1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



219 



the operator holds it bj- the handle, or when be- 

 yond his reach, by a cord attached to the handle, 

 and is thus enabled to discharge the hay at any 

 point above the beams desired. The other neces- 

 sary appendages are a long rope, such as every 

 farmer should have ; one single pulley block to 

 be fastened to the rafters through which tlie hoist- 

 ing rope passes, and also another pulley block at 

 the door post to bring the draft at the proper an- 

 gle on the horse ; the fork can be used in any 

 barn of ordinary size. I have used this fork for 

 stacking hay ; a stiff pole being necessary, and 

 two light guy ropes running in the opposite direc- 

 tion from which the horse draws. 



I consider pitching hay by horse power as one 

 of the economies of farming, and the fork as an 

 appropriate accompaniment to the mowing ma- 

 chine and horse rake. 



I have shown the operation of this fork to Mr. 

 Alzirus Brown, of Worcester, Mass., manufac- 

 turer of mowing machines and wheel horse rakes, 

 and I understand that he will build some of them 

 this season, putting them at five dollars each, and 

 if well built, it is cheap enough. 



North Salem, Feb., 1860. L. G. Kniffen. 



LEGISIiATrVB AG-KICULTUBAIi 

 MEETING. 



[Repohted for the New Encland Farmer by Thos. Bradlet.J 



The tenth meeting of the series of the Legisla- 

 tive Agricultural Society was held in the Repre- 

 sentatives' Hall on Monday evening, and was 

 very well attended. Col. Heard, of Wajdand, 

 presided. The subject for discussion was, "Mail- 

 ures — tvhat are the best kinds, and their applica- 

 tion ?■" 



Mr. Howard, of Boston, was the first speaker. 

 He said it was a subject he had not lately given 

 much attention to, yet it was one which interests 

 farmers more than any other. It has been truly 

 said that muck was the m-other of money, [the 

 meal chest. Ed.] and he was sorry to say that there 

 had been too little attention given to manures, 

 which were always a source of wealth. In Ohio, 

 the idea had prevailed that the soil was inex- 

 haustible, and farmers there had gone on year af- 

 ter year neglecting manures, until they could get 

 but miserable crops, and now the soil has so de- 

 teriorated that they are going further West, where 

 they can pursue the same course. From this it 

 had been asserted by Mr. Fay at a former meet- 

 ing, that American agriculture vv'as a system of 

 devastation. He spoke of what England would 

 have been had she pursued the same system, and 

 compared it with her present agricultural prosper- 

 ity. Mr. Howard said that it was the duty of 

 every farmer to save all the excrement, both solid 

 and liquid, on his farm, as also that in his house- 

 hold, and, if this were done, there would be no de- 

 ficiency in our State. In some cases lime might 

 be used as a fertilizer, but he thought east of the 

 Connecticut Vallev it would not do well. Guanos 



of some kinds, and bones, the latter particularly, 

 had been used with excellent efiect, and now 

 they constitute a material element in our manures. 

 He spoke of superphosphate of lime, saying that 

 he had heard various reports as to its effects, but 

 he thought if the pure article was obtained, it 

 was excellent as an auxiliary. He thought the 

 best course for farmers would be to ex])eriment 

 carefully with the different kinds of fertilizers, and 

 by carefully noting the result, arrive at what 

 would suit their land the best. Mr. Howard also 

 spoke of various phosphates that had been intro- 

 duced here and in England, but expressed the 

 opinion that none were of the value of those from ■ 

 the barn-yard. 



Dr. LoRlXG, of Salem, said we had neglected 

 the study of the composition and use of manures, 

 while in Europe the utmost care has been be- 

 stowed, assisted by science. He doubted wheth- 

 er any farmer here could tell the best method of 

 manuring corn, root crops or grain. We are, 

 said he, too much in the habit of using the man- 

 ures made on the farm as our fathers used them 

 in their day, without taking the trouble to im- 

 prove upon their practice, and thus gain the 

 knowledge to make us prosperous. There are 

 many places in this State, where the contents 

 of the sink-drains, water courses, muck beds, 

 &c., are neglected, and this placed farmers who 

 had none of these advantages and who vrere in 

 less favorable localities, under a difficulty. It 

 was a question in his mind whether our farmers 

 could afford to import foreign manures. There 

 were farms located on the sea-coast, the owners of 

 which used kelp and other sea weeds, which were 

 very good fertilizers, but he did not have this 

 benefit. He had made up his mind to manure h''. 

 farm from its own products, and he had stocked 't 

 with this object. He thought it was better to c j 

 this than to pay the expense of teaming, «S:c. Hj 

 considered that, for top-dressing on grass lands, 

 nothing was better than farm-yard manure, well 

 rotted and well composted. He hauled his muck 

 in August, and put a good layer of it on his cellar 

 floor, then a layer of manure, then another layer 

 of muck and so on, alternating. His cellar was 

 100 ft. long and 32 ft. wide, and into this he cart- 

 ed from 100 to 130 cart loads of 36 solid feet of 

 muck, and in wet or stormy weather he had his 

 men turning it, so that when it went on the grass 

 lands in January, it is thoroughly rotted, and this 

 he found increased the grass crop from 50 to 75 

 per cent, the first season. For roots he used the 

 same manure, and backed up the furrows in plow- 

 ing, as he found this was good to prevent Aveeds, 

 and to pulverize the soil, while by plowing twice, 

 and harrowing and raking, it thoroughly mixed 

 the compost M'ith the soil. 



In relation to applying green manure, he said 



