1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



71 



Fur the New England Fanner. 



SAWDUST AS A FERTILIZER AND 

 ABSORBENT. 



In a previous article I promised to say some- 

 thing of my experience in using sawdust as a fer- 

 tilizer and absorbent ; and as the time of year 

 I commenced drawing sawdust is approaching, and 

 hoping that a plain statement of facts may induce 

 others to commence with sleighing as I did, I will 

 pen them for the benefit of the readers of the 

 J^arvier. 



On the 1st of January, 1859,1 commenced haul- 

 ing sawdust and fine chips, made in the manufac- 

 tory of clothes pins from white birch and twirl 

 leaf poplar, to the farm at the Green iSIountain 

 Hermitage, Sunderland, Vt., and I had any 

 amount of prejudice to combat with. 



INlany of the old farmers in our neighborhood 

 told my father I would spoil his farm. Some even 

 said they had tried to use sawdust as a fertilizer, 

 and spoiled their land with it, <S:c.; but I was an 

 unbeliever, and persisted in drawing it home. I 

 had sustained loss in some manure by fire-fanging 

 before I learned how to use it. 



I averaged hauling half a cord per day for nine 

 months, and it was a nine months' wonder what I 

 was doing and -going to do, with so much non- 

 sense. 



There were two horses, seven head of cattle and 

 several swine on the farm, and I managed to use 

 100 cords in the nine months as bedding — in tliis 

 way. 



I put the sawdust on the floors about six inches 

 thick, and as fast as it was saturated with urine, 

 shoved the cattle and hogs' bedding into the man- 

 ure vault, together with the manure, trampling it 

 as hard as possible, and the horse bedding and 

 manure under a shed. I soon found it must be 

 turned or something else done with it to keep it 

 from firc-fanging. 



After trying various plans, I found the best was 

 to run water on it — enough to keep it moist and 

 cool — and let it remain in as solid a body as pos- 

 sible until I drew it out, and then put it in flat 

 heaps, two or three cords in a heap, and a foot 

 thick after it was well trod down. I put some 

 light meadow mud, (black earth,) behind the cows, 

 and the sawdust under them some of the time. 



1 put a pair of steers into a yard nights ( 14 ft. 

 square) for two months, in the fall of 1859 ; throw- 

 ing sawdust under them three times a week, one- 

 third of a cord at a time. Tliis lay until the 

 spring of 1860, when my father took out 4 cords 

 No. 1 manure. There was but little loss in bulk 

 by decomposition, and he calculated it was one- 

 fourth heavier than the four cords green sawdust 

 put into the yard. There Avas a good deal of rain 

 fell in the two months — fall rains. 



The chips and sawdust that we could not work 

 under our cattle for bedding, we piled up in the 

 barn-yard and various places, in flat piles, as be- 

 fore stated. In September, 18G1, I was at the 

 hermitage, and found those heaps that Avere the 

 innocent cause of so much gossip when put there 

 in 1859, Avere getting to be valuable manure, and 

 had settled but httle. There is but little danger 

 of getting on too much water. If it does not run 

 out from under the heap, never fear. 



The solid manure has all got to become a liquid 

 or gas before the vegetable can be benefited bv it 



in any way, and sawdust has a marvellous faculty of 

 holding on to liquids and gases. I never smelt a 

 disagreeable odor around our stables, Avhile using 

 the sawdust, only Avhen it burned, (and physiog- 

 nomists tell me I have a chemical nose,) and never 

 saw any liquid leaching out from under our heaps 

 on a clayed bottom, though we used water plenti- 

 fully, often running on two barrels to a cord at a 

 time. Used troughs Avith holes bored through the 

 bottom to run the water on Avith, and run most of 

 it from barn and shed eaves troughs. 



I drcAV the saAvdust a mile Avith one horse, and 

 avei-aged an hour and a half to half a cord, di-aAv- 

 ing and distributing, trampling, Avatering, &c. We 

 had from 80 to lOCf cords of No. 2 manure made 

 in 1859, aside from Avhat is lying around that Avill 

 be good in 18G2 — say 50 cords No. 2. This same 

 stock in 1858 made about 15 cords No. 1 manure 

 that Avas saved. The cattle Avere bedded in the 

 common way, Avith straAV, oats, &c., very s])aring- 

 ly, Avhich I used in 1859. It Avas Avorth at least 

 as much again as manure throAvn out of a AvindoAV 

 to bleach and Avash in the sun and rain. I also 

 used what Avas made from the 1st of January to 

 the 1st of April, 1859, from saAvdust — some 30 

 cords — so had a good chance to experiment. 



We put the manure side by side on various 

 crops and various soils. PloAved it in ; used it as 

 a top-dressing on ploAved land and grass land, and 

 for that year there was no perceivable difl'erence 

 except on dry land, Avliere the saAvdust manure 

 Avas best. I ought to say saAvdust and manure, for 

 the saAvdust had not changed much, only where it 

 had burned, and was not Avorth one-half as much, 

 except as a top-dressing for grass land, as it Avas 

 after it had lain over the summer and digested. 



The next year, 1860, Old America Avas a little 

 ahead, lasted a little the best, Avhere ploAved in, 

 but only a Httle. On a cobble stone knoll of 

 about one acre, Avhere the gi'ass Avas run out, 

 and hardly Avorth the cutting in 1859, in the fall I 

 drcAv about eight cords of saAvdust manure and 

 left it in heaps till the spring of 1860, Avhen it Avas 

 spread. I had spread half an inch thick, and so 

 doAvn to a mere sprinkling. It spoke for itself im- 

 mediately, and the largest croAvd spoke loudest. 

 The grass on it Avas good in 1860, and after giv- 

 ing the thinnest sprinkled part another sprinkling 

 after the grass was off", it Avas all very good in 

 1861. Cut one and a half tons No. 1 hay. 



I put four cords of the same kind of manure on 

 to one-half acre of land too stony to ploAV, and 

 at the same time soAved ten bushels of oyster 

 shell lime under it. On this piece the hay crop 

 Avas doubled in 1860, and quadru])led in 1861. I 

 have found saAvdust manure operates as Avell on 

 all crops as this — but except on grass land, Avould 

 ploAv it under. 



I manured thirty-tAVO rods of worn-out sward 

 land AAith three cords of saAvdust manure in 1859. 

 PloAved in one and a half cords first Aveek in April, 

 and one and a-halt first Aveek in May ; broke it nine 

 inches deep, and ploAved it second time tAvo inches. 

 SoAved carrots 22d May, and Avhen they came up 

 soAved three bushels lime. First Aveek in Novem- 

 ber Ave dug 160 bushels nice carrots ; in 1860, 13 

 bushels shelled corn Avas raised on the bed Avith- 

 out more manure, and in 1861 my father put on 

 tAvo cords saAvdust manure and one bushel leached 

 Avood ashes, and took off" 16 liushels shelled corn — 

 NcAV Hampshire twelve-roAved. Had a piece of 



