68 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
so totally locks up all its energies, that the fer- 
mentation so necessary is altogether stopped, 
and complete barrenness is the result. 
This we have frequently observed to occur 
Irom land being trampled by sheep, in eating olf 
turneps, from strongclay soil during wet weath- 
er, in the early part of the spring. 
They convert the surface into a complete pud- 
dle, and when it becomes dry, the parts compo- 
sing the soil are so closely united together, that 
it is like bricks dried for the kiln, and is entire- 
ly unfit for the production of plants. Itis evi 
dent that the cau-ses of sterility in these soils are 
opposed to each other ; each, therefore, will re- 
quire a mode of treatment peculiar to its case. 
The light, sandy, and vegetable soils, that are 
too friable, must be artificially rendered more 
firm ; and the too tenacious clay soils must be 
made artificially friable, and kept so, and be 
pulverized and mechanically altered before we 
can expect them to become productive. It is 
evident, if these two soils could be mixed togeth- 
er, the mitture, with a proper quantity of vege- 
table and animal manure, would make a good 
productive soil. 
From the New Engla,nd Farmer. 
ON THE RIGHT USE OF MANURE. 
Mr. Editor— After all the conflicting opin- 
ions about the depth to which manures should be 
buried, if covered at all ; and after all the con- 
flicting opinions about the time vjhen manures 
should be b'uried, permit me to say that, accord- 
ing to my experience, the depth to which ma- 
nures are covered, and the degree of rottenness 
•which manures should attain before they are 
used, should be varied according to a number of 
difterent circumstances, as: 
1st. The difference in the component parts o 
the manures. 
2d. T-he difference in the kinds of soil and 
subsoil to which they are applied. 
3d. The difference in the kinds of crops which 
it is designed should be benefitted by the ma- 
nure; and 
4th. The difference in the time when it is de- 
signed that the manure should give forth its 
powers for the benefit of the crop. 
1st. There is very considerable difference in 
the component parts of manure. Some are vol- 
atile, some are fixed. All volatile manure.s 
should either be composted, or else, if it is prac- 
ticable, they should be covered as soon as they 
are spread, in order to prevent them from evapo- 
rating ahd flying into the atmosphere when used. 
But if the volatile parts of the manure are com- 
posted with peat, or other substances which are 
retentive of moisture; or if, according to the 
views of Liebig, the volatile parts are fixed by 
strong acids, or by the sulphate of lime, they 
will not then require so deep a covering as if 
they were not thus composted or deprived of their 
volatility. Composted manures do not require 
to be ploughed in as deep as those which are 
not composted. And where farmers cultivate 
damp soils and compost their stable and barn 
yard manures with peat or swamp-mud, we are 
assured that they sometimes succeed pretty well 
in the cultivation of grass, corn, wheat and rye, 
by leaving the composted manures on or near 
the surface of the soil. 
Again: manures which are not volatile, but 
which are disposed to sink in the soil, such as 
lime, ashes, marl, clay, sand, &c., should be left 
on or near the surface of the ground. And 
those manures which naturally collect moisture, 
may be left nearer the surface than others. 
2d. Manures should be differently applied on 
different kinds of soil and subsoil. Long ma- 
nures ploughed into a stiff soil, tend to loosen it, 
so as to admit more air and make it lighter. — 
Manures should be covered deeper on a dry 
gravelly soil than they should on a damp one, 
On a soil which is decidedly wet, the soluble and 
volatile parts of the manure would be likely to 
mix with the water, and to go off with it; while 
on a very dry and gravelly soil there would be 
more danger of losing the volatile parts of the 
manure by rapid evaporation, unless the volatile 
parts of the manure were fixed, or carefully cov- 
ered. Volatile manures should be composted 
with peat or swamp mud before being applied 
to dry gravelly soils. 
3d. Manures require to be buried deep oi 
otherwise, according to the shape of the roots of 
the plants which it is designed should be bene- 
fitted by them. For those plants which send 
down long tap roots, the manure should be mixed 
with the soil, not only on the surface, but to a 
considerable depth below it. A number of years 
ago, I took an exhausted spot of ground, with a 
good, healthy, but exhausted subsoil, and after 
ploughing it deep, 1 gave it a good dressing of 
compost, which was left near the surface, and 
then I planted it with carrots. They came up 
and grew, and promised to make a very fine crop ; 
the upper ends of the roots were large, but when 
taken from the ground, the roots proved to be 
very much shorter than the same kind of carrots 
usually were, when they grew in places where 
the soil was more deeply manured. But where 
crops are to be cultivated w'hich send out their 
roots horizontally, as rye, wheat, corn, &c., and 
do not send them deep, the manure will produce 
more speedy effects, if it lies on or near the sur- 
face. 
On a spot which 1 designed for corn, near my 
dwelling, I ploughed in a liberal dressing offish 
offal, and lest they should smell bad, 1 ploughed 
them in with deep furrows; then manured the 
ground with barn-yard and stable manure, and 
planted corn, and my crop was only about the 
rate of forty bushels of corn to the acre, which 
was not more than 1 should have expected with- 
out the fish. The fish offal was too low^ to be 
fed upon much by the roots of the corn. The 
next year, howver, 1 ploughed the same spot 
over again, with other deep furrows ; this brought 
the remains of the fish again near the surface, 
and where 1 then planted corn, it yielded a luxu- 
riant crop. In some places the corn yielded as 
much as fifteen ears to the hill. 
4th. Long manures which are covered in the 
soil, decompose, and frequently give out their 
strength to promote the growth of corn just at 
the time when the corn is making seed, and 
needs it most. In this case a little well-rotted 
manuie in the hill, to give the corn an early start, 
proves beneficial. But long and coarse manures 
do not suit parsnips, beets and carrots, and ac- 
cording to my experience, where parsnips, beets 
and carrots are planted among coarse manures, 
instead of their growing smooth and handsome, 
their roots almost invariably grow prongy, and 
the crop is never large. Beets, carrots and par- 
snips require manure which is well rotted, and 
ready to give immediate nourishment to these 
crops. 
Where volatile manures are used with a view 
of materially benefitting crops which are to grow 
a number of years after the manures are applied, 
the manures should be worked in deep. A gar- 
den., -W'hich has been well manured and well dug, 
so as to work the manure in deep, retains a por- 
tion of its fertility for a number of years after 
the application of manure is suspended; while 
a soil manured with volatile manures, which are 
left on the surface, is soon exhausted. 
A number of years ago, I buried a dead cat in 
a mowing field, to the depth of perhaps tw'elve to 
eighteen inches. The first year, no increased 
fertility was observed about the spot, but for 
several years afterwards, the grass grew with 
increased luxuriance over the grave of the cat. 
This encouraged me to make another experi- 
ment. I therefore took an exhausted piece of 
land, which had lain in corn hills and sweet ferns, 
and without manure for very many years. Into 
this we then ploughed with fish, with good deep 
furrows, at the rate of 25,000 to 30,000 to the 
acre, and then planted potatoes. The next year 
we sowed it to oats and grass, and then mow'ed 
the ground for six successive seasons next fol- 
lowing. During all these eight years the crops 
were improved, and during the first seven years 
they were very considerably improved by this 
one manuring. And these eight crops, after de- 
ducting all expenses for rent and cultivation, 
(except the expenses of removing the stones 
from the ground, ) gave a nett profit at the rate o 
about one hundred dollars per acre. This neff 
gain was in consequence of applying the manure 
in such a manner as to need but a amall propor- 
tional expense for the after cultivation. For in 
this course, there w'as no expense for the culti- 
vation after the second crop. In the six years 
which we mowed the grass, there was no ex- 
pense but the expense of harvesting. And to 
have ground so much like the garden of Eden 
as to bring forth rich crops spontaneously for 
even the limited period of six successive years 
without any other expense but harvesting is 
not only a great advantage, but to us it was very 
pleasing. Had all this manure been left on the 
surface of the ground, we think it would have 
destroyed the first crops in the course, and w'e 
think the manure have then evaporated so as 
not to have materially benefitted the last of these 
crops. But to a tenant, wdio had a lease /<?r but 
one yeuT, it would probably have been more ad- 
vantageous to have left the manure nearer the 
surface, and to have spread it out more exten- 
sively; yet even then w'e think he could not have 
realized any thing like the same amount of nett 
profit by its use. 
Now then, it appears to me, Mr. Editor, that 
so long as the questions about long manure and 
short manure— the degree of rottennesss which 
manures should attain before they are ploughed 
in— and the depth lo which they should be cov- 
ered— so long as these questions are stated in 
general terms, w'ithout reference to the different 
kinds of manures which are used — without ref- 
erence to the different kinds of crops to be culti- 
vated — and without reference to the differences 
of situation, circumstances and soil on which 
they are grown— the debates on these subjects 
(which have been going on ever since I first be- 
came an agricultural reader,) may be uselessly 
continued, and a large amount of ink may yet 
be shed in the controversy, without coming at 
all nearer to a settlement of these mooted ques- 
tions than at the commencement; — for, unless 
my experience is fallacious, the degree of rotten- 
ness W'hich manures should acquire before being 
used— and the depth to W'hich manures are 
ploughed in, may be varied, and ought to be va- 
ried according to the various kinds of manure 
which are used, the various situations and kinds 
of soil to w hich they are applied, the various 
kinds of crops intended to be benefitted by the 
manures, the length of time before the manures 
are lequired to give forth their whole strength, 
and the various circumstances of the cultivators 
I remain, Mr. Editor, very respectfully yours,) 
And the public’s very humble serv’t, ’ 
Asa M. Holt. 
East Haddam, Ct., March 15, 1844. 
Note by the Editor. — When our correspon- 
dent says that his eight crops (on the piece of 
exhausted land manured with fish,) six of which 
crops were grass, yielded him a nett profit of 
about one hundred dollars per acre, does he stale 
w’hat he intended to I The amount named as 
nett profit per acre, (considering that six of the 
crops w'ere grass alone,) seems to us an over 
estimate — unless in our correspondent’s vicinity, 
hay has a higher value or yields much more 
abundantly than with us. We think he must 
have erred (unintentionally) in the statement of 
the profit. Or do we misapprehend him? — does 
he mean that one hundred dollars was the total 
not the yearly profit? 
From the American Farmer. 
USE OF CHARCOAL AS A MANURE FOR WHEAT 
■ Dr. Lee, in his admirable address before the 
Agricultural Society of Erie County, N. Y., 
states it as a fact, that the liberal application of 
charcoal to the toheat fields of France, has added, 
within the last ten years, one hundred millions of 
bushels to the annual crop of wheat grown in that 
kingdom. What quantity of charcoal is there 
considered as a liberal application, per acre, we 
are not aware, but should presume that twenty 
bushels would be found sufficient for every prac- 
tical purpose, and as we have implicit confi- 
dence in any statement of fact, which Dr. Lee 
would make, we feel it to be our duty to lay the 
