18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jastttaby, 
at the door of the steaming chamber, and each 
animal's rations are thrown directly from it into 
the manger. 
An Important Device in Tile Draining. 
BT GEORGE E. WARING, JR., OF,OGDEN FARM. 
I cannot quite say with the old drainer in 
Talpa, “I’ve been a-draining this forty year 
and more; I ought to know summat about it 
but I have been at it long enough to be half 
ashamed to own that I have only now learned 
how to protect the joints of drains that are laid 
without collars. I shall by > no means abandon 
the use of collars, for they have a power to 
make a drainer sleep comfortably, that nothing 
else can quite equal. If the tiles are well laid, 
with well-fitting collars, the most nervous pro¬ 
prietor may rid himself of all uneasiness about 
them. They are as nearly a certain thing as 
any human work can be. 
In many cases, however, collars cannot be 
procured, or, the farmer desires to avoid their 
cost, and some substitute is sought,. I have at 
last found it. After trying tin, shavings, grass 
ropes, straw, etc., etc., I have made the appar¬ 
ently trifling, but really most important discov¬ 
ery, that simply a piece of newspaper laid over 
the tile, and held in place by a lit tle loose earth 
at each side, is better than any of them. It 
fits closely, allowing the earth to pack down 
well upon the tiles, it is inexpensive and con¬ 
venient, and when it decays, it yields nothing 
that can get into the tiles and obstruct them. 
All that is needed is that the loose earth used 
in filling the ditch be prevented from entering 
the joints. This the paper accomplishes in 
the most perfect manner. 
The Influence of the Moon on the Weather. 
There is no “notion"more firmly fixed in 
the popular mind than that of the influence of 
the moon on the fall of rain, the violence of the 
wind, etc. Scientific men, acting on the theory 
that “ where there is so much smoke, there must 
be some fire,” have given much attention to the 
subject, and have hinted at certain theories as 
being possibly correct. Unfortunately, the results 
of different series of experiments have failed to 
agree, and we are as far as ever from any re¬ 
liable confirmation of the popular belief, except 
in the single point of the dissipation of clouds 
by the full moon. Sir John Herschel believes 
that “ clouds have a tendency to disappear un¬ 
der the full moon,” and that “ a slight prepon¬ 
derance in respect to quantity of rain near the 
new moon over that which falls near the full, 
would be a natural consequence of a prepon¬ 
derance of a cloudless sky about the full.” 
Arago, who concurs in this opinion, refers 
to a common expression among French country 
people, that “the moon eats up the clouds.” It 
has been observed by the writer that, a large 
moon has a tendency to dissipate clouds in dry 
weather, but lias little or no such effect when 
rain is falling. Beyond this trifling fact, there 
has thus far been found, even by the closest ex¬ 
amination of the relation between the state of 
the weather and the condition of the moon dur¬ 
ing a period of six years, not the least ground 
for the popular belief. 
Not only is this belief unworthy of intelli¬ 
gent linings, but it is subject to the oddest con¬ 
tradictious. For instance, in New England, a 
“ wet moon ” is one which is so much inclined 
that it “wont hold water,” or on which “yon 
can’t hang a powder-horn.” At the South, a 
“ wet moon” is one which “ lies on its bade.” 
It is supposed to be “ full of water,” and as its 
center fills up, the water is forced over the edge, 
and it rains. When we consider that the moon 
is a sphere, and that its apparent shape depends 
only on the manner in which we see the sun’s 
light upon it, it becomes even more incompre¬ 
hensible that any connection should have been 
imagined between its appearance and the 
amount of the rain fall. What we call the 
“ changes” of the moon are purely arbitrary. 
It changes constantly, and as much at one time 
as at another, and there is no reason for sup¬ 
posing that it will rain more or less at that par¬ 
ticular part of its change that the almanac mak¬ 
ers have, for convenience, selected to indicate 
its “ quarters.” We often hear it said that we 
may expect rain (or fair weather) pretty soon, 
“because the moon changes to-night;” so it 
does; but it changed just as much last night, 
and is changing constantly, day and night, from 
one end of the century to the other; it always 
makes the full change, from new to old, once in 
every lunar month. 
— * i — 11 
Weeds as a Green Crop. 
We shall always have weeds. It is impossible 
to conceive of an agriculture so perfect that 
they will no longer exist. They may be killed 
in their earliest infancy, but still they will come 
again. Nature abhors a naked surface and is 
fast to clothe our fields with verdure, even 
though we may neglect to plant. If it ever be¬ 
comes possible for farmers to do every thing 
that is necessary at the exact moment when it 
ought to be done, they may find in this spon¬ 
taneous growth a really valuable source of ma¬ 
nure. It is proverbial that nothing grows so 
luxuriantly as weeds; and as no vegetation grow¬ 
ing upon the land can be plowed into it without 
increasing its fertility, weeds might be turned to 
a good account if we could make sure to plow 
them well under before they form their seeds. 
Of course such weeds as propagate themselves 
by their roots must be rigorously excluded; but 
all other sorts, and especially the well-known 
Ragweed ( Ambrosia ) which grows luxuriantly 
and does not ripen its seeds early, might be de¬ 
pended on for material help. 
It is not unlikely that an important part of 
the benefit of summer-fallowing is that at each 
plowing, vegetable matter is mixed with soil, 
and it may even be well, if there are no early- 
seeding weeds on the field, to allow the crop to 
attain considerable bight before turning it 
under. We are not, of course, advocating the 
careless neglect of weeds, which are tiie source 
of more agricultural woe than almost all else 
besides, but merely hinting at a means by winch 
a judicious and free-handed man may avail him¬ 
self of the wonderful benefits of green manuring 
without the cost of time and money that tiie 
•raising of clover and buckwheat demand ; and 
we desire above all things not to have our sug¬ 
gestion distorted into tin excuse for slovenly 
farming by men who are too lazy or too incom¬ 
petent to keep their land in proper order. It may 
be well to remark that we have not been able 
to think of any way in which the tangle of weeds 
and briers, that ornament so many farmers’ head¬ 
lands and fence-rows, can be turned to use. 
Spreading Manure from the Cart. 
Most farmers make their manure in the yards, 
oellars, and stables. The practice differs ma¬ 
terially in transferring the manure from the 
barn to the field. Some cart it out twice a year, 
some only once, and others cart it out at all 
seasons of the year, as suits their convenience, 
making a thorough cleaning oidy when the last 
spring crops are sown. Some heap up the ma¬ 
nure in the yard, and let it ferment a month or 
more before hauling, and others take it in the 
raw state and transfer it immediately to the 
fields where it is to be used. Some make large 
compost heaps on the fields that are to be plant¬ 
ed the next season, and others spread every 
thing directly from the cart-tail. This latter 
practice is good if the compost is already 
made. It saves a great deal of labor. The 
manure is taken from the cart, a shovelful at a 
time, and spread evenly over the whole surface 
as the team moves along. It is left just right 
to be plowed in, or to remain for a top-dressing 
upon the meadow. If left in large heaps, it 
must be put into the cart again to be distribu¬ 
ted. If left in small heaps, you must stoop with 
the shovel to get at your work, and here is a 
loss of labor. But, unless the compost is well 
made in the yard, there is a loss of manure in 
spreading it green from the stables. We mean 
by this that the farmer loses the opportunity to 
make the best use of his green manures. He 
wants to mix this green manure with three or 
four times its bulk of loam, muck or peat, 
either in the yard or in the field. Oftentimes 
it can be done to the best advantage upon the 
field. There is a deposit of muck close by, and 
it will save a mile of carting to make the com¬ 
post heap upon tiie field where it is to be used 
in the spring. It is much cheaper to bring the 
green manure to the muck than to haul the 
muck to the barn, and after six months or a 
year, haul it back again. The process of fer¬ 
mentation will go on quite as well in one place 
as in another. To be sure it costs more to han¬ 
dle the manure, but the labor is more than paid 
for in the increased value of the manure. In 
spreading green manure upon the surface, 
and letting it remain, there is a very apprecia¬ 
ble loss in the summer, and some waste even in 
winter. If we take fresh stable manure or 
hog dung from the sties and compost it with 
three times its bulk of muck or loam, the whole 
mass is made into a good fertilizer by spring, 
for most soils, and quite as valuable, load for 
load, as the fresh dung. It will not show its ef¬ 
fects as quick, perhaps, but it lasts longer, and 
the labor spent in working over these compost 
heaps in winter is sure of its reward, and that 
is what all good farmers want. Some are de¬ 
terred from this kind of winter work by the ap¬ 
prehension that the heaps will not ferment. It 
is true the heating is not so rapid as in summer, 
but it will be found, if a stick or crow-bar is 
thrust into one of these heaps, it soon becomes 
warm to the touch. Tiiey will “smoke” in the 
coldest weather, showing that fermentation is 
going on. 
Management of Barn-yard Manure. 
A farmer in Pennsylvania asks “How we man¬ 
age our manure ?” It depends on circumstances. 
Some of us manage it in one way and some in 
another. Probably no two of tiie Agriculturist 
Editors manage it precisely alike. A good deal 
depends on whether we have much or little 
straw; whether we have access to a good bed 
of swamp muck; and also whether we are 
going to use the manure as a top-dressing on 
grass, or to plow it under for corn, or for 
root crops. For the latter, we must always 
have it well rotted, while for corn, if necessary, 
we can plow it under in a comparatively fresh 
