THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
71 
tance to the dung of animals. Among us, we 
have written huge volumes, but made few ex- 
periments. In China, they never manure their 
grain crops, except with human excrement — 
while we scatter over our land the dung of ani- 
mals, full of all manner of weeds, the seeds of 
which are undigested by the animals, .and which 
spring up with great power among our useful 
plants. VVe need no-t be astonished, then, that 
in spite of all our efforts, the noxious weeds 
cannot be extirpated from our fields. A cele- 
brated botanist (Ingenhouse) who visited China 
with the Dutch embassy, states that it was im- 
possible to find in a Chinese field of grain, one 
single weed. 
In agriculture, the grand maxim is to give 
bach to the soil in full measure (no matter in 
what form) all that is taken from Itby the crop; 
and to regulate that, by the wants of each par- 
ticular plant. The time will soon come, when 
we shall no longer manure our lands with the 
solid manures, but with solutions exactly suited 
to the crop desired. 
Of dry horse dung, upwards of 70 per cent, is 
mere water. The dung of a horse well ted with 
chopped straw, oats and hay, 1 found to contain, 
when dry, only ten per cent, of the solid parts 
of those substances. Therefore, in carrying 
upon your farm two thousand pounds of horse 
dung, you carry on to it fifteen hundred pounds 
of water, about four hundred pounds of vegeta- 
ble matter, and only about one hundred pounds 
of the salts necessary for another crop of hay, 
straw and oats, which your horses have eaten. 
These salts are essentially composed of phos- 
phates of litne and of magnesia, and silicate of 
potash ; the latter salt should predominate in the 
soil, while the phosphates abound in the grain. 
[ Translaled from the Revue Scieriti/ique et Indus- 
trielle, by H. AIgigs. 
From the Albany Cultivator, 
S.XVING MANURES. 
The effluvium or gas, arising from decompos- 
ing animal or vegetable substances, though ex- 
ceedingly disagreeable to our olfactory senses, 
is the congenial food of growing plants. 
Arthur Youngsaid, many years ago, ‘-he who 
is within the scent of a dung hill, smells that of 
w'hich his crops would have eaten if he would 
have permitted it.” Sir Humphrey Davy de- 
monstrated this. He placed a quantity of fer- 
menting manure in a retort, and ascertained 
that it gave off a liquid containing a large pro- 
portion of salts of ammonia. Seeing this result, 
he introduced the beak of another reto.n filled 
with similar dung, under the roots of some grass 
in the garden, an j “in less than a fortnight, a 
verv distinct effect was produced on the grass, 
upon the spot exposed to the influence of the 
matter disengaged in fermentation ; it grew with 
much more luxuriance than the grass in any 
other part of the garden.” It is hence obvious 
that by permitting the escape of the gaa evolved 
during fermentation, the valuable portionsofthe 
manure are dissipated in the atmosphere. 
“ The loss o\ gaseous manure f says Mr. Han- 
nam in his excellent essay on the Economy of 
Waste Manures, “ arises irom the escape of the 
carbonic acid and the ammonia, of the vegeta- 
ble and animal matters in the manure heap, du- 
ring the process of fermentation and putrefac- 
tion; both of which gases are essential in the 
nutrition of vegetables. * * * When this 
evolution of ammonia and carbonic acid takes 
place under the root of a plant, it is wfflat w'e want; 
but when it takes place, as is generally the 
case, months before the compost is used, the 
manure is robbed of its most valuable constitu- 
ents.” 
“ It is worthy of remark,” continues Mr. Han- 
nam, “ that the richer manure is in nitrogen, the 
more serious the loss is ; as the more nitrogen a 
substance contains the more prone it is to fer- 
ment and throw off ammonia.” The observa- 
tion of every farmer will corroborate this; for 
all have noticed that the richer the manure the 
stronger the cdor arising from it. 
The most effectual means, probably, qf pre- 
venting this waste of the gaseous portion of ma- 
nures, would be to apply them to the soil before 
fermentation takes place, in this case the gas- 
es would be taken up by the growing crop. — 
Stable or barn manure, is sometimes deposited 
in cellars, where, from the low temperature, and 
seclusion from the air, it undergoes little or no 
change. Thus kept, it retains its original 
strength, and is much morepowerJul and endur- 
ing in its effects, than that which has undergone 
decomposition in the open air. But there is of- 
ten so large a portion of undecayed vegetable 
fibre, (litter, &c.) in manures, they cannot con- 
veniently be applied in a green state. Besides, 
for some crops, the action of green manures is 
not quick enough; and for other crops, as wheat 
and other small grains, they tend to promote too 
great a growth of straw, and increase the liabil- 
ity to rust. 
It becomes, then, necessary under certain cir- 
cumstances that manures should pass through a 
state of fermentation before they are applied to 
the soil, and the question is, how can this object 
be accomplished without loss? 
Reason teaches, and experience proves, that 
substances must be mixed with manure, which 
will absorb the g-aseous portions as they are 
generated. Earth is a good absorbent. If a 
dead animal be enveloped in the earth before 
putiefaction commences, and allowed to remain 
so until the carcass is decomposed, the earth 
will have absorbed the nauseous fumes occa- 
sioned by the decomposing animal matter, and 
will be found rich iathose principles which con- 
stitute the food and growth of vegetables. This 
example teaches that mixing soil with manure 
or covering the manure heap with a layer of 
soil while undergoing fermentation, will pre- 
serve much of its value which would be other- 
wise lost. There are other substances which 
are preferable to common soil — such as char- 
coal, (which will absorb ninety times its own 
bulk of ammoniacal gas, and thirty-five times 
its volume of carbonic acid gas,) and peat or 
swamp muck. The latter in many parts ol the 
country, can be had in the greatest abundance, 
and it is, beyond doubt, one of the best means 
of augmenting the tanner’s stock of valuable 
manures. In its composition and absorbing 
power, it much resembles charcoal — being 
principally the carbonaceous matter of decom- 
posed vegetables. Every farmer who can con- 
veniently obtain peat or muck, would do well to 
place a layer of it under all his manure heaps — 
to mix it with barn or stable manure in forming 
composts, covering the piles with a coating of it 
to prevent the waste ol the gases, and throwing 
it liberally into the stalls of horses and cattle, to 
absorb the urine. Results will show that the la- 
bor thus bestowed in the use of swamp muck, 
will be rewarded a hundred fold. 
Other substances are used as fixers of ammo- 
nia, &c., which act somewhat differently from 
those above mentioned — such as gypsum, and 
various kinds of acids. The theory of their 
action is, the ammonia, being an alkaline gas, 
will by combination with any acid, form a neu- 
tral salt. Gypsum is a combination of lime and 
sulphuric acid. When this is applied to fer- 
menting manure, the sulphuric acid of the gyp- 
sum leaves the lime and unites with the ammo- 
nia, the acid having a stronger affinity for the 
ammonia, than for the lime with which it was 
combined. Mr. Hannam in the essay before 
referred to recommends that the manure heap 
be covered v.'ith peat or some absorbent, and 
“this coating kept well saturated with sulphuric 
acid and water, say a weak mixture of ten gal- 
lons of wa er to one of acid.” Mr. Hannam 
adds, that any other acid which may be obtained 
at a cheaper rate, w'ill act as well, as the ammo- 
nia will combine w'ith any acid. Either the ap- 
plication of gypsum, or the acid solutions men- 
tioned, v/ill soon affect such a fixture or combi- 
nation, that little or no smell can be perceived. 
In regard to the use of salt, which has been 
by some recommended as a fixer of ammonia, 
Mr. Hannam says — “My own observation 
teaches me to prefer acid to any salt, as it is 
equally cheap, more easily used, and is, there- 
fore, likely to be more efficacious.” 
To Prevent Rust in Wheats 
From the Farmer’s Register. 
“As far as my observation extends, lime is an 
efiectual preventive of the rust. Putrescent 
manures and clover lays, on the contrary, almost 
always induce it if the season be at all unfavor- 
able at the critical period of ripening. The 
reason I take to be this : putrescent matter, by 
furnishing more food than the plant can elabo- 
rate, produces a state of plethora, which rcoults 
in the extravasation of the sap at the season of 
greatest vigor. This indeed 1 understand to be 
The theory. The tendency of lime is to check 
this redundancy of giowth, by providing in 
some way the specific lood ol the plant. Wheth- 
er this be done by enabling it to decompose car- 
bonic acid with greater activity, or by furnish- 
ing it with silicate ol lime, or by contributing to 
the development and formation of the grain, 
rather than to an exuberant vegetation, cannot 
perhaps be determined. When I was in the 
great wheat growing district of w’estern New 
York, some years ago, I saw fields of wheat 
that 1 was told would yield twenty-five or thirty 
bushels to the acre, which I could not have sup- 
posed, from any previous observation, would 
have produced more than ten. The soils of that 
region, being of a diluvial formation, are so rich 
in calcareous matter, from the former attrition 
ol the lime rocks scattered overthe country, that 
they Irequently effervesce with acids. The stem 
had so little blade that itappearedalmostnaked. 
Plaster of Paris, which has been recommended 
as a protection against the rust, though it be 
lime in another form, does not contribute much 
to the formation of grain. Its tendency is emi- 
nently to increase the bulk of vegetable growth, 
and therefore, when it acts on wheat, to induce 
rust and mildew. To guard against the rust 
then, such application to the soil appears neces- 
sary as would afford specific nourishment to the 
seed. In every analysis of wheat there is found 
a portion of lime. There are also some manures 
that furnish the specific ingredients, but those 
only, I believe, which are concentrated in their 
energy. I ha ve read nothing lately which sheds 
more light on the distinction 1 have attempted to 
draw, between manuring for the grain and man- 
uring for the straw, than the detail of some ex- 
periments with guano, by J. E. Teschemacher, 
of Boston, and contained in his address to the 
Horticultural Society. Sonis plants treated 
with guano, the balsam for instance, produced 
very inferior flowers; but not a flower missed 
bearingits seed vessel, and every seed vessel was 
filled with perfect seeds; while other plants of 
the same species and growing under the same 
circumstances, with the exception of the guano, 
had only a portion of the seeds perfect in each 
pod, though the flowers were very fine. 
“ There is a neighborhood in Maryland which 
I occasionally visit, the inhabitants whereof 
form a little community ol intelligent and in- 
dustrious farmers, who mostly belong to the 
same society of which lama member, namely 
that of the Friends or Gluakero, They do their 
own work ; and when one works with his own 
hand.®, he is more likely to make both ends meet. 
They find it to their interest to haul lime from 
six to ten miles to apply to a soil by no means 
naturally fertile. The crops of wheat on their 
limed lands are invariably good, and but little 
affected by rust. 
“ A few years ago, a friend of mine, in an ad- 
joining county, planted an acre or two of ground 
in pumpkins. The vines were so much infest- 
ed with bugs that he sprinkled caustic lime over 
the leaves for the purpose of destroying them. 
In the fall the lot was seeded to wheat, and at the 
ensuing harvest the locality of every hill was 
conspicuously visible. In each spot where the 
lime had been applied, the straw was bright and 
of a golden color, without the least appearance 
of rust, while in every other part the wheat was 
completely ruined. If it is not too late in the 
season, I would suggest the trial of a small piece 
of ground with lime or ashes, if it was no more 
than a few yards square. Ashes would be as 
beneficial as lime, for they afford potash. 
