134 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



At ten years of age I was turned out to take my 

 chance in the world, and earned a Hving with one 

 farmer until fourteen, then with another seven 

 years more, for a living and $150 to start with at 

 twenty-one. The next year paid the funeral charges 

 and those of the last sickness of an unfortunate 

 father, for many years bereft of his reason. Sev- 

 enteen years from this, I committed the remains of 

 a worthy and affectionate mother to the grave, 

 whom I had supported in poor health ever after I 

 became of age. These were hard times, and dis- 

 couraging circumstances, but I never put my hand 

 to the plow and looked back ; I knew that God 

 would help them who tried to help themselves, and 

 energy and perseverance, with a fair share of good 

 luck, as the saying is, has carried me along. I 

 have now the good fortune to number 400 acres 

 upon the beautiful Connecticut, 40 acres of which 

 is first-rate intervale, worth $100 per acre. I have 

 eight barns now crowded with hay and grain, I have 

 no mortgages to lift, nor a single note to cancel, 

 and now I would say to all farmers' sons, "go and 

 do likewise." At any rate, before you decide to 

 abandon the farm, look well to the future, count 

 the cost of the change if you can, but do not give 

 up a certainty for a total uncertainty, and ycu may 

 escape the pangs of a severe regret when it is too 

 late to retrieve. j. w. C, 



Springjitld, VL, 1857. 



For the Neio England Farmer. 



CAN LAND BE MADE FERTILE WITH- 

 OUT STABLE MANURE? 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to improve apiece of high 

 land which is pretty much run out. The soil is 

 of a light, loamy character, plentifully supplied 

 with boulders, sub-soil much the same, except dif- 

 ference in color ; lays to the south-east, and with 

 liberal culture gives good crops of corn. 



I wish to know if I can avoid the expense of 

 stable manure, which is here worth $7,50 per 

 cord ? (a.) 



I have any quantity of meadow muck for the 

 hauling, which will cost 25 or 30 cents per ox 

 load ; can this be used with ashes at $12 per cord, 

 to advantage, and would it prove a substitute for 

 stable manure ; if so, in what proportion should the 

 muck and ashes be used ? (b.) 



Will muck thrown out in January, be fit for use 

 next spring ? (c.) 



Should the muck lie in a heap this winter, or 

 would it be better to spread it on a ])lowed piece 

 and sow the ashes on in the spring and plow all in 

 together? (d.) 



Would coal ashes for the hauling one mile, be 

 as good and cheap for this purpose as leached 

 wood ashes, at $12 a cord delivered ? (e.) 



Reading, Mass., 1851. W. Spear. 



Rem.\rks. — Lands may be made fertile without 

 the aid of stable manure, but the question to be 

 settled is, whether they can be made so at a profit. 

 Many persons can make two blades of grass grow 

 where only one grew before, but the operation is 

 quite similar to those in commerce or manufactures, 

 where losses are incurred ; although they increase 

 the object sought for, yet it is at so costly a rate 

 that to persist in it w^ould inevitably lead to fliil- 



ure and starvation. Whatever we cultivate must 

 be done at a profit, perhaps not always in the first 

 year, any more than that the manufacturer should 

 find a profit on his outlays of buildings and ma- 

 chinery the first year. If we fell the forest, drain 

 and remove rocks from a piece of land, it would be 

 unreasonable to expect a full return from the first 

 crop. 



After land "has been reclaimed, cultivated and 

 exhausted, it presents another attitude ; the ques- 

 tion now will depend upon the kind of land to be 

 wrought, and its location. If light land, such as 

 many of our plains, that may be plowed rapidly 

 with one or two horses, so that there shall not be 

 much tax for travel, it may be cultivated at a profit, 

 without adding stable manure. This may be done 

 by sowing with rye, thrashing in the field, reserv- 

 ing the berry and returning the straw at once to 

 the soil by plowing it under ; or by plowing under 

 two or three crops of buckwheat when in bloom. 

 By this mode you extract valuable matter from the 

 atmosphere and mingle it with the soil, and by 

 continuing the process very lean and hungry lands 

 may be made prolific at a proft! When once 

 brought up they may be easily kept so. 



In some such way, we think the piece of land 

 in question may be redeemed and made to pay as 

 it goes. But whether it would be the most profi- 

 table course, taken in connection with other lands 

 of the farm, we cannot judge. 



(a.) See reply to (b.) 



(b.) If ten cords of good meadow muck, having 

 been frozen through one winter, finely pulverized, 

 and each cord thoroughly mingled with ten bushels 

 of ashes, were spread upon a plowed acre of your 

 field and then worked in with a cultivator, the corn 

 planted, all weeds and grass kept down, and the 

 ground frequently stirred, whether there were 

 weeds or not, we think you would get, in a favora- 

 ble season, 30 or 35 bushels of corn. At the aver- 

 age price of northern corn, that would pay well for 

 all the expenses. This being the case, you could 

 afford to leave all the fodder on the ground, and 

 as soon as the ears were gathered, cut up the 

 stalks, and as the plow advances let a hand follow 

 and lay them lengthwise in the furrow to be en- 

 tirely covered up the next time the plow comes 

 round. Here you have quite a liberal manuring 

 of prime vegetable matter. The next year, if the 

 land is of a sandy quality, apply the same amount 

 of muck and ashes again ; but if not quite sandy, 

 add what the muck would cost in wet bone-dust, 

 and work it in with the harrow. 



We have found great benefit, by a process simi- 

 lar to this, on much such land as you describe. 



(c. d.) Muck thrown out in autumn should not 

 be in heaps so large as to prevent its freezing solid. 

 When the ashes is mingled with it all lumps should 

 be broken and thrown out. 



