FARMS, OLD AND NEW. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



instances could be produced, but this, being on 

 unquestionable authority, is ample for present 

 illustration. 



Mr. George W. Cummins, of Smyrna, Dela- 

 ware, purchased a farm near that place, con- 

 taining about 200 acres. The land had been 

 under cultivation for half a century or more, 

 and its soil so completely exhausted as not to 

 be capable of compensating for the labour u.nd 

 seed expended upon crops. It had, neverthe- 

 less, been rented, up to the time of purchase, 

 and one of the conditions was the payment, 

 annually, of two-fifths of the Indian corn 

 crop. From a thirty acre field, the rent paid 

 the last year was only about 30 bushels ! Clo- 

 ver refused to grow upon this land, and wheat 

 would not yield much more than the seed sown. 

 The soil was a sandy loam. The first step 

 taken by Mr. Cummins for the restoration of 

 this land to fertility, was, to sow one bushel of 

 ground plaster per acre, flush it up in the 

 spring, and spread upon it 70 bushels of slaked 

 lime per acre. Oats were then sown at ihe 

 rate of 2 or 3 bushels to the acre, and in July, 

 when nearly fit for harvest, the straw being 

 partly yellow and partly green, they were 

 ploughed under, an ox-chain having been rigged 

 in front of the coulter, so as to turn them down 

 before the plough. Previous to this ploughing, 

 H bushel more of ground plaster of Paris was 

 sprinkled upon the ground. A second crop of 

 oats sprung up in a thick mat from those 

 ploughed under, and about the first of October, 

 these were turned down by the plough like the 

 first growth. Wheat was now sown, about 1 

 bushel to the acre, and harrowed in, followed 

 by clover early in the spring. The crop of 

 wheat averaged about 8 bushels to the acre, 

 and this, it will be observed, without a shovel- 

 full of stable or other kind of animal manure. 

 The clover had a bushel of ground plaster 

 sprinkled upon it in the spring, and yielded 

 the second season of its growth, about a ton 

 per acre at the first mowing. Thus, land from 

 which the vegetable mould had been entirely 

 exhausted was, in a comparatively short time, 

 and without the assistance of barn-yard or any 

 other kind of animal manure, brought into a 

 condition to yield compensating crops of wheat, 

 corn, and vigorous clover. By the assistance 

 of the ordinary quantity of barn-yard manure, 

 the produce of wheat would average about 25 

 bushels, and of Indian corn 40 or 50 bushels 

 per acre. The ground was very light and easy 

 to work, and Mr. Cummins estimated the ac- 

 tual expenses incurred per acre in this improv- 

 ing course, as follows : 



Total expenses per acre 



- $ 13 73J 



Thus the whole expenses incurred prepara- 

 tory to the wheat and clover crops, amounted 

 to $13-73 ; and as the wheat raised was about 

 8 bushels, and sold for $1-50, and the clover 

 mown about 1 ton per acre, worth about 8 or 

 454 



l 10 dollars the ton, the expenses were abun- 

 dantly repaid by the first crops, and the land left 

 in good heart for future profitable tillage. 



When farms are situated near towns, ani- 

 mal manures can generally be obtained at fair 

 prices, and hence the usual productiveness ex- 

 hibited by lots and fields in the proximity of 

 towns. But with large farms situated at too 

 great distances from such places to admit of 

 the transportation of stable manure or streei 

 dirt at fair prices, the farmers are left to the 

 fertilizing substances at hand, or to the pur- 

 chase of concentrated manure that will bear 

 the cost of transportation, such as lime, ashes, 

 soot, plaster, crushed bones, poudrette prepared 

 from night soil, &c., the salts of nitre, soda, am- 

 monia, etc. Those who live near enough to 

 marl-beds to admit of the hauling of such heavy 

 substances at a fair cost, are indeed fortunate. 

 Then there are the manures or composts pre- 

 pared from peat or bog-weed, by the addition 

 of ashes, the salts of potash, soda, &c., the me- 

 rits of all which can now be readily ascertained 

 from results of actual experiments, reported in 

 numerous recent publications, upon agricul- 

 tural matters, and especially in that highly 

 valuable little treatise by Dr. Dana, " The 

 Muck Manual." 



FARM YARD. The area or court in which 

 the farm buildings are situated, and which ge- 

 nerally adjoins the farm-house. It is the place 

 where cattle are foddered, dung prepared, and 

 several other necessary operations belonging 

 to the farm performed. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. Of all fertilizers 

 the most universal and most valuable to the 

 cultivator, and yet the most generally misma- 

 naged, is farm-yard manure, which has been 

 often well described as the farmer's sheet an- 

 chor. From this fertilizer, man must have 

 derived some benefits, even before he was 

 compelled, by the increase of population, to 

 cultivate and manure his land. It is the earliest 

 mentioned of all manures ; although, at first, 

 the only notice we meet with of dung and 

 dunghills, describes them as employed in Pa- 

 lestine for fuel ; and, to this day, in the barren 

 deserts of the East, that of the camel, after 

 being dried in the sun. is the only combustible 

 article the natives possess. (Ezekit^iv. 12, 15; 

 Niebuhr's Voyage, i. 121.) This manure is no- 

 ticed by the earliest agricultural writers. M. 

 P. Cato tells us, in his fourth chapter, to " study 

 to have a large dunghill; keep your c< mpost 

 carefully ; when you carry it out, scattei it and 

 pulverize it : carry it out in the autumn. Lay 

 dung round the roots of your olives in autumn." 

 And in his 29th chapter, "Divide your manure; 

 carry half of it to the field where you sow your 

 provender : and if there are olive trees, put 

 some dung to their roots." And in c. 37,, he 

 advises the use of pigeons' dung for gardens, 

 meadows, and corn land, as well as amurca, 

 which is the dregs of oil ; and recommends the 

 farmer to preserve carefully the dung of all 

 descriptions of animals. These directions 

 were given 150 years B.C.; after a lapse of 

 nearly 2000 years, the direction to the farmer 

 must still be the same ; little can be added to 

 the advice of Cato, when he said, " Study to 

 have a large dunghill." Virgil is still more 



