46 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Febrtjabt, 
rich in nitrogen, and gives good results in what- 
ever form used. The demand is so constant, 
that many persons living in favorable localities, 
make a business of gathering it, and -get large 
wages. It is pulled from the rocks by hand. 
" It is used in a variety of methods, accord- 
ing to the circumstances of the cultivator and 
the crops he desires to raise. If he has no spe- 
cific crop in view, it is carted immediately into 
the barn-yard, where it serves the two-fold pur- 
pose of increasing the bulk of the manure-heap, 
and of fixing the more volatile parts of the 
droppings of cattle. It is particularly valuable 
for this latter purpose. Here it is mixed with 
muck or soil from the fields, and remains until 
it is wanted for top-dressing or for the spring 
crops. To employ a full supply for the barn- 
yard, barn-cellar, and stables, is probably the 
best use for all kinds of sea-weed. 
" If there is a suplus, as there always should 
be upon a shore farm, it may be used in several 
other ways. Hock-weed is one of the most 
valuable manures for the corn crop. It is fre- 
quently drawn directly to the field that is to be 
planted in the spring, and is there composted 
with muck alone, or with a mixture of muck 
and yard manure. It ferments in the heap, 
and should be forked over a few weeks before 
planting time, when it is spread and plowed in. 
"It is also an excellent manure for turnips, 
and for all the brassica tribe of plants. After 
the ground is plowed and the rows are marked 
for the turnips, the green weed is dropped in 
the furrow, and a ridge is raised over it by 
turning two furrows together. The seed is then 
planted upon the ridge, and in fresh land a fair 
crop of turnips is almost invariably grown. 
"For winter grain, the rock-weed is spread 
broadcast upon the land, and plowed in. It is 
also used as a top-dressing for grass land, both 
pasture and mowing, and always with good 
results, though much less of it is used in this 
way than in the former methods. 
" The kelp or ribbon weed is a much larger 
plant than the rock-weed, frequently growing 
several yards in length, and is attached to the 
rock in deep water, by a stout, round stem from 
a half-inch to an inch in diameter. It is treated 
in the same way as the rock-weed, but is more 
commonly spread upon the ground, to be plow- 
ed in. It decomposes very rapidly, whether 
in the furrow or in the compost heap. 
"The eel grass is less esteemed than the 
other varieties, possibly because of its greater 
abundance, as well as on account of its less in- 
trinsic value. The dry weed, as drawn from the 
shore, is used a good deal for bedding in stables 
and sheds, and for the covering of beds and 
borders in the garden. It is an excellent mulch 
wherever that is wanted. A good deal of it rots 
upon the shore, and in this fine state it is largely 
used for a top-dressing upon grass land. Where 
it can be had for the carting, as it generally can 
be by those who own shore farms, it will pay 
well to keep the teams busy in winter upon 
this work. We have so often seen excellent 
crops of grass following these top-dressings, 
that we have no doubt of their economy. But 
a better way of gathering this kind of weed is 
in its green state. It is a common practice with 
farmers who live a little back from the shore, to 
attend to this work immediately after haying. 
They have large scows holding twenty or thirty 
tons, and gather the weed with rakes made for 
the purpose. A good deal of mud is hauled up 
with it, and after the boat is loaded, it is floated 
up with the tide to the landing-place, and 
thrown upon the shore, or taken immediately 
into carts and drawn to the yard. More than 
half the mass is mud, and the whole is easily 
cut with the shovel. This, mixed in the yard 
with stable manure, forms an excellent com- 
post, and is the main reliance of many farmers 
for manure. As it can be had in all tide- water 
creeks and coves, for the gathering, it costs the 
farmer nothing but the labor of scowing and 
carting. With this compost, which he can mul- 
tiply to any desirable extent, he can bring up 
his farm to any degree of fertility. — As all these 
weeds contain sulphates, it does not seem to be 
advisable to mix plaster in the compost heap 
where the}' are used. Indeed it is of little use 
to spread plaster in any shape upon shore farms. 
" In regard to the use of lime in connection 
with sea-weed, it will depend very much upon 
the farmer's facility for procuring it, whether 
it can be made to pay. It is not needed to 
assist in the decomposition of the compost 
heap, for the green weed will do this veiy per- 
fectly. Oyster-shell lime, and the refuse lime 
from gas works, are usually the cheapest sources 
of supply near the shore. Where these can be 
procured cheaply, it will do to use them upon 
the land. Stone lime at the market price in 
cities will not pay. Sea-weed and mud from 
tide-flowing creeks, made up principally from 
decayed sea- weed, are cheap sources of manure, 
and should be used to the extent of the farmer's 
ability to procure them." 
Manure of Different Classes of Animals. 
Cows in full milk or with calf, secrete from 
their feed, great quantities of valuable sub- 
stances which fattening cows or oxen will not 
withdraw from what they eat — hence the ma- 
nure of the milch cows is not worth nearly so 
much as that of fattening animals. This must 
be evident from the obvious fact, that out of the 
milk, or what would be milk, the entire struc- 
ture of a 5- weeks-old calf is formed. The calf 
continues to grow and learns to eat the same 
food that the cow does, and for several years is 
building up his frame of heavy bones ; all the 
valuable ingredients permanently entering into 
his system, of course come out of his feed, and 
would, were he a full-grown steer, have passed 
into the manure. Many farmers are likely to 
undervalue the important differences in the 
quality of the excrements of different classes of 
the same kind of stock.— The differences which 
we have alluded to, of course exist as well in 
the manure of other kinds of animals as in that 
of neat cattle. Let us then bear in mind that 
keeping milk-giving and growing animals is a 
great tax upon the land, that fattening animals 
make rich manure heaps, and that full-grown 
male animals draw much less upon the soil 
than females bearing young and giving milk. 
How to Save Manure from the House- 
E. Dickerman, Middlesex Co., Conn, writes : 
"The article in the January Agriculturist on 
' Treatment of Night Soils ' has induced me to 
send you my method of saving all liquid ma- 
nures made in the family. At the lower edge of 
my garden, I made a pit large enough to con- 
tain 2 or 8 cart loads of muck, weeds, or other 
refuse matter to act as absorbents. This pit was 
stoned, flagged and cemented. I then dug a 
ditch from my slop room, and laid a cement 
drain deep enough to be below frost, from the 
back door to the pit, and connected therewith 
my wash-room and sink, by which all sink 
slops, washing suds, and liquid -Eight soils are 
conveyed to the pit. In this way any ordinary 
family may make and save, at a trifling expense, 
sufficient manure to fertilize a small garden." 
Fermentation of Manures- 
Manures act upon the soil in three ways. 
They either supply plant food directly to the 
soil ; or indirectly furnish it by making avail- 
able that which may exist in the soil ; or they 
change the character of the soil so that barren 
ground becomes fertile — not by the addition of 
plant food, but of something which makes soil 
fit for the roots of plants. Most manures act in 
all these ways, but by far the most common ac- 
tion is the first mentioned, namely, supplying 
food directly to the growing plant. The manure 
from stables, cow-yards, and hog-pens, When 
applied to the soil in its fresh state, must under- 
go fermentation, and even decompose quite 
thoroughly before it is available as plant food. 
During the progress of this fermentation the 
plants derive some benefit in several ways, but 
the effects are much better, in most cases, when 
the manure is applied after it is well rotted, that 
is, when fermentation, and in fact decay, has pro- 
gressed so far that the whole mass admits ot 
being worked over to a uniform consistence. 
Manure, consisting of solid and liquid excre- 
ments of domestic animals with litter, if thrown 
into a heap, soon heats, and this heat is some- 
times intense. Spontaneous combustion even 
has taken place, which could be accounted for in 
no other way. The great heat of a common 
hot-bed is well known. In this condition the 
valuable qualities of the manure waste rapidly. 
If the same manure be compactly piled up, or 
in any way subjected to great pressure, all fer- 
mentation ceases, provided only the usual 
amount of moisture be present. This may be 
seen wherever a cattle path crosses the manure 
heap, or where cattle are allowed to stand on 
their manure, as is sometimes practised. The 
conditions necessary to decay or fermentation 
are : (1) air, (2) moisture, (3) some warmth. Prac- 
tically, there is always warmth enough when 
the manure is not actually frozen. There is also 
an abundance of air if the mass is not subjected 
to a great pressure. The great desideratum is, 
so to regulate the supply of moisture and pres- 
sure, that a uniform fermentation will proceed, 
and not go too far. The fermentive action pro- 
duces moisture from substances which before 
were dry. Breaking up the fermenting mass, 
and again packing it, check the fermentation, 
and considerable time is required before it starts 
well again, and this is one of the best ways ot. 
making the manure rot uniformly. When the 
heap is built up with perpendicular sides, and so 
that water may be leached through it, an excel- 
lent quality of manure may be produced by 
having a pump rigged to throw the liquids of 
the stable over the entire mass, saturating all 
parts. The stable liquid, with the leachings of 
the heap, is best collected in a hogshead or tank 
sunk, in the ground near by. The liquid thus 
flowing over the heap, wets all parts, is ab- 
sorbed to a considerable extent, imparts re- 
newed activity to the fermentation of the strawv 
parts, checks the too violent fermentation of 
the richer portion by washing out the more 
soluble matter, and at the same time it renders 
the whole ma3S more uniform in character. Al- 
most all fermentation ceases when manure is • 
submerged in water, or is very wet. The addi- 
tion to stable manure, of inert vegetable sub- 
stances in large quantities, like muck, checks 
fermentation somewhat, but after a while it 
