9-1 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb- 



ter, and more easily accessible than formerly ; the 

 obstructipns to tillage are, to a considerable ex- 

 tent, removed from the soil, and many improved 

 methods and implements of tillage have, within 

 a few years been invented, by which we are en- 

 abled to cultivate the land more thoroughly, and 

 to rapidly restore, and not unfrequently exceed, 

 its original fertility. The mistake has been in 

 selling off the products of the land too freely, and 

 investing the surplus at interest, or in stocks, &c., 

 thus neglecting to give back enough to the soil 

 to supply the waste it has undergone in bearing 

 those products, so that the farm has been gradu- 

 ally losing its fertility, and has not, on the whole, 

 jeen as profitable to the owner as it would have 

 been under a more generous usage. You are, 

 therefore, quite right in attaching the importance 

 you do to manure, for the profitable cultivation 

 of such a farm — though, perhaps, you do not re- 

 alize how much of the article can be made on the 

 farm. Almost every farm can supply, Avithin it- 

 self, the necessary materials for manuring it well, 

 if the owner knows how, and is willing to man- 

 age them to advantage. Let me now, as you re- 

 quest, briefly indicate to you some of the ways in 

 which you can manufacture compost manure, and 

 bring your farm up to the desired state of pro- 

 ductiveness. 



Collect the Avaste vegetable substances, where- 

 ever found on the farm or by the roadside, and 

 place them in the yards and sheds, to become 

 mingled Avith the manure and to hold its liquid 

 and volatile parts. These substances may con- 

 sist of leaves, turf, the Avash or rich soil collected 

 in holloAvs and ditches, brakes, bushes of one 

 year's groAvth, SAvamp muck, refuse straw and 

 stalks, 6jc., &:c. They can be gathered at vari- 

 ous times during the season ; and where the 

 practice of collecting them is systematic, the ac- 

 cumulation becomes, in the course of the year, 

 large and valuable, Avithout being expensive. 



Make a tight plank trench in the stable, be- 

 hind the cattle, say tAventy inches Avide and four 

 deep, and during the foddering season fill the 

 trench daily Avith sAvamp muck, or mould and 

 leaves from the large rich hoUoAvs in the Avood- 

 lands, or fine rich soil collected in Ioav places, 

 anyAvhere, A dry Avarm place should be provid- 

 ed, near the stables, that Avill hold a number of 

 loads of material for the trench, and filled in the 

 fall or early Avinter. If muck is used, it should 

 be that Avhich Avas throAvn out of the SAvamp at 

 least a year previous, and if it has lain on dry 

 ground and been exposed to the air for two years, 

 it Avill be still better. Thus the muck becomes 

 very dry and fine, is light to cart and to handle, 

 is a more perfect absorbent of the liquid and 

 gaseous contents of the trench, has to a large 

 extent parted Avilh its acids, and can therefore be 

 used in much larger quantities in proportion to 

 the njanure mixed Avith it, and Avill still make 

 better compost than when used in a green and 

 Avet state. The compost being thus made a lit- 

 tle at a time, daily, is perfectly intermingled, and 

 ready for use Avithout overhauling, the action of 

 the manure being immediate and poAverful. The 

 labor expended in making the compost, is very 

 much less than Avould be supposed by one who 

 had not tried it, and the pile in the spring Avill 

 be large. 



You may probably find your account in keep- 



ing four or five shoats annually — say take March 

 pigs and feed them till nine or ten months old. 

 Make them a covered pen, in a convenient place 

 to receive the litter from the horse stable. Muck, 

 turf, leaves, etc., should be throAvn into the pen, 

 a load or two at a time and frequently, which the 

 pigs Avill mingle Avith the manure. It is aacII to 

 put in a variety of materials, muck alone often 

 becoming too Avet and miry for the thrift of the 

 pigs. There should be a feeding apartment con- 

 nected Avith the compost pen, and it should be 

 kept perfectly clean. For say five pigs, the com- 

 post pen may be about ten or tAvelve feet wide 

 and fifteen feet long, as the manure will be more 

 valuable if kept thus compactly, than if spread 

 over a large surface. Four or five March pigs 

 can be kept quite cheaply through the summer, 

 on the wash of the dairy and kitchen, together 

 Avith the garden trash, and cheap vegetables, and 

 a small daily alloAvance of meal. Through Sep- 

 tember and October, they may be fed more free- 

 ly on peas and oats or other gi'ain, ground and 

 mixed Avith cooked vegetables ; and through No- 

 vember and December, the feed may be cooked 

 corn and cob meal, with a few ears of corn once 

 a day. The pigs, if of a good breed, fed thBs, 

 Avill by the first of January dress from 275 to 300 

 lbs. each, and cost from six to seven cents per 

 pound, and Avill have made at least thirty loads 

 of compost. 



It Avould be well to inquire hoAV yon can ex- 

 pend a good share of the products of the land on 

 the farm, and yet get market prices for them. 

 That is, if after looking the matter over carefully, 

 you can see hoAv you can feed out, say for instance 

 an hundred bushels of corn, or otiier grain, and 

 get about as much for it in milk, pork, beef, mut- 

 ton, or in the growth and increased value of 

 stock, as the grain Avould bring if sold off direct- 

 ly for cash, then I should think it better to feed 

 the grain, and give back the manure to the farm, 

 than to sell it. Where the grain crops are to a 

 considerable extent fed out with the hay and oth- 

 er forage, the manure is more active and valua- 

 ble ; and a feAv years' feeding in this way tells 

 very decidedly in the increased products of the 

 farm. There may be cases, to be sure, where it 

 Avould be better to sell off the products pretty 

 freely, and buy manin^e in return. If the land 

 gets an equivalent for its efforts at producing 

 crops, that will do ; but it will not, in the long 

 run, do to starve the soil and expect it to con- 

 tinue productive. Mr. Coke, the late Earl of Lei- 

 cester, once said : "the more meat a poor-land 

 farmer sent to Smithfield, the more corn he Avould 

 be enabled to sell per acre at Mark Lane. Con- 

 vert plenty of corn and cake into meat ; for the 

 value of farm-yard manure is in proportion to 

 AA'hat it is made of. If cattle eat straAv alone, the 

 dung is straAV alone, the cattle are straAV, the farm 

 is straAV, and the fixrmer is straAV — and they are 

 all straAV together." 



When the land Avas ncAV, and filled Avith vege- 

 table matter, it AA'as naturally lighter and melloAv- 

 er than noAV, and produced Avell Avithout much 

 particularity in the tillage. But by long, and 

 generally quite shalloAV cultivation, together Avith 

 a system of cropping Avhich has considerably ta- 

 ken out the vegetable substance of the soil, the 

 land has become more compact and hard, and 

 needs a deeper plowing and more thorough pul- 



