S06 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MARCH 39. IS4;t. 



For llie N. E. Fanner. 



MANURES— POUDRETTE— TURNIP CROP. 

 No. I. 



To Farmers. — I would say, there is nothing of 

 more importance to them tlian mnnurt ; and yet 

 many of them wl as if it was a matter of tlio least 

 consequence. A man will plow and plant and toil 

 as if lie expected exhausted nature would yield her 

 increase, without once asking himsclfthe question, 

 Does the soil require any aid 1 And when they 

 do think of manure, yet it ia with an little esti- 

 mate of what is the best, that it really seems of 

 little consequence to them what it ia, provided it 

 be what is called manure. I desire the attention 

 of the farmer to some few facts for his serious con- 

 sideration, as it is now the time of year when it 

 calls for it. Do not be offended when I put tlie 

 question, Do you know what is manure ? — of what 

 it is made ? You will probably say it is dung, 

 taken from the horse-stnbte and cow-yard. To be 

 Bure those articles apparently furnish the means of 

 nourishing plant.i and vegetables, if properly ap- 

 plied ; but that mass of matter which is thus taken 

 will afford no nourishment, or but very little, in 

 comparison to its true Talue, if not treated and ap- 

 plied priifn'rly. Listen and read, for u few minutes, 

 what will surprise many of you. 



The value of barn-yard manure, wlielher of horse 

 or cow dung, if left to be operated upon by the 

 rain and sunshine, will soon have extracted from it 

 the thing c.illed ammonia, which it contains, and 

 the refuse mass which is left, will be of little or no 

 value — not sufKcient to pay for its cartage to tlie 

 field. To make the most of barn-yard manure, it 

 ought to be removed day by day, summer and win- 

 ter, and put under cover in some cool place where 

 it will nol ferment, and should be applied as long 

 dung, or raw manure, and put under ground some 

 few inches, as soon in the spring as the season will 

 permit. The only value which there is in that 

 manure, is the atnmonia which it contains. The 

 ammonia is a vapor or steam which arises from a 

 heap of manure in a state of fermentation, which 

 nourishes and is consumed by plants, and when 

 the fermentation has ceased, and the vapor passed 

 away, the residue is a dead, inert mass of matter, 

 of no value. If you put it in a heap under cover, 

 HO that neither the rain or the snow or sun can 

 reach it, yet it is advisable to cover it over with 

 some earthy substance that is porous, and wliich 

 will absorb and retain the vapor, and not let it 

 pass off into the atmosphere; and when applied to 

 tlie land, il should be plowed under some two or 

 three inches, with the least possible delay. It 

 would even pay the expense of the cart following 

 the plow and filling the furrows with more or less 

 of the dung, as required. The heap of dung should 

 be well covered from time to time, as it increases, 

 with any common earth that is porous or friable, 

 or covered with charcoal made fine, which will ab- 

 Borb and retain the ammonia in the heap, if under 

 cover.* 



Having explained to you how you may increase 

 the fructifying properly of your yard manure iifly 

 fold and more, I nojr call your attention to another 



•We S'-c nolliing in tlie above positions so peculiarly 

 novel as to be likely to pxcile the " suriirise" of any far- 

 mer of common intelligence — and our readers, we lliink, 

 may safely be presumed to be sotnewliut cr)nversant Willi 

 the nature and value of '^ the tiling cuUed a7nvionia,^' 

 and with llie proper rnelhod nf managing b.'irn-yard ma- 

 nure : if ihey are not, it is not becausu we have neglect- 

 ed to enlighten them on those subjects. — En. 



manure called Poudretle — the cheapest and the 

 best, as far lis yi't discovered and known, for it is 

 both animal and vegetable matter. The cheapest, 

 because it saves, in the labor of transportation and 

 application to the soil, more than the price of it, 

 between the use of it and barnyard manure, that 

 has to he carted 200 yards. It was fairly tested 

 the last year. A boy 14 years of age, manured 

 with poudrette more corn ground than two men 

 with a double team did, in the same time, with 

 barn-yard manure. The poudrette cost the tenant 

 .$2 a barrel, and the barn-yard manure was given 

 to him. It proved that the poudrette was the 

 cheapest, because the whole cost, including the la- 

 bor of the boy, was less than was paid for the hire 

 nf the tt-am and labor of two men; and the best, 

 because at harvest the yield was one-third greater 

 in favor of poudrette. 



It is nol all gold that glitters — neither is all the 

 poudrette that is manufactured made in a proper 

 manner. The ammonia that it contains is all that 

 is of any value in it; and it is to be regretted that 

 the reputation nf so valuable a manure has been 

 greatly injured by the bad preparation of it. It is 

 composed of fecal matter, taken from sinks and 

 privies, sometimes called yiight soil and sometimes 

 Flemish manure, and has been in use in Europe for 

 more than a century. In [•'ranee, according to the 

 statement of M. J. Bailey, it takes from five to six 

 years to prepare it. At the Lodi manufactory, near 

 the city of New York, under the direction of An- 

 thony Dey, it is made generally, in good weather, 

 in one week. It is prepared by a compound entire- 

 ly now, which absorbs and retains the ommon'a, and 

 is at least 66 per cent, better than what is gener- 

 ally obtained at any other manufactory, as proved 

 by a chemical analysis made by three of the most 

 distinguished chemists in the city of New York — 

 persons who have used the poudrette of the seve- 

 ral manufactories, say that Anthony Dey's pou- 

 drette succeeds heller than any other. The ofBce of 

 the company is at No. 43 Liberty street, N. York. 

 The raw material is nol exposed to the weather, as 

 in other factories, nor to the action of the sun, un- 

 til the vapor or volatile part is absorbed and the 

 i mrphitic gas rendered inodorous, 'llie Lodi manu- 

 I factoring Company warrant their manure, provided 

 the application of it is made according to the print- 

 ed directions, which are furnished without charge. 



Turnip Crop. — It has long been a cause of com- 

 plaint that the turnip crop is destroyed, as well as 

 all sorts of melons and cucumbers, by the fly or 

 bug, which eats up and dcstr<iys the vegetables 

 when they are just coming out of the ground. The 

 Lodi Manufacturing company have prepared an ar- 

 ticle at the cost of $2 per barrel, containing four 

 measured bushels, which if sowed or sprinkled over 

 the crop when it is coming up, while the dew is on 

 the ground, will drive all animalculE from il, and 

 effectually protect it from their ravages. This ia 

 a uvrrranfcrf article. It is also a manure of itself, 

 but has not the strength of poudrette, and it would 

 be well to manure the ground with poudrette at 

 the rate of 20 bushels to the acre, plowed in from 

 two to three inches deep under groiinil before the 

 turnip seed is sown. 



The Lodi manufacuring company have agents 

 in almost every city or large town in the country, 

 through whom these manures n:ay be ordered, if 

 not, a letter directed to the Company at 43 Liberty 

 street, N. York, will no doubt meet with attention. 



March, 1843. AGRICOLA. 



{jy^VVe do not like the tenor of the precedin 

 communication. It shows a disposition to undei 

 value stable and barn manure. The gei.eral n 

 marks upon manures are not such as any practici 

 farmer would furnish. If they come from one ir 

 leresled in the sale of poudrette manufactured b 

 the Lodi Company — and we presume they do- 

 then our readers can see, as well as we can, th 

 circumstances which will influence the judgment c 

 the writer. 



We do not like the substance of the communi 

 cation. Under cover of the general subject ( 

 "Manures," it appears to be tho author's chief aii 

 to specify and land a particular article, manufac 

 tured by a particular company, in which we ar 

 constrained to infer he has a particular inleres 

 There seems to exist, (to borrow a Mesmeric tecl 

 nicality,) a "community of feeling" between hi 

 pocket and his pen. But we are sometimea willin 

 to let others speak in our columns, when their view 

 diffiT from our own. 



Communications, the chief object of which is t 

 " puff" one's own commodities or those in whic 

 he is directly interested, and which are of vasti 

 more consequence to their writers than to otir read 

 ers, we prefer to receive in the form of udvertisi 

 ments, with the author's name affixed : in any oth 

 er form, we regard them as unworthy of occupyin 

 space in our columns to the exclusion of matters < 

 general interest. 



We have no practical acquaintance with th 

 Lodi Co.'s poudrette, and can say nothing of il 

 comparative value ; but the use of such as olhei 

 have manufaciured, has led us to regard it as goo 

 for some gardening purposes, and for forcing earl 

 vegetables — but not worth its cost for general U£ 

 on the farm. 



With these remarks, and without recommcndin 

 the purchase of poudrette for the farm, we giv 

 insertion, though not very willingly, to the artici 

 of " Agricola." But by publishing this, we do nt 

 put ourselves under any obligation to insert an 

 thing more from the same source ; — and, nioreove 

 if this is the first of a series upon manures in gem 

 ral, but the poudrette of the Lodi Co. in parlicidai 

 we cheerfully release the writi'r from his obligt 

 tion to forward us the remaining numbers. — Ei 

 N. E. F. 



Silk Manufacture. — The testimony of thoao wl; 

 have prosecuted the silk business for a series i 

 years, under ordinary advantages, establishes th 

 fact that silk growing yields a much better prof 

 than ordinary agricultural occupations ; and as fi 

 as we can judge, there is every probabili'y tht 

 the business will sustain itself, even when the hour 

 ly laws are repealed. The bounty paid for silk i 

 Massachusetts in ]8:36, was $71 37: in 1843, t 

 Oct. 1, it was $3351 91. — jV. Y. Jour. Com. 



A foppish young fellow at a ball, in whiskin 

 about the room, ran his head against a young lad] 

 for which he began to apologize. " Not a won 

 sir," cried she, "it is not hard enough to hurt an 

 body." 



When Dr. Johnson courted Mrs. Porter, he tol 

 her he was of mean extraction, had no money, an 

 had an uncle hanged ! To which she replied, (ha 

 she had no more money than himself; and that a] 

 thiMigh she had not a relation hanged, she had fift 

 who deserved hanging. She became tfie Dr.'a wif( 



