1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



11 



day. It was not large, but so mingled and strat- 

 ified -with the d«licious fat and lean, as to make 

 even an alderman's mouth water. The ox took 

 the first premium at the late Exhibition of fat cat- 

 tle in Pljnnouth county. 



THE NEW YEAR. 



The last year has been one of great agricultU' 

 ral prosperity throughout our favored land, and 

 one, we .confidently believe, of much progress in 

 the Art. Mind, among the farmers, has had more 

 thought for the causes and reasons of things, than 

 ever before, and it promises to be still more active 

 and inquisitive in the future. 



With regard to ourselves, we intend to keep a 

 steady di-aft in the old harness ; attentively gath 

 ering up for your pleasure or profit, whatever 

 seems of permanent value. 



Our correspondents have been able and oblig- 

 ing. AYe are happy of the opportunity to tender 

 them our congratulations, and express our obliga- 

 tions, and the hope that our personal relations 

 may be more intimate. No important changes in 

 the management of the paper are contemplated. 



During most of the past year, the time and at- 

 tention of both the Publishers has been greatly 

 occupied in building, laying out grounds, and fit- 

 ting up recently purchased estates. This, with 

 our beino; obliged to move to make room for the 

 Mechanics' Fair, has necessarily interrupted our 

 operations somewhat. Yet the interests of 

 the Fanner have gradually advanced, and new 

 readers have been added from nearly every sec- 

 tion of the country. We only need prompt 

 payments from all to enable us to say that we 

 are encouraged " on every side." 



To each and all, we wish a prosperous and 

 happy year. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



WASTE OF URINE. 



Mr. Editor : — Having for years been of the 

 opinion that the farmer's greatest loss in fertiliz- 

 ing 8ul)stanccs, is in the almost entire waste of 

 urine from all animals, I was much gratified by 

 finding in the report of the Commissioner of Pa- 

 tents for 1851, House Doc. 102, pages 380 and 

 381 of said report, an article gathered from the 

 groat London exhibition, on the subject of the use 

 of urine compounded with plaster, &c., and mat 

 ing what is there called urate. From that sug- 

 gestion, I proceeded last March to save what 

 urine I conveniently could, and at tlie time of 

 planting corn, selected ^ an acre of land for the 

 experiment, in a lean state of fertility ; this land 

 had been manured seven ycai-s since ; the next 

 year seeded to grass with oats ; then in grass four 

 years, and in oats last year. I prepared a com- 

 pound, whicli for brevity I will call urate 

 this manner : To the urine, which liad become 

 putrid, I added 325 lbs. of ground plaster in its 

 raw state, about 3^ bushels of house ashes, and 

 enou<^h common sand, about f6ur bushels, to re- 

 duce it to a state of dryness convenient to be sown 



broadcast over the i acre of land, which was done 

 as evenly as possible, and thoroughly harrowed in, 

 leaving suflicient of the urate to put about one 

 spoonful in the hill at planting. 



The crop was small and light, as was antici- 

 pated ; but the corn at all times through the sea- 

 son, until ripened, exhibited a luxuriant green 

 and apparent healthiness uncommon for so small 

 a growth. I have no douht the preparation 

 would be of great utility on land in a good state 

 of fertility, for a crop of corn. 



Having a small quantity of the urate left, I 

 used it in planting potatoes, where the efiect was 

 more gratifying. A piece of old mowing, broke 

 up the fall before, thoroughly harrowed, and 

 marked out with a plough for manuring in the 

 hill, was selected for its application. We applied 

 about i to J of a fair shovelful of good manure 

 to the hill, in the midst of which one row was 

 left, and about a heaped table spoonful, or per- 

 haps h. a gill of the urate applied to each hill ; the 

 yield exceeded that of the manured land by sev- 

 eral pounds in a row of 75 or 80 hills. 



In another part of the same field the experi- 

 ment was carried still further. In the following, 

 the rows were all side by side, of equal length, 

 and no manure, except the application mentioned, 

 was used : — 



EOWS FIFTy-rOUB HILLS IN LENGTH. 



a 



'.a rt 3 



Lbs. 



32} n 42 

 104 



Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. 



1. Potatoes, common or middling size, no 



manure of any kind, weight about 

 one-1'ourtli pound 14 



2. Do., common or middling sized, spoon 



fuUurate 14 94i 9} 



[Plaster and Ashes applied after hoeing first time.] 



One large potato in hill, weight 27 93i 14i 107* 



Two small potatoes to the hill 10 68 J 12 80i 



One small potato to the hill 5} 62i 6^ 69 



One-half large potato in hill 13 78 10 88 



The next row was planted with middling sized 

 potatoes; in yield much like the last weighed ; 

 the rain prevented our weighing them at the 

 time. 



From the foregoing it will appear that the 

 urate, or some other cause, produced in fifty-four 

 hills, 62 lbs. more than the same numlicr without 

 any application at all, but the bare soil. 



Piermont, N. H., Dec, 1853, Grafton. 



Remarks. — A model communication, friend 

 Grafton, and we hope it may be succeeded by 

 others as practical as this. 



A GOOD EXAMPLE. 



The Granite Farmer states that at a recent 

 meeting of the Executive committee of the Hills- 

 borough County (N. H.) Agricultural Society, it 

 was voted to hold five monthly meetings of the 

 society the ensuing year, viz. : at Now Ipswich, the 

 last Thursday in December ; at Amherst — the semi- 

 annual meeting — the last Thursday in January ; 

 at Brooklino, the last Thursday in February ; at 

 Woodbury Village, Antrim, tlie last Thursday in 

 March. The time and place of the remaining 

 meeting to bo hereafter designated 



