I 



Published by Johm B. Rcssell, at jVd. 52 jVorlh Market Street, (at the AgricuUural H'arelioKse) — Ti^omab G. Fessenden, Editor. 



VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JANUAItY 22, 1830. 



No. 27. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOR THE NKW KNGT.ANI.' FARMKK. 



SWAMP MUD FOR MANURE. 

 Wr Fessenden — In my last note to you,* I 

 mised to give some further nccount re- 

 eling the decayed vegetable matter, generally 

 led swamp muck, which many sections of our 

 nitry nhoiind with. The use of which, applied 

 an upland loam, gravel, or sandy soil, will pay 

 expense of lal>or in removing it, two for one 

 first year, as tlie statement of facts hereafter 

 lexeil, fully proves. 



riie last fall I carted several loads of muck on 

 1 knoll of loam, and put it in one heap, though 

 blink it would have been better to have dropped 



'* ! load only in a place. In the spring, prior to 

 nting corn, the nuick was spread and ploughed 

 ler. The crop of corn where the muck w:is 

 ead, was large. I thought larger than where 

 n yard manure was put. A neighboring farmer 

 ) made use of muck for several years. The 

 t year he thought it equal ta barn yard manure, 

 1 its effects were perceivable a much longer 

 The soil on which the muck was put, was 

 irarm gravelly loam. Tlie muck was used by 

 >ther neighburing farmer, for manuring corn in 

 hill, which was used in the following manner: 

 A row of each alternately, one of miiik, one of 

 n yard manure, and one of hog manure. He 

 lireil me the corn was much the best manured 

 h the muck. The soil a sandy loam. 

 Mr Daniei. Bloomer when residing in North 

 lum, West Chester coimty, in the year 1796, 

 1 four acres of gravelly loam of equal quality, 

 ich he planted willi corn. Prior to planting 

 ! corn, he applied fifty loads of muck per acre, 

 two acres ; these two acres produced him ome 

 NDRED AND TWENTir busliels ; the other two 

 es yielded only sixty bushels. The next spring 

 188 four acres were sowed with oats and grass 

 ;d. The oats were more than twice as large 

 the two acres dressed with muck as they were 

 theothertwo. The grass forthe fonrsucceeding 

 ars produced in much the same ratio. I might 

 ate other improvements of a similar kind. It 

 presumed that every intelligent, industrious 

 •mer will bo satisfied of the utility of muck as a 

 mure. Those farms which are interspersed with 

 amps of muck and uplands either of loam, sand, 

 gravel, may be made, at an expense of five to 

 1 dollars per acre, capable of paying an interest 

 nually of one hundred dollars |)cr acre. It is 



El ought that ten dollars, expended with economy, 



|«1 II, in most circumstances, be sufficient to cart 

 d spread one hundred loads of swamp manure 

 an acre. 

 Those who are owning farms, situated as just 



'« ited, now valued at .$25 per acre, have only to 

 the word, and go forward, for one or two 

 ar?, to convince tbemselvrs and their neighbors 

 ey have farms intrinsically worth one hundre<i 

 illars ])er acre. Why so? it may be ashed. 



W !cau.se they will pay a nett profit over and above 



all expense, amounting to the interest of one 

 hundred dollars. Look for a moment at the 

 statement of Mr Bloomer. He tells you he applied 

 fifty loads of muck in the spring, (t!;ough the fall 

 is a belter time, and the muck is better to be laid 

 on laiul.s in tin; fall,) per acre, which cost him five 

 dollars. On this acre he had an excess of corn 

 of thirty bushel.s, at fifty cents per bushel, which 

 woidil leave ten dollars, nearly, to pay the interest 

 of $\50 at 7 per cent., and this only for the first 

 year. It is worthy to consider, by taking the 

 muck from the low lands, that ditches may be 

 made or improved, so that the low lands may be 

 made to produce a bountiful crop of timothy and 

 red top, &c. &c. It is desirable that farmers in 

 ilitl'erent parts of the country would try the utility 

 of the muck on the different summer crops, and 

 inform the public of the results of their labor, 

 through your useful New England Farmer, all of 

 which arc highly beneficial to us farmers. 



W. H. 



MANGEL WCRTZEL. I 



The crops of Mangel Wurtzel raised by E.D.A.* , 

 is worthy of notice, and establishes a fact worth i 

 remembering, that an acre of ground has produced 

 the past season at the rate of fortyfive tons per 

 acre of vegetable nutriment, valuable for fattening 

 beeves, or feeding to milch cows, at an expense 

 Ic-^s than any other vegetables can bo raised. 

 This, I have no doubt is true. The root is worthy 

 cf the attention of all those who have rich hinds, 

 of easy culture, and can raise fifty tons per acre. 

 I have raised this root for several years in my 

 garden, and have thought that barely the leaves 

 nearly paid the expense of cultivation. They 

 may be taken off from the first of August till the 

 crop is harvested late in the fall. The seed ought 

 to bo planted as early in the s[)ring as the season 

 will admit, about the first of April. Were I to 

 rear an acre of this root, I should prepare my 

 ground as E. D. A. did ; plant about two thirds of 

 it, which I had inlemled for this root in rows two 

 feet apart, and the seed dropped six ijiches apart 

 in the rows. The surplus plants will bo sufficient 

 to fill out the other third, as they ought to be 

 thinned out when of the size of a goose quill, so 

 that each plant has six inches space. The trans- 

 planting can be done about as quick as the seed 

 can be planted. This plant will endure transplant- 

 ing, or any of the beet kind, as well as the cabbage. 

 Taper a stick to a point, the size of a rake's tail, 

 with which the work ia done with ilespatch. 



CatskUl, J\r. Y.,Jan. 15, 1830. W. H. 



* We believe our correspondent refers to an article 

 itten hy him, anri published in the New England 

 irraer, vol. vi. p. 285. 



FOR THE REW ENGLAND FARMER. 



DISEASE IN SHEEP. 

 Mr Editor — I have been endeavoring for 

 several years to raise a flock of first rate sheep, 

 and have been at much pains and expense for 

 this purpose ; but have become almost discouraged, 

 in consequence of a disease that has repeateilly 

 swept off many of my flock, and which has 

 hitherto baffled all my attempts, either to ascertain 

 the cause, or apply a remedy. This complaint, 

 where it has proved fatal, has been mostly among 



•See N. E. Farmer, vol. viii. p. 138. 



Lunbs in the fall, winter, or spring, before their first 

 shearing. Old sheep, and she(,'p but once shorn, 

 have been the next greatest sufferers. If the dis- 

 ease has always been the same, (of which I have 

 little doubt,) 1 have had it in my flock three or four 

 times within six or .seven years, and have lost 

 perhaps fifty slieeji of various <lcscriptions. It has 

 prevailed most during the cold season, but' no part 

 of the year a|)[icar3 to be entirely exempted from 

 the evil. 



Gauntness has generally been the first indication 

 of disease that I have noticed. The appetite 

 gradually decreases, ami though the nnimid may 

 feed almost as busily as usual, it rather ntifc/cs than 

 etils. The fleece externally becomes shabby, and 

 internally looks less lively, loses its lustre, near the 

 sUin begins to adhere together, and through the 

 whole opens less freely, and is often near the roots 

 filled with a scurf resembling dandruff". Its growth 

 nearly or quite ceases, and sometimes a large 

 portion of it cleaves from the skin, while that 

 which still adheres, appears sickly and feeble. The 

 skin becomes pale, and the sheep more or less 

 gradually loses flesh, strength, arid spirit ; grows 

 exceeding light ; nearly ceases to cat; is taken 

 Willi incurable scouring, that increases in Feverity, 

 and scents worse and worse as the disorder 

 advances, till the creature, unable to rise, expires 

 a mere skeleton from perfect exhaustion. 



Such perhaps is as conunon a course ns any. 

 Sometimes the scouring is at intervals, and the 

 tiiiiniivl bsis by turns an increase of appetite, but 

 sinks lower at each attack. In some instances 

 the above described internal appearance of the 

 wool, is the first warning 1 have of the disease in a 

 sheep, while nothing very noticeable is otherwise 

 observed. In some, the ilisorder seems to jirogress 

 no farther, and the sheep survive, hut with less 

 flesh, a less and poorer fleece, and if she has a 

 lamb, less milk, with the best of food, and the most 

 careful altemlance. In some instances, when 

 sheep have died, they have not scoured at all, but 

 have for a time appeared feeble and inactive, and 

 perhaps died suddenly without being greatly 

 emaciated. The scouring seems to" me rather a. 

 consequence of the disease than the disease itself, 

 lor many exhibit several of the symptoms, but 

 escape this, and recover ; but I think I have never 

 known more than two survive where scouring 

 attended. In this stage of the disease, I consider 

 recovery almost hopeless. 



I do not know that any means I used had any 

 perinanenlly beneficial effect, though all my little 

 knowledge and invention have been mpst assidu- 

 ously employed to discover the cause, and -Ind a 

 cure. To obtain the last, it is very important to 

 a.scertaiu the first ; but what that can be, I can 

 hardly guess, much less determine. All I can 

 pretend to know definitely, is, that the evil exists. 

 The first lime my sheep ever suffered in this way, 

 if I rightly remember, I lost fjom half to three 

 fi)urths, or four fifihs of my lambs, and two or 

 three yearlings. This took place in i)arts of the 

 years 1824-25, and among grade sheep, native 

 anil merino. In the fill and winter of 1825-26. 

 I ijurcliased and broiijjht home a small flock of 

 Merino ewes, of which about a fifth jiart died 

 before the expiration of the foliowing summer, 



