AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Q67 
business to starve it. I suppose, I ought to have 
been thinking of something else on Sunday, but 
the application hit my case so exactly, that I 
made up my mind right off that I wouldn’t 
muzzle the horse-pond lot any longer. It got a 
dose of manure right away after mowing, with¬ 
out fail. The grass looks as green as a leek 
now, as much as to say, “Thank you, Squire 
Bunker, for your kind attentions.” 
But Mrs. Bunker’s mind took another tack, 
thinking, I suppose, how the bounty was going 
to help enlistments, and that the new soldiers 
would help John down on the James river ; 
she thought it wan’t worth while to have Par¬ 
son Spooner muzzled after such a sermon, and 
hinted that I had better leave a barrel of pota¬ 
toes and a hind quarter of lamb at the parson¬ 
age next day, Well, you see, that was a scrip¬ 
tural application of the doctrine, and as I be¬ 
lieve in facing the music, I left them, and added 
a bag of corn on my account, and a beef ham, 
that he might know that the oxen and corn part 
of his text at least was remembered. 
But to return to the subject, as Mr. Spooner 
sometimes says in the pulpit, I think we make 
a great mistake in not top-dressing our meadows 
oftener, say as often as once in two years. In a 
small lot of an acre and a quarter, where I cut 
four tuns last year, I only cut three this, and 
the only difference was in manure. Five dol¬ 
lars worth of compost would have made a 
difference of at least one tun of hay. 
Deacon Little and Jake Frink are mighty 
afraid of having too large grass. Jake often 
says that he had rather have “two tun than 
three to the acre.” Mow I don’t believe this no¬ 
tion, that heavy grass makes less nutritious fod¬ 
der than light. A beef steak out of a corn-fed 
ox is enough-sight better than One out of a thin 
grass-fed animal. Why should not grass from 
a well-fed soil be more nourishing. I have 
watched this thing at the manger pretty close, 
and have grown three tuns and a half to an 
acre, and I have never yet got hay so big that 
the cattle would not eat it up clean. Cut your 
heavy grass a little earlier, and cure it well, and 
there is no trouble about making good fodder. 
A well drained, corn-fed sile never turns Indian, 
Jake Frink to the contrary notwithstanding. 
Hoolcertovm, j Yours to command, 
Aug. 15th, 1862. j Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Experiments with Concentrated Manures 
on Grass. 
Mr, . Editor: —Will these manures pay ? This 
is the question. To test it I measured off four- 
rod plots on a piece of old meadow that had 
been hard cropped for years without manure. 
It had produced in past years not over three 
fourths of a tun of hay to the acre. The plots 
ran from the road off toward the middle of the 
meadow, and were intended to be as near alike 
as possible, though the result shows that plot 1, 
next to the road, was a little above the average. 
The manures were sown on the 17th of May, 
broadcast, without any composting, as in the 
following table: 
Weir,hi Value of Tn 
NO. Quant’y. Value. ggggJL &f n criZed‘. 
I—Pera^an GrUano 17 ibs. .50 103 lbs. '.77 51 lbs. 
3— Fish Guano. 40 lbs. .50 72 lbs. .54 23 lbs. 
4— Lloyd’s Sun’phos 21 lbs. .50 49 lbs. .36 .. lbs. 
5— Manip’ed Guano 21 lbs. .50 92 lbs. .69 43 lbs. 
It will be seen that the weight of hay on Mo.' 
4 is less than that on Mo. 1, which is pretty con¬ 
vincing proof that Mo. 1 being next to the wall 
was more than an average. The superphosphate 
of lime, though a brand of high reputation, pro¬ 
duced no effect whatever. I have therefore as¬ 
sumed 49 pounds as the average yield of the 
plots without any manure. The yield is the 
best in the case of the Peruvian guano, and the 
manipulated and fish guanos stand next in order. 
In no case does the manure pay the first year, 
if the value of hay is reckoned at fifteen dollars 
a tun. 
The failure to make these fertilizers pay the 
first season I attribute to two causes, the late¬ 
ness of the application, May 17th, and the lack 
of absorbents. In experiments made several 
years ago the guano and superphosphate of lime 
were mixed with charcoal cinders, and applied 
April4th during a rain. Butin this case no ab¬ 
sorbents were mixed with the fertilizers before¬ 
hand, and no rain fell for ten days after the ap¬ 
plication. Probably some of the ammonia was 
lost, and doubtless some of the strength of the 
manure will appear in the aftermath, and in the 
grass next year. In the use of the fertilizers 
with absorbents, and in an early application, 
there was shown to be a clear profit above the 
cost the first year. The experiment goes to es¬ 
tablish the following positions : 
That concentrated fertilizers should have ab¬ 
sorbents mixed with them before application. 
That they should be applied early in the season 
as a top-dressing for grass. That it is still a 
doubtful matter whether they can be made to 
pay the first season they are applied. 
, Jonathan. 
Two Strings to the Bow. 
It is the practice of large farmers, in some 
parts of the country, to devote their entire en¬ 
ergies, and the resources of the farm, to only 
one or two crops annually. At the extreme 
South, it is cotton or sugar; in other States it is 
corn or tobacco. At the West, it is often wheat 
or corn; and at the East, in some districts, it is 
hops. In Ireland, the potato crop is the main 
reliance of the hungry population; and when 
that fails, famine stares them in the face. Eng¬ 
land relies so much on her grain crop, that a 
failure of it begets a panic. 
This plan works well, at home and abroad, 
provided, the season is entirely favorable to the' 
particular crop. But untimely frosts will come, 
notwithstanding our plans and expectations; in¬ 
sects will revel in the immense fields, however 
valuable in prospect to their owner; unseason¬ 
able rains will fall; rust and worms, and mani¬ 
fold other evils will beset us on every side. 
And when the calamity comes, it is a great one. 
We have intrusted our fortunes all to the keep¬ 
ing of one frail boat, and when that goes down, 
all our hopes are wrecked. Who does not see 
that in this course of farming one is incurring 
too great a risk ? It is like investing one’s whole 
fortune in a single kind of railroad stock, and 
that very unreliable. It is a sounder policy to 
distribute one’s chances over a wider surface. 
It is far safer to raise three or more different 
crops; then, if one or more fail, there is yet 
something to fall back upon. It is very true, 
that this does not make so great a show for an 
ambitious farmer. The proceeds do not come 
in all at once, in so large amounts, as when a 
single great crop is gathered and sold. But in 
the long run, the proceeds are larger, as they 
certainly are surer. It is better to have five 
years of moderate and regular profits, than one 
year of large gains followed by four years of 
losses. Better,, so far as the mere money results 
are concerned; better for one’s habitual peace 
of mind, and better for one’s morals. 
When the mania for any kind of speculation 
prevails in the land, a few large fortunes are 
made, but many men are ruined. Many become 
suddenly rich, and then as suddenly poor. Sa¬ 
gacious and observing financiers tell us that the 
most successful and sure way to amass proper¬ 
ty is to avoid all unnecessary risks, and to be 
satisfied with steady and small gains. Apply 
this to agriculture. Well has one written: “A 
farm which depends for its profit on butter, 
fruit, cheese, timber, cattle, hogs, com, wheat, 
potatoes, flax, etc., makes, perhaps, but a little 
on each crop; but the rains which come in drops 
are useful, while those which come in torrents, 
and raise freshets, leave great mischief behind.” 
Reclaiming 1 Salt Marshes—The Object to 
be Gained, and How to Do it. 
The reclaiming of salt marshes is every year , 
attracting more attention among our shore farm¬ 
ers, and the work is so simple, and the results 
so lasting and valuable, that nothing is wanting 
but a knowledge of the details of this business, 
to lead to the reclaiming of thousands of acres 
of now worthless lands. The impracticability 
of growing upland grasses upon them rests upon 
the fact that the tide rises and falls, in the 
streams and creeks that pass through them, every 
twelve hours. The hight Of the tide varies con¬ 
siderably, not only at different phases of the 
moon, (the full tides coming with every full 
moon) but in different localities. Thus tile aver¬ 
age tide at Throggs Meek, L. I., is some two feet 
higher than at Watch Hill, at the East end of 
Long Island Sound. The difference between 
high and low water increases as you go west¬ 
ward, along the shores of this Sound. Of 
course marshes at the west end admit of a great¬ 
er fall of water, and can be drained deeper than 
at the east end. But as the difference is three 
or four feet between high and low water in the 
least favored spot, there is no lack of fall that 
will prevent drainage in any salt marsh. 
Most of these marshes are actually above 
the tide four fifths of the time. It is only 
in heavy easterly gales, and at the full moons, 
that the water covers them. The full sea at 
other times will not even make the ditches bank- 
full. The object to be gained by an embank¬ 
ment and tide-gate is, to shut off the access of 
the salt water altogether, or at least to confine 
it to the creek and ditches that may be made for 
the purpose of drainage. Simple as the idea of 
a tide-gate is, we have rarely found a person 
who had any idea of the mode of their opera¬ 
tion, if he had not seen one at work. Twice 
every day the salt marsh is flooded and again 
drained, by the action of the tides. Were the 
tide to be shut out, fresh water would accumu¬ 
late more or less within the dike. In heavy 
freshets there might be a very considerable ac¬ 
cumulation of water, but it would be fresh, and 
might stand for hours/or days even, upon the 
land without damage. If a dike or dam be 
built high enough, tight enough, and strong 
enough to shut out and keep out the sea, and 
only a single sluice or flume be left through which 
the water can flow, and this flume be so con¬ 
structed that by the action of the water a gate 
will close it the moment the water tends to flow 
in, while when there is no pressure on the out¬ 
side the gate freely opens to let the water out, 
the whole is accomplished. 
The engravings represent different views or 
“elevations” of a tide-gate built recently by 
Colonel L. B. Hanks, at Mystic, Conn., which 
has completely shut off the tides from about three 
acres of marsh, which he is laying out as a 
