574 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



the mills in this town, that two men cannot pos- 

 sibly make three barrels of cider a day with the 

 mill with the ordinary apples that cider is gener- 

 ally made from. Where they are unusually rot- 

 ten the mill will not work at all, and by dint of 

 great patience in clearing the grinding part I do 

 not deny but what some little progress may be 

 made. 



He who doubts this has only to give the ma- 

 chine a fair trial to be satisfied of the truth of 

 what I say. In my article to the Ploughman, I 

 suggested that the inventor should contrive a way 

 to have the grinding knives operate perpendicu- 

 larly, instead of as at present, to obviate this ob- 

 jection — and also to have the press tub a little 

 larger, which could not add very much if any- 

 thing to its present expense. 



At the present time it is very far from what is 

 generally wanted by the farmers who have over 

 live barrels of cider to make. And a very little 

 alteration in its grinding gear is all that is wanted 

 to make it perfect. King Oak Hill, M. D. 



Nov. 7, 1854. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



PERFECT MANURES. 



BY DOCT. JOSEPH REYNOLDS. 



What constitutes a perfect manure ?_ Manures 

 di£Fer in their composition. One kind is valuable 

 for its humus- forming properties ; another for the 

 properties that contribute mainly to the growth 

 of stalks, leaves and flowers; another for those 

 elements that are essential to the formation of 

 seeds, grains, &c. It is often said of certain 

 kinds' of manure, that they do not hold out 

 through the season. The plant will start well 

 and o-row for a time, but does not mature much 

 grain or fruit. It is said the manure is used up, 

 or it has not strength enough to carry the plant 

 throuo-h. It may be true, sometimes, that a ma- 

 nure 'putrifies so rapidly, that its nutritive ele- 

 ments are all given off before the plant has gone 

 through its several stages of growth. But I sup- 

 pose the aljuve complaint is made of manure 

 when it is deficient in those elements which the 

 plant requires in its seed-forming stage. It has 

 not in it a sufficient supply of those elements that 

 mainly contril>ate to the construotJon of the 

 grain and fruit. WU«t, men, is a perfect ma- 

 Sure? That which the plant requires during 

 every period of its growth and maturity. The 

 liquid excrement of animals yields a large propor- 

 tion of nitrogen, potash and soda. These ele- 

 ments contribute especially to the growth of leaves 

 and stalks. The solid excrement is nch_ in seed- 

 forming elements, as phosplioric acid, lime and 

 mairnesia, and these elements are developed more 

 slowly than those inthe liquid excrement. 



Now it will be readily perceived that neither of 

 these is, by itself, a perfect manure. If you use 

 the liquid alone, you will say that it does not 

 hold out through the season ; although it may 

 give you a large growth of stalk and leaf, it will 

 not o-ive a full growth of grain and seeds. If 

 you use the solid alone, you will complain that 

 your plants grow slowly and are small, even 

 though what grain tliey do yield may be of good 

 quality. The most perfect manure is that which 

 results from the combination of these two ex- 

 crements in the most intimate manner possible. 



Other substances may be added to this compound, 

 for the purpose of absorbing the one, or of more 

 readily pulverizing the other ; or substances may 

 be added which are supposed to be wanting in 

 the soil to which it is proposed to apply the mix- 

 ture, as sand and plaster when it is to be applied 

 to a peaty soil, or mud when it is to be applied 

 to a sandy soil. 



When these materials are placed in a mass and 

 kept moist, a process soon commences called pu- 

 trefactive fermentation. By this process, several 

 chemical results are brought about. The first is 

 the evolution of several elementary substances, 

 and the second their combination into new com- 

 pounds, of a highly important character. By 

 the putrefactive process, carbon, nitrogen, ^ly- 

 drogen and oxygen, are set at liberty from the 

 compounds in which they previously existed. 

 The oxygen and carbon, having a strong affinity 

 for each other, combine and form carbonic acid. 

 The nitrogen and hydrogen form ammonia, and 

 this, when formed, combines with carbonic acid, 

 forming carbonate of ammonia. Where the air 

 is freely admitted, a large portion of these ele- 

 mentary gasses pass off as they are evolved, with- 

 out forming the unions above indicated, and are 

 thus lost. When the putrifying mass becomes 

 saturated by the compound gasses above men- 

 tioned — carbonic acid and ammonia — these also 

 pass off into the air and are lost. As these are 

 of immense value to vegetation, they should be 

 retained if possible. The most effectual mode of 

 retaining them is to sprinkle the compost' heap, 

 when it begins to throw off a strong odor, with 

 sulphuric acid and water, three or four pounds 

 to a barrel of water. This should be repeated as 

 often as necessary. A solution of sulphate of 

 iron, or common copperas, is the next best means. 

 If the manure is to be applied to trees, it is 

 probably better than the uncomliined acid. Sul- 

 phate of lime, or plaster, is useful fur the same 

 end. I do not think plaster as useful as some 

 have represented it in this respect. It consists of 

 an acid combined with an alkali, for which it has 

 a strong affinity. If you would divorce this acid 

 from the base, to which it is already married, in 

 order tliat it may form a new union, you must 

 present a base for which it has a stronger attrac- 

 tion. Potash and soda will attract the various 

 acids from lime, but ammonia will not do this, 

 except under peculiar circumstances. I suppose 

 plaster acts mostly by absorbing the fluids, and 

 thereby stopping the putrefactive process for a 

 time, rather than by giving up its acid to be com- 

 bined with ammonia. 



When a solution of sulphuric acid, or of sul- 

 phate of iron is sprinkled upon the compost heap, 

 a sulphate of ammonia is formed, which is but 

 slightly volatile. The sulphate of ammonia 

 thus retained in the mass, is taken up by the 

 rootlets of plants, and carried into the sap ves- 

 sels, where it is decomposed, and furnishes to 

 their formative organs sulphur, oxygen, nitrogen 

 and hydrogen, which are the ultimate elements 

 of which this salt is composed. But these ele- 

 ments are not all which vegetables require. They 

 require carbon, which, in the form of carbonic acid, 

 abounds in manure — iron, manganese, potash, 

 soda, lime, and silex. As a general rule, potash, 

 soda and lime, should not be mixed with the com- 

 post heap, but should be applied to the soil sep- 



