210 



TJie Injudicious Use of Manures. 



Vol. X. 



press is a new holiday. Besides the public 

 presses where the large proprietors have 

 their gatherings pressed, there are movable 

 presses, mounted upon four wheels, which 

 are rolled about from door to door, for the 

 use of minor proprietors. As long as the 

 wine runs in a stream into the reservoir, 

 every lover of it has the privilege of drink- 

 ing as much as he pleases, even to the ex- 

 haustion of the contents of the vat, for 

 which purpose a wooden bowl or porringer 

 is left floating- on the rosy coloured liquor, 

 at the service of all. The wine merchant 

 takes his taste in a little silver cup, which 

 he always carries about him ; it is the tool 

 of his trade. When the pressing is finished 

 and the wine put into barrels, scuttlers and 

 pressors repair to the house of the planter, 

 where an abundant dinner awaits them. At 

 this dinner an enormous leg of mutton occu- 

 pies the place of honour, and seems to invite 

 the guests to cut and come again. This 

 dish is indispensable, and therefore the day 

 becomes a sort of St. Bartholomew's to the 

 sheep race. The pressers, who often wait 

 upon several proprietors in the course of tlie 

 same day, particularly if the harvests have 

 not been very abundant, thus get as many 

 meals as they have had customers. They 

 sometimes dine seven or eight times in the 

 twelve hours. Thus they become as fat and 

 as plump as the mutton itself, and have pretty 

 much the same odor. It would not be sur 

 prising if their hair should turn into wool. 



The casks into which the wine is put as 

 it comes from the press, remain unbunged ; 

 that is to say, open, during a certain time, 

 for the liquor undergoes a second fermenta- 

 tion, which throws off all foreign matters 

 and purifies it. During this period the pro- 

 prietors become wine merchants, and a Imsh, 

 that is to say, a bunch of something green, 

 suspended over the door, indicates that for 

 two sous any one may go down into the eel 

 lar and drink at pleasure. Many go down, 

 but few are able to come up again without 

 the help of a friend. The latter, in such a 

 case, takes oft' his cap or bonnet, and, like 

 Napoleon to the wounded Muscovites, chari 

 tabiy exclaims: "Honour to unfortunate 

 bravery!" 



Such are the ordinary phases in the pre 

 paration of those wines which many among 

 you, my dear readers, drink without know- 

 ing any of the mysteries of their origin. 

 Indeed, many Parisians know as little about 

 it as the Americans. 



Take counsel of him who is greater, and 

 of him who is less than yourself, and then 

 recur to your own judgment. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Injudicious Use of Manures. 



Mr. Editor, — Knowing, as I do, that a 

 large proportion of farmers in this country 

 often throw away their manures when they 

 suppose they are using them as they should, 

 I have thought that an article upon this sub- 

 ject would not be out of place. 



In consequence of a want of chemical 

 knowledge, agriculturists use their manures 

 without judgment or discretion, and often- 

 times to their most decided injury, as I shall 

 proceed to show. 



Agricultural chemistry teaches us that a 

 certain class of vegetables, such as grain, 

 requires a greater proportion of nitrogen 

 than others. As nitrogen is not a very 

 abundant article with most farmers, and yet 

 of the highest value to the grain grower, it 

 behoves him to make an economical use of 

 it. If he intends to raise a fine crop of good 

 wheat, it is highly necessary that he should 

 not waste that quantity of this element that 

 he has, or that he can get hold of 



All such crops as potatoes, turnips, beets, 

 pumpkins, cabbages, peas, beans, carrots, 

 &c., including clover, herd-grass, timothy, 

 and the other grasses, need but very little 

 of manures containing nitrogen, as they 

 will receive all sufficient from the atmos- 

 phere, and rain and snow; while wheat, rye, 

 oats, corn, barley, and buckwheat, need 

 larger proportions of such substances ; each 

 differs from the other, however, as to the 

 quantity needed. Wheat, for instance, 

 needs more nitrogen than either of the 

 others, for the formation of the gluten which 

 renders its flour so nutritious. The sub- 

 stances yielding nitrogen most abundantly, 

 arc the animal manures, especially the fluid 

 manures, and the dead bodies of animals 

 themselves. In connection with this mat- 

 ter, Liebig, in his work on Agricitltural 

 Chemistry, says : " An increase of animal 

 manure gives rise not only to increase in 

 the number of seeds, but also to a most re- 

 markable difference in the proportion of the 

 gluten which they contain." Here we have 

 the jiighest authority for stating the import- 

 ance of animal manures. 

 I Those farmers, then, who use their ani- 

 imal manures upon those crops that need 

 I them not, thereby depriving their grain 

 crops of them, although they cannot well 

 do without tliem, in a measure throw them 

 away. Such crops as potatoes, turnips, the 

 grasses, &c., thrive as well when given rot- 

 ten hay, straw, leaves, saw-dust, or swamp- 

 muck, and such substances, as when fur- 

 nished with the richest animal manures. 

 They supply their proper food, and with a 



