60 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
duty I owe to the public, to speak on the occasion—to 
add my testimony and experience to what has been pub¬ 
lished in your valuable paper. My farm is situated on 
the bank of Connecticut river, and is fast returning to 
that native purity and fatness, for which these lands 
were once noted. My land, in 1815, when it came into 
my possession, poorly paid for cultivation, owing to the 
successive croppings,without grass seeding,until it would 
not return a crop, and was left in common to diseases 
and mullin. I am thus particular, in order to show the 
downward course a farm will take, if there is nothing 
returned to the soil, by successive croppings, I commenc¬ 
ed in June, 1815, to summer fallow my poorest land, and 
first of September sowed it to rye, and seeded it to 
Dutch clover, as the southern clover was not known 
among us then. I purchased one ton of plaster of Paris, 
which was just beginning to be used in this section of 
country—of which, I sowed a bushel or more upon an 
acre. I had a fair crop of rye. The next year I com¬ 
menced another ten acres of tallow, in the same course. 
My clover did well on the first piece. I sowed another 
bushel of plaster of Paris in April, after I took my crop 
of rye off—and first of July, I ploughed under the clover, 
and a heavy job it was. In September, I ploughed it 
again, lightly, and sowed it to rye, and seeded it to clo¬ 
ver and herds-grass. The next year I mowed it—the 
next year, I planted it to corn ; and the next year I sow¬ 
ed it with oats. My next crop was rye, and seeded to 
clover as before. At the same time, I was bringing up 
other lands in the same way, and with equal success, 
ttntil I had brought all my farm into this mode of culti¬ 
vation. For the last ten years, I have left out the crop 
of rye, as not so profitable a crop—and left my land hea¬ 
vier, and adopted a three course system, which I think 
is the better way. I have only to sow my oats early, in 
order to seed clover, which takes surer and better when 
sown early than late. I have used plaster of Paris freely on 
my grass crops and corn land. I use a roller on my oats, 
as I always have seeded to clover all my small grain 
crops, which I think much of, both for seeding and roll¬ 
ing down the ploughing before planting. I use the south¬ 
ern clover, which is much the best for rich land in the 
rotation of crops, as you get the first crop for hay, and 
of a better quality than the Dutch clover, and the second 
for seed, which is a clear profit, and a good one this last 
year, as it is worth twenty dollars per hundred pounds, 
and 200 lbs. is our average crop. 
I use my manure in its green state, and plough it under 
as soon as possible; as I plough all my planting land, and 
plant as soon after as possible, I am not troubled with 
worms but little. When I mow but one year, I prefer 
planting early, and much thicker than is generally prac¬ 
tised. 
My experience in making manure, may be worth com¬ 
municating, as it is to me an important branch of agri¬ 
culture, and should excite the energies of all farmers. 
I have yards attached to my hog-houses, that the hogs 
may go in and out at leisure; these I keep supplied with 
soil, loam, or muck from swamps, with a good quantity 
of straw, or litter from the barn-yards, which every good 
farmer has for the occasion, from which, by care and 
some labor, almost any quantity of manure can be made, 
and that which is good. I have only to add soil, weeds, 
straw, green clover, summer manure, or any, or every 
vegetable substance, as all are acceptable to the hogs, 
who are very industrious, and will manufacture more 
manure in value, than their expenses in keeping. I feel 
that my position is good—that my lands are continually 
increasing in fertility. If any of it flags, or decreases 
in richness, I have only to plough in a crop of clover, and 
it immediately takes its place among my richest lands. 
Thus you will readily see, that where lands will pro¬ 
duce clover, by the aid of plaster, there is no trouble in 
raising land to a high state of cultivation. I have al¬ 
ways returned to my lands all my crops, except my grain, 
which I market, except what is needed for farm stock 
&c. With much esteem, THOMAS WHITE. 
Curing Hams. 
Hanover , Mich. March 7, 1839. 
Jesse Buel, Esq.—Sir—-Having had the perusal of 
your valuable paper from the commencement, I beg 
leave to present to the public, through its columns, my 
manner of preserving hams. I turn my barrel over a 
pan, or kettle, in which I burn hard wood, (commonly 
hickory or maple,) for seven or nine days; keeping a 
little water on the head of the barrel, to prevent it from 
drying. I then pack two hundred weight of ham in my 
barrel, and prepare a pickle, by putting six gallons of 
Avater into a boiler, with twelve pounds of salt, twelve 
ounces of salt-petre, and two quarts of good molasses; 
this I stir sufficient to dissolve the salt, &c. and let it 
boil, and skim it. I then let it cool, and pour it on my 
ham, and in one week I have smoked ham, very tender, 
of an excellent flavor, and well smoked. When the wea¬ 
ther becomes some warm, there will a scum rise on the 
pickle; by keeping my ham under the pickle, it will 
keep the year round. 
N. B. It is better to have a good white oak barrel 
than any other. Try it, and if you ever have had meat 
smoked earlier after killing, and more palatable, please 
inform the public through the columns of your paper, 
and oblige a subscriber. Yours, &c. 
H. FOWLER 
Judge Buel —Dear Sir—I send you a copy of the 
within directions for using urate and poudrette—if you 
are of the opinion it is of sufficient importance to tho 
agricultural interest to publish it in the Cultivator, you 
will do so. I think highly of it myself, and intend to 
make some experiments on it in the ensuing season, and 
propose to submit the results to you for publication. 
Very respectfully, your most obedient 
A. DEY, 63 Cedar street. 
New-York, 7th March, 1839. 
Urate and Poudrette. 
The attention of the public has recently been directed to 
the use of urate and poudrette. It has long been known in 
France, as the most efficacious of all manures, and the few 
experiments made the last year (1838) in the use of poudrette, 
in and around the city of New-York, has awakened the atten¬ 
tion of farmers and gardeners. The Royal Academy of agri¬ 
culture in England have caused experiments to he made of 
the respective power of the different manures, and upon the 
trials so made it appears beyond a doubt, the superiority of 
manure, made from sinks and privies, over any other produc¬ 
tive agent for agricultural purposes. 
DIRECTIONS. 
The following directions are given by Peter Bartlielemy, 
(who was one of the first discoverers, in France, of the present 
system of preparing the articles,) how and in what manner it 
should be applied, and who recently has introduced its ma¬ 
nufacture in the city ofNew-York. 
Urate is the product of the liquid part, and poudrette of the 
substantial part of sinks, or privies, both of them reduced by 
different processes, to a dry and inodorous substance, and 
used as the best of all manures known to the agriculturists 
or horticulturists; being animal manures of the richest kind, 
and the most powerful of any application that can be made to 
the earth. 
URATE. 
The urate may be used in its dry state by spreading it on 
the land as you would lime or ashes, or after having been dis¬ 
solved in water, may be used through a watering pot, or by 
a cask, on cart wheels, in the same manner as the streets in 
the city of New-York are watered in summer. 
For all kinds of small grains, suph as wheat, rye, oats, bar¬ 
ley, flax, and others of a like kind, it may be sowed dry, up¬ 
on the soil in the proportion of 12 to 18 bushels per apre, oc- 
pording to the quality of the land. 
For corn and potatoes, and such like, it is best to mix the 
urate in an equal quantity of dry soil, and put in the hill 
about a gill, or handful, sprinkled round the seed corn and 
potatoes, as is usually done with ashes. 
For beets, turnips or other vegetables, sowed or planted in 
drills, the urate is to be prepared in like manner and sowed 
in the drill. 
For grape vines, fruit trees, forest trees, flowering trees, 
flowers; also for garden vegetables, such as cauliflower, cab¬ 
bage, melons, cucumbers, and the like, urate is dissolved in 
water, in the proportion of one pound to a gallon of water, 
and poured on the subject; one application is sufficient: and 
for articles not herein enumerated, it may be sowed dry on 
the surface of the ground. 
Where the land retains water, during the winter , urate 
must be used only in the spring, in order that its sails may 
not be absorbed in too large a quantity of water. 
Where the land is dry, or does not retain water, during the 
winter, urate may he used in the autumn; if however the 
sowing takes place, shortly before the hard frosts, it is better 
to use urate only’- in the beginning of spring. 
As a general rule , more urate is required upon the same 
quantity and quality of land in autumn, than in the spring, if 
used in the spiring it is better to apply the urate in a damp 
day, or immediately after a heavy rain, if it cannot be applied 
shortly before the rain. 
There is a great advantage in soaking corn or other grain 
for one hour only in a strong solution of urate before planting 
or sowing it, the corn or grain will start sooner, be stronger 
and less liable to attack by worms or birds. 
POUDRETTE, 
Is to be used, in the same manner as urate, with the follow¬ 
ing exceptions, namely; the quantity must vary from 18 to 
3.5 bushels per acre, according to the quality of the land, less 
than 18 bushels to the acre may not be very satisfactory, and 
more than 35 is useless. 
Poudrette is never dissolved in water before being used, as 
is urate, but in other respects, it is used, in its dry state, or by 
mixing it with dry soil in hills or drills, or sown broadcast, 
as lime or ashes. 
The difference of the season, between spring and autumn, 
and the slate of the atmosphere are to be considered, before 
using either urate or poudrette ; damp weather is always to 
be preferred- Neither of them contain any seed of weeds of 
any description ; an application of urate and poudrette once 
in every three years is sufficient. 
Urate and poudrette may be sent to any part of the country 
in barrels or bags, barrels to be preferred, when it is liable to 
get wet. Orders may be given, post paid, directed to “77ie 
New-York Urate and Poudrette CompanyBox No. 1211 post- 
ojji.ee, New-York. 
The urate and poudrette, made by this company is not 
confined to distribution among its stockholders only, and there¬ 
fore farmers and gardeners may expect a supply in the order 
in whieh their application is made without any condition of 
becoming a stockholder, or advancing any more money than 
may be sufficient to purchase what they need. 
The public should be on their guard in relation to the use 
of the poudrette, as it is feared, it may be brought into disre¬ 
pute by other manufacturers of the article, where quantity, ra¬ 
ther than quality is considered most desirable. 
It may be that on trials of urate and poudrette, a different 
application may be found more desirable; in such case it is 
hoped the experimenter will make known to the public his 
discovery. 
FURTHER TESTIMONY. 
Dr. Granville, in his report to the Thames Improvement 
Company, in speaking of the immense source of agricultural 
tvealth which the sewers of London afford, but which is now 
worse than lost, makes the following statement of -facts fur¬ 
nished by them. 
If a given quantity of land sown, and without manure, 
yields three times the seed employed, then the same quantity 
of land will produce 5 times the quantity sown, when manur¬ 
ed with old herbage, putrid grass or leaves, garden stuff, <kc; 
7 limes when manured with cow dung; 9 times with pigeon's 
dung; 10 times with horse dung; 12 times with urine; 12 
times with goat's dung; 12 times with sheep's dung; and 14 
times with night soil, or bullock’s blood. Or in other words, 
an acre of land sown with two bushels of wheat, without ma¬ 
nure, will produce 6 bushels; 10 bushels with vegetable ma¬ 
nures ; 14 bushels with cow dung; 18 bushels with pigeon’s 
dung; 20 bushels with horse dung; 24 bushels with goat's 
dung; 24 bushels with urine ; 24 bushels with sheep’s dung; 
and 28 bushels with night soil, or bullock’s blood. But if the 
land be of such quality as to produce, without manure, 5 
times the sown quantity, then tlie horse dung will yield 14, 
and rhe night soil 19§ the sow-n quantity; or land that will 
yield without manure 10 bushels an acre, manured with 
horse dung will produce 28, and with night soil about 39 bu¬ 
shels of wheat per acre. 
These results, and multitudes of recorded experiments, 
prove that they in no case vary far from the facts, show the 
immense superiority of night soil, or Flemish manure, over 
any hitherto employed. In addition, Dr. Granville found 
that some crops which yield large profits, and are so exten¬ 
sively cultivated in Flanders, can only be obtained in 
abundance, and of the finest quality, by employing what may 
emphatically be termed Flemish manure in the preparation of 
the soil. 
Another important matter in the comparative value of ma¬ 
nures, and of essential practical interest to the farmer, has 
been established by the same autlioritive investigations; and 
that is, that while night soil has produced fourteen times the 
quantity sown, where horse dung has yielded only ten—the 
proportion of the former, or Flemish manure, was, to the 
horse dung employed, only as one to five; so that with one 
ton of the Flemish, a larger produce was obtained than with 
five tons of the best stable ma nure. 
Defence of the American Society for the Diffusion 
of Useful Knowledge* 
CONCLUDED. 
This communication has already reached such a length, that 
we shall say but a very few 7 words, on the only other sub¬ 
ject, which we proposed to touch; the character of the pub¬ 
lished library. 
Your correspondent observes, “ Many of the volumes are 
excellent works in their way; but most of them are not adapt¬ 
ed to the capacities of the young;”—and your own remark is, 
that they are “ wholly unsuited to form the basis of a com¬ 
mon school library for an agricultural population.” 
The circumstances under w hich that library was published, 
have been mentioned ; and it is only necessary, to refer you 
to what has already been said, and to remark here—that the 
library published, was never offered as specimens of what the 
society proposed to produce in the way of school libraries ; 
such libraries, as the society well knew, could not be produc¬ 
ed without the means requisite to employ capable men in pro¬ 
ducing new 7 books, and re-modelling old ones. 
As to the character of the books—we think an examination 
of them, will show many of them to be intelligible and inter¬ 
esting to the most youthful readers at our district schools, 
and scarcely one above the capacity of the elder pupils. The 
objections too, that are made, are not for any bad qualities 
which the books have, but for the absence of certain qualities 
which they ought to have possessed ; no one has denied, that 
the books are valuable as books, but they are not considered 
as possessing all the qualities which should be found in such 
publications. We could add more than this negative praise; 
we could mention those, whose names have added lustre to 
some of most lofty stations both in our state, and in our na¬ 
tional governments, who have examined the published libra¬ 
ry, and have given it their most unqualified approbation. But 
we have no wish to discuss the character of those books; they 
are before the country, and the people may judge for them¬ 
selves. All that we ask, is, that the library may be judged 
w 7 ith reference to the circumstances under which it was pre¬ 
pared: that the motives which led to its publication may be 
appreciated ; and that it may be considered not as a basis of 
a common school library, but as a commencement of a new 
undertaking, made under peculiar difficulties, prepared to 
meet, a peculiar emergency, which would not admit delay. 
We make these statements, not, from feeling that our con¬ 
duct calls for justification ; hut, because w 7 e are not willing, 
that a combination of means, the result of great labor, arid 
capable, as we believe, of effecting great ends, should be ren¬ 
dered useless, by a misconception of our proceedings, or a 
misconstruction of our motives. 
We embarked in this cause, undera sense of duty ; we have 
devoted to it money, lime, and labor, under a feeling that we 
were bound to do what w e could to supply the great want of 
our country—a want, which every reflecting man sees, and 
every good man desires to remove. We have, after much 
exertion, provided means* wdiich we believe, if carried to 
perfection, will be commensurate with the great objects we 
wish to effect: we shall proceed in using our utmost powers 
in perfecting those means; and should we fail, however much 
we may regret not having accomplished what we had hoped 
for our country’s good, we will have the satisfaction of hav¬ 
ing done our duty in this great matter, and will have reliev¬ 
ed ourselves from all responsibility for our failure, by having 
done all we could to ensure success. 
But we shall not fail. An interest in education, has always 
been a predominant one in the minds of the American peo¬ 
ple: and every day are we receiving Irom different quarters 
of our country, encouragement to go on in the w 7 ork ve have 
undertaken. Arrangements are making, which will soon pro¬ 
duce a library possessing those qualities, which the inauspi¬ 
cious state of the times, prevented our giving to the first se¬ 
ries; and the benevolent and the patriotic, are responding 
cheerfully to our applications for pecuniary aid. 
We call upon every lover of his country, to aid us in our 
undertaking ; we ask him to examine for himself, whether 
the measures we have adopted, are, or are not adapted to the 
ends we propose; and should there be any thing erroneous, 
or any thing defective in our plans or proceedings, we ask his 
friendly counsel and advice, and while he corrects our errors, 
to do justice to our motives: But should he find, that the 
means we have selected, are well calculated to elevate the 
character of our national education, and to extend its limits, 
we do not solicit as a favor to ourselves, but rather demand, 
as a duty to his country, to his children, and to himself, not 
to stand an idle spectator of our proceedings, still less, to 
throw obstacles in our path—but to exert to the utmost the 
powers which God has given him, whether talent, wealth, or 
influence, in co-operating with ns in the great enterprize of 
extending the benefits of sound education throughout our 
whole land. New-York, March 1st, 1839. 
On behalf of the Executive Committee. 
James Brown, Cornelius Baker, 
Thomas Cock, Robert Kelly, 
John T. Gilchrist, Geo F. Allen, 
A. P. Halsey, Chas. Sam’l. Stewart. 
4k 
