1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
19 
state. Our correspondent says: “ The universal 
plan here in this section of Pennsylvania is to 
throw out all the manure from the stable in 
front of the barn, and let it lie there through 
the summer. We then haul it out on to an oat- 
stubble (generally), and piowit under for winter 
wheat. Now, would it be a better plan to keep 
it under cover ? Our barns are not suitable for 
manure cellars, being all built in a bank, in 
Pennsylvania style. To make a cellar under 
one of our old barns would cost as much as to 
build a new barn. Would piling the manure in 
open sheds be a better plan ? Would such ma¬ 
nure as is thrown out of our stables, which is 
more than half straw, rot under cover ?” 
If piled early in the spring, while the manure 
is saturated with water or snow, it will undoubt¬ 
edly rot under cover. But if the manure be dry 
when piled, and if it contain a large proportion 
of straw, it will be likely to fire-fling. In this 
case it would be best to pile it where it would 
be wet with the rains, or, better still, where 
liquid manure could he pumped on to it. 
In the case of our correspondent, who, we 
presume, has abundance of straw that he de¬ 
sires to workup into manure, the great point is 
to convey all the water away from his barn-yard 
before it comes in contact with the manure. If 
the barn-yard is not unnecessarily large, the 
rain and snow that actually fall on it will be no 
more during the year than the manure needs for 
proper fermentation. But it may be necessary 
to have a water-tight basin or tank, to hold any 
excess of water arising from rain and melting 
snow in the spring; and if so, this water should 
be saturated with plaster, and pumped or soak¬ 
ed back on the manure heap when it becomes 
dry. Manure will not ferment if kept in a hole 
or basin full of water. 
Instead of allowing the manure to remain in 
the heaps as thrown out from the different sta¬ 
bles, it should be all wheeled or carted to one 
large central heap, in or on the side of the ba¬ 
sin. If this is done every day, or once a week, 
the heap would be large enough to keep out the 
frost, and the manure would slowly ferment all 
winter. If the manure is wanted for winter 
wheat next fall, it may remain in this heap all 
summer, receiving from time to time any addi¬ 
tional manure that is obtained from the stables. 
If it has been properly treated, it will be thor¬ 
oughly rotted, and in excellent condition for 
applying to the wheat without turning or pil¬ 
ing. And if none of the liquid has been allow¬ 
ed to leach away, the manure will be just as good 
as if it had been kept under cover. 
Where sheep are largely kept, it is usual to 
“ pile” the manure in the spring, tliedry manure 
from the sheds being mixed with the wet manure 
from the open yards. If it contained much 
straw, it will be necessary to turn the piles once 
or twice, at intervals of a month or six weeks, 
to accelerate fermentation. If the sheep ma¬ 
nure can be conveniently carted to the same 
heap containing the manure from the horse and 
cow stables, and from the pig pens and poultry- 
house, and the whole turned over and mixed 
together in one large heap, it would be much 
the best plan. As manure heaps are usually 
managed, this would be a rather formidable 
undertaking. We have some unpleasant recol¬ 
lections of handling a mismanaged manure 
heap, with undecomposed corn-stalks running 
through it in .all directions but the right one. 
But, where the manure has been spread evenly, 
in horizontal layers, every day, as wheeled on 
to the heap, it can be cut with a liay-knife 
into .sections, four or five feet wide, and turned 
with less labor than many would suppose. 
The points in managing manure in this way are: 
1st. To pick out all loose stones, sticks, 
boards, etc., from the barn-yard, and see that 
nothing gets into the heap that will break the 
forks, dull mowing machine knives, nor add to 
the labor of handling the manure. 
2d. A good wheelbarrow should be provided, 
and also some planks, for wheeling the manure 
from the stables to the heap. 
8d. The manure should not be scattered over 
a large area, but should be placed in as compact 
a heap as possible; the deeper it is, and the 
more there is of it, the better will it ferment. 
4th. The manure should be spread as wheeled 
out, and not left in barrowfuls on the heap. In 
doing this, the manure should be worked over 
as much as possible, and corn-stalks, especially, 
which should be cut into foot lengths, should be 
placed in layers. Manure heaps, during the 
winter,should certainly have this daily attention. 
5th. Straw, or the manure from straw-fed 
animals, ferments slowly. A little bone-dust, 
fish guano or other animal matter, or the drop¬ 
pings from the poultry-house mixed with such 
manure in the heap, would induce fermenta¬ 
tion, and add much to its value. Pea and bean 
straw, the straw from clover seed, the manure 
from animals fed on clover hay, peas, beans, 
bran and oil-cake, will ferment rapidly, and 
make a manure of great value. Pains should 
be taken to mix such with that of poor quality. 
Gib. If the heap ferments unevenly, and the 
heat concentrates so as to form a kind of chim¬ 
ney, throw some of the cold manure from the 
outside on to the top of this chimney where the 
steam is escaping, and endeavor to distribute 
the heat evenly through the heap; or pull the 
heap to pieces, and get out a few barrowfuls of 
this hot manure and place it where you desire 
to start a new fermentation, in the cold portion 
of the heap. With skill, judgment, and without 
working over, the heap maybe putin condition 
for drawing out foi'winter wheat, or as a top¬ 
dressing for grass land in August or September. 
7th. Recourse may always be had to water, 
which, if pumped on, will check fermentation; 
but it must be used with care in winter. 
Common Sense in Wheat Culture. 
The enthusiasm of “ new converts ” is pro¬ 
verbial and most natural. When a man who 
has been convinced, against his will or not, ex¬ 
periences the advantage of drilling, in opposi¬ 
tion to sowing grain broadcast, he almost al¬ 
ways thinks the variety of grain he sows has a 
good deal to do with his success, but he does 
not give up the drilling. We have advocated 
grain drills for years—and the editors and 
writers for the Agriculturist have fairly grown 
gray in their use. After all there are extensive 
regions through which one might travel days 
without seeing a drill-sowed field, and where 
to hire a drill for $1 an acre would be as impos¬ 
sible as to hire a balloon for an evening airing. 
There is a great difference in varieties—that we 
all admit—but we agree fully with Mr. Harris, 
who in his article on Wheat Culture in Western 
New York, contained in the Agricultural An¬ 
nual for 1868, says: “I have little faith in 
improved varieties of wheat unaccompanied by 
improved farming.—The two must go togeth¬ 
er”—and again: “The poorer the farmer the 
oftener he changes his seed. He sees others 
raising better crops than he does, and hopes by 
getting seed from them to be equally success¬ 
ful.” The Boughton is included by Mr. H. 
among the best varieties, and one highly ap¬ 
proved by the millers on account of its white¬ 
ness. It passes under several names, among 
which “Early May” and “Oregon,” are per¬ 
haps, best known. These remarks are sug¬ 
gested by the excellent common-sense letter 
from Mr. S. D. Comfort, of Knox Co., Ohio, 
which follows: 
Mr. Editor: —The farmers of this vicinity 
have been learning a lesson in wheat culture 
in the dear school of experience. Many of them 
during the past few years have lived, a part of the 
time at least, on flour made from Iowa spring 
wheat. The careless modes of culture, which 
forty years ago were sufficient to produce large 
crops, are still employed by multitudes of farm¬ 
ers. The manure in huge piles against the barn, 
burns up and wastes its ammonia on the air, 
instead of being mingled with the soil. Instead 
of sowing on an inverted clover sod, the corn 
ground is hastily seeded to wheat. This is sown 
broadcast instead of being drilled, and putin so 
late as not to give the plant sufficient time before 
freezing weather to establish its roots firmly in 
the soil. The consequence is that the weakly, 
half-developed plant, is lifted out of the ground 
by the frost; and I believe it safe to say that 
half the seed committed to our clay soils in this 
section is lost. Broadcast seeding and cover¬ 
ing with the harrow leaves much of the seed on 
the surface, and much more, covered so shallow 
that the first rain washes it bare. It germinates 
on or near the surface, and is easily destroyed 
by winter and spring frosts. The farmer who 
does not own a good wheat drill can make it 
profitable to rent one at one dollar per acre. 
Our careless culture has rundown the yield per 
acre so low as to be a standing disgrace; and it 
ought to shame every farmer who has helped 
contribute to the result. I venture the opinion 
that there is an obligation resting on the agri¬ 
cultural press to use all its influence with farm¬ 
ers to induce them to adopt improved modes of 
culture and improved seed. Our agricultural 
societies continue to give premiums to the old, 
red bearded varieties, on the ground that they 
have been tried and are sure for half a crop. 
My attention was recently called to a crop of 
thirty-three dozen and seven large sheaves rais¬ 
ed from one bushel of seed of Boughton wheat. 
The heads are large, many of them contain sixty 
large,plump, white grains; it has a smooth head, 
a short, stiff straw, and it is believed by those 
who have grown it that there is no land rich 
enough to lodge it. It lias ripened earlier than 
any other variety by several days. The Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture sent one pound of it 
into this section three years ago, and it has mul¬ 
tiplied to hundreds of bushels; and I think 
every grain ought to be sowed. The earliest 
wheat will generally escape the weevil and rust, 
two of the most destructive enemies of the crop. 
Bear Grass—Yucca. —In September last we 
published some notes from Mr. J. T. Worthing¬ 
ton, of Chillicotlie, Q., on the uses of the leaves 
of the Bear-grass, Yucca fUamentosa, as a tying 
material, and at the same time gave an engrav¬ 
ing of the plant as we have it in cultivation. 
Mr. W. afterwards wrote us that the engraving 
did not represent the plant he grows and uses, 
and sent us specimens of the leaves of his. It 
proves to be that form of Y. filamentosa, known 
in the nurseries as Y.flaccida, but which is re¬ 
garded by botanists as only a variety of the first 
named. As the variety has much longer and 
less rigid leaves than the other, it is much better 
to use as a tying material; those who wish 
to cultivate it for this purpose can procure it at 
the nurseries by ordering Yucca flaccida. 
