334r 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTTJRIST, 
rNoVEMBER, 
Oood Mnnitre Going; to the '%Vinds. 
-A subscriber in Tioga Co., has a compost heap—a mix¬ 
ture of “ fleshings of hides. Iiair, lime, ashes, weeds, chip 
manure, etc., really, most everything.” It was piled up 
in a conical heap, and he recently found It “dry and 
very hot,” and being burned up. He wants to know 
what is to be done. Simply work it all over, making a 
new pile and mingling it with at least its own bulk of 
muck or peat, or sods and parings of turf, or simple soil. 
This will stay the destruction in a measure. The mis¬ 
take was in the original mixture. There probably ought 
to have been a greater proportion of vegetable matter, 
weeds, chip manure, etc., but there ought not to have 
been any lime or ashes mixed with the fleshings, hair, 
and other animal matters. When lime and animal mat¬ 
ter are mixed, as in some of the refuse of tanneries, 
the influence of the lime must be counteracted as far as 
possible, by the addition of muck, soil, etc. The dele¬ 
terious action of lime and alkalies in such a heap is to 
expel the ammonia in gaseous form, which is hope¬ 
lessly lost. A loss just of the same character takes place 
whenever manure heats and burns. 
“ Mari.” —We very often have letters asking 
about marl. Farmers have beds of it, or it abounds near 
them, etc., and they want to know how much it is worth, 
and how to use it. The different kinds of marl vary 
greatly. Some marl is chiefly minute shells, like clam or 
snail shells, consisting of carbonate of lime, and some is 
so solid that it can be burnt for lime. In other marls, the 
shells are mingled with sand, clay and vegetable matter. 
These are often very useful as applications to the soil, 
raw, composted, or having been exposed to frosts. When 
lime is beneficial, marl usually is also. The only con¬ 
venient way for most persons to ascertain the value of 
any particular kind is to try it. Apply it liberally and 
sparely upon grass land, in fall or early spring, to the 
corn crop, to potatoes, etc., in each case making careful 
record of the results, for your own and others’ benefit. 
SSoiie fiJiiist lor '^Vlaeat. — T. Lindsey, 
Harrison Co., Indiana, inquires “ for information through 
the Agriculturist, as to the economy of paying $30.00 
per ton for bone dust for manuring wheat.” Farmers 
who have applied bone dust as a top-dressing to wheat, 
have almost invariably come to the conclusion that it 
does not pay. Bone dust is the great fertilizer for tur¬ 
nips, and usually most excellent for grass. But wheat re¬ 
quires a manure containing a larger proportion of nitro¬ 
genous matter. Bone dust is no doubt of some value for 
wheat. oOO pounds per .acre is a medium quantity, 
although one ton is much better. Tb**.,; is little danger 
of sowing it too thickly, for it is ■. very valuable thing to 
have in the soil for other ci-'^s. 
Sawtlsis? ior Maiitiai'e. —“Please tell 
me how i' lo best to make manure out of sawdust?” 
Some •■'.iif clays would be benefited by raw sawdust ; 
he.e you have manure out of sawdust, ready-made. For 
a sandy soil it would, we judge, be belter were it some¬ 
what decayed, therefore it might be laid up and moist¬ 
ened through with warm barn-yard liquor or urine : this 
would soon start a heat, and it would turn brown 
and soft, in which state it would make a tolerable ma- 
ure. It makes very good bedding for horses or cattle, 
being easy to manage, clean out, etc., but it heats rapidly 
in the manure heap. Unless it can be mixed with some¬ 
thing else, it ought to be kept trodden down hard and 
wet, or composted with muck or sods. 
Manuring' House Plants. —“ Mrs. M.,” 
Washington, D. C. Well rotted cow manure mixed with 
the potting soil is the best. Poudrette is generally un¬ 
reliable, and guano apt to do more harm than good. 
Camellias and other hard wooded plants are very apt to 
be injured by the injudicious use of guano, though it may 
sometimes be used on herbaceous ones with good results. 
A teaspoonful in a quart of water may be applied once a 
week. A very weak infusion of cow or stable manure 
may be used sparingly. If the plants are lagging, it is 
better to repot them ; if no good compost is at hand, it 
may be procured^f the florists. 
A Compost Heap.—“ One who wishes to 
be a farmer,” has a compost heap made as follows : “ A 
foundation of muck 6 inches deep, stable manure flinches 
deep, a thin layer of cracked bones as bigas hen’s eggs, 
fi inches muck, 6 inches stable manure, ‘2 inches leticlied 
ashes, 3 inches woolen rags, and the whole covered with 
6 inches muck.” He asks “ Shall I put in some old mor¬ 
tar, and shall I add lime ?” The old mortar will do no 
harm if it is crusheil fine. The lime should be kept out 
in all probability. We would keep an old fork handle 
thrust into the heap so that by drawing it out we could 
see how much heat was generated. If it did not heal, it 
should be drenched pre*ty freely, but not soaked with the 
teachings of a manure heap, (barn-yard liquor.) The 
bones and leather will hardly decompose well unless the 
fermentation is active and the heap kept sligiitly moist 
with yard liquor. After it has heated weli for a month, 
it should be made over, the whole being mixed and re- 
laid with m(^ muck, or more manure, or both, according 
to how hot and well decomposed it has become. If very 
inert, one bushel of slacked lime to 15 or 20 bushels of 
compost, might be added, and the whole covered up with 
muck for the winter, but if a brisk fermentation comes 
on again, this must be kept down either by working it 
over again, adding more muck, or keeping it quite wet 
with water or yard liquor, and trodden down hard. 
Satlt aaidi Sjime.—“ C. F. C.” Perhaps no 
question has excited more discussion in Great Britain of 
late, than the use of salt as a manure, and we certainly 
can not answer your question without more data, in re¬ 
gard to your soil, etc. We have no doubt it has often 
increased the grass crop, and so also with grain crops. 
Sowed at plowing in the spring, it is said to have de¬ 
stroyed wire worms. For roots of all kinds it may be 
applied either with the other manure, or as a top dressing, 
100 to 600 pounds to the acre.—The lime may be worth $1 
per cask, if you can not get it for less. Exposure to 
freezing often fits muck for the compost heap, manure 
pile, or for direct application, almost as well as com¬ 
posting it with lime. Both freezing and liming are useful. 
Manas'emeikt of Sheep. — Charles B. 
McClure, Dauphin Co., Pa , (a lad nine years old), hav¬ 
ing 14 sheep thin in flesh, wishes to know how to manage 
them. Make comfortable sheds at once for them. If 
they are to raise lambs next season, they will not require 
mueh grain if they have hay, corn stalks, and plenty of 
good straw, with access to salt and water. Feed roots, 
or apples at least twice a week, and give them hemlock 
or pine boughs often in winter. If for mutton, feed them 
one pound each, daily, of Indian corn, or corn meal and 
oil meal in equal quantities. If sheep have hay in the 
morning, straw during the day, one pound each of meal 
at noon, and corn stalks at night, with a good shed, they 
will fatten rapidly. Peas and beans are excellent feed. 
Read about sheep in former numbers of the Agriculturist. 
S>iat*rlicea. in Slieep.—Charles Fiedler, 
Waukesha Co., Wis., writes: '‘My sheep have had 
the diarrhoea for about one year, and have had no lambs. 
Is that the reason? Can you suggest a remedy?’’ No 
doubt the disease prevented breeding. Turn the sheep 
into another pasture, or feed them hay once a day and a 
pint of wheat bran daily, and let them have access to 
salt. There is some weed that causes the disease, which 
indeed may also be in the hay of your own farm. 
'fo Preserve Fenee Posts, etc.— 
Milo H. Moon, of Hendricks Co., Ind., savs in a com¬ 
munication to the Agriculturist-. “By sprinkling salt 
around the posts and allowing stock to lick it, they 
will graze off the grass and weeds close to the ground, 
and smooth and pack the surface so that the water will 
readily run off, and licking the posts will keep lint from 
collecting, and add materially to their durability.” 
Ijice OM Poultry.—A correspondent who 
has tried the use of Kerosene applied upon fowls to cure 
lice, writes to warn others against trying it. One of the 
two on which it was tried soon died, the other being in 
great pain was kiiled. “ Their flesh looked as if seared 
with a hot iron.” No doubt the quantity applied was too 
great, it ought not to wet the skin at ail. Neither should 
any other application to fowis, except soap and water. 
Ijocust Miller.— The wasp-like inseet left 
by J. H. Bloodgood, of Perth Amboy, which digs hoies 
in the garden like big ant-hills, and stings badly, is the 
Hogardia speciosus, or locust-killer. It kills locusts (or 
Cicada,) lays its eggs in them and buries them, leaving 
the ground so smooth that they can hardly be found, 
and though their sting is bad, they can not be classed 
among injurious insects. 
File Msisstitelkiisetts Mortieuitiaral 
Society. —This pioneer association, which since its 
formation in 1829 has steadily progressed in prosperity 
and usefulness, celebrated on Sept. 16th an era in its 
history. The occasion was the opening of its n^ Hall, 
on Tremont-street. The building is of granite, and the 
architectural design is chaste and elegant. There are two 
spacious halls for exhibition purposes, and the necessary 
committee and library rooms, beside the stores upon the 
ground floor and basement. The President of the Society, 
C. M. Hovey, Esq., delivered an interesting address, and 
an ode was sung, etc. On'the following Monday the So¬ 
ciety held its 39th annual exhibition in its new rooms, 
which seemed almost as much too small for the bountiful 
contributions as did the old Hall a few years ago. The 
show of apples was meagre, as it is everywhere, though 
there were a few fine plates, especially of Baldwin and 
Hubbardston Nonsuch. The exhibition of pears was 
great, as it aiways is in Boston. The largest number of 
varieties were from Hovey & @o., and M. P. Wilder, 
both interesting collections, as they contained specimens 
of new ffhd rare varieties. Remarkabiy fine Sheldon, 
De Tongres, Beurre Bose, Beurre D’Anjou and other 
leading sorts were shown by several exhibiters. A seed¬ 
ling pear by Doct. S. A. Shurtieff, of Brookline, was no¬ 
ticeable for its fine appearance. It bore the name of Ad¬ 
miral Farragut, and if it is at all like its namesake, will 
perform all it promises. The show of hardy grapes was 
poor, as that of exotic ones was excelient. The onlv 
variety shown in any great perfection was the Catawba. 
We expected to see a fine show of Rogers’ Hybrids, but 
found only some 6 or 8 numbers, which did the grapes no 
credit. The exhibition was weak in cut flowers, owing 
to the unusual dryness of the season, but the lack in this 
department was made up by the excellence of the pot- 
plants. A fine collection of these from the Cambridge 
Botanical Garden carried off several of the prizes. The 
exhibition of vegetables was very large and interesting. 
The growers around Boston are great on squashes, but 
poor on celery. We can only give the general features 
of this most interesting exhibition. As we passed through 
these elegant and spacious halls, overflowing with the 
products of the orchard and garden, remembering the first 
exhibition of this society, which we attended some 20 
years ago in a small hall on Tremont Row, the contrast 
was striking. As a New Yorker, it was painful to think 
that the New York and Brooklyn Horticultural Societies 
had dwindled and dissolved, while in what New Yorkers 
call the “provincial town” of Boston, their Institution 
goes on with increasing prosperity. 
TBie Worcester <Jo. Hort£citltiira.l 
Society. —It was pleasant to find in the beautiful inland 
town of Worcester so fine a show of fruits as was pre¬ 
sented at tiie annual exhibition of this society. An ample 
hall is owned by the society, and this was well filled with 
horticultural products. Pears were of course the prom¬ 
inent feature in the exhibition. The show of native 
grapes was better than that at Boston, and included most 
of the standard varieties. Enormous bunches of Union 
Village were shown, and some finely grown and well 
ripened Adirondacs from G. H. Martin, of Norwich, 
Conn., attracted much attention. We were particularly 
pleased with the show of vegetables, which, considering 
the comparatively cool climate of Worcester, w.as ex¬ 
ceedingly creditable to the exhibiters. There was a most 
interesting collection of potatoes, many of them seed¬ 
lings. Mr. Jas. S Pike, Worcester, exhibited 42 varie¬ 
ties, and Mr. S. P. Champney, Saundersville, a large 
number. 
1'lie Hoi*t;icii.ltu>*a.l FxSiil>itioEi oi 
tile American Institute. — Liberal premiums 
were offered and abundant room provided, but for some 
reason our cultivators failed to appear in force, and the 
show was, as a whole, a failure. Had it not been fora 
collection of pears from Ellwanger & Barry, at Ro¬ 
chester, the show of this fruit would have been pitifully 
poor. There were some good specimens of grapes, 
but the display was not one-tenth of what it might have 
been, had our cultivators done themselves justice. The 
vegetables could have all been put in a wheel-barrow, and 
were not worth wheeling a great distance at that. In 
the way of pot plants it was better, thanks to Messrs. 
Buchanan, Hogg, and others. Mr. D. D. Buchanan of 
Reid’s Nurseries made a creditable sliow of evergreens. 
We regret to be obliged to record such a state of apathy 
among our horticuiturists, as is indicated by the meagre 
show at the Institute. The Greeley prizes, which it was 
e«pected would be awarded at this exhibition, are said 
to be still held in abeyance, but we are not yet officially 
infoi med of the actual state of the matter. 
Tlie Heath of Mr. Jlosepli il^rost.— 
The friends of Frost & Co., proprietors of the Genesee 
Valley Nurseries, at Rochester, will be pained to learn 
of the death of Joseph, the junior member of the firm, 
who died very suddenly at St. Louis, on Sept. 26th. .Mr. 
F. possessed a geniality of manner that ende:ired him to 
all who knew him, and his loss will be felt by a large 
circle of friends. 
Farly HipenliijS^ of Fruit. —The un¬ 
usually dry autumn has caused most varieties of fruit to 
ripen in advance of their usual time, and the early win¬ 
ter sorts in many cases come into eating in autumn. The 
fruit grower should be on his guard against loss from this 
early maturity, and see tliat his fruit does not get beyond 
the proper state of ripeness for the table and market. Keep 
all winter fruit as cool as possible, without freezing. 
