362 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



mals, will, in a short time, and without oppres- 

 sive care or labor, become valuable manure. 

 Good muck should be the chief ingredient, — 

 then old straw, haulm of every description, 

 refuse hay and fodder, leaves from the forest, 

 loam and sods from the road side and ditches, 

 weeds from the fields and garden, ferns from 

 the runs in pastures, scraps of leather, apple 

 pomace, the refuse of the comb, or almost any 

 other factory, old woolen rags, soot, charcoal 

 dust, the wash from the sink and laundry, old 

 feathers, bristles, spent tan, saw dust, are all 

 valuable ingredients in the compost heap, and 

 if mixed with some alkalescent substance, such 

 as lime or unleached ashes, will be speedily 

 resolved into an efficient aliment of vegetable 

 Ufe. 



Upon this mass, the slops and dish water 

 made about the house, as well as the other 

 liquids, should be conveyed, and the whole 

 thoroughly mixed by plowing or shovelling 

 over, as often as once a month. Even large 

 shrubs will decompose, if care be taken to 

 keep up a due degree of fermenting energy in 

 the mass. Rich loam from those low places 

 that may be seen by the side of every highway, 

 which are constantly catching the wash from 

 the road, is a good ingredient, as it possesses 

 in an eminent degree, the power of absorbing 

 the rich juices which emanate from the other 

 materials ; but cai'e should be had not to let it 

 preponderate too largely over the putrescent 

 constituents, as in that case it would produce 

 more harm than good. 



Copperas water sprinkled weekly over the 

 surface, with a few bushels of gypsum and 

 salt will be very beneficial. 



Where such a process as this is constantly 

 going on, the farmer is never at a loss what to 

 do with the waste matter that is accumulating 

 day by day on every farm. There is the place 

 for the potato, pumpkin and squash vines, the 

 pea and bean haulm at harvest time, and the 

 rubbish that is collected from the garden and 

 fields in the spring. An incidental good is 

 also secured in the neater appearance about 

 the buildings, by picking up the bones, bits of 

 leather, and Avhatever gives the surroundings 

 of the buildings a careless and slovenly ap- 

 pearance. 



A yard, such as we have described, regu- 

 larly filled and jcared for, will be worth more 

 to the fiirmer, than one thousand dollars at 

 interest. 



CHARCOAL, AND THE VOLATILB 

 FOOD OP PLANTS. 



When vegetables decay, upon the cessation 

 of the vital principle, no inconsiderable portion 

 of their fertilizing particles is set free in the 

 form of gases. These are of the first impor- 

 tance in vegetable development and matura- 

 tion, and their loss is an actual diminution of 

 the value of the nianurial mass. 



Carbon is one of the elements of vegetable 

 nutrition to which we attach great importance, 

 being indispensably necessary to the perfection 

 of the vegetable system, and without which no 

 plant can be perfected. It is of little impor- 

 tance whether this element is applied in the 

 form of solid carbon, as in the case of coal 

 produced by charring wood, or by the slower 

 decay of plants when subjected, after their de- 

 mise, to the play of chemical affinities — the 

 substance is essentially the same in both cases, 

 as far as practical value is involved, and in 

 both, gives rise to precisely the same results. 



The power of charcoal — the most tangible 

 form in which carbon exists — to absorb the 

 gases produced by putrefaction, is well known 

 to be great ; hence, as an economizing agent, 

 its use in agriculture cannot be too f.equently 

 urged . De Saussure ascertaine d , by actual ex- 

 periment, that charcoal (formed of box wood) 

 absorbed, in twenty-four hours, and retained 

 within its structure, the following volumes of 

 gases : — 



Hydrogen, 1.75 volume. 



Nitrogen, 7.(5 " 



Oxygen, 9.25 " 



Carb'inic acid 9.42 " 



Oletiant gas, 35. " 



Carbonic acid gas, 35. " 



Nitrons oxide, 40. •' 



Sulphuretted hydrogen, 55. " 



Sulphurous acid, 65. " 



Muriatic acid, 85. " 



Ammoniacal gas, 90. " 



Charred peat is also a very excellent appli- 

 cation for this purpose. It has been found to 

 possess the following chemical composition : — 



Combustible. 



Carbon, 79.24 



Hydrogen 2.20 



Nitrogen, 54 



Oxygen, 6 41, 88.42 



Incovibustible. 



Clay and silica, 2.48 



Oxide of iron, 1.60 



I'liosphoric acid, 34 



Silicate of potanh, 98 



Chloride of sodium, 2 53 



Carbonate of lime 1.85 



Sulphate of lime, 1.44 



Lobs 30 11.58 



100.00 



The gaseous compounds of phosphorus arc 

 amenable to the same general law, being ex- 



