14 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



the quotient for the number of bushels of shelled 

 corn. This is upon the rule of giving three heap- 

 ing half-bushels of ears to make a bushel of grain. 

 Some falls short and some overruns this measure. 



Board Measure. — Boards are sold bj^ face mea- 

 sure. Multiply the Avidtli in inches by any num- 

 ber of pieces of equal length, by the inches of the 

 length. Divide by 144, and the quotient is the 

 number of feet, for any thickness under an inch. 

 Every fourth-inch increase of thickness adds a 

 fourth to the number of feet in the face measure. 



Land Measure. — Every farmer should have a 

 rod measure, a light, stiff pole, just 16^ feet long, 

 for measuring land. By a little practice he can 

 learn to step just a rod at five steps, which will 

 answer very well for ordinary farm work. Ascer- 

 tain the number of rods in width and length of 

 any lot you wish to measure, and multiply one in- 

 to "the other and divide by 160, and you have the 

 number of acres, as 100 square rods make a square 

 acre. If you wish to lay off one acre square, mea- 

 sure 13 rods upon each side. This lacks one rod 

 of being full measure. 



Oovernment Land 3feas7ire. — A township is six 

 miles square, and contains 36 sections, 23,040 

 acres. A section, one mile square, 640. A quar- 

 ter section, half a mile square, 100 acres. As tliis 

 is 100 rods square, a strip one rod Avide, or every 

 rod in Avidth, is an acre. A half-quarter section 

 is half a mile long, north and south, almost uni- 

 versally, and a fourth of a mile wide, 80 acres. A 

 quarter-quarter section is one-fourth of a mile 

 square, 40 acres, and is the smallest sized tract, 

 except fractions, ever sold by the government. 

 The price is $1,25 an acre. 



Measure of a Mile. — Our measure of distance 

 is by the standard English mile, which is 5,280 

 feet "in length, or 1,760 yards, or 320 rods. An 

 English geographical mile is equal to 2,050 yards. 



Scripture Measure. — "A Sabbath day's jour- 

 ney" is 1,155 yards — about two-thirds of a mile. 

 A day's journey is 33J miles. A reed is 10 feet 

 IH inches. A palm is 3 inches. A fathom is 6 

 feet. A Greek foot is 12^ inches. A cubit is 2 

 feet. A great cubit is 1 1 feet. 



As the superfices of all our States and counties 

 are expressed in square miles, it should be borne 

 in mind that the contents of a mile is 640 acres. 



Number of Square Yards in an Acre. — ^Eng- 

 lish, 4,840; Scotch, 0,150; Irish, 7,840; Ham- 

 burg, 11,545; Amsterdam, 9,722; Dantzic, 0,050; 

 France, (hectare,) 11,900 ; Prussia, (morgen,) 

 0,053. 



Manure Measure. — This is generally estimated 

 by the load, M-hich is just about as definite as the 

 phrase, "about as big as a piece of chalk." It 

 ought to be measured by the cubic yard or cord. 

 A cubic yard is 27 feet, each of which contain 

 1728 cubic inches. A cubic cord is 128 cubic feet. 

 As the most of farmers have an idea in their minds 

 of the size of a pile of wood containing a cord, 

 they would readily compare that Avith the quantity 

 of manure, if stated in cords. Every cart or wag- 

 on-box, before it leaves the maker's shop, ought 

 to have the cubic feet and inches it Avill contain, 

 indelil)ly marked upon it. This would enable the 

 owner to calculate the amount of his load of grain, 

 roots, earth, stone or manure. 



Weight of Manure. — A solid foot of half rot- 



ted stable manure Avill weigh, upon an average, 56 

 pounds. If it is coarse or dry, it will average 48 

 pounds to the foot. A load of manure, or 30 cu- 

 bic feet, of first quality, will Aveigh 2,010 pounds ; 

 second quality, 1,728 pounds. Weight to the 

 acre — Eight loads of first kind, weighing 10,128 

 pounds, Avill give 108 pounds to each square rod, 

 and less than 2.i pounds to each square foot. Five 

 loads will give 03 pounds to the rod. An acre 

 containing 43,500 square feet, the calculation of 

 pounds per foot, of any quantity per acre, is easily 

 made. — The Plow. 



For the Neio England Farmer. 

 RETEOSPECTIVE WOTES. 



Gypsum. — The attentive readers of this joiu-nal 

 must have noticed an article Avith this heading 

 Avhich appeared, first in the Aveekly issue of Sept. 

 21st, and subsequently in the Nov. No. of the 

 monthly edition. In it the reader is directed to 

 sprinldc a small quantity of gypsum, more com- 

 monly knoAvn as plaster, or plaster of Paris, every 

 morning, over his cattle stalls. And this direction 

 is foUoAved by the statement, that plaster is a good 

 absorbent of ammoiiia, and consequently tends not 

 only to economise a most valuable element of veg- 

 etable nutrition — namely, the ammonia — but also 

 to SAveeten and purify the air. These being the ob- 

 jects to be secured by the sprinkling of gjq^sum, 

 readers Avho reflect upon Avhat they read, and en- 

 deavor to make ajyractical application of every 

 fact, truth and principle Avliich may come under 

 their cognizance, Avill hardly fail to come to this 

 conclusion, namely, that if gypsum is of service in 

 fixing or absorl^ing the ammonia in cattle stalls, 

 and in purifjang and SAveetening the air of places 

 Avhere cattle are stabled, it must be much more 

 serviceable to the stalls and stables of horses, as 

 there is ahvays much more ammonia developed 

 from the urine and dung of horses than from those 

 of cattle. 



To be convinced of this fact, that there is a much 

 larger amount of ammonia developed in horse-sta- 

 bles than in cattle-stables, one has only to com- 

 pare liis sensations Avhen he first enters the one and 

 the other, Avhen first opened in the moniing. On 

 first entering a close, unventilated horse-stable, he 

 Avill experience a disagreeable pungent smell in his 

 nose, and more or less of a smarting sensation in 

 his eyes, somcAvhat resembling that Avhich is felt 

 Avhen a bottle of hartshorn or of smelhng salts is 

 opened in close proximity to the nasal and visual 

 organs. On the other hand, Avhen first entering 

 in the morning a similarly close and unventilated 

 stable for coavs or cattle, very little, or none at all, 

 of this pungency will be felt, even though the at- 

 mosphere may be quite disagreeable through the . 

 impurities derived from the exhalations arising 

 from the lungs, the skin, and the excrements of 

 the animals confined therein. This difl'erenee is 

 OAving to the much larger amount of ammoniacal 

 vapors in the former case than in the latter. 



It appears, then, that so far as the tAvo objects, 

 for Avliich gypsum is directed to be used, are con- 

 cerned, the horse-stable needs attending to still 

 more than the cattle-stable. Ammonia is more 

 largely and more speedily set free in the former 

 than in the latter. So let us consider both, as gen- 

 erally constructed and managed, much in need of 



