 while their actual value is as two to one. The 

 simple statement, then, in figures, of the difl'er- 

 ence in value of the solid and liquid evacuations 

 of a cow, should impress upon all the impor- 

 tance of saving the last in preferenc3 to the 

 first." 



Excrementitious matter, whether solid or liquid, 

 is by no means our only source of food for plants. 

 Almost every farm possesses an indefinite, and 

 oftentimes a most abundant supply, in the de- 

 posits of decayed vegetable matter known 

 muck or ocit. This, to be sure, in its natural 



condition, is not readily available by plants ; they 

 would relish and thrive upon it about as well as 

 we would on raw potatoes, but nevertheless, the 

 food is there, and only needs due preparation to 

 make it both palatable and nutritious. Muck or 

 peat is also of great value, and almost indispen- 

 sable as an absorbent of liquid manure, and of 

 the gases generated during decomposition.* 



In this way it not only proves a most eftectual 

 and economical means of preventing waste, but 

 is itself, in so doing, modified or changed so as 

 to be converted into valuable and available man- 

 ure. Muck, treated with ashes, is found to do 

 exceedingly well. Another mode of treating it, 

 which has many advocates, is, to slake quick- 

 lime, with a saturated solution of common salt, 

 and mingle with the muck, in the proportion of 

 one cask of lime to a bushel of salt, mixed with 

 a cord of muck. Thus prepared, it is not a sim- 

 ple mixture of lime, salt, and muck, but during 

 its preparation as stated above, a decomposition 

 of the salt takes place, alkali is liberated equiva- 

 lent to the ashes used in the other case, and by 

 its action the vegetable food in the muck is I'en- 

 dered soluble, and thus made available to plants.f 

 — ^Plough, Loom and Anvil. 



* Too much can hardly be said of the value of dried mack, to 

 b3 thrown into the stalls, as nn absorbent for the double pur- 

 pose of adding to the value of the manure, and of purifying the 

 air ' f the premises. 



t If convenient, it would be well to prepare this some weeks 

 before app'ying it, and if turned over a few times, all the better. 



OUR. BXPORTS. 



Oar often stated and reiterated assertion, that 

 we do not raise our own food, is true, — import- 

 ing, as we do, corn, and wheat, and flour, beef, 

 and mutton, and poik ; vrhile the agricultural ca- 

 pabilities of our soil are such, that with only a 

 little more intelligent farming, our home produc- 

 tion of the very things we import might be vastly 

 increased ; perhaps so that the exports would 

 more than coimterbalance the imports ; and this 

 without involving the employm-nt of much more 

 labor or capital, or even mooting the question 

 whether these are the most profitable things we 

 can raise. Yet we can learn many a useful lesson 

 from the exports of our State and neighboring 

 region. 



This year the aj)ple crop attracts most atten- 

 tion among our exports, for we have been favored 

 with comparative abundance, while the general 

 crop of the country is next to nothing. Sloop- 

 load after sloop-load has floated down the river, 

 and the cars have taken many more. Specula- 

 tors have gone through the land, and many ap- 

 ples have been engaged at moderate prices, be- 

 fore the market price became settled. This prac- 

 tice of selling to speculators is generally well 

 enough under our present system of doing things, 

 though we hold that the ware-house system, 

 wherever practicable, should be employed. Spec-- 

 ulators and their agents will, if held to it, gener- 

 ally offer all that they can afford to give, and, if 

 the risks and expenses of marketing are taken 

 into the account, they usually leave themselves a 

 small enough margin, and ofi"er more than the 

 small farmer can get for his crop, if he should 

 market it himself. 



We have often alluded to the Golden Sweet 



