672 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



--=^^^ 



ABSOBBENT8 IN THE BAKN TAED. 



ANY times 



while visiting 

 among farmers 

 we have gladly 

 accepted an in 

 vitation to look 

 at the stock of 

 cattle, but in a 

 few cases we 

 have found it 

 difficult to get 

 across the 



- barn yard with- 



— out flounder- 

 ing through mire, 



*J specimens of which, 

 q though on ones boots, 

 2 would scarcely be ap- 

 propriate in the parlor. 

 This certainly is a 

 sign of slack, if not 

 poor management. The only profitable farm- 

 ing in New England must spring from high 

 manuring, and high cultivation. Without this, 

 good crops may occasionally be obtained, but 

 they will not generally be profitable ones 

 The first essential, then, to profitable farming 

 is the manure. 



There is no other place where a large 

 amount of coarse materials can be so profitably 

 worked up into good manure, as in a barn 

 yard that was formed so as to be dishing in 

 the centre. Where cattle are yarded at night, 

 it is especially important that the yard shoulJ 

 be covered with something which will not only 

 absorb their droppings, but will serve as a dry 

 and easy bed for them to sleep upon. If the 

 litter cf one kind and another is a foot thick, 

 60 much the better. All the waste straw, hay, 

 orts Itfi by the cattle, corn butts, and every 

 refuse from the barn may appropriately go to 

 the barn yard. To these should be added, in 

 the summer, brakes and rank meadow grasses 

 before they go to seed, turfs in abundance 

 and peat from the meadows. All this ma- 

 terial will be kept moist by the rains" and 

 droppings of the stock, and when mingled 

 and pulverized by their feet, will furnish a 

 most valuable mass that may be removed at 

 least twice in the year. The summer season 

 is the best time, because the process of fer- 

 mentation goes on then more freely. 



New materials should be added every week, 

 and no work on the farm will pay better than 

 strict attention to this, which is the main 

 source of all success. It will not be found 

 necessary to fill the yard at once, to the ex- 

 clusion of all other duties, but make it a 

 standing rule to occupy every hour that can 

 be spared in keeping the yard properly sup- 

 plied with such materials as will increase the 

 bulk and value of the mass. 



An occasional ploughing will assist both 

 pulverization and fermentation, as it will 

 lighten up the materials, let in sun and rain 

 and break up the coarser particles. 



The common want among farmers, all over 

 New England, is larger quantities of some- 

 thing that will enrich the soil. Pressing and 

 important as this want is, many of ti3e means 

 common to all, — and well understood by all — 

 are greatly neglected. Were the barn jards, 

 barn cellars and pig styes properly sup- 

 plied and managed, the manure en our farms,, 

 generally, might be increased from one-third' 

 to one- half. 



Autumn is an excellent time to commence 

 the good work. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES 



SAMPLES OF PEAT. 



Mr. Brown-:— I send three specimens of my 

 peat mucli. N >. 1 is ihe tip siraium, generally 

 about two feet deep. No. 2 is tbemiduie htraium, 

 and of about the same thiekne.'-s as Nj. 1. In 

 some places there is another variety lesembling 

 No. 2, but tougher; the roots mu' h less decayed, 

 and in color just like old cider pi mace. No. 3 is 

 the lower stratum, and from th:-ee to eigljf feet in 

 depth. I want > our opinion of i;s value, also the 

 relative value of the d.fierent tpeciiuens. 



Remarks. — We are always glad to notice an in- 

 creased attention given to the su'j-ct of peat. 

 The deposits of this material in New Ergland are 

 not only to become of vast importance as manurial 

 agents, but as an article of fuel. It is already 

 pressed into the form of bricks, dried in the sun 

 and used for household purposes. In some in- 

 stances it is thrown, fresh from the pit, ihto fur- 

 naces under steam boilers, and psrforms an eco- 

 nomical service there ; even the "Wiiter it contains 

 being made to contribute to its heating efifjct." 

 In Germany the most beautiful oils have been ob- 

 tained from peat; and also coal, illuminaliDg gas, 

 paraffiae, kreosote and water, containing from one 

 to three per cent, of ammonia. All the^e sub- 

 stances are susceptible of useful applications in 

 one art or another. 



But it is in an agricultural point of view that 

 we with to consider the matter at present. 



The, three samples of peat forwarded by our 



