232 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
for the next ten years, the population of this 
country in 1870 will be 43,605,220; in 1880 
57,755,634; in 1890, about 78,393,557; and in 
1900 over 106,000,000. It is probable that as 
the country is filled up, emigration will decrease, 
and the ratio of increase be smaller; yet there 
is little doubt that those who live thirty-nine 
years, or until 1900, will witness a population in 
the present territory of the United States, of 
over One Hundred Millions ! 
Experiments with Manures on Corn. 
Dissolved Bones—American Ghiano — Ibudrette-Coarse 
Bone Dust—Muck saturated in the Barn yard Li¬ 
quid — Yard Manure—Value of Manure Washings. 
The relative value of the various fertilizers 
offered in the market, is a question of no little in¬ 
terest to those who can not manufacture in the 
barn-yard all the manure they need. The trial 
detailed below, may be taken as one of the many 
experiments required to settle the question for 
different soils. The land consists of between 
three and four acres; the first planting of May 18, 
with the Improved King Philip Corn, was on sod 
land broken up two weeks previously, and prob¬ 
ably had never been manured. The second plant¬ 
ing, of May 23d, was on a portion of the same 
field which has been in potatoes for two years 
past. To avoid as much as possible the differ¬ 
ences arising from variation in soil, successive 
strips of three rows were taken for each fertilizer, 
the same kind coming in more than once. The 
ground was furrowed out with a small plow, the 
fertilizers scattered uniformly along the furrows, 
and the corn dropped upon them, in drills, and 
covered. We give the appearance of the corn 
from careful observations made July 12. The re¬ 
sults when the corn is husked may vary from the 
present appearance. If so we will report, and 
the interested reader will please preserve this 
article, to save the necessity of our repeating the 
particulars.-We used a larger amount of the 
several fertilizers than is usually recommended, 
because we could not afford to lose the crop in 
hazardous experiments. We now wish the 
poorer portions were smaller, and that more of 
the field had been treated to yard manure ; it 
would have been a good many dollars saved. 
The dissolved bones is the article sold by 
Lester Brothers, as superphosphate of lime, and 
is really a superphosphate made simply by dis¬ 
solving unbwrned bones in sulphuric acid. The 
term superphosphate is usually applied to a 
preparation of burned bones, which is a very 
different article, for we consider the organic mat¬ 
ter burned out, as the really valuable portion of 
the material. It costs about $3 .50 per barrel. 
The American Guano was forwarded to us by 
Mr. Sardy, and was, of course, as good an arti¬ 
cle of the kind as there is in market. Price 
about f 3.50 per bbl. The poudrette was pur¬ 
chased of the Lodi Company at $1.50 per bbl. 
(the price in quantities of 7 barrels or more). 
The Bone-dust was the fine crushed, but 
coarser than the bone-sawdust, which would 
have been far preferable, if it could have been 
obtained. It would average about the size of 
peas. Cost about $2.50 per barrel. 
The Muck used was dug out last Summer; 
carted in during February, and mixed with lime; 
and saturated with thin manure water in April, 
by pumping the liquid from the manure cellar, 
and sprinkling it over the heap by means of a 
hydropult, with long India rubber suction pipe 
attached-It should be stated that the liquid 
used was n' the usual strong drain sge of a heap. 
The barn cellar was about half full of horse and 
cow manure, litter and muck from the stalls, and 
the sink slops from the house. The breaking of 
an adjoining cistern filled up the cellar with 
water, and this water after soaking the manure 
for a few days, was pumped out upon the muck. 
It could hardly be called colored water, as at the 
bottom a pail was visible in it at the depth of 
seven inches. We state these particulars to in¬ 
dicate the value of even dilute rain washings 
from the manure heap,as shown on plot 13 below. 
The yard manure was a compost of horse and 
cow manure, litter, muck, and cotton seed. 
PLANTED MAY 18— APPEARANCE JULY 12. 
Plot 1.—Superphosphate (unburned bones dis¬ 
solved) applied at the rate of 64 bbls. to 
acre. Corn 44 feet high and vigorous. 
Plot 2.—American Guano applied at the rate 
of 6 j bbls. to acre. Corn 3 feet high, mod¬ 
erately vigorous. 
Plot 3—Poudrette applied at the rate of 6) 
bbls. to acre. Corn 3 feet high, not quite so 
vigorous as ISTo. 2, but nearly so. 
Plot 4.—Superphosphate, same quantity as No. 
1, and similar results. 
Plot 5.—Poudrette, 104 bbls. to acre. Corn 3£ 
feet high, in fair vigor. 
Plot 6.—American Guano 6) bbls. to acre. 
Corn 34 feet high, moderately vigorous. 
Plot 7.—Coarse Bone-dust, 10 bbls. to acre. 
Corn 3 feet high, moderately vigorous. 
Plot 8.—Poudrette, 10$ bbls. to acre. Corn 3$ 
feet high, looking well. 
Plot 9.—Poudrette, 7 bbls. to acre. Corn 34 
feet high, moderately vigorous. 
PLANTED MAY 23— APPEARANCE JULY 12. 
Plot 10.—Poudrette, 8 bbls. to acre. Corn 
scarcely 34 feet high, only in moderate vigor. 
Plot 11.—Superphosphate, 4 bbls. to acre. Corn 
44 feet high, vigorous growth. 
Plot 12.—American Guano, 4 bbls. to acre. 
Corn 3| feet high, in fair vigor. 
Plot 13.—Muck soaked in manure liquid; a 
medium shovelful to 3 feet of drill. Corn 
full 54 feet high, and very vigorous! 
Plot 14.—Stable compost, shovelful to 3 feet of 
drill. Corn 5 feet high, and nearly as vig¬ 
orous as No. 13. 
The results speak for themselves; the 
difference in the appearance of the successive 
plots can be seen fifty rods distant. But there is 
a drawback to these experiments. The fertil¬ 
izers were put on by measure, and the cost of 
an equal bulk was very different for the several 
kinds. It was a serious mistake that an equal. 
cost of each kind was not used on each equal 
plot; as we intended. Still, the experiments are 
instructive. Thus, comparing No. 1, No. 8, and 
No. 9, we find that there is a marked difference 
between No. 1 and No. 9, in favor of the dis¬ 
solved bones; while in No. 8, the increase of the 
amount of poudrette increased the growth a 
little. In No. 2 and No. 3, nearly equal quan¬ 
tities of American Guano and Poudrette, produc¬ 
ed about the same results, which is of course in 
favor of the cheaper article. In No. 7, the large 
application of coarse bone dust was of compar¬ 
atively little utility—it was not fine enough to 
be immediately used by the roots. 
In No. 10, No. 11, and No. 12, the result is in 
favor of the American Guano, as compared with 
the poudrette, but very decidedly in favor of the 
dissolved bones (superphosphate) as compared 
with both of the ethers. * The costs of the fer¬ 
tilizers on No. 11 and No. 12 was about the 
same; that of No. 10 a trifle less. No. 13, and 
No. 14 show the decided superiority of the stable 
manure; while No. 13 indicates the great value 
of liquid manure or manure washing. Here was 
applied simply muck saturated with weak wash¬ 
ings, and yet the corn at this date (July 12) stands 
up to our eyes, so vigorous that we are thin¬ 
ning it out to give room for the stalks to grow, 
and looking down upon the comparatively weak 
growth of stalks furnished by the foreign fertil¬ 
izers, and even crowing over its neighbor on the 
solid yard manure. If this plot could be seen 
by every farmer in the land, we think no more 
manure heaps would be left to leach away^ie.r 
precious life blood by rains, in the liquid 
streams flowing from so many barn yards. 
------ ^ O -_ 
Draining— Why—Where— How. 
(Continuedfrom pages 36 , 70 , 105 , 137 , 109 , 201 ). 
The drain tiles described in the last chap¬ 
ter, are all made of common brick clay and 
burned in kilns the same as bricks. When in the 
ground they are kept continually moist, and it 
is important that they be well burned, otherwise 
there would be danger of their crumbling in 
course of time. It is well known that hard 
burned brick laid in a damp wet soil, have re¬ 
mained sound thousands of years, and so drains 
of hard burned tiles will doubtless remain per¬ 
manently effective, so far as decay is concerned. 
They may be clogged by deposites of soil, oxide 
of iron, carbonate of lime, or roots of plants. 
Nearly a hundred different kinds of machines 
have already been contrived for the manufacture 
of tiles, in England, France, Germany, and in 
this country, and improvements are constantly 
being made to secure efficiency and cheapness. 
We have given engravings and descriptions ot 
two of the most recent and complete of these 
machines. See Nov. 1859, (Yol. 18, page 325) 
and Feb. 1860 (Yol. 19, page 44). The two de¬ 
scribed, and a few others, grind the clay and 
make the tiles. Others are are only adapted to 
forming the tiles after the clay is prepared as for 
manufacturing brick. To answer the queries of 
some, and gratify the curiosity of others, we 
Avill state that in all of the tile machines, or in 
nearly all of them, the clay after grinding is 
forced through apertures in a plate so that it 
comes out in a continuous tube or other form 
upon an endless apron, on which it is cut up 
into the desired lengths, then dried and burned 
like brick. Fig. 23 shows one of these plates 
which is placed upon the side of a box con¬ 
taining the prepared clay. It will be seen that 
an opening is made through the plate of the 
form of the exterior of the tiles: A, for horse-shoe 
h s p 
Fig. 23—Inner side of plate for shapinq tiles 
tiles; 5, for sole-tiles; and p, for round pipe- 
tiles. For the inside form a core is adjusted 
upon a support. The arm or support is so ar 
ranged that it docs not prevent the clay from 
closing around it, and thus a perfect tube is 
formed. These plates are provided with from 
two to four openings, of any form and size de¬ 
sired. The box being filled with a quantity ot 
