312 



Saving Manure. — Silk Culture in Ohio. 



Vol. .IX. 



Saving Alanures. 



" Nolliing must he allowed to run aioay 

 in the form of a fluid, or to fly away in 

 the disguise of a smell. * * * Mark out a 

 piece of ground on wliich the dunghill is to 

 be made, on a good slope, if possible, and 

 close by a pond. Cut a gutter all round, 

 and puddle it with clay, so as to make it 

 water-tight. Then, at the lowest part, out- 

 side the place where the dunghill is to lie, 

 dig a sink-hole 18 or 20 inches deep; let 

 this be well puddled, and connected with 

 the gutter already spoken of Things being 

 thus prepared, throw down a layer of ma- 

 nuring substances, about a foot deep; tread 

 them well down, and scatter some fixer over 

 it; — finally, water it well. In this manner 

 go on, with layer after layer, till the heap is 

 the desired height. During the operation 

 of making the heap, some water will have 

 drained away; in that case, it will have run 

 into the gutter, and been collected in the 

 sink-hole. Scuppet the water out, as the 

 work proceeds, and throw it back on the 

 dunghill. If the hole is not large enough, 

 another can be made near it; — none of the 

 drainings must on any account he lost. It 

 should have, at least, once a week, for a 

 month, a good quantity of fluid thrown upon 

 it. Pot-boilings, and soap-suds, are much 

 better than common water; but urine is pre- 

 ferable to both. By these contrivances no- 

 thing is allowed to leak, but the dunghill 

 becomes a soft mass, holding fast all which 

 belongs to it, except what flies away. To 

 catch the latter is the purpose of the fixer. 

 There are many kinds of fixers, — oil of vit- 

 riol, green vitriol, blue vitriol, salt and lime, 

 — not either salt or lime by themselve« on 

 any account — gypsum, &c., may be used ; 

 but some of them at all times, and in some 

 cases all of them, have the fault of costing 

 money. A substitute which costs nothing 

 except labour, is, therefore, to be sought for. 

 Such exists in cinder siftings, charcoal dust, 

 good black earth, peat or bog mould, rotten 

 sawdust, leaf mould, black mud from ponds, 

 bottoms of wood stacks, soot, brick-dust., 

 burnt clay, &c. Some or all of these, may 

 be had in most places." 



Mr. H. S. Thompson, of Kirby Hall, at 

 the late meeting of the Yorkshire Agricul- 

 tural Society, at Doncaster, recommended 

 the plan he adopted, which was "to have a 

 pit dug in the earth in which to throw the 

 manure, instead of having it piled up on a 

 heap. The bottom of the pit is water-tight, 

 and has a slope towards the centre, where 

 a tank is placed so as to receive the drain- 

 ings from the manure. These drainings are 

 frequently poured over the manure, so as to 

 keep up a regular, but not excessive, fer- 



mentation. He was in the habit of collect- 

 ing all the couch-grass, stubble, and other 

 vegetable refuse which the farm afforded, 

 and spreading it on the bottom of the pit to 

 the depth of six or eight inches. This, when 

 well soaked with the liquor that drained 

 from the manure which was carted upon it, 

 and fermented together with that manure, 

 was, he believed, as good as any otlier por- 

 tion of the heap. In this way he had, last 

 year, on a farm of two hundred acres of ara- 

 ble land, increased his manure by two hun- 

 dred single horse loads, which was equiva- 

 lent to four additional loads per acre, for his 

 fallow crops. If the manure was wanted 

 for immediate use, it should be lightly 

 thrown together, and, aft;er being well 

 soaked with tank liquor, have a thin cover- 

 ing of soil to absorb the gases which would 

 otherwise escape. In this case, it must be 

 carefully watched and well watered, from 

 time to time, to prevent the fermentation 

 from becoming excessive. If the manure is 

 to be kept six months or more, it should be 

 made solid by carting over it, and have a 

 thick covering of soil, which would nearly 

 exclude the air. In this way manure may 

 be preserved for a year almost without loss. 

 In very dry weather, the drainings from the 

 manure are not sufficient to keep it moist, 

 and it becomes necessary to saturate it with 

 some other liquid. If the farmer has other 

 tanks on his premises, it would be better to 

 use their contents for this purpose, but where 

 such are not at hand, plain water may be 

 used, and has been found to answer exceed- 

 ingly well." — Economy of Waste Manures. 



Silk Culture in Ohio. 



In a letter from J. W. Gill, of Mount 

 Pleasant, Ohio, to the Ohio Cultivator, un- 

 der date of " Feb. 25th, 1845," he says : 



" We have furnished constant employment 

 in the factory alone, to fitly persons, besides 

 those employed during the summer in grow- 

 ing cocoons; have purchased cocoons and 

 reeled silk to the amount of over four thou- 

 sand dollars, which were procured from 

 Jefferson, Belmont, Guernsey, Crawford, 

 Washington, Franklin, Harrison, Carroll, 

 Muskingum, Hamilton, and several other 

 counties in Ohio. Also, some from Penn- 

 sylvania, Virginia, Indiana ai^d Illinois, with 

 considerable from Kentucky and Tennessee, 

 — we have used no foreign silk whatever — 

 from which, with our previous stock, we 

 have manufactured over eight thousand dol- 

 lars worth of goods, and have more than 

 five thousand dollars worth in its various 

 stages of progress, from reeled silk to warp 

 in the looms, on which to operate until a 

 new crop is grown." 



