THE SOUTHEUX ('UETn ATOH. 
59 
FRIENDLY ADVICE TO THE SMALL FARMER. 
PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR THE PLACE AND MAN- 
AGEMENT OF THE DUNG HEAP, 
Fanners have generally found out the advan- 
tage of having a dung pit instead of a dung 
heap; but still the rich drainage of the dung is 
much of it allowed to run away. 'J'he urine 
from the stables, &c., does not hall of it run in- 
to the dung, though it is the best partt,he essence 
of the whole; and the privy manure, which is 
belter still, is mostly neglected altogether. 
All drainings from the stables, cow houses 
and styes, should run into the pit, and the ov'er- 
flowings should be caught in another pit, to 
throw back in dry vv'eather. 
The following is a cheap and effectual meth- 
od of doing all this: 
When convenient, the pit should be on the 
north side of a wall or of some trees, to shade 
off the sun; or under shed, to keep otf both 
wind and rain. But these advantages cannot 
always be had without too much cost. 
Having selected the best place for your pit, 
first lay in way soil, peat, or any soil as differ- 
ent as possible from that of your farm, and giv'e 
it a hollow surface like a great tea sauser. Up- 
on this lay potato stalks, and any other vegeta- 
ble matters, eas}^ to ferment, and hereupon a lay- 
er of dung. Next a layer of v'egetable matter, 
as peat, turf, bark, rotten weeds, ferns, leaves or 
any king of dead v’-egetable, to increase your 
quantity; and so every week, cover your dung 
from the stables, styes, &c., with three or four 
limes as much dead vegetable matter; thus mak- 
ing up your heap in alternate layers. The urine 
should all run into the pit from stables and all, 
by narrow drains, where it will not be much ex- 
])osed to evaporation; and another such drain 
should lead from it to a low'er pit, to catch the 
overflowings when there are any, and keep them 
to throw back upon the dung in diy times. This 
lower pit should be deeper and smaller than the 
pther, and must nev’er be allowed to oveihow, as 
that would be waste. It may contain cabbage 
.stumps and other things difficult to work, which 
mav' be throvvm back upon the heap as they rot. 
The lower pit may be used as a store of liquid 
manure, for watering your com in Mayor June; 
which giv'es it a start, and much strengthens its 
growth. In leaky ground, the bottom of the 
pits should be stauiiched with clay, and stones 
or gravel stamped in to harden it. 
The privy should discharge into the large pit, 
if po.ssible, or else into the small one; and coal 
ashes (but not wood ashes) are good to throw 
w'here this comes out. Saw dust, or turf dust 
from the stacks, do very well. House washings, 
as soap-suds, &c. should also be thrown on the 
heap; but the wash of the country and heavy 
floods of rain should not be allowed to enter it, 
but be led into the meadows by other channels. 
In wet seasons the top should be slanted to 
turn off the rain. 
Each layer of dung being covered with a layer 
of peat or other dead vegetable matter, the whole 
heap, when finished, should be cru-sted over with 
way soil or other earth, to retain the vapors. 
The fermentation will be slower,or quicker, 
a.s it is more or le.s.s covered and compressed. 
Wherever your heaps are made, whether in 
the yard or the field, give them a bed of some 
sort to absorb the drainage, and crust them over 
with soil, and mix up with the dung before 
spreading. The drainage carries down the 
strength of the heap; sometimes enough to kill 
the .seed in the place where the heap stood; 
whilst it would have been of the greatest bene- 
fit if spread out with the dung. — Ph/. Il rald. 
Cultivation of Wheat. — We find in the 
Farmers’ Magazine, that the Chelmsford Club 
decide, from experience, that salt and lime ap- 
plied to the seed of wheat, (probably in the 
same manner as we do here in the U. States,) 
are destructive to the slug and wire-worm; and 
that lime is beneficial to the crop, both before and 
after sowing it; that a good clover ley is best 
calculated to produce a good crop of vv’heat, and 
a bean or pea etch is the next best preparation. 
L1MIN(;.-UIST. 
Sandy Spri.ng, jMahyland. 
Nolwilh.s‘anding “it is di.scouraging to preach 
to a deaf congregation,’’ yet, wliencvcr it np- . 
pears from its effect, there’ is any improvement ; 
in the morals or practices of the congregalion, | 
it ought by all means to be pcrsevercil in; and l 
even if the improvement is but slight, it ih es 
not le.sscn the obligation on those who may | 
have a knowledge of facts which may be of u.se i 
to others, to communicate them. In accordance 
with these views, 1 have been induced to throw 
in my mite, by way of furnishing a few tacts 
with regard to the use and effects of lime in 
this neighborhood, to which 1 find some refer- 
ence made in a letter from the present editor to 
William M. Peyton, of Roanoke, published in 
the January number, new scries. Farmers’ Re- 
gister. 
From twelve to fifteen years since, one of our 
fanners, living on .some of the most unproduc- 
tive land in our county, situated about six mile.s 
from the limestone quarries, was induced to try 
the eflects of lime in larger quantities than h’e 
had applied it some thirty years lielore. He had 
then become discouraged, by seeing no eflect 
from it, owing, as he afterwards found, to the 
small quantity used, say about twent 3 '-fiv'e bush- 
els to the acre. He soon found the beneficial 
effect very great, and he wanted no other stimu- 
lant than the increase of crops, to induce him to 
persist in its application. From the example of 
the individual abov^e alluded to, I think is main- 
ly attributable the great improvement in the land 
and crops in this neighborhood from the use of 
lime. 
There are now within fiv'e miles of our point 
more than twenty lime kilns, and all have been 
erected within the time above mentioned, most- 
ly all ot which belong to farmers, who haul the 
stone from one to seven miles, and burn it at 
home, with tlieir ovvm wood; deeming it a cheap- 
er and better plan than to purchase the lime. — 
The greater part of them have purchased quar- 
ries, for some of which as high as S800 and 
SIOOO per acre has been paid. 1 have one con- 
taining rather less than one quarter of an acre, 
for which, I have no doubt, I could to-morrow, 
notwithstanding the hard times, obtain S300, 
which would be at the rate of more than §1200 
per acre. 7\nd this from men who have work- 
ed for their money, and not dispo.sed to expend 
it on a “bubble.” 
Now as to the effects of lime. I think it may 
be safely asserted, that upon an average, thro’- 
out the neighborhood, the application of fifty 
bushels to the acre, after the expiration of from 
one to three years, has trebled the crops; in some 
instances much more, and in a few po.ssibly less. 
Various quantities have been applied, from 50 
to lOObushels, butnol more than the latter quan- 
tity, to much extent, that I am aware of My 
own opinion is in favor of the largest quantity, 
particularly of the kind of lime that we have 
access to, which has a good deal of sand in it, 
and I would put on two, or even three hundred 
bushels to the acre, vvitliout any fear of injury, 
either to the present or future crops. I have seen 
clover growing luxuriantly out ol a bed of lime, 
(where a lump had slacked after spreading,) of 
.500 or 1000 bushels to the acre. 
1 will now state a few results from my own 
application of lime. 
About ten years since, I had .some lime put, 
by way of experiment, on some v'ery poor land, 
at the rate of not more than 50 bushels to the 
acre. I had recently purchased it, and that the 
land was poor, may be inleired from the price I 
paid for it; say $2 05 per acre. It had been al- 
ways rented out. It had been cultivated under 
the /rno skift system that prevails here to a great 
extent; that is, com alternate with oats. In the 
spring of 1811 I took possession. This piece 
was sowed with oats and clover, and at harvest, 
there was at least three bushels of oats on the 
limed ground, to one on that adjoining, and a 
much greater difference in the clover. By the 
fall of 18-12, there was scarcely a sprig of clover 
on the ground not limed, and on that limed it is 
now well sol. 
Another piece of ground 1 jiloughed in the 
spr ing of le d. containing rather Ics-. than one 
and a half nro s, iw.' lliii.I.s of \vhi< h had been 
cullivaled uiuier the two shift .sysuin, the great- 
er pan of the time for the hi'-t half ceiituiy; the 
balance find grown up with sas-alias iaishes 
and sedge giass, and liad pr ‘hably b r'uKiv- so 
poor some twenty or iwciev five vear.- ago, that 
it was given up. Alter ploughing the whole 
about six inches deep, 1 spn a I l(K> hu -h.d.s ol 
lime to the acre, together with the luanun from 
the straw of about 70 bushels of oat.s, am a fi-w 
bushels of slacked aches which the trnant had 
left. It was then well harrowed and plant .! in 
potatoes. The product about 100 bu>he!s. I 
then seeded it with wheat, with a slight on - ing 
of manure, obtained principally from penning 
five head of cattle at night through the summer, 
and at haiwe-st cut nearly 111 busliels of wheat to 
the acre. It was somewhat affected with rust, 
but not so as to injure the grain, for that was as 
fine and plump as 1 almost ever .saw. V hethcr 
the lime had the effect to prevent iLs being more 
injured by rust, I cannot say, but ol thi-. 1 am 
confident, that some of my neighbors, w hose 
land previous to liming was as good or iictter 
than mine, did not raise more than lu ll' the 
quaniitj', and that inferior in quality, being much 
injured by rust. 
Tlie theory ol lime affording nutriment to the 
grain of wheat more particularly ilian to the. 
straw, is strongly supported by facts, and as it 
regards clover. 1 have recently been info’ ined 
by the owner of a mill for getting out the ed, 
that the clover seed was more perfect rai- d on 
limed ground, and was worth from $1 to -1 50 
more per bushel, than that grown on some of the 
best land in the country without lime. 
But if I were to slate one-fourth of the suc- 
cessful results Irom the use of lime in thi ^ part 
of the country, the limits of a Register would 
hardly suffice, and 1 will therefore conclude this 
with a remark made .some years since, by Dr. 
Black of Delaware, and in which I iully con- 
cur, viz: “Although at first view it seems para- 
doxical, that lime makes a .stiff .soil light, and a 
light .soil still', comparatively speaking this is 
certainly so. Itmake.s all .soils rich, and this 
merges all distinctions.” — Farmers' Jtc^istt r. 
Cutti.vg Asparagus. — I stumbled accidental- 
ly, and from careles.sness, several years since 
upon the plan of cutting A.sparagus, which 1 
have since recommended very highly; which is 
not to cut it below the ground, as usual, but to 
allow it to grow Irom filteen inches to two or 
three feet long, and cut off about one foot of 
the lop. By doing so, almost the whole will be 
equally tender and well flavored; while in the 
old way, only an inch or two is eatable. 1 1 is a 
fact, that Asparagus does not become tender un- 
til it turns green. 1 always thought it a poor 
vegetable, until I cultivated it, and gathered it 
as above; and now I find it one of the best. 1 
think also, that there is a great deal more luss, 
(pardon the word, as uncla.ssical, but very exr 
pressive,) made about the cultivation of Aspar- 
agus, than there is any need for. I wouhi say, 
make beds three feet apart, as if lor cotton, lay 
your roots about eighteen inches apart in the 
alley, haul the betl back upon them, cover them 
well with fresh stable or other .strong manure, 
immediately and every year; and it they are 
planted early in the winter, you may cut them 
twelve or fourteen mouths after. They may 
not possibly be as large as candles, but none the 
less palatable for that, nor bear any the worse 
for it — at lca.st I have not found it so. If you 
live on a sea-island, and can make a bed in 
salt land, you will find it thrive to your .satis- 
faction; and if you live in the interior, empty 
all refu-se-salt and salt substances upon your bed 
a-- its specific manure. — S'aUhern Agriculturalist . 
There ate cases, in which a little common 
scn.se is of more worth than a great deal of cal- 
culation. 
