FERTILTZER9. 71 



young com iroota a rigorous start, just as good feed starts off a young calf, 

 or pig, or lamb, aud the roots penetrated farther in everv direction and 

 gathered more food and moisture. These stalks being better nourished 

 from below, ran far away from the poorly fed neighbors. As to the figures, 

 the rows were three and one-half feet apart, and the hills three feet distant 

 in the rows, say four thotisand hills on an acre, and four thousand pints of 

 manure is about sixty-two and one-half bushels, or two large wagon loads. 

 Anybody can reckon the difference between six large, well-filled ears of 

 com on each hill, and less three i)er hill, and the cost of the manure as com- 

 pared with the total value of the final crop. The plowing, and the seed, and 

 (he hoeing, amount to the same in each case. All I have to say is, that 

 i-very cora-hUl planted on my &rm this year will have at least a pint of 

 manure in it," 



Ho\r to Double the ITsnal Q,nantity- of Manure on the Farm. — 

 Provide a good supply of black swamp mold or loam from the woods, within 

 easy reach of your stable, and place a layer of this, one foot thick, tmder 

 each horse, with litter as usual on top of the loam or mold. Remove the 

 droppings of the animals every day, but let the loam remain for two weeks, 

 then remove it, mixing it with the other manure, and replace with freeh 

 mold. By this simple means any fanner can double not only the quantity 

 but also the quality of his manure, and never feel himself one penny the 

 poorer by the trouble or expense incurred, while the fertilizing value of the 

 ingredients absorbed and saved by the loam can scarcely be estimated. 



Joeiah Quincy, Jr., has been very successful in keeping cattle in stables 

 the year through, and feeding them, by means of soiling. The amount of 

 manure thus made had enabled him to improve the fertility of a poor farm 

 of one hundred acres, so that in twenty years the hay crop had increased 

 from twenty to three hundred tons. The cattle are kept in a well-arranged 

 stable, and are let out into the yard an hour or two mornings and afternoons, 

 but they generally appear glad to return to their quarters. By this process, 

 one acre enables him to support three or four cows. They are fed on grass, 

 green oats, com fodder, barley, etc., which are sown at intervals through 

 the spring and summer months, to be cut as required; but he remarks that 

 his most valuable crop is his manure crop. Each cow produces three and a 

 half cords of solid, and three cords of liquid manure, or six and a half cords 

 in all. Five to eight miles from Boston, such manure is worth from five to 

 eight dollars a cord. From this estimate, he has come to the conclusion that 

 a cow's manure may be made as valuable as her milk. 



Advantages of Sheltering Manure. — Many farmers allow the manure 

 made by their stock of cattle to be thrown out doors, where it remains 

 exposed in heaps or ia the yard for several months. The rains fall upon it, 

 and streams of black water laden with the soluble aud valuable elements of 

 the manure run away frova the manure heap during every heavy rain, the 

 sun bums it, and the winds dry it, the volatile gases escape and are lost. In 

 this way a large part of the plant food contained in the manure is lost. That 

 a serious loss is thus occasioned has been proved by experiment. A Scotch 

 fanner and land-Owner showed by experiment that covered manure increased 

 the productiveness of his land enough the first year he used it to pay the 

 cost of rough sheds put up to protect it. Four acres of good land were 

 measured off; two of them were manured with ordinary barnyard manure, 

 and the other two with an equal quantity of mantire from the covered shed. 

 The whole waa planted to potatoes. The two acres manored with barnyard 



