374 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



N E W ENGLAND F A 11 M K R. 

 BOSTON. WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 1834. 



MAY 



1 «34. 



PARMER'S WORK. 



Composts. The effects of composts are very 

 beneficial, especially in grass lands. The too com- 

 mon practice of spreading barn yard ma i; over 



mowing or meadow land is very wasteful and ex- 

 travagant. Most people think thai they have noth- 

 ing more to do than to pile on barn yard manure 

 in great quantity on any soil, and for each and 

 every sort of produce, and their crops and their 

 fortunes are made. But the truth is that the ap- 

 plication of dung to laud in tillage is sometimes 

 not merely useless but absolutely injurious. We 

 have heard it asserted by an experienced cultivator 

 that he actually nearly destroyed his grass in a 

 mowing lot by spreading on the soil in the spring 

 a quantity of fresh dung taken from his pig stye. 

 "The dung" he said "was of too hot a nature, 

 and caused the turf to he so scorched by the sun 

 that the grass was burnt up." It is true that fresh 

 animal dung, applied to plough-land does not of- 

 ten produce so bad an effect. But the Manure in 

 that case by mixing With the soil forms a compost, 

 and the dung is, as it were, diluted with earth. 

 Still we hear farmers complain, in dry seasons, 

 that the dung which they apply to their soil does 

 more harm than good, by increasing the effects of 

 drought. But if it were well mixed before it was 

 applied with two or three times its hulk of earth it 

 would preserve against drought instead id' increas- 

 ing it. A plant will no hotter grow on a muck 

 heap than on a sand heap ; and in some cases 

 pure sand would he a better application to increase 

 the fertility of a soil than unmixed dung. 



John Young, Esq. of Nova Scotia, in a work 

 entitled " Letters ofrfgricola" has the following re- 

 marks on composts : 



_" - v - I compost may be made simply by a 



mixture of surface mould and barn yard dung 

 without any particular rules for the quantity of 

 each. ' Sometimes two parts of dung are used for 

 one of earth ; sometimes they are mixed in equal 



quantities, and it is not -ommon to compound 



two parts of earth with one of dung. The use of 

 the earth is to imbibe the gas or effluvia arising from 

 the dung, which is decaying or putrescent."" The 

 only error into which the farmer can run, is to 

 supply such an inconsiderable quantity of earth as 

 will lie incapable of imbibing the elastic and vola- 

 tile particles, and thus by his own mismanagement 

 occasion a waste of vegetable aliment. One. cart- 

 load of soil to two of dung is the least proportion 

 which he should ever attempt to combine, and 

 perhaps if the two Were mixed equally, he would 

 be compensated for the additional labor and ex- 

 pense. 



"The whole art of composting is to arrange the 

 materials in alternate layers,— to shake Ul , the litter 

 and dung with a hay f,,,k that it may lie loosely, 

 to cover the top and sides with earth, and to give' 

 it a sloping direction that it may carry off exces- 

 sive moisture. Its height should never exceed 

 lour feet, or lour and an half; and its breadth 

 .should he such that a man on either sirffe ,„. iy | lc . 

 able to ding the ingredients into the centre without 

 trampling on the heap; for compression in all cases 

 retards the putrefactive process. If the mass after 

 being compounded, is long in generating heal, 

 urine, salt water, or even fresh water, ponied on 

 the top, slowly, that it may ooze downward will 



bring it on with rapidity. On the other hand 

 should the process advance with too great vio- 

 lence, which can always be known by keeping a 

 stick in the middle, and drawing it mil occasion- 

 ally tor trial, the fermentation must be restrained 

 by turning over the dunghill and mixing ani w the 

 ingredients. This will not onh put a stop to the 

 mischief, but facilitate a second fermentation ; and 

 as thus fresh panicles of earth will be brought into 

 contact with the decomposing matter, the whole 

 will be enriched and impregnated with the fertili- 

 zing particles. These general views are applica- 

 ble to every species of compo.-t. 



" Simple earrb, although excellent for bottom- 

 ing and strewing over the nil dug near the barn, 

 is of all materials the most unprofitable in compost 

 dunghill. When free from all foreign mixture it 

 contains nothing on which the fermenting process 

 can operate, it brings no addition to the mass of 

 fertilizing matter. It is the recipient of elementa- 

 ry principles, but contributes none of them itself; 

 and as fur, therefore, as its agency is concerned' 

 it is unproductive and unprofitable. A matted 

 sward, thickly entangled with roots, or mud drag- 

 ged from the bottom of ditches, and replete with 

 aquatic plants, are clearly preferable on this ac- 

 count, that, besides bringing earth to the compo- 

 sition, they supply a large proportion of vegetable 

 matter. Whenever the soil must be carted to the 

 heap, it is better to lay out the expense in trans- 

 porting these enriching materials, because they 

 will not only absorb and retain the evaporating 

 gases, but greatly augment the quantum of ma- 

 nure." 



Weeds. M. R. M. Williams according to the 

 Gi nesee Farmer, states that he paid a premium to 

 children for gathering cockle plains by the hun- 

 dred ,in the spring from his fields; and it is prob- 

 able that in almost every neighborhood there may 

 be found boys, who for a trifle Would willingly en- 

 gage m such services. Job work is much none 

 exciting than day labor. The boy who is intent 

 on filling iiis bushel, will lie too much engaged to 

 watch the sun. It is a cheap way to clear our 

 lields of bad weeds; and to train those who would 

 otherwise be idle to habits of industry, is patriotic 

 and benevolent. 



" \\ Inn I first came on the farm on which I 

 now reside, one of my meadows was much injured 

 by the sour dock. In the spring, after the frost 

 "'as out, before the ground was settled, 1 found 

 the roots come out easily. I offered a bounty oi 

 one shilling, (12 1-2 cents) a bushel for dock roots 

 to be gathered on my own land ; and the children 

 in the neighborhood engaged with zeal in the bu- 

 siness. They pulled about eight bushels, and 

 I have never been troubled with them since. 1 

 believe the Canada thistle may be eradicated in 

 the same way." 



'■'''"".M, "Tienish all the Woodf eat the greeii 

 Ihmgs, and make such a constant yelling Noise 

 as all the Woods ring of them, and' (deafens) the 

 Hearers. The Indians tell us that Sickness will 

 lo'low: and so it (proves) in June, July and Au- 

 Srtis-t. They have not by the English been heard 

 or seen before or since— {Gov. Bradford's register)- 

 (i. <•• to the beginning of 16-17, when Gov. Brad- 



lo'-o 'io:> bis History, b,„ have in like Ma rat 



distant Periods risen up since, ai e known by 



ihe name of Locusts)."— Prince's Annals of New 

 England, Part II, Sect. 2, page 92. 

 ^ Historical Collections, 2d series, vol. iii, p. 196 

 .Notes on Plymouth, Mass. supposed to be written 

 by the late celebrated antiquarian Samuel Davis, 

 bsquire— " Locusts made their appearance in great 

 numbers, June 1804, half a mile west of the town. 

 As 17 years is said to be their period, vv e may ex- 

 pect them again in 1821." 



1633^ 



1(550 



1667 



1684 



1701 



1718 



1735 



1752 



1769 



1785 



1803 



1S20 



If they had appeared regularly every 17 

 years, their times of appearing would 

 have corresponded with liie prefixed 

 dates. 



1837 | „ 



lg54 . | To appear. 



B. S 



HURTLF.FF. 



M !ASS^ HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



EXHIBITION OF FLOWERS. 



Horticultural Rooms, Saturday, May 2lth. 



Thomas Maso.n-, Charlestown Vineyard' Neri- 



um splendens, Rhododendron ponticum, Celsia 

 cretica, Verbenum aubletia, Calceolaria corymbosa, 



-'actus speciosa; Aneniouies, Tulips, Roses, Stock 

 Gillyflowers, Geraniums, &c. 

 Winship — variety of Flowers! 



By order of the Committee, 



._ _ „ Jo - NA - Wi.msiiii', Chairman, 



[if* See Advertisement, next page. 



For tiie New England Farmer. 



locusts. 



Mr. Fessknden— Dear Sir, There seems to be 



1 :n disagreement respecting Locusts, and it is 



Singular that the subject is not better understood. 



There must be mistakes somewhere as to the 

 17 years.— They appeared first after the settle- 

 ment of the country in 1633, according to Gov. 

 Bradford, Key. Win. Hubbard and Mr. Prince. 



"1633. This Spring, especially all the month 

 of May, there are such (Numbers) of a great son 

 of Flies, like for Bigness to Bumble-Bees, which 

 come out of Holes in the Ground (in Plymouth 



ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE. 



The Weather. The cold weather of last week is no- 

 ticed in papers from all quarters. There was snow in 

 many places, and ice formed from an eighth to a fourth 

 of an inch in thickness. The region about Albany was 

 covered with snow on Thursday morning, and the trees 

 lany of which were in blossom, were covered with a 

 coat of snow and ice. In New York city, the same 

 morning, there was ice in the streets a quarter of an inch 

 thick, and at 10 o'clock, A. M. icicles eight inches long 

 hung fi-om the eaves. In Philadelphia, ice was a quar° 

 ter of an inch thick ; early fruit was dropping from the 

 trees, and fields of rye in the vicinity were materially 

 injured. In some towns in the western part of Con- 

 necticut, the ground was covered with snow, the ice in 

 the p-jiids was nearly strong enough to bear a man, and 

 it was ienred that the rye was much injured. In Sarato- 

 ga. N.Y. the snow was six inches deep on a level. A far- 

 mer had some difficulty on Thursday in getting his horses 

 and wagon through the snow from Saratoga to Albany. 

 In this village, there was ice two or three mornings in 

 succession, and on Thursday morning, there was a little 

 snow on the ground. We hear from towns to the west 

 and northwest, that snow fell to the depth of two or three 

 inches ou Wednesday night, and that it was blown into 



