^^ERICAN HERD-BOO«^ 



DE VOT ED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Liebio. 



Vol. XII.— No. 8.] 



3rd mo. (March) 15th, 1848. 



[Whole No. 158. 



PDBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAH TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — Forconditions see last page 



Agricultural Discussion— Manures— The 

 Potatoe Rot. 



January 27th. 



Judge Cheever, of Saratoga, presided, in 

 the absence of the President. 



Col. Johnson stated that the question for 

 discussion was, in continuation from the 

 meeting of last week, upon the subject of 

 Manures. 



This was a subject in which all practical 

 farmers were greatly interested, and it was 

 hoped and expected that such as were pre- 

 sent would give to the meeting their per- 

 sonal experience and the results of any ex- 

 periments which they might have made. 

 Mr. J. believed that much good would be 

 the result of these discussions, for aside from 

 the facts and information which were elicited 

 in these meetings, they had a tendency to 

 awaken interest and inquiry among the 

 farmers in all parts of the State. Since 

 the last meeting, he had received a letter 

 from a gentleman residing in one of the 

 river counties, who had read the discussions 

 in the newspapers, expressing his deep inte- 



Cab.— Vol. XII.— No. 8. 



rest in them, and suggesting a subject for 

 the next discussion. Mr. J. read the letter, 

 more for the purpose of showing that there 

 was a spirit of inquiry awakened among the 

 farmers abroad, — a fact which was still bet- 

 ter evinced in the extensive correspondence 

 of the Society. He remarked also, that he 

 should propose that at the conclusion of the 

 discussion of any particular subject, those 

 present should be called upon to give their 

 opinion with regard to it — for unless a result 

 of this kind was reached, the object would 

 be in a great measure lost, we should not 

 know what conclusion we had reached in 

 our own minds upon hearing the differing 

 statements presented. This was the plan, 

 he said, in all the English Societies, and a 

 very good one. 



Mr. Coe, who had suggested the question 

 before the meeting as a subject for discus- 

 sion, had merely thrown it out, he said, for 

 the purpose of getting the opinions of others 

 who had experience, and to solicit inquiry, 

 and not because he understood the subject 

 himself It had occurred to him that there 

 might be something lost in the decomposi- 

 tion of manure, whether thrown together in 

 heaps, placed under cover, or otherwise. 

 That the warmth which arises during de- 

 composition and escapes in the form of steam, 

 might be imparted to the soil, if the manure 

 was buried in it while in a fresh or unde- 

 composed state. He was not now familiar 

 with what had been written on this subject, 

 but it occurred to him that Sir Humphrey 



