570 



NEAV ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec- 



elling after the picking of another, as in railroad 

 excavations, a man throws out fifteen to eighteen 

 cubic yards a day. 



In the first case, a yard, or twenty-seven cubic 

 feet, will be removed for twenty-five cents, by a 

 man who works a day, of ten hours, for one dol- 

 lar. 



In the second case the removal of a yard will 

 cost ten cents. This will be the basis of our es- 

 timate of the cost of cutting trenches, from the 

 fact that most soils which need draining may be 

 classed under this head. 



In the third case, one yard will be removed for 

 about six and one-fourth cents. The solid con- 

 tents of earth removed from a trench one hun- 

 dred feet long, of sufficient width at bottom to 

 admit the smallest sizedpipe, and of the depth as 

 shown, is as follows — 



spade should do, though few trenches, probably, 

 are so economically cut, except under the direc- 

 tion of a competent superintendent, who is fa- 

 miliar with the work. J. Herbert Shedd. 

 Boston, Nov., 1858. 



Depth. Cubic Feet. Culnc Yards. 



2i feet 127.5 4.72 



3' " 174 6.46 



3| " 227.5 843 



4 " 288 10.67 



Cost. 



.$0,47. 

 ...0,65. 

 ..0,84. 

 ...1.07. 



.355.5 13.17 1,32. 



.430 15.93 1,59. 



.511.5 18.94 1,90. 



.600 22.22 2,22. 



To this must be added the cost of tools, trim- 

 Miing, and superintendence. 



The quantity removed by increasing the width 

 at the bottom of the trench so that it may admit 

 pipes of the larger sizes, is very slight, being 

 uiily one and one-fifth cubic feet in one hundred 

 feet length, on increasing the width to three 

 inches at the bottom. Quantity removed by in- 

 creasing the width to four inches is four and 

 four-fifths cubic feet ; to five inches ten and four- 

 fifths feet ; to six inches, twenty and two-fifths 

 feet ; to eight inches, forty-five feet ; and to ten 

 inches seventy-nine and one-fifth feet. 



The increased cost being for the three inch 

 width one-half cent ; for four inch, two cents ; 

 for five inch, four cents ; for six inch, eight cents ; 

 for eight inch, seventeen cents ; and for ten inch, 

 twenty-nine cents. 



The amount of earth removed by widening the 

 trench for a larger pipe is the same in every 

 ^ase, without regard to the depth. Take an ex- 

 ample : a trench is to be dug four feet deep for a 

 one inch pipe, the cost of which will be $1,07 

 for one hundred feet, and a trench of the same 

 depth for an eight inch pipe will cost $1,36. If 

 the trench is to be six feet deep for a small pipe, 

 the cost will be $2,22, and for the large pipe, 

 $2,ol ; the increased cost in each case being 29 

 •cents. A pipe with an eight inch bore requires 

 a trench ten inches wide at bottom. 



Judge French, of Exeter, whose work is done 

 in a systematic and very skilful manner, had a 

 trench two hundred and thirty feet long, four 

 feet deep, with a width at top of twenty inches 

 and at the bottom of four inches, cut in one day, 

 by two men, at a cost of two dollars ; by the ba- 

 sis used in our estimates, it would cost three dol- 

 lars and forty-one cents, but the digging was 

 •quite easy on his land, the soil coming under the 

 third case cited above, and would by that basis 

 •cost two dollars and thirteen cents, the estimate 

 being thirteen cents more than the actual cost 

 • on the entire length, or ]ps< than one cent a rod. 



These estimates call for no more work than 

 Any man with ordiflary skill in handling^ the 



Fi>r the New Englami Former. 

 ABOUT MANURES. 



Mr. Editor : — I am a reader of your valuable 

 paper, and find very many things worth practis- 

 ing. But I find that some things do not turn out 

 as I expected. I built a barn some three years 

 since, forty by forty-eight feet, with cellar under 

 the whole, but did not get the dirt all out the 

 first year or two, so I carted out what manure I 

 made in the summer, (as I put up my cattle every 

 night to make more manure,) and have found that 

 this manure caused the corn to start much quick- 

 er than that which I take out in the spring, when 

 hogs have been on it all winter, and it had been 

 overhauled two or three times besides. It shows 

 the difi"erence even in the second year. Why is 

 this ? Does the action of the frost help to make 

 the manure better ? I carted out the manure at 

 first for lack of room, and felt very sorry that I 

 was obliged thus to do. But it proved a good 

 operation. 



Now that I do not need the room, shall I con- 

 tinue to cast out the manure, is a question with 

 me, not being willing to believe, hardly, what I 

 know to be true. It seems as though it were 

 self-evident that manure kept out of the storms, 

 wind and sun, six months longer, must be bet- 

 ter — but crops show otherwise. 



My hogs are of the Suffolk breed, too lazy to 

 work, and do not root up the manure much, but 

 run over it till it is as hard as it well can be. I 

 don't know but that is the reason that it is not 

 so good as that out in the free sunshine. 



Alvan Ward. 



Asliburnham, Mass., 1858. 



Remarks. — There are so many varying cir- 

 cumstances attending the use of manures, that it 

 is often somewhat difficult to fix upon any one 

 special reason how a certain effect is caused. We 

 believe a great loss is sustained by the farmer in 

 consequence of using his manures in a too crude 

 or unripe state ; they are applied to the soil di- 

 rectly from the barn cellar, or from the heaps 

 under the windows, mingled with coarse herbage, 

 and in many cases imperfectly covered or min- 

 gled with the soil. But when well covered, the 

 wet masses adhere to each other so that the ma- 

 nure cannot be minutely mingled with the soil, 

 ready to be moistened by rains, and rendered 

 solvent by chemical action, and prepared for the 

 u.'^e of the plant. 



In the case before us, the difference between 

 the action of the manures hauled out in the au- 

 tumn and that hauled out in the spring may be 

 imputed to the greater mellowness and fineness 

 of the former, making it more suitable to furnish 

 food at once for the springing plant. The act of 

 shovelling it into the cart, tipping it up, and 



