No. 42. 



Manure. 



357 



only for hay feed — say at forty cents per 

 busliei, (as good rye was then selling at fifty 

 and fifty-six cents per bushel,) was worth 

 $2 20 cents, and the nett loss sustained upon 

 farming the ground was $(1 36 cents. The 

 season was moderately good for grain, and the 

 two and a-half acres rather a favorable speci- 

 men of the rest of my land ! I planted a po- 

 tato patch the following spring, (1830,) of 

 about the fourth of an acre, which I manured 

 in the hills with one load of marl only, and 

 the crop yielded but three and a-half bushels ! 



Being a total stranger to the nature and 

 character of soils, but having previously, from 

 some cause, entertained the notion that land 

 in general produced about twenty-five bushels 

 of wheat, or forty bushels of corn, or four or 

 five loads of hay to the acre, the conviction I 

 had now received of the absolute worthless- 

 ness of my land fell upon me like the shock 

 of a thunder-clap. Discouraged by the great- 

 ness of my disappointment, but not quite con- 

 founded, I determined that manure, u\ future, 

 should be every thing to me, and stand in the 

 stead of both land and crop. Being greatly 

 improved in health, by the change of situa- 

 tion and exercise, I plied my avocation with 

 increased diligence for the maintenance of my 

 family, and made it the amusement of my lei- 

 sure hours and leisure moments to collect 

 from every corner, and pannel of fence, every 

 thing that I imagined could furnish a vegeta- 

 ble nutriment, and placed it in my cow yard, 

 ao combined with the litter as to absorb and 

 retain every thing of a putrescent character 

 that might be deposited there. By such 

 means I have gone on, every year increasing 

 the quantity of my manure, to an extent that 

 I believe has astonished most of my neigh- 

 bors. The following is a sketch of the means 

 I possessed, and the methods I took to obtain 

 manure for the present year. 



I commenced last summer by collecting 

 into the outer part of my hog pen every tiling 

 of the weed kind I could find about the place, 

 till I had a layer about twelve inches deep, 

 which I covered with a layer of earth about 

 five inches thick, continuing the process till 

 the pen was filled to about two and a-half feet 

 deep. In the fall I littered my loose corn- 

 cobs and the principal part of the buckwheat 

 straw into the pen, interspersed with layers 

 of earth in the same manner. The two stalls 

 of ray stables I served also the same, taking 

 care to save therein all the chaff and refuse 

 straw after threshing. In these stalls I pour- 

 ed weekly, through the fall and winter, (for 

 I had no cattle in them except in bad storms.) 

 the soap-suds and such putrescent fluids that 

 might be obtained, keeping the corners and 

 outsider, and under the mangers, carefully 

 saturated. 



As soon as my corn was gathered in the 



fall, I cut the stubs close to the ground, and 

 wheeled them immediately, to/«7e yet heavy, 

 into the barn-yard, where I packed them in 

 every part of it, and also under the shed, 

 being an area of ground about forty feet by 

 twenty, and in a few days covered them also 

 with a layer of earth, from a fence-row close 

 by, to the depth of about eight or ten inches. 

 Ufion this earth I foddered my three cattle 

 during the winter, occasionally depositing 

 more earth upon the litter as it collected there. 



Your readers will readily judge, that the ob- 

 ject of all this preparation was not so much for 

 thesakeofsavingthe materials collected there 

 as to obtain a menstruum, or rather sponge, 

 if I may so call it, calculated to absorb and 

 retain all the urine deposited in the yard dur- 

 ing the winter. The compost masses, how- 

 ever, or layers, thus collected together, are not 

 to be considered as manure prepared for the 

 soil, but only as materials that require to be 

 thoroughly mixed, in order to reduce them to 

 a state fitted for a rapid and complete incor- 

 poration with the soil. Accordingly, with 

 this view, I commenced late in April the ope- 

 ration of turning it, which, from its having 

 become closely packed to the depth of twenty 

 inches, with the stalks at the bottom, could 

 only be done with the aid of a grubbing hoe, 

 turning it in strips about a foot wide, reach- 

 ing across the yard, and throwing the loosen- 

 ed manure back a sufficient space to allow a 

 trench between, wide enough to work in. 

 After removing the whole cover from the 

 stalks, along a strip, as before mentioned, they 

 were easily grubbed up, by first cutting them 

 through all along the solid edge of the strip 

 with the hoe, it being made pretty sharp for 

 the purpose. In addition to this pile of yard 

 manure, I have also emptied the contents of 

 ray hog pen and stables, extending the pile 

 several feet, and lying upon the ground, when 

 first loosened, more than two and a-half feet 

 deep. Of this manure I have used sixteen 

 loads this spring, for truck and garden, and, 

 judging from the size of the pile yet remain- 

 ing, there cannot be less than sixty loads, 

 which, being turned once more, I intend to 

 use for wheat next fall. 



In this manner, from only three head of 

 cattle, and the fattening of four hogs, I have 

 made from seventy to eighty two horse loads 

 of manure, the highly fertilizing properties 

 of which are abundantly attested by my own 

 former experience. I will not say that it is 

 stronger than the best barn-yard manure, but 

 from its closer affinity to the nature of the 

 soil, and greater facility for being rapidly 

 combined and incorporated, without loss by 

 evaporation, I have no doubt it will be fre- 

 quently found, upon trial, more effective and 

 more durable. 



In the process of turning manure, thus pre- 



