398 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUNE 30, lf.38. 



AND gardener's JOURNAL. 



Boston, Wednesday, June 20, 1838. 



We epcke in our last number of the N. E. Farmer of 

 the great importance of manure to the farmer ; and inci- 

 dentally of tlie means of obtaining and increasing it.— 

 There is no subject of greater importance to the agricul- 

 lural community ; and we should not deem it necessary 

 to otFer any apology to our readers, if in every paper the 

 subject were In be biought up; and pressed in all 

 its forms, witii an urgency proporlioned to its impor- 

 tance. 



The philosophy of vegelatinn, like the philosophy of 

 every thing elsa is very ini|]erfecily un<lerstnod ; it is 

 not comparatively understood at all ; its secrets are not 

 approached ; and beyond a certain point, conjecture, if 

 not presumptuous, is idle. For man to undertake to pen- 

 etrate the profound depths of nature is like undertaking 

 to reach the bottom of the ocean with a thre.iil, or to 

 span the orbit of a planet with his hand. The Creator 

 wraps himself in a deep obscurity. Results are all that 

 come under our cognizance ; the modes of his operation 

 are insoluble. Yet are we able to see the connexion 

 between means and ends. Certain effects, as experience 

 demonstrates, result from the application of certain 

 means, and are not to be expc-^eted without such applica- 

 tion ; and when man faithfully performs his part he may 

 confidently look for success to that ever active and 

 watchful Providence by whose power and guardianship 

 all things are upheld and controlled. 



Vegetables, as much as animals, require food: and 

 food adapted to their particular condition and constitu- 

 tion It is the province of the judicious husbandman to 

 supply this food, and to sihpplj* it in such quantities and 

 forms, at sucii times and under such circumstances, as 

 observation and experience .teach us, is desired. This 

 vegetable food, call it by what name you please, is often 

 found abounding in the soil itself; but the constituent 

 elements of the soil or earth do not themselves supply 

 it. The plants gather it from the earth, the water, the 

 air ; and cultivation and vegeiation exhaust it. It con- 

 sists of vegetable matter, which is capable of being dis- 

 solved and so minutely divided that it may be taken up 

 by the plants. What are called mineral manures such 

 as lime, gypsum, (which is only one of the forms or com- 

 binations fd' lime,) salt, Sic. are not, as is undersiood, the 

 food of plants ; but only means of evolving that food, 

 and rendering it soluble, and suitable for the purposes 

 of vegetable life and growth. In the curious and won- 

 derful scheme of divine Providence, vegetable matter in 

 tlie endless circle of reproduction, is constantly being 

 returned to the earth in a state of decay, to enter into 

 new combinations, and to furnish subsistence to a new 

 growth. 



The theory of vegetation is thus far simple enough for 

 all practical purposes ; and the great object of the fir- 

 mer should he to collect, wherever they may be found, 

 the means of increasing his manure heap; and to pro- 

 vide food ftir his vegetables as much as food for his ani- 

 mals. Manure has been properly denominated the sinews 

 of his strength, and to neglect to provide -^snii furnish it, 

 18 like neglecting to provide food f>r his live stock or to 

 think to profit by them by keeping them in a lean and 

 half-starveii condition. In newly cleared countries, in 

 the untouched and vir(.>in soils of the West, the food of 

 vegetable life has been accumulating for years and cen- 

 turies. The enriching of the soil in such places there- 

 fore by any artificial process is not required So like- 



wise ift our own new lands, vvhen a clearance is first 

 made a large amount of vegetable food is to be f(»und 

 from the accumulation of decayed vegetable matter, 

 which is continually going on in the forest; though a 

 great deal of this is inevitably destroyed by the action 

 of fire, the usual mode of clearance ado|)ted among us. 

 But in our old cultivated lands it is ollierwise; crops 

 one after another have been successively taken from the 

 land; and vegetable food must be in someway relumed 

 to the soil in order to meet this deficiency. 'I'ho amount 

 of mineral salts or alkaline earths found in vegetables 

 is comparatively small ; yet a certain quantity be it more 

 or less is undoubtedly wanting to the perfection of veg- 

 etable growth ; but what is mainly wanting in our ex- 

 hausted soils is vegetable matter, which may either be 

 furnished after it has passed through the animal machine 

 and by some unknown process been rendered more ac- 

 tive and concentrated ; or it may be presented in a more 

 crude state, but in either case it must be dissolved, dis- 

 iul.graled, and reduced to a form infinitely too minute 

 for human inspection before it can be taken up as 

 nouiishment by the exquisitely fine vessels of tlie 

 plants. 



There is reason to believe that nothing in the materi- 

 al creation is ever annihilated or exiinguished ; and 

 could the vegetable matter produced upon any given 

 piece of land be entirely returned to that same land and 

 equally diffused upon it, it vvould retain at least its oiig- 

 inal lii'rlility. The use of lime and alkaline earths is 

 not to enrich tiie land, or to furnish the specific lood of 

 plants, excepting in a very small degree, but as far as 

 we can understand the subject, in relation to which the 

 wisest and most sagacious must confess themselves very 

 much in tlie dark, its effect is to reduce the vegetable 

 matter into a foim in which the plants can receive it. 

 The amount of these solvents required in any soil has 

 not yet been ascertained ; but there is good reason to 

 believe that it is not so great as has generally been sup- 

 posed ; nor so great but that it may in most situations 

 be in some form or another supplied. Ueyond this it is 

 confidently believed that there are few situations mid 

 few farms in the country of any considerable extent, 

 which do not afford within reach the means of keeping 

 up, or increasing their fertility. 



If a farmer is in the habit continually of selling his 

 crops to be consumed away from the place, either in the 

 form of hay or vegetables, he must purchase or bring on 

 manure, or the condition of his place will gradually de- 

 cline. This many farmers do, especially in the vicinity 

 of large towns, and do it at very great expenditure of 

 time and money. We admit that this is often compen 

 sated by the increased abundance and high prices of 

 their products. We believe however that in many of 

 these cases manure is often bougl'.t at a great expense 

 and carried a considerable distance, when much of what 

 is needed, of equal value, might be made or found upon 

 the farm at a much less expense, at the saving of great 

 inconvenience. 



There are other cases however where hay is sold, 

 which is transported a longer distance than fruits or 

 market vegetables, where it is considered too far to 

 bring back manure from the city, where the farmer per- 

 ceives that such a course is pursued at the most serious 

 expense to the fertility of his farm ; and in some cases 

 it has resulted in such an impoverishment of the land, 

 that years of cultivation and expensive manuring have 

 been required afterwards to restore it. Now these par- 

 ticularly arc the cases, where we deem it of the highest 

 importance that the farmers should look after the means 

 and sources of enriching their farm actually on their 

 own premises and within their own reach. This is a 



matter of the highest moment and cannot be urged too 

 strongly upon their attcniion. We have not space at 

 this time to go into it as fully as we should desire ; but 

 shall hold it for ample consideration and inquiry in fu- 

 ture numbers as our convenience may afford opportu- 

 nity. In the mean time we advise every farmer to look 

 about him, and inquire what food he can provide for the 

 consumption of his vegetables. As he would furnish 

 fiiod for his live stock, he is equally bound by a prudent 

 regard to his own interest to furnish food for his vegeta- 

 ble family. They are adapted to play into each other's 

 hands or rather into each other's mouths ; and to con- 

 tribute mutually and reciprocally to each otlier*s growth 

 and sustenance. Neither of them is to be neglected. If 

 he sells his crops he can keep no animals to keep up the 

 fertility of the soil by the consumption of its pioducts 

 on the place. If he sells his products, buys no manure, 

 gathers no material for manure, forms no compost heap, 

 the impoverishment of the best farm in the country un- 

 der such management, shall we not rather say misman- 

 agement, is as certain as that the fire will go out where 

 no fuel is supplied : and the deepest pond will be drain- 

 ed where a capacious outlet is opened and the various 

 sources of its supply are cut off. 



W^e shall then on a fulure and convenient occasion 

 discuss this great question fully, whether the fertility of 

 a farm can bo kept up from its own resources; and 

 what means every farmer may be supposed to have or- 

 dinarily vvithin his own reach, of keeping' and of in- 

 creasing the fertility of his soil ; and of supplying the 

 vegetable food for the largest amount of products, which 

 the land is capable of bearing. We invite the particu- 

 lar attention of inquisilive farmers to this important sub- 

 ject. We wish very much our respected correspondents 

 in Roxbury, Pembroke, Danvers, Lenox, Pittsfield, 

 Norlhamplon, Hallowell, and olher places could be in- 

 duced to give us their views on this subject. Their 

 communications would be highly acceptable ; and would 

 do, what it has been their habit and pleasure to do for 

 many past years, confer a high benefit on the agricultu- 

 ral community. 



THE SEASON. 

 The season within the memory of no man living we 

 believe has ever been finer; nor the prospects of the 

 husbandman more promising. We know of no excep- 

 tion in respect to any crop whatever thus far. The last 

 week has been an unvarying succession of hot sunshine 

 and copious showers, accompanied with a good deal of 

 heavy thunder and lightning, and exiremely warm nights. 

 If the corn and potatoes do not grow under sucli appli- 

 ances it must be their own fault. The mercury in the 

 shade has been frequently as high as 90* Fah., and has 

 ranged in some situations at 94-'. Electricity is stated 

 to he a powerful quickener of vegetation ; and some 

 curious facts have been mentioned to us, which go to 

 confirm this statement. We wish there could be exact 

 observations and experiments made in relation to this 

 subject. We do not know that the discovery could ever 

 bo applied to any practical purposes ; nor do we know 

 that it could not. Every fact of every kind is important. 

 Facts constitute science. Some of the most important 

 discoveries in science and the arts have arisen from mi- 

 nute incidents. A gushing spring is sometimes opened 

 by a single stroke of the spade or the crowbar, where 

 the obtaining of water was wholly despaired of; and it 

 is fiir every intelligent and reflecting mind, every lover 

 of truth, every friend to the advancement of the humam 

 mind and the improvement of our common humanity, 

 to keep his reason awake and every sense open tO' 

 whatever is passing within and around him. 



