

DSVOTED TO JGSICOITORE M AIL ITS VIEIOUS KINDRED lETS m SCIENCES 



SAVING MANURE. 



In the busy season of summer, the farmer will, 

 generally, have but little time for making manure, 

 by collecting and preparing various materials ; but 

 he should diligently attend to saving all manures 

 produced by his animals, as, without care, there is a 

 great loss, at this season, by the hot sun, drying 

 winds, and occasionally drenching rains. 



Allow animal manures to lie only a few months, 

 exposed to these wasting influences, and more than 

 half of their virtues will be dissipated. A little 

 labor will save manure from waste, and pay fourfold 

 the expense. Place the manure under shelter, or, if 

 this cannot be done conveniently at this busy season, 

 place it in the shade, as the rains of summer will not 

 generally penetrate far into a heap. And to save 

 the liquid part, and extend or divide the solid part, 

 so as to prevent heating, mix loam, sand, or mud 

 intimately with the manure. By adding mud, peat, 

 muck, or clay with manure for dry lands, and sand, 

 gravel, or light loam with that for clayey or wet 

 lands, the texture of the soil will be permanently 

 improved by the application. 



When we consider that the farmers of New Eng- 

 land are proverbial for their economy, we can hardly 

 account for their' allowing of so great a waste in 

 manure. They would cautiously guard against the 

 waste of a crop, even to the amount of a single dollar, 

 or a dime, and yet they allow their manures to be 

 wasted to the value of many dollars annually. U a 

 hen, squirrel, bird, or any other small animal, is 

 known to be feasting daily on the labors of the 

 farmer, it is carefully guarded against, or the crop 

 secured, to prevent the petty depredation. 



But old Sol may pour his scorching rays upon the 

 manure heap, the parching winds may carry off its 

 fine gases, and the rains may pour in floods upon it, 

 and carry off in solution its most valuable product ; 

 and all this is unheeded by thousands, yea, hundreds 

 of thousands, of provident farmers — provident they 

 intend to be, and so they are generally, but on this 

 subject they have not reflected. 



When cultivators have given this subject a thor- 

 ough investigation, they will no more allow a waste 



of the materials that produce crops, than allow ani- 

 mals to devour crops without permission. We hope 

 that every man who tills the soil will give this sub- 

 ject a candid examination, and act upon the light 

 which must beam upon the reflecting mind ; and the 

 consequence will be a saving of manure to the 

 amount of millions of dollars annually. 



HAY CAPS. 



Caps for the protection of hay are very convenient 

 and economical, especially in changeable weather. 

 Sometimes caps may be used several times in one 

 season, and make sufficient saving to pay the whole 

 expense in a single year. In some cases the amount 

 saved in one storm has been sufficient to pay the 

 whole expense. Caps will cost about thirty-three 

 or forty cents apiece. By the use of one, a hundred 

 of hay would sometimes be saved in excellent con- 

 dition, which would be nearly worthless without 

 such protection, making a saving of forty or fifty 

 cents ; and in some years of scarcity of hay, the 

 saving would be, in a single instance, sixty or seventy 

 cents to each cap, at once using. Besides saving 

 hay from damage, there is a great saving of labor, 

 as it requires much time to open and dry hay that 

 has been wet in the heap ; and the whole business 

 of haying is expedited by the use of caps, and the 

 hay is secured in better season, making a great 

 saving in the quality of the last that is procured, 

 which is often much injured by long standing. We 

 hope that farmers will try this mode of securing hay, 

 at least in a small way, that they may judge from 

 experience. 



Old canvas or sails are sometimes used for caps. 

 Drilling, or close stout sheeting, is a convenient and 

 excellent article for caps. Purchase that which is 

 one yard and three or four inches wide, and make 

 the caps of two pieces sowed together, about two 

 and one fourth yards long, making the caps a little 

 more than two yards each way. Two yards square 

 will answer, but a quarter or half in addition is 

 better. 



Turn up the corners one or two inches, and sew 

 them ; into these loops put a line or cord, with a loop 



