1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



329 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



SPECIAL MANURES. 



If you will accept of the scribblings of a man 

 of foui'-score and three years old, and consequent- 

 ly one of th« past generation, I will give some of 

 my experience and observation in diflerent ma- 

 nures. ] 



As to yard manures — the great staple — I find 

 that some of the present generation have made 

 great improvements, by the use of barn cellars 

 and composting, while others lose all of one-half 

 in the swamps and the air. 1 am of the ojjinion 

 that it is better to put green manure into the 

 ground than on it. 



Having been a manufacturer of ivory, I have fre- 

 quently used its dust during the past sixty years. 

 It is equal to bone dust or superphosphate. Cas- 

 tor pomace, I find, is a strong, quick and excellent 

 manure for a present crop. As to bone dust, I 

 have used it frequently for thirty years. It is an 

 excellent and lasting manure, if rightly managed, 

 and if it contains the original matter of the bone. 

 Bone is nearly half lime, the rest gelatine or an 

 oily, gummy matter, producing ammonia, which 

 is indispensable for the dissolving of the bone. If 

 the gelatine and ammonia are extracted, the rest 

 is no better than oyster shells, and must be treated 

 in the same way. I consider phosphating or pow- 

 dering needless. I have never found any difflcul- 

 cultyin dissolving bones ground in the common 

 way, if the original matter is in them. I pour 

 them down in a heap, with or without anything 

 with them, in the hot sun, wet them thoroughly, 

 and then cover them with loam or earth two or 

 more inches thick, and let them heat, but not to a 

 dry heat. The whole pile will become a rich ma- 

 nure. I then mix all together and plow or harrow 

 them in. Judge Buel, who in his day was one of 

 most skilful and successful farmers in the State of 

 New York, sard in his Albamj Cultivator that he 

 wanted the coarse part of ground bone no finer 

 than half inch pieces. The fine part would take 

 immediate effect, while the coarse would retain 

 and continue to give out fertility for years. I 

 have found it so myself. Bones, when wliole, have 

 a scale on the outiside which protects them from 

 decay; but when broken in pieces are excellent 

 for young trees. How such bone flour as will not 

 ferment will answer for diseased cows I cannot 

 say. I have a better remedy; one that I have 

 tried. It improves the flesh, the bone, the milk, 

 the butter, the hair, and saves consideral)le hay. 

 It is merely to feed them all the spare skim milk, 

 thickened with t)ran (not grains from the 

 stills,) or the meal from corn and oats ; all of which 

 contain bone timl)cr. It is as natural for cattle to 

 gnaw bones and other things, as it is for ahorse to 

 gnaw a post that he stands by, or for a man to be 

 gnawing tobacco. A bushel of ashes on our old 

 worn out lands, I find will do as much good as the 

 same quantity of l)one dust or superphosphate, but 

 I want something besides ashes in the soil. 



Some fifty years ago I bought a tract of land, of 

 which four acres was sown with rye the previous 

 year. The former owner took otf only two t)ushels 

 to the acre ! I put on 400 bushels leached ashes, 

 costing twelve dollars per acre, sowed it again 

 with rye and clover in November. The next July 

 I harvested twelve bushels per acre — not a large 

 crop to be sure, but six times as much as the year 

 before. The next year I had a fine crop of clover 

 liay. The third, with some yard manure, a good 

 crop of corn. I could long see the good eft'eets of 

 those ashes. 



I slKJuld delight to hear the opinion of some of 

 your sticntitic men as to the use of ammonia in 

 manure and in the soil. Is it not the Frenchman's 

 yeast? the New Jcrscyman's secret? or the one 

 thing indispensable to prepare manure and other 



matter for the food of plants ? Docs it not pene- 

 trate the earth like water, and cause the roots of 

 plants to penetrate to the place from whence it 

 came ? Neither bone nor plaster of Paris does any 

 good here spread on grass land, but both are good 

 in compost. 



If bone dust does not smell strong of bone ; if 

 plaster of Paris, when put in water settles to the 

 bottom ; if ashes change the color of water ; if lime 

 bites the tongue, or if ground oyster shells settle 

 to the bottom, I reject them. I consider myself 

 responsil)le for what I write and give my name. 



Deep River, Ct., 1867. Phineas Pratt. 



DRESSING LAND AVITH CLAY, 



It is very seldom I see anything in your columns 

 relative to the use of clay as a dressing for various 

 soils. Having had some experience during the 

 past half dozen years, I would say that I consider 

 it valuable on all soils, except those which are very 

 wet and heavy, or those that already contain 

 enough of the article. To those who can get it by 

 drawing not more than half a mile, I would say, 

 procure a few loads and note the results for two, 

 three and four years after the application. 



As the best method of ajtplying clay, I recom- 

 mend to draw it in the fall and drop it in heaps, as 

 you would manure, the more the better. By the 

 action of frost through the winter it is pulverized 

 so as to be easily spread. Or if drawn in the 

 spring or summer, the sun and rains for a few 

 months will produce nearly the same etfect. In 

 either case, spread and harrow well. 



If this meets the eye of any one who has had 

 any experience in this direction, I would be happy 

 to hear of that experience through the columns of 

 the Farmer, as I understand the "exchange of 

 ideas," &c., to be a leading object of an agricultu- 

 ral paper. He who keeps his experience to him- 

 self violates the spirit of the injunction to "Do 

 unto others as ye would that they should do to 

 you." Still it is almost impossible for us, unedu- 

 cated farmers, who work so hard six days in every 

 seven, to do our duty to each other by communi- 

 cating the results of our practice, by our ungram- 

 matic-al, laborious and unsatisfactory style of 

 writing. f. a. c, n, 



Plymouth, N. H., Feb. 11, 1867. 



DISEASE AMONG LAMBS. 



We have experienced in this vicinity for the last 

 twenty years or more, at times, among our best 

 shepherds, and also among ordinary shepherds, 

 great difficulty in raising our young lambs. 

 Twenty years ago the present season I had a select 

 flock of thirty ewes that I had collected from such 

 flocks as those of Caleb Dyer of Enfield, N. H., Hon. 

 Wm. Jarvisof Weathcrsfield, Gibbs Wait of Wind- 

 sor, Alford Hall of Wallingtbrd and Maj. North of 

 Shoreham, Vt., all blood sheep. 



The second season after I purchased them, they 

 were sheltered in a temporary shed, fed at all times 

 in the open air, in I'ain, snow or sunshine, had a 

 plenty of room for exercise, were in good condi- 

 tion, but not excessively fat. They dropped their 

 lambs in the month of April, some had large 

 bunches in their throats, could hardly stand or 

 breathe, would live a day or two and die. Others 

 were dropped with large fleshy bodies, and their 

 limits not half matured ; were as clestittite of 

 strength as a rag, and all such died soon. Out of 

 the thirty ewes I kept nine lambs alive, but proved 

 worthless in the end, I had other flocks of ewes 

 at other barns that experieiu-ed none of the diffi- 

 culties above mentioned. I am told that several 

 shepherds in Addison county are visited with the 

 same calamity this spring. And now, Mr. Editor, 

 and brother shepherds, what is the cause of it ? 



