238 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JAK. 84,15441 



AND HORTICULTURAL RfGlSTER. 



Edited by Josepb Breck. 



Boston, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 1844. 



SECOND AGRICULTURAL MEETING AT THE 



STATE HOUSE. 



On Wednesday evening List, the members of the 

 Legislature and others interested in farming, held a 

 meeting, according to noiice, at the State House. Tlie 

 subject discussed was " Manures," which of course 

 opened a wide field. On account of a previous engage- 

 ment, we did not have the pleasure of "attending, and 

 must therefore be dependant on our friend Buckminster, 

 of the Ploughman, and others, for a report of the meet- 

 ing. We shall make our arrangements for the future 

 so as to be present, and take minutes of the transactions 

 for the Faimer. 



The President of .the Senale, Mr Quincy, presided. 

 The hall was well filled, and the meeting of an interest- 

 ing character. The audience was first addressed by Mr 

 Buckminster, who spoke 30 minutes, calling the atten- 

 tion of the meeting to the principal materials which are 

 made use of as manures. He enumerated the various 

 animal, vegetable and mineral manures. He consider- 

 ed the plowing in of green crops, in soils that can easily 

 be plowed, the cheapest mode of enriching lands that 

 he has ever tried. He also spoke of guano, poudrette, 

 and lastly of Bommer's '•' patent" manure. 



He was followed by Hon. Mr Allen, of Pembroke. 

 (We copy from the Ploughman.) " He said this was a 

 subject of vast and extensive importance: he had em- 

 ployed many hours in considering it, and he feared he 

 might say so much as to transgress on the patience of 

 the assembly, but for tho security which had been pro- 

 vided against speaking loo long. He said we must be- 

 gin first on the margin of the field— the outskirts must 

 not be neglected. Before recent improvements and sci- 

 entific discussion were introduced, farmers thought lit- 

 tle ol looking beyond the barnyard for manures. They 

 bad a notion that leaves and substances of that kind 

 were injurious. But we now find that all vegetable 

 matitr may be converted to good manure — that we live 

 in a transition state, and find all tliiligs undergoing a 

 change — the growth of forests and fields all in turn be- 

 coming new food of plants. 



In minerals he thought we might find inexhaustible 

 funds and sources of supply, and that we should prepare 

 to catch the rich maierials that are floating in the atmos- 

 pliere — he would Bay gases if he wanted to appear sci- 

 entific. As the gentleman preceding him had named 

 saltpetre, which is found under buildings, he would say 

 il collects in any place that is sheltered — hence the im- 

 portance of keeping manures under cover. He thought 

 a vast number of articles might be converted to manure 



that his faith was full, and probably in advance of his 



discourse. He felt his inability to do justice to tho sub- 

 ject, and feared that he had succeeded no better than 

 the sectarian clergyman, who never could persuade his 

 audience that he himself fully believed his own doc- 

 trines. 



Hon. Mr Dodge, of Hamilton, said, that among the 



great importance in agriculture. The first gentleman 

 has told us of many kinds of manure : they are all good. 

 Every farmer has the materials on his own farm to en- 

 rich it. How shall he apply them — how shall he make 

 his compost heaps ? I answer, with his yard manure 

 and his soil mixed with it ; and in the room of lime and 

 ashes, give mo hogs' noses. Writers may talk about 

 their chemical or mineral manures ; keep hogs, hogs ! 

 Keep them in cellars and throw in your hassocks; their 

 noses will sooner decompose a hassock than all the nos- 

 trums of the chemists. Hogs will work better than 

 your Irishmen, though il may cost more to keep them. 

 Hogs will work seven days in a week, while you must 

 be pretty lucky to find an Irishman that will work six. 



If a farmer hds a dozen head of cattle, he may make 

 fifty cords, or 200 loads in a year. He must occasion- 

 ally haul materials from the first of July to the first of 

 December. Others, nigh the city may buy manure, but 

 I can 't afibrd to haul it to my farm ; I can make it for 

 half what it costs in Boston. Some farmers with forty 

 head of cattle make less manure than others with seven 

 head. Keep cattle — make your liogs work — no labor 

 is cheaper than that of the hog. 



The President observed the last speaker seemed to 

 go llie whole hog on this subject. He should like to 

 hear what others could say. He seems tochallengo you 

 all to answer him — all of you who hold to minerals. 



A number more gentlemen spoke, but we have no 

 room for the remainder this week." 



We are indebted to the Traveller for the following 

 report and remarks : 



" Mr Hardy, of Waltham, (a very harilij and robust 

 gentleman, and a practical farmer,) said lie went for 

 Aocs' noses as decomposers, rather than for lime, or any 

 oilier animal or chemical substance. He said the way 

 he made his manure was by putting every thing and 

 any thing that will make manure, or that will decom- 

 pose or absorb, even sand, if nothing better could be 

 found, (as that would absorb valuable ingredients,) un- 

 der his barn, in a deep cellar under the cattle and hor- 

 ses, and letting his hogs run upon it and decompose and 

 compound or mix it; putting these things in from time 

 to lime, from the time the frost is out of the ground un- 

 til it is in again. 



This was his chemical, or rather hoggical way of mak- 

 ing manure, and no one could deny that this was an ap- 

 propriate and even gentlemanly way of manufacturing 

 manure. He went the ' whole hog' (or rather a suffi- 

 cient number of hoys to decompose whatever lie at- 

 temiited,) in this matter, and seemed almost to think 

 that no discoveries in chemistry could improve upon 

 the hog, as a decomposer. Although he did not directly 

 oppose chemical science, he seemed to wish for nothing 

 better than the hog, and in fact to think that nothing 

 better could be found. 



There seemed to be no one present who was disposed 

 to go into the discussion in upholding and slating the 

 uses and value of chemistry as applied to the making of 

 manure. 



It is very plain that great progress will and is to be 

 made, and in fact bus already been made in this respect; 

 but the audience last Wednesday evening seemed to be 

 made up of practical farmers from difTerent parts of the 

 State, each of whom, was disposed to relate his expe- 



tion of chemistry, although all such experience may i, 

 have the knowledge of the why and wherefore. 



The study of chemistry, in its application to maki 

 manure, is useful, inasmuch as it gives a knowledge 

 the component parts of matter and its habits of action, 

 various circumstances and connections, and thus teacl 

 what is best and cheapest, and most easily and prof 

 biy made into manure — and how it is done by combi 

 tion and decomposition, without going through a bl 

 course ofexperiments, and stumbling upon truth, a 

 were by accident, like a man looking about, or rat 

 feeling about in a dark room for some object in t 

 room, rather than by taking a candle, so that he can 

 easily and come immediately to the object of his sear 

 Chemistry is the candle, the light in this case. It 

 more than availing ourselves of the experience of otl 

 — (I mean the practical knowledge of chemistry)- 

 it is learning beforehand what experience will prove 

 any given experiment, and by this knowledge we si 

 avoid many useless ones, and thereby save expense ; 

 time. It is, in fact, leaving the experience of mat 

 which is the subject matter we are after in all our ex| 

 ments or studies on this subject." 



[HTNext meeting, Tuesday evening, Jan. 23d. 

 ject — " Application of Manures." 



PREMIUM LIST OF THE PLYiMOUTH AG 

 CULTURAL SOCIETY. 



We publish today the Premium List of the Plymc 

 Agricultural Society for 1644, which, as our reai 

 will see, occupies a large share of our paper. We 

 under peculiar obligations to this Society for the pati 

 age they have extended to the N. E. Farmer for i 

 years, in awarding this paper as a premium. It car 

 be expected that all who read our paper, will tal 

 very deep interest in this long list. They cannot, h 

 ever, fail to rejoice, that there is so much spirit in 

 Old Colony as is manifested in the liberal encourf 

 ment given by this Society for such a variety of exp 

 ments, exhibition of stock, implements, &c. We h 

 it will have a tendency to awaken a spirit of emula 

 in other sections of Kew England. 



dj'A subscriber who inquires whether scions f 

 apple trees in bearing, can be obtained from this vie 

 ty, and the price per hundred. Is informed that t 

 can, by applying at No. 52 North Market street, 

 price varies according to the variety, but is gener 

 about two dollars per hundred, unless it be some ch. 

 and rare sort — in that case the price would bo so 

 what higher. 



articles enumerated by the first speaker, lie did not no- rience, which was interestingandusef.il. Chemistry 

 tico salt. He wished that more trials might be made of was not specially upheld ; noi, I think, because it could 

 this. Seaweed, because of ils salt, was good. Muscle 'not be, or that those present had such sentiments, but 

 beds are made use of in Uanvers, and they are found j because there seemed to be enough of practical expc- 

 very good for the soil. Is it not owing to the salt ? He j rience to fill up the evening, and no practical chemical 

 recommended its use in tho compost lieap. man at hand. 



N. Hardy, Esq, of Waltham, eaid manures arc of All experience in this business is of course ihe opera- 



Ezperiments in Raising Potatoes. — Mr Etisha > 

 liams, of Argyle, Penobscot county, Me., took a si 

 quantity of putatoes last spring, and divided each po 

 into four equal parts, planting the butt end, the s 

 end, and the two centre pieces each separate, and 

 produce was, from the butt ends 40 pounds ; from 

 seed ends 62 pounds ; and from the centre pieces b 

 together, 160 .pounds — showing the superiority of 

 centre-pieces by 58 pounds, in the quantity planted. 



Important Discovery. — A discovery has been mad 

 a way of hardening wood, so as to give it almost 

 compactness of iron. This, it is said, is done by 

 hausting the air from the wood by an air pump, and I 

 saturating it with iron and lime in solution. Wood : 

 mitted to this process, has been used fur some t im 

 railroads in England, and found so firm as to have b 

 "carcely marked by the wheels of the cars. — Exeh. ^ 



