THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



35 



others, whose curiosity leads them to try figures ; 

 they will not lie. I plant my corn three feet by 

 three, four stalks in a hill, allowing but one ear 

 to the stalk, and one hundred ears to the bushel, 

 and then ascertain how many hills there is in a 

 shock sixteen hills square, which is the usual 

 custom of putting it up. There will then be 

 from fifteen to sixteen shocks to the acre — query, 

 how much to the shock % My present crop bids 

 fair to outstrip any preceding one. It was planted 

 on the 20th of March. I am ploughing and 

 thinning the first planting. More of this anon. 



Walter C. Young. 



POTATOES. 



M. Bellamy Aubert, of France, states, as the 

 result of experiments continued during three 

 seasons, that abundant crops of potatoes may 

 be grown in poor clayey soils, by simply strew- 

 ing the sets plentifully with rye-chaff previous 

 to covering them with earth at planting. 



Professor Voelker, of Erfwet, covers his po- 

 tato sets with a layer of tanners' spent bark, 

 two or three inches thick, before turning a fur- 

 row over them. He says he thus provides a 

 loose spungy bed for the young tubers ; prevents 

 weeds from springing up and growing in imme- 

 diate contact with the plants ; and secures an 

 abundant supply of moisture during the season, 

 if but one soaking rain occur after planting — 

 as the spent bark, covered by the surface soil, 

 will retain water during the most protracted 

 drought. — Genesee Farmer, 



We knew a gentleman once, who planted his 

 potato sets upon the surface of hard, well tram- 

 pled ground, and covered them over with wheat 

 straw, about twelve inches deep. His crops 

 were excellent, and besides saving the labor of 

 cultivation, he enjoyed the advantage of being 

 able to feel for and pluck the full grown pota- 

 toes, leaving the young tubers to come to ma- 

 turity. 



VALUE OF URINE AS MANURE. 

 Experiments of C. Alexander. 



The following extract transferred from the 

 Farmers' Magazine to that spirited and valuable 

 agricultural work, Young's Letters of Agricola, 

 is so important and instructive that 1 subjoin it: 



"This intelligent farmer, Charles Alexander, 

 near Peebles, Scotland, had long been impressed 

 with the great importance of the urine of cattle 

 as a manure; and he set about to discover, by 

 a long and well conducted series of experiments, 

 the best method of collecting nnd applying it. 

 He began by digging a pit contiguous to the 

 feeding-stall, but distinct altogether from that 



which was appropriated for the reception of the 

 dung. The dimensions of this pit, according 

 to his own account, were 36 feet square, and 4 

 feet deep, surrounded on all sides by a wall ; 

 and the solid contents were 1 92 yards. Having 

 selected the nearest spot where he could find 

 loamy earth, and this he always took from the 

 surface of some field under cultivation, he pro- 

 ceeded to fill it ; and found that, with three men 

 and two horses, he could easily accomplish 28 

 cubic yards per day ; and the whole expense of 

 transporting the earth did not exceed £41 16s. 

 When the work was complete, he levelled the 

 surface of the heap, in a line with the mouth of 

 the sewer, which conducted the urine from the 

 interior of the building, on purpose that it might 

 be distributed with regularity, and might saturate 

 the whole from top to bottom. The quantity 

 conveyed to it, he estimates at about 800 gallons ; 

 but as this calculation was founded partly on 

 conjecture, for he measured not the liquor, it will 

 be better and more instructive to furnish, the 

 data, that are certain and incontrovertible. — 

 The urine was supplied by 14 cattle, weighing 

 about 24 stone each, and kept there for five 

 months on fodder and turnips. The contents of 

 the pit produced 288 loads, allowing 2 cubic 

 yards to betaken out in three carts; and he 

 spread 40 of these on each acre, so that this 

 urine in five months, and from fourteen cattle, 

 produced a compost sufficient for the fertilization 

 of seven acres of land. He states further, that 

 he had tried this experiment for ten years, and 

 had indiscriminately used in the same field either 

 the rotted cow dung, or the saturated earth ; and 

 in all the stages of the crop, he had never been 

 able to discover any perceptible difference. But 

 what is still more wonderful, he found that his 

 compost lasted in its effects as many years as 

 his best putrescent manure; and he therefore 

 boldly avers, that a load of each is of equiva- 

 lent value. 



"Conclusions of vast importance are deduci- 

 ble from this statement ; and I cannot resist the 

 feeling, of placing them in a strong and advan- 

 tageous light. They speak a volume of in- 

 struction; and if we are willing to learn, they 

 must lead to a very material alteration in the 

 construction of our barns. It appears, then, that 

 in five months, each cow discharges urine which, 

 when absorbed by loam, furnishes manure of the 

 richest quality, and most durable effects, for half 

 an acre of ground. The dung-pit, which con- 

 tained all the excrementitious matter of the 14 

 cattle, as well as the litter employed in bedding 

 them, and which was kept separate for the pur- 

 pose of experiment, only furnished during the 

 same period 240 loads, and these, at the same 

 rate, could only manure six acres. The aggre- 

 gate value of the urine therefore, when com- 

 pared with that of the dung, was in the ratio of 

 seven to six ; so that we are borne out by these 



