274 OF CROPS AND THEIR CULTIVATION. 



and nitrogen. Most composts are bulky, and consist of all the waste organic materials which 

 may be found about the yards, barns and kitchens of a farm-house : hence weeds, leaves, spent 

 ashes, soap-suds, crushed bones, decaying or putrid meat, waste fish-brine, together with peat 

 and chips, saw-dust, chamber wastes, etc., may be all mixed in a depression in llse soil, made 

 impervious by a stilfclay bottom. Fermentation will ensue, and in due time a (,. . iUity of valuable 

 fertilizers will be formed, at a trifling cost. Every farm establishment should have i*<5 compost 

 manufactory, both on the score of economy and comfort, where every otTensive 1' ' ')Out the 

 premises may be deposited. Not unfreqently accidents occur with the stock, and for many 

 causes a cow, ox or sheep die, which may be turned to some profit, if the carcases are properly 

 covered and immersed in absorbent vegetable matters. All the ammonia and volatile products 

 arising from decomposition may be saved from waste, and employed as fertilizers. The forma- 

 tion of compost may be frequenly effected by ploughing and collecting the turf of road-sides 

 and mixing with lime or ashes. A rich loam may, in this way, be formed where the farm- 

 yard is too distant to admit or warrant the transportation of the ordinary manures. Peat 

 and muck beds are usually situated at a distance from the dwellings and barns. In order to 

 make these ancient depositories of manure for the husbandman the most useful, the peaty mat- 

 ter should be thrown out first to dry ; it will lose its water, and one half if not more of its 

 weight. When dried in the sun it is well prepared to become the absorbent of ammonia, car- 

 bonic acid, etc., together with any liquid wastes which it may be convenient to add to it. A 

 fertilizer will take the place of water, and will also aid in the decomposition of the peat itself. 

 It is well known that if dry peat is buried slightly in the soil, it will remain a long time an 

 annoyance to the tiller of the soil. It is, therefore, essential that it should be in a changing 

 state — a state in which decomposition is going on : it will then continue, and finally be resolved 

 into nutritive elements. When peat and marl are both present, it is a still more fortunate oc- 

 currence ; and every husbandman who possesses such resources, should make his farm pro- 

 ductive and profitable. The peat will fupply organic matter, and, to a considerable extent, 

 those forms of it which contain nitrogen ; usually there is a small percentage of phosphates 

 in the marl, but probably additions of phosphates will be required, if the farm is devoted to 

 dairying, or the production of the cereals. Bones, then, or the native phosphates, will be all 

 that will be required to make such a farm a standard one, which will not suffer by comparison 

 with the best establishments in this country or Europe. 



OF CROPS AND THEIR CULTIVATION. 



Northern husbandry diifers from southern husbandry, in the variety of crops which are an- 

 nually raised. This diflerence is found to exist when we compare those parts of the south 

 where slave labor prevails exclusively, or rather where certain staple crops form the main object 

 of the planter, as cotton, rice, sugar and tobacco. It appears to be proved that the black laborer, 

 while in a state of servitude, has less power to adapt himself to a -varied husbandry than the white 

 laborer. There is a routine of work upon a sugar or cotton, or rice plantation, with which the 



