>^ VOL. XX. NO. S. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



35 



III) 

 '.11 



From the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 



THE MANURE HEAP. 



Mr Editor — I wish to call the attention of 

 , ihose farmers who read the Visitor, to the impor- 

 'tanceof enlarging their manure heaps. There 

 cannot be too much said and written upon this sub- 

 ject. Most of our fanners seem lo be satisfied 

 with what they merely make from the hay consum- 

 ed in their barns, and do not even in this way al- 

 ways return to the soil what they have taken from 

 t, for many who make no more manure than what 

 the consumption of the hay affords, sell olf a por- 

 tion of their hay, and thus rob their fields own 

 pockets. 



If I may be allowed to lecture fanners a little, I 

 would say — 



J. Makt your hogs work. — Many farmers are 

 now-a-days looking out for the best breed of 

 hogs lofat fasij ; but such hogs are not always the 

 best for the farm, especially if it is run down. Fat 

 hogs are generally lazy. Whether their corpulen- 

 cy induces laziness, or vice, versa, I am not able to 

 say; but of this I am sure, thf.y will network 

 well. If you wish to have help from your hogs in 

 making manure, get raw-boned, long-snout fellows, 

 that will plow a furrow six or eight inches deep. 

 If you wish to have a fat one to kill, you might 

 put one into the sty as a kind of overseer. By oc- 

 casionally casting an eye at the laborers, and grunt- 

 ing and lounging, he would perform his office as 

 well, probably, as many overseers of our public 

 works, at two dollars per day. 



But you must give your working porkers room 

 enough, and stock to work over. If you have 

 muck near at hand, bring it to the yard. If you 

 cannot get at that, plow up sods by the rond-side, 

 in your pasture lanes, and by your walls in the 

 fields. Children may not like it so well to have 

 the raspberry bushes and blackberry vines plowed 

 up, but the hogs will be glad to work them over, 

 and you will save having your grass trodden down. 

 When you get a good heap by the side of your 

 hog-yard, throw in a little at a time, for if you put 

 in a largo quantity they will get discouraged. If 

 their plows get dull, so that they do not turn over 

 the furrow well, dig a few holes and scatter in 

 some corn or oats. If the hogs gel the scent of 

 your deposit they will work over the whole mass. 



Brakes and leaves may be thrown in to help 

 loosen up the muck or sods. In this way you may 

 do much towards enlarging the manure heaps. 

 Every hog should make at least six cartloads of 

 good manure, and he will do it if you give him a 

 chance. 



2. Get Muck or Soil into your Barn-yard. — I 

 know of many farmers who are in the habit of 

 drawing into their cow-yards several loads of muck, 

 or soil in the spring, and frequently plowing it up 

 with the manure which the cattle drop during the 

 night. This is carried out in the fall on to the 

 grass land for a top-dressing, being left in heaps 

 till spring, or else thrown into heaps by the side of 

 the yard or in the middle, so that it may not be in 

 the way of the cattle. Ijate in the fall another 

 laying is spread on the bottom of the yard, for the 

 stock to run over during the winter. Throw down 

 a load or two under each window where you throw 

 out your dung, and it will become so well satura- 

 ted with mire as to be good manure in the spring. 

 If possible, let all be thrown together in the spring 

 as soon as the frost is out ; then let it ferment till 

 it is time to draw it to your 'fields. It is a good 



thing to have the ilung which the cattle make dur- 

 ing the winter, under cover, as the rains waste I he 

 heap, and disengage a portion of the ammonia, 

 which escapes int" the air. Many are in the habit 

 of drawing their sninmer manure in the fall on to 

 the ground which tliey intend lo plow the next 

 spring. This is probably a convenience, but there 

 is a loss in its strength, especially when it can be 

 kept under cover by remiiining in the yard. 



3d. Gather up the JhJdments. — There is a great 

 deal of valuable matter in leaves and brakes, which 

 if gathered in season would be valuable as manure. 

 Brakes, while Ihey are green, miglit be mown and 

 thrown into heaps, and then covered over with a 

 little loam or mud, wlien they would rot very soon. 

 Leaves can bo gathered in the fall, and thrown into 

 heaps in the same manner as brakes, or what is 

 better, carried into a spare room into the barn or 

 shed, and used as litter for the cattle. 



Old woollen rags, horns, bones, hair, &c. can 

 be thrown into a pile and covered over, which in 

 process of time will rot and make the most valuable 

 manure. The sweepings of woollen factories, 

 carding mills and tailors' shops, where they can bo 

 obtained, are not to be despised. In Chaptal's 

 Chemistry, I find the following, which is worthy of 

 notice : 



"A very good manure is formed from wool. Ac- 

 cording to the ingenious experiments of M. Hatch- 

 ett, hair, feathers and wool are only particular com- 

 binations of gelatine, with a substance analogous 

 to albumen ; water can only dissolve them by 

 means of fermentation, which takes place slowly 

 and after a long time. 



"One of the most surprising instances .of fertile 

 vegetation that I have ever seen, is that of a field 

 in the neighborhood of Montpelier, belonging to a 

 manufacturer of woollen blankets. The owner of 

 this land causes it to be dressed every year with 

 the sweepings of his work shops ; and the harvests 

 of corn and fodder which it produces are astonish- 

 ing. 



''It is well known that from the hairs of wool 

 transpire a fluid which hardens upon their surface, 

 but which possesses the property of being easily 

 soluble in water. This substance has received the 

 name of animal sweat ; the water in which wool 

 has been washed contains so much of it as to make 

 it very valuable as a manure. 



" I saw, thirty years since, a wool merchant in 

 Montpelier, who had placed his wash-house for 

 wool in the midst of a field, a great part of which 

 he had transfonrred into a garden. In watering 

 his vegetables he had used no other water than 

 that of the washings ; and the beauty of his pro- 

 ductions was so great as to render his garden a 

 place of general resort. The Genoese collect 

 with care, in the south of France, all they can find 

 of threads and rags of woollen fabrics, to place at 

 the foot of their olive trees. 



"According to the analysis of M. Vauquelin, 

 this animal sweat is a soapy substance, consisting 

 of a base of potash, with an excess of oily matter, 

 and containing besides, some acetate of potash, a 

 little of the carbonate and of the muriate of the 

 same base, and a scented animal matter." 



To what 1 have already said, I might add, have 

 a heap of loam or sods under your sink-spout. 

 The soap-suds and greasy dish-water which are so 

 frequently running from the sink, should not be 

 lost. The vessels from your chambers likewise 

 should be emptied upon it, and also the blood, 

 when you kill any of your creatures. If you 



do not wish lo throw all together, have another 

 pile a little removed from the house. Some ashes 

 or lime thrown on occasionally, would remove all 

 unpleasant scent. JETHRO. 



EXCERPTS. 

 Without Agriculture and Manufactures flourish 

 in a country, it is impossible to attain an advanta- 

 geous commerce. The excellent maxim of Calo 

 should never be lost sight of, that "a master of n 

 family should be a seller, not a buyer." AH the 

 comforts of a family, all the wealth of a city, and 

 all the grandeur and power of a State, depend on 

 selling much and buying little, or selling more than 

 is bought. — Farmer's Monthly VisUor. 



Never yx-press what you should svp-press, nor 

 RE-press what you should F.x-press. CoM-jirest 

 your ideas into as Biiiall ii space as may be, and 

 you will never need to press others to listen to you. 

 Neither will you op prt.is them with the length of 

 your discourse — but you will impress them with 

 the wisdom of your remarks. Thus you will never 

 T>E-press the spirits of your hearers. — ]b. 



Home. — The only fountain in the wilderness of 

 life where man drinks of water totally unmixed 

 with bitterness, is that which gushes up in the 

 calm and steady recess of domestic life. Pleasure 

 may heat the heart with artificial excitement; am- 

 bition may delude it with golden dreams; war may 

 eradicate its fine fibres and diminish its senditive- 

 ness, but it is only domestic love that can render it 

 truly happy. — lb. 



The neatest way to separate bees-wax from the 

 comb is to tie it up in a linen or woollen cloth or 

 bag with a pebble or two to keep it from floating : 

 place it in a kettle of cold water, which hang over 

 the fire ; ns the water heats, the wax melts and 

 rises to the surface, while all the impurities remain 

 in the bag. — Far. Cab. 



Pennyroyal. — Farmers might confer great kind- 

 ness on their animals, in preventing the grievous 

 annoyance of jflies, by simply washing the parts 

 with the extractor pennyroyal. Flies will not 

 alight a moment on the spot to which this has been 

 applied. Indigo weed fastened about the harness, 

 will likewise keep oflf flies Selected. 



She who mnkes her husband and her children 

 happy ; who reclaims the one from vice, and trains 

 up the other to virtue, is a much greater character 

 than ladies described in romances, whose only oc- 

 cupation is to murder mankind with shafts from the 

 quiver of their eyes. — Goldsmith. 



The Marquis of Glanricarde lately staled in the 

 British House of Lords, that although the popula- 

 tion of the country had largely increased, the con- 

 sumption of food had considerably diminished. 

 What a horrid revelation does this single and sim- 

 ple fact give! 



A jPtVenan's Toast. — The Ladies — The only in- 

 cendiaries who kindle a Jlame which water will not 

 extinguish. 



Learning is an ornament in prosperity and a re- 

 fuge in adversity. 



