1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



223 



watching the signs of the times, and let him 

 make up, by foresight and skill and energy, what 

 he lacks in the natural fertility of a New England 

 soil. 



HOW TO ENRICH A GARDEN. 



Messrs. Editors : — A few years ago I had oc- 

 casion to occupy a new garden. It had been worn 

 by continual cropping without manuring, till it 

 would not produce half a crop of any thing. I 

 had no manure to put upon it. I could have 

 bought open barn-yard manures, that had been 

 washed and bleached through the year till most of 

 the salts and all the urine was gone, but I thought 

 it would not pay well. N^r could I any better 

 afford to cultivate a garden to the halves. There 

 was a half acre in the garden. I planted about 

 one-third of it to white sugar beet. The remain- 

 der to corn, potatoes, peas, beans, squashes, mel- 

 ons, cabbages, tomatoes, onions, &c. &c. There 

 wa-s one thing that I could do. I had a family of 

 five, three adults and two children, one an in- 

 fant. I placed a half hogshead, convenient for 

 receiving the dirty slops of the family, including 

 the urine of the chambers. . This was filled about 

 once a day through the week and two or three 

 times on JMondays. My method of applying it 

 was this : at evening I began at one end of the 

 garden, and with a pail and dipper, I threw it 

 upon the hills and beds of every thing I planted, 

 till the tub was emptied. The second evening, I 

 began where I left off the first, and contmued on 

 till the tub was again emptied. So I continued 

 till I had gone over the whole garden. I contin- 

 ued to repeat the same process through the entire 

 season, or until the garden had become so matured 

 as to need no more food. The first time going 

 through the garden, as the seeds were not up, I 

 used a large watering-pot, with a coarse nose. 

 The second time through, I used the pail and 

 dipper, and applied the liquid around the young 

 plant. As the plants became large and nearly 

 covered the ground, I applied the liquid to the 

 ground wherever it was naked. 



And now for the result. I had a neighbor. Dr. 

 C, a competitor in the gardening line, that sum- 

 mer. His garden joined mine, the same size and 

 the same quality of soil. He had plenty of open 

 barn-yard manure and plenty of time to work his 

 garden. He often boasted of having had the best 

 garden in town, and thought he should have the 

 best, notwithsttinding mine. But no sooner were 

 the gardens both well up, than the Dr. began to 

 show signs of suspicion that ho should be beat. 

 About the first of July lie came into my garden 

 and said, "I have come to inquire into the secret 

 of your power over the vegetable kingdom. The 

 rapid growth of your garden is a great mystery to 

 me. Your garden was plowed once, mine twice, 

 and dragged well. Yours was run down and had 

 no manure, mine was in better order, and besides, 

 had plenty of manure. ^Mine also has had a little 

 better attention than yours, and now the first of 

 Julj) yours is certainly thirty if not fifty per cent, 

 ahead of mine. Tell me what you have done to 

 it." "Well, Doctor, come with me into my 

 wood-house,"' saidl. "There, that tub, with tlie 

 help of my good wife, contains all the secret there 

 is about it. I have been feeding my garden just 

 as you do your pigs." " We. 1, now I see what 



you hare been doing all summer. I supposed you 

 were watering your garden all summer, and I 

 wondered why you should be doing that when 

 there has been plenty of rain. Now 1 see the 

 mystery." 



That garden, Messrs. Editors, had the reputa- 

 tion of being the most thrifty and the most pro- 

 ductive of any garden in the county. That was 

 my first experiment with the waste water of the 

 family. And as that was applied to a half acre 

 of worn-out land for only a part of four months 

 in the year, I came to the conclusion that had 

 the whole been judiciously applied one entire year, 

 it would have been amply sufficient to keep, in & 

 higli productive order, two acres. But in this esti- 

 mate, I have not included the excrement from the 

 privy. My opinion was then formed, and has 

 been confirmed by later experiments, that the 

 manure from the family would be amply sufficient 

 to enrich as many acres for all the purposes of 

 agricultui'e, as therC' are members in the family, 

 and this, too, exclusive of absorbents to be used. 

 But, by the judicious use of absorbents, the 

 amount could be easily doubled or quadrupled 

 even. And this would be the true way of saving 

 and using the liquid. With the expense of one- 

 half ton of guano, in permanent fixings, any 

 farmer could make from his house one ton a year 

 through several generations. It will certainly 

 pay. J. L. Edgerton. Georgia, Vt. — Country 

 Gentleman. 



For the Ifew England Farmer. 



SPRINGS~-LIVE AND DEAD WEIGHT 

 OF CATTLE. 



I would like to propose one or two questions, 

 for you or some of your able contributors to ex- 

 plain. Last season, it being very dry and water 

 scarce, I thought it would be a good plan to 

 bring water into my yard for cattle, although I 

 already had a well with a pump : so I went to 

 work and dug me a well, before any of the rains 

 came, where I had four feet fall from the bottom 

 of the well to the top of where I wanted my 

 trough to stand. I dug my ditch, put down my 

 lead pipe, and it worked finely. But the query 

 is this : I have observed that, for some few nights 

 in succession, the trough would not get full, and 

 at others it would fill to overflowing, with the 

 same outlet. 



Now will you, or some of your correspondents, 

 be good enough to explain this to an ignorant 

 brother farmer? Will you also tell the differ- 

 ence between live and dressed weight in oxen, 

 from six to seven feet in girth and upwards, stall 

 fed ? AVill you give us in your quotations, under 

 the head of extras, the highest price paid as well 

 as the lowest 1 For we in the back ground want 

 to know what is going on, as well as the rest of 

 the folks. 



Yours, and the friend to all farmers, 



A. S. WORTUEN. 



New London, N. //., Feb., 1855. 

 Remarks. — Will some correspondent reply ? 



Seeds axd Scions. — We thank our young 

 friends, Emily F. and Henry B. IIanford, of 

 Waukeshaw, Wisconsin, for seeds and scions of 

 the cral. -Apple. 



