1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



289 



Bame amount of barn-yard manure, — but its effects 

 will be more lasting. 



In 1850, I put about forty loads on a slaty knoll 

 of about one and a quarter acres, and it can be 

 discerned to this day just how far it was applied, 

 by the difference in the growth of any crop planted 

 or sown on it. As far as my experience goes, I 

 think I am justified in asserting that manure com- 

 posed of one-half muck, and the rest barn-yard or 

 stable manure, will last double the length of time 

 when applied to slaty or gravelly land that clear 

 manure wll. I am not philosopher enough to ex- 

 plain why it is so, but that it is true, I have de- 

 monstrated to my own satisfaction by experiments 

 for several years past. The cost of it is but a tri- 

 fle, compared with other manure, the cartage be- 

 ing the only expense, and that can be reckoned 

 but little if done in winter. I also keep the hog- 

 pen well supplied with it, and generally make 

 about three times the manure from that source 

 that I should otherwise get. The hen manure I 

 mix Avith the muck, about one bushel to three, and 

 use it to put in the hill for corn, &c. Every spring 

 and fall I draw six or eight loads and put in a 

 pile at the back of the house, on which all the 

 wash-water, brine and refuse of the kitchen is 

 thrown, and about once in a month I shovel it 

 over, and occasionally throw on a little slacked 

 lime or plaster and ashes, and thus make a plenty 

 of manure for the garden, which is superior to any 

 other kind for that purpose. 



I should like to say a great deal more on the 

 subject, for, like some of our muck beds, it is ex- 

 haustless, but as space in the Farmer is precious, 

 I will leave the subject to abler pens. At anoth- 

 er time I will give the results of some experiments 

 which I have been making the past six years. 



Bensselaer, N. Y., 1862. ii. 



SUBSTITUTE FOB LEAD PIPE. 



AVe had occasion, a year or more ago, in an arti- 

 cle on water pipes, to allude to the India Rubber 

 pipe manufactured by the Boston Belting Compa- 

 ny. We have nearly every week inquiries in re- 

 gard to some needed substitute for lead pipe, 

 which all are willing to concede is deleterious, but 

 which is generally adopted even with the prejudi- 

 ces which exist against it. 



The reader will find, in its proper place, an ad- 

 vertisement of this Semi-Elastic Pipe, and as the 

 following letter from Mr. McBurney gives a fuller 

 description of the article than the advertisement, 

 we give it a place here : 



Messrs. Editors : — I would call attention to 

 my patented "Substitute for Lead Pipe," adver- 

 tised in your columns. It possesses every proper- 

 ty requisite as a conduit of water in any and every 

 place or position ; unobjectionable in every way ; 

 is entirely free from any deleterious substance in 

 its composition, and only needs to be known, to 

 be universally used. It is, in fact, a real substi- 

 tute for lead pipe. It may be used underground, 

 or exposed in any way, and has been thoroughly 

 tested in every position. It is not a hastily got 

 up thing, nor was it produced at a mere thought. 

 I experimented nearly five years, at various times, 

 before a promising sample was produced. I then 



tested it for three years before offering it for sale. 

 "Apothecaries seldom take their own compounds," 

 and "A prophet is not without honor," &c., but I 

 have used my own pipe to conduct water for the 

 use of my family and myself for over five years, 

 and I have the certificates of immediate friends 

 and neighbors, who have used it for one, two, and 

 some three years, and they would not now willing- 

 ly give it up. I have also two lines of 3-inch pipe, 

 containing 7000 feet each, buried undergi-ound, 

 which have been in use seven years, conducting 

 water from a brook to a cistern to supply steam- 

 boilers, which still continue good. It costs but 

 very little more than lead pipe per running foot, 

 and can be united by various simple and inexpen- 

 sive methods. Chas. McBurney. 

 Roxbury, Mass., March 27, 1862. 



For tlw New England Farmer. 

 BAROMETERS. 



Mr. Editor : — A subscriber from Cornwall, 

 Vt., inquires in the last week's Farmer whether 

 "Barometers are to be depended upon at all times, 

 or do they, like signs in dry weather, sometimes 

 fail ?" Now, if I knew the true address of "Sub- 

 scriber," I would not trouble you, but write direct 

 to him, and say that I have had a barometer some 

 four years, and watched it with interest, by the 

 directions of Jas. W. Queen, and I have come to 

 the conclusion that they are really of very little 

 practical use to the farmer, as all I can make of it 

 is a sign of fair weather when it is rising, and a 

 sign of rain when it is falling. Like all other 

 signs, it fails very often, and generally, the indi- 

 cations precede the change of weather so short a 

 time, that it can hardly be said to have fore- 

 knowledge, and that is all that would make it of 

 any account. True, it will commence falling 

 twenty-four hours before a storm, sometimes, and 

 then it will frequently fall as much, and no storm 

 follow, or it will begin its fall with the rain, simul- 

 taneously. Its indications are to be taken in com- 

 bination with so many circumstances of wind, &c., 

 that, like phrenology, none but experts can make 

 anything of it. I have been pained to see articles 

 from the pen of men of the wonderful influence of 

 Henry Ward Beecher, or Simon Brown, which in- 

 dicated that there would be no danger of any farm- 

 er getting his hay wet, if he had a barometer, as 

 it would give him seasonable notice. But that is 

 a mistake. I have known it to rise a tenth of an 

 inch one day, and a rain storm commence before 

 sunrise the next, and I consider it simply robbing 

 the farmer of his hard-earned money to induce 

 him to buy a barometer. A. G. Dewey. 



Quechee, Vt., April 16, 1862. 



Remarks. — ^We have always been guarded in 

 what we have said of the barometer. Have no • 

 recollection of ever saying "That there would be 

 no danger of any farmer getting his hay wet if 

 he had a barometer." We do not think of any 

 thing we have said, or written, in relation to the 

 barometer, that we desire to recall. And yet, if 

 we have said, or written any thing that should 

 tend to deceive the farmer, or that should, in the 

 slightest degree, misrepresent facts, it would give 



