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Manure. — Sugar Beet. — Letter of Inquiry about Boys. Vol. V. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Manure. 



ENRICH THE SOIL AND PROSPERITY FOLLOWS. 



Mr. Editor, — Manure is the capital of the 

 farmer, and without it but little can be done 

 in the farmintr line to profit. Every one 

 ought, therefore, to be on the alert to increase 

 the quantity, by every means in his power, 

 for there is nothing that compounds interest 

 like manure. If any one disputes this, let 

 him make a fair experiment and see if the 

 result don't prove its truth. Take an acre of 

 ground and give it a good dose, and compare 

 it with an adjoining acre, previously in a 

 similar condition, and then there will be no 

 mistake. Put in the bottom of the dung- 

 yard some absorbent material to take up the 

 fluids, occasionally spread over the whole sur- 

 face a layer of earth, sods from the road-side 

 or a ditch bank, and bring in all the weeds, 

 potato stalks, leaves, spent ashes, the ma- 

 nure from the poultry roost, and every other 

 offal material, either animal or vegetable, that 

 can be collected together. Every little helps, 

 and of little things great ones are composed. 

 The manure-heap is the foundation of all 

 good farming, and those who do not attend to 

 this most essential matter, will fail in propor- 

 tion to their neglect in all the operations of 

 the farm. It is no small matter to raise 40 

 to 60 bushels of corn to the acre, instead of 

 20 or 25, or other crops in the same propor- 

 tion, the labour being the same. I have long 

 noticed that thriving farmers go on progress- 

 ively increasing the quantity of manure an- 

 nually, and those who are going down hill, 

 are generally preceded in their downward 

 progress by a gradual collapse of the dung- 

 hill. Keep up your manure heap, and, as if 

 by sympathetic action, your purse will swell 

 amazingly. Manure begets grain and grass, 

 and grain and grass begets more manure ; 

 and so on to the end of the chapter of pros- 

 perity. No manure, but little grain or grass, 

 and little grain and grass tends to less and 

 less, till the county poor-house seems as if it 

 had seated itself next neighbour to our bare 

 fields. O. 



Montgomery County, Nov. 20, 1840. 



Sugar Beet. — " We have examined a lot 

 of sugar beets raised on the farm of the Hon. 

 T. B. Dorsey, on Elk Ridge, Md. There 

 had been no manure applied to this crop; 

 they were taken up promiscuously, and are 

 said to be no more than a fair average — the 

 largest roots weighed 17^ lbs. each, the small- 

 est 15^ lbs. And, since the above was in 

 type, we have been called to see a sugar beet 

 in the office of G. B. Smith, on Spcsutia Isl- 

 and, which is 24 inches in length, solid, and 

 31 inches in circumference, and 28^ lbs. in 

 weight." — Bait. Am. Farmer. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Letter of Inquiry about Boys. 



Mr. Editor, — We are informed in our 

 neighbourhood, that you are, or have been, an 

 experienced practical farmer on a large scale ; 

 hence it is presumed that you know some- 

 thing about farmers' boys; and that being the 

 case, I take the liberty of making some de- 

 velopements about some boys in these parts ; 

 and, if you can, should be much obliged by 

 any advice or instruction you may feel will- 

 ing to give in the premises. Now don't you 

 or any of your readers suppose, that the boys 

 I am about to speak of are my boys ; but just 

 suppose they belong to any good honest 

 farmer in Bucks or Montgomery County, it 

 will be all the same, for there are, no doubt, 

 more of the same kind in other neighbour- 

 hoods besides ours. 



They all take a man's measure for a suit 

 of clothes, the tailor says; and at meal-times 

 they go a full man-power; but when there is 

 any thing to be done in the shape of work, 

 they are found to be very fastidious; they are 

 of the " / will and I worCt''' order of animals, 

 according to the new system of natural his- 

 tory promulgated a number of years since, in 

 an adjoining State. Do you want any wood 

 chopped, dung loaded, stables cleaned, garden 

 dug, peas stuck, lime hauled or spread, or any 

 other such degrading dirty work done ? they 

 say at once, as if by instinct, " I won't do no 

 such thing ; better send and get Tom or 

 Pete to do it ; won't cost much ; oh, I'll go 

 myself and tell 'em to come to-morrow morn- 

 ing." They are all very good at going er- 

 rands ; to the store, to mill (if somebody will 

 help them in and out with the bags) or 'most 

 any wheres, provided they have a good fast 

 horse to ride, for they like to go quick. They 

 will plough pretty well, but not quite deep 

 enough for our modern notions of agriculture; 

 and in hay and harvest they are somewhat 

 useful, particularly since the introduction of 

 that admirable implement called the horse 

 hay-rake, which it is said was invented by a 

 lazy negro on Long Island, for with this they 

 take turns in riding the horse, and this suits 

 their taste wonderfully. 



They plant corn pretty well, but they hate 

 to churn or turn the grindstone like poison, 

 and generally sham Abraham when any thing 

 of this sort is likely to come on. Weeding 

 garden, or indeed pulling or hoeing or de- 

 stroying weeds any where or how, they have 

 a most mortal antipathy to, so that I don't re- 

 member ever to have seen or heard of either 

 or any of them having been guilty of destroy- 

 ing vegetable life in this way. 



They are 6 to 6 boys, with two hours for 

 nooning in summer, as they say in town, and 

 in winter they are 8 to 4, with one hour, say 



