NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



2li> 



prone to adhere to old usages, w'lcre no "ood 

 reasons can bo given for thoni. New practices 

 in husbandry are often — periiaps chiefly — at- 

 tempted by persons not bred to that occupation, 

 land these, for want of practical skill, may often 

 Ifail in the execution ; and when successful, the 

 Isuccess is ascribed to a liberal expenditure of 

 money, beyond the ability of the mere tarmer. 

 But what risk will attend experiments made by 

 farmers themselves, to test the value of these 

 novelties ? Each one for himself can try them 

 on as small pieces of ground as shall suit his 

 convenience, and at a very small expense of 

 :ime and money. The introduction of improvc- 

 •nenls would be tucilitaled, if the money cxpend- 

 >d, and especially the quantily' of lahnr bestow- 

 ;d upon thom, were always accurately stated, 

 ind their auilienticity vouched by the names of 

 he imiirovers. And if the experimenters, in 

 hese cases, who hire all the labor, and this 

 )ften performed in their absence, are merely 

 lot lasers. — practical farmers, always present, 

 ind working too wilh their own hands, would 

 issnre^lly render such new practices profitable. 



But I apprehend the knowledge of modern 

 mprovements in husbandry is far less extended 

 ban mav commonly be sup|)nscd. That cele- 

 rated 'rravelling Agriculturist, the late Arthur 

 fouas:, a man of science and literature as well 

 3 a practical firmer, — after visiting different 

 istricts in England, for the purpose of observ- 

 3g, nnd for the information of his coiuilrymen 

 escribing their various modes of husbandry, 

 ommenced, about the close of the American 

 Far, his Annals of Agriculture. He aftcrnards 

 •avolled over France and parts of Spain and 

 uly w.th the same views. Thus fraught wilh 



Agricultural Societies, or of well informed indi-ltancc of the urine of cattle as a manure ; and 

 viduals. ^Vith these and a few other books on | he sets about to discover, by a long and well 



the subject, e^ch township-society would become 

 possessed, at a very small expense, of a pleasing 

 and instructive agricultural library. 



After considering the constitution of the soil 

 he has to cultivate, the next object of the far- 

 mer will embrace the means of enriching it, 

 and of preserving its fertilitj'. To enrich it, 

 manure will present itself as of the first im[)or- 

 tance ; and of manures, the dung of his live 

 slock will obviously occur as the most essentia 



conducted scries of experiments, the best meth- 

 od of collecting and applying it. He began by 

 digging a (>it contiguous to the feeding stall, but 

 distinct altogether from that which was appro- 

 priated for the reception of the dung. The di- 

 mensions of this pit, according to his own ac- 

 count, were 36 feet square, and four feet deep, 

 surrounded on all sides by n wall ; and the solid 

 contents were 192 yards. Having selected the 

 nearest spot where he could lind loamy earth, 



ingredient. If the manure from the droppings ; and this he always took from the surface of 

 of his stock could easily be doubled, how great i some field under cultiva'ion, lie proceeded to 

 would be the farmer's acquisition? That this is j fill it; and found (hat with three men and two 

 practicable I cannot permit myself to doubt. I j horses, he could easily accomplish 20 cubic 

 am rather inclined to think it capable of a man- 1 yards per day ; and the ivhole expense of trans- 

 ifold increase. At another public meeting of porting the earth di<l not exceed £,\. IC. ().* 



farmers, I had occasion to suggest some means 

 of preserving and greatly increasing this impor- 

 tant article ; particularly during tliat portion of 

 the year when cattle are at pasture, but penned 



When the work wag complete, he levelled the 

 surlace of the heap, in a line with the mouth 

 of the sewer which conducted the urine iVorti 

 the interior of the building, on purpose that it 



at night in the barn yard. Nothing is more might be distributed with regularity, and might 



common than to see those yards, after being 

 cleared of manure for the Spring crops, lel't 

 naked until aulnnm, without litter or mud, or 

 earth of any kind, to absorb the urine of the 

 cattle and to m:ngle with their dung; but all is 

 left open to our burning summer suns, by which 

 the greater part, three fourths, perhaps seven 

 e.ghths, of the essence of both are exhaled and 

 given to the wmds. To prevent this serious 

 loss, I suggested the expediency of giving to 

 the barn yard, as soon as it was cleared out, a 

 covering of any kind of litter, and a coat of 

 earth, mud from low grounds, loam where at- 

 tainable, or an}' kind of earth to which a farmer 



jncul'.ural knowledge, he continued his labors lean have easy access; and that as often as once 

 I that work ; comprehending, in addition to '• in two weeks, a new coat of earth should be 

 is own observations, useful comn>uiiications ' introduced. Weeds from road sides and waste 

 cm i>ract;cal farmers, bearing their signature*, ' places would make valuable additions to the 

 ■r it was a general rule with him not to admit I summer manure. By such means manure may 

 ly unless thus vouched; yet, if my recol Ice- 1 be increased in a four, perhaps an eight-fold 



1 lie correct, that practical work was so little i dcgr.-^e. 

 nded to by English tarmnrs, that he once I But if in adilition to this accumulated summer 



ited its sales as not exceeding 50U copies, manure, the fiirmer, without any of the dung or 

 nice then, indeed, improvements have more ! litter of his cattle, could double the quantity 

 -adily been adopted, and agriculture has ad- 1 usually made during the winter, would he not 

 meed with an accelerated pace, and in Scot- 1 consider himself enriched? That this is practi- 



id with great rapidity. Heading, to obtain i cable will appear from a statement 1 shall now 



licultural information, has been extended, and recite; it being the result of carei'ul experi- 

 ments made in Scotland during a period of ten 



' jcome fashionable ; and book-farming know 

 dge is no longor despised. This knowledge 



5 now of greatly increased value, because ex- 

 '■ Jriraents, with a view to improvements, are 

 '■ jot, as formerly, made at random, but on prin- 

 « ^ pies founded in the nature of things, and which 



• i"st on modern discoveries. 



years. The fact is stated in one of' a scries of 

 papers written with great ability by Mr. John 

 Voung, under liie signature of Agricola, (alrea- 

 dy referred to) and published at Halifax. The 

 urine of cattle produced this mighty eflect. 1 

 cannot so well occupy your time as by giving 

 As we have no farmers who Cannot read— -in 1 the statement in his own words, as abridged by 

 •Jer to give to all opportunities of reading. 1 ! him from the Farmers' Magazine, published in 

 ■<e leave to suggest for consideration, the ex- Scotland. 



"I should be afraid (says Mr. Young) to haz- 

 ard my character with the public, by stating in 

 round and unqualilied language, the value of 

 this ricii juice v.iuch is literally wasted and 

 ihrown away ; and tlierei'ore 1 shall proceed 

 with caution, and give a detail of facts, conclu- 

 sive iu their bearings, and substantiated by the 



iiency of forming, in each township in the 



:'.;', a i'arming society, of which the member^ 



■•id meet monthly, to converse on farming 



•;r; — to make mutual communications of then 



".iices in husbandry — to commit to writing 



"IV practice not in common use, which ma\ 



lienertcially extended — and to read and ex- 



■1 ne modern publications on their vocalinu , 



r' cularly those of the State Society, which 



Trustees would gratuitously furnish. T" 



-e, such township-societies would find t 



■eable and useful to add the best j.eriodical 



'■'caliiiti; whxh issue from the presses of 



:r owu countr), either through the agency of 



I i'est authority. They are contained in a letter* 

 I from Charles Alexander, near Peebles, in Scot- 

 land ; and are addressed to Sir John Sinclair in 

 1812, for publication. This intelligent farmer 

 had long been impressed with the great impor- 



*" Farmers' Magaziue, vol, xiii, page 78." 



aturafe the whole from top to bottom. The 

 quantity conveyed to it, he estimates at about 

 800 gallons ; but as this cnlculation was founded 

 partly on conjecture, for he measured not the 

 liquor, it will be belter and more instructive to 

 furnish and proceed on liata that are certain 

 and incontrovertible. The urine was supplied 

 by 14 cattle, weighing about 34 stone each,t 

 and kept there for live months on fodiler and 

 turnips. The contents of (he pit produced 288 

 loads, allowing two cubic yards to be taken out 

 in three carts ;]; and he spread 40 of these on 

 each acre; so that this urinsj in five months, 

 and from fourteen ca(tle, produced compost 

 sufficient to fertilize seven acres of land.§ He 

 states further, that he tried this experiment fut 

 ten years, and had indiscriminately used, in (he 

 same field, either the rolled cow dung, or (he 

 saturate<l earth ; and in all the stages of the 

 crop he had never been able to discover any 

 perceptible difference. But what is still more 

 wonderful, he found that his compost lusted as 

 many years as his best putrescent manure ; and 

 he therefore boldly avers, that a load of each is 



of equivalent value." '•• The dung pit, which 



contained all the excrementitious matter of the 

 14 cattle, as well as the litter eniployod in bed- 

 ding them, and which was kept separate for the 

 purpose of the experiments, furnished, during 

 the same period, only 240 loads ; and these, at 

 the same rale, could manure only six acres." 



On this statement one remark forces itself 

 into notice. That for the want of such a reser- 

 voir for saving the urine of our cattle, more 

 than half of our winter made manure, and this 

 is the farmer's chief dependance, is lost. 



It is not stated whether the pit tilled with 

 loam was or was not covered : but unless cov- 

 ered, rains would saturate the earth, and thus 

 in a manner exclude the urine conveyed to it 

 from the cattle stall. It should also be noted, 

 ■siqiposiiig the pit to have been covered, that 

 the fro-its m Scotland would seldom so iVeeze 

 Ihe earth in the pit as to ))revent the absorp- 

 tion of the urine. Tlie frosts in Massachusetts 



*$21 31. Seven days work for three iricn and two 

 horses ; each horse, I suppose, in a single cart, a com- 

 mon usage in Scotland. 



t This would be the weight of a cow. 



I I'his gives 18 cut ic feet to each load. 



( ?cvrn Scotch acies are nearly equal to nine Eng- 

 lish and American acres. 



k 



