AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Deceaibek, 
358 
Green Fodder versus Dry. 
A correspondent wishes to know if there is 
any difference between the nutritive qualities of 
green fodder and dry. It is the common opin¬ 
ion, we believe, that, in drying, hay loses some 
of its valuable qualities. Certainly, its effects on 
the digestive system are quite different. M. 
Boussingault once read a paper before the 
French Academy of Sciences, in which he stated 
that a heifer was fed alternately, for ten days at 
a time, upon green and then dry food, and the 
animal was weighed at the end of each ten days. 
No perceptible difference appeared in the aver¬ 
age weight. He therefore came to the conclu¬ 
sion that there was as much actual food in dry 
fodder as in green, provided both were of the 
same sort of vegetable. 
It is probable, however, that in the drying- 
process, some of the starch, gum, and other nu- 
t ritious matters in herbage, are changed to woody 
fiber, which does not afford nutriment, and that 
in the case quoted above, the animals consumed 
enough more dry than green fodder to make up 
for the difference in quality. Perhaps some of 
our readers have some reliable facts that will 
show how much, if any, loss is experienced by 
the drying process. * 
■ " ■■ O- 4 — 'i rq-j -Q CTr«- ■ ■■■■■ — 
For the American Agriculturist. 
How to Save Ammonia. 
The best part of all the manures in our barn¬ 
yard is ammonia, and this evaporates if we 
do nothing to save it. It goes off in the 
shape of a volatile gas, very pungent to the 
smell. Hence the strong odor about stalls, barn¬ 
yards, sink drains, and privies. How to catch 
this fugitive and make him do justice. to our 
gardens and fields, is the question. It can not 
be done ifwe keep our cattle at the stack-yard 
all Winter. There is a dead loss of five dollars 
on every animal so kept. But if the cattle are 
stabled or kept under open sheds, most of the 
manure may be easily saved. A bedding of dry 
muck two or three feet thick will absorb an 
enormous quantity of liquid manure, and will 
not need to be removed more than once before 
Spring. The solid manure should be removed 
every day and covered with muck or old litter. 
In the stables, if they are cleaned every day, 
it is a good plan to sprinkle on plaster of Paris 
every day, about a pint to each stall. If this is 
not at hand-, dry muck made very fine will an¬ 
swer a good purpose. The foulest stable floor 
will lose its pungent odor in a few minutes, if 
it be covered with fine muck or pulverized peat. 
The finer and dryer this earth is made, the great¬ 
er its absorbing power. If it has lain over one 
season it is readily prepared for this purpose by 
a shovel. 
Dried clay is also an excellent article for this 
use. If it is partially burnt, it is still better. 
For this purpose make a heap of dried sods, 
or brush, or any combustible material, and cov¬ 
er it with lumps of clay or clayey soil, leaving 
holes enough for ventilation. This mass when 
it is reduced by burning, makes a powerful ab¬ 
sorbent, and is much less expensive than plas¬ 
ter. If it is not burnt, the lumps should be 
knocked fine with a hammer or mallet. 
Every place about the house and barns, 
where there is the smell of ammonia, should have 
these coarse or fine absorbents. Many farmers 
lose one, two, and three hundred dollars a year 
for want of them, according to the number of 
animals they keep. The money goes streaming 
off into the air as palpably as if a whirlwind 
took up a pile of bank bills. The nose takes 
cognizance of it, but because farmers are not ac¬ 
customed to reckon money by their olfactories, 
they do not perceive their loss. The loss nev¬ 
ertheless is as real as if their pockets had been 
picked. Wise farmers save then- ammonia. 
FabStek. 
Tim Bunker on bad ..Water. 
A STIK IK HOOKEKTOWN. 
“ What upon airth do you ’spose is the matter 
with my well ?” said Uncle Jotliam Sparrow- 
grass, one morning in August. “We hain’t 
been able to drink it for more than a mouth.” 
“ Guess there’s a cat in it,” responded Ben¬ 
jamin Franklin Jones, who is always at leisure 
to attend to any business of his neighbors. “ I 
found one in mine, last week. Shouldn't have 
found it out if I hadn’t seen some of the hah- in 
the bucket. Smelt like pizen though, depend 
on’t.” 
“ No there ain’t any cat or rat in it. The Ava- 
ter is as clear as a crystal, and I had it cleared 
out last week, but it didn’t help it a bit.” 
“ Shouldn’t wonder ef it had been pizened,” 
suggested Seth Twiggs, with a sly twinkle in his 
eye, and a puff of smoke that made the kitchen 
blue. He loves to play upon the fears of Uncle 
Jotliam, and know T shis weak spot. “ Kier Frink 
was round all last month you know:.” 
“ You don’t say that creetur is at hum agin! 
I thought we’d got rid of him when he married 
the widder,” responded Jotham, with a faint 
feeling at the stomach. 
“ Ye needn’t lay it to Kier,” said Jake Frink, 
“ for my well lias been out of fix all Summer, 
and the boy wouldn’t pizen our well. I know 
’taint any thing uncommon to have the -water 
taste bad in Summer at our house. Water gets 
low, smells a leetle like the bottom of a ditch, 
and I spose it’s for the same reason. It draws 
the smell out of the dirt.” 
“ Our well used to taste bad in Summer until 
I put them tile into the garden, and made the 
surface water run off through them into the 
brook,” remarked Twiggs. 
“Ye don’t spose the bad smells come from the 
top of the ground do ye ?” asked Jake. 
“ That’s a new idee,” saidUncle Jotham, “ but 
there must be something in it, for my! sink drain 
ain’t more than ten feet from the mouth of my 
well.” 
This talk of my neighbors gives a clue to 
an evil that prevails in other commimitics be¬ 
sides Ilookertown. It has prevailed here more 
than usual this Summer, because the forepart of 
the Summer was dry, and the springs and wells 
got low. You have pure Avater down in your 
city, for it is brought to you in iron pipes, that 
guard it against all the foul dirt and smells 
through Avhicli it has to pass. But out here in 
the country, where avc brag about having every 
tiling sweet and clean, we arc often troubled 
with bad water, especially in the Summer time. 
A good many of my neighbors have had to 
apologize a little for their Avater, though some of 
them got so used to it, that they didn’t know 
but ’tAvas the natural taste of all Avater. Some! 
hoAV, there Avas a good deal that, needed an apol¬ 
ogy that didn’t get it. EvenDea. Smith, who is 
pretty particular about most things, had a Avell 
this Summer, that gave out an “ ancient and 
fish like smell.” Folks that arc afllict-ed in this 
way, all Avonder Avhat’s the matter with the Ava¬ 
ter, Avhou the matter is about as plain as the sun 
in the heavens. 
I suppose nobody thinks the water gets bad 
Avithout some cause, and yet they talk just as if 
they believed so. Seth Twiggs has the right of 
it, this bad taste and smell almost invariably 
come from the surface. Noav, Mr. Editor, I 
dont Avant to disturb the stomachs of your read¬ 
ers, and prevent them from drinking Avater any 
more, for I am a teetotaller and believe that 
Adam’s ale is about the best article of drink 
that was ever put into a tumbler. But I must 
say that I prefer a pure article. 
It stands to reason that water Avill run down 
hill, Avhether it is pure or foul, and Avill keep 
running till it finds the lorvest place, whether it’s 
the bottom of the well or the loAver end of a 
brook. We see this when avc dig a ditch, or lay 
doAvn a tile. If it is put down four feet in the 
earth, it will draw the water on each side, for a 
rod or more, right into it. If the soil is very com¬ 
pact, or made up mainly of black earth, it would 
probably absorb all offensive matters in the Ava¬ 
ter, until it became saturated or charged Avith 
the foul gases, when a good deal of filthy Avater _ 
would go doAvn into the chain and be carried 
off. Noav I do not want to disgust any of your 
readers, by telling them that the contents of 
then- sinks, vaults, and stables, drain into their 
wells. They might take it as an insult. But 
let them just look at the location of their sinks 
and Arndts. If a drain four feet deep will chaw 
Avater say twenty five feet_ distant, Iioav far Avill 
a Avell of thirty or forty feet draw it ? 
Seth Twiggs thinks he cured his Avell by put¬ 
ting tile into his garden. That is only a part of 
the story, for the next season, he cemented his 
privy vault, and its contents boav go regularly 
to the compost heap. The sink drain, too, that 
used to empty within ten feet of the mouth of 
the Avell, is now intercepted by a row of tiles, 
carrying the water after it leaches through the 
soil, off into the brook. The soil about his well 
is loose gravel, after you get doAvn some four or 
five feet, and this has been made still more loose 
by the digging and stoning of the Avell. The 
water would go through the whole circumfer¬ 
ence back of the stones for four or five feet, 
about as readily as through a sieve. There is 
a great absorbing power in soils, but after a 
Avhile they will not take up any more of the fold 
gases, and the sink water, and other offensive 
matters must go doevn to the level of the Avater 
in the well, Avith very little filtering. 
How far a well must be removed from the 
sink and other offensive places, to keep the Ava¬ 
ter pure, Avill depend somewhat upon the cir¬ 
cumstances, as the depth of the Avell, and the 
character of the soil. A deep Avell, of course, 
Avould drain the surface much further than a 
shallow one. Dea. Smith’s avcII is thirty five 
feet deep, and there is nothing offensive upon 
the surface nearer than three rods. I have no 
doubt that there is a connection betAvccn the 
sink drain and the Avell, and that this is the 
source, in most cases, of bad Avater in Avells. 
But it Avill be asked, probably, by some Avise- 
acrc like Jake Frink, Avhy then don’t the Avater 
taste as bad in Winter as in Summer? Jake 
don’t see that it makes a mighty difference 
Avhether he have five pounds of good beef in his 
soup, or barely a knuckle of mutton. In Win¬ 
ter, the soup is diluted. Rains fall abundantly, 
and not unfrequently the Avells arc raised ten 
feet or more, so that they do not drarv Avater 
from so great a distance. The water, too, is 
generally much colder, as it comes to the table, 
and the bad taste, if there be any, is not so per¬ 
ceptible, as in Avarm weather. 
Seth 1’Aviggs lias hit upon the remedy. If a 
