£l)e .farmer's ittontljlij llisitor. 



79 



Benefits of Salt as Manure. 



We liave recently been perusing several Eu- 

 ropean articles, detailing experiments made with 

 salt as manure, and from them we have made 

 the following brief synopsis of its utility : — 



It attracts the humid vapors and repels frost, 

 and thus assists in keeping the land moist in dry 

 weather, and warm in cold. It keeps every thing 

 in the soil in a soft and soluble state, and assists 

 " to digest and prepare the food for vegetable nu- 

 trition. It destroys many kinds of vermin and 

 - weeds, and usually increases the amount of the 

 crop one-fourth to one-third ; strengthens the 

 growth of every thing to which it is applied, and 

 brings all crops earlier to the harvest. It gene- 

 rally adds from five to seven bushels per acre to 

 the yield of wheat used in the most moderate 

 quantity, and in all kinds of grain makes more 

 ear and less straw. Mr. George Sinclair obtain- 

 ed at VVoburn, on plots of thirty-six square feet, 

 at the rate of seventy to ninety-five bushels of 

 wheat per acre, by the use of salt mixed with 

 other manures. It is found equally beneficial to 

 pasture as well as root crops, sweetening all 

 vegetation, and making it more wholesome (or 

 man and beast. It is a great safeguard against 

 blast, rust, mildew, and indeed all the diseases 

 of grain and vegetables. 



Salt is inoperative applied near the sea-shore, 

 where salt-water spray is already in excess on 

 the laud ; but every where else it is beneficial. 

 It may be used at the rate of five or forty bush- 

 els per acre, though ten or twenty bushels are 

 better. It can be sown broadcast on the land, 

 or be incorporated in the manure or compost 

 heap. Mr. Prideaux informs us, that mixed with 

 lime and its compounds, it undergoes decompo- 

 sition, producing soda or its combination with 

 carbonic acid, or with humus ; all more powerful 

 digesters and feeders than the salt itself; and the 

 muriate of lime, which has the strongest attrac- 

 tion for moisture of almost any thing known. 

 Salt and lime work vegetable matters to decay 

 quicker than salt alone. With gypsum it will 

 supply soda and sulphuric acid cheaper than 

 any other material, besides the muriate of lime, 

 so valuable for its moistening quality. — American 

 Agriculturist. 



As to the quantity of salt to the acre, much 

 depends on the crop, and sufficient experiments 

 have not been made to settle this subject in eve- 

 ry respect. Asparagus requires more salt than 

 most other vegetables, as it is a marine plant. It 

 will bear one hundred and sixty bushels to the 

 acre, and be greatly benefited by the application; 

 yet it may not be profitable to apply so much. 

 Plum trees require more salt than oilier trees. 

 Cabbages and turnips are much benefited by 

 salt, and will bear rather a large quantity. 



Corn and beans have flourished well where 

 we have planted them on lands overflowed by 

 salt water at the time of high tides in spring 

 and fall ; hut on the same land potatoes were 

 inferior, just as far as the salt water extended. 

 We need further and more definite experiments 

 to show the utility of salt in agriculture, and de- 

 termine what crops are most benefited by its ap- 

 plication. — J\tew England Farmer. 



To have fine Mutton. — The sheep, as soon 

 as killed, should be disembowelled. It is the 

 neglect to remove the entrails at once, and not 

 the meat being touched by the wool, which itti 

 parts to it that strong mutton-taste. The reason 

 of this is, that the warmth of the body, carried 

 off by the loss of blood, is for a time supplied 

 from the warmth of the bowels, and thus the 

 objectionable taste created. 



Good Cows. 



The statement in regard to the cows which 

 received the premiums at the last sho.v of the 

 Worcester county (Mass.) Agricultural Society, 

 showed the following results: Joseph A. Heed's 

 cow, which took the first premium, was said to 

 have been n Devon, five years old ; calved the 

 20th of April. From June 10th to 20th, her 

 milk produced 20-] lbs. of butter; from Septem- 

 ber 10th to 20th, 155 lbs. of butter. Feed, pas- 

 lure. Samuel 11. Flagg's cow, which took the 

 second premium, was of "native" breed. Calved 

 May 15th. Prom June 10th to 20th, average six- 

 teen quarts of milk per day, which yielded 22j 

 lbs. of butter, from September 10th to 20th, elev- 

 en quarts |>er day, which gave li\ lbs. of butter. 

 Feed, pasture only in June; in September, hay 

 at night, (pasture being dried Up) with' two quarts 

 wheat meal. S. B. Watson's cow, which took 

 the third premium, calved on the 21st of March. 

 From June 10th to 20th, made 22 lbs. of butter; 

 from September 10th to 20lh, 15 lbs. of butler. 

 Kept with other cows in pasture, with no other 

 feed. Neither breed nor age mentioned. Sime- 

 on Carpenter's cow, which received the fourth 

 premium, was half Holderness, half " native." 

 Four yeais old. Calved in April last. From 

 June 10th to 20th made Ifii pounds of butter; 

 from September 10th to 20lh, 145 pounds of 

 butter. 



The Society required that a statement should 

 be made of the weight of butter produced in ten 

 days from June 10th to 20th, and in ten days, 

 from September 10th to 20th.- Albany Cultivator. 



Uses of Soap Suds. — At Towne's Hotel in 

 Warren, Trumbull county, we saw an Isabella 

 grape-vine, said to be but three years old, plant- 

 ted under the kitchen window, which had clim- 

 bed to ihe second story, a good way towards the 

 ridge-pole, and extended its branches round the 

 corners of the building to a distance not less 

 than twenty or thirty feet, and, from within four 

 or six feet of the ground to the extremes! branch, 

 was full of clusters of fruit. We were assured 

 that the only extra advantage it had was water- 

 ing it well, nearly every day with dish-water and 

 occasionally soap-suds. The following is from 

 one of our exchanges: — 



Soap Suds. — The finest peach and apricot 

 trees that we have ever seen, received a weekly 

 or monthly wash of soap suds, after the clothes 

 of the family had been duly cleansed. A bucket 

 full to a tree, taking them in rotation, answers a 

 capital purpose to destroy the eggs of insects, 

 and supply potash where it is much needed. 

 Never waste in a sewer, or about the kitchen, a 

 fertilizer so valuable as soap suds. — Ohio Cult. 



Growth of Coffee and Pepper. 



In extent, Java is about seven hundred miles 

 iu length, and in width it varies from eighty to 

 one hundred and forty miles. Its area is less 

 than 20,000 square miles. The face of the 

 country is more or less broken by mountains, 

 but the soil generally is rich and productive. 



The products are lice, sugar, ci.fti.'e, pepper, 

 spices, and a profusion of the finest tropical fruit. 

 We were much interested in seeing some ol 

 these tropical productions growing. Coffee is 

 cultivated here to as great perfection as in almost 

 any oilier part of the world. It grows on large 

 bushes, that xnry much resemble our large chin- 

 qnepin bushes, and the grains of coffee are 

 formed, two iu a berry, about ihe size and shape 

 of our common plum. The skin of the berry 



is about as thick as that of the pi , ami the 



rolur, when ripe, that of n pale scnrlei. The 

 bush is very productive. Every brauch is loan- 

 ed with the berries, which grow two in II place, 



on opposite sides of each other and about one 

 inch and a half apart. When ripe, ihe skin 

 Hursts open, ami the grains of coffee fall out on 

 the ground, lint a more general way is to spread 



something under the bush, and shake the coffee 

 down. After the outer skin is taken off; there 

 remains a kind of husk over each kernel, which 

 is broken off after being well dried in the sun, 

 by heavy rollers. The coffee, after this, needs 

 winnowing, in order to be freed from the broken 

 panicles of the husk. It has been saiil by some 

 writers that one bush will not, with another, av- 

 erage more than a pound of coffee ; but it seem- 

 ed to me, though 1 could only judge from ap- 

 pearances, that Ibis was too sma'll an allowance 

 for each bush. 



Black Pepper is also raised to some extent on 

 the island of Java; but Sumatra, which lies just 

 across the straits, is by far the most celebrated 

 for this commodity. Her pepper is, perhaps, 

 the finest and most abundant of any one country 

 in the world. 



Black pepper grows on a vine, very much like 

 our grape vine, and the pepper vineyards re- 

 minded me much of our American vineyards of 

 grapes. The pepper-grape grows and looks, 

 when green, a good ileal like our currants. 

 There is this difference, however : the currant 

 has each its own distinct stem, but the pepper 

 has not. Each grain grows hard on to one com- 

 mon stem, just as each grain of Indian corn 

 does on to the cob, or husk, as Virginians incor- 

 rectly would say. The color of pepper, when 

 first ripe, is ahnost a bright red, and changes to 

 the dead black, common to us, by being exposed 

 to the heal of the sun. 



The famous white pepper is nothing more than 

 the common black with the outer skin taken oft'. 

 It is first soaked until this skin hursts open, which 

 is then rubbed oft' and the grain dried. The 

 white, therefore, is not considered so pungent as 

 the black, though it is nicer and more expensive, 

 as more labor is necessary in order to prepare it. 



Birds. 



The following excellent remarks on the sub- 

 ject of destroying birds originally appeared iu 

 the Boston Patriot -.— Valley Farmer. 



"W r e are of opinion, that the labors of ihe sci- 

 entific ornithologist are of far more practical 

 uiiliiy -than the casual observer supposes; and 

 that, even in the business of legislation, a regard 

 lo his researches might prevent many errors, 

 which may much affect the public welfare. Le- 

 gislation on the subject of birds has been mark- 

 ed by some essential errors, which have led to 

 real evil. By it woodcocks, snipes, larks, and 

 robins, are protected at a certain season of the 

 year, whilst war to the knife is declared against 

 crows, blackbirds, owls, blue-jays, and hawks: 

 these lasl are treated as a sou of pirates, subject 

 to a suspension at the yard-arm, w ith the least 

 possible ceremony. Il so happens that the char- 

 acter of these very birds has been singularly 

 mistaken ; for while the ordinance of legislation 

 has been thus systematically levelled at them, 

 they, on the principle which man would do ex- 

 tremely well lo imitate, have been returning 

 good for evil; they have been diligently engaged 

 in exterminating all sorts of vermin, whilst never 

 were the vilest vermin half so ill-treated by the 

 human race. The crow, for example, who is 

 generally regarded as a most suspicious charac- 

 ter, has had great injustice done him. 



" In the spring, when the ground is moist, he 

 lives in a state of most triumphant luxury on 

 grubs; he eats the young corn, it is true, but it 

 is a necessary of life to which he never resorts 

 except when his supply of animal food is short- 

 ened. Alter the corn is tolerably grown, he has 

 nothing more to do with it; and iu any stage he 

 destroys five hundred pernicious grubs and in- 

 sects lor every blade ol grass which he pillages 

 from man. In the Southern States, he is regu- 

 larly permitted to accompany the ploughman, 

 and collect ihe grubs from the newly opened 

 furrow ; his lite is thus secured by the safest of 

 all tenures — that of the interests of man iu per- 

 mitting him to live." 



Industry.— Fhere is more pleasui in sweat- 

 ing an hour than in yawning a century." 



