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THE GENESEE FARMER, 



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of plants ; hence the following oat crop was light. 

 On the other hand, the part of the field on which 

 the potatoes rotted received an additional quan- 

 tity of available organic and inorganic matter ; in 

 other words, the rotted potatoes were a good 

 manure, and hence the oat crop was much in- 

 creased. 



We have several times witnessed similar results 

 to the above, where a part of a field of turnips 

 have been allowed to rot on the land and the 

 other part carried off. We would not, however, 

 be understood as recommending growing potatoes 

 and turnips and then allowing them to I'ot on the 

 land for manure. We believe that if the pota- 

 toes, turnips, <tc.> are fed to hogs or cattle, and 

 their manure returned to the soil, the benefit to 

 the succeeding crop would be nearly as great as 

 though they had rotted on the laud. 



TiTE Valite of Milk. — Beans. — Please inform me through 

 your valuable journal, whether it would pay to Imy milk at 

 two cents per quart, churn it, and give the milk to hogs V 

 Would I realize any profit by so doing? 



Can beans be used, profitably, in any way for hogs? and 

 if so, what way would be best? \Vm. Bakkett. — Beclford 

 Slatimi, W68t, Co., M Y. 



The first question involves a number of others 

 affected by a vai-iety of circuraBtances. What is 

 butter worth with you? — if half a dollar per 

 pound, it could scarcely fail to pay you well. 

 Then again, much depends on the quality of the 

 milk, and this is afl^ected by numerous circum- 

 stances — ^such as the distance from the time of 

 calving, the quality of the food, the age and 

 breed of the cows, and the time and frequency 

 of milking. If a cow is milked thrice a day you 

 will obtain more milk, but it will be of a poorer 

 quality than when milked only twice ; much 

 more is this the case when only milked once in 

 twenty-four hours. The influence of breed alone 

 upon the quality of the milk is well illustrated 

 by the result of a series of trials made at Bradley 

 Hall, in Derbyshire. During the height of the 

 season, and when fed upon the same pasture, cows 

 of four different breeds gave per day — 



But even from cows of the same breed the 

 milk contains a very variable quantity of butter ; 

 thus, four cows of the Ayrshire breed, feeding in 

 the same pasture, produced, in one week, the 

 following : 



Milk. Butter. 



A, 84 qts., which yielded 3^ lbs. 



B and C, each, 86 " " 



D, SS «• « 



5X 



7 



Twenty-four quarts of A's milk were required to 

 yield one pound of butter, while of D's, twelve 

 and a half quarts only were needed. 



We give these results to show that the amount 

 of b\itter that milk will yield is not very definite. 

 A fair estimate, from all we know on the subject, 

 would be 12 qts., or about 25| lbs., of milk for 

 each pound of butter. 



Tlie value of the butter-milk as food for swine, 

 is easily ascertained theoretically. Thus, 100 lbs. 

 of milk contains about 4 lbs. of cheese and 4 lbs. 

 of sugar; 1000 qts. would therefore contain 52 

 lbs. of cheese and 52 lbs. of sugar of milk. The 

 same amount of nitrogenous matter would be 

 obtained in two biishels of peas. Of the non- 

 nitrogenous matter, (starch, sugar, <fec.,) the two 

 bushels of peas would contain more than the 1000 

 quarts of milk. So that we shall not be far out 

 of the way, in estimating two bushels of peas 

 equal to 1000 quarts of buttermilk in nutritive 

 matter. The calculation, therefore, will stand as 

 follows: 1000 quarts of milk will yield 83^ lbs. 

 of butter, and butter-milk equal to two bushels of 

 peas. Affix the prices obtained in your neigh- 

 borhood for butter and peas, and judge of the 

 economy of giving two cents per quart for milk. 



Prof. Mapes says that four bushels of lime slaked with 

 the pickle or brine of a bushel of salt, well mixed with a 

 (■(jil of decayed tan-bark, makes an excellent maniu-c. 

 What I want to know is, if this compost is used for bedding 

 my liorses, will the lime which if contains serve to fix or to 

 set thi' ammonia free? Prof. Bliss, of the University at 

 Lewislnirg, gave me, as his opinion, that it would fix the 

 ammonia. I do not wish to tax you with any process of 

 reasoning on the subject, but merely to say whether, in your 

 opinion, Mapes' compost will serve to fix or to set the am- 

 monia free. I have a tannery and a worn-out farm. Cor- 

 rect information would be of great service to me. J. D. 

 CuAMBEKLiN. — Buffalo Cross Roads, Pa. 



Four bushels of lime cannot all be combined 

 with the chlorine in a busl^el of salt, so that there 

 would be an excess of calcareous matter which 

 would operate to liberate ammonia instead of fix- 

 ing it in manure. Use tan-bark iinmixed v/ith hme 

 for bedding ; and its acids and porous texture will 

 retain ammonia and other fertilizing gases. The 

 lime, salt, and refuse bark compound, named by 

 Mr. Mapes, is a fertilizer of considerable value, to 

 be applied directly to land. It is only under 

 peculiar circumstances that lime will decompose 

 common salt; or that gypsum will deodorize 

 night soil or other manure, as we have ascertain- 

 ed by a score of experiments. 



Swamp muck, like tan-bark, develops an acid 

 reaction, and therefore it is a capital material for 

 bedding horses, swine, cattle, and sheep, whose 

 excrements develop an alkaline, or aramoniacal 

 reaction.- To save this volatile alkali in manure 



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