THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



3iebotetr to ®QvUMtuve, horticulture, um tfte household &rts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 



[Xenophon. 



Vol. V. 



For the Southern Planter. 



ON THE MANAGEMENT AND APPLICA- 

 TION OF MANURE. 



When we consider how much the productive- 

 ness of our farms depends upon the manure 

 heap, and how this matter is generally neglected, 

 a few remarks, I trust, will not be unacceptable, 

 and although familiar to most farmers, if they 

 stimulate any person to apply them who have 

 hitherto neglected to do so, the object in making 

 them will be attained. 



Of manure too much cannot be said, nor can 

 it be denied that manuring the land forms a 

 grand item in farming, both on account of its 

 expense and its need to replenish the land ; it 

 is therefore, very important to know the art of 

 managing this department with the greatest 

 economy, and preventing waste in any possible 

 shape. The subject cannot, in my humble opi- 

 nion, be agitated or brought into view too fre- 

 quently, nor too strongly urged. Although 

 there is little danger of applying too great a 

 quantity to land, still it may be used to excess. 

 Indian corn is a voracious feeder, and will bear 

 a free dressing ; but the crop of small grain 

 may be injured by manuring too highly. 



Liberal manuring is the basis of all successful 

 farming ; and it is folly, under any circum- 

 stances, excepting the virgin lands of the West, 

 where there has been for centuries an accumu- 

 lation of untouched vegetable matter, to disre- 

 gard the great law of nature, which requires 

 that the soil be often replenished, in order to ob- 

 tain its products, as much as that the cow, 

 which is daily milked, should be daily fed. 



New lands, cleared of their trees, and the 

 brush and the rubbish burnt on the ground, 

 yield a number of crops without other manure. 

 But in the old settled parts, there is, I presume, 

 no land of this sort. All of us, therefore, depend 

 on common manure for crops that will reimburse 

 the expense of their cultivation. But the quan- 

 tity of manure on our farms is extremely limited, 

 and inadequate to our wants. And as I con- 

 sider manure is all-in-all, it is of the highest 

 importance to the farmer, not only to husband 

 what he has, and next consider how he may 

 increase the quantity. Notwithstanding the 

 various ways of collecting and increasing it has 

 been frequently pointed out, its utility and ne- 

 cessity urged by scientific and practical men. 

 Vol. V— 10 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the 

 State. — Sully. 



No. 4. 



little attention is paid to the subject by one-half 

 the farmers in the country. Nothing more is 

 provided for their fields than what is collected 

 from their cattle yards, horse stables and pig 

 sties. 



I have for the last few years made a practice 

 of making manure from every article of rubbish 

 and filth that was in and about my premises. I 

 have even hauled sumach leaves a distance of 

 four miles, from the morocco tanners, to mix in 

 my compost heap, as I hold that all vegetable 

 and animal substances are fertilizers, if properly 

 managed and applied. 



But however correct and economical may be 

 the manner of saving and applying manure, the 

 quantity, it cannot be denied, still falls short of 

 the farmer's wants. How to supply this defi- 

 ciency merits the deepest attention of the hus- 

 bandman. 



Dr. Elliot, who wrote essaj^s on Field Hus- 

 bandry nearly a century ago, tried this method : 

 In the road he made a pen long in proportion to 

 its width, in which he confined his cows every 

 night during the summer ; and once a month, 

 taking down the end fences, ploughed up the 

 pan. By this process, he remarks, the furrow 

 depth of earth was become dung, and when ap- 

 plied to grass and corn, appeared to equal other 

 dung in its effects. 



Now, my practice has been as follows : As 

 soon as all the manure is removed from the cattle 

 yard in the spring, to cart into it loam or soil, as 

 the bottom is clay, and cover it two or three 

 inches thick. If peat or muck is attainable, I 

 would recommend either in preference to soil. — 

 At the close of every four weeks, add another 

 cover of one or two inches. By the last of 

 September there would be collected a mass of 

 manure from six to eight inches in depth over 

 the yard. And while the dung and urine of 

 the cattle, which I always confine in the yard 

 of nights, during summer, would thus be in a 

 great degree secured against loss by evapora- 

 tion, the cattle would find, what they universally 

 seek, a clean dry bed to lie in. 1 have also in- 

 creased, the manure made by my hogs, in pens, 

 by the addition of weeds, refuse vegetables, turf 

 taken from the road-side, bottom of ditches, &c. 



My cattle yard is dishing, still it sometimes 

 overflows, and when the excess passes off, I 

 caused a basin to be excavated to retain the 

 liquid. Near this basin, which is outside of the 



C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 



RICHMOND, APRIL, 1845. 



