194 



Report on Manure. 



Vol. XI. 



expense in grazing districts ; a few acres of 

 low land containing water, (if it can be con- 

 veniently found,) may be permanently en- 

 closed for the animals necessary to carry on 

 the farming operations. It is very difficult 

 to remove old customs and habits, and so in- 

 veterate is the propensity to follow on in the 

 path of our ancestors, that some people even 

 love an old error better than a new truth; 

 and in the case before us, we are aware that 

 the prejudice is strong and deep against any 

 plan tending to lessen the manure heap in 

 the farm yard. The experiments of Liebig, 

 Johnson and others, have, of late years, given 

 a new spring to investigation into the ferti- 

 lizing properties of urine and the excrement 

 of aninials, all of which we feel no disposi- 

 tion to disprove; we would rather make use 

 of them as em argument in the support of our 

 theory. It must be evident to the most su- 

 perficial observer, that whatever the animal 

 leaves behind, in the shape of urine and ex- 

 crement, it carries away with it more ferti- 

 lizing properties in the shape of beef, pork, 

 tallow and lard; all of which are extracted 

 from the soil. 



The prejudice is strong against cropping 

 as a means of impoverishing the soil, and we 

 admit this prejudice to be founded in fact; 

 but we deny it to any thing like the extent 

 that is attributed to it. We believe the real 

 cause is to be found in the droves of all kinds 

 of animals, which, like the locusts of Egypt, 

 "eat up every green thing." The moment 

 the last sheaf of grain is out of the field, the 

 destroyer comes in the shape of hogs, sheep, 

 horses, colts, donkeys, horned cattle, geese, 

 ducks, turkeys, fowls, that come and go 

 when and where they please. If upon an 

 old worn out field a tiny stalk of clover sur- 

 vives the spring frost and summer suns, it 

 is snapped up or trampled down, and its fer- 

 tilizing root and multiplying seed lost to all 

 future time. 



The impression is almost universal that 

 any spare grass upon a farm is lost, if some 

 kind of stock cannot be procured to devour 

 it, which is, as we think, a very great mis- 

 take. 



This hasty sketch of what we believe to 

 be a mode of manuring land, far preferable 

 to composts, or the accumulation of large 

 heaps of barn-yard manure, manufactured 

 mostly by animals, is respectfully submitted; 

 and if it produces no other effect than inves- 

 tigation and additional facts, that should even 

 prove your committee to have overlooked 

 some counteracting results, they will feel 

 themselves compensated, having full confi- 

 dence that the surest guide to knowledge in 

 agriculture, as in every thing else, is free 



investigation, connected with a regular and 

 systematic course of experiments. 



Samuel Canby, 

 Dr. James Couper, 

 John W. Andrews, 

 Henry du Pont, 

 J. R. Brinckle. 



The following is the letter from Major 

 Jones, referred to in the above report. — 



To the Commiftee on Compost l^Jannre Heaps: 



The subscriber begs leave to state, that on 

 the 9th May last, he put up a compost heap 

 on the Bommer principle nearly. That on 

 the 18th, after the heap was set, the ther- 

 mometer stood at 142° of Fahrenheit, when 

 placed in a hole, made for the purpose, two 

 feet below the top of the heap; that on the 

 27th, the mushrooms were growing out of 

 the side and top of the heap and that in 

 twenty days from setting, the heap, which 

 was put up of dry wheat straw, would have 

 done very well to haul out, if immediately 

 ploughed under. 



The subscriber would respectfully further 

 state, that he set a compost heap on what he 

 considers a much more economical and effec- 

 tive plan than the Bommer, the base of which 

 consisted of a lot of near one hundred acres. 

 The principal ingredient was clover seed, 

 sown afler wheat and oats in the spring of 

 1845, at the rate of about one bushel of seed 

 to five acres, on a good portion of which a 

 light dressing of manure was spread, the 

 autumn following the sowing of the seed; 

 that in the spring of 1846 he gave this lot 

 or compost heap a further dressing of one 

 bushel of plaster to the acre. That during 

 the month of August last he turned this said 

 clover ivcll under with a centre draft plough; 

 and to facilitate the complete covering of 

 which, a heavy harrow was used to comb 

 down the grass previous to ploughing; and 

 that during the early part of the present 

 month, (September,) he harrowed this land 

 well with a set of small, light harrows, 

 lengthwise with the ploughing; then sowed 

 with Pennock's drill 88^ bushels of Mediter- 

 ranean wheat on seventy-five acres, includ- 

 ing a part that was an oat stubble. This lot 

 or compost heap had received a dressing of 

 lime about ten years ago, not exceeding about 

 forty bushels of lime to the acre, but has 

 neither been pastured nor mowed the present 

 reason. This the subscriber considers the 

 most economical and regular mode of making 

 up, getting out, and spreading a compost, or 

 dressing a field preparatory to sowing wheat, 

 and gives a much better yield of wheat, and 

 much less liable to fall, if of rank growth, 

 than if manured in any other way. 



J. Jones. 



