234 



Manures — The Potatoe Rot. 



Vol. XIT 



Davy, in experimenting with manure, had 

 been able to produce a marked effect from 

 the steam which arises from it. He (Mr. C.) 

 however, only desired to elicit inquiry on the 

 subject. 



Mr, Howard supposed that in deciding 

 upon this question, the different circum- 

 stances of each individual farmer must be 

 considered. Some are so situated, that from 

 the very fertility of tiicir soil, little manure 

 is needed. Others need \n hu!?band all they 

 can obtain, and may still f;i!l short of their 

 necessity. To the latter class of farmers, 

 this subject was one of considerable import- 

 ance. He suggested that considerable might 

 be added to the value of manure by com- 

 posting. There were many waste materials 

 about ihe farm, such as litter, muck, &c., 

 which may be very valuable if applied to 

 the compost heap, and passed through a prO' 

 cess of fermentation. The heaps should be 

 60 placed that the liquids of the barn-yard 

 might fall upon them. Some farmers adopt 

 the plan of conveying this liquid to vats, and 

 then applying it to the compost heap. 



The degree of fermentation necessary will 

 in a measure depend upon the quality of the 

 soil and the kind of crops for which the com- 

 post is intended. To the small grains, raw 

 manure is considered unfavourable, as End- 

 ing to produce too short a growth of straw, 

 and predisposing it to rust. In all its first 

 stages of decomposition, manure was liable 

 to throw off gasses, and it should, therefore, 

 be combined with matter which would pre 

 vent their escape. That anything is added 

 by fermentation, he did not suppose, but by 

 bringing certain substances under the opera- 

 tion of this process, the amount of the ag- 

 gregate value of manure is increased. Sir 

 Humphrey Davy, to whose experiments al- 

 lusion had been made, had considered that 

 Bomething valuable was lost in the steam 

 escaping from the manure heap. He placed 

 a quantity of stable manure in the soil, if he 

 (Mr. H.) recollected right, and when it had 

 reached a high degree of fermentation, 

 placed pipes over it and carried the steam 

 to some distance, upon a grass plot. In a 

 short time the peculiar greenness of the 

 grass was remarked by every one; and it 

 was only accounted for from the gasses of 

 the manure conveyed to it through these 

 pipes. It has been observed often before, 

 that he who allows the smell arising from 

 his manure heap to o(!end his olfactories, is 

 permitting the escape of an agent, which if 

 applied to his crops, would be of great ad- 

 vantage to them. In sandy soils the benefit 

 of composting was particularly observable. 

 In Massachusetts there existed, along Con- 

 necticut river especially, a large extent of 



sandy plains, upon which various experi- 

 ments had been tried for the purpose of 

 bringing them to a state fit for cultivation. 

 The farmers in that vicinity had told him 

 that they had used long manure with very 

 little advantage; but a marked effect had 

 been produced by the application of comp(.)st- 

 ed manures. It seemed, in connection with 

 the clover and the grasses, to bind the soil 

 together, and make it more firm, so that it 

 beUer resisted the effects of drought. There 

 were other questions connected with this sub- 

 ject; as to the best kind of manure, and the 

 best method of application, which he would 

 leave to others to speak upon. 



Mr. Bement had oflen told his story be- 

 fore, but had no objections to relate again 

 his experience in this matter. He consider- 

 ed the use of manure as all-important to the 

 farmer; and had taken every means to in- 

 crease his manure heap, and tried many ex- 

 periments in its application. One year, upon 

 the advice of the late Judge Buel, he had 

 put twenty loads of unfermented manure on 

 a field proposed for ruta bagas. He sowed 

 afterwards at the usual time, but the crop 

 came up tardily, and was destroyed, when it 

 did appear, by the flies. The next year he 

 used composted manure on the same field, 

 and had a good crop. In almost every in- 

 stance, he found the composted manure of 

 greater advantage than that applied fresh 

 from the barn-yard ; and that it was better 

 to harrow it in or plough it in shallow, than 

 to turn it under the first furrow. His neigh- 

 bour, a practical farmer, had laughed at him 

 for using manure from his compost heap as 

 a top-dressing on meadow land; but the re- 

 sult of that experiment convinced his neigh- 

 bour that he had better try it himself Mr. 

 B. collected manure from all his stables, the 

 weeds from about his fences, stalks from hia 

 garden, ashes, and all the refuse of his farm, 

 and mixed together in his compost heap. He 

 had derived great benefit from the use of an- 

 thracite ashes, both as a top-dressing, and for 

 his crops. He had doubled his crop of hay 

 by the application of these ashes alone, and 

 brought out clover where it had never ap- 

 peared before. In a stiff clay soil, he con- 

 sidered them invaluable. The cinders col- 

 lected by the locomotives in passing from 

 Albany to Schenectady he had procured, to 

 the amount of 800 or 1000 bushels, and 

 placed them in his compost heap, with great 

 success. He had applied the cinders to his 

 onions separately, and had an unusual crop. 

 He had also used crushed bones, and on his 

 corn crop particularly, with great success. 

 On turning up the roots, he found them fairly 

 fringed with the bone dust. The great diffi- 

 culty in this species of manure was the small 



