VoL. III. AUGUSTA, GA., DECEMBER, 1845. No. 12. 
KE.TIAisKS OF JABIES A. 3IEEilWE- 
THERy Esq , 
Before the Agnc^furgL Socle/!/ of Putn im Co . , May, 1343 
• [CONCLCEED TROII EAST NO.] 
Peat may likewise be reniered a valuable ma- 
^nure by saturaiio^ it with the conl^t? of tbe 
washtub — by pouring upon it hum^fcrine — by 
pouring on it the slop from the kit^ren, and by 
"'mixing ashes with it. It is the great natural ma- 
nure of rniij^die Georgia, and it requires but little 
art and ^bor to make it a source of great profit to 
our farmers. It is found on every branch and 
c^k in Putnam county, and the valley of Leek 
.jcreek has enough to manure the whole county for 
' years. Mr. Dana, in his Muck Manual, says, “ it 
is highly concentrated vegetable food,” and is no- 
thing more than “ pood mud, the slushy material 
found at the bottom of ponds when dry, or in low 
grounds, the wash of higher lands.” Some is 
mere valuable than others ; that whijh is deposited 
by eddy water is the best, yet all washings con- 
tain vegetable matter, and are therefore valuable. 
It licks only ammonia to make it equal to cow- 
dung. Mr. Dana says, “it is certainly a very cu- 
rious coincidence of results, that nature herself 
should have prepared a substance whose agrirultu- 
ral value approaches so near cow- dung, the tj’pe of 
manures.” “ The great qu stion comes, how is to 
be given to peat, (a substance which in all its other 
characters is so nearly allied to cow-dung,) that 
lacking element, aram^'nia? By the addition of 
slkul: to peat, it is put iiit.) the state which ammo- 
nia gives to dung. The question then arises, how 
much alkali is to be added to stable dung .i* A 
corl of stable dung composted With two of peat 
forms a manure of equal value to three cords of 
green dung. Indeed, the permanent effects of this 
compost exceeds those of stable dung. The best 
plan for preparing this manure would be to dry the 
peat, or swamp muck, in the fall; in the spring of 
the year let this be mixed in the proportion of 30 
lbs. of potash, or 20 lbs. of soda-ash, orS bushels 
common house ashes, to every cord of fresh dry 
peat. If ashes are used they may be mixed at 
once with tbe muckj if soda ash or potashes are 
used, Ihej'mu.st be dissolved lu water, and the pile 
evenly wet with the solution. 11 spent ashes are • 
used to prepare this muck, add one cord of spent ■ 
ashes to three cords of peat or swamp muck. ' 
There are other sources of alkali for convening 
peat into soluble matter. It has beeu actually pro- 
ved by experiment that a dead horse can convert 
20 tons of peat into a ' almble manure, richer and 
more lasting than stable dung.” The next great 
and prolific source of ammonia is the urine. 
I have been thus minute in reference to peat, 
because it is a manure which is to be found on eve- 
ry plantation— !-is accessible, and by a very little - 
labor is capable of being made very valuable, and 
it n^st therefore of necessity, prove to this region 
of Georgia the basis of all compost manures. We 
need but a slight acquaintance with us properties 
to induce us to make a general application of it. 
It should always be compjsted with othei manures 
that it may acquire ammonia, the great food of all 
plants, and which it lacks. Let me urge you to 
try It ; it naay be had plentifully for the labor of 
digging. 
Another source of improvement to our lands, is 
me plowing in of green vegetables, Professoi 
“this manuring is perf irmed with 
the least loss by the vegetables in the green state, 
in no other form can the same crop convey to the 
sou an equal amount of enriching m after as in that 
Ot green leaves and stems.” The crop should be 
plowed in while green, for if exposed to the air, 
green vegetable substances gradually give up a 
portion of the saline matter they contain to the 
iaias that fall, and hence a great feriiliziijg pro- 
perty is lost. A distinguished agriculturist in 
Maryland states on his own experience, that the 
very best green manure, even better than clover, 
is green corn, bow it broad cast ; when of conve- 
nient height, plow it,under — sow again, and again 
turn it under, and so of the third sowing in the 
same season. He says, “ many suppose the oil 
plan of clover laying, is the cheapest and best; I 
differ with them ; you can put but one clover lay’er 
in every two years — you can turn under three 
crops of corn in ay’car, and each crop of corn will 
carry as much nutritive matter into the soil as 
each crop of clover can do.” Let the experiment 
be tried ; the labor bestowed on one acre is not 
much, if wholly lost; if successful, you have gain- 
ed a great deal. 
There is an indisposition however w'ith many 
to commence a system of manuring because they 
say it takes too much time, is too troublesome, and 
has to be repeated every year, and not having ma- 
nure for all his land, the farmer concludes it is 
not worth while to manure any. But is there any 
truth in these obiections ? Land well manured 
'vill increase the product many fold ; by increasing 
the fertility you can reduce tbe number of acres 
in cultivation — the time saved in cultivation may 
be applied to the preparation of manures, by whiih 
an annual increase is made, and so in succession 
are the crops increased and the land enriched. A 
retrenchment in the expenditure- for tools and 
their repair is effected — an outlay of capital for 
horses, iStc., is saved, and otherwise emplo 3 ed. In 
fact, it is the most effective system of economy 
which can be resorted to ; for every one knows, 
that if by a system of cultivation thirty acres of 
land can be made to yield as much as one hundred 
acres did before, that there must be a savitig in the 
number of hands and horses which cultivate it, as 
well as in the food whien supports them, and the 
capital emploj’ed. As a matter of economy let 
every farmer improve his lands, and if he has only 
manure enough to make 20 acres toh.ra ly rich, or 
ten acres very rich, let him enrich the ten, as a 
matter of economy. Last year I attempted an ex- 
per:ment in this way; I selected one acre of 
ground very poor, so much so as not to be fit for 
cultivation. L’^pon it I placed 300 bushels of ma- 
nure, and the result was 43 bushels of corn, and 
66 i lbs. of well cured fodder. I do not think that 
the land would have produced three bushels with- 
out the manure. The ground was laid off in drilis 
four feet apart, the rows were first run with a 
scooter, then plowed deeper with a long pointed 
shovel, and in the bottom of these a long broad 
pointed coulter was again run. Tbe manure was 
deposited in the bottom of the furrow— ihe corn 
was planted on it, and covered wiih the plow. 
The land was then broken with theeoulter, once 
plowed with the shovel, and once hoed. At no 
time did the corn even wither or droop, while 
some near by was very much twisted aad affected 
by the drought. 
But after applying the manure to the land, a 
great object is, so to apply it as to make it tbe 
most available and enduiing. On our broken 
lands it is su''ject to be wasted away along with 
the soilj by the heavy rains. To prevent this, hill- 
side ditches have been found to answer valuable 
purposes. If properly constructed with sufficient 
fall and capacity, and proper length, they will be 
found to answer every put pose. In the i nprove- 
ment of broken lands this seems to be the first 
consid. ratioii, and without this preparation the af- 
ter labor of manuring seems to be badly and al- 
most uselessly applied. 
But supposing the ditches opened and the ma- 
nure ready to be applied, how stjall it be done } on 
the surface, or at the root of the grain 
lapp.thenJI shall be encouiueiing some old 
and stubbori' pi-ejadice^, in advancing the opinion, 
that it should be applied beneath the surface. 
Broadcast manuiing is decidedly to be preferred 
jo that in the hill, because, the roots extending 
but, pass beyond the limits of the manure in the 
hill, and therefore draw no supporter nouiishment 
fro.m it, save those roots which are immediately in 
its ricinity, whereas if the manure is spread broad 
cast, the more they extend the greater tbe supply 
of it. If the soil be sandy it would doubtless be 
best to apply the manure between the suiface and 
the grain when applied in the hill, but on s<.il not 
sandy, apply it beneath the surface and beneath 
the grain. 
A common oj-inion prevail.'!, that manure sinks, 
and therefore to benefit the plant, you should place 
it on the surface, that in making its descent the 
roots may catch it. But whoever dug into the 
ground and found where the manure sank to ? 
But one fact w^ili contradict th s theory; ammo- 
nia is said to be the life-giving property of ma- 
nure ; this is gaseous — intangible and incapable of 
being seen — ii exposed to the air it escapes, and 
is lost to the plant, f-o to a manure heap, and the 
offensive smell like hartshorn w'hich in' ets j’ou is 
the ammonia. Now if it did not rise, but sank, 
then these heaps would yield no smell at all. 
To put manure upon the surlace is but tc expose 
to evaporation its most valuable parts. Rain and 
sun, have the effect to dissipate all the salts and 
ga<eous matters and to leave the manure aheap of 
matter lit le better than chaff. 
Great discoveries are making daily in this im- 
portani branch cf agriculture. The chemists of 
Germany have disc vered that the seed of plants 
may alone be manured by which as heavy crops 
will be produced, as though the soil was manured. 
If this discovery should prove practicable it will 
in truth result rn the greatest benefit which could 
be conferred upon the agricultural world, both for 
economy in the preparation of the manure, as 
well as the application of it to the soil. The mode 
of its application is to make a liquid and steep the 
seed in it. 
These experiments in Germany have induced 
similar ones in the United States. Dr. Webster, 
of ?-e v Hampshire, has fried the effect of soaKicg 
corn in the common sa'-ammonia (hartshorn.) of 
the druggists, and the result was surprising. The 
solution was prepared at the rate of tour and a 
half bushels of corn to one pound of ammonia 
dissolved in water and soaked for five hours — corn 
Irom the same ear was planted, soaked and un- 
soaked, in fills side by side, and tbe following was 
the result; No. 1, was planted in good light soil 
icto which a fair dressing ot stable manure had 
been plowed — 5 kernels planted in each hill ; re- 
sult; the soaked com produced 8 ears, the un<» 
soaked corn only 4 ears. No. 2, ,«oaked bill gave 
5 ears, the uusoaked 3 ears ; six hills were tried 
with corresponding results, and as each hill was 
treated similarly the fair conclusion is, that the 
result is to be attributed to the ammonia. The 
cost of this per pound is only 50 cents ; and one 
round will be sufficient to manure an entire crop. 
Let our faimers try the experiment next jear ! 
A chemical preparation is now vending in tfee 
Northern States, Hauterive’s chemical solution 
for the benefit of wheat and other seed®, and is 
Slid to improve the crops very much, by those who 
have tried it. 
Mr. Campbell, of Scotland, has published the 
results of exper ments which he has made, and 
the process he has p'Tsued, which present altoge- 
ther extraordinary facts. He says, “ I steeped the 
seeds of the various specimens exhibited, in sul- 
phate, nitrate, and muriate of ammonia ; in nitrate 
of soda and potash, and in, combinations of these, 
