154 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
mals against them in the production of butter 
and cheese, grass and hay-ied, or kept in any 
other manner it pleases. For twenty-five cows 
to produce 13,715 lbs. of cheese, and 3U9 lbs. of 
butter, 548 lbs. each of the former, and 12 lbs. of 
the latter, we do not think so very extraordina- 
ry, We have heard of a cow making 21 lbs. of 
butter per week, and it was thought, with how 
much reason we do not know’, that she might 
make 500 lbs. in the course of a year. What 
amount of cheese this would be equivalent to, 
we could not say, as this would depend a good 
deal upon the amount of caseine in the milk. 
There are some other assertions in this arti- 
cle of the Cultivator, also a few paragraphs 
which have appeared from time to time in its 
pages, upon which we would like to offer a few 
comments, but our space forbids. We shall 
probably recur to them hereafter, as it seems to 
nave an especial fondness for communication of 
this nature. 
GREEN MANURING— OR THE APPLICATION OF 
VEGETABLE MATTER IN THE GREEN STATE. 
Johnston, in his lectures on the applications 
of Chemistry and Geology, has a very long and 
able article on the above subject, but as it is too 
long for insertion entire, w^e shall endeavor to 
give the practical results to which the writer ar- 
rives, from which the reader will be able to 
draw such conclusions as cannot fail to be pro- 
fitable to him, provided he acts up to the advice 
which those results would impress upon his 
mind. These results are : 
1. That the ploughing in of green vegetables 
on the spot where they have grown, may be fol- 
lowed as a method of manuring and enriching 
all land, where other manures are less abundant. 
Growing plants bring up from beneath, as far as 
their roots extend, those substances which are 
useful to vegetation — and retain them in their 
leaves and stems. By ploughing in the whole 
plant, we restore to the surface what had pre- 
viously sunk to a greater or less depth, and thus 
make it more fertile than before the green crop 
was sown. 
2. This manuring is performed with the least 
loss by the use of vegetables in the green state. 
By allowing them to decay in the open air, 
there is a loss of both organic and inorganic 
matter — if they be converted into fermented 
(farmyard) manure, there is also a large loss ; 
and the same is the case, if they are employed 
in feeding stock, with a view of their conver- 
sion into manure. In no other form can the 
same crop convey to the soil an equal amount of en- 
riching matter as in that of greenleaves and stems. 
Where the first object, therefore, in the farmer’s 
practice, is, so to use his crops as to enrich his 
land — he will soonest effect it by ploughing 
them in in the green state. 
3. Another important result is, that the bene- 
ficial action is almost immediate. Green vege- 
tables decompose rapidly, and thus the first crop 
which follows a green manuring is benefited 
and increased by it. But partly lor this reason, 
also, the green manuring — of grain cropped 
land — if aided by no other manure, must gene- 
rally be repeated every second year. 
4. It is said that grain crops, which succeed 
a green manuring, are never laid — and that the 
produce in grain is greater in proportion to the 
straw, than when manured with fermented 
dung. 
5. But it is deserving of separate considera- 
tion, that green manuring is especially adapted 
lor improving and enriching soils which are 
poor in vegetable matter. The principles which 
living plants draw apart — sometimes a large part 
— of their sustenance from the oAr, must be admit- 
ted, and add to their value as fertilizers. Living 
plants, then, contain in their substance not only 
all they have drawn up from the soil, but also a 
great part of what they have drawn from the air. 
Plough in these living plants, and you necessa- 
rily add to the soil more than was taken from it 
— in other words, you make it rich in organic 
matter. Repeat the process with a second crop, 
and it becomes richer still — and it would be dif- 
ficult to define the limit beyond which the pro- 
cess could be no further carried. Is there any 
soil which is beyond tl.e reach of this improving 
process. Those only are so on which plants 
refuse to grow at all, or on which they grow so 
languidly as to extract fiom the air no more 
than is restored to it again by the natural decay 
of the organic matter which the soils already 
contain. 
But for those plants which grow naturally 
upon the soil, agricultural skill may substitute 
others, which will increase more rapidly and 
produce a larger quantity of green leaves and 
stems, for the purpose of being buried in the 
soil. Hei ce, the selection ot particular crops 
for the purpose of giving manuring — those are 
obviously the fittest, which, in the given soil 
and climate, grow most rapialy, or tohich produce 
the largest quantities of vegetable matter in the 
shortest time and at the smallest cost. 
The plants enumerated by Professor Johnston, 
as best adapted to the purposes of green manur- 
ing, are; 1. Sjjurry ; 2. Pulse; 3. The Vetch; 
4. Buckwheat; 5. Rape; 6. Eye; 7. Turnips; 
8. Borage; 9. Red Clover; 10. Old Grass 
Swards. 
We have for years endeavored to impress 
upon such of our readers as had not the means 
of obtaining a sufficient quantity of animal and 
vegetable manures from their stock to manure 
their fields, how important it was that they 
should plough in green crops, and we are the 
more pleased to find that our views, so often 
advanced, are so ably sustained by the opinions 
and experience of so distinguished a man as 
professor Johnston. We have heretofore re- 
commended that Buckwheat should be sown 
for the purpose of being ploughed in whenever 
lands were poor and its owner had not manure 
at hand to improve it. We recommended buck- 
wheat because of the quickness of its growth, 
and the largeness of its leaf enabling it to ap- 
propriate to itself a very considerable portion of 
those nutritive gases which abound in the air, 
and form large portions of the food of plants. 
We defer to no man incur estimate of the 
great value — the paramount importance — of 
lime to every soil calculated to produce vegeta- 
bles; but still we have always thought that all 
soils require, besides mineral substances, those 
of vegetable and animal matter also, to make 
them partake of the highest elements of fertili- 
zation. We would not be understood as suppo- 
sing that one crop of buckwheat turned in would 
be equal to a full dressing of rich stable or barn- 
yard manure — but we do maintain that two 
crops turned in just as the plant comes into 
flower, would be equal to a very heavy dressing 
of any putrescent manure which could be ap- 
plied. And upon the score of cheapness, we 
know of none where the party has to buy, that 
can compare with it j'^and then, when properly 
and evenly sown, green manure has this advan- 
tage, from the equal distribution of the vegeta- 
ble matter over the entire field, there is an equal- 
ity of fertility in all its parts, a thing most desi- 
rable, as every practical farmei will readily ad- 
mit. 
In conclusion, let us most respectfully advise 
all who may have exhausted lands and who may 
not have the means of procuring a supply of 
other putrescent matters, to make arrangements 
to sow and plough in a crop or two of buck- 
wheat. Should they use lime or ashes in con- 
nection with the green-fey, so much the belter — 
the more prompt and decided will belts efficacy. 
Man requires bread as well as meat, and the earth 
requires vegetable as well as mineral substances. 
American Farmer. 
Any deviation from the most exact and scru- 
pulous sincerity, is repugnant to the good faith 
that ought to prevail in contracts. Any dis- 
simulation concerning the subject matter ot the 
contract, and what the opposite party has an 
interest in knowing, is contrary to that good 
laith. — Pothier. 
It is not sufficient that we avoid what is wrong 
— we should also practice what is right. The 
former is a negative virtue, the latter positive. 
NEW METHOD OF MAKING MANURES. 
The subject of increasing their store of man- 
ures, is wist.ly occupying much of the attention 
of the fanners, fi r they find them indispensable 
in an improved system of agriculture. The 
greater the quantity, therefore, that can be made 
and judiciously applied upon their lands, the 
more certain their success in obtaining good 
crops, and adding to the profits of their busi- 
ness. The following extract is taken from the 
Farmer’s Mine of Wealth, or Manure and Til- 
lage ; a very valuable work by Mr. Hermance, 
just published by Saxton & Miles. It gives a 
somewhat novel method of making manure; 
and by strictly following it, the farmer will find 
that he can greatly increase his resources, and 
work up into fertilizing matter what has hither- 
to been considered mere rubbish, and greatly 
in his w'ay. For lull particulars, and the bene- 
fits of this process, we must refer to the work 
itself. — American Agriculturalist. 
1. Form your barn-yard with a gradual de- 
scent to one side, so that the liquid formed by 
the rains willj flow gently to that side. Make 
the bottom as hard and smooth as possible, that 
there may be little or no waste by soaking into 
the earth. Arrange your stables, hog-pen, &c., 
in such order, as to throw all the litter and man- 
ure into the yard. 
2. Sink a vat or reservoir at the lower side ot 
the yard, of sufficient capacity to contain the 
juice of the yard. The most common form of 
the vat is six feet width by three feet depth, and 
twelve feet or more in length, according to the 
size of the yard, and the amount of liquor flow- 
ing from it. When the vat is more than tw^elvc 
feet in length, it will be best to divide it by par- 
titions into two or three parts, so that if ac any 
time you wmnt to use only part of the liquor, 
you can do so without any inconvenience. It 
will be farther desirable to have the vat so con- 
nected with the yard, that when once full, and 
you have commenced your manufacture, if ad- 
ditional rains come before you shall have com- 
pleted your heap, of which we shall soon speak, 
you can prevent the liquid so formed from run- 
ning into your vat, either by keeping it back in 
the yard, or by turning it in another direction. 
.3. In this vat mix the following ingredients as 
nearly as you can, without actual measure- 
ment or lyeight : — To every barrel of liquid, add 
4 lbs. of stone lime just slacked, 4 lbs. xvood 
ashes of good quality and dry, or an equivalent 
of leached ashes, or a i lb. of potash ; | lb. of 
salt, or its equivalent of old brine; 2 oz. of salt- 
petre ; 20 lbs. plaster of Paris, or mud, or muck; 
10 lbs. of excrements from the privy, or 20 lbs. 
of horse manure. Mix these ingredients thor- 
oughly with the liquid in the vat, and if the vat 
contains one hundred barrels, increase the above 
ingredients a hundred fold. It will be well to 
mix these ingredients a few days before you lay 
your heap, and stir them every day, but this is 
not essential. 
On the upper side of the vat lay the founda- 
tion for the heap, by placing poles or rails, with 
one end to the vat, and the other extending from 
it, about two feet apart ; on these lay other poles 
crosswise, precisely as w’e do the foundation for 
a stack of hay or grain) to keep the straw from 
the ground, and that the liquid may flow freely 
beneath. 
5. Having every thing prepared, commence 
laying up tlie heap by placing a layer of straw, 
weeds, stalks, or whatever you have at hand, on 
the foundation of poles, to the thickness of a loot. 
You will find great advantage from throwing 
the materials as you collect them, in the yard, 
and letting the cattle tread on them, un il they 
are thoroughly broken and wet. When the 
layer is a foot thick, stir up the ingredients in 
the vat, and with a pail or other vessel thorough- 
ly wet the layer on the poles. Place another 
layer on the first, and of the same thickness, wet 
as before, and thus continue until you have rais- 
ed the heap as high as you wish — say from six 
to ten feet. Be careful at every wetting to stir 
up the ingredient# from the bottom of the vaL 
The easiest and quickest way to wet the several 
