SEASON FOR FELLING TIMBER, ETC. 
23 
KEEP YOUR STABLES CLEAN. 
As our stock all stand on plank floors, early in 
the morning we first take up that part of the litter 
which is not much soiled, with a fork, and place it 
in the back part of the stalls, to dry during the day. 
We then clean out the manure, and put it on the 
dung heap. If litter be plenty, and it is an object 
to make as much manure as possible, then we 
should let all the litter go with the manure, and 
add plenty of fresh every night for the stock to lie 
on. And while on this subject, we wish to observe 
that if the litter be straw or coarse hay, it ought to 
pass through a straw cutter before using it This 
makes it much easier to fork the manure in the 
heap, as it is not then bound together with long 
straws. After removing the manure, we give the 
stables a slight sprinkling of plaster of Paris, or 
charcoal dust. Either of these substances absorb 
all unpleasant effluvia, sweetens the atmosphere, 
and in the course of the season, adds considerably 
to the value of the manure heap. 
Many farmers let their stock stand on the ground. 
If the soil be dry, there is no objection to this. If 
not cleaned out till spring, the manure should be 
spread evenly over the surface of the stable, every 
morning, a coating of plaster or charcoal dust then 
put upon it, and fresh litter added before night. 
Each animal will thus make a larger quantity of 
valuable manure during the season. One great ad- 
vantage follows this system, and that is, the salts 
are not exposed to be washed out of the manure by 
rain, nor volatilized by the sun, as when exposed 
to the open air in the barnyard and other places. 
GUANO. 
The use of this valuable fertilizer is rapidly ex- 
tending throughout the Atlantic coast of the United 
States. The fertility and remoteness of western 
lands, will, for a long time, preclude its application 
among the farmers of that region ; but the facility 
and economy of its transportation to those of the 
east, and the greater value of their agricultural pro- 
ducts, will justify its use wherever there is a defi- 
ciency of other manures. 
As an evidence of the great value of this fertilizer, 
we could adduce innumerable examples, but content 
ourselves with the mention of two. 
A farmer in Delaware purchased a lot of worn- 
out land, and applied a quantity of guano upon it ; 
and from the proceeds of the first crop, he paid for 
the land, the guano, the seed, and the expense of 
cultivation. This, surely, was using guano to 
some advantage. 
Henry Nicoll, Esq., of this city, recently gave 
us the following statement : — The experiment was 
made on his farm, on Long Island, upon an eight- 
acre lot of medium quality, sandy loam, that had 
lain in meadow and pasture for several years. It 
was plowed up in the spring of 1846, manured in 
the hill, and planted with corn, which yielded an 
ordinary crop of, say, thirty bushels shelled grain 
per acre. The following spring, it was put in oats, 
without manure, and gave twenty-five or thirty 
bushels per acre. 
After taking off the crop of oats, three acres of 
an average quality with the remainder of the field, 
were manured with thirty-eight two-horse loads per 
acre, of barnyard manure, and the remaining five 
acres received one ton Peruvian guano, at a total 
cost of about $50. This was all thoroughly har- 
rowed in, after plowing, and the whole field was 
then sown with wheat, 15th October, at the rate of 
lh bushels seed per acre. 
The season was remarkably dry, which was un- 
favorable for the development of the fullest effects 
of the guano. Yet the yield was twenty-one 
bushels per acre, of measured grain, weighing 
sixty-two pounds, and of very superior quality. 
The other three acres manured with cattle dung, 
yielded about sixteen bushels per acre of wheat 
decidedly inferior to the first. 
There was another peculiarity about the result, 
decidedly in favor of the guano. Both portions of 
the field were seeded with grass and clover in the 
spring. Not a particle of this was visible on the 
three acres, while the seed of the five acres ma- 
nured with guano, had all taken beautifully. This 
latter was an advantage we had not looked for 
We feel bound to add, however, that we should 
look for a benefit to the grass in after years, on the 
three-acre field, which would not be seen in the 
five, acres, a greater proportion of the fertile ingre. 
dients having already been exhausted by the pre 
vious crop. 
SEASON FOR FELLING RESINOUS TIMBER. 
In cutting timber, of all kinds, advantage should 
be taken of the season which will favor their du- 
ration and strength. Thus oak and most other 
kinds of non-resiniferous trees, as far as the know- 
ledge of practice extends, are stronger and more du- 
rable when felled in early winter at the time the 
pores contain but little sap. On the contrary, the 
timber of pine, larch, and other resinous trees, cut 
in spring or early summer, when the pores are filled 
with resin, which is, in fact, a sort of embalming, pos- 
sesses a greater degree of strength and will endure 
longer than if cut when the resin is absent from the 
wood, which is more or less the case in autumn oj 
winter. 
We have no hesitation in stating, that, good 
heart pine, cut in spring, or early summer, when full 
of resin, is fully equal in lasting qualities to any 
hard-wood timber that can be produced, quite put- 
ting in the shade the processes of Payne, Kian, and 
Burnett, from the efforts of nature being more freely- 
carried out than can possibly be done by the very 
best exhausting engine and hydraulic presses that 
have yet been made. 
Overflowing Meadows. — The overflowing of 
meadows, for the purpose of promoting vegetation, 
was among the pursuits of the ancient cultivators 
of the then-existing pasture lands. Columella 
says : " Land that is naturally rich and in good 
heart does not need water set over it, because the 
hay produced in a juicy soil, is better than that ex- 
cited by water j yet, when the poverty of the soil 
requires it, the land may be overflowed." We 
find on record, also, the following opinion of Cato : 
" As much as in your power, make water meadows." 
Again, from the observations of other authors, it is 
fair to infer that water meadows were numerous in 
former ages, from the want of good herbage for 
their stock. 
