1860. 



NEW ENGLAND PAEJVIER 



13 



or makes them grow so fast, as fish worms. After 

 the first week, I feed on curd, made of thick, sour 

 milk, and on corn meal, ground coarse as for hom- 

 iny, and wot with thick, sour milk, to which I add 

 a very little coarse sand, to prevent crop-bake, 

 with -which many joinig turkeys die when fed on 

 meal without it. 



As soon as the young ones ai-e able to fly over 

 the side of their pen, I allow them, in good weath- 

 er, to range with the mother, and feed on insects, 

 — if these are scarce, I feed a little, night and 

 morning, until they are more plenty — but grass- 

 hoj)pers give most bone. Buckwheat I have found 

 the best grain to give size. If the v,-cather is 

 stormy while turkeys are young, I dri^'c them un- 

 der a shed, or into the barn cellar, the floor of 

 which is covered with fine litter. If any get chilled, 

 cover them with cotton and place them by the 

 stove, and put down a few fish worms, and they 

 are soon .smart again. With this method I have 

 succeeded in raisMig turkeys, while others have lost 

 theu's — even duri^ig the last cold and wet season. 

 With this treatment, an old Java hen, at one brood, 

 gave me ,17 fine turkeys, but a hen turkey did bet- 

 ter still. I have never had a turkey have the gapes, 

 or any other disease. H. "S. Ramsdixl. 



Went Thom])SO)i, Conn., Nov., 1S59. 



JOHN CHINAMAN AS AN AGKICULTURIST. 



In the eyes of the Chinese, human excrements 

 constitute the true substance of the soil, (so Da- 

 vis, Fortune, Hedde, and others tell us,) and it is 

 principally to this most energetic agent that they 

 ascribe the activity and fertility of the earth. 



Except the trade in grain, and in articles of 

 food, generally, there is none so extensively car- 

 ried on in China as that in human excrements. 

 Long, clumsy boats, which traverse the street ca- 

 nals, collect these matters every day, and distrib- 

 ute them over the country. Every Coolie, who 

 has brought his ])roducc to market in the morn- 

 ing, carries liome at night two pails full of this 

 manure on a bamboo pole. 



The estimation in which it is held is so great, 

 that everybody knows the amount of excrements 

 voided per man, in a day, month or year ; and a 

 Chinese would regard as a gi'oss breach of man- 

 ners the departure from his house of a guest, who 

 neglects to let him have that advantage, to which 

 he deems himself justly entitled, in return for his 

 hospitality. 



In the vicinity of large towns, these excrements 

 are converted into poudrette, which is then sent 

 to the most distant places, in the shape of square 

 cakes, like bricks. For use, these cakes are soaked 

 in water, and a])plied in the fluid form. With the 

 exception of his rice fields, the Chinese does not 

 manure the field, but the plant. 



Every substance derived from plants and ani- 

 mals is carefully collected by the Chinese, and 

 converted into manure. Oil cakes, horn and bones 

 are highly valued ; and so is soot, and more es- 

 pecially ashes. To give some notions of the val- 

 ue set by them on human offal, it will be sufficient 

 to mention that the barbers most carefully collect 

 and sell, as an article of trade, the somewhat con- 

 sideral)le amount of hair of the beards and heads 

 of the hundreds of millions of customers, whom 

 they daily shave. The Chinese know the action 

 of gypsum and lir.e; and it often hapi)ens that 



they renew the piastering of the kitchens, for the 

 purpose of making use of the old matter for ma- 

 nure. 



No Chinese farmer ever sows a seed of corn 

 before it has been soaked in liquid manure diluted 

 with water, and has begun to germinate ; and ex- 

 perience has taught him, (so he asserts,) that this 

 operation not only tends to promote the growth 

 and development of the plant, but also to protect 

 the seed ft-om the insects hidden in the ground. 



During the summer months, all kinds of vege- 

 table refuse are mixed with turf, straAV, grass, peat, 

 weeds and earth, collected into heaps, and when 

 quite diy, sc;; on fire ; after several days of slow 

 combustion the entire mass is converted into a 

 kind of black earth. This compost is only em- 

 ])loyed for the manuring of seeds. When seed 

 time arrives, one man makes holes in the ground ; 

 another follows with the seed, which he places in 

 the holes ; and a third adds the black earth. The 

 young seed, planted in this manner, grows with 

 such extraordinary vigor that it is thereby enabled 

 to push its rootlets through the hard, solid soil, 

 and to collect its mineral constituents. 



The Chinese farmer sows his wheat, after the 

 grains have been soaked in liquid manure, quite 

 close, in seed beds, and afterwards transplants it. 

 Occasionally, also, the soaked grains are immedi- 

 ately sown in the field properly prepared for their 

 reception, at an interval of four inches from each 

 other. The time of transplanting is towards the 

 month of December. In March the seed sends 

 up from seven to nine stalks with ears, but the 

 straw is shorter than with us. I have been told 

 that wheat yields 120 fold more, which amply re- 

 pays the care and labor bestowed upon it. 



It is quite true that what suits one people may 

 not on that account suit all countries and all na- 

 tions ; but one great and incontrovertible truth 

 may, at all events, be learned from Chinese agri- 

 culture, viz., that the fields of the Chinese culti- 

 vator have preserved their fertility unimpaired 

 and in continued vigor ever since the days of Abra- 

 ham, and of the building of the first pyramid in 

 Egypt.* This result, we also learn, has been at- 

 tained solely and simply by the restitution to the 

 soil of the mineral constituents removed in the 

 produce ; or what amounts to the same thing, that 

 this has been effected by the aid of a manure, of 

 which the greater portion is lost to the land in the 

 system of European (and American ?) cultivation. 

 — Liehig^s Modern Agriculture. 



* Vessels of Chinese poreelaiu are found in tlie pyra- 

 mids, of the same shape, and with tlie same cliarac-tcrs 

 of writing on tliem, as on modern China at the present 

 day. 



For the Xeic England Farvier. 



MARKET DAY IN ESSEX COUNTY. 



Messrs. Editors : — The last "market day" of 

 the season came off" yesterday, with good success, 

 if a multitude of animals and a multitude of far- 

 mers, gathered together, are to be taken as evi- 

 dence of the fact. How many bought, and how 

 many sold, I cannot say ; but this I can say, there 

 was a good opportunity to do both, and so far as 

 I understood the murmm-s of the crowd, it was 

 done to a considerable extent. The great oxen 

 from New Hampshire were there. Every one Avho 

 examined them, expressed their admiration of the 



