50 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



ADGl'ST 82, 1838. 



f ,he opinion has been that this resulted from the 

 agitation of the grain by wind. This must be a 

 mistaken notion. My grain that was most injured 

 by tlieni, was ahiiost as airy as the top of Mount 

 Blanc, being situated where the air is in motion 

 ■when it cannot be perceived on the hills around. 



I have hoard it recommended to burn the chaff 

 •and straw of our wheat This would do, if the fly 

 did not deposit its eggs any where except in 

 ■wheat, and all of them could be secured with the 

 straw and cliafl', and every farmer influenced to 

 come into the measure. Late ploughing tlie stub- 

 ble has also been recommended. Tliis will effect 

 niithinT ; unless the grubs are all shaken from the 

 grain when cut, — and then it would be a doubtful 

 experiment. 



I have noticed that the fly when upon the grain 

 •B-ill not move until a very near approach to it ; aud 

 when disturbed, it invariably rises to fly to another 

 head ; which induced me to see if they might not 

 be taken in netting. I therefore placed some thin 

 cloth upon some sticks, and passed it over tlie grain 



brushing it as it passed along, — and found it to 



succeed beyond my expectations ; and i'rom the 

 success of this simple experiment, I have thought 

 it ilhportant to recommend the following Machine, 

 for the purpose of destroying them and preventing 

 their ravages. 



This machine is constructed as follows. 1st. 

 Two wheels, 5 feet diameter, made as light as pos- 

 sible, — ti;e felloes 2 inches deep, and one hich 

 thick on the concave ; the convex surface reduced 

 nearly to an edge. 



2d. An axletree of light wood. Hi 1-2 feet long, 

 and two inches square. 



3d. Two shives, 10 feet long, and 1 1-2 inch 

 square diameter ; tenoned into the axletree, four 

 within each wheel ; the opposite ends converging 

 nearly or quite together — these are to guide and 

 propel the car. 



4th. Tliree slats, 2 1-2 feet long, 1-2 inch thick, 

 and 2 inches wide — pass through the axletree at 

 right angles with the shives, or perpendicular ; and 

 moveable, fastened with a thumb screw or key — one 

 in the centre and one near each wheel. 



5th. A rod, 1 inch square, upon the upper and 

 lower ends of the slats — 15 feet 6 inches long. 



Ctli. Place two other rods upon the ends of some 

 anns from the centre of the slats— the lower nne 

 above the thills — both equidistant from the two 

 first rods, forming a half circle. 



7th. Cover this frame with suitable cloth, so that 

 it shall form something siniilar to half a bolting 

 cloth, when upon the re^i T»tth both ends closed — 

 the upper edge of .the clotli , ought to pass forward 

 of the upper rod, and elevated a little by the sup- 

 port of wires from the rod-^the thills will pass 

 through the cloth. 



6th. Place several good brimstone matches 

 along the axletree. Light them up, and the ma- 



■ chine is ready for operation. 



Tlie macMne is f o be pushed before the operator 

 ■-«.t a brisk walk. The lower rod should brush the 

 grain about six inches from the top. As the ma- 



■ chine passes over the grain, the breadths should 

 lap a little ; and it should be used as soon as the 

 fly makes its appearance, between sunset and dark, 

 for several nin-hts in succession ; not, however, till 

 tlie heads of wlie.it appear above the leaves. It 

 will be readily perc eived that the width of the ma- 

 chine is not material. I have recommended IC 1-2 

 feet for de.ioo.tch. Ho is probable thit large grown 



straw may require larger wheels ; but I presume it 

 will operrate well if the lower rod is brought close 

 to the axletree, and the axletree brushes the grain 

 one foot from the tops — if the matches are situated 

 a little above the axletree. 



After having p'.ssed over the grain, the flies will 

 be found, suffocated upon the canvass of the car. 

 Yours, &c. 



LEONARD NORCROSS. 



I the Former'* Cahinel. 



What is the grkate 



obtained from give 



Mr Editor 



MANURE. 



quANTiTV OF Manure to be 



MEANS ? 



There are in agxiculture, as per- 



haps in every science, some leading propositions, 

 calculated in a particular manner to arrest atten- 

 tion by their prominent importance. Such I hold 

 that of a " Subscriber " in your May number — 

 " H'hal win an acre of land produce ?" and also the 

 questiim which heads this article. 



Were it possible at once to afford a complete 

 and palpable scdution to these two propositions, 

 what mind can calculate the vast increase of treas- 

 ures that would instantly become accessible to hu- 

 manity ? As, then, we cannot inquire too strictly, 

 or know too much regarding them, I propose, after 

 recapitulating a few of tlie principal statements of 

 a " Subscriber " concerning the latter question, to 

 furnish my own experiments upon the former. 



He informs us tliat a single acre of his land,* 

 unlh abimdnnt manuring and superior cultivation, 

 was made to produce the sum of $348,40 cents per 

 annum, for five successive years, besides the vege- 

 tables used in a small family. He further states, 

 in sabstance, as his present, conviction, that the 

 quantity of soil cultivated has nothing to do with 

 the secret of gathering money out of it ; that " this 

 altogether depends on a judicious selection of soil, 

 on the facility of ohtaining manure, and on the 

 proper application of it as food for plants," &c. ; — 

 that he found, by actual experiment, made upon a 

 large scale, " that the profit of capital laid out in 

 land produced an interest of only fim per cent, per 

 annum, the capital laid out in manure upon the same 

 land produced twenty per cent." 



Now, my own e.tperienee, as I shall presently 

 show, abundantly confirms the probable accuracy 

 of all these statements. Let us distinctly under- 

 stand, then, that it is not the great quantity of land, 

 but the abundance of manure upon a little, that is 

 alone required to give wealth and independence ; 

 that the man ■^^"ho owns five or si.-v acres, may (ac- 

 cording to the above data,) ->vith the aid of manure 

 and good management, draw from .$1800 to $2,000 

 from them eacli year, while he of a hundred acres 

 may scarcely obtain half of it upon tlie common 

 plan. 



But where i- the requisite manure to be obtained 

 that shall so suddenly and surely enrich tbe farmer ? 

 In reply to this, I will simply give my own expe- 

 rience, and by it endeavor to convince the reflecting 

 farmer v/hat amount can, and in fact has been 

 made from means incomparably more limited than 

 is generally imagined possible. 



Previous to 1829, I had followed in Philadelphia 

 a sedentary occupation, which, by excessive appli- 

 cation iu it, had so enfeebled my con.stitution, that 

 I was obliged to seek in the country for that meas- 

 ure of health which I might no longer hope for in 



"See Gon. Farmer, current Vol. p. 181. 



tlie city. So I bought, with my scanty savings, a 

 small p'ace often and a half acres, and moved upon 

 it the same fall, of 1829. 



Not being acquainted with farming, I hired a 

 man to plough two and a half acres, and sow it in 

 rye. The cost of seed and labor, in putting in, 

 gathering, and threshing the said crop, was $8 56 

 cents. The crop yielded five and a half bushels of 

 very poor black rye, fit only for hay feed — say at 

 forty cents per bushel, (as good rye was then sel- 

 ling at fifty and fifly-six cents per bushel,) was 

 worth $2 20 cents, and the nett loss sustained upon 

 farming the ground was $6 30 cents. The season 

 was moderately good for grain, and the two and a 

 half acres rather a favorable specimen of the rest 

 of my land ! I planted a potato patch the follow- 

 ing spring, (1830,) of about the fourth of an acre, 

 which I manured in tlie hills with one load of marl 

 only, and the crop yielded but three and a half 

 bushels ! 



Being a total stranger to the nature and charac- 

 ter of soils, but having previously, from some cause, 

 entertained the notion that land in general produced 

 about twentyfive bushels of wheat, or forty bushels 

 of corn, or four or five loads of hay to the acre, the 

 conviction I had now received of the absolute 

 worthlessness of my land fell upon me like the 

 shock of a thunder-clap. Discouraged by the great- 

 ness of my disappointment, but not quite confound- 

 ed, I determined that manure, in future, should be 

 every thing to me, and stand in the stead of both 

 land and crop. Being greatly improved in health, 

 by the change of situation and exercise, I plied my 

 avocation with increased diligence for the mainte- 

 nance of my family, and made it the amusement of 

 my leisure hours and leisure moments to collect 

 from every corner, and pannel of fence, every thing 

 that I imagined could furnish a vegetable nutriment, 

 and placed it in the cow yard, so combined with 

 the litter as to absorb and retain every thing of the 

 putrescent character that might be deposited there. 

 By such means I have gone on, every year increas- 

 ing the quantity of my manure, to an extent that I 

 believe has astonished most of my neighbors. The 

 following is a sketch of the means I possessed, and 

 the methods I took to obtain manure for the present 

 year. 



I commenced last summer by collecting into the 

 outer part of my hog pen every thing of the weed 

 kind I could find about the place, till I had a layer 

 about twelve inches deep, which I covered with a 

 layer of earth about five inches thick, continuing 

 the process till the pen was filled to about two and 

 a half feet deep. In the fall I littered my loose 

 corncorbs aud the principal part of the buckwheat 

 straw into the pen, interspersed with layers of earth 

 in the same manner. The two stalls of my stables 

 I served also the same, taking care to save therein 

 all tlie chaff and refuse straw after threshing. In 

 these stalls I poured weekly, through the fall and 

 winter, (for I had no cattle in them except in bad 

 storms,) the soap-suds and such putrescent fluids 

 that might be obtained, keeping tlie corners and 

 outsides, and under the mangers carefully satu- 

 rated. 



As soon as my corn was gathered in the fiill, I 

 cut the stubs close to the ground, and wheeled them 

 immediately, tohile yet lieavy, into tlie barn-yard, 

 where I packed them in every part of it, and also 

 under the shed, being an area of ground about forty 

 feet by twenty, and in a few days covered them 

 also with a layer of earth, from a fence-row, close 



