100 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The rearing of cattle has not been so much 
attended to as in less grain-growing- districts ; 
but there begins to be an improvement in that 
respect, and several fine herds of Durhams and 
Devons are to be seen. There are some sheep, 
mostly of the Bakerwell or English breed, kept 
more for mutton than their wool, which is very 
coarse. Land brings from $30 to $100 per 
acre, and is perhaps as cheap for the quality, as 
in any place in the State. There is a flourishing 
County Agricultural Society here which is do¬ 
ing a great deal to benefit farmers. 
S. A. Collins. 
Sodus, Wayne Co., A’. Y. 
-- 
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF MANURE. 
1st. The plan now general over the better- 
farmed counties of England and Scotland, of 
plowing in fresh manure on the autumn stubble, 
in preparation for the succeeding green crop. 
2d. The Myer Mill plan, which is also, if not 
general, at any rate now practised by one or more 
in every district, of liquefying the whole exuviae 
for distribution by steam power and iron pipage 
over the land. 3d. The plan explained by Lord 
Kinnaird in the last number of the “ Agricultural 
Society’s Journal,” supported by most conclu¬ 
sive evidence of its bemg a profitable one, of 
having the manure made in covered court-yards. 
I have used the word “made” advisedly, be¬ 
cause his lordship’s experience shows that it 
can be at once carted to the field, and spread in 
drills even for potatoes. 
I can testify to a similar result attained in my 
own practice. The droppings and solid litter of 
stall fed cattle, and the same from the work- 
house stable, are daily thrown into a u'alled and 
covered pit, care being taken that they are in¬ 
termixed. A dozen feeding pigs are kept in the 
pit; any loose litter there may be found lying 
about, together with road scrapings, and odds 
and ends of animal and vegetable refuse, are 
thrown in; the pigs mix and incorporate the 
whole well together. From time to time liquid 
from the manure tank is pumped in; and thus 
we have generally a deposit of a considerable 
quantity of well-made manure at hand, to sup¬ 
plement the dung-heaps when they are ex¬ 
hausted. These (the dung-heaps) are managed 
on a system which is simple and efficacious, but 
which I have not seen described in any agricul¬ 
tural publication, I must premise that not hav- : 
ing attained to that plethora of muck and fertil-1 
ity when the spring and summer manure can be | 
reserved, to be plowed into the stubble for j 
the succeeding green crop, I find that my sum- i 
mer and autumn collection is required for the ! 
wheat brake, which I am fond of having large. : 
My winter and spring collections are drawn j 
upon for potatoes and beans, while my turnip 1 
crop is raised almost entirely by portable ma-; 
nures. Thus, while there is no reserve on which j 
interest is lost, there is a necessity for preparing 1 
the box-made manure for speedy use. This I j 
effect by carting out the manure as the boxes ' 
become full, throwing it out of the carts into a 
heap of five feet in height by twelve feet broad. 
As we advance in this building, we follow with ; 
a cover to the top and sides of clayey mold. : 
This cover is at first about six inches thick. ! 
The still open side, to which we are adding, ad- j 
mits a small degree of atmospheric action which ; 
induces a gentle heat. When this has gone on j 
for three or four days, we add three to six inches ' 
more clay or soil, over which we pour dilute ] 
urine. This keeps the fermentation going on in : 
the heap, the gases from which have to permeate 
the clay ere they can reach the atmosphere, and 
the now well-known absorption of ammonia by 
aluminal earth prevents waste. Indeed, with 
manure taken from covered boxes, there will 
not be any escape of vapor from the clayer cov¬ 
ering till the dilute urine is plentifully applied; 
even with manure made in courts, exposed to 
rain, there will be an escape of nothing but wa¬ 
tery vapor, a loss which is a gain, as there is 
less weight afterwards to cart on tho ground. 
In ten days after the heap has been made, it 
will, if it has been properly attended to as above, 
be fit for using in bean or potato drills, being 
soft and unctious; it is cooked in its own steam. 
Should it not be required for a month or longer, 
all that is necessary is to give it a coat of six 
inches more clay or mold, and it stands ready 
to be cut up when wanted. 1 find this system 
to work exceedingly well. 1 am satisfied that 
from seventy loads of manure, carted out and 
covered with thirty loads of clay, I have a larger 
store of fertilizing elements than I should have 
from one hundred loads of similar manure carted 
out and trenched up in the old mode to ferment. 
In this estimate I reckon only upon the elements 
over which I had a quasi control in the manure, 
little or none of which I lose; but I am inclined 
to believe that together with this great advan¬ 
tage I obtain another of less magnitude, in this, 
that I have set agoing a process by which I ob¬ 
tain an unbought store of nitric acid. This pro¬ 
cess is somewhat obscurely adverted to in Mr. 
Nesbit’s letter, appended to Mr. Pusey’s paper 
on “ the Nitrates” in the last number of the 
Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal; it was 
thus elucidated, ten years ago, by a writer then 
almost a pioneer, still holding a foremost rank 
in agricultural chemistry. “The quantity of 
nitric acid which is formed, (in the artificial nitre 
beds of France) is much greater than could be 
produced by the oxidation of the whole of the j 
nitrogen contained in the organic matter pre¬ 
sent in the mixture. Organic matters are in 
our climates necessary to cause the formation of 
nitric acid to commence, but after it has begun 
it will proceed in the same heap for an indefi¬ 
nite period, and at the expense apparently of 
the nitrogen of the air only.” 
(Johnston’s Lecture on Agricultural Chemis¬ 
try, pp. 242, 243.) 
These last words afford the clue to the mode 
in which a plant, alike gluttonous and wasteful 
of nitrogen, (it uses much and wastes more, see 
Rothamsted Experiences,) as tho wheat, has 
been made to flourish without the application of 
manure, Lois-Weeden system. The three feet 
interval, uneropped and much cultivated, forms, 
so to speak, a trap, in which the ammonia and 
nitric acid, ever present in the air, are caught, 
and held at the service of the growing plant.— 
S., in Gardeners' Chronicle. 
- - 
TO FARMERS. 
Neat be your farms; "tis long confessed 
The neatest farmer is the best. 
Each bog and marsh industrious drain ; 
Nor let vile balks deform the plain ; 
Nor bushes on your headland grow, 
For briars a sloven’s culture show. 
Neat be your barns, your houses neat, 
Your doors be clean, your court-yards sweet; 
No moss the sheltering roof enshroud, 
Nor wooden panes the window cloud; 
No filthy kennels foully flow, 
Nor weeds with rankling poison grow ; 
But shades expand and fruit trees bloom 
And flowering shrubs exhale perfume. 
With pales your garden circle round; 
Defend, enrich, and clean the ground; 
Prize high the pleasing, useful rood, 
And fill with vegetable good. 
- o O • - 
CLAIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PATENTS 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 16, 1854. 
Seed Planters.— Elbridge Marshall, of Clin¬ 
ton, N. J. : I do not claim the rotating hoppers 
with perforated bottoms; neither do I claim 
any peculiarity in the furrow and covering 
shares, nor the movable frame to which they 
are attached; nor do I claim the cams irrespec¬ 
tive of their peculiar construction. 
But I claim, first, the cams, C, E, having two 
rows or sets of inclined planes upon their faces, 
said inclined planes being placed oppositely on 
concentric circles, for the purpose of creating 
an equal pressure upon the cam E, with suita¬ 
ble gearing, as shown, whereby its position 
upon the shaft may be changed, and the seed 
dropped at a greater or less distance apart when¬ 
ever the crank is operated or turned by the 
hand, as described. 
Second, I claim the bar performing, in com¬ 
bination with the circular plates underneath the 
hopper, the office of a valve, and simultane¬ 
ously rotating said hoppers by its vibrating mo¬ 
tion ; the above parts being arranged and oper¬ 
ating as described. 
Seed Planters. —Thomas Carter, of Laurens 
District, S. C.: The cylinder or seed wheel with 
the frame attached to it for the horse to pull it 
by, and the covering scrapers to cover the seed 
have been patented hertofore. 
What I claim, therefore, is the seed discharg¬ 
ing apparatus in the periphery of the seed 
wheel, the tube or apparatus, the escapement 
wires, and the protecting spring valves, as des¬ 
cribed. 
Rat Traps. —Jose Toll, of Locust Grove, 
Ohio : I claim the combination, as described, of 
reciprocating and self-locking partitions and 
floor, in connection, as described, with the 
weighty crank, which, on the liberation of the 
catch alternately opens and closes the entrance 
of the chambers and of the cell. 
Rat Traps. —Hiram Stafford, of Mount Pu¬ 
laski, Ill.; I claim the combination of the titling 
board with the swinging forks and their appara¬ 
tus, for the purpose and in the manner set 
forth. 
Brick Machines. —T. E. Seay, of Columbia, 
Va.: I claim the vertically moving knives ar¬ 
ranged as described, in combination with the 
levers and slides, whereby the molded bricks 
are separated from the mass of clay, at the 
same time that the molds are raised from their 
recess, for conveying away and discharging the 
bricks, as set forth. 
I also claim the employment of the gratings, 
as described, between the mill and molds, for 
screening the clay from stones and other hard 
substances, when this is combined with the ex¬ 
terior chamber, into which the stones and other 
substances are forced by the action of the clay, 
as set forth. 
Dressing Flax and Hemp. —L. S. Chichester, 
of Brooklyn, N. Y.: I claim the combination of 
the series of twisted or spiral and conical-shaped 
blades on the two rotating stocks, as specified, 
| which, by reason of the twist and conical shape, 
| perform a beating action on the fibres at one 
end, and gradually change until they perform 
a scratching action at the other end, as set 
forth. 
I also claim, in combination with the rotating 
twisted and conical-shaped blades, the casting 
which surrounds them, with the discharge-pipe 
at one end, to confine and direct the current of 
air, which is induced by the rotation of the 
twisted blades towards the discharge-spout, for 
the purpose specified. 
Machines for Cleaning Cotton. —Charles 
Leavitt, of Buincy, Ill., (assignor to S. R. Cock- 
rill,) of Nashville, Tenn.: I claim my method 
of arranging the several parts involved in ex¬ 
tracting the motes, dust, and other impurities 
from cotton, previous to and preparatory for 
ginning the same as described, that is combing 
a wire screen concave with a revolving wire 
screen cylinder, or their equivalents, and a wind- 
wheel or fan, revolving within the cylinder, 
both cylinder and concave being armed with 
teeth set in ribs, so distant apart with regard to 
the teeth, as to permit the cotton seed to pass, 
while the fibre alone is loosened, the revolving 
screen running slowly in comparison with the 
wind-wheel, which is driven at great velocity, 
thereby adapting the machine to the particular 
purpose specified, viz., freeing cotton from 
motes, dust and other impurities while at¬ 
tached to the seed, previous to ginning the 
same .—Scientific American. 
-««♦- 
The face of nature is the footprint of God. 
