46 
WHAT ARE THE MOST ECONOMICAL MANURES ? 
There is one source of fertility, so abundantly 
scattered over the northern and eastern portion of 
the country, that it can not be too often and too 
strongly brought to the notice of the farmer. It 
is the vast accumulations of peat , collected in near¬ 
ly every swamp and muck hole, and abounding on 
almost every farm of hill and dale, east of the Al- 
leganies, We have more than once before allu¬ 
ded to this, and it is unnecessary that I should now' 
do more than call attention to it. When thrown 
out of its native bed and drained, and mixed with 
half its quantity of green stable-manure, it is ascer¬ 
tained to be fully equivalent to the latter unmixed. 
A dead horse has been found capable of converting 
20 loads of it into a first quality of manure; and 
any animal substance compounded with it is ab¬ 
sorbed, and all its nutritious gases retained, till 
they are yielded to the demands of vital vegetable 
affinities. 
Ashes, containing all the fixed and inorganic 
substances of plants, are every way adapted to 
furnish these same materials to plants again. 
Whenever obtainable whether leached or unleach¬ 
ed, they should be applied, unless the soil is al¬ 
ready preoccupied, in which case, as in the appli¬ 
cation of all similar salts in excess, they are for 
the time being, useless, and in some instances, 
positively injurious. 
For that portion of the farm contiguous to the 
stables and cattle-yards, however, nothing is better 
adapted to sustain fertility with every form of cul¬ 
tivation, than the animal and vegetable manures 
there found. The bottom of the yard, which 
should possess the concave form like a dish, so as 
to save all the drainings, ought to be covered to 
the depth of 2 feet with vegetable matter of some 
kind if possible, such as peat, dry tanner’s bark, 
straw, hay, weeds, corn-stalks, or anything of this 
nature, and if these are unattainable, the richest 
turf that can be procured may be substituted. All 
the evacuations from the animals, should be drop¬ 
ped on this, or immediately added to it, before 
draining or evaporation can take place, so that all 
the liquid and gaseous portions may be absorbed. 
By allowing these to escape, a large portion of the 
manure is wasted. The manure may be doubled 
or trebled by augmenting the materials to receive 
and retain it, and so much of the yard as can be 
sheltered should be guarded from rain and exces¬ 
sive heat, to prevent the washing of the soluble 
portions and the escape of the gases. Fermentation 
should be allowed to take place, only when cover¬ 
ed with earth or peat, or such substances as will 
at once seize upon and retain the ammonia, which 
is always set free to a greater or less extent, 
whenever fermentation takes place. We prefer 
this operation should go forward, while surround¬ 
ed by furrows, and surmounted by a growing crop, 
so that the rootlets of the plants, while immersed 
in this steam-bath, can drink in at every spongiole, 
the nutritious vapor as it is generated. The rec¬ 
ord of crops, thus grown, show conclusively the 
advantage they enjoy from the proximity. We 
believe that vast improvements are yet to be made 
in securing the aerial portions of manure, which 
escape all the precautions for detention, hitherto 
practised by the most T ime scattered 
around the premises, will do this to a certain eX^ 
tent; charcoal, gypsum, particularly when dry or 
burnt, are both powerful condensers of ammonia, 
the fertilizing principle that escapes. Chloride of 
lime, if it can be made sufficiently cheap, we think 
will be a powerful and perhaps entirely efficient 
absorbent. All of these, when saturated, may be 
spread upon and mixed with the soil, when they 
will yield their concentrated nutrition to vegetation. 
But I am inadvertently going.over much more 
ground than I anticipated when commencing this 
article, and must bring it to a close, by quoting the 
relative cost of the three most general systems of 
fertilizers as estimated by Hon. William Clark, 
of Northampton, Mass.; premising, that the land 
here subjected to cultivation, was worn out pine 
plains, which had been bought within two miles of 
the village, at the price reckoned. I believe that 
an increase in the intrinsic value of the land would 
make much more difference in favor of grovnng 
manure, as one season could furnish a crop twice 
or three times as great as would be produced on 
the cheap land in two years. 
Cost of raising manure by the growth of clover and, 
grass 2 years on land worth $10 per acre. 
Two years’ interest on land - - - $1.2& 
8 pounds clover seed, 80 cts.; 8 pounds red top, 
25cts.; 4 quarts timothy, 33 cts. - 1.38 
| bushel plaster and sowing and rolling for 2 
years ------ 1.10 
Total - 3.68 
Cost of manuring an acre, with an amount of 
fertilizing material equivalent to the fore¬ 
going, furnished by 2 parts of peat, and one 
part green stable manure, allowing as the 
cost of the peat, 25 cts. per ton for digging, 
and $1 a cord for the stable-manure, and 
cost of hauling and spreading - - 7.48 
Cost of manure equal to the above, one acre 
with stable-manure, at one dollar a cord, 
and carting and spreading - - - 12.14 
By the above calculation, made by a shrewd and 
accurate observer, in whose opinions I place great 
confidence, we have lands manured by the crop, 
at less than one half the price of the peat, and near¬ 
ly one third that of stable manure. A large item 
of costs in the foregoing is the labor, the cost of 
hauling and spreading of which is entirely saved 
in the first process, it being produced just where it 
is wanted. It may be observed as a partial cor¬ 
rection to the above, that the peat is applied to a 
great disadvantage. If it were compounded with 
the carcases of dead animals, which would other¬ 
wise be wasted, or il it tfould be made to receive 
the wash or drippings from the stables and yards, 
or in some instances, where the land has sufficient 
digestive power, as is the case with the porous, 
dry, greedy, silicious soils, if it be applied in its 
raw condition, the costs may be reduced, when not 
too remote, to even below that of the exclusively 
vegetable manure. I may add, also, when the land 
undergoes a rotation once in two or three years, the 
seed charged above may be omitted in the account, 
as enough will be found in the ground to furnish 
an abundant supply. We conceive it increases 
the profits of the above system, to allow cattle, and 
