1S60. 



NEW ENGLAKD FARMER. 



135 



of every bushel of manure throughout its career 

 of raw material, grass, beef or ffour. In other 

 words, the farmer must be a good arithmetician, 

 something of a chemist, not unacquainted with an- 

 imal and vegetable physiology, a practical me- 

 chanician, skilled in at least the theory of several 

 branches of natural philosophy, possessed of that 

 administrative faculty which can rule and attract 

 subordinates, with moral qualifications which, to 

 say the least of them, must embrace sobriety, 

 punctuality, quickness, tact, and what is generally 

 known by business habits. If the farmer is not 

 this, he is nought ; and the fi\ct that the trade has 

 compelled him to be this is not the least of its 

 blessings. There is probably no class which the 

 last quarter of a century has so much elevated and 

 refined as that of the British farmer. 



SAW-DUST AS A MANURE. 



We are pleased to notice an increasing atten- 

 tion to the subject of agriculture, especially in this 

 State. Scientific labor is being applied to almost 

 every branch, and it is producing the desired re- 

 sults. Next to drainage, we thinlv the most de- 

 sirable object to be attained by our New England 

 farmers is a sufficiency of manures to keep the 

 land in heart. Nature has evidently provided for 

 herself, and if man would follow out the teachings 

 of nature he would find that her generosity knows 

 no stint, if rightly taken advantage of. 



We noticed, in last week's New England Far- 

 mer, a query propounded by an intelligent farmer 

 of Orange, in this State, as to the value of pine 

 saw-dust for the purposes of bedding cattle, and 

 we feel tempted to give our experience. In the 

 years 1855 and 1856, while residing on the home- 

 stead in the town of B , Franklin county, 



Mass., we conceived a plan for saving the urinal 

 deposits of the stock, and also to absorb the juicy 

 part of the droppings. We had access to a large 

 sawmill, about threo-quarters of a mile from the 

 barn, where large quantities of hemlock and other 

 timber were annually sawed. Wc commenced 

 carting saw-dust into the barn shed about the first 

 of September, and continued it through the win- 

 ter, filling up the large bay as fast as the hay was 

 spent. Our plan for using was as follows : first, 

 to cover over the entire surface of the stable floor 

 to the depth of three or four inches with saw-dust, 

 and for the convenience of the milch cows there 

 was placed on the top of the saw-dust coarse brakes 

 and spent corn fodder — this last was shaken up 

 every morning and night, and replenished as often 

 as necessary, and the entire stable cleaned out 

 once a week. Under the cattle and young stock 

 sav.'dust only was used. So thoroughly did this 

 absorb all the urine and juicy substances that when 

 thrown into the shed, the stable floor was as dry 

 as the barn floor. The manure heap in spring 

 gave 14S large ox loads — from sawdust 70 loads, 

 muck 20. The manure was entirely free from heat 

 — was so thoroughly pulverized that no fork was 

 necessary to load it ; and the crop of corn in the 

 fall fully responded to the benefits of this treat- 

 ment. 



There is another valuable manure to be found 

 around saw-mills, and we have often wondered, 

 as we rode through Orange, Athol and Erving, 

 that the farmers did not use it. We mean the ac- 



cumulations about the log-way which have been 

 rotting there for years. Nothing better can be add- 

 ed to the compost heap, especially for potatoes 

 and the purposes of top-dressing. — Commercial 

 Bulletin, Dec. 17. 



Fur the Seiv England Farmer. 

 IS FARMING PROFITABLE? 



]\Ir. Editor : — I was much pleased to see an 

 article in your issue of Nov. 12th on the cost of 

 farm products, for I fully agree with Mr. Pinkhani 

 that it is quite as necessary for the farmer to know 

 the cost of what he produces, as it is for the me- 

 chanic. But I am not prepared to wholly endorse 

 his statement, that the farmers of New England, 

 as a class, are running behind hand at the rate of 

 $10 to $15 for every acre of corn which they har- 

 vest, and "more so," on all other crops. 



I think some of them have, at least, kept even 

 with the world, while others have gained in dol- 

 lars and cents, aside from raising a large family 

 of healthy robust children, and yielding them an 

 education that enables them to make the domes- 

 tic hearth the loadstone of attraction, the seat of 

 happiness, morality and virtue, or fits them to 

 guide the noble ship of State with as much cor- 

 rectness and firmness of purpose, as the more del- 

 icately reared ofi'spring of the merchant or mil- 

 lionare. 



Mr. P. says, "we make a positive loss of $10 

 or more per acre on our corn crop, and the shrewd- 

 est Yankee that ever was made cannot figure it 

 any other Avay." I do not profess to have any 

 peculiar Yankee shrewdness, and yet I think that 

 I can raise an acre of corn, and/eerf it out to stock, 

 and tnaJxC mone)/ by the operation. I will not 

 guess at the matter, nor "mystify it by running 

 one thing into another" so far but what any one 

 can easily see through it. 



Below Mr. Pinkham's figures he says, "Thus it 

 wiU be seen that we have cultivated our crop in 

 the most prudent and economical manner." Here, 

 again, I must diflPer with him, for I do not consid- 

 er it prudent, or good farming, to be at the ex- 

 pense of cultivating an acre to get the same num- 

 ber of bushels that should grow on less than one- 

 half of it. Here are a few figures to show what, 

 to me, seems a better way. 



I will take, as an example, an acre that was 

 planted with corn in 1858, and this year planted 

 without manure except a compost of hen manure, 

 and put it at the rate of one pint to the hill. Al- 

 lowing the same wages per day that Mr. P. does, 

 the land to be worth $50 per acre, and the entire 

 cost of the crop, interest, taxes and all, when the 

 corn was in the crib, was $23,94. The income 

 was: 



56 bushels of sound corn $56,00 



20 Irashels ears soft corn ,5,00 



Stover and turnips 15,00 



Total $76,00 



Making a net profit of $52,00 



This crop, owing to the frosts and severe 

 drought, was not considered a fair one, the same 

 land producing 75 bushels per acre last yeai*, of 

 sound, shelled corn. These crops are not excep- 

 tions, although, perhaps, more than average ones, 

 and farmers will invariably make a profit in rais- 



