568 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



Well cultivated lands will yield two tons of 

 straw per acre, and twenty-five bushels of seed. 



The seed in New England is worth $1,50 W bushel, or. . . $37,50 

 The straw in New England is worth, unrolled, $lu #■ ton. .20,00 



$57,50 

 If the unrolled straw is broken on the farm, two tons will 



yield 1000 lbs. of lintin, worth, in New England $40,00 



And 2')00 lbs. of unrolled shives, which make the best 



of food for cattle 20,00 



Seed from two tons of straw, 25 bushels 37,50 



$97,60 



One ton of flax straw will make 400 pounds of 

 pure fibrilia. 



From an extended experience in fibres and their 

 growth in the United States, I feel fully assured 

 that the North-west can pi'oduce any quantity of 

 fibre for cottonizing which may be needed, and 

 this branch of national industry is becoming more 

 important every year. In fact, the traveller 

 through the United States cannot fail to see the 

 great influence of this branch of agriculture and 

 manufacture upon the national government 

 through its individual prosperity. As early as 1846, 

 while travelling in the South, I became convinced 

 that the question oi fibrous agriculture a.nd fibrous 

 manufactures would yet control the peace and sta- 

 bility, for good or for evil, of the American Union, 

 and in 1851, while a member of the Legislature 

 of Massachusetts, I had the honor to write the re- 

 port on flax as shown in Senate document No. 

 106, of that year, and stated therein the great im- 

 portance of flax culture as a controlling influence 

 upon the country — its stability and prosperity. 

 The following is a quotation from the close of said 

 report : 



"Time and nature are constantly exerting their 

 recuperative energies. Nations have risen and 

 flourished, with prospects of perpetual duration, 

 quite as well founded as those which we indulge 

 at this moment in regard to the permanency of 

 our own political organization ; yet history, at this 

 day, only tells us that they once existed, and that 

 others have sprung up in their stead. Trade, and 

 every species of human intercourse, continually 

 undergo fluctuations ; but the ])rinciple of regula- 

 tion is ever at hand, to equalize and harmonize 

 the various conflicting interests which might oth- 

 erwise destroy each other. We are too often de- 

 ceived into a belief that our individual or national 

 prosperity is so unchangealily established, that 

 there remains to us no further duty than to live 

 on in the enjoyment of present possessions. But 

 civilived life produces, daily, new wants, to meet 

 which new means of gratification must be as often 

 devised ; for the sources of support, both for na- 

 tions and families — as well as the character of all 

 the wishes and demands of mankind, whether in 

 power or in poverty, diff'er essentially in the pres- 

 ent age from those of the last ; and are perpetual- 

 ly varying and multiplying — perhaps reforming 

 and refining — from century to century, as our race 

 presses onward in the 'march of improvement.' " 



No Man can leave a better legacy tc the world 



EXTRACTS AND BEPHES. 

 BONES — ANIMALS — BOOKS. 



I think the time has come when the farmers of 

 New England, in oi'der to compete with western 

 agriculturists with their cheap and fertile lands, 

 must begin to avail themselves of every means 

 within their grasp for rendering their farms more 

 productive and remunerative. It strikes the 

 mind of the writer, that of all manurial substances, 

 the bones of animals, and the blood of those 

 slaughtered are the most universally neglected 

 and wasted, while chemical analysis proves these 

 substances to be composed of the most powerful 

 stimulants and aliments for the growth of all cul- 

 tivated crops. 



Can you inform me, therefore, through the col- 

 umns of your journal, 



1. What is the best method of preparing bones, 

 say to commence during the present autumn or 

 coming winter, in order to have them thoroughly 

 dissolved and most available for next year's crops ? 

 The method given by James S. Grennell, in your 

 weekly of December 7th, is too slow. If the bones 

 were ground or pounded, the action of the ashes 

 might reduce them in two or three months in- 

 stead of a year. 



2. Can bones be ground in a common grist 

 mill, or are there mills made on purpose for this 

 work ? 



3. How can the blood of slaughtered animals 

 be best saved and composted, or otherwise pre- 

 pared as a fertilizer for crops ? 



4. How of hen manure, which I observe many 

 farmers sufi'er to accumulate and be greatly 

 wasted ? 



5. I wish to obtain the best work now extant 

 on scientific farming ; one that treats fully on the 

 chemical constituents of plants and animals, with 

 special reference to their value in the preparation 

 of manures ; perhaps some of the back volumes of 

 your monthly Farmer would be just what I want. 

 If you have preserved the back volumes through 

 the whole fourteen years of its publication, how 

 will you sell any or all uf them ? 



Charles A. Derby. 

 Leicester, Addison Co., Vt. 



Remarks. — 1. Dissolving hones. We have a 

 lot of bones packed in ashes about four months 

 ago, that are now so soft as to be easily crushed 

 by the hand. We know of no better way to ac- 

 complish the end desired than this. They should 

 be kept in a warm place in the winter, such as the 

 cellai". The process is cheap, easy and eff'ective. 



2. Bones cannot, probably, be ground in a 

 common grist-mill, as the marrow and other fatty 

 matter contained in them would soon choke the 

 stones and render them inefi[icient. If bones are 

 deprived of this matter before being ground, they 

 are greatly reduced in value as manurial agents, 

 — but it is possible that they are ground in iron 

 mills constructed for the purpose. We do not, 

 however, know any such. 



3. We invite some of our correspondents better 

 acquainted with the means of saving and prepar- 

 ing the blood of animals for manure, to answer 

 t]io tbi"'] innn!—- 



