340 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRIL. 36, ItiiS. 



Frnm llie Farmer's CaLiiiet. 



APPLICATION OF MANURES. 

 Messrs. Editors— ll is really surprising to see 

 °=<=°""' "•" the altenlinn lliiit is beginninsrlo bo paid to the 

 further experitneiits in the use of bone manure, I ^jij^^^j ^C ^^.„,^i^l„g . a^jj jC ,„ this principle cotild 



From the Fanners Regislur. 



BONE DUST. 

 In my last I promised to furiiibh an 



and have accordingly seated myself to fulhl my 

 promise. 



Owing to the tardiness wiih which the spring 

 opens, an experiment that I have now in progress, 

 of applying it in the fall as a top dressing for 

 wheat, is n°ot sufficiently developed to warrant any 

 conclusive deductions in its favor ; but from one 

 trial last year, I am inclined to the opinion that it 

 is a most powerful stimulant when applied in the 

 spring. In my wheat ground there was a misera- 

 ble wlilte flint knoll, upon which the sowing of 20 

 bushels per acre failed to more than vegetate the 

 plant; consequently in the spring it was a perfect 

 cye-Bore. I doublet^ the quantity, making it at the 

 rate of forty bushels. The wheat soon outstripped 

 that which surrounded it, and it is now better set 

 with clover than any portion of the field. It is 

 my intention to try another experiment ol the same 

 kind this spring, althounh to insure its permanency, 

 I would prefer sowing it in the fall, and, by a light 

 harrowing, incorporating it with the surface. 



It was with grief that a paragraph in a newspa- 

 per lately met my eye, announcing the fact that a 

 large quantity of bone was exported from one of 

 our northern cities to England, where its value is 

 appreciated, one of whose writers, Johnston, in his 

 Agricultural Chemistry, analyzes a ton of dry 

 bodies, and gives the following as the result: 



"Dry bones contain about two-thirds of their 

 weight of earlhy matter, the other third consisting 

 chiefly of animal matter resembling glue. Thus a 

 ton of bone dust will contain — 



740 lbs. 



Animal matter, 

 Phosphate of lime, 

 Carbonate " '' 



1245 

 24!> 



2340 lbs.' 



And again: "The farmer now rejoices in havin 

 in one ton of bone an equivalent to 14 tons of 

 barnyard manure." While such is their knowl- 

 edge and belief, need we wonder that our bones 

 serve to enrich a foreign soil .' My object, and the 

 only one I have in view, is to urge agriculturists 

 to experiment with this valuable manure, feeling 

 well assured that it will be followed by extensive 

 use, and that ere long every oily and town will 

 have within its limits an establishment for grinding 

 bones, instead of leaving them to bleach and waste 

 away upon their commons. 



RICHARD T. 15ENTLEY. 

 Sandy Spring, Md. 



To Raise Good Radishes Take pure sand some 



depth from the surface ; or pure earth below where 

 it has been tilled or mowed ; or sea sand washed 

 by the waves ; make a bed in the garden six or 

 eight inches deep, and as big as you please ; in 

 this sow your radish seed, and (hey will grow well 

 without manure, and be free from worms ; we have 

 tried it frequently and never failed. 



Radishes that are grown very early in the sea- 

 son, are of slow growth, and inferior to those 

 grown after the weather is warm enough to hasten 

 them; as the faster they grow, the more tender 

 they are, and of finer flavor. — Y'ankee Far. 



be added the more important one of pulverization 

 and the necessity of a change of crops be under- 

 stood and acted upon, our labors would be one 

 half lessened, and our crops be one half increased. 

 In reading a late treatise on agriculture, 1 have 

 been highly interested and instructed by the fol- 

 lowing observations, and conceive they would be 

 found of great importance to your readers, if you 

 could afford space for their insertion. The author 

 observes : 



" The application of the same kind of manure to 

 plants or trees that occupy the soil for more than 

 one year, is not always advantageous, nor does the 

 land prove so productive as might often be expect- 

 ed, from the labor and pains bestowed. The ad- 

 vantage of variety is, greater fermentation — con- 

 sequently, greater benefit from the air and rains ; 

 for ihe same manure operates on the soil, espe- 

 cially if it be not aided by cultivation, like the 

 same medicine, or the same food or air on the 

 body, which are found to lose their best effect after 

 too long repetition. This is not exactly the case 

 with arable land, because of the variety of crops 

 and of c«)f/i(/ ci(/iivaiio)i, which is the most pow- 

 erful means of all, as it admits of the application 

 of the same manure forever, with the same success. 

 But it is proper to observe, an excess of manure, 

 particularly when put on in a raw state for the 

 coming crop, is as injurious as wlien the land is 

 periHitted to become poor from the want of it; for 

 of fertility there may be named three descriptions ; 

 as first, extravagant fertility; second, productive 

 fertility; third, apoplectic fertility. 



''The first is, when so early and rapid a decom- 

 position takes place, that the plants thrive too fast 

 in their youth, and then, towards harvest, they 

 have nearly or quite ceased to grow, without per- 

 fecting their seeds : this is commonly called winter 

 or sprina proud, and summer poor. On examining 

 the stalks and leaves, they will be found to be cov- 

 ered with r St or fungi. The healthy secretions 

 are at an end, and fermentation of the juices suc- 

 cecdino-, a gas is formed which bursts the vessels 

 of the plant, and fungi make their appearance. 

 The cause of this extravagant fertility is this — the 

 n-rain was sown on fresh or recently manured land, 

 and the result is, the crop receives its food directly 

 from the manure in the first instance, and of course, 

 in an unselccted, undiluted state, instead of disen- 

 gaging it from the soil, with which the particles of 

 the manure had been lightly combined by previous 

 cultivation ; for the fresh manure decays faster, 

 and forces itself upon the plants beyond what they 

 naturally and immediately require, and being aided 

 i in its decomposition by the vegetative powers of 

 the grain, a too rapid growth is at first brought on ; 

 and then, as the plants have been induced to com- 

 mence their structure upon a large scale, by the 

 abundance of the materials afforded them, they re- 

 quire a proportioned greater quantity of the same 

 materials to maintain and complete what they had 

 begun ; but from the two-fold cause of an early 

 extravagance and large structure, they find those 

 materials deficient at the very time jwhen wanted 

 the most — at the formation and completion of the 

 seed : the soil, ail the time, from its poverty — not 



by cultivation and oft-rnpeated stirring — effects 

 but little towards the growth of the plants. Tliere- 

 fore, out of the two sources of fertility, namely, 

 manure and cultivation, the one most important, 

 namely, cultivation, having been neglected, fails I 

 of its supply, and disease of the plant necessarily 

 follows. 



" The cause of the second, or productive fertility, 

 is owing to a regular decomposition going on, with- 

 in reach of the rools of the growing plants, when 

 food is yielded sufficiently fast to meet all their 

 necessary demands, and continues thus from the 

 beginning to the end, when a well matured crop is 

 formed, and in quantity proportioned to the native 

 fertility of the soil ; this favorable result being at- 

 tributable to the crop being able to disengage its 

 food from the particles of the soil with which it 

 had been combined by previous good cultivation 

 and exposure — a fallow process. The beneficial 

 consequence of this is, the plants have to exert 

 their own decomposing and selecting energies la 

 obtain the food they require, and therefore take up 

 no more than tvhut their healthy vegetation demands, 

 instead, as in the former case, of having their vegey 

 tation impelled on, as it were, by the too rapid and 

 overwhelming self-decomposition of the manure. 



■' The cause of the third, or apoplectic fertility 

 is owing to a too rapid decomposition taking place 

 throughout the growth of the plants, as is the case 

 with grain growing on a dung-hill : they are seen 

 to flourish away with uncommon vigor, as if in a 

 state of intoxication, producing foliage by whole- 

 sale • and if standing in masses, are soon beat 

 down by the wind and rain ; when, the straw be- 

 coming broken, the sap is then impeded in its flow 

 through the vessels, which are already overcharg- 

 ed with half-concocted food, forced into circulation 

 by tlie too rapid decay of the manure beneath : the 

 consequence is, the bursting of the vessels; and il 

 the grain ever ripens, a lean, half-formed clevel ii 

 the only product. 



"'I'o show the value of perfect tillage, a field o: 

 good land was manured and sown with wheat: iti 

 appearance during winter, spring and summer, was 

 very fine ; but when reaped at harvest, the straw 

 was soft and the grain of little value. The ownei 

 of the field was persuaded to fallow the land, al 

 though he conceived it was sufficiently fertile, am 

 not requiring such tillage ; however, he had re 

 course to the fallow, and then sowed wheat again 

 the produce amply repaid the expense, for the cro| 

 yielded more than 48 bushels per acre — a proof o 

 the superiority of cultivation over a coatof manuri 

 without it. The process had mixed and combinei 

 the manure with the soil, and had restored it 

 chemical powers ; and therefore the succeedini 

 crop drew from its resources, now rendered healthy 

 in exact proportion as it required the food." 



The foregoing observations are invaluable ; am 

 must carry conviction to the breast of every on' 

 who is not blinded by prejudice. I have now be 

 fore me, the result of a single extra plowing ani 

 working, in a double crop of the finest turnips. 

 had well dunged a field for sugar beets, which 

 planted after once plowing, calculating that I cou! 

 loosen the earth by means of the cultivator, in th 

 after working of the crop: but I found the plant 

 so poor, that I determined to plow them up, we! 

 harrow and pulverize the land, and sow it wit 

 white turnips. This I did, and have never befor 

 gathered a crop at all comparable to it for quanti 



having the manure properly mixed and distributed i ty and quality ; the bulbs are certainly heavier an 



