188 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



of order. Continual loss is consequent upon it. 

 This is justly called the "short-sighted" policy. 

 It is so much the way of some, in the farm house 

 as well as outside of it, that the short-sighted 

 economy which they pursue is a source of con- 

 stant loss and misfortune. They may be indus- 

 trious, apparently econominal, and seek prosperi- 

 ty with untiring diligence, but poverty comes in 

 their train. With such a fiimily, either the man 

 or the woman is shortsighted in management, and 

 the order that is necessary to prosperity is not 

 with them. 



TWO PERSONS FOR TWO IDEAS. 



The prosperous farmer has the two ideas which 

 lead to prosperity ; and he has a wife — yes certain- 

 ly, a wife he has, who has also the same two ideas 

 with himself. She can see beyond the end of her 

 nose as well as he, and she can see what is with- 

 in her reach also, as well as he. She secures 

 the present profit and the profit for years to come, 

 and puts to use the proper things in the proper 

 time, and when she has used them she always 

 puts them in proper order and in a proper place. 

 And all I have to say more is only this : the mer- 

 ry farmer I knew had two good eyes, and he had 

 "a little wife well willed," who had also two good 

 eyes, and they both together had two good ideas, 

 and they walked the path of life together, seeing 

 to learn, and learning to a profit ; and nobody 

 can wonder any longer that he was a raerry far- 

 mer all his days. 



Mason, N. H. 



LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL MEET- 

 INGS. 

 Eighth Meeting— Tuesday Evening, March 15, 1853. 



The eighth meeting of the season was held at 

 the State House on Tuesday evening. The sub- 

 ject for discussion was ''TAe Preparation and Ap- 

 plication of Manures.'''' 



Simon Brown editor of the New England Far- 

 mer, presided, and on taking the chair, expressed 

 the opinion that by an intelligent investigation of 

 the subject of manuring, our neglected lands might 

 be increased in fertility to the amount of millions 

 of money annually. He then offered some prac- 

 tical remarks in relation to the subject. All mat- 

 ter stimulative of vegetation is manure, and the 

 constituent elements of vegetables tell us what in- 

 gredients manure should contain in order to pro- 

 duce vegetation. Vegetables are composed of ox- 

 ygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, and of 

 course the manure applied to them should contain 



these elements ; in preparing manures, we should 



collect all such vegetables substances as contain! Great care should be observed not to let it fer- 



gen, which evolves the ammonia, and gives man- 

 ure its chief value ; but t^iis is not contained in 

 the hay. Hence the kind of food fed to cattle is 

 important. A cow, fed liberally, according to 

 Dana, will prepare daily, about one bushel, or 

 854 lbs. of manure, or in a year 



4,800 lbs. of humus, or geine. 

 677 lbs. ofciirbonate of ammonia. 

 71 Ills, of bone duat. 

 37 lbs. of plaster. 



37 lbs. of limestone, marble or chalk. 

 25 lbs. of common salt. 

 15 lbs. of sulphate of potash. 



A cow will produce about 3i cords of pure ma- 

 mare in a year, weighing 9,289 lbs. By taking the 

 number of cattle in the State, and making an es- 

 timate as ticcurate as possible of the amount of 

 manure they furnish, and affixing its cash value, 

 we can ascertain what it ought to produce in 

 crops. 



Basing his calculation on the census ofl8.50, Mr. 

 Brown estimated that there were in this State, 

 150,000 milch cows, 47,000 working oxen, and 

 83,000 other cattle, each yielding 3^ cords of ma- 

 nure annually, making an aggregate of 980,000 

 cords. Besides these, 42,000 horses, at 2 cords 

 each, 84,000 cords ; 81,000 swine, at 3 cords each, 

 243,000 cords; 188,000 sheep, which with the 

 poultry, will equal the swine, giving 243,000 cords 

 more. This gives a total of 1,550,000 cords, which 

 at 7$ per cord, a price which has ruled in Con- 

 cord [Mr. Brown's residence] for many years, con- 

 stitutes a value of $10,850,000 per year ! Besides 

 this, the speaker estimated that a Hiir valuation 

 of night soil, street sweepings, refuse matter of 

 sugar refineries, &c., would swell the amount to 

 $20,000,000 annually. 



In order to ascertain what this amount of ma- 

 nure should produce in the way of crops, the 

 speaker selected the article of corn. If this grain 

 is planted at the usual distance of 3.^ by 3 feet, it 

 gives 4,148 hills per acre. One peck of manure 

 to each hill, which is a large allowance, would in 

 149,796 acres absorb the estimated amount of 

 barn manures. At 40 bushels to the acre, this 

 would yield 5,991,840 bushels of corn annually, — 

 more than double the quantity ever yet produced 

 in the State. 



After manure has been saved, it should be kept 

 from exposure to rain and the sun, else its salts 

 will be washed out and its gases evaporated. — 



these requisites — those which may be fed to stock 

 and that which can be used to absorb the liquid 

 manure which falls from them. Vegetable mat- 

 ters decomposed by placing in the barn-yard or 

 under cattle, are nearly worthless compared with 

 an equal amount converted by stock. One hun- 

 dred lbs. of fresh cow offal will furnish 2 lbs. 2 

 ounces of carbonate ammonia, while Johnson says 

 100 lbs. of hay would scarcely affjrd as many 

 ounces aa the former does pounds. It is the nitro- 



ment too much, because such an excess destroys 

 its most useful qualities. Mr. Coke, a distin- 

 guished English agriculturist, has discontinued 

 fermenting his manures, and he states that his 

 crops are as good as ever, while the manure goes 

 nearly iicice as far. When placed under the soil, 

 and contiguous to the seed, unfermented, the 

 plant secures the benefit of the fertilizing fluids 

 which exude from it in the course of fermentation, 

 while the heat evolved renders the Soil about the 



