No. 5. 



On the Preparation and Use of Manures. 



149 



value of the wheat or corn grown, not enough 

 perhaps to buy a valuable new one, but not 

 unfrequently more than the wortli of the 

 original animal. A more disgusting sight 

 can scarcely be imELgined, than to see the 

 fences and trees around a farmer's yard, 

 dressed out with dead lambs or other defunct 

 animals, in the spring season. All such, 

 should be buried at once, and thus made 

 available in other forms. 



Fish. — Of the substances nqmed above, 

 fish is the one most commonly used as a 

 manure. In the vicinity of the sea, large 

 quantities of fish are annually used in en- 

 riching the soil. This is particularly the 

 case on Long Island and in Rhodip Island. 

 They are sometimes spread broadcast on 

 the earth and ploughed in ; at other times 

 deposited in the hills of corn; sometimes 

 spread over the meadows after the crop is 

 mowed, and allowed to putrefy in the open 

 air. The stench, where the putrefaction 

 goes on in the open air, is intolerable ; and 

 can only be endured by those whose olfacto- 

 ries have been accustomed to the nuisance. 

 This is a most wasteful practice, and should 

 long ago have been abandoned. Treated in 

 this way, but a small part of the actual 

 value of the fish is realized ; and it is not 

 to be wondered at, that where the methods 

 of using this manure are so different, widely 

 different ideas of its value should be enter- 

 tained. Fish should never be used fresh, or 

 thrown at once upon the soil. The true 

 way of preparing them as manure, is to 

 make them into compost, by placing them 

 in layers with muck, rock weed, peat, or 

 even common loam, to putrefy. Where the 

 soil is heavy or inclining to clay, where the 

 compost is to be used, common shore sand, 

 containing as it does, large quantities of 

 particles of carbonate of lime, will be found 

 useful as a composting ingredient with the 

 fish. When the fish are decayed or putre 

 fied, the mass should be dug over, the parts 

 thoroughly mixed, and if much ammonia or 

 offensive gas is liberated, a covering of earth 

 should be given, and the mass be allowed 

 further to ferment before using. In this 

 way, fish never fail of being a valuable ma- 

 nure. Rock weed, eel grass, or in short 

 any of those vegetable or animal matters 

 that abound on the sea-shore, may be ad 

 vantageouslyused in the preparation of these 

 composts. 



Refuse of factories. — There are many 

 manufactories, particularly those of skins, 

 furs and wool, where large quantities of ma- 

 nures of the most povk^erful kind, are annu 

 ally suffered to go to waste, though to a 

 much less extent than formerly. The re- 

 fuse of such establishments, now frequently 



considered, and justly as now treated, a nui- 

 sance, may, by simple application to the soil, 

 or still better by being made into compost, 

 be used as the best of fertilizers. One of 

 the best farmers and most successful breed- 

 ers of our country, was driven into the bu- 

 siness of agriculture, in self-defence as it 

 were. He was an extensive manufacturer, 

 and the difficulty of disposing of the refuse 

 and waste of the establishment, compelled 

 him to purchase a farm in the vicinity of the 

 city, in enriching which, these matters have 

 been most successfully employed. Those 

 farmers who formerly could not be induced 

 to receive such refuse materials as a gifl, 

 would now, afl;er the proof they have seen 

 of their value, be happy to purcliase them 

 at a liberal price. The furrier, the tanner, 

 the morrocco manufacturer, comb maker, &c. 

 &c., are all dealing in materials of the ut- 

 most value, when applied to the soil as ma- 

 nure ; and the farmer little understands his 

 true interests, who, living in the vicinity of 

 any of these, does not avail himself of these 

 refuse matters to the utmost extent per- 

 mitted. 



Manure of wool. — Perhaps there is no 

 substance more rich in matters valuable as 

 manures, than the washings and refuse of 

 woollen factories. Chaptal was one of the 

 first to call attention to this matter, and the 

 instances he gave of their fertilizing power 

 were of the most convincing kind. It is 

 but very lately, however, that any attempts 

 have been made in this country to render 

 the refuse of our factories available. All 

 remember, when around every factory and 

 every clothier's shop in the country, piles of 

 refuse wool, clippings, pickings of cards, 

 and sweepings, accumulated in masses, 

 never thought of as of value, but considered 

 as matter of which the owners would most 

 happily be quit. The method of disposing 

 of them, when they could no longer be tole- 

 rated, was to throw them into the river ; to 

 apply them to the garden or farm, was not 

 once thought of Not long since, in one of 

 our villages, I noticed a garden, the vegeta- 

 bles of which had a luxuriance forming a 

 striking contrast to others near them, and 

 the cause of the difl^erence was asked. " It 

 is all owing to the refuse of that clothier's 

 and carder's shop," was the reply. " I saw 

 in the Cultivator a notice of the value of 

 such manures, and the owner of the shops 

 gladly availed himself of my offer to remove 

 it at my own expense. I gave my garden 

 a good dressing, and as this is the second 

 year, you may judge of the value of the ma- 

 terial as a manure. It is probably the last 

 I shall obtain, however," he added, "as the 

 mill owners, after seeing its effect on my 



