THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



707 



mode, of double hauling, the cost is enormous, 

 and the final application of no increased value 

 as manure. 



With the succession of crops which belongs 

 to my own (six-field) rotation, and my plan of 

 corn culture, it is still more easy to use the 

 corn-stalks as manure for the same field. Wheat 

 does not follow corn ; and no other crop im- 

 mediately. The field whic.i bore corn lies un- 

 til the following May, when it is ploughed to 

 sow peas for a green manuring crop. The 

 corn stubble was generally cut off at two or 

 three feet high, and this lower and heaviest 

 part of the stalk is then easily ploughed under 

 by two-mule ploughs. Of some parts of the 

 field, the tops, above the ears, were only cut 

 off, and removed for provender. And the re- 

 maining high stalks, in the following spring, 

 having roots then much weakened by decay, 

 are borne down by the weight of a trailing 

 heavy chain attached to the plough, and are 

 mostly covered by the furrow-slice which fol- 

 lows after. A considerable proportion of both 

 the high stubble and the taller stalks escape 

 being so covered, and remain on the surface, 

 and somewhat impede the harrows when cover- 

 ing the sown peas. Also, other stalks, either 

 buried but partially or very slightly covered 

 by the ploughing, are drawn up by the subse- 

 quent cross harrowing. But both these are but 

 trivial difficulties; and the stalks so left on the 

 surface are soon rotted by the aid of the shade 

 and moisture of the ensuing cover of green 

 pea-vines, and are so brought to the condition 

 fit for manure. 



Some of the many persons who would deem 

 wasteful and altogether improper, any omis- 

 sion to bring so much of the manuring ma- 

 terials, generally so used, to the barn-yard, may 

 infer that I would also fail to use all other 

 poorer and less accessible materials. But such 

 is not the case. I make large use of pine 

 leaves, from the woods, as litter for cattle, 

 though for summer use only. The reasons 

 for using this poor material are these: 1st. 

 The leaves are brought from wood-land not de- 

 signed for future tillage, and therefore there is 

 no robbing of one part of the arable land to 

 manure another part. 2d. The raking up of 

 the leaves, and hauling them, are jobs done 

 mostly when the earth is so wet that no other 

 team labor can be performed, and therefore 

 the cost is very small. 3d. This material, the 

 most difficult to reduce by fermentation, is 

 therefore used as a litter for summer cow-pens, 

 (and might be as well for stables,) in which 

 fermentation is always too rapid, and straw so 

 used would be mostly wasted. These remarks 

 bring me to the consideration of the making of 

 manure in summer, which, under any other and 

 usual circumstances and modes of procedure, 

 is almost a total waste. 



Summer-made manure. 

 The usual time for making the mixed ma- 



nure in cattle-pens, which constitutes much the 

 larger proportion of all kinds secured during 

 the whole year, is rarely more than four 

 months. With better care and economy, or 

 when most extended, it does not much exceed 

 five months — from early in November to some 

 time in April. There remain nearly or quite 

 two-thirds of the year, during all of which 

 time the cattle are better fed, on green food, 

 and are in much better condition, if not gradu- 

 ally approaching to fatness as will be the case 

 on good land, not over-stocked. Under these 

 circumstances, the excrements of the animals, 

 in equal times, are much more abundant, and 

 also much richer, than in winter. And con- 

 sidering the longer time for producing these 

 richer animal excretions, the summer supply, 

 in quantity and quality, must be of at least 

 three times as much value as that of winter — 

 and if combined with as much litter in pro- 

 portion, and preserved from waste as well, 

 ought to supply three times as much of total 

 bulk and richness of manure. Yet, in univer- 

 sal practice, however varied, our summer ma- 

 nuring by cattle does not cover one-fourth, 

 (and more usually not one-tenth,) of as much 

 land as would the winter cattle-pen, with but 

 the restricted supplies of litter which I pro- 

 vide, and have advised above. If using the 

 like litter, (straw, or corn-stalks,) and whether 

 abundantly or scantily, for a standing summer 

 cow-pen, the then high temperature, acting on 

 the moist litter, would induce rapid fermenta- 

 tion and speedy and wasteful decomposition of 

 the mixed mass. Most of the substance and 

 value of the materials would be wasted in the 

 air. The cattle also, confined all night, and 

 some hours of the day, on this putrifying and 

 wasting bed, which makes a soft mire of filth 

 in all*wet weather, would be tormented by the 

 myriads of stable flies which the filth would 

 serve for breeding — and would suffer otherwise 

 in health and condition by being kept on so 

 foul a bed. These evil effects have soon stop- 

 ped nearly all the attempts that have been 

 made at various past times, and by many far- 

 mers, to make manure in summer, by penning 

 cattle on ordinary litter. 



Compared to this plan, (which probably few 

 farmers have tried longer than one summer,) 

 the ordinary procedure is far preferable, though 

 still very wasteful of manure. This is to pen 

 cattle, without any litter, or with very little, on 

 the ground designed to be manured, and re- 

 moving the enclosing fence to the next adjacent 

 ground, as soon as each enclosed space is suc- 

 cessively and sufficiently manured. In ordi- 

 nary careful practice, the pens are thus shifted' 

 once a week. Reference to this usage was 

 made in a foregoing page, and in another con- 

 nexion, and some of the causes of waste stated. 

 Besides the waste by decomposition, in any 

 mode of treatment, of the more solid excre- 

 ments, and the still more complete loss of the 

 urine of the cattle, dung-beetles [scarahccus] . 



