18G7. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



431 



MANURES. 



^^T-'-y «i ITHER directly or indirectly, 



^lM>Y}^^ manures are the motive power 



>J -".5'>^-*'V in agricultural enterprises — 



the engine which propels the vessel. 



JNluch and highly as we prize 



cleanly cultivation, it will avail but 



^r£ little on an impovished soil. 



Manure contributes in one way 

 or another, to supply nearly all the aliment 

 which vegetation receives, and it is to those 

 manures which are furnished by decaying 

 vegetable and animal matters, that we are 

 principally indebted for the fertility of the soil, 

 and the capacity it possesses of jielding those 

 products so essential to the life of animals, 

 and of man. 



Every thing that has once been energized by 

 the vitalizing principle oi life is, in itself, qual- 

 ified to act as manure. When life ceases, the 

 chemii'al affinities assume ascendancy, and the 

 chemical constituents are released from the 

 union imposed and confirmed by the vital prin- 

 ciple, and each acts independently, and pro- 

 duces phenomena peculiarly and specifically its 

 own. The inorganic particles return again to 

 the soil from which they were originally de- 

 rived, or elaborated; wuile those parts which 

 are the result of organic action, escape into 

 the air, or are absorbed by substances for which 

 they possess affinity, and by them are pre- 

 served to be again employed in the economy 

 of organized reproduction and life. 



The waste attendant upon the decay or de- 

 composition of organic matter, under ordinary 

 circumstances, involves a heavy pecuniary loss 

 to the farmer ; the magnitude of which he not 

 unfreqnently increases by the improper man- 

 ner in which he applies such substances when 

 appropriated a3 manure to his fields and 

 cropL.. 



Some persons deprecate the idea that the 

 mere gaseous products of vegetable fermenta- 

 tion, can be of any essential benefit to plants ; 

 yet the experiments of Sir IIumphkey Davy 

 demonstrate that they are so. He filled a re- 

 tort by inverting it over a mass of fermenting 

 manure, a.nd placed it among the roots of cer- 

 tain vegetables, and although nothing but vapor 

 escaped from the beak,yet the vegetation around 

 it presented in a very short time a surprising 

 degree of fertility, and was far more energetic 

 and luxuriant than that in t!ie same field, which 

 was bevond its infiuence. 



It is thought by some that at least one-half 

 of the valuable, soluble parts of all the refuse 

 material produced on the farms of this comntry, 

 is lost either by infiltration, which carries it be- 

 low and beyond the range of easy appropria- 

 tion by the roots of the vegetable tribe, or by 

 evaporation, which no less effectually ensures 

 its loss, by disseminating it in the atmosphere, 

 to be borne away by the winds. 



When manure is protected by roofs, or even 

 by a stratum of mould, while vmdergoing the 

 process of fermentation, a very considerable 

 proportion of its gaseous products are pre- 

 served and retained. "Absorbents" and "fix- 

 ers" should be always at hand, and not a par- 

 ticle of matter capable of contributing to veg- 

 etable growth should be suffered to escape un- 

 employed. 



A pile of fresh manure will shrink in weight 

 surprisingly in a short time. It has been 

 tested by different observers. One states that 

 twenty-five cwt. recent dung yield, 



At tlie end of fix weeks, 21 cwt. 



After ciL'ht weeks, 20 '• 



When half rotted, 15 10 17 " 



When fully rotted, lu to 13 " 



From all these facts, it must be inferred that 



great care ought to be observed in preserving 



manure, after it is collected. 



PEACHES, GRAPES, AND CURRANTS. 



We had the pleasure, a few days ago, of go- 

 ing over a portion of the farm of i\ir. Samuel 

 Wilson, of Windham, N. II., and of looking 

 at the crops upon it. For many years LIr. 

 Wilson was engaged in the nursery business, 

 and produced a large amount of most of the 

 trees and flowers that were in demand in his 

 region of country. He did so much, and did it 

 so well, that he became widely known as a re- 

 lia^'le person from whom to order any thing 

 wanted in his line of business. Latterly, how- 

 ever, he has abandoned his general business in 

 order to give more attention to two or three 

 special crops. To these special crops our at- 

 tention was principally turned. 



He has seven acres, in peaches, grapes and 

 currants. On these seven acres there are 

 eight hundred peach trees, being set one rod 

 apart each way. Those having stood there 

 the longest are seventeen years old, and from 

 that down to those but six years old. Of the 

 800 in all, there was not a single tree without 

 peaches ! and on most of them there was alto- 

 gether too many. 1 



