1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



521 



loads at a time by sledding next winter. Each 

 morning, during the coming "foddering season," 

 a portion of the leaves and mould will be placed in 

 the water-tight trench behind the cattle in the 

 stable, at the rate of say a bushel to each grown 

 animal. The cattle will have a bedding of straw 

 or other coarse litter. The solid and liquid drop- 

 pings of the animals will go into the trench, upon 

 the leaves and mould, and the contents of the 

 trench, together with such portion of the bedding 

 as needs removal, will each morning be thrown 

 out, becoming in the operation well intermingled. 

 Some winter?, according to convenience, muck 

 which has been thrown out of the swamp a year 

 or two previous, and become light, dry and fine, 

 is used instead of the vegetable matter from the 

 forest. The quantity of excellent compost that 

 can be made in this way is greater thun persons 

 who know little of the system would imagine ; and 

 the expense of making it is quite unworthy of ac- 

 count, considering the results realized. The ma- 

 nure made in this way during next winter, will in 

 March and April be drawn to the plowed field and 

 piled in a compact heap to undergo a partia^de- 

 composition, previous to being spread upon the 

 land. 



Some sixty loads, or thirty cords of swamp muck 

 were in August last mixed with six tierces (two 

 barrels to a tierce,) of fresh lime. The lime was 

 slaked to a dry powder as fast as wanted, by put- 

 ting on just enough water for the purpose and 

 then applied hot to the muck. The heap will 

 soon be overhauled. It will be taken to the 

 plowed field by sledding the coming winter, part 

 of it used as bottom layers for the heaps of ma- 

 nure to be drawn there from the barn and yards, 

 part for covering these heaps, and the remainder 

 will be mixed with fifteen or twenty loads of horse 

 manure, purchased for the purpose. 



From these several sources, enough manure will 

 be had to put the land in good heart for bearing 

 the next rotation of crops with which it is to be 

 burdened. In my experience, friend Brown, I 

 have never known mother earth refuse or fail to 

 reward one for good cultivation. If you are gen- 

 erous with her, she will contrive, in one way or 

 another, to modify for you the effects of those un- 

 toward peculiarities of seasons, &c., which, in 

 your plans, you could not anticipate nor control, 

 making up for you, in some of her products, what, 

 through imperfect and limited foresight, you have 

 been disappointed in receiving by others, so that 

 your husbandry shall in the aggregate result fa- 

 vorably. But as for the grumbling sluggard, she 

 expects no favors from him, and has in return but 

 few to b(Jstow, being quite as independent as he. 



I make no objection to handling -the composi 

 these several times, because the various ingredi- 

 ents become thereby the better pulverized and 

 mingled, and the mass enough improved to more 

 than pay the expense. It is the finely pulverized 

 particles, rather than the great hard lumps, 

 whether of soil or manure, that nourish the roots 

 of vegetation and secure large and sound crops. 



Twenty years ago or more, I read with much 

 interest the writings of Jethro Tull, on pulverizing 

 and preparing land for crops. I could not but 

 admire the enthusiasm of the old fellow ; and, al- 

 though I found it necessaiy to make some grains 

 of allowance for his honest ardor, I yet got some 

 ideas of the value and primary importance of thor- 



ough pulverization of the land, which have stuck 

 fast to me ever since, and from the practice of 

 which much benefit has been derived. I um every 

 year led to wonder at the foolish steps taken by 

 some farmers in preparing land and manure for a 

 crop. Under mistaken notions of economy, they 

 seem to regard nice pulverization as quite too no- 

 tional and particular for them— an expenditure of 

 labor which the practical farmer cannot aflbrd • 

 while, m truth, such careful and thorough prepar- 

 atory labor is just that additional labor and outlay 

 coming at just the nick of time, which constitutes 

 the true economy of the whole concern,— making 

 the germination and vigorous early growth of the 

 crop certain, saving labor in after-cultivation 

 and bringing the fertility of the land and manure 

 into full activity ; thus protecting the growing 

 crop in the best attainable way from the unfavor- 

 able influences presented by the season or other- 

 wise, so that it attains a sound and ripe maturity 

 and yields a full harvest. I have known cases 

 where the same manure and land would liave pro- 

 duced enough more crop than was actually ob- 

 tained, had the pulverization been more nice and 

 particular, to pay the owners (I speak advisedly,) 

 jten dollars a day for the necessary extra labor. 'l 

 would recommend in such instances the consider- 

 ate reading of the writings of Jethro Tull. They 

 are old, but quite instructive, teaching principles 

 of fundamental importance in the business of 

 farming. 



With regard to the application of manure to 

 green-sward, I would remark that we hear two ex- 

 tremes advocated : some say its fertilizing proper- 

 ties all have a tendency to rise and pass'ofiPin the 

 atmosphere, and therefore it should be plowed in 

 deep ; others say its goodness tends downwards, 

 or at least that it remains inactive if plowed in 

 and therefore it should be only harrowed in. So 

 far as I know, both parties are in part right and 

 in part wrong ; for neither is manure the most 



beneficial to the crops when it is plowed in deep 



particularly if covered by sod furrow-slices— nor 

 when left too near the surface ; but if placed, not 

 so low as to exclude it from the necessary atmos- 

 pheric influences to promote due decomposition 

 nor so high as to become dried and dissipated by 

 wind and sun, but low enough for the mellow 

 soil to close all around it, and imbibe on all sides 

 the gases and juices which it is inclined to part 

 with by decomposition, its fertilizing properties 

 will be brought into activity and made available 

 tothe land and crop, so far as in the nature of the 

 thing they can be. 



After experimenting variously in the application 

 of manure, sometimes plowing it in so deep that 

 ■it had not action enough to suit me, and some- 

 times leaving it too much exposed on the surface 

 of the plowed land, I now generally plow a good 

 depth to begin with, then spread the compost on 

 the surface of the plowed land, harrow and crop- 

 harrow to distribute and pulverize the manure, 

 and then with a plow having a sharp share, and 

 a roller on the beam guaging the instrument to 

 the depth wanted, turn the manure under from 

 three to five inches deep, where, all things con- 

 sidered, it seems to do the most good, and thereby 

 making fine pulverization and a deep seed-bed. In 

 the spring, this will be my way of treating the 

 seven or eight acres of sod to be plowed this fall. 

 Manure plowed in on stubble or old mellow ground/ 



