<STI)c JFarmer'0 iltontfjto llisitor. 



115 



Every one must have noticed that when horse 

 manure is dropped in open fields, its strength is 

 soon almost entirely dissipated by the winds, and 

 it remains naught but the shadow of manure. 

 And when it is piled in heaps it soon begins to 

 heat,nnd the most valuable properties are thrown 

 off in vapor. I believe that the way this manure 

 is usually tnunageil, more than one-hall' of its 

 strength is lost in the atmosphere. In order to 

 retain its full power great cure should he used 

 to mix it with straw and earthy matter in quan- 

 tities sufficient to prevent this excess of beat and 

 to absorb the gases evolved under a slower fer- 

 mentation. I never summer manure save under 

 u shed — well packed and coated with earth. 



In composting, it is my practice to begin with 

 a layer of muck or mould to the depth of four 

 inches, and then providing with alternate and 

 equal layers of animal manure and one of these 

 substances covering the heap with muck. I 

 make different kinds of compost according to 

 the character of the soil to which it is to be ap- 

 plied, for instance, in making a compost for 

 dry soil, I use muck, and sometimes a sprinkling 

 of ashes with it. For a low land soil I make use 

 of mould, Tor a clay soil sandy loam. My swamp 

 muck is funned by the washings of the adjacent 

 hill sides, and leaves from bard wood trees 

 brought in by the wind and a small brook. 

 These substances have been mixed with rank 

 grass and weeds that have annually decayed 

 there, until they have formed a rich black soil to 

 the depth of four feet. 



The mould I have used has been the washings 

 of higher lands and the road sides. 



I am aware that many do not fully appreciate 

 the value of these substances as fertilizers when 

 properly prepared. Some seem to think that 

 there is nothing of much value as manure, save 

 such as is made from animals. They do not 

 consider that good muck and mould contain all 

 the natural elements for the growth of plants. 

 Or that by mixing earthy and vegetable matter 

 with our manure, we save much of the valuable 

 gas that otherwise might be lost while undergo- 

 ing decomposition. Nor do they understand 

 that under very many circumstances there is 

 less waste of manure when applied to the land 

 in a compost. Or that there is an important ad- 

 vantage in having a compost adapted to each 

 kind of soil. 



The chemist tells us, and it is confirmed by 

 experience, that for the successful growth of 

 plants, there should be an abundant supply of 

 certain fertilizing elements. Now we may many 

 times have land upon our farm that contains 

 some of the ingredients to an excess, and in 

 other ingredients there is a deficiency. We may 

 also have upon the same farm, land that has the 

 very counterpart of these. The chemist tells us 

 (and it is proved by experience) (hat if such soils 

 were mixed together the productions of both 

 would be much augmented. Now in making a 

 compost we use a soil of an opposite character 

 from that of the land to which it is to be applied, 

 wp do this very thing. And from my own ex- 

 perience I know it to be very judicious manage- 

 ment. Another advantage of composting is, 

 that when the heap is properly managed its heal 

 will destroy the seeds of all weeds. A few years 

 since, as an experiment, I spread fifty loads of 

 muck upon two acres of grass land of an upland 

 soil, and I am confident it doubled the crop of bay, 

 for the two following seasons. This muck was 

 drawn oi.'t in small heaps in the fall, for the pur- 

 pose of exposing it to the action of the air and 

 frost, which serves to remove the acid and ren- 

 der it more easily decomposed. And it is well 

 to have muck intended for a compost exposed in 

 it similar manner. 



I consider my compost far superior to green 

 manure as a top dressing, and with few excep- 

 tions, equal, and under many circumstances de- 

 cidedly better than decomposed yard manure. 

 Not that 1 think there is more fertilizing matter 

 in the compost, hut it is much better calculated 

 to retain its virtues until it is taken up by the 

 roots of plants, I think I have wasted much 

 manure in former years by using clear manure 

 as a top dressing. 



I usually apply my compost in the fall, or in 

 the spring following the season of making it, and 

 it is thus found in a well pulverized state. I ap- 



ply it to grass land early in the spring 



or soon 



alter haying, when the spreading of it will be 

 followed with a rapid growth of grass, which, in 

 a good degree, shields it from the wasting effects 

 of the sun and winds. I follow the spreading of 

 it with a bush and roller. This will brush and 

 press it around the roots of the grass, where it 

 will be much less exposed to the weather, and 

 sooner taken up the soil. 



Messrs. Editors, I have given you the general 

 management of my manure. I will now state 

 the result of my labors during the year 1847. I 

 made from ninety arable acres, 758 loads at 30 

 bushels to the load ; 341 of which was clear ma- 

 nure, anil 417 compost, one composed one-half of 

 animal manure, and one-half muck or mould. 

 About five-sevenths of the animal manure was 

 made from sheep. In making the above amount 

 of manure, my stock consumed 103 tons of hay, 

 and about 50 tons in coarse forage and litter, in- 

 cluding straw, corn fodder, weeds and leaves. 

 They also consumed about 1200 bushels of 

 roots and apples, and a rather less proportion 

 of grain. 



1 have been more lengthy in my communica- 

 tion than I intended when I commenced, but 1 

 have found it necessary to be so in order to be 

 definite. I always like to know the how and why 

 as well as the what. And i think farmers many 

 times in speaking of manure are not definite 

 enough in their remarks to give one a good under- 

 standing of their mode of management, cost and 

 quality of their manures. And there is frequent- 

 ly u want of interest or knowledge quite too 

 manifest in the reports of commitees on manure. 

 The merely giving the results of a man's labors 

 without the means by which it was accomplish- 

 ed, chu be of hut little public benefit. Nor can 

 I gather much practical knowledge from know- 

 ing that a compost is made partly of one thing 

 and partly of another. 



E. BRIDGE. 



Pomfret, July, 18J8. 



White Daisy, or "White Weed." — Where 

 there are but few plants of this kind, it is best to 

 dig them up, root and branch'. If meadows are 

 overrun with them, prevent their seeding by 

 mowing as soon as the blossoms appear. In til- 

 lage land, kill them as you would any other bad 

 weed, dud if they are very numerous, it is ad- 

 visable to keep the ground in hoed crops for two 

 or three years, during which, if due attention is 

 paid, they may be nearly exterminated. At all 

 events prevent their seeding, as it is from seed 

 only they are propagated. If mowed green and 

 well cured they make bay that is not disliked by 

 cattle and horses. If they ripen, the seed fills 

 to the earth and vegetates, or goes with the hay 

 to the barn or slack, gels into the manure and is 

 returned to the land. It is in this careless way 

 that the pest is continually renewed and increa- 

 sed. Top-dressing meadows with manure that 

 contains no foul seed, and in every way encour- 

 aging the growth of grasses und white clover, 

 will, with the above precaution, drive out the 

 daisy in a few years. — Cultivator. 



Rose Etc. — Where these insects infest small 

 plants or shrubs, they may be shaken into ves- 

 sels of water, and aftet wards killed. Where 

 they attack large trees, as the apple or cherry, or 

 grape vines, they are more difficult to manage. 

 R. Newton, of Worcester, Mass., states in the 

 Horticulturist, that he had effectually driven them 

 from bis trees, where they appeared in great 

 numbers, by scattering dry wood ashes among 

 them, with a transplanting trowel or a shingle 

 paddle. Turning up the ground under the trees 

 or shrubs where they have appeared, with the 

 plough or spade, late in the fall, will expose ma- 

 ny of the insects to the frost und air, while they 

 are in the larva; state, and they will he destroyed. 

 The eggs are deposited from two to four inches 

 in the ground, and the insect passes the three 

 first stages of its existence below the surface, — 

 Cultivator. 



Viei.d ok Butter. — In the year 1844, six 

 cows belonging to George Vail, Esq., of Troy, 

 produced in thirty days, 2G2 lbs. 9 oz. of butter — 

 averaging 43 lbs. 12 oz. for each cow. The 

 same year Philip Van Benscoten, of La Grange, 

 Dutchess county, produced in thirty days, from 

 five cows, 227 lbs. of butler, averaging 45 lbs. 

 oz. for each cow. 



Diseases of Animal-. 



Heaves in Houses. — I have been acquainted 

 with this disease practically for many years. I 

 think it can never he cured, nor much alleviated 

 by medicines. I am assured, on what I consider 

 good authority, that removal to western Ohio is 

 a certain remedy. I once drove a heavy horse 

 twenty years old, through a journey, going and 

 coming-, of eleven hundied miles, in the months 

 of May, June, August and September. The 

 whole was accomplished with fair speed, and a 

 eood degree of comfort to man and beast, by 

 the observance of one short and simple rule. 

 Avoid dual. The manger and rack were usually 

 dusted, the hay shook and sometimes watered, 

 and the oats wet before the horse was allowed to 

 approach them. " A good deal of trouble," says 

 one. " Ves," I answer, "and a good deal of com- 

 fort, too, both to horse and traveller." The worst 

 predicament was in travelling a dusty road with 

 a light breeze blowing in the direction of the 

 journey. Then the poor creature suffered, of 

 course. C. E. G. 



Red-water in Cows. — We are informed by 

 the Danville (Va.) Register, that not less than 300 

 cows have died in that vicinity, from the disease 

 called red-water. It is a malady we have never 

 met with, and we are not prepared, from our 

 personal knowledge to "throw any light upon 

 it." According to veterinary works there are 

 two kinds of red-water — acute and chronic. 

 Cole's Veterinarian describes the latter, (which is 

 probably the kind above alluded to,) as follows: 



This is most common in cows of weak consti- 

 tutions, and in calves. In the first stages, it is 

 far more a disease of the digestive ..organs than 

 of the kidneys. The following cariees are as 

 signed: relaxed vessels; thin blood; cold; 

 change from poor to rich pastures; luxurious 

 pasture for cows recently dried, and scarcity of 

 water in a long, dry summer. Some of these are 

 only secondary causes, and there are doubtless 

 various other primary causes, among which is 

 the want of exercise. 



Symptoms. — The urine is of a brown color, or 

 brown tinged with yellow. The beast feeds 

 nearly as well as before, but ruminates more 

 lazily. In a few days a natural diarrhoea comes 

 on, and then the animal is well again ; or u pur- 

 gative is given and a cure is soon effected. 



At other times the animal is dull, heavy and 

 languid ; the ears droop, the back is 4jowed, sho 

 separates from the herd, refuses food and ceases 

 10 ruminate. Again she is better, and then sud- 

 denly changes to worse; the mine assumes a 

 dark color, resembling foul coffee or porter ; it 

 increases in quantity, and is sometimes dischar- 

 ged with difficulty and in little jets. The milk 

 diminishes, and acquires a tinge of yellow or 

 brown, and the taste is unpleasant. The pulse 

 is accelerated to sixty or seventy beats a minute. 

 The skin is yellow, but of a darker yellow than 

 in jaundice; it has a tinge of brown. The urine 

 becomes of a darker hue, and is almost black. 

 Sometimes the animal shrinks when the. loins 

 are pressed, but not usually, nor so much as in 

 acute red-water. There is a loss of condition 

 and general debility, and the legs and ears are 

 cold. In every stage there is eostiveness very 

 difficult to remove, yet generally there was vio- 

 lent diarrhoea at the beginning, which suddenly 

 stopped. The dark color of the urine is caused 

 by vitiated bile, not by blood, as in acute red- 

 water. 



An examination, after death, shows that the 

 contents of the manyplus, or third stomach, are 

 perfectly dry and almost as bard as though they 

 had been baked. This is doubtless the disorder 

 which many farmers call dry betly-ache ; and 

 some call it dry murrain. The liver is inflamed, 

 and darker than usual ; the gall-bladder is full to 

 distention, and the bile is thick and black. 

 These circumstances show that the seat of the 

 disease is in the liver, and that the gall is ob- 

 structed in its passage to the intestines; and in- 

 digestion is the result. 



Remedy. — As in this disease constipation of the 

 bowels is generally obstinate, back-rake, and 

 give an exciting injection; then give a good dose 

 of physic, with ginger, or other stimulant, and if 

 there be no operation in six or eight hours, re- 

 peat, in half doses, and continue mild injections 

 occasionally, until an operation of the physic. 



