370 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



LOSS OF MANUKB— FILTKATIOJSrS. 



A correspondent who has read Avith great atten- 

 tion and interest our articles on Improvement in 

 Farming, asks, "If the soil is well pulverized to 

 the depth of two feet, so that water can pass free- 

 ly through, and below this there are drains ready 

 to carry off all the water not held by the soil, will 

 not the soluble parts of the manure applied near 

 the surface, and the soluble and the richest por- 

 tions of the soil, be carried off by these drains and 

 lost to the farmer and the crops ?" This is a very 

 natural and sensible inquiry, and shows that the 

 inquirer is one of those thinking men Avho is not 

 willing to adopt any plan without a full under- 

 standing of its effects. On this point, however, 

 there is no danger, for the water running from 

 pipes will be found clear and pure, no matter how 

 much or what may be the nature of the manure 

 applied. Even liquid manure may be given in 

 large quantities, and the water that filters through 

 will be found clear and pure. Soak the soil with 

 the dark brown drainings of the barn-yard, and 

 that which passes through to the drains will be as 

 clear as though just taken from the spring. Any 

 one can test this matter for liimself in a small 

 way, so that the question may be settled in his 

 own mind beyond question. 



Among a series of experiments instituted by 

 Professor Way and H. S. Thompson, for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining the power of soil to retain, 

 unimpaired in value, manures applied in winter, 

 and also its power to hold in suspension the fixed 

 ammonia in barn-yard tanks and manure heaps, 

 we learn that Mr. Thompson filtered through san- 

 dy loam, six inches in depth, ten grains of sulphate 

 of ammonia and ten grains of sesqui-carbonate of 

 ammonia, both dissolved in distilled water — the 

 one representing the ammoniacal matter of the 

 tank fixed by gypsum or sulphuric acid, and the 

 other the free ammoniacal solutions of the decom- 

 posed vegetable-matter of the barn-yard — and he 

 found that after passing through this thin stratum 

 of soil, only 2.4 grains of the sulphate of ammonia 

 resulted in the one case, and only 1.3 grains in 

 the other. When an eiglit-inch stratum of the 

 soil was used, the lohole of the ammonia loas re- 

 tained. 



Professor Way subjected stinking tank water to 

 filtration through twenty-four inches of a light 

 loam, and the moisture at the foot of the tube was 

 perfectly free from smell, and a mixture of this 

 soil and white sand allowed the percolation of wa- 

 ter through it quite clear and free from ammonia. 

 With the drainage of a London sewer. Professor 

 W. found that the ammonia is separated from the 

 rest of the organic matter to the last fraction ; the 

 phosphoric acid is separated from its base, and so 

 is part of the sulphuric acid and all the potash ; 

 so that in fact the soil had selected and retained 

 those very principles of the sewer water which 

 science has decided to be the most valuable for 

 the purposes of manure. 



Professor Mapes, in an article on this subject, 

 says — "It is impossible for manures in a fluid form 

 to filter downward through any fertile soil. Even 

 the brown liquor of the barn-yard will have all its 

 available constituents abstracted by the soil, be- 

 fore it descends into the earth thirty-four inches. 

 If this were not true, our wells would long since 

 have become useless, the earth's surface would 



have become barren, and the raw materials of 

 which plants are made, which come from the 

 earth's surface and surrounding atmosphere, would 

 have passed towards the earth's centre ; but the 

 carbon and alumina of the soil, each of which haa 

 the power of absorbing and retaining the necessa- 

 ry food of plants, are agents for carrying into ef- 

 fect the laws of nature for the protection of vege- 

 table growth." 



It is only in the most porous soils, containing a 

 good deal of gravel, that the manure will be 

 washed down out of the reach of the roots of 

 plants, and we venture the assertion that in no 

 fertile, and in fact in no soil that the farmer is ex- 

 pected to cultivate, may loss be apprehended from 

 this cause. 



MANUFACTUKE OF CARPETS. 



Within a comparatively few years past, several 

 improved kinds of carpet fabrics have been manu- 

 factured and come into extensive use. Among 

 these is the well known tapestry, which has been 

 brought to great perfection. The peculiarity of 

 this fabric is the unlimited number of shades or 

 colors that can be introduced so, that the most 

 elaborately- colored designs, with flowers and 

 scrolls, can be executed. The saving of worsted 

 is also very important in an economical point of 

 view. The appearance is the same, or similar, to 

 Brussels carpet, but the manufacture is more sim- 

 ple, each thread being colored separately at spaces, 

 with the various shades, as they follow each other 

 in the design. The process by which this is ac- 

 complished is beautifully simple and ingenious, 

 but requires much care in placing and arranging 

 the threads and putting them on the beam, or the 

 work will be imperfect. The patent Axminster is 

 another kind — the design of this manufacture be- 

 ing to give the beautiful appearance of Axminster, 

 or Tournay, at less cost. It has been very suc- 

 cessfully and extensively applied to the manufac- 

 ture of rugs, as well as carpets. Another descrip- 

 tion of carpets, having the same appearance of 

 Brussels, or tapestry, is also now much in use. 

 This kind is woven plain by steam power, and is 

 afterward printed by the same agency. 



How TO Clarify Quills. — Cut off the small 

 top of the quill, tie them loosely in bundles, fix 

 them nearly upright in a sauce-pan of water, in 

 which a small piece of alum has been dissolved — 

 about the size of a walnut of alum, to a quart of 

 water ; let them boil slowly, until they become 

 clear ; add a little tumeric, or a small pinch of saf- 

 fron to the water, to give them the yellow color ; 

 dry them in the sun. You should tie paper round 

 the feather part of the quills, to keep them from 

 dust. You can increase the quantity of alum, ac- 

 cording as you wish the quills more or less brittle. 

 — Irisli Farmer's Gazette. 



Wheat in Ohio. — The editor of the Spring- 

 field Ohio Daily Neuis, who has been taking "fine 

 carriage rides into the interior," says, "the soil is 

 mostly a stiff", cold clay, but we never saw wheat 

 look stouter and more thrifty. The stalks can 

 hardly hold the weight of the grain in the heads. 

 All other crops are also promising, and of fruit 

 there will be an enormous supply." 



