1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



405 



ed on the pig while at dinner, and found both an 

 appetite and rotundity that would do credit to a 

 candidate for city aldermanship. 



This was a new feed to me, and the experi- 

 ment seemed successful. It can be no more 

 work to boil the weeds than potatoes, and if 

 they answer, any farmer has weeds enough 

 about his premises to save not a little in raising 

 his swine, besides benefiting his land, by boiling 

 them up. J. II. A. 



Hinsdale, N. IL, 1858. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 NEATNESS IN" PABMING. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to speak of neatness in 

 farming. I think this has been and is too much 

 neglected by our farmers. It is just as important 

 to be neat in farming as in any other branch of 

 business; it is not only economical to be neat, 

 but it shows a cultivated taste, which all can ap- 

 preciate. How essential it is that the farmer 

 should have a place for everything and every- 

 thing in that place. Instead of throwing the 

 plow and other farming tools down in the yard, 

 they should be carefully laid away till they are 

 ■wanted for use. How important it is that every 

 farmer should strive to make home happy and 

 pleasant. In setting out a few trees around his 

 premises, they not only look handsome, but they 

 afford a cool and refreshing shade on a hot sum- 

 mer's day, and thus tempt the farmer's sons to 

 remain at home, instead of leaving their rural 

 home for the city. 



In travelling through Londonderry, N. H., a 

 few da]jp since, I noticed the neatest farm I ever 

 saw, (the residence of Heni'y Crowell, Esq.;) 

 everything around showed a mark of neatness. 

 The land was well tilled and the buildings were 

 well painted. This is economy in the farmer, as 

 much as anybody else, for if his biSildings are 

 well painted it will cost but little to keep them 

 in repair. The pig pens should be kept clean. It 

 costs but little to whitewash out-buildings once 

 a year. The farmer has plenty of days when he 

 can do this, thereby adding much to the beauty 

 of his premises, and the general health of all 

 concerned. The winter's wood which is pre- 

 pared for the fire, should not be suffered to lay 

 all round, but should be carefully packed away, 

 it will then be fit and ready for use. 



Charles H. Rogers. 



Concord, N. E., July, 1858. 



Remarks. — We say "amen" to all this. Near- 

 ly every good farmer, now-a-days, has a double 

 duty to perform. He is not only a farmer, but 

 he is also a teacher. The men and boys he em- 

 ploys have little or no education, while some that 

 they have acquired is more expensive than their 

 ignorance. We do not intend to find fault with 

 them, but only speak of them as they are. Their 

 opportunities have been few among a people 

 whose practices widely vary from ours, and upon 

 whom the idea of system has not yet dawned. 

 But is it not passing strange that any person of 

 any name or nation, should not possess some 

 faint idea, at least, of neatness and order ? A 



good rule on the farm is this, viz.: — If any one 

 uses an implement or tool for any purpose for 

 which it was not intended, and breaks it, make 

 him pay for it. For instance, if a man pries up 

 a stone with a shovel (as is often done) and 

 breaks it, he has used the shovel instead of an 

 iron bar, and must pay damages, — and so of 

 every other implement, or tool. 



One may lift a hundred pounds of hay with a 

 good three-tined fork, but if it is thrown only 

 lightly upon the scaffold or barn-floor, it Avill fly 

 like glass. It was not made to be tliroicn doion, 

 and has no power of resisting such a strain. If 

 every tool on a good-sized farm were always 

 clean and in its place when not in use, it would 

 be worth the interest of two or three hundred 

 dollars annually, to most farmers. 



Nothing will touch them but io make them pay 

 tchen they break fools carelessly. 



COMPOSTS—MUCK AND ASHES, 



A few weeks since we put the question : "Got 

 any ashes ?" to our readers, and suggested some 

 of the benefits following their use as a direct ap- 

 plication to the soil. Now, if they "have any 

 muck," we would remind them of one of the 

 forms of compost into which it may profitably 

 enter. We take up this variety of muck compost, 

 first, rather than that of muck and barn manure 

 or other material, as on the whole more season- 

 able at present. 



Muck, we remarked, only needs further de- 

 composition by fermentation to convert it into a 

 valuable manure, equal, according to Dana, to 

 cow dung. Any alkali will do this, and ashes an- 

 swer well th^ purpose. 



A writer says, "To bring out the ammonia, 

 the muck must be fermented, which may be ef- 

 fected by the use of alkalies. From fifteen to 

 twenty bushels of ashes, or ninety pounds of pot- 

 ash, are required to a ton of peat. Such a com- 

 post will contain about the same amount of am- 

 monia as cow dung. * * ♦ A farmer in Water- 

 town sells his cattle manure, and mixes the 

 leached ashes from his soap and candle factory 

 with muck, one part of the former to three of the 

 latter, and thus keeps his farm in a high state of 

 cultivation," 



As to the quantity of ashes required for com- 

 posting a cord of muck, no exact rule can be 

 given, for some specimens will possess greater 

 acidity than others, from less perfect decomposi- 

 tion, the character of the vegetation of which it 

 is composed, or other varying causes. Experi- 

 ment, however, will furnish a ready test of this 

 question. Five bushels of ashes to a cord of 

 muck, has been found sufficient ; they should 

 first be placed in layers, and afterwards com- 

 pletely intermingled by shoveling over at inter- 

 vals. Twelve to fifteen loads per acre, will fur- 

 nish a sufficient dressing for one season, though 

 on soils lacking in vegetable matter, it should be 

 repeated for several years. 



Many experiments have shown the value of 

 this form of compost, and we scarce need further 

 to urge it upon our readers. To the many in all 



