vol,. XVI. NO. 6. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



43 



(For the New EnglanJ Farmer.) 

 POUDRBTTE. 



How ive manage sotm ihingt. 



Mr Editor: — Eating and drinking nnd some 

 other common, or at least occasional emidoyinents, 

 may in tliese days of refinement, lie consKlercd 

 somewhat vulgar. Still eating and some other 

 kinds of business whieli cannot be done by proxy, 

 are occasionally, very necessary ; and, since you 

 request co.nmunieations, I will tell you a hltle 

 about how we manage some things. We are not 

 remarkalily fond of the sufloeating stench, and 

 poisonous effluvia, fiom putrid excrements; and 

 as we wish to unite profit with comfort and clean- 

 liness we take the following method. 



We make our backhouse front towards the 

 south. The seat is then placed on the north shle, 

 80 as not to he acted upon directly liy the rays of 

 a liot summer's sun. 



We occasionally place a few cart loads of dirt 

 near the north side of our backliouse. 



The lower part of the covering of the north 

 side of our backhouse from a liille below the top 

 of the seat downwards, is a horizontal door, so 

 hung that we can turn it up and down at our leis- 

 ure,°and thus have free access to the parts below 

 the seat, and can easily remove all offensive and 

 putrid matters from the place, and we can also 

 supply fresh dirt when we please. Lime with us 

 is scarce and dear — and according to Sii Hum- 

 iihrey Davy, though quicklime removes the bad 

 smell from putrid manures, and forms with lliem 

 a valuable compost, yet the compost formed with 

 putrid matters and quicklime, is less powerful as 

 a manure than the compost formed of the same 

 putrid matters with dirt or soil instead of lime. 



We allow no vault for the retention of putrefy- 

 in" feces and the production of poisonous gasses 

 to^be made under our backhouse, but, inst.ad of 

 this we turn up the horizontal back door before 

 mentioned, and throw a few shovel fulls of fresh 

 and sweet dirt under the seat, and at suitable times 

 we remove what has fallen under the seat, togeth- 

 er with the dirt on which it fell. — This we throw 

 into a heap and cover it well with some of the 

 dirt which we had previously placed near by, and 

 again we also throw fresh and sweet diit under 



the seat. Turn down the back door again, and 



all is sweet and pleasant about the backliouse, and 

 this operation which occupies from two or three 

 to six or eight minutes, we repeat as often as is 

 necessary to prevent the bad smell which would 

 otherwise be always arising from putrid excre- 

 ments. 



I said we like to unite projit, with comfort and 

 cleanliness; and in this way with a little atten- 

 tion, and a little labor, we are delivered from these 

 seeds of cholera, and yellow fever, and from the 

 poisonous and suffocating fumes, which are fre- 

 quently so annoying to those who are occasion- 

 ally compelled to retire a while from public view. 

 r\nd with a family of six persons and a few loads 

 of dirt we form from one to two cords («f 128 cu- 

 bic feet each) of a very valuable compost manure, 

 which if lightly ploughed in, produces powerful ef- 

 fects on corn or on English grain. If put into 

 corn or cabbage hills, it ought to he sliqhtly cov- 

 ere4^ with dirt before dropping the seed. Put 

 into the hills ark! slightly covered with fine dirt 

 before dropping^he seed, I have seen nothing 

 make cabbages grow like it. 



It is of so volatile a nature that if spread and 

 left on the top of the ground oi- on grass, we 

 should expect a great part of its value would be 



lost. 



If the droppings from the seat are allowed to 

 remain a considerable time before they are remov- 

 ed and well buried, the compost will he liable to 

 he infested wilh a kind of worms or maggots 

 which sometimes attack the roots of the corn, 

 cabhaues, &c. Under these circumstances we 

 have got rid of the worms and saved our plants 

 by watering the cabbages with lime water, pre- 

 pared by lurxing six or eight quarts of quick lime 

 with a barrel of water. IJut prevention is heller 

 than cure. And to prevent the attack of the 

 worms, let the droppings from the seat be remov. 

 cd and well buried before the little flies and other 

 foul feeilers deposite their eggs in it. The eggs 

 of the large flies, soon turn to flii;s, and in warm 

 weather tiny fly away in a few days, and are not 

 the cause of the mischief of which we have been 

 speaking. 



Now by making compost as above described, 

 .tud using it judiciously, 1 should suppose that a 

 family of six persons might not (Uily have a great 

 addition made to their cleanliness, their health, 

 and their comfort, hut might also have a yearly 

 addition to their income of a barrel of Hour. 

 Surely thi.s, in hard limes, is a thing not to be des- 

 piseil." We certainly should not he willing to sell 

 the compost we make in a year, in this way, for 

 one barrel of flour, even if it have the most ap- 

 proved fancy brand which connoisseurs admire. 

 1 And the compost, if it contains a proper quan- 

 tity of dirt is not a bad smelling manure after it 

 has lain a few months. 



Now then let us calculate a little. Massachu- 

 setts at this time, probably, contains six or seven 

 hundred thousand inhabitants. Then lei some 

 course be taken, which would save to every six 

 persons an additional barrel of flour yearly, and 

 there would be a yearly saving of a hundred 

 thousand barrels of flour for Massachusetts, and 

 probably about 50,000 barrels for Connecticut. 

 And 150,000 barrels of flour at $10 per barrel, 

 would amount to one million Jive hundred thousand 

 ilollurs ! ! ■' Surely this is an amount worth mak- 

 ing some exertions f .r. At this rate the saving 

 for 15,000,000 persons (the supposed population 

 of these United St.ites,) would be 2,500,000 bar- 

 rels of flour, which at .§10 per barrel would 

 auiount to twentufive million of dollars in one 



volatile a nature, that almost the whole of its fer- 

 tilizing virtues are lost to the soil. 



And now, Mr Editor, if any persons ratherthan 

 to keep things about them chaii and wholesome, 

 are still determined to regale their olfactories with 

 the poisonous fumes of ))Utrid privies, at the cost 

 of feeding upon musty wheat and rye, imported 

 at "-rcat expense f:om Russia and Germany, Isup- 

 pos'e that in this land of liberty we must all.jw 

 them the privilege of doing so, although by so 

 doiui: the nation is drained of a great amount of 

 its golil and treasure. Yet we should greatly 

 prefer seeing a practical attention given to the di- 

 rections of that great teacher, who told his disci- 

 ples lo " Let nothing be lost ! " 



Yours, res|ieclfiilly, H. 



E. II. Conn. June 2Sth, 1837. 



(Fertile New England Farmer.) 

 Two UrAPED Rye. — Mr Editor : Enclosed I 

 send you two heads of Rye, which grow from one 

 straw. The rye beards are all broken oft' but you 

 may depend on its being rye. It has been in my 

 possession for perhaps more than twenty years, 

 and is the only instance of two rye beads grovy- 

 ing from one straw, which 1 have ever seen. 

 Respectfully, yours, 



Asa. M. Holt. 



year . 



But in cities this plan of making compost, with 

 (lilt, cannot be conveniently carried into full ef- 

 fect for want of reoin. 



In cities they may keep their backhouses sweet 

 with lime ; and may tlius prepare a valuable ma- 

 nure. 



Suppose then we follow the plan of making 

 compost with dirt, (as before described) only in 

 the country, and instead of 150,000 barrels of flour 

 have only 100,000 barrels for Massachusetts and 

 Conneclicut, this at $10 per barrel would amount 

 to one million of dollars ! And this in hard times 

 would be no very small amount. And if one 

 million of dollars might be saved annually in 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut; 16 or 17 milli.^iis 

 of dollars might be annually saved in the whole 

 of these United Stat "S by the same means!! 



When the article in question is dropped pro- 

 miscuously on the surface of the ground, liesiiles 

 being odious to the sight and the smell it is of so 



Ryf: Bread. — There is such a fastidious and 

 pervert -d faste among our farming interest with- 

 in the kist few years, that the good old fashioned 

 brown loaf in some families has almost disappear- 

 ed, and flour bnad which will kill a dog, as prov- 

 ed by experiuient, in fiftycight days, is esteemed 

 essential in order for politeness, by every village 

 urchin, with half covered back even, and some ~ 

 children are laughed at by these pinks of fashiou, 

 for having their luncheon of brown. 



But the prevalent use of flour bread has exert- 

 ed a powerful agency in filling our land with dys- 

 pepsia, that broad way to consumption. With 

 reference to this growing and wide spreading ca- 

 lamity, I have thought the following article from 

 the New England Farmer, Vol. V. No. 1, might 

 be of service. 



" Even those," says M. Jacob, in his recent re- 

 port on the state of agriculture ou the continent, 

 •' who can afford wheaten bread, eat commonly 

 that of rye from choice. At tlie tables of tlia first 

 families, both in Germany and Poland, though 

 wheaten bread was always to be seen, I remark- 

 ed that the natives scarcely ever tasted it, and I 

 have met many Englishmen who, after a long re- 

 sidence in those countries, have given the prefer- 

 ence to bread of rye. 



From ihe time 1 left the Netherlands, through 

 Saxony. Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, and Wirlein- 

 hurg till 1 entered France ; I never saw, either in 

 the bakers' sliops, in tlie hotels or in private 

 houses, a loaf of wheaten bread. In every large ' 

 town, small rolls of wheaten flour could he pur- 

 chased, anil they were to be seen at the tables at 

 which foreigners were seated. 



Wheat is only used by the natives in making 

 what our English bakers would call fancy bread, 

 or in pastry and conlectionary. 



If there be no foreign demand for wheat, the 

 difticulty of selling is very greai."— Bristol Coun- 

 ty Democrat. 



Anointment of lard, sulphur, and cream of tar- 

 tar, simmered together, is good for the piles. 



