156 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



KOV. If, 184*. 



OUR OWN EXPERIMENTS WITH MA- 

 NURES. 



Ths folliiwin? iiccdiinl was prepared fur anollier 

 purpose besides insertiiin in llie Farmer ; there- 

 fore in preparing it we dropped the editorial }fe, 

 and used the fanner's /. — Ed. N. E. F. 



To the Commitfec of the Essex Countij Agricultural Society 

 on Manures : 



Gentlfmen — During the Inst winter, I formed 

 a purpose to try carefully to ascertain the compara- 

 tive valne of various manures, as producers of seve- 

 ral of the crops of most common and general culti- 

 vation. After giving the subject much thought, I 

 resolved upon making the trial under such circum- 

 stances as might promise best, in my judgment, to 

 show simply the relative effects of the manures. Set- 

 ting aside all solicitude as to the amount of the 

 crop, I selected for my operations a piece of sward 

 land, very much bound out, and which probably 

 had received no manure of any kind for ten years 

 or more. I hoped to hnd the soil uniform in depth 

 and quality, when it should be turned up with the 

 plow; but in this I was somewhat disappointed; 

 for it varied considerably both in depth and appa- 

 rent fertility ; not more, however, than is common 

 in most fields that are nearly, but tiot quite, level. 

 Not being solicilous about the amount of the 

 crop, I plowed this ground when it was quite wet — 

 too wet for profitable working. The following 

 paragraphs are copied from my journal : 



18-12 — April 13. Plowed up a little more than 

 3-](j of an acre "f sward land, on which to make 

 e.iperimenta with manures. The land was badly 

 bound out: I think it did not give more thaji 1200 

 lbs. of hay per acre in IStl. I plowed from 7 to 

 8 inches deep, and subsoiled with a cultivator tooth 

 fitted into an oak joist. 



14th. Harrov/ed this ground, though it was loo 

 wet for allowing the operation to be of much utili- 

 ty. Then I marked off the ground into 30 square 

 beds, each 17 feet by 17. Used the plow in mark- 

 ing. 



15th. Put near the centre of each bed its own 

 manure, leaving the manure in a small, well round- 

 ed heap, and slightly covered with some of the 

 soil of the bed. 



In preparing the composts, the calculation has 

 been to make that for each bed cost at the rate of 

 about $30 per acre, including the ordinary cost of 

 working over and putting on to the land. Muck 

 or swamp mud, is estimated here at $1 50 per cord 

 of 128 solid feet, when first taken Irom its natural 

 bed, or at .f 3 when it has been frozen and partly 

 dried. My barn-cellar compost is reckoned at $6, 

 and pure dung, whether from the oxen or the horse, 

 at $12 per cord. The other articles generally are 

 taken at about the usual market price, adding car- 

 tage for .') or G miles, and the expense of applying 

 them to the soil. Some of the articles base no 

 market value Thus far the journal. 



The beds were numbered from 1 to 30, and gen- 

 erally, each received 3 bushels of meadow mud, 

 reckoned at 3 cts. per bushel, and !) cts. worth of 

 some other article. The meadow mud or muck 

 here used was taken from beneath a growth of al- 

 ders, where the mud was from 12 to 20 inche.'; 

 deep. It vvas dug in December, and had been 

 well frozen, but not much dried, when it was mea- 

 sured out. This meadow or swamp mud, is desig- 

 nated by the term muck in the following table. 



Ped 



No. 1 received 3 bush, muck and G lbs. oil meal. 



3 



; and 1 bush, shoemak- 

 waste leather chips — 

 -taken up at the road- 



4, 

 5, 

 6. 

 7, 

 8, 

 9, 



10, 



12, 



13, 

 14, 

 15, 

 16, 

 17, rcc'd 



IS 



19, ' 



20, ' 



21, ' 



22, ' 



23, ' 



■■ 24, ' 



' 25, ' 



■ 2G, ' 

 ' 27. 



2F, 

 21), 



30, 



muck and 1 bush, new leath- 

 er shavings from the shop, 

 muck and G lbs. of fish — 

 (tainted hallibut ) 

 muck and t! qls. crushed 

 bone. 



muck and 5 qts. salt (fisher. 

 erman's refuse.) 

 muck and 1 1-2 lb. nitrate 

 of soda. 



muck and 5 qts. ground plas- 

 ter — damp and lumpy, 

 nmck and 12 qts. sugar se- 

 diment or bone black, from 

 the sugar refinery, E. Boston, 

 muck and 18 qts. of ashes — 

 (mixture of wood and peat.) 

 muck and 5 qts. salt and 

 lime, in equal parts — mixed 

 in November last. 

 < 3 ' muck and 1 lb. carbonate of 



ammonia — not fresh. 

 ' 3 bushels of barn-cellar compost. 



' 1 1-2 bush, pure ox dung. 



' 1 1-2 do. pure horse dung, 



eft without any manure. 



3 bush, muck and G lbs. soapboil- 

 ers' scraps (meat.) 

 3 ' muck and 2 lbs. whale oil 



soap. 

 3 ' muck and 3 pecks of pure 



hor.se dung. 

 3 ' inutk and 3 pecks of pure 



ox dung. 

 3 ' muck and 2 qts. air slaked 

 lime and 1-2 bush, ox dung. 

 3 ' muck and 7 qts. ashes (poor) 



and 1-2 bush, ox dung. 

 3 ' muck and G qts. air slaked 



lime. 

 '3 ' muck alone. 

 13 ' muck and 8 galls, salt ley 



or soaper's waste. 

 .3 ' muck and 8 galls, ox urine. 

 3 ' muck and 8 galls, human 



urine. 

 3 ' muck and 3 bush, of gravel. 

 3 ' muck and 2 lbs. woollen 



rags. 

 G bushels of nmck. 



probably impregnated with the sulphate of iron, 

 and worse than useless. 



No. 29. The rags seem not to have decompose! 

 yet. 



Nos. 6 and II. Tlio salt was apparently too pow. ; 

 erful ; a less quantity probably would have been '■ 

 better. 



Nos. 25, 26 and 27. For each of these, 3 bu.=h. 

 els of muck was put inlo a cask and the liquid was 

 poured in about the 1st of May. After remaining 

 in that stale for 10 or 12 days, the contents of each 

 cask was emptied out on its appropriated bed. At 

 the same time all the heaps were carefully forked 

 over. 



May 26. Harrowed the whole ground as well as 

 I could without disturbing the heaps of compost. 

 Then opened a slig.'it trench around each bed, to 

 mark its boundaries distinctly. Then spread with 

 care each heap upon its own bed. Then back-fur- 

 rowed into ridges, making five equal ridges on each 

 bed. The whole piece of ground was in the form 

 as given in the following diagram : 



Bemarks. — No. 12: 1 lb. of ammonia. Had the 

 article been fresh and good, I should have taken 

 only 1-2 a pound, for 9 cents will purchase only 

 about that quantity. That used by me had been 

 done up in a paper and left in a closet for months ; 

 when taken out and pounded, it had lost nearly all 

 its peculiar smell. Thinking its virtues much im- 

 paired, I doubled the quantity. Perhaps in doing 

 so, I gave this article an undue advantage. 



No. 13. Am not sure, but apprehend that this 

 was better than the average of my barn-cellar com- 

 post. 



Nos. 14 and 15. The oxen were on 'high feed 

 and the horse on low. The ox dung may have 

 been better than common, and the horse dung not 

 as good. 



No. 28. The gravel was fine and redish in color; 



I passed through making rows or drills from Ni 

 1 to No. G, but was careful not to carry manui 

 from one bed to the next, with the plow. Tl, 

 same day, one of the five rows on each bed w! 

 planted with Indian corn, the kernels being place 

 in a line six inches apart. One row of each b£ 

 was planted to Long Red or La Plata potatoe 

 Five fair and middling sized potatoes were put i 

 the row on each bed — seed whole. One row c 

 each bed was sowed to the long Orange carrot, ar 

 one to sugar beet : — This May 27. The remainin 

 I row on each bed was sowed to ruta bagas June 2- 

 The beds were laid out 17 feet square, but 1 1 

 the small trench or path between the beds was tal 

 en out of the 17 feet, I call eacli bed a square ro. 

 and each row on a bed one eight liundredth part i 

 an acre. 



The seed all came up well excepting the sng; 

 beet. Every kernel of corn and every potato e:iii 

 — though some of them on the salt, and nini- 

 them on the salt ley, were very tardy about it — e 

 pecially the potatoes. The beet seed was ii 

 good : where no manure was applied none of ,. 



germinated ; but on the salt ley much of it cam 

 Several of the manures seenicu to call forth, or in 

 action, its vitality. 



These several crops were plowed, hoed, wtj 

 and thinned about as well as my crops usually ar 

 great care being taken to treat all the rows alik 

 Excepting in the case of the beets, where the plan 

 failed to come up with any thing like evenness 

 regularfty, the principal cause of difference in cr 



