116 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



"OCTOBER 17, U38. 



UfANURE. 



The article which follows goes to prove three 

 facts, of primary importance to the farmet, which 

 we have strenuously endeavored to inculcate, viz : 



First, That the resources for manure, on almost 

 every farm, are sufficiently ahundant, when properly 

 husbanded and applied, to keep up, or improve, its 

 fertility ; 



Secondly, That felenjing unfermented dung with 

 earth, or the soil, accelerates its decomposition: 

 while, 



Thirdly, A vast arnoiint of fertilizing matter is 

 saved by such admixture being made, before fermm- 

 taiion )uis taken place — the earth " absorbing and 

 retaining that excess of putrescent fluids and efflu- 

 via which is otherwise lost by filtration and evapo- 

 ration ; that is, by soaking away and drying up." — 

 Cjultivatcr. 



From tlie Farmer's Calanet. 



IfTiat is the greatest qiumtity of manure to he obtained 

 from given means ? 

 Mr Editor — There are in agriculture, as per- 

 haps in gvery science, some leading propositions, 

 calculated in a particular manner to arrest attention 

 by their prominent importance. Such I hold that 

 of a "Subscriber" in your May nnmher—" ff'hat 

 will an acre of land produce ?" and also the question 

 which heads this article. 



Were it possible at once to afford a complete and 

 palpable solution to these two propositions, what 

 mind can calculate the vast increase of treasures 

 that would instantly become accessible to humanity ? 

 As, then, we cannot inquire too strictly, or know 

 too much regarding them, I propose, after recapitu- 

 lating a few of the principal statements of a " Sub- 

 scriber," concerning the latter question, to-*t:rnish 

 my own experiments upon the former. 



He informs us that a single acre of hre land, 

 with abundant manuring and superior cultivation, 

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

 for five successive years, besides the vegetables 

 used in a small family. He further states, in sub- 

 stance, 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 judiciojjs selection of soil, on the fa- 

 cility of obtaining manure, and on the proper appli- 

 cation of it as food for plants," (fcc. ; — that he fo'.ind, 

 by actual experiment, made upon a large scale, 

 "that the profit of capital laid out in land produced 

 an interest of only five per cent, per annum, the 

 capital laid out in manure upon the same land pro- 

 duced tioenty per cent." 



Now, my own experience, 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 manuie upon a little, that is 

 alone required to give wealth and independence ; 

 that the man who owns five or six acres, may, 

 (according to the above data,) with the aid of ma- 

 nure and good management, draw from $1,800 to 

 $2,000 from them each year, while he of a hundred 

 acres may scarcely obtain lialf of it upon the com- 

 mon plan. 



But where is the requisite manure to be obtained 

 that shall so suddenly and surely enrich the far- 

 mer ? In reply to tiiis, I will simply give my own 

 experience, and by it endeavor to convince tlie 

 reflecting farmer what amount can, and in fact has 



been made from means incomparably more limited 

 I than is generally imagined possible. 

 I Previous to 162<}, I had followed in Philadelphia 

 I a sedentary occupation, which, by excessive applica- 

 tion in it, had so enfeebled my constitution, that I 

 j was obliged to seek in the country for that measure 

 of health which 1 might no longer hope for in the 

 jcity. So I bought, with my scanty savings, a small 

 place of ten and a half acres, and moved upon it 

 the same fall of 182!>. 



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 thrashing tlie said crop, was $8,50. 

 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 selling at 

 fifty and fiftysix cents per bushel,) was worth .$3,20, 

 and the nett loss sustained upon farming the ground 

 was $6,36. The season was moderately good for 

 grain, and the two and a hal'f acres rather a favor- 

 able specimen of the rest of my land ! I planted a 

 potato patch the following spring, (1830,) of about 

 the fourth of an acre, which I manured in the hills 

 with one load of marl only, and the crop yielded 

 but three and a half bushels ! 



Keing 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 twentyiive 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 worth- 

 lessness of my land fell upon me like the shock of 

 a thunder-clap. Discouraged by the greatness of 

 my disappointment, but not quite confounded, 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 mainten- 

 ance 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 nutri°- 

 ment, 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 

 increasing the quantity of my manure, to an extent 

 that I believe 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 

 o«rncobs and 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 the chafl" and refuse straw after thrashing. In 

 these stalls I poured weekly, through the fall and 

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

 storms,) the soapsuds and such putrescent fluids 

 that might be obtained, keeping the corners and 

 outsides, and under the mangers carefully saturated. 

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

 cut the stubs close to the ground, and wheeled 

 them immediately, while yet heavy, into the 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 

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

 close by, to the depth of about eight or ten inches.' 

 Upon this earth I foddered my three cattle during 

 the winter, occasionally depositing more earth upon 

 the litter as it collected there. 



Your readers will readily judge, that the object 

 of all this preparation was not so much for the sake 

 of saving the materials collected there as to obtain 

 a menstruum, or rather sponge, if I may so call it 

 calculated to absorb and retain all the urine depos- 

 ited in the yard during the winter. The compost 

 masses, however, or layers, thus collected together, 

 are not to be considered as manure prepared for 

 the soil, but only as materials that require to be 

 thoroughly mixed, in order to reduce them to a state 

 fitted for a rapid and complete incorporation with 

 the soil. Accordingly, with this view, I commenced 

 late in April the operation of turning it, which, from 

 its having become closely packed to the depth of 

 twenty inches, with tlie stalks at the bottom, could 

 only be done with the aid of a grubbing hoe, turn- 

 ing it in strips about a foot wide, reaching across 

 the yard, and throwing the loosened manure back a 

 sufficient space to allow a trench between, wide 

 enough to work in. After removing the whole 

 cover from the stalks, along a strip, as before men- 

 tioned, they were easily grubbed up, by first cutting 

 them through all along the solid edge of the strip 

 with the hoe, it' being made pretty sharp for the 

 purpose. In addition to this pile of yard manure, I 

 have also emptied the contents of my hog pen and 

 stables, extending tlie pile several feet, and lying 

 upon the ground, when first loosened, more than 

 two and a half feet deep. Of this manure I have 

 used sixteen loads this spring, for truck and garden, 

 and, judging from the size of the pile yet remaining', 

 there cannot be less than sixty loadsj which, bein<r 

 turned once more, I intend to use for wheat next 

 fall. 



In this manner, from only three head of cattle 

 and the fattening of four hogs, I have made from' 

 seventy to eightytwo horse loads of manure, tlie 

 highly fertilizing properties of which are abundantly 

 attested by my own former experience. I will not ' 

 say that it is stronger than the best barn-yard ma- 

 nure, but from its closer affinity to the nature of the 

 soil, and greater facility for being rapidly combined 

 and incorporated, without loss by evaporation, I 

 have no doubt it will be frequently found, up'on 

 trial, more effective and more durable. 



In the process of turning manure, thus prepared, 

 I hold it of the highest importance to mix well the 

 earthy and vegetable parts together. Few persons 

 are perhaps aware how rapidly the earth facilitates 

 vegetable decomposition, and to what a surprising 

 degree it absorb; the excess of Jertilizing effluvia, 

 wliich must otlierwise be evaporated during the 

 process of decomposition. This circumstance, I 

 believe, taken in connection with the careful econ- ■ 

 omising of all animal excretions, constitutes chiefly ' 

 the great secret (I might, perhaps, add alleged ne- 

 cromancy,) that has added already so much verdure ' 

 to my previously exhausted soil, and been so profit- 

 able to me, and so surprising to my neiffhbors. 



No farmer can imagine, that has not tried the 

 experiment, what a prodigious quantity of rich, 

 vegetable, and fibrous earth may be collected from 

 corners and by-places which lie out of the way of 

 cultivation, and which, from their retired position, 

 have perhaps, never so much as attracted his notice. 



