:858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



351 



EXTBACTS AND BEPLIES. 

 MANURES FOE. COMPOSTING. 



I noticed that one of your correspondents re- 

 commended hauling earth, leaves, &:c., into the 

 barn-cellar and weekly pouring the manure of 

 cattle, Szc, mixed with water, on the mass for the 

 purpose of absorbing the liquid portion, and also 

 increasing the quantity of manure. 



Now if moisture is necessary to produce fer- 

 mentation in the heap, would it not be better to 

 keep the solid and liquid parts of the manure 

 separate, until a short time before applying it ? 

 Also to keep the solid part In as compact a state 

 as possible, by compression of some sort ? Would 

 it not save a portion of the gases that arise dur- 

 ing decomposition ? .Could it not then be used 

 in making up compost heaps, and become more 

 valuable than if used in the way spoken of above ? 

 What is your opinion, Mr. Editor ? 



Lowell, Mmj, 1858. B. F. Mann. 



Remarks. — When the farmer has a plentiful 

 supply of good meadow muck, and his soils need 

 vegetable matter, we think there is no way of 

 composting equal to covering the droppings 

 every morning with a coat of such muck, to the 

 extent of the droppings themselves. Follow this 

 practice for a few weeks or months, keeping out 

 all dry and coarse herbage, and you will find a 

 heap as rich in all the elements of fertility, as 

 anything that can well be devised. It will be 

 black, saponaceous or soapy to handle, easy to 

 shovel and remove to the field and to be applied 

 there, and we think is the easiest, cheapest, and 

 most profitable way of preserving manures, and 

 produces the best present and most permanent 

 results on the crops. 



If large quantities of coarse materials are to be 

 converted into manure, we are inclined to think 

 a good barn-yard is a good place to do it, if it is 

 not the best. It should be dishing, shaded by 

 trees somewhat, so provided with a coating of 

 loam, muck, and dried herbage of some kind, as 

 to absorb all the droppings of the stock as they 

 are yielded. It is necessary that cattle stay in 

 the yard a portion of the time, summer and win- 

 ter, and there will always be an accumulation, 

 more or less, of their offal, — so that something 

 must be done to preserve what falls there, even 

 if the yard is not intended as a place. 



HOW TO KEEP OFF BORERS. 



I find in your June number over the signature 

 of "Essex," this remark, viz.: "So fast is improve- 

 ment at the present day, that it takes as much 

 care to unlearn what is erroneously stated, as to 

 find out by actual trial what is correct." 



This is the fact, and one completely successful 

 experiment is worth dozens of theories. I have 

 written you an article or two on the destruction 

 of the fruit-tree borer, and my experiments are 

 completely successful. I will repeat it. In this 

 month, clean the trees by rubbing Avith the cor 

 ner of a chisel, lightly the whole trunk, including 



a portion of the limbs, and remove the earth lo sv 

 enough to cut off smoothly all the fibrous or suck- 

 er roots ; then rub them all over with undiluted 

 oil soap. I have examined all my trees, \vhich 

 were well stocked with borers two years ago, 

 and there is not now the appearance of one. One 

 of my neighbors who told me last year that com- 

 mon bar soap was equally good, recently informed 

 me he had lost by this insect three of his best 

 trees. 



The trees are not injured by this mode of treat- 

 ment. My orchard is vigorous and healthy, and 

 bore a handsome quantity last year ; this year it 

 has finely blossomed. I only wish the insect 

 which mars the fruit could be as easily extermi- 

 nated as the borer. Nathan Bkiggs. 



Marion, June 4, 1858. 



GUENON'S ESCUTCHEON. 



I remember to have seen a publication explan- 

 atory of this infallible guide to the ti'ue charac- 

 ter of milch cows. I doubted then, and have 

 continued to doubt ever since, because I could 

 trace no connection between the hair and the 

 milking properties of the animal. I should as 

 soon think of graduating the ability of a man, 

 mental or physical, by the hair upon his lip, or 

 the productive power of a farm by a profes- 

 sor's certificate of the quality of the soil, the only 

 knowledge of which he had obtained by analyz- 

 ing a few ounces, without ever seeing the farm. 

 The public is so flooded with humbugs of this 

 character, that it behoves them to be on their 

 guard. 



I remember to have heard an eminent lecturer 

 say, a few years since, that he then had on hand 

 more than one hundred parcels of soil waiting to 

 be analyzed. Whether he ever found time, un- 

 der his multiplied avocations and perigrinations, 

 to attend to these applications, and furnish the 

 promised certificates, I have no means of deter- 

 mining. * 



June, 1858. — 



RAKES AND MILK. 



I notice you have an inquiry from "N.," of 

 Fitchburg, "Which is the best Rake ?" In your 

 remarks I notice you prefer the Delano. Now 

 the rake that scarifies the ground the least, or 

 that takes up the least quantity of diift, and 

 raises the least amount of dust, or dry soil in 

 particular, should be preferred, and my impres- 

 sions were in favor of the old rotary rake ; but I 

 may be in error. This matter of raking is to be 

 done quickly by the farmer, now-a-days, but 

 what is the effect upon his stock? Dusty hay 

 will give your cattle the heaves, wear out their 

 teeth and disease their stomachs. Bottom drift, 

 dirt and dust, are anything but nutriment, but 

 sure promoters of disease. For choice farm stock, 

 I would give odds for hay that is gathered by the 

 ancient hand rake. 



Our "swill milk" developments are unpleasant 

 matters of contemplation. Only think of it — milk 

 strained through a diseased cow! But the public 

 stomach is by nature and practice a most endur- 

 able, unyielding machine. But by a more genial 

 atmosphere than yours, our average of life is 

 equal to that of your better regulated city. It 

 would seem from your report that Massachusetts 

 milk would be much improved if the cows were 



