1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



597 



stored for winter use, or otherwise disposed 

 of ; but wherever any are left, no time should 

 be lost in securing them before it is too late. 

 Cabbage may be preserved, as suggested 

 heretofore. Celery may be preserved after 

 taking up andla}ing down, under sand, in 

 boxes, in the cellar. Some may be left in the 

 ground, where grown, bv covering with litter, 

 and over this place boards formed into a sort 

 of roof ; it is not freezing that injures celery, 

 but the occasional thaws, the wet and rot they 

 produce. Mild spells of weather will enable 

 you to remove celery thus secured, when 

 needed . 



Cabbage and other plants wintered in cold 

 frames should be allowed every advantage of 

 free air during the continuance of mild weather, 

 to inure them by degrees to bear the cold. 

 The sash may be entirely removed a part of 

 the day in mild weather, to be replaced again 

 at night ; sudden changes will require extra at- 

 tention and care. Any needed draining of 

 the ground may be done while the ground will 

 admit ; so also ploughing in manure or trench- 

 ing ; and in heavy soils leaving the surface 

 rough and uneven to expose more fully to the 

 action of the elements of winter. In some fa- 

 vored localities peas may be sown for an early 

 spring crop, if they can be preserved from mice 

 or other vermin • so also seeds of some other 

 varieties, like the cabbage and onion. Lay 

 down and protect the grape vines, cover the 

 strawberry beds with evergreen boughs, or 

 other suitable litter that will not afford a lurk- 

 ing and resting place for mice. Cover the 

 ground about the trunks of the more tender 

 and choice trees and shrubs with manure, 

 litter, or soil, but be careful to provide for the 

 exclusion of mice and other vermin. Clearup 

 generally about the garden and premises, and 

 do all that may be possibly accomplished to- 

 wards forwarding another season's labor. 



W. H. White. 



South Windsor, Conn., 1871. 



UfCREASB AND STRENGTHEN" THE 

 MANURE. 



A prize essay of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Society for 1870, by R. Giddings, details the 

 cheapest and most practical plan of increas- 

 ing the farm-manure pile and saving its ele- 

 ments from waste, and which should be a dopt- 

 ed by every farmer. His plan is simply to 

 save every particle of the animal excrements, 

 liquid and solid, with all its fertilizing ele- 

 ments intact, free from waste by washing, 

 evaporation, or fire-fang. To do this, he 

 fills a stall, or large bin, in his stable, during 

 dry weather, with pulverized clay, road scrap- 

 ings or common soil. With this he covers 

 the floor of each stall three inches deep, and 

 then places the litter for the animals' bedding 

 on it; by this means, all the urine will be 

 absorbed, and its wealth of nitrogen saved ; 

 and such is the absorbing power of dried 



earth, that one three-inch flooring will not be 

 so thoroughly saturated in a long time as to 

 require replacing. He says his experiment 

 required but one large bin of pulverized earth 

 to absorb the urine of ten or twelve cattle 

 during the stable season ; and that two men 

 with a team filled the bin in one day. Dried 

 clay was applied also to the pig-pen and hen- 

 roost, with the same ammonia-saving results ; 

 and if applied to the privy or earth closet, 

 which is now being adopted, a great manuri- 

 al as well as sanitary result would fol ow. 

 The inducements for the use of dry earth 

 are : 



1st — That it requires no apparatus or cash 

 outlay. 



2d — That the liquid manure of cattle is 

 worth more than the solid, and is usually lost ; 

 but, under this practice all is retained. 



od — The drv earth retains within it all the 

 value, of which usually one-third or one-half 

 is lost by fermentation, leaching, or evapora- 

 tion. 



4th — It gives much larger bulk of manure, 

 each load of which is of double the value of 

 ordinary farm-yard manure. 



5th — That one ton of saturated earth is of 

 more value than the same weight of even 

 fresh saved dung. 



6th — That the aggregate amount of plant 

 food thus saved from the stalls is fully double, 

 and in much better condition for use. 



His next experiment was the cheap manipu- 

 lation of bones. To make his own bone ma- 

 terial he got from a foundry at the cost of 

 $1.60, a 32-pound cast-iron sledge, by which, 

 with the aid of a spring pole and an upright 

 log set in the ground, he reduced bones to 

 small pieces ; then sifting out the finest, he 

 crushed the coarsest pieces over again ; these 

 fine pieces he composted in layers with fresh 

 horse-dung. After three weeks he forked 

 over the pile and covered it with soil, and 

 this was afterwards forked over until the 

 bones were rotten and thoroughly mixed with 

 the horse-dung and soil. 



To save farm-yard manure from waste, and 

 above all from fire-fang, Mr. Giddings uses 

 both earth and water. He says "a covering 

 of half an inch of soil will absorb every par- 

 ticle of escaping ammonia, but a thicker coat- 

 ing is desirable." A water-box on a one- 

 horse cart is also used occasionally to stop a 

 too active fermentation of the pile. There 

 are other absorbents, rich in themselves, of 

 plant food, which not only save but add both 

 bulk and richness to the pile — muck, sawdust, 

 coal ashes, &c. Go into your hen-house on 

 a warm morning and you will be oppressed 

 with the effluvia arising from their droppings ; 

 spread over them a hod of coal ashes, or a 

 basket of saw-dust, and the air is sweetened 

 as if by magic ; and it will keep the hens in 

 good health, besides increasing tire manure,, 

 if followed up every few days. — N. Y. Sun. 



