NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



287 



MANURE. 



Green brush (another species of vegetable ma- 

 nure) deserves to be mentioned among the modes I 

 have recommended for improving poor lands. This 

 sort of manure is to be found on every farm, however 

 exhausted its ground may be. There are two ways 

 oi using it beneficially — 1st, spreading it over the 

 surface for the protection of the earth from the too 

 sultry rays of the summer sun, and enabling it in this 

 way (should it be undisturbed for two or three years) 

 to be converted into an excellent compost. 2d, where 

 land is in high ridges and deep furrows, it may be 

 laid in the furrows moderately thick, and then cut, 

 and trodden down, and covered with the plough in 

 tlie course of time. It thereby forms a most valuable 

 manure. Land manured in this way may be sown 

 with turnip seed by the 10th of August. Every 

 farm has its barren spots, which are best managed by 

 hauling and spreading leaves and top-soil from the 

 woods there, and penning cattle upon them. Their 

 dung, with a little straw mixed in with the leaves 

 and soil, will soon bring these poor grounds into 

 equal heart with the best lands. All the corn-cobs 

 should be carefully saved, and frequently scattered 

 in the barnyard or pig-pen. This is better economy 

 tJian to burn them, for they are thus rendered more 

 valuable. When hogs are put up to fatten, (if the 

 pen is properly made,) they may be made to make a 

 large c^uantity of manure, and every farmer well 

 knows that there is no manure more efficacious and 

 useful than that made by these animals. The pen 

 should be without a floor, except that under the house 

 for their shelter in rainy weather, and should be 

 somewhat hollowing in the middle, so that the rains 

 may wash the d\ing and urine into the centre. All 

 the corn-cobs which daily accumulate in the pen 

 should be gathered there also, so as to become satu- 

 rated with moisture. An addition of ditch mud also 

 increases both the value and quantity of this manure. 

 Ey removing old standing fences, and ploughing up 

 their sites, much good compost manure may be ob- 

 tained, consisting of fertile mould free from producing 

 grubs or other destructive worm.?, which are so often 

 found on our lands and grain. Ashes, either leached 

 or unleached, are very useful. They have been very 

 extensively vised in the United States, particularly on 

 dry or sandy lands. This will do on clayey soil ; and 

 a-s this kind of land is naturally cold, they tend 

 towards heating it. A gill of unleached ashes put 

 around each hill of corn in a cornfield, after the first 

 hoeing, makes the corn a great deal better, and is 

 equal to nearly double the quantity of plaster of 

 Paris ; and every body who has studied agriculture 

 knows that no other manure continues in the earth 

 as long as ashes. Plaster is certainly a most valuable 

 manure, and perhaps has been attended with better 

 Cifects than most other vegetable or mineral sub- 

 stances where it has been fully tried by extensive use. 

 No other, in combination with the different articles 

 of compost manure, will so quickly renew poor lands. 

 It is most beneficially used by rolling it with Indian 

 corn, bushel for bushel ; or, when spread over the 

 coarse litter of an enclosed field, it makes it rot much 

 more speedily. Marl is a good manure for sandy 

 soils, if applied in due proportion to the quantity of 

 ground, and afterwards dissolved. In fact, it will suit 

 any soil, and our farmers should search for it early 

 and late, for it will prove more valuable to our state 

 than the famous mines of Potosi. It is found in low, 

 fiat lands, near the margin of ponds or rivers. There 

 arc three kinds of marl — l.st, calcareous or shell 

 marl : 2d, argillaceous or clayey marl ; 3d, siliceous or 

 stony marl. The first is of a yellowish or brown 

 color ; it is of a loose texture, and when in connection 

 with acids, it will efiervesce. The 2d is mostly of a 

 gray color, and requires aquafortis or some "other 



strong acid to make it effervesce. Siliceous marl is 

 of a lead color; although it effervesces, it does nst 

 dissolve so easily as the others, and sometimes it forms 

 a very hard lump. A good artificial marl may be 

 made by mixing equal quantities of lime and pure 

 clay, and placing in layers on a heap, and exposing 

 them to the action of the winter frosts. — North Amer- 

 ican Farmer, 



FARMERS' RIGHTS. 



This is a subject that should interest any good 

 citizen, whatever may be his avocation, for all are 

 necessarily identified in their comforts^ their luxuries, 

 and their pleasures, with the success and improve- 

 ment of agriculture and horticulture. The merchant, 

 the professional man, the mechanic, all know how to 

 appreciate the bounties of a well-filled basket, the 

 luxuries of a well-furnished table. 



AVhy not, then, extend to the agriculturist the pro- 

 tection, encouragement, the patronage that is secured 

 to other avocations, are inquiries that have tired the 

 patience, and shook the confidence of many a perse- 

 vering, sacrificing pillar in a community, when they 

 have seen their hard-earned rights neglected, abused, 

 and trampled upon, without remedy ; because no 

 adequate provision is made by the legislature to pro- 

 tect them against the continual annoyance of prowl- 

 ing vagabonds, principally strangers,who have escaped 

 from, the galling aristocracy of European countries, or 

 the more strict regulations of our own cities, to 

 scamper over and trample on the property and peace 

 of the forbearing and unprotected agriculturist of a 

 free country, on Sabbath and week day, summer and 

 winter, seedtime and harvest, grain fields and mead- 

 ows, garden and orchard, poultry and stock alike 

 disturbed and destroyed by loafers and dogs, with 

 perfect impunity. 



* When shall the end of these things be ? Shall 

 they continue ? or will we take up the matter in 

 earnest, and petition, and continue to petition, from all 

 quarters of the state, this winter, and every other 

 winter, until our rights are regarded, our labor pro- 

 tected, our enterprise encouraged, our calling e.xalted, 

 as it should be, among the most honorable, as it is 

 the most useful that has ever, or will be, worthy the 

 attention of the good and the great among mankind ? 



In addition to improved and wholesome laws, a 

 proper understanding, and organizations throughout 

 the state to promote order and justice, and execute 

 with promptness and rigor, on all such rebels, (irre- 

 sponsible alike in purse and character,) the laws, if 

 laws there be, and mutual assistance of money and 

 infiuence ; then will the tasteful be gratified, the en- 

 terprising encouraged, the industrious rewarded, and 

 the legitimate rights will be secured to the farmer as 

 well as any other member of the community. 



BELLE VILLA. 



Hamilton Co., O., 1850. 



CLEANSING THE BARK OF FRUIT-TREES. 



Wc have often recommended the use of whale oil, 

 soap, potash, &c., for the cleansing the bark of fruit- 

 trees, and supposed that no application could exceed 

 it for this purpose. A few weeks since wc visited 

 the seat of Robert llennie, Esq., near the Lodi Print 

 Works, and there saw the cleanest fruit-trees it has 

 I vcr been our lot to meet with. Mr. Kcnnic informed 

 us that he used a solution made of one poiuid of best 

 blcachci-s' soda dissolved in one gallon of water, and 

 applied it to the surface of his trees. All the fungi, 

 dead bark, &c., are softened, and readily exfoliate from 

 the healthy part of the bark during the growth of 

 the tree ; the surfaces of the cherry, peach, plum, 

 nectarine, apricot, and many other kinds of trees 



