100 ECONOMY OF FARMING. 



" 8. The effect of folding is in exact proportion to the degree of the moisture of 

 the soil and chmate. A part of the watered meadow of Hard, which had 3 years 

 before a strong manuring in the fold, gave during a period, an increase of production 

 of 66 cwt. of hay on a morgen, while the dry meadows at Schlcisheim, produced 

 only 26 cwt. of the same description, and with equally great manuring. 



" 9. Maltings, if employed with good effect, must be used on grounds sufficiently 

 moist to decompose them, or before being used, must be dissolved or reduced to 

 powder, in which state, compared with their cost, they are profitable. 



" 10. Peat-dust, in regions where easily obtained, is a very cheap and most effica- 

 cious means of manure, if suitably employed, protected against drying up, and joined 

 with such other materials of manure as will continue it moist till decomposition, or if 

 used for plants under the shadow of wliich it can remain moist long enough. 



" 11. That for manuring over a morgen, of all the materials of manure, gypsum 

 required the least quantity, is evident, and gives occa.sion for the supposition, that its 

 powder, especially in a moist atmosphere, lies among the young leaves and stalks, 

 which produces, in proportion to the manure employed, the greatest effect. But 

 because this is very dependent on foreign influences — and therefore this manure fre- 

 quently remains without results — it is used within moderate limits, and only in the 

 most needy quantity of 3, 3|, and at the highest, 4 metzen (nearly as many 

 bushels) on a morgen. 



" 12. The compost employed in No. 30, consisted of the chief materials there 

 named, and of horse-dung, in the proportion of the latter to the former of 1:5, with 

 fluid mixture, with brick-kiln ashes and refuse. 



" 13. Manuring in holes, directly on the seed, as was the case with the potatoes, 

 exceeds in efficacy all other kinds of manuring. A cubic foot of the m.anure, accord- 

 ing to the size of the seed and the efficacy of the manure, should be used for 100, 

 150, and at the highest. 200 holes ; and therefore, in 10,000 holes or plants for a mor-, 

 gen (= 0,842 acre), there must be used at the above rate of 100 holes, 11 schaffels 

 (= 68 T^j^^ bushels), at the rate of 150, 7.4 schaffels (= 46 bushels), and at the rate 

 of 200 holes, 5.5 schaffels (= 34 bushels). Should now all the results of the obser- 

 vations and experiments made concerning the effect of manure as its value be 

 collected together, we shall be convinced that the amount of this value depends on a 

 great variety of partly accidental, unavoidable circumstances, partly on the correct 

 knowledge of the cheapest means of manuring, and mode of preparation and employ- 

 ment of the same, and also on the character of the farmer. The jpositice value of 

 manure, therefore, we vainly seek to ascertain, because the factors are not fixed 

 quantities, and in raising them, it depends on the Avill of the person." 



In speaking of the duties of the Director of the Farm, Vol. III. p. 260, Veit also uses, 

 with reference to this subject, language which applies well to our own country. " There 

 is scarcely in general any circumstance of Land-Husbandry more out of suitable pro- 

 portion than the great need of manure, owing to the little care used for its preparation 

 and increase. This disproportion is the more striking, as everywhere there are op- 

 portunities for increasing the amount, and the whole blame lies in a want of sufficient 

 attention to this subject. As Schwertz remarks, that it is incredible how the Bel- 

 gians with so little manure can manure so much land, so it is incredible how little 

 land is manured with us with a proportionably greater quantity of cattle and mate- 

 rials for the production of manure. From Schwertz, too, we further learn with 

 what uncommon carefulness the Belgians collect all kinds of materials for the pro- 

 duction of manure, in what estimation they hold manure, and how closely and accu- 

 rately they know how to proportion and classify the nianuring-power of different 

 kinds of manure. Such facts ought to make us ashamed and wake us up to a zeal- 

 ous imitation. 



" The most admirable talent of the Director (farmer) consists in this, to collect all the 

 materials of manure, and to cause them to be prepared partly alone and partly by 

 the suitable mixture into a manure which shall be most suitable to be employed in 

 the various kinds of culture, and thus to increase the quantity of manure. A director 

 who has a proper sense of the importance of these things, v.'ill not leave disregarded 

 whatever will better or increase the manure, and will so direct and employ his work- 

 men as to seek out and use whatever materials he can obtain. And thus he will 

 leave no day to pass over in which he will not give a thought to the question, by 

 what means a higher value can be imparted to it, and whether the materials for its 

 manufacture are employed to the greatest advantage." — Tr.] 



