1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



291 



muck and manure takes about an hour and a 

 lialf each week, — not much more time than is 

 usually required wliere cattle are kept on a 

 floor. In this way I make a large pile of 

 strong manure, much more than when I bedded 

 my stock on straw and poor hay. In fact I 

 think I can make as much manure with ten 

 cattle in this way as with forty in the old way. 

 An incidental advantage that may be men- 

 tioned in favor of this mode of stabling, is the 

 exemption of my stock from lice, which I as- 

 scribe to their lying on the ground or rather 

 on the materials above mentioned. 



I endeavor also to convert my horse stable 

 and hog pen into manure factories. I draw 

 up muck and loam and put it in a pile near 

 the horse barn and hog pen, which are con- 

 nected. I bed my horse first with muck and 

 loam, then with straw or hay or leaves. This 

 remains until it is well filled with the drop- 

 pings and urine, and is then thrown into the 

 hog pen, where the hogs work it over nicely. 

 This is done almost every day in the summer, 

 and in the winter when it is not cold enough 

 to freeze the muck. This manure is all under 

 cover and away from the rains and wind, and 

 it proves to be an excellent fertilizer for wheat, 

 corn, grass or any plants, for it is very strong, 

 and I am anticipating the best results from a 

 large pile of it now on hand, and more I think 

 than would have been made with ten horses 

 and thirty hogs in the old way, without using 

 material with it. 



Now, a few words on the out-door compost 

 factories. I have three yards. One of them 

 is east of the barn, where my cattle run in the 

 winter while drinking and airing themselves, 

 and a portion of the time in the summer. I 

 cover this yard about one foot deep with muck, 

 to begin with. When it is pretty well covered 

 with droppings, I draw in more muck and cover 

 over the surface, and repeat the process, as I 

 deem necessary. Formerly I ploughed and 

 harrowed the yard fine, but from the strong 

 smell that arose I concluded there must be a 

 considerable loss of fertilizing properties, and 

 have not ploughed the yard recently. 



The second is at the south end of my barn. 

 This being a little sloping is dryer than the 

 other, and is used as a milking yard in wet 

 weather in the summer. What little wash 

 there may be from this yard runs on to my 

 mowing lot and is not lost. Muck is put into 

 this yard and managed as in the first yard. 



My third yard opens into the lane that leads 

 to the pasture. I keep this covered with muck 

 and loam all summer. The muck ought not 

 to be too thick, as the sun and air must have a 

 chance to operate on it to neutralize its acids, 

 &c. 



These yards furnish a large amount of com- 

 post, which I find valuable for top-dressing for 

 rye, oats, wheat and for seeding down to grass. 

 I find it pays for the labor it requires ; and as 

 I have done all this work myself for years — I 

 do not recollect of employing a hand at it for 



a single day — I ought to be able to know 

 about what it costs. 



When I draw my manure to the field, unless 

 I am going to plough it in soon, I step on to 

 the heap with dung hook in hand, and haul on 

 turf and earth to prevent the gases from float- 

 ing off in the air to come down in a shower on 

 some other farm. I have noticed that the 

 earth thus hauled on to a heap would become 

 yellow, as I suppose from the ammonia or 

 other gases which were absorbed by it. 



I have now not far from fifty acres of 

 ploughed land on my farm, without a stone to 

 interfere with cultivation, nearly all of it in 

 one lot. When I purchased it, a piece at a 

 time, it would not yield over six bushels of rye 

 per acre, except about ten acres of new land, 

 wliich I cleared up, that would yield more. 

 The rest of my farm consists of meadow, pas- 

 ture and wood and timber land. Since I have 

 taken this way of making manure, I have sold 

 hundreds of dollars worth of hay, and I might 

 say thousands, without exaggeration, and I 

 think my farm is growing better every year. 



Early in the spring I commence collecting 

 materials for composting. On thawy days 

 early in March I go into the lot and bring up 

 muck and turf to be used for swelling the ma- 

 nure heap, in the various ways which I have 

 described. 



If what I have thus written, which is as near 

 my practice as I can recollect, shall be of any 

 value to any one of my brother farmers, I shall 

 be rewarded for my trouble, though from want 

 of education and habit of using the pen, it is 

 quite an effort for me to write, even with the 

 aid of the editor in the matters of grammar, 

 spelhng and smooth language. 



M. L. GOODELL. 



South Aniherst, Mass., April, 1871. 



Alsike Clover. — At a late meeting of the 

 Orleans county, N. Y., farmers' club, the sub- 

 ject of Alsike clover was alluded to. Mr. 

 Rogers said he mixed seven quarts of the seed 

 with seven of timothy seed, wliich was sown 

 on four acres. This cut some ten or twelve 

 loads from which he threshed 12 bushels of 

 seed that sold for $12 per bushel. Found the 

 straw good fodder ; it is not dusty, and stock 

 eat it up clean. Does not have a tap root, 

 and may not be so good to improve the land 

 as other clover. Says Alsike don't last but 

 one year, and the first crop must he taken for 

 seed, and must be cut green or a large part of 

 the seed may be lost. Thinks it a good crop 

 to raise, and that it will furnish as much feed 

 for one season as other clover. 



Mr. Blood don't think Alsike heaves out as 

 bad as common clover, but says it don't do as 

 well on high as on low land. Mr. Beckwith 

 said horses eat it better than common clover. 

 It secerned to be the general impression that 

 Alsike is not so good to improve the land as 

 common clover. — Country Oentleman. 



