26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JAN. 



KELATING TO MANUEES. 



The interest with which the subject of making 

 and applying manures is regarded, ought not to 

 grow less until a larger portion of our farmers 

 better appreciate its importance. So much has 

 already been said upon it, that we always enter 

 upon any discussion in relation to it with reluc- 

 tance. Nevertheless, it is a duty to lay before 

 the reader whatever we may find that will shed 

 new light upon it. This may be done in some de- 

 gree by presenting the opinions of judicious and 

 practical men. At the late New York State Fair 

 one of the evening discussions was upon "The 

 best method of husbanding and applying manures." 

 We will give the opinions of some of the speak- 

 ers, with such remarks as seem appropriate to the 

 opinions expressed. 



"Solon Robinson thought the best way was 

 not to husband it at all. He would draw it out 

 as fast as it was made." 



We have never had better results from the use 

 of manure than when it was hauled from the barn 

 in its crudest condition, then spread and plowed 

 in. When the ground was again plowed the fol- 

 lowing spring, it was very light and black, and 

 .the crops that grew upon it were exceedingly 

 heavy. Every experiment of this kind has pro- 

 duced a similar result. During the period be- 

 tween the plowings, the manure is sufficiently 

 warm to induce the putrefactive process, so that 

 before planting time it is thoroughly decomposed, 

 and the gases which have been evolved are re- 

 tained by the surrounding soil, so that nothing is 

 lost. Upon plowing in the spring the whole field 

 strongly reminded us of a pan of well risen dough, 

 it was so light and porous. 



"Mr. Van Alstyne agreed with Mr. Robinson. 

 He would apply it on the surface. Nature was a 

 safe guide, and she speads manure on the surface." 



Mr. Robinson did not state what he would do 

 with the manure when it was "drawn out" — but 

 we do not think he would recommend to let it lie 

 on the surface. Mr. George Geddes said : 



"He did not think Nature a safe guide. We 

 were at war with Nature. He believed in top- 

 dressing, but thought the fact that trees deposited 

 their leaves on the surface was no proof that it 

 was best to apply manure the same way." 



Certainly, we are at war with Nature every 

 time we graft an apple or pear tree, or bud a rose 

 bush, or root prune. Trees and the beasts of the 

 field leave their droppings upon the surface. 

 The cat is the only quadruped that does not be- 

 lieve in top-dressing ! 



"Mr. Walrath had practiced top-dressing for 

 20 years. It ought to he well-rotted hefore using 

 it. Composting manure added 25 per cent, to its 

 value. He thought it also killed the seeds of 

 weeds." 



We cannot agree with Mr. Walrath that ma- 

 nure is increased in value by composting it. It 



may be more convenient to apply it in that con- 

 dition to grass lands, but how it increases its val- 

 ue we cannot understand. It is a question, wheth- 

 er manure can be heated sufficiently to kill the 

 seeds of weeds, without injuring the manure itself. 

 We wish it were settled. 



"Mr. T. C. Peters found 'that the yield of 

 wheat on Long Island was eight bushels per acre, 

 higher than the average in the State." 



"Mr. Cox, of Long Island, said, they buy sta- 

 ble manure in New York which costs them $3 

 per load on the farm, and apply 12 loads per 

 acre. This gives them 20 bushels of wheat per 

 acre. The wheat does not pay for the manure, 

 but after the wheat they get two or three heavy 

 crops of hay which brings a good price. 



"Prof. Nash thought one reason why the Long 

 Island farmers showed so well in our agricultural 

 statistics, was because some of them were wise 

 men, and some of them were not as wise. Im- 

 mense quantities of leached ashes were brought 

 from Western New York. Some farmers use 

 1,500, 2,000, 2,500 bushels per annum. They are 

 wise. The ashes do good. Fish, too, can be pur- 

 chased at a cheap rate, and they are extensively 

 used as manure. He had said some were unwise. 

 Perhaps the remark needed qualifying. To illus- 

 trate what he meant, he would say there were 

 many fancy farmers on Long Island ; men who 

 had made large fortunes in the city. They raise 

 large crops regardless of expense. A good lady 

 sometime since was bantering with her husband 

 about the expense of his farm. "Every man must - 

 have some pleasure," he said. "My farm does 

 not cost me over $3,000 a year, and it affords me 

 more enjoyment than I can get for the money in 

 any of the fashionable amusements of the city." 

 The Professor knew a man of this character who 

 has a farm of sixty acres on Long Island, and he 

 makes it produce more than six hundred acres of 

 the same land produced a few years ago. The 

 crops are raised' at a loss, but they help to swell 

 the general average. As a general rule, howev- 

 er, the farmers on Long Island are very success- 

 ful. They pay great attention to composting 

 everything that will make manure, and keep up 

 the fertility of the soil. 



"Hon. Geo. Geddes remarked that the Long 

 Island farmers sell everything they raise. They 

 even sell their straw, and consequently they are 

 obliged to buy manure, even if it costs $36 an 

 acre to raise twenty bushels of wheat. Farmers 

 in Onondaga Co., are wise enough not to sell ma- 

 nure in the form of straw and hay. He knows 

 some who raise several hundred bushels of grain, 

 and cut one hundred tons of hay a year, who do 

 not sell a particle of it. It is consumed on the 

 farm and the manure keeps up the fertility of the 

 soil. Taking into consideration the amount of 

 produce raised, and the little that is sold off the 

 farm, he thought the farmers of Western New 

 York manured their land more highly than those 

 of Long Island. There was more fertilizing mat- 

 ter in a good clover sod than in any twelve loads 

 of manure you could purchase in New York. He 

 had a field that had never had a shovelful of ma- 

 nure applied to it for sixty-five years, and by 

 growing clover and pasturing it with sheep, &c., 

 it gets richer instead of poorer. Every farm should 

 be self-sustaining. We cannot afford to draw ma- 



