PROCEEDINGS OF TJIK FARMERS* CLUB. 77 



in valuation of i^lG7,421. In SonOi Anstralia, (^urinj^ tlic year endinpf 

 Miircli 31, 18G3, there liail been an increase over the preceding year of 12J 

 per cent., making a total of 3,431,000 sheep. 



S.\LT AS Manure — Valuable Experiments with Potatoes. 



Mr. Soh)n Kohiiirton. — 1 present for the iiiforinatiuii of our farmers the 

 fnUowing valmiliU' experinnMit in th(* use of salt: "An application of farm 

 yard dung, at the rate «)f twenty tons per statute acre, produced nine tons 

 nine cwt. of potatoes, of which fourteen per ceiit. were diseased; while 

 twenty tons of farni yard dung and two and a half cwt. of salt per acre 

 produced thirteen tons sixteen cwt. of potatoes; and twenty tons of dung, 

 with two and a half cwt. of salt and five cwt. of lime per acre produced 

 .sixteen tons of potatoes; the juoportion of diseased potatoes in the two last 

 named trials being in reality ' next to nothing,' or about one-fourth per cent." 



Storing M.\nuee uneer Cover — Its Value. 



In a Scotch experiment with manure, made from the same lot of cattle, 

 part of it stored und(»r sheds and part exposed to the weather, the follow- 

 ing wa.H the result: " Potatoes manured at the rate of twenty tons per acre, 

 with the uncovered numure, yielded eight tons six cwt. per acre; with the 

 c«»vered manure, seven tons eight and a half cwt. The succeeding season 

 wheat was grown on the field with no further application of manure, and 

 the product of straw and grain accurately ascertained, showing an appa- 

 rent difference also much in favor of the protected manure, but as the piece 

 of wlicat was winter killed unequally on the two parts of the field, this 

 resJilt has nf)t so great weight as that of the previous season." 



Where manure is exposed to the weather, a large admixture of litter 

 loam, peat or muck, answers instead of a roof. A well built compost heap 

 will not absorb water from the rains sufficient to lessen the value of the 

 manure. 



Adjourned. Joii.v W. Chambers, Secrelarij. 



June 28, 1SG4. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair. 



Gapes in Chickens. 



Mrs. James Adams, Weelaunce, Winnebago Co., Wis. — I think it the 

 duty of every one to relieve suffering both to man and beast, and as I have 

 Hccn Hevcral times in the reports of the Club accounts of the gapes in 

 chickens, and believing that I have a remedy, I thought I would send it to 

 the Club. It is simply to put salt into their meal, about as much as we 

 would to make it for our own eating. It is not only a cure but a preven- 

 tive, at least I never knew it to fail; give it daily. 



Mr. Solon Hobinson said salt might answer for chickens; he doubted it; 

 he knows that .salt is deadly poison to young turkeys. 



Mr. N. Smith, Delphi, Carroll county, Ind., writes as fc^llows upon this 

 subject: "The di.scussions in the Farmer.s' Club upon the subject of gapes 

 io chickcus, make no allusion to a remedy which I have seen used succesa- 



