174 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



Mr. D. W. LoTHROP, of West Medford, said 

 if farmers would lay it down as a general rule to 

 take care of the ammonia in manure, all the oth- 

 er ingredients would take care of themselves. 

 The speaker considered it a good plan to use 

 liquid manure, which enters immediately into use. 

 He was something of a horticulturist, and he had 

 been in the habit of sinking a barrel in his gar- 

 den in order to collect all the M-ater from the 

 sink. Where he made an application of the 

 same he found it very valuable for various pur- 

 poses. The speaker alluded to the application 

 of charcoal around trees, and said, so far as his 

 experience went, it was excellent as an absorb- 

 ent, when finely pulverized. The speaker be- 

 lieved that snow was more beneficial to the 

 ground than rain. In regard to the liquid ma- 

 nure of cows, he said that he had recently looked 

 into a work, by Mr. Johnston, Avhich stated that 

 the liquid manure of cows during a year, gener- 

 ally amounted to from 1200 to 1500 gallons. 

 Now, if a cow voids 1200 gallons of liquid 

 manure in a year, it would produce 250 pounds 

 of ammonia, which would amount to $31. — 

 The speaker was somewhat astonished at such a 

 statement, and he was inclined to think it could 

 hardly be worth so much. The ammonia of good, 

 rich manure, however, flowing into the Thames 

 from London (gross flowage daily 115,000 tons,) 

 had been estimated at about 3800 tons daily, 

 which was fully sufficient to manure over 50,000 

 acres of land. At this ratio, the flowage in the 

 harbor of Boston would be sufficient to manure 

 5000 acres. The speaker observed that the clouds 

 were the great public store-house of liquid man- 

 ure ; and in the annual fall brought down 20 lbs. 

 of ammonia and 100 lbs. of nitric acid to the 

 acre. The acid united with the soda, lime and 

 potash in the soil, and formed their correspond- 

 ing nitrates, which are known to be powerful 

 fertilizers. 



Mr. Cheney, of Holden, thought all manures 

 should be worked over and made fine. The 

 speaker was not certain in his own mind, whether 

 it would pay to take the spring manure which is 

 in the barn cellar and go through the long pro- 

 cess of composting it. His own method was to 

 cart it on the land, and spread it and plow it in. 

 He thought this was the best waj. Farmers who 

 depend upon corn and potatoes, can hardly afford 

 time to compost all manure, and it requires so 

 much work it seldom pays. 



Mr. Merriam, of Tewksbury, had composted 

 everything in the shape of manure for two years. 

 He keeps his horses and cattle together in order 

 to do so, and in the spring plowed the yard and 

 mixed the whole together, and he found such 

 manure valuable. In alluding to the application 

 of manure to Indian corn, and its modes of ap- 



plication, the speaker said he had but little faith 

 in deep plowing, as on certain soils it tends to 

 bring up a cold soil which requires an immense 

 amount of manure upon it. There was no rea- 

 son for deep plowing, and the speaker recom- 

 mended the application of manure near the sur- 

 face. The cultivation of Indian corn the speaker 

 regarded as the most profitable business the 

 farmer could engage in, but it must be cultivated 

 on certain principles. With the method of deep 

 plowing, manuring in the hill, hoeing the corn 

 three or four times with rather lazy men, &c., it 

 could not be expected the cultivation of Indian 

 corn would prove profitable. But by a syste- 

 matic method, the cultivation could be made 

 more profitable than any other crop. The ap- 

 plication of manure on corn has not been profi- 

 table. We plant for corn and not for stalks, 

 and the application of manure in the hill tends 

 to the last result. Our cultivation of Indian 

 corn had been absurd. The speaker believed the 

 proper way was to spread the manure. 



Mr. Ingalls believed great benefit was to be 

 derived from the composting of manure. He had 

 not much faith in the quality of manure made 

 in the barn cellar, as the farmer would not get 

 as much corn, load for load, of such manure as 

 that of another kind. The great difficulty in re- 

 gard to composting manure was on account of 

 the soil to which it was to apply. 



Mr. Merri.\m had no faith in the system of 

 concentrated manures. He thought farmers 

 should rely wholly upon the manures manufac- 

 tured in the cow and hog-yard. He had found 

 muck, saturated with the urine of neat cattle, 

 worth all solid excrements. 



Mr. Parker, of Worcester, had had much ex- 

 perience in concentrating manures, and was of 

 the opinion that no benefit was derived from 

 guano or similar manures, with the exception of 

 ashes. He had found dried charcoal to be of 

 advantage by sprinkling it in horse stables. 



Mr. Richardson, of Winchester, thought too 

 much stress was laid on the ammonia in manures. 



Mr. Barber, of Gloucester, offered a few re- 

 marks in regard to the best method of compost- 

 ing manure, after which the meeting adjourned. 



The subject announced for discussion at the 

 next meeting was the ^'renovating of our pas- 

 tures and other worn out lands." 



Cure F(MI Warts. — If they give you no special 

 inconvenience, let them alone. But if it is of 

 essential importance to get rid of them, purchase 

 half an ounce of muriatic acid, put it in a broad- 

 bottomed vial, so that it will not easily turn over ; 

 take a stick as large as the end of a knitting- 

 needle, dip it into the acid, and touch the top of 

 the wart with whatever of the acid adheres to 

 the stick ; then, Avith the end of the stick rub the 



