&l)c jTcmncr's iHontljli) bisitov. 



75 



Benefit of Luderdruiiiinp. 



Messrs. Editors : — In the December minibcr of 

 t lie Farmer my attention was culled to llie sub- 

 ject of draining hinds, nnd believing the subject 

 too little practised or understood in this country, 

 with your leave 1 will give you n trifle of my ex- 

 perience in under draining. 



I have now more than lolly acres of wheat on 

 which there is not a surface drain, the whole 

 being under-drained. It is some six or eight 

 years since I began the work. My first experi- 

 ment was on a lot of about twelve acres, very 

 wet and miry in the spring, so much so that we 

 could not get on to ii till late. It being more 

 particularly designed for spring crops, it became 

 necessary to have it drained. Accordingly we 

 commenced an under-drain through the dampest 

 part first, until the whole was done. The result 

 was most satisfactory, making the whole dry 

 early in [lie spring, and rendering the clayey 

 parts friable and easy to cultivate. During a 

 freshet the water will run a day or two on the 

 surface and then all disappear. Streams running 

 from the road and other fields, coming in contact 

 with the drains immediately disappear. 1 have 

 observed in wet weather the water would he 

 running out at the lower end of the drain when 

 no water was to be seen on the surface. 1 have 

 been draining more or less for a number of years 

 willi the very best results. 



It is observed in digging drains that the sub- 

 soil is full of veins or water-courses, conveying 

 the water considerable distances. 1 once ob- 

 served in digging a drain some thirty or forty 

 feet distant from a small pond of water that had 

 stood a long time, that when we got nearest to 

 it, the subsoil, which before had been dry, was 

 full of water and commenced running off, and 

 in a few hours the pond was all gone. In addi- 

 tion to what is already stated, I have found a 

 never-failing spring of water, which by using 

 about fifty rods of lead pipe, is conveyed to the 

 lane where it is convenient for stock, and teams 

 going to and from work — the benefit of which 

 will pay for draining the whole farm. 



Many other advantages of draining might be 

 named, but enough for the present. This heing 

 the first communication ever sent by me to an 

 editor, 1 will wait and see its fate, 



AD1N MANLEY. 



Clarkson, N. Y., 1849. 



Our friend acquits himself well for a beginner. 

 He apparently understands that plainness and 

 brevity are the essentials in writing for an agri- 

 cultural journal. Now that his hand is in, we 

 shall lie glad to receive a brief statement of his 

 mode of constructing drains, Sec. — Gen. Farmer. 



Hearing Lambs.— Like all other young stock, 

 lambs ought to be kept steadily growing, with- 

 out getting too fat. Where a healthy, strong, 

 and young ewe has a good range of pasture, the 

 lamb may acquire so much fat as seriously to in- 

 terfere with its thrift, when taken away and put 

 upon its winter's food. Experienced flock-mas- 

 ters say th-it they have frequently lost lambs 

 from this cause, and that when a ewe has twins, 

 and the milk is divided between the offspring, 

 this lo-ss never occurs. This is an important fact 

 for the practical man. 



It is well to have the lambs accustomed to dry 

 forage before they are put up for the winter. If 

 good, sweet hay, dry clover, or oats in the sheaf, 

 or threshed, be thrown out to a few old sheep, 

 surrounded by all the lambs, while the latter are 

 in fine condition, brisk and lively, they will at 

 once begin to nibble at the dry food, and soon 

 will be entirely familiar with, and enjoy it. If 

 left, however, till weaned, and they have become 

 pinched by the snows and frosts of approaching 

 winter, and the scarcity and insipidity of au- 

 tumnal forage, their stomachs are in a weak or 

 diseased condition, they have no appetite for 

 their new dry food, they stay away from the 

 racks, and daily become loo far reduced to re- 

 cover ; or if they survive, it is with a constitution 

 permanently impaired — American Agriculturist. 



Fertilizing Manures. 



Professor J. J. Mapes, in a letter to the New 

 York Tribune, makes mention of a great mea- 

 dow in New Jersey, and its value us a fertilizer. 

 lie thus treats of the matter, which cannot but 

 he instructive to all friends of agriculture: 



"This meadow muck may he Considered as 

 organic matter not iti a state of decay, nnd if placed 

 in soil without first inducing a chemical change, 

 it will not act as a fertilizer. As compared with 

 well decomposed stable manure, it bears the 

 same analogy that sour-krout doe3 to cabbage. 

 If sour-krout be buried under the surface of the 

 earth, it will remain for many years unaltered, 

 while cabbage under similar treatment would be 

 readily decomposed. If the excess of acid be 

 first removed from krout, it will then decompose 

 as readily as cabbage and from the same causes. 

 The muck is composed of the lighter particles 

 of surface-soils carried to its present locality by 

 the rain; ulier being saturated frequently with 

 salt water, its decomposition is arrested, and un- 

 der this organism a style of gases peculiar to 

 marshes lakes possession of its surface. These 

 gases are continually adding the carbon which 

 they receive from the atmosphere in the form of 

 carbonic acid gas to the muck as the principal 

 result of their decay, and thus the muck is found 

 to contain large amounts of carbonaceous mat- 

 ters. When muck is exposed to winter frosts, 

 the ultimate fibres of the decomposed roots it 

 contains, are torn asunder, and the mass is thus 

 rendered pulverulent. In this state it is fit for 

 easy decomposition. The quality of the grasses 

 is much better on meadows which have been 

 ditched for the purpose of supplying muck, and 

 thus part of the cost of procurement is paid by 

 the improved mowings. 



" Muck may be decomposed in various ways, 

 and will always produce beneficial results when 

 used after decomposition as a manure. When 

 mixed intimately with wood ashes, either the 

 leached or unleached, it forms one of the best 

 manures for fruit trees; and while the quantity 

 of common salt it contains is insufficient to injure 

 the peach, it is sufficient to prove highly service- 

 able to the plum; while its large proportion of 

 carbonaceous matter renders it capable of re- 

 ceiving and retaining the ammonia of the atmos- 

 phere until required for the use of the roots. 

 Muck is not a protection against the peach-worm, 

 but trees, the trunks of which are surrounded 

 by it, are less liable to their attacks. Muck, 

 when mixed with ashes readily receives mois- 

 ture, and, if water he in great excess, the muck 

 will for a long lime pievent the land from sour- 

 ing or the water from becoming fetid. 



" When urine of animals is mixed with swamp 

 muck, it already undergoes decomposition, and 

 the resulting gases are retained. One-tenth part 

 of stable manure, well mixed wilh muck, will 

 be found sufficient to cause the mass to heat 

 readily and become as clear manure for farm 

 use. If muck be placed under cows, oxen, &c. 

 and covered by the bedding, so that their urine 

 will pass through the bedding and combine with 

 the muck while it contains the animal warmth, 

 then the muck will be decomposed, and the 

 warmth of the body of the animal while sleep- 

 ing will materially assist in the decomposition. 

 The solid manures, remaining atop of the bed- 

 ding, should be removed each morning, and 

 mixed with new portions of muck in the prepar- 

 ation before stated for mutual decomposition. 

 If the liquid manures from stables be led by gut- 

 ters to cisterns, and, when cold, pumped upon 



muck, it will not decompose one-half the quan- 

 tity as when applied containing the animal 

 warmth. Each horse, ox or cow, will supply 

 the means of converting one cord of muck per 

 week into manure equal to ordinary barn-yard 

 manure; while the ready pulverent character of 

 the mass renders such compost much more easi- 

 ly divisible dining tillage. Large quantities of 

 muck may be thrown wilh advantage into the 

 hog-pen and new quantities should be added as 

 often us any odor can be perceived arising from 

 the sin face of the pen. 1 have used large quan- 

 tities of muck in these manures and have found 

 it advantageous to remove and renew the muck 

 of the stables and hog-pen every ten days, always 

 placing it under manure-sheds lo prevent ils ex- 

 posure to useless currents of air, for evaporation, 

 and to assist in maintaining an equable tempera- 

 ture, to assist its decomposition. When larger 

 quantities of manures are required than can be 

 formed from these means, then new quantities 

 of muck may be decomposed by the process 

 given in llie ' Working Farmer,' page 4, under 

 the head of ' Lime as a Manure.' By use of 

 the lime and salt mixture as there described, any 

 amount of manure may readily be formed from 

 muck. 



"Either fresh or salt muck makes a good di- 

 visor for night soil, absorbing all the more fluid 

 parts and at the same time rendering llie 

 mass, with the slight addition of two bushels 

 of plaster of Paris to the cord, entirely inodor- 

 ous. 



"Dead animals, if cut into small pieces, (say 

 from one lo ten pounds each) coating slightly 

 wilh ashes and then burying them in muck, will 

 convert the whole muck into a most powerful 

 manure. The waste of glue factories, slaughter 

 houses, &c. may be so treated, and every hun- 

 dred pounds of animal matter will convert one 

 cord of muck into good manure. The spent 

 ley of the soap boilers, if thrown upon muck, 

 soon converts ii into available manure, and every 

 ten gallons of this spent, or salt leye, as it is 

 called, is fully equal in its beneficial effects upon 

 soil, after proper division wilh muck, to one 

 bushel of ashes. 



"Guano, hen and pigeon dung, bones after 

 having been treated with sulphuric acid, and in- 

 deed, all the more powerful classes of manure, 

 should he divided by admixtures of muck before 

 being used upon land. 



" When muck cannot readily be procured, 

 then surface-earth from old woods, pure mud, 

 headlands, &c. may be similarly used, anil if" of 

 a character not containing sufficient carbona- 

 ceous matter and charcoal dust. Some have ob- 

 jected to taking the surface-earth from woods, 

 under the impression that they should impover- 

 ish the soil; but if they will replace half the 

 value in lime and salt mixture in the place of 

 the surface taken, the woods will generally gain 

 by the exchange. 



" When muck composts are used on sandy 

 soils they are rendered more tenacious, and when 

 mixed with clay, this soil is rendered more valu- 

 able. In my uext communication, I will treat 

 of my experience in the effects produced by deep 

 subsoil ploughing. The facts stated above in re- 

 lation to muck and its compounds are in strict 

 accordance with the results obtained in my 

 practice, and may he depended upon as correct." 



The Raleigh (North Carolina) Register says 

 that the property of the city of Boston is valued 

 at $167,000,000'; the whole State of North Car- 

 olina at $140,000,000. 



