AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



rUIJMSHKO BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO, NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultukal WAaEHOusE.) 



vol.. XVIII.] 



<!0>STON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 95, 1840. 



[NO. 38. 



N. E . FARMER. 



AN ADDRESS 



Before t,\ Essex: .igrictilhirnt Society, at Georg 

 town, Scjit. SC), )839. By Allkn Puinam, .0/ 

 Danvcis. J 



[Corninued. 1 



Manuies — tlie means and methods of increasing 

 and compounding them ; the particular soils tVid 

 crops to which e.^tch kind is best ndapted; in w'^jt 

 state and at what seasons they should bu applio! : 

 these all claim our careful attention and close stii- 

 dy. Knowledge of these is the main-spring of 

 improvement and success in husbandry. Attmni>t- 

 ing to farm without manure, is like s-etling up tn. be 

 a gentleman of leisure and fashion without money. 

 The thing wunl go. Tlie proper construction of 

 yards fur cattle and swine ; the advantages ot a 

 cellar under the barn ; the more common means of 

 increasing the manure heap ; I have no time for 

 considering- Important as brevity is however, the 

 claims of muck to our regard must not be passed 

 over in silence. Many of our swamps and mea- 

 dows consist of an invaluable collection of de- 

 composed vegetable matter. This, by a few months 

 exposure to the atmosphere, becomes an excellent 

 material for making most valuable composts. I 

 am pursuaded that its worth, and the best methods 

 of using it, are not generally understood. A high- 

 ly int"lligrnt member of this socjety, recentK.,' 

 vited me into his fields, and I have seen buS^itHe 

 corn of fairer promise any where, than was grow- 

 ing upon land broken up the present season, be- 

 cause bound out, and where the only dressing ujed 

 was fifteen or sixteen cart loads of compost to the 

 acre ; three fourths of which was meadow mud, 

 the remainder stable manure. Another of our 

 members, intelligent and scientific, has a fine field 

 of corn manured with meadow mud, mixed with 

 quantities of stable manure and wood ashes so 

 small as to make the whole an uncommonly cheap 

 dressing for that crop. This field, perhaps, will 

 teach some valuable lessons. I say no more, be- 

 cause, its owner will undoubtedly be the -willing 

 organ of its comn.unication with this society. Un- 

 mixed with any other ingredients, this swamp 

 mud, after being rendered friable by the frost, is a 

 very considerable fpitilizer of light soils; and 

 will well repay the expense of using it as a top 

 dressing upon grass lands. I will here remark that 

 the meadows, in which good muck abounds, are 

 among our most productive soils and most profita- 

 ble for cultivation. The necessary draining may 

 often be accomplished while one is obtaining muck 

 for the manure heap. Where there is sufficient 

 consistency for the use of the turf-spade, and 

 where a new ditch is to be opened, this labor may 

 conveniently be performed in winter, when the 

 meadow is so firmly frozen as to make it conve- 

 nient and easy removing the mud to the upland. 

 This is no mere theory. These feet and these 

 hands know to the full extent, what tliere is of 

 cold and discomfort in working in the muddy ditch 



on days that do no discredit to January ; and they 

 will tell you that when cased in boots and mittens 

 they will not ask for a more comfortable place. As 

 far as the farmer has opportunity to collect mate- 

 rials for his manure heap, and drain his w.'t lands 

 at his most leisure season, prudence diructs him 

 to embrace them. But my subject is manures. 

 Chaptal, in his Agricultural Chemistry, says tliat 

 " the excellence of a soil depends upon its con- 

 taining the right proportion of each species of 

 earth, and that is supposed to be the best soil, iii 

 wl ich the virtues of one portion of its. constituent 

 principles correct the faults or defects of the 

 rest." To spread the sandy wash obtained by the 

 road-side upon sandy and gravelly soils ; to put a 

 dressing of vegetable matter upon the peat mea- 

 dow or on a very black soil, would be " carrying 

 coals to New Castle." It might not be entirely 

 useless, but there is so much of the article already 

 there that it might better be carried to places 

 where it is less abundant. Is it certain that two 

 loads of best manure from the stable would be 

 much m(>re serviceable on a light sandy soil than 

 one load of manure and one of clay or tenacious 

 mud ? Can we say with confidence that pure ani- 

 mal manure will a4il more to the fertility of a veg- 

 etable soil than manure with an equal quantity of 

 loam or sand .' Would any other dressing be 

 more valuable upon a clayey soil than one com- 

 posed of half sand ? May it not be true that 

 much labor might be very profitably spent in cart- 

 '^g pnil^ frni one nortion of the farm to another, 

 thus maldng tiflft-e'ittriiiu' iftAKU.*-.,.^-*' ?:frj];!. rci.- 

 ence and experience give the expected answers to 

 questions of this kind, we have, within convenient 

 roach, abundant materials for enhancing the prn- 

 ductiveness of our lands. A farmer, in the north- 

 ern part of the county, informed me recently, that 

 a thin coating of loam, upon wet meadow lands, 

 has cau:^ed the growth of two tons of good English 

 hay to the acre annually, for five or six succes- 

 sive years. No manure has ever been applied. 

 Facts Tike this command us to give more atten 

 tion than has been customary, to the mixture of 

 soils. 



The application of manures in a liquid state, so 

 highly approved in Europe, should not remain long 

 untried by us. 



Observation satisfies me, that in soils not cold, 

 unfcrmented manure, though less active than fer- 

 mented in the early part of the season, will be 

 found the most serviceable at the time when our crops 

 need their greatest supply of nourishment. 1 

 have seen the two kinds tried repeatedly upon tur- 

 nips sowed in August. In September, the plants 

 upon the older and finer manure are far in advance 

 of the others, but in November the tables are 

 turned. The yield will average twentyfive per 

 cent, more where the manure is applied in its green 

 state. Corn, too, though more yellow upon this in 

 June, will show as much yellow, I think more 

 above the husks, in September. 



Bone manure, last season, did pretty well. In 

 all the operations I have aided to make with it the 

 present year, it has been so mixed up with other 



ingredients that it is impossible to judge of its 

 efficacy. Tiie corn where it was used, wore in the 

 early part of the season a most sorrowful and for- 

 hu'n aspec'^ : the warm suns of July, however, en- 

 livened itp spirits and changed its complexion. 

 ^Its present size would rebuke me were I to assert 

 that it has not found somewhere a pretty good sup- 

 ply of nourishment. In the field of a friend, who 

 h.'ft his corn to feed upon bones and meadow mud, 

 or starve, its aspect a few weeks since indicated 

 that the/ood was either difficult' of mastication or 

 hard to digest. Its growth was less vigorous and 

 its appearance less healthy than that of the sur- 

 rounding corn upon different diet. A rust, a bad 

 rust, was upon all its leaves, while the neighboring 

 corn on all sides was bright and healtliy in its ap- 

 pearanco. Probably you can find more economical 

 means of oniiching your soils than that of procu- 

 ring bone-. 



Book fanning. l)i> the icords produce a sneer .' 

 Be that as it may ; the thing, or what is often stig- 

 matized as that thing, is not contemptible. For 

 what is it ? Not an attempt to comply with the 

 advice and copy the example of every one who 

 furnishes an article for r.n agricnltural journal ; not 

 the adoption of every method of husbandry, that is 

 recommended in print ; not a departure from all 

 the usages of our fathers and neighbors ; not a 

 preference of the ihoories contained in books to 

 the results of experience. No. I pity the stupidi- 

 ty of the man who thinks that if we use books, we 

 must clo^r our eyes against the light that is beam- 

 ' ,; • , , '.- from other sources: or that we must 

 beco'mo mere theuriaeis, di'd ''•" '.'if-'i'Tis of ruinous 

 experiments. What I does a man lose his common 

 sense, his prudence and his judgment, whenever 

 he takes up an agricultural paper or opens a book 

 upon husbandry ? Cannot one make himself ac- 

 quainted with the doings of others without losing 

 his power to judge whether it would be well for 

 him, in his circumstances, to copy their examples ? 

 Our brains are not so weak as this. The knowl- 

 edge acquired fro.ni books does not make us all 

 mad. But if it did, there would be more zest and 

 true enjoyment in the learnii}g mad-man's course, 

 than in that of him who has learned out, and who 

 thinks that books cannot make him wiser. I asked 

 what book farming is ? Common book farming is 

 learning by means of books, new facts, opinions, 

 results of experiments, modes of operation, and 

 the using such parts of the information as can be 

 turned to profitable account in our individual situa- 

 tioni. If this be folly, we are content to be called 

 fools. An agricultural paper will be worth to you 

 every month, if not every week, more than its an- 

 nual cost. 



1 have a few words for the farmers' wives. 

 However skilful, industrious, and prudent your 

 husbands njay be, their success in money making 

 depends as much upon you as upon them. Econo- 

 my and skill on your part, in turning every thing 

 to the best account, are essential to profitable hus- 

 bandry. Perhaps there is scope for study, ex- 

 periments, and improvement in your departments. 

 All are not equally successful in the management 



