384 



HEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Ac<: 



a regular occupation ; and is followed by that 

 class of jier.-^o.iH who, during tho remaind'jr of 

 the day, pick up tlie ends of cigars. Pea pods 

 yield alcohol ;is ahundautly, it lias Ijocn foimd, as 

 the lxH»t-root or as pumpkins. In England, I be- 

 lieve, a sort of mild beer has long b^en obtained 

 from theut, with the admixture of sage and hops. 

 .\ow that 1 am upon the subject of peas, I may 

 as well state that in Paris they are always sold 

 shelled. Those that shell them divide them into 

 three sorts, big, middling and little. The littlest 

 art; the dearest, as they are the sweetest. Our fa- 

 vorite brand, the ^larrowfat, esteemed on account 

 of size, would meet with no favor here. Its very 

 development would class it among the poorer 

 kinds, to be sold to poor people at rates much low- 

 er than cost. — Paris Letter to New York. 



MIXING SAWDUST WITH ASHES. 



The manufacture of animal and vegetable mat- 

 ters — such as fish refuse, butchers' offal, urine, 

 sawdust, moss or peat earth — into manure, and 

 their application to the soil, has long "^een a sub- 

 ject of anxious inquiry ; and that part of it in- 

 volved in the proposition of Lord Berners, of mix- 

 ing sawdust with sheep's dung and urine, like 

 other suggestions for economizing the volatile and 

 soluble elements- of manure on the farm, now so 

 frequently wasted, is deserving of special notice 

 at tliis time. 



Glancing briefly at old practices first, oar fore- 

 fa tliers used sawdust for littering their stable-, 

 cow houses, sheep-pens, piggeries, and poultry 

 houses, tlu; tvhole being afterwards mixed together 

 and used as farm-yard manure. Sawyers and 

 carpenters, again, who had none of the aliove pro- 

 visions, mixed it in their dung-hills for growing 

 potatoes ; while fishermen used it for smoking fish, 

 and mi.\ing in their ash-pits along with fish re- 

 fuse, Belli. ig the compost to farmers. With these 

 practices many localities are familiar to this day, 

 and have been so from time immemorial. 



Of these plans, the mixing of sawdust with 

 sheep's dung, uriu(!,slaugliter-l)Ouse and fish oU'al, 

 is, perhaps, the most deserving of consideration, 

 the fermentative qualities of such articles are the 

 !X!Bt adapted to overcome tho comparatively indes- 

 tructible nature of the dust. liitlierto tlie great 

 objection to sawings of wood, as manux'c,has fjeeu 

 their slow deeoiujtosition. Immediate activity is 

 necessary to give value to manure, and this is wnat 

 sawdust does uoi possess. Kxcremeiitary and offal 

 matters, on tho contrary, are from their nature 

 subject to rapid decomposition, so mucli so, that 

 half their fertilizing value is not unfrequently lost. 

 Indeed it is impossible to estimate the loss arising 

 from thissoiirce. Now, if the mixing of the two 

 together will eflect the decomposition of the for- 

 mer, while it avoids tho loss sustained in the lat- 

 ter, the gain must consequently be great. 



What ^ives peculiar value to compost of this 

 kind is iheir disintegrated state ; they are lit lor 

 drilling in along with the seed by corn or turnip 

 drills at once. Tlieir freeness from sand and oth- 

 er heavy and comparatively useless mineral sub- 

 stances is another merit. The difference between 

 the expense of applying farm-yard manure and 

 guano, for instance, is consideralde, while tiie ad- 

 vantages gained by expedition in seed time are 

 evta of greiUer importance. The addition of 50 



per cent, of sand and clay as when urine, fish, gut, 

 &c., were mixed with earth, doubles tlie expense 

 and time of application ; and this, if the distance 

 is great, may exceed, the value of the manure it- 

 self. 



The prime cost of the article would be little more 

 than tho carriage, while in must localities the 

 supply would obviously be great. IVe have only 

 to examine our timber yards for evidence of this. 

 How many ingenious plans have even been con- 

 trived for carrying the sawdust down the stream 

 which drives the saw-mill, or into the fire of the 

 steam engine wdiere steam power is used. 



Now tiiat artificial manures have ])ecomc an 

 agricultural necessity, it is the duty as well as the 

 interest of every one to look first to the resources 

 within his own reach for a sujiply, and lastly to 

 the market for any I)alance required. To neglect 

 the former, relying entirely upon the hitter for 

 Peruvian guano, &e , and then complain of high 

 prices, is inconsistency and folly. Were every 

 tarmer to procure annually so many tons of saw- 

 dust, ground peat, or charred vegetable matter of 

 any kind, which could be had for little money, 

 and to mix them Avith the excrements of horses, 

 cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, &c., adding such otli- 

 er articles as peculiar circumstanct e required, it 

 would exercise a very salutary effect upon the 

 extravagant prices now paid for all kinds of arti- 

 ficial manures. If a farmer can thus manufacture 

 at home as good an article for 2().s. as he can pur- 

 chase for £5, (and this can bo done in many cases,) 

 the course which he ought to steer is plain. — Ag- 

 ricultural Gazette, England. 



VARIETY OF FOOD HECSSSAUY. 



It is in vegetable as in animal life ; a mother 

 crams her child exclusively with arrow-root — it 

 becomes fat, it is true, but alas ! it is rickety, 

 and gets its teeth very slowly, and with difiiculty. 

 Mamma is ignorant, or never thinks, that her 

 offspring cannot make bone — or, what is the same 

 thing, phosphate of lime, the principal bulk of 

 l>one — out of starch. It does its best ; and were 

 it not for a little milk and bread, perhaj a now 

 and then a little meal and soup, it would have no 

 bones and teeth at all. Farmers keep poultry ; 

 and what is true of fowls is true of cabbage, a 

 turnip, or an ear of wheat. If we mix with the 

 food of fowls a sufficient quantity of egg-shells or 

 chalK, wiiich they eat greedily, they will lay 

 many more eggs than before. A well bred fowd 

 is disposed to lay a vast number of eggs, but can- 

 not do so without tho materials for tho shells, 

 iiowover nourishing in other respects her. food 

 may be. A fowl, with the best will in the world, 

 not finding any lime in tho soil, nor mortar from 

 walls, nor calcareous matter in her food, is in- 

 capacitated from laying any eggs at all. Let far- 

 mers lay such facts as these, wliicli are matters of 

 common observation, to heart, and transfer the 

 analogy, as they may do, to the habits of plants, 

 whica are as truly alive, and answer as closely to 

 every injudicious treatment, as their own horse. 



The Sugar Pine of Oregon. — The sugar pine in 



the Rogue river county of Oregon attains great 



size, is remarkably straight, symmetrical and ricli- 



olored. Its crown is as smooth and well 8haj->od 



as if it had the services of a barber every month. 



