Q02 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
The Manure Heap in Summer. 
There is danger, lest, in this busy season, the 
manure heap be overlooked. With the tokens 
of fertility waving in every field, we are apt to 
forget that the wants of another year must be 
provided for. The barn-yard probably has 
been cleared of its winter store, and but little 
dung is now accumulating. Yet, that little should 
be carefully husbanded. As manure heats and 
wastes by decomposition in hot weather faster 
than hi cold, provision should be made for sav¬ 
ing it by the use of absorbents. At every leis¬ 
ure hour, the farmer’s team would be well em¬ 
ployed in gathering up sods, scrapings of the 
road-side, leaves, rotten logs and stumps, and 
whatever else will decay, and carting the 
same into one corner of the barn-yard. Indeed, 
it should be a standing order for every member 
of the household to save and gather up every¬ 
thing that may answer a good purpose in the 
compost heap. How a heap will grow, when 
every one contributes something to it! With a 
pile of absorbents near at hand, they will be 
used. The liquid parts of the manure will be 
taken up, and the solid parts prevented from 
fire-fanging. Let these various articles be work¬ 
ed over, half and half, and the whole bulk will 
be worth as much as the same amount of sim¬ 
ple manure. By Autumn, there will be a fine 
provision for enriching the grain-fields and for 
top-dressing grass lands. 
A few Words for Muck and Peat. 
Some persons who seem to question the use¬ 
fulness of these articles, would hardly continue 
to doubt, if they considered well of what they 
are composed. They consist largely of half 
decayed vegetable matters which grew long ago 
on the spot, or were washed in from the adjoin¬ 
ing high lands. Being covered up, layer upon 
layer, their decomposition has been quite slow. 
They also . contain certain. mineral elements 
which have leached in from the surrounding 
soils. But, aside from these fertilizing elements, 
peat and muck when dry possess great attrac¬ 
tion for ammonia. Absorbing this from liquids 
and half solids, they store it up for the food of 
plants to which it may hereafter be applied. 
Now, when we walk over a farm on which 
the high lands are light and nearly exhausted of 
their fertility, and yet find in the low lands de¬ 
posits of peat and mud and muck, is it not a 
plain case that this farm is in a measure upside 
down, and ought to be set on its feet again ? 
Some of its fertility, no doubt, has been carried 
off in the crops raised and sold, but much still 
remains behind, though down in the bogs and 
swamps. It has been traveling down hill per¬ 
haps for centuries, yet with so slow and silent 
a step that the farmer has not noticed it. The 
laws of nature have carried down the fertile ele¬ 
ments, but theory will not bring them up again. 
Man must dp.that. Here is a field for his inge¬ 
nuity and industry. His lands are not wasted 
beyond recoveiy, if he will only bestir himself 
and follow the hints which nature gives him. 
Doubtless, it would not be best to apply this 
peat and muck in the crude, “ sour ” state in 
which it is first dug from the bed. Let it have 
the ameliorating influences of heat and air, and 
perhaps of frost. Spread it in large, long heaps 
on the uplands. Mix it with lime or fresh ashes 
and let the heap lie several months. Or again, 
dry it, and afterwards cart it under a ' lean-to of 
the barn, where it may be used to absorb the 
liquids of the stables. Then spread it on the 
hungry fields, and they will clap their hands 
for joy, and the hills will be joyful together. 
Spontaneous Vegetation. 
To the facts mentioned by our correspondent 
Scholasticus, on page 178, a multitude might 
be added from almost every farmer’s observa¬ 
tion. Clear up a piece of woodland, and a new 
class of trees comes in—very rarely the last that 
occupied the soil. Burn it over, and very likely 
raspberries, whortleberries, and mulleins will 
start up, though these plants have never before 
been seen within miles of the place. Throw up 
mud and peat from almost any swamp, and let 
it lie a year or two, it will be covered with vege¬ 
tation unlike that in the immediate vicinity. 
How do we account for these facts ? 
Men of skeptical minds jump to the conclu¬ 
sion, that they do not grow from seeds, because 
they did not see them planted, and from the 
known circumstances they could not have been 
planted in their day. They think the soil must 
have the power of spontaneous generation, and 
of course infer that the world made itself, and 
all living things began their existence spontane¬ 
ously. There is no need therefore of a Creator. 
We have no evidence in these, and kindred 
facts, that every plant does not spring from seed. 
It is a well known fact that the surface, of the 
earth, far below the ordinary depth disturbed by 
man, has been subjected to very great changes. 
Surface soil filled with seeds of all kinds of 
grasses, herbs, shrubs, and trees, has been com¬ 
mingled with the soil away down in the depths 
of the earth to the solid rocks, often many 
thousands of feet below the surface. The agen¬ 
cies which have done this are still in force. 
Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, land-slides, etc., 
are the more obvious causes, because violent in 
their operations, but the trickling rills on the 
mountain sides, and the constant flow of many 
waters toward the sea, taken in connection with 
the never ceasing action of the tides, effect much 
more. The Mississippi River and its tributaries 
are displacing many acres of soil, loaded with 
seeds, every day. Seeds produced in the Rocky 
Mountains, by this agency, find their way to tlie 
Gulf, and are spread all over the Delta. Some 
lodge on the surface of the overflowed land, and 
germinate with the subsiding waters. Others 
are buried at different depths, clear to the bot¬ 
tom of the Gulf, and may be thrown up by the 
diggers of wells, and Artesian borings, hundreds 
of years hence, to astonish the natives with 
strange vegetation, and the “ creative ” powers 
of the soil. No casing has ever been invented 
so good as the soil to preserve seeds. No man 
can tell how long seeds will keep well in it. 
What is going on, on a grand scale in the great 
valley, is going on along the banks of every rivu¬ 
let and brook. The running water is all the 
while transporting seeds, and depositing them 
in new localities. Every depression that gath¬ 
ers mud for a swamp, gathers seeds in great va¬ 
riety, and has been gathering them for centuries. 
A great many die, but enough live to cover any 
patch of mud or peat with a new vegetation. 
Besides these agencies for distributing seeds, 
we have birds and animals. The seeds of many 
of the berries have a covering so hard, that they 
resist, successfully, the gastric juice of the stom¬ 
ach. The berry eaten to-day upon the moun¬ 
tain, is ejected many miles away to-morrow in 
the valley. Some plants, like the burdock, have 
little hooks attached to the seed, and are ready 
to fasten to every moving thing for conveyance 
to a new location. Many have wings attached 
to them, so that they are blown for miles by 
high winds. Nature is prolific with seeds, every 
plant producing abundantly after its kind, and 
almost as lavish in providing the means of 
distributing them far and wide. 
It would be very strange if every newly ex¬ 
posed patch of soil did not produce new kinds 
of plants. Salt springs and lakes -were once the 
bed of the ocean, no matter how far they may 
now be from the shore. We should expect to 
find plants belonging to the sea-shore, near salt 
springs. The bottoms of lakes, and ponds, are 
strewn with seeds that have been accumulating 
for ages. Give them light and heat, and they 
germinate. Seeds of white clover lie dormant 
for years, until gypsum, sown upon the land, or 
some other cause induces germination, and 
“ brings in clover.” The seeds of sea-side plants, 
transported by birds, or dormant in the soil, 
wait only the salt-water influences afforded by 
salt springs to start up and flourish. 
Irrigation. 
BT JOHN B. WOLFF, COLORADO TERRITORY. 
The subject of irrigation has been discussed 
but little by our agricultural societies and pa¬ 
pers ; and yet it is to my mind one of the most 
important, not only to countries like this, where 
there can be no dependence upon seasonable 
rains, but to every country where the seasons 
vary from wet to dry, sometimes causing a sur¬ 
plus, at others, putting us on short allowance. 
“ Give me neither poverty nor riches,” but a 
regular and uniform supply, should be the prayer 
of every farmer. Fluctuation in produce must 
ever cause fluctuation in price—excess is not to 
be dreaded as deficiency; and if by any means 
we can prevent with certainty, any serious de¬ 
ficiency, we have gained the ultimatum of hu¬ 
man effort in supplying human needs. It is well 
known to your readers that there are many 
places where the only supply of water is by ar¬ 
tificial means. In those places crops are regular 
and certain. If then the same plan can be made 
available to any considerable extent in other 
countries, in dry seasons, we have gained an im¬ 
portant point in securing a fair supply. It will 
be my business now, to endeavor to awaken at¬ 
tention to the subject by setting forth the modes 
of irrigation in different countries, to point out 
the most improved plan, and to exhibit in a fa¬ 
vorable light, the advantages of this method of 
farming, even where rain is abundant. 
If we go back to the early history of Egypt, 
we find that the flooding process was employed, 
as much perhaps for the fertilizing effect, as the 
moisture. In the early days of Mexico, the 
same method was adopted. This method is 
still practiced in New-Mexico, and has been 
adopted in this territory to a large extent under 
the administration of Mexicans employed for 
that purpose. But as yet, little irrigation is done 
here. Our farmers have contented themselves 
with the selection of damp spots of ground, for 
the main crop, and experiments on high lands 
without water. Nearly every such experiment 
has failed; and they must continue to fail until 
the seasons change, though there may be spots 
where small grain can be raised on high ground 
by deep plowing. I presume Egypt has not 
changed, but the more intelligent agricultur¬ 
ists of Mexico [and the rest of the world, too,] 
have abandoned the flooding plan; and it re¬ 
mains for Americans to bring methods of irriga¬ 
tion to the highest degree of perfection. Im¬ 
perfect as is the practice in New-Mexico, the 
