1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



219 



tuted. For the soot, use a larger quantity of 

 the burnt earth of coal-pits. For plaster, use 

 a larger quantity of street manure, slime from 

 ditches, or other similar manure. For ashes, 

 use five or six pounds of potash or soda. Stir 

 the liquor, on adding the plaster, and throw in 

 a little at a time, lest it cake. 



The materials for manure are thrown into 

 the reservoir and soaked in the liquor, to pre- 

 pare them for decomposition. Then they are 

 thrown into a heap, by the side of the reser- 

 voir ; a place for which should be prepared by 

 laying at the bottom clay, or compact earth, so 

 that the drainings from the heap, and the ley 

 poured on the pile, may run off into the vat, 

 and not be absorbed by the earth, as it would 

 be on a porous soil. 



The heap may be made six or seven feet 

 high, six, eight, or ten feet wide, in order to 

 hold the heat, and of any convenient length. 

 In forming the heap, after making layers of 

 about a foot, turn on some of the ley, that it 

 may be applied to every part of the materials. 

 When the heap is completed, turn the muddy 

 sediment of the ley on to the heap. Then 

 cover the top of the heap with straw, old 

 planks, or branches of herbage. In forming 

 the heap, it should be trodden down to make 

 it close, and it should be beaten all round for 

 the same purpose. 



The fermentation usually commences in two 

 days, and on the third day, the top of the heap 

 is to be opened about six inches deep, the sedi- 

 ment turned over, and another good drenching 

 of the ley applied, and the heap covered up. 

 About the seventh day, make many holes in 

 the heap, about three feet deep, and give 

 another good drenching with the ley. About 

 the ninth day, another good drenching, in new 

 and deeper holes. 



After fourteen or fifteen days from the mak- 

 ing of the heap, the manure will be fit to 

 spread. The fermentation is checked by an 

 excessive drenching, or by opening the heap. 

 The drainings should be caught and used over 

 again, and what remains is used for future 

 heaps. Warm weather is most suitable for 

 making this manure. 



In 1843, a man in this country by the name 

 of Bommer applied to H. L. Ellsworth, then 

 Commissioner of Patents, for a patent for mak- 

 ing manure which was for want of novelty re- 

 jected, as it was virtually the same as Jauffret's 

 plan. Subsequently an application for a pa- 

 tent for an improvement on the French process 

 was obtained by Mr. Bommer, whose name has 

 thus become associated with this subject. With 

 how much justice will be seen by the following 

 specification of his claim. 



"What we claim as our improvement on 

 Jauffret\s method of forming manure by tlie 

 rapid fermentation of vegetable fibres, is, first, 

 the Ibrming of the said vegetable matter into 



piles or heaps, without its first being immersed 

 m the prepared ley, and the subsequently sat- 

 urating the same by pouring on the ley in the 

 manner set forth." 



In relation to the second request of our cor- 

 respondent, we may say that all the books pub- 

 lished on this subject contain much valuable 

 matter, but for a cheap work we have no hesi- 

 tation in recommending Cole's Fruit Book. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 NOXIOUS ANIMALS, INCLUDINa IN- 

 SECTS.— NO. III. 



BY I. B. HART WELL. 



A common objection to what has been writ- 

 ten in reference to noxious insects is, that 

 while we get therefrom perhaps a long Latin 

 or Greek name, and an elaborate scientific de- 

 scription and history of some species, we ob- 

 tain few infallible preventives of their injuries. 



It is indeed true that neither the scientific 

 nor practical entomologist can often give us the 

 infallible remedies we want ; but that which 

 they do give us is not only highly interesting 

 to every lover of nature, but affords us the 

 only means of seeking intelligently for pre- 

 ventives of insect injuries. 



And, perhaps, still stronger objections will 

 be urged against any attempt to prove the 

 utility of that which is noxious, or the neces- 

 sity of that which is unnecessary. Neverthe- 

 less there are some questions about the mission 

 of animals, including insects, commonly called 

 noxious, that are not yet fully exhausted or 

 satisfactorily answered. 



Every form of animal and vegetable life, in 

 its different stages of growth, maturity, and 

 decomposition, becomes the aliment of other 

 forms; or in other borrowed words, "to eat 

 and be eaten," is a great law of nature. 



It would, perhaps, be presumptuous to at- 

 tempt to assign the motive lor the construction 

 of nature on this plan ; yet it is impossible to 

 conceive of any other that would give the max- 

 imum amount of animal life and enjoyment. 

 But "to eat and be eaten," or to have the 

 same specific vegetable, as has been said of 

 wheat, assigned in its different stages of 

 growth to sixty different animals, must ne- 

 cessarily cause some flashings of interest; 

 some antagonism, strife and war. And the 

 wonder is, not that on such a plan tliere should 

 be war, but that neither of the combatants, as 

 a species, should be able wholly to subdue and 

 annihilate the other. 



But this war is not animated by malice, re- 

 venge, or retaliation, but is simply a struggle 

 for existence ; and contradictory as the asser- 

 tion may seem, the harmony, peace, and pros- 

 perity of the kingdoms of nature are sustained 

 by strife, war, and devastation. One portion 

 of the animal kingdom is supported by vegeta- 

 tion exclusively ; another by animal food ex- 



