THE GENESEE FARMER. 



distant field, (or his hoed crops, be hauled out in 

 tlie winter, and placed nenr where it is to be used, 

 a trreat deal vt time is saved, when every hour is 

 worth a day in January and February. 



l>ut some tanners say that they can't afford to 

 handle over their manure but once. But these 

 men t'orfjet that every time a pile of manure is 

 t*orked over and repiled, it does it more good in aid- 

 ing decomposition than the labor of forking over is 

 svortli. Take, for instance, 50 loads of barn-yard 

 manure, half decomposed, lying in the yard in 

 November, and set a.man to throwing it into one 

 or two heaps. This operation produces a new fer- 

 mentation, however cold the weather may be; 

 and in the spring it is worth, probably, $5.00, at 

 least, more than it would have been if left spread 

 in the yard, while the cost of piling up, is less than 

 that sum. The same good results take place on 

 hauling out the manure to the field, if piled in 

 large compost heaps; and in May it is in excellent 

 Cdudition, and enhanced in value more than the 

 labor has cost, besides being where it is icanted, 



I intended to make some remarks on the "appli- 

 cation" of manures, but think I have said as much 

 as friend Harris will publishthis time. 



T. B. Mi.NKR, Ed. Bural American, 



Clinton, New York. 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH BY S. W, 



Secretary JonxsoN. — The N. Y. State Agri- 

 cultural Journal for January, is an improvement 

 OQ its predecessors ; Secretary Johnson's detail of 

 his visit to the Alma Mater of the Genesee Farm- 

 er's editor, the Rothamsted Farm, is very inter- 

 esting. Metiiinks J. B. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert 

 must have felt themselves glorified in the flesh, 

 when tlieir ex[)erimental plots were thus visited by 

 a Committee of twenty magnates of all nationali- 

 ties, iiut that gormand English lunch must have 

 scandalized the French, Italians and Spaniards of 

 the Cvimraittee, who were used to lighter fare; in- 

 stead of marbled roast-beef, they probably expected 

 Bouille aux onions^ Maccaroni, or dos sopas. Long 

 may the venerable Secretary live in the full enjoy- 

 ment of his i)resent health, youthfal energy and 

 enthusiasm — an honor to the post he has filled con 

 amove, so long, so diligently, and so well. Blessed 

 is that man who is so far exempt from the common 

 fate of our poor humanity, that his energies in- 

 crease with his experience, instead of decreasing 

 witli his declining years. 



The Formation of Nitrates in the Son.. — It 

 appears from a notice in the last GeneMe Farmer. 

 that the late experiments of Soiionuein, sliow that 

 in every case where rain-water is evaporated from 

 the soil, the nitrogen of the atmosf)liere combines 

 with tiie escaping oxygen and hydrogen, so as to 

 form nitrate of ammonia. It appears, also, from 

 hia experiments, that the nitrogen of the atmos- 

 phere is also readily oxidised by the aid of alkalies. 

 Methinks wo here find the solution of the cause, 

 why old leached ashes, that have lain many years 

 in a pile expose<l to the air and rain, are better fer- 

 tilizers, particularly for the wheat crop, than fresh 

 ashes : the alK.ili of the pile having been thus slowly 

 coinbine<l witli the nitroiren of the air, has formed 

 nitrate of potash (saltpetre). 



The Ccltcre of Beans. — Perhaps there is no 

 <«culent of the field that contains more nitrogen to 



its weight than beans and peas, and what may 

 seem strange, ttey exhaust the soil much less thaa 

 any of the cereal grasses of oven less nutriment. 

 The reason is doubtless that by the aid of their 

 large and numerous leaves, they collect much more 

 nutriment from the atmosphere than any of the 

 cereals. A great drawback on the profit of grow- 

 ing bush beans, particularly on clay soils is, that as 

 soon as they ripen they are liable to get stained and 

 mouldy, particidarly in wet weather; pole beans 

 will not only yield nearly twice as much to the 

 square rod, but they may be harvested in good 

 bright order, and the poles, if kept dry, will last 

 many years. When the buried end is rotten, it 

 inay be cut ofl:', as a short seven foot pole, if the 

 vine is pinched oflf at the top, brings better beans, 

 longer pods, and more clusters, than tall poles and 

 rampant vines. I have grown the long pod white 

 kidney-bean, seven to nine beans to the pod, and 

 a full peck of perfect beans to the rod square. The 

 most delicious bean for this soil and climate is the 

 large flowering butter-bean ; it is richer with us 

 than the Lima bean, and it ripens fuller and ear- 

 her. 



That farmer who largely grows the leguminous 

 plants, beans, peas, and their cognate, red clover, 

 feeding the same liberally to bovines, horses and 

 sheep ; if he does not make as much manure as his 

 grass or grain growing neighbor, it will be enough 

 richer to make it up, to say nothing of the light drain 

 upon the soil, wliich these plants make, compared 

 even with the cereal timothy grass. 



Do Sandy Soils. Leach out the Salts of 

 Mantre? — It is contended by some practical 

 farmers that a sandy soil leaches out the fertilizing 

 matter of the manure, and hence it should not be 

 applied in gutumn for spring i)lauting. I take it 

 that this theory of leaching is true only when ap- 

 plied to a pure or nearly pure sand ; all soils con- 

 taining ten per cent, of alumina have power to re- 

 tain not only the salts of potash, but ammonia salts, 

 while it will not hold the latter from escaping to 

 the atmosphere in a gaseous form, as a more com- 

 pact soil would do. VoELCKER found on experi- 

 ments, that in a sandy soil, pure sand excepted, the 

 fertilizing matter of liquid manure w;is not leached 

 through it. He also found that liquid rn.inure pass- 

 ing into a soil very deficient in lime, left its lime in 

 the soil, thus showing that the projjerty ot soils of 

 stiM'ing up food for plants extends to lime, potash, 

 and phospheric acid, as well as ammonia. 



The principal cause why manure is more lasting 

 on an adhesive soil than on a loose sandy one, is 

 on the adhesive soil. A highly mariureil corn crop 

 that it is less active and consequently more lasting 

 on a loose soil is much earlier and quicker than on 

 a clay loam, because the loose soil takes in lieat and 

 air and its manure is sooner dissolved into plant 

 food, but if the clay is mechanically loosened by 

 hoe and cultivator, it comes out ei]ual uX- tlie end 

 of the race and with less loss of ammonia, which 

 in part escapes from a loose soil to the atmosphere. 



Rabuits and Fruit Trees. — It is said that the 

 best means of preventing rabbits from gnawing 

 fruit trees is to rub the bark with a piece of 

 bAnI 



