146 
THE SOUTHERN C ULTR ATOK. 
of manures to restore the fertility of the soil. 
In treating further of manures, it will be best to 
begin with this, as the most important class. 
A.NIMAL MANURES. 
A late British writer on agriculture, say.s — 
the chief use of cattle on an arable farm, be- 
sides those necessary for the operations of hus- 
bandry, is to produce manure tor the land. 11 
the cattle repay their food, and the expense and 
risk attending their keep, the manure is suffi- 
cient profit. Er^en with a moderate loss, they 
must be kept, when manure cannot be purchas- 
ed. The loss, if any, on the cattle, must be 
repaid by the increase of the corn crops. Man- 
ure is to a farm, what daily food is to an ani- 
mal; it must be procured at any sacrifice.” — 
Common barn-yard or stable manure is the 
kind to which most farmers must look for the 
fertility of their farms. This consists of the 
droppings of the cattle, mixed with the straw 
used for littering in stables or thrown into the 
yards for the animal to feed or lie upon, the coar- 
ser hay and weeds refused by the stock, and the 
urine of the animals kept in the stables or yards. 
This is constantly trampled, is usually kept 
moist if not wet, and is finally decomposed, or 
converted into manure fii for the production of 
crops. This is the most usual course, but it is 
evident that there must, in this method, be a se- 
rious loss to the farmer, of the more valuable 
properties of the manure. In this way, the de- 
composition is unequal; a part will be convert- 
ed mould while the other will be scarcely acted 
upon; the salts and the more soluble parts of 
the excrements, which are the most efficient 
ones, are dissolved by the rains, and carried off 
by the drains, or lost in the earth; and where any 
considerable degree of heat is evolved, as there 
w'illbew’hen the decomposition is rapid, oi is 
going on in large masses, the escape of ammo- 
nia, so easily detected by the smell, shows that 
the nitrogen, so es.sential to the growth and per- 
fection of a grain crop, is rapidly wasting. 
PREPARATION. 
To prevent these tesults, and secure the whole 
benefit of the manure, two methods have been 
adopted. The first consists in applying the 
manure fresh, or in a long state, to the fields it 
is wished to manure, without waiting for it to 
decompose. In this way the manure collected 
in the yards during the winter, is removed in 
the spring, and applied to such crops as require 
it the most; and as no fermentation ensues in 
ordinary cases, until the commencement of hot 
weather, two sources of loss at least are avoid- 
ed, those of the wa.shing away of the solu- 
ble parts, or their being carried ofi'in the shape 
of gas. Where there exists no necessity for re- 
taining manures lor other than spring crops, 
and where crops cultivated are such that long 
manures are suitable for their growth and til- 
lage, this mode of disposing of manures must 
be considered one of the best that can be adopt- 
ed. But in many cases the formation of ma- 
nures in the yards and stables of the farmer is 
going on the whole year; and preservation in 
masses, or by being scattered in yards during 
the hot months, w'ould be to greatly lessen, if 
rot mostl}'^ destroy its value. Besides, there are 
some crops, such as some of the root crops, in 
the cultivation of which experience has proved 
fully that rotted or decomposed manure is far 
preferrable to long manure, as much of it is al- 
ready in a soluble state, and is available to the 
plants at the time they need hastening the most, 
which is the period immediately after germina- 
tion. When the waste of manure is to be pre- 
vented during the summer months, or it is desi- 
rable to provide a quantity of fully rotted ma- 
nure, then the second method should be used; 
and this indeed, by many excellent farmers, is 
considered the best in all cases. 
FERMENTATION. 
In this me'hod, the practice is to remove the 
dung from the stables and yards at short inter- 
vals, and place it in large piles or masses, that 
the proper fermentation may take place previous 
to its use. When a pile of manure is made in 
this way, the fermentation takes place in the 
quantities applied, as tliey are succe.ssively de- 
posited, and therefore does n-.it reach u.^ually 
that [joint in which material loss is sustained, if 
it is Jound that the he;it is becoming too great, or 
the fermentation injuriously rajiid, so as to 
cau.se the e.scape of ammonia, a layer of earth 
or sods placed over the pile, will retain, by com- 
bination, the escaping gases, and thus prevent 
the loss. It has been found a most excellent 
plan, one which not only greatly increa.ses the 
quantity of manures made in this way, but adds 
to its qujlity, to mingle with or cover the suc- 
cessive dei'osits of manttre with earth from 
ditches or ponds, peat or muck from swamps, 
or turf from bogs or ( lowef lands, as such lay- 
ers, consisting mostly of vegetable or animal 
matters, will by absorbing the drainings of the 
manttre, or the absorbtion ol the escaping ga.ses, 
be converted into one of the most efficient of 
fertilizers. The more solid such deposits of 
manure are made, the more .‘-low will the fer- 
mentation be, and funce in unloading, the carts 
or wagons may be driven ov^er them if nece.ssa- 
ry to expedite the work, where the immedirte 
u.se of the manure is not an object. Should the 
dung placed in these heaps be too slow in fer- 
menting, it may be hastened by opening the 
piles, or still better by making a hole in the top, 
into which the wash of the yards and the urine 
of the stables may be poured. This method has 
another advantage. The manure from the yards 
if not wanted as long manure, may be removed 
to the fields where it is to be u.sed, at times 
when the men of the farm cannot be otherwise 
profitably employed, and will be at hand, ready 
fermented in these piles, when a further trans- 
portation might be diffic. lt if not impracticable. 
LONG OR ROTTED. 
It is a question of considerable importance to 
the farmer, and one which has been much dis- 
cussed, whether it w^as better to apply manure 
in its long state always, or always allow its full 
decomposition before using. From his own ex- 
perience, the writer has been led to doubt the 
correctness of either of these positions. It seems 
to be universally admilted that matter, to be 
efficient as a manure, must be soluble, and it is 
clear that the more solid parts of farm yard ma- 
nure require to be softened by putrefactive fer- 
mentation before they can be considered m this 
state. When, then, the influence ol man -re 
required to be felt at once, as on the turnep, beet 
or carrot crops, in or^er to push them forward 
at the first start beyond the reach of insects, my 
experience is, that the manure should be in a 
.“^tate reducible to powder, in which condition a 
large portion of it may be expected to be .solu- 
ble, and of course at once available by 
the plant, Where, during the fermentative pro- 
cess, the mass has been reduced to a black car- 
bonaceous matter, it may be inferred that the 
heat was too great, and the manure seriously 
damaged; on the contrary, if the ma.ss, while 
pefectly fine, dry and friable, still retains its 
dark brown color, it will usually be found that 
none of the good qualities have been lost by 
over-fermentation. 
But where the manure is to be applied to 
crops which do not require forcing forward in 
the early part of their growth, but demand as 
much or perhaps more nutriment at a late pe- 
riod of their vegetation to perfect their seeds or 
roots, than experience has .shown that it is best 
to apply the manure without any considerable 
fermentation to the .soil. Indian com, potatoes, 
and he grain crops generally, are of this class ; 
the two first particularly. The time when corn 
and potatoes require the most nutriment, is at 
the time when the ears and tubers are forming; 
and when manures but partially fermented, or 
used fresh from the yard or stable, are applied, 
the decomposition is comparatively gradual, and 
the supply greatest when most needed. I can- 
not recommend the application of manures of 
any kind directly to grain crops, as it has a ten- 
dency to give straw at the expense of the grain, 
and wheat so manured, is far more apt to suffer 
from mildew or rust, than when the manure, by 
application to other and previous crop.s, has be- 
come perfectly incorporated with the soil. In 
this state, that rapid giowth, which the result of 
first fermentation, is avoided by the wheat plant; 
and the substance necessary to perfect the berry 
are already prepared and within reach of the 
growing or m.' turing plant. 
Dung vaiies much in its quality, not only 
from the r-eifrciion or irnpeifeciion of the Icr- 
mentaiion to w hich it is subjected, but also from 
the anim .Is [a’Ov.ucing it, and the lood which 
animals receive. I he lichest and mo.st eriec- 
tive manure we have ever used, was that from 
the hog yard, and produced by fattening hogs. 
That from cattle, fed on corn meal and oil cake, 
will be little inferior; and either will b? found 
100 per cent better than ordinary farm yard ma- 
nure. The rea.son of this is very plain. Such 
animals are fed with substances abounding in 
the materials most needed by plants, with very 
little admixture of mseless matter, and the com- 
paratively small quantities of animal matter and 
salts added, rather contribute than detract from 
its efficacy. The dung of sheep is mote valua- 
ble than that of horses or cattle not fattening, as 
the materials are more perfectly assimilated or 
mixed in mastication, and more fully decom- 
posed. 
GREEN CROPS. 
Next to farm yard manures, to keep up the 
fertility ol his lamls, the farmer may most cer- 
tainly rely on green crops, either led off upon 
the land, or turned under by the p-low, and there 
allowed to ferment and decompose. E'ora plant 
to enrich exhausted soils, aliordingas it does 
both top and roots to a large extent, there is no 
plant equal to clover; and particularly where it 
is necessary or desirable to have the green crop 
fed off by animals. I prefer letting the clover 
grow' until nearly or quite in blossom, and then 
turning sheep upon it. They will eat much of 
it and fatten rapidly; but they will trample down 
more, and mixed with their dung forms in its 
decay a most efficient top dressing; and repeat- 
ed for tw'o or three years, forms an admirable 
preparation of the soil for w heat or other grains. 
When a crop is cultivated to be plowed in, it 
should be done at the time when the plants con- 
tain the greatest quantity of nutritive matter, 
and have least exhau.sted the soil in which they 
are growing. This, in most cases, will be when 
the plants have come fully into flower. At an 
earlier period there may be as much weight, 
but a larger portion of it will be mere water; 
and if allowed to stand much later, the soluble 
matter is lost in the seed, and the ligneous pan 
of the stem becomes more difficult of decompo- 
sition. Buckwheat is a good plant for a green 
manure ; its growth is rapid, and gives a great 
weight per acre, and two crops may be plowed 
under in a year. The best way of plowing in 
such green crops, is to pass a heavy roller over 
them, which lays the plants close to the ground, 
and greatly facilitates covering them by the 
plow. It is believed that corn, sown broadcast, 
and when just showing its tassels, cut and cov- 
ered by the plow, would be one of the best crops 
that could be chosen for this purpo.se. A man 
or boy in this case, would be required to follow 
the plow, to place the corn in the furrow fer cov- 
ering, at the next passage of the plow. Taken 
at this time, corn abounds in nutritive matter, 
and could scarcely fail of proving a first rate 
fertilizer of the soil, 
PEAT. 
A variety of decomposed vegetable matters, 
or those parii-’lly decomposed, are used as ma- 
nures. The fallen leaves of trees are of this 
class ; but the instances are few in which they 
will repay the expense of gathering ; perhaps 
never in the United States, where the other 
sources of ar. abundant supply of manures are 
so numerous. If collected, the best method of 
using them, is to litter stables, or form beds for 
pigs, or mix at once with other manures; as in 
such ways, they absorb urine and other fluids 
that might escape, and together undergo decom- 
position. But the most important source of de- 
cayed vegetable matter, and one, the value of 
which is not yet by any means sufficiently un- 
