1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



387 



•will be divided into four classes: 1st. Fulling 

 wools. 2d. Delaine wools. 3d. Cassimere wools. 

 4th. Combing wools. Twenty-five fleeces must 

 be exhibited to entitle exhibitors to a premium. 

 Mr. S. N. Goodale, of Cleveland, will have charge 

 of this department. 



. SUMMEK MANURES. 



It has become a common practice among New 

 England farmers to plow sward land and lay it to 

 grass in September, without cultivating a crop 

 upon it ; and when the autumnal months are mild 

 and moist, this course is certainly successful, if the 

 land is properly dressed with fine, rich compost. 

 More land would be treated in this way than there 

 is, if the farmer could always command the man- 

 ure which is indispensable, if satisfactory results 

 are expected. 



The winter stock of manure is usually exhaust- 

 ed on the crops planted in the spring, so that the 

 only resource is to that which has accumulated 

 tlu'ough the summer, and what can be done as an 

 auxiliary help by the specific fertilizers. Some 

 persons have attempted to re-seed sward land by 

 the use of guano, bone-dust, ashes, lime or super- 

 phosphates, but we have never known the result 

 favorable under such circumstances. The seeds 

 come sparingly, and when up, do not grow vigor- 

 ously. But wherever there is a little well-rotted 

 manure, a particle of muck saturated with urine 

 or potash in some form, or a speck of rich, clayey 

 loam, the seeds will find and cling to it tenacious- 

 ly, and throw out their roots freely, which soon 

 pass through it and down into the firmer soil. 

 This is what they like, and should have, in order 

 to return to us profitable crops. 



The efibrt to obtain the largest amount of this 

 material should never cease — not even during 

 hoeing or the hurrying season of haying. Every 

 available thing should be laid under contribution, 

 and especially all the green stuff that can be col- 

 lected, such as weeds, coarse grasses, and, in ma- 

 ny pastures, brakes, and the young growth of 

 bushes. In addition to these the droppings of 

 the cattle, whether tied up or not, should be cov- 

 ered three or four times a week, or once each day 

 would be better. When a system like this is put 

 into practice, and steadily persisted in, the far- 

 mer will often find himself amply supplied with 

 the necessary means of laying down his old fields 

 to grass, and of covering them once more with the 

 most abundant and paying crops. 



The truth is, we let our grass lands run too 

 long. We mow them year after year and get a 

 ton of hay per acre, when the land, under a high- 

 er state of culture, is capable of yielding three 

 tons to the acre ! Would it not be cheaper to al- 

 low some of it to lie idle, or grow up to wood, 

 than to have so much in hand ? 



In order to have the summer manure in proper 

 condition for re-seeding, it must be collected into 

 heaps and passed through a slight fermentation, 

 such as we have described in an article in this 

 number of the paper, in reply to the queries of a 

 con-espondent about destroying the vitality of the 

 seeds of weeds which find their way into the 

 manure heaps. 



It is of vital importance to the farmer, never to 

 relax his efi'orts in making manure. They should 

 be systematic, not spasmodic, crowding in the ma- 

 terial this week in undue proportion, and with- 

 holding it entirely the next. Where system is 

 observed, and the various materials are judicious- 

 ly supplied, the heap will grow in magnificent 

 proportions, and if properly reduced from its long 

 and crude, to a short and saponaceous condition, 

 will amply repay the cost with more than com- 

 pound interest for all the labor he has expended 

 upon it. 



Will the farmer allow us to suggest, once more, 

 the importance to him of attending to the manure 

 heaps in the summer, while materials are more 

 abundant than at other seasons, and while the hot 

 weather will rapidly reduce them to their best 

 condition. Let us suggest, also, that muck is the 

 great basis upon which his operations must main- 

 ly rest. It is, in reality, "the mother of the meal 

 chest." Without its aid we scarcely know what 

 course to suggest ; but with it in abundance, and 

 judiciously used, there is hardly a limit to the 

 productiveness of our good soils. 



HAY CAPS. 



We sometimes hear farmers say that they can- 

 not aff'ord this or that on account of the cost. Do 

 they always count the cost on both sides ? We 

 will give an instance of what seems to be true 

 economy. Jacob P. Buswell, of Auburn, purchased 

 20 caps three years since. He bought the cloth, 

 li^ yards wide, and tore it into squares, doubling 

 up the corners for the strings to be sewed on. 

 During the rainy week of the last of June, he had 

 a half acre of fine clover down. It had one day's 

 sun, and was put into 17 stout heaps. The caps 

 were put on, pegged down at the corners, and af- 

 ter a week's rain of no ordinary kind, the clover 

 came out bright and sweet, and was put into the 

 barn in first rate order. Now every farmer knows 

 that it don't take a week's rain to spoil clover. 

 i\Ir. Buswell's caps cost him $4. They saved 

 him thrice their cost in that one rain. This is 

 what we call true economy. This year cotton 

 cloth costs more than it did three years since, but 

 even now it will pay to buy hay caps. Such things 

 make the farm labor easier, they relieve its hur- 

 ried and anxious hours, and enable one to feel 

 tolerably easy in the catching rains. — N. H. Jour- 

 nal of Agriculture. 



A person of uncultivated mind has no resource 

 but in the society of others. 



