MANURES.—NO. 2. 
223 
the seasons. They cannot he made to believe 
but that the food for the growth of the straw 
and growth and perfection of the berry, are the 
same. 
I have a farm containing 80 acres of improved 
land, which I have cleared with my own hands. 
It was heavy timbered land—soil clayey loam, 
and in farming it after the skinning system a 
few years, I found it wearing out; but by deep¬ 
ening the plowing from five or six inches to ten 
or twelve, on the first trial, the product was in¬ 
creased from 15 to 49 bushels of wheat per acre. 
The same results have followed subsequent 
practice. 
The income of my farm, for the last year, was 
$1,134; the farm expenses and those of my 
family were $700 more, leaving a-balance of 
$434, besides the improvements. L. C. 
MANURES.—No. 2. 
Sea Muck .—We were much amused a year 
since, at the unfathomable discoveries reported 
from the Irish bogs. These were deemed to be 
of such great magnitude, as to have elicited 
quite a discussion in parliament between some 
of its high officials. The question was agitated 
as to the formation of joint-stock companies, 
whose results were to rival the recently-found 
gold minds of California. 
Naptha, petroleum, olein, stearin, sperma¬ 
ceti, and various medicinal and other products 
of great utility in the arts, were to be spontane¬ 
ously extracted from these long-neglected mines. 
Well, a year has since come and gone, and 
the bogs are just where O’Connel’s Irish parlia¬ 
ment is—still deep in the mire. 
But, after all the“ Bullicisms ” connected with 
this project, the olein, stearin, &c., are still there 
—the mode of extracting them is the only thing 
wrong about it. If the “ pizentry ” would but first 
apply these accumulated stores of vegetable 
matter to the soil, the crops and animals feed¬ 
ing upon them, would, either by themselves or 
their exchangeabilities , supply all the alledged 
products, and a vast many more besides. Just 
the same value exists in the vast beds of sea 
muck already formed and daily forming over 
almost every part of the world. There is enough 
of these deposits in New Jersey, to fertilise no 
inconsiderable portion of its hungry and im¬ 
poverished uplands. The same is true of most 
of our sea-washed coasts. Millions of wealth 
lie buried in every marsh and stagnant pool, 
which needs but half the capital and energy 
devoted to the exhumation of California gold, to 
develop equal wealth and with far more cer¬ 
tainty. 
There are various ways of compounding and 
applying sea or swamp muck to the soil. The 
simplest way, and one as generally profitable 
as any other, unless other fertilising matters can 
be made to spend better by the addition, is by 
throwing it up in heaps for partial drainage and 
decomposition before applying ; or if the land be 
a hungry, silicious (sandy or gravelly) soil, 
apply it as soon as taken out of its bed, when 
sufficiently dried for economical removal. The 
sand will seize upon this new food with great 
avidity, and will rapidly decompose and con¬ 
vert it into vegetable manure. The salt in 
all such as is exposed to the ocean tides, will 
add materially to its value for manure. 
If the application is to be made to clays or 
adhesive lands, then the muck should first un¬ 
dergo partial decomposition. To effect this, 
several modes may be adopted. It may be most 
advantageously thrown into the cattle yards 
and pens, or privies, to absorb and become in¬ 
corporated with the urine and droppings; or it 
may receive the wash of the house, the road 
side, the offal from slaughter houses, melters’ 
shops, tanneries, woolen manufactories, and the 
like. In this way, it becomes decomposed and 
every way fitted for the greatest utility ; but it 
also acts as an absorbent, or a strong box to hoard 
those soluble or volatile matters that would es¬ 
cape into adjacent rivulets, or evaporate in the 
air. The value of this material, when applied 
in this way, is incalculable, and it should 
always be used to the fullest extent of its useful 
agency. 
But when at remote distances from the cattle 
yards, or it is wanted in quantities much beyond 
what can be prepared in this way, we have 
found lime, (unslacked, or quicklime,) to be the 
most efficient decomposer of these muck beds. 
They are frequently filled with hard, fibrous, 
wiry roots and stalks, which might lie unde¬ 
composed for years in many compact soils. 
But when brought into contact with lime, all 
these, and similar matters are readily converted 
into finely-divided manure, which is capable, at 
once, of yielding its nutritious substance to the 
growing plant. This mixture may then be 
added to other manures or applied on any soils 
or crops with the utmost benefit. 
DWELLING- HOUSES OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 
COMPARED. 
The construction of dwelling houses, a sub¬ 
ject which really involves the comfort of the 
occupants for life, is often undertaken with as 
little consideration as building a rail fence. 
Notwithstanding a vast amount invested, it really 
appears in many cases, as though the builder 
never had a single idea that he was building for 
the accommodation of a family. The site, too, 
is often as illy considered as the plan of the 
building. 
In almost all the northern states, the sole ob¬ 
ject seems to be, to get on the road. At the 
south, a better taste prevails, and the owner 
seeks his building site far away from any pub¬ 
lic highway; but in his building plans, he is as 
far behind the north as he is in advance in se¬ 
lecting beautiful sites, free from the dust and 
annoyances of a common highway. 
ROUGH-HAIRED TERRIERS. 
These are really the most useful of all the 
canine race. We often hear farmers complain¬ 
ing of rats, and in nine cases out of ten, when 
we inquire why they don’t keep terriers, we are 
answered with a look of surprise and a “ well, 
I guess they are not of much account, are they I” 
At the same time, probably, you will see three 
or four great lazy, worthless curs prowling 
