12 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



serves to be painted in bold letters on every barn- 

 door in Connecticut :" " That a "well made compost 

 of two loads of muclc and one of stable manure^ is 

 equal to three loads of the manure itself." 



Guano may be composted with muck to great 

 advantage — say a bushel of guano to eight or ten 

 of muck. Fish and muck make an excellent com- 

 post. S. HoYT & Sons, of New Canaan, Conn., 

 have employed 220,000 fish for this purpose in one 

 season, and use ten or twelve loads of muck to one 

 of fish. 



A layer of muck one foot or more in thickness is 

 spread upon the ground, and covered with a layer 

 of fish ; on this is put another layer of muck and 

 another of fish ; and so on till the pile is several 

 feet high, finishing with a good layer of muck. 



In the summer, when this work is usually at- 

 tended to, the fermentation begins at once, so that 

 no delay must be allowed after the fish are taken, 

 in mixing the compost, and in a short time the 

 operation is complete; the fish disappear, bones 

 excepted, and by shoveling over, a uniform mass is 

 obtainetl, almost free from odor, and retaining per- 

 fectly all the manurial value of the fish. Lands 

 well manured with this compost will keep in heart 

 and improve, while, as is well known to our coast 

 farmers, the use of fish alone is ruinous, in the end, 

 on light soil. 



It is. obvious that any other easily decomposing 

 animal matters, as slaughter-house offal, soap-boil- 

 er's scraps, glue waste, etc., etc., may'be composted 

 in a similar manner, and that all these substances 

 may be made together into one compost. 



In case of tiie composts with guano, yard manure, 

 and otlier animal matters, ammonia is the alkali 

 which promotes these changes; and it would ap- 

 pear that this substance, on some accounts, excels 

 all others in its efficacy ; but the other alkaline 

 bodies, potash and lime, are scarcely less active in 

 this respect, and being at the same time of them- 

 selves useful fertilizers, they may be employed with 

 double advantage in preparing muck composts. 



Lucerne. — This leguminous plant was exten- 

 sively cultivated by the Romans, and commended by 

 Columella as the choicest of all fodder. One acre 

 he tbinkssuflBcient to keep four horses through the 

 whole year. The late Chancellor Livingston, some 

 years ago, in Columbia Co., N. Y., obtained 25 tons 

 of hay, at five cuttings, from an acre of lucerne. 

 It requires very rich land, and should be sown in 

 drills a foot apart, and the land must be kept very 

 loose and free from weeds. The first year the 

 crop is light, and it does not produce a medium 

 yield till the third year. In the neighborhood of 

 large cities, it might be grown to advantage as 

 green food for mil^h cows. When drilled, 10 lbs. 

 of seed is sufiicient for an acre ; broadcast 16 lbs. 



■ • ■ ^ 



iNWAjf Corn, said the late John Taylor, of 

 Virginia, is the " meal, meadow and manure of the 

 farm." 



THOMAS SATES. 



"We design to prepare for the Oenesee Farmei 

 short sketches of the lives of eminent agriculturists 

 accompanied with portraits. We think this wil 

 prove interesting, especially to the young farmer 

 of our country. We hope, too, that they maj 

 serve to give them a higher appreciation of thei 

 noble calling, and stimulate to increased effort 

 after excellence in their protession. 



Thomas Bates, so well known as a Short-hor: 

 breeder, was born at Matfen, Northumberland 

 England, in the year 1Y75. He commenced hi 

 studies in a school at Haydon Bridge, and continue 

 them at Witton-le-Wear, and completed his educE 

 tion at Edinburgh University. 



In early life his attention was directed to the ba 

 as a profession, hut this was soon abandoned fc 

 the more congenial pursuits of agriculture. H 

 commenced farming on one of his father's farn 

 called "The Eeles," on the banks of the Nort 

 Tyne, near Hexham. In the year 1800, he remove 

 to Halton Castle, which he occupied for twenty-or 

 years ; thence to Ridley Hall ; and subsequently t 

 Kirkleavington, in Yorkshire, where he resided ti 

 the time of his death, which took place in ti 

 seventy-fifth year of his age, July 26, 1849. 



It was on the Halton Castle farm that Mr. Batb 

 laid the foundation for his celebrated tribes t 

 Short-horns. The origin of his "Z>wcAess" stoc 

 was a cow bought from Charles Colling in 180- 

 So pleased was Mr. Bates with this specimen of th 

 herd that at Mr. Colling's sale at Ketton, in ISli 

 he determined to have at any price, a heifer, the 

 two years old, called Duchess, a grand-daughter ( 

 the cow he possessed. His instructions to tlie aii' 

 tioneer were that whatever sum any one might off> 

 for Duchess he was to bid five guineas more ; an 

 he obtained the prize for 183 guineas ($922). Froi 

 this animal, first crossed by a son of the old cov 

 came that produce which has earned for hersel 

 and her owner a world-wide celebrity. She wi 

 by the celebrated buU Comet, her dam by Favorit< 

 grandam Duchess, by Daisy Bull, &c. Comet W8 

 owned by Colling, and once sold for 1000 guineas 

 His descendant, Bates' celebrated bull Duke o 

 Northumberland, was never put up at public auc 

 tion, or there can be no doubt he would hav 

 brought an equal or greater sum. It is indec' 

 known that Mr. Bates refused a private offer o 

 1000 guineas for him. He appears to have deemet 

 him too valuable to put a price on. 



For upwards of a quarter of a century Mr. Bate 

 did not exhibit at any of the shows. He was, witl 

 great care, perseverance and skill, bringing his here 



