NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



79 



many experiments, or theories, or recommending 

 their adoption by others, for the very good reason of 

 sny limited knowledge of the cost. I am inclined to 

 think that they who ha.ve the least experience in the 

 art, are the most forward, sometimes, in giving in- 

 structions to others. Having never farmed it on a 

 very extensive scale, or had that experience which is 

 necessary to constitute a good farmer, I have ever 

 been caictious in adopting those experiments, some- 

 times recommended by that class of farmers who are 

 afraid of taking hold of a plough, or shovel, or hoe- 

 handle, without fflcves on. CAUTION. 

 NEWTo>f Cextre, Feb., 1850. 



THE USE AND VALUE OF NIGHT SOIL. 



That man gets his bones from the rocks and his 

 muscles from the atmosphere, is beyond all doubt. 

 The iron in his blood, and the lime in his teeth, were 

 originally in the soil. But these could not be in his 

 body unless they had previously formed part of his 

 food. And yet we can neither live on air nor on 

 stones. We cannot grow fat upon lime, and iron is 

 positively indigestible in our stomachs. It is by 

 means of the vegetable creation alone that we are 

 enabled to convert the mineral into flesh and blood. 

 The only apparent use of herbs and plants is to 

 change the inorganic earth, air, and water into or- 

 giuiic substances fitted for the nutrition of animals. 

 The little lichen, which, by means of the oxalic acid 

 that it secretes, decomposes the rocks to which it 

 clings, and fits their lime for " assimilation " with 

 higher organisms, is, as it were, but the primitive 

 bone-maker of the world. By what subtile transmu- 

 tation inorganic nature is changed into organic, and 

 dead, inert matter quickened with life, is far beyond 

 ■us even to conjecture. Suffice it that an express 

 apparatus is required for the process — a special 

 mechanism to convert the "crust of the earth," as it 

 is called, into food for man and beast. 



Now, Lu nature every thing moves in a circle — 

 perpetually changing, and yet ever returning to the 

 point whence it started. Our bodies are continually 

 decomposing and recomposing — indeed, the very 

 process of breathing is but one of decomposition. 

 As animals live on vegetables, even so is the refuse 

 of the animal the vegetable's food. The carbonic 

 acid which comes from our lungs, and which is 

 poison for us to inhale, is not only the vital air of 

 plants, but positively their nutriment. With the 

 same wondrous economy that marks all creation, it 

 has been ordained that what is unfitted for the sup- 

 port of the superior organism is of all substances the 

 best adapted to give strength and vigor to the infe- 

 rior. That which wc excrete as pollution to our sys- 

 tem, they secrete as nourishment to theirs. Plants 

 are not only Nature's scavengers, but Nature's puri- 

 fiers. They remove the filth from the earth, as well 

 as disinfect the atmosphere, and fit it to be breathed 

 by a higher order of beings. Without the vegetable 

 creation the animal could neither have been nor be. 

 Plants not only fitted the earth originally for the res- 

 idence of man and the brute, but to this day they 

 continue to render it habitable to us. For this end 

 itheir nature has been made the very antithesis of 

 ours. The process by which we live is the process 

 by which they are destroyed. That which sup])orts 

 respiration in us produces putrefaction in them. — 

 What our lungs throw off, their lungs absorb — what 

 our bodies reject, their roots imbibe. 



Hence, in order that the balance of waste and 

 supply should be maintained — that the principle of 

 universal compensation should be kept up, and that 

 what is rejected by us should go to the sustenance of 

 plants — nature has given us several instinctive mo- 

 SivsA to remove our refuse from u£. She has nott only 



constituted that which we egest the most loathsome 

 of all things to our senses and imagination, but she 

 has rendered its effluvium highly pernicious to our 

 health — sulphuretted hydrogen being at once the 

 most deleterious and the most ofi'onsive of ail gases. 

 Consequently, as in other cases where the great law 

 of self-preservation needs to be enforced by special 

 sanctions, nature has made it not only advantageous 

 to us to remove our night-sod to the fields, but pos- 

 itively detrimental to our health, and disgusting to 

 our senses, to keep it in the neighborhood of our 

 houses. — Eng. Paper, 



THE PARSNIP. 



Mr. Editor : Most farmers grow this root as a 

 table luxury, but I have rarely seen it cultivated as a 

 field crop. It is one of the finest and most valuable 

 of vegetables, and in its neglect I behold illustrated 

 the tyranny of custom. There are numberless and 

 cogent arguments capable of being urged in favor of 

 the parsnip. It is not only very easily cultivated, 

 but one of the most nutritive roots that can be cul- 

 tivated as a winter food for calves, cows, sheep, swine, 

 and indeed, almost every description of domestic ani- 

 mal usually found upon the farm. The soil required 

 for the cultivation of this root, docs not vary greatly, 

 in its essential characteristics, from that demanded 

 for the cultivation of the carrot ; it should be hght, 

 warm, and rather moist, but without liability to 

 parch, and sufficiently rich in decomposing organic 

 matters to insure a healthy development and matu- 

 rity to the crop. The seed should be sown early, and 

 the surface of the soil closely rolled, or consolidated 

 by some artificial means in order to insure the geniii- 

 nation of the seed — a result wiiich may be greatly 

 facilitated by soaking before sowing, in some pre- 

 pared steep ; say rain water in which a small quantity 

 of nitre or saltpetre has been dissolved, or the stale 

 from the barn- yard. As soon as the plants make 

 their appearance, the weeds should be carefully ex- 

 tirpated, and kept down during the season, or until 

 the parsnips have acquired sufficient size to render 

 their presence of little or no injury to the crop. 

 Gypsum, applied in small quantities, at frequent 

 intervals during the vegetable season, acts with 

 highly advantageous effects upon the p;u-snip, as it 

 docs also upon the beet and carrot. If the soil be 

 rich and deep, with a well-graduated supply of moist- 

 ure, I know of few vegetables wliich more abun- 

 dantly repay the labor of the cultivator ; and as the 

 plants are seldom attacked by insects, after the first 

 two weeks, the serious losses and perplexing labora 

 involved in the cultivation of other root crops, are, 

 in the management of parsnips, as a general thing, 

 unknown. The use of ffuaiio is highly recommended 

 by some gardeners, in the cultivation of this root, as it 

 is also in the cultivation of the beet, carrot, turnip and 

 cabbage. In the few instances which have fallen 

 under my owm direct observation, its appUeation to 

 the parsnip has been uniformly productive of the 

 best results. 



Bcnng a cheap fertilizer, of singular energy and 

 efficiency, and involving but trivial cost in the appli- 

 cation, I think it cannot be too highly recommended. 

 Most persons who cultivate the parsnip as a table 

 edible, do not take it up in autumn, but permit it to 

 remain in the soil till spring. B)- adojjting a differ- 

 ent course, however, and taking it up in the fall, say 

 just before the closing of the ground by frost, wo 

 secure to ourselves a much longer use of the plant, 

 besides having it in greater perfection. When per- 

 mitted to remain in the soil during A\intcr, it will fre- 

 quently send out sprouts, and the textures of the 

 fibrous parts become ligneous, and accjuire a pitchy 

 jDr rcEinous flavor^ which renders them unpleasant to 



