NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



331 



AGRICULTURAL FURNACE. 



This furnace is adapted to boiling vegetables, and 

 cooking food generally for stock. It may be used 

 to advantage for many mechanical purposes, and it 

 it convenient for various uses in household manage- 

 n^ent. 



There is a boiler neatly enclosed with an iron case, 

 and so arranged that the fire passes around the boiler, 

 imparting to it a large amount of heat in proportion 

 to the fuel consumed. The whole is set on a small 

 box stove, so that it maj' be used safely in any situa- 

 tion. It is portable, and may be moved with great 

 convenience from place to place, as desirable. 



These furnaces save all the trouble and expense of 

 setting boilers in brick or other materials, and they 

 require but very little room. 



The growing scarcity of fuel in many parts of the 

 country should lead to the most economical means 

 of saving it. In some cases, the expense of cooking 

 food for stock, owing to the high price of fuel, is so 

 great that it is neglected. This evil may often be 

 remedied by judicious management. Economy is 

 M'calth. 



These boilers are of various sizes, from fifteen to 

 one hundred and twenty gallons. 



MUCK. 



Mr. Editor : There arc few farms belonging to 

 the readers of the Telegraph, on which this article, 

 so valuable and adjuvant in enriching the soil, can- 

 not be obtained in abundance. AVhen liandy to the 

 premises, time cannot be bcttfer employed "than in 

 carting it out, and j)reparing it for manure. This 

 latter process is acco^l[lli^hc(l in several ways. Rome- 

 times it Ls taken from the muck-bed in autumn, 

 carted to some convenient jdace, and there left ex- 

 posed during winter to the action of the frost. This 

 process greatly ameliorates it, renders it fine, and 

 deprives it of its jieculiar acid, the action of which, 

 when unneutralizcd, is prcjiidicial to vegetation. 

 Sometimes it is mixed with (luicklimc, which more 

 speedily deprives it of its acidity, and renders it 

 almost instantaneously fit for use. Another mode 



of preparation is to cart it into the cattle and hog 

 yards, where it is permitted to remain until spring, 

 absorbing and drinking up the urinary matter, and 

 thus as it were, imbibing new principles of fertility, 

 while it loses its original baneful properties. I have 

 known muck thus managed to produce excellent 

 eff'ects on vegetation, especially on Indian corn, a 

 crop ordinarily considered as rather dainty. The 

 most judicious method, however, I think, is to allow 

 it to remain in the yards during the winter, and then 

 stack it, adding one cask of quicklime and a bushel 

 of gypsum to every cord of muck. The year after, 

 }-ou will have an article of great value to lay on your 

 lands, and one that, under ordinary circumstances, if 

 your soil is not calcareous, will be better than the 

 best stable dung you can obtain. As a top-dressing 

 for grass lands, muck, in almost any possible state of 

 preparation, is unsuitable. It dries too quick, and is 

 thus in a great measure lost, when so applied. If 

 you have grass lands to top-dress, it will be found 

 more judicious to make use of your animal excre- 

 ment for this purpose, and apply your muck compost 

 to your cultivated crops. On very low, moist lands, 

 this objection of course is overcome by circum- 

 stances ; but on high, arid lands, exposed in the 

 spring to the direct rays of the sun, its application is 

 absurd, and can never be productive of good results. 



A COUNTY FARMER. 

 — Germantown Telegraph. 



Remarks. — We should dissent from the remark 

 that animal manure should be used as a top-dressing, 

 and muck in compost applied to cultivated land. In 

 no case should animal manure be applied as a top- 

 dressing, alone, but it should be comj)03tcd witli 

 earth, and better for being composted with soil dif- 

 ferent from that to which it is to be apjilicd ; with 

 gravel, sand, or sandy loam, or common loam, for 

 moist, heavy lands, or lands of clay, mud, muck, 

 peat, &c. ; and with mud, muck, peat, clay, or clayey 

 loam, for gravelly or sandy soils, or any high lands 

 that are rather dry. 



If animal manure is applied alone, as a top-dress- 

 ing, much of it will be wasted by evaporation ; but 

 if applied to tilled lands, it may be saved by plough- 

 ing in immediately, and by harrowing, it will form a 

 compost with the soil. — Ed. N. E. Farmer. 



