1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



459 



For the New England Farmer. 

 AN CTBINa GRASS LANDS. 

 M.\NUFACTURE OF MANURE — TIME OF APPLICA- 

 TION, ETC. 



The manufacture of milk is a matter of much 



gets all of the benefits of the late rains and early 

 snows of November and December, and becomes 

 finely pulverized by the frosts of winter. A neigh- 

 bor of mine has an acre of grass land, (light san- 

 dy soil,) from which he cuts three tons of hay 

 every year, in two crops, two tons the first cut- 



interest to all farmers of the milk-producing i ting and one the second. Eight cart loads of ma- 

 States. It is settled beyond a doubt, in my mind, nure a year, keeps it up to this condition. Does 



that milk is soon to become the leading article of 

 production in the .Northern Stales. The discus- 

 sion of this question very naturally leads to the 

 consideration of the most economical method of 

 its production. It is well understood among our 

 thinking farmers that green, or early cut hay and 

 rowen, is the best fodder for producing milk in 



the winter months, or as soon as the grass upon loads of good compost manure annually ! Any 



our hills shall have failed us, as feeding upon the 

 old fog or past litter grass, late in the fall, will 

 invariably give the cows a back set. A resort to 

 wheat shorts and corn meal is the only remedy 

 in this case. The true principle of agricultural 

 science introduces another practice, plain, cheaper 

 and altogether dissimilar. Before we proceed 

 farther upon this point, let us state one great 

 fact ; no farmer need think of success in his busi- 

 ness without a good barn cellar, sufficiently ca- 

 pacious to enter into the manufacture of manure 

 in large quantities ; this is the basis of all suc- 

 cessful farming. All the poorer portions of the 

 farm should be turned into pasturage, and the 

 whole energies and resources of the farm be- 

 stowed upon less acres. 



MAKE LARGE QUANTITIES OF MANURE, 



by hauling into the barn cellar leaves, leaf mould, 

 muck, hay, straw, brakes and other vegetable 

 matter in the fall, to be used for the field crops 

 next season. Throw down all the hard droppings 

 of the stock upon the materials already in the 

 cellar, catching the urine as it passes through the 

 leanto floor in a vat or cistern, built immediately 

 under the floor for this purpose. The vat does 

 not necessarily need be as lon^as the leanto 

 floor, as by a narrow opening between the planks 

 behind the stock, the liquids may pass down into 

 a trough made of boards, and conveyed to the 

 vat in the centre, of any capacity you desire. The 

 main object of the vat is to accumulate liquids, 

 and by the use of spouts convey them to any part 

 of the cellar, which could not be done without it. 

 All highly concentrated manures, as night soil, 

 hen dung, hog dung and sheep dung, should al- 

 ways be diluted in several times their bulk in wa- 

 ter, and poured upon less fertilizing substances. 

 A large quantity of manure may be made in this 

 way, from an ordinary stock. This, I have said, 

 is for the field crops of the next season. As soon 

 as this is drawn from the cellar, haul in native 

 soil from the bank, muck and road wash, tie up 

 your cows at night dfiring the summer, gather 

 into the vat as before all the powerful stimulants 

 to be diluted and poured upon the heap, shovel 

 over occasionally to pulverize and make fine, to 

 be spread upon the grass land in the fall. 



THE TIME FOR SPREADING 

 manure upo^ grass land gives rise to much dis- 

 pute, as much depends upon circumstances and 

 the conditions of the soil to be dressed. Upon 

 dry land, where the several crops have been ta- 

 ken off", the first of November is a good time. 

 Spreading at this season of the year, the land 



that pay ? Suppose some of our farmers who 

 now mow over forty acres to get twenty tons of 

 hay, should put ten acres of their best land into 

 this condition ; would it not pay better than it 

 now does? Twenty tons of good, sweet juicy 

 hay the first crop, and ten tons of rowen the sec- 

 ond crop, and kept there by the use of eighty 



industrious, progressive farmer, with twenty head 

 of cattle and a good barn cellar, can bring ten 

 acres of land into this condition in five years, 

 and not neglect his field crops. Hay cut thus 

 early, well dried and salted with two quarts of 

 fine butter salt per ton, will sustain a bountiful 

 supply of milk ten months in a year, instead of 

 seven, as fed up dead hay and dry corn fodder 

 in the old way. The salt so used, (two quarts 

 per ton) will cause the food to relish better, and 

 produce more milk by causing the cows to drink 

 hearty, (give them warm drink in winter,) twice 

 each day ; furthermore, salt is the great preser- 

 ver of animal and vegetable matter, and I firmly 

 believe it is essential to the good health and con- 

 dition of both man and beast. The cultivation 

 of root crops for stock is both judicial and neces- 

 sary to their health and thrift when fed upon the 

 dry fodder and husks of the old plan ; but I am 

 satisfied roots will not pay when fed in connection 

 with green fodder. Lewis L. Pierce. 



£ast Jaffrey, N. H., Aug., 1858. 



AW AGED COUPLE. 

 The following fragment is from Gould & Lin- 

 coln's new work by Hugh Miller, entitled, "The 

 Cruise of the Betsey, with Rambles of a Geolo- 

 ist," at page 390. 



In this part of the country was an aged couple 

 who had lived together, it was said, as man and 

 wife, for more than sixty years ; and nowhere 

 was their tombstone and epitaph. They had lived 

 on long after my departure ; and when, as the 

 seasons passed, men and women wliose births 

 and baptism had taken place since their wedding 

 day, were falling around them well stricken in 

 years, death seemed to have forgotten tliem ; and 

 when he came at last, their united ages made up 

 well nigh two centuries. The wife had seen her 

 ninety-sixth, and the husband his one hundred 

 and second birthday. 



It does not transcend the skill of the actuary 

 to say how many thousand women must die un- 

 der ninety-six for every one that reaches it, how 

 many tens of thousands of men must die under 

 one hundred and two for every man who attains 

 to an age so extraordinary ; but he would require 

 to get beyond her tables in order to reckon up 

 the chances against the women destined to attain 

 to ninety-?ix being courted and married in early 

 life by the man born to attain to one hundred 

 and two. 



