VoL. LI 11 . No. 2340 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER i, 1894. 
*1.(X) PER YEAR 
WHY HE CONDENSED THE MANURE. 
MORP; AROITT TlfAT “IXTENSIVK” PATCH. 
It Was Intensely Poor. 
I have been very miicli interested in reading' what 
I’rof. llol)erts says on page al)out my “intensive 
farming,” described on page 54!). The amoinit of 
manure used, was, according to I’rof. Ilol)erts's show¬ 
ing. very great; and, if liis estimate is correct, out of 
all proper proportion to the results shown. Hut the 
land on which it was applied was so poor that an 
ordinary dressing of manure .showed no effect. 1 be¬ 
lieve that on good soil, 1 should have raised twice the 
value in crops from the maniire and labor expended in 
this case. Hut 1 count, as part of my I'ctui-ns, which 
1 did not show, tlie fact that I liave filled up the 
stomach of that 
bit of “hungry 
land,” and that 
from now on, 
an ordinary 
manuring will 
give me satis¬ 
factory returns 
Hrof. lloberts 1 
k n o w teaches 
that the best 
treatment for 
any land, de¬ 
pends upon its 
condition at the 
time the treat¬ 
ment is begun, 
and that no rule 
can be laid 
down that will 
apply alike to 
all farms—or 
even to all 
fie 1 ds on the 
same farm. 
The land 1 am 
working is just 
about as poor 
as land can be ; 
it is almost 
clear sand and 
has just enough 
vegetable mat¬ 
ter in it to give 
it a slightly 
brown shade 
for from 5 to 15 
inches below 
the surface. So 
light, indeed, 
that much of it 
would blow 
away every fall 
if not held 
down by Crim¬ 
son clover, rye or some other covering. 1 might go on 
till the Judgment Day, spreading manure over my 
“hungry acres ” in ordinary amounts, and get no bet¬ 
ter returns from them than do my neighbors who con¬ 
tinually cry “Farming don’t pay.” They put all the 
manure they make on a piece of ground and plant 
corn on it, after the corn is off, sow it to rye, let the 
cow or horses into the rye stubble the next summer to 
pick up what they can, and the following year manure 
it and plant corn again. Of cour.se the rye cleans up 
what little food the corn leaves, and the land stays 
just as “hungry.” This is the way my land had been 
“ worked” for half a century. 
Having some thoroughbred Jerseys, and believing 
that keeping stock would most quickly and economic¬ 
ally bring up the land, I started a milk dairy. I 
deliver the milk in gla.ss jars, and instead of the one 
cow and one horse which the last occupant of the 
farm kept, 1 keep eight cows and three horses. Hy 
supplementing my manure with fertilizers, I have 
raised all the fodder I needed, but I am now convinced 
that in the present state of my land, I cannot afford 
to do so. 1 can buy corn stover from farmers a few 
miles away, who have heavier land for less money 
than I can raise it. 
My “ salad patch ” has .shown me that I can get more 
money out of the manure 1 produce or buy, by using 
it liberally on a small piece of ground, than I can by 
trying to make it cover as much ground as possible. 1 
do not believe that it ever pays to raise poor, or even 
ordinary, crops. Either reciuires just as much labor 
as an extra good one. aud tlie way to get the latter is 
to condense. Perhaps I condensed too much ; cer¬ 
tainly Prof. Roberts is right in questioning whether 
we can afford to have “ so much dead cajiital in bank ” ; 
I certainly cannot. 1 f my manure was worth as much 
as he figures it, 1 probably put it on too thickly. 
In quantity, I took Peter Henderson for my guide. 
In his Gardening for Profit, he advises, for market 
gardening, “Rotted stable manure to produce full 
crops, should be spread on the ground not less than 
three inches thick.” “Full crops” was what I was 
after, and I knew that he could not have had in mind 
poorer land than mine. I think my manure could not 
have weighed as heavy as the kind they make at Cor¬ 
nell, for it was all hauled by one horse over plowed 
ground in a dump cart, having narrow tires. The 
body of the cart holds 22 cubic feet. The Cornell 
manure weighed 1.5()() pounds to the cubic yard, ecpial 
to 27 cubic feet. This would make my load weigh 
1,210 pounds. 1 am si^re that my horse did not have 
any such load behind him. 
I think that Pi’of. Robei’ts has been too exact and 
that 1 liave been too iiie.xact in regard to the amoiint 
of manure I used. 1 took pains with the first load, to 
see that the manure average<l three inches in depth, 
and directed my man to spread it all over the bed in 
the same way ; biit I did not take a board and level it 
off, fillmg in all the intei'stices as would be necessary 
in order to make the ([uantity hold out according to 
Prof. Roberts's calculation. Henderson .says in con¬ 
nection with the directions 1 have ([noted, “ Gur mar¬ 
ket gardeners use from 50 to 75 tons of well rotted 
stable manure per acre, wheti no concentrated ferti¬ 
lizer is used,’ 
and I think my 
manure must 
have weighed 
more nearly 
like this. 
I get all the 
absorbents pos¬ 
sible into my 
c o w manure, 
put all my horse 
m a n u r e into 
the gutter be¬ 
hind the cows 
to absorb the 
urine, litter the 
stalls with 
chaff, cut straw 
and salt hay, 
and add to my 
m a n u r e pile 
everything 
which I can 
rake and scrape 
together to in¬ 
crease its size 
and al)sorb all 
the liquids. Hy 
doing this, and 
turning it all 
over once or 
twice, 1 get it 
in good condi¬ 
tion to spread 
a n d plow or 
harrow in. If 
the fi g u r e s 
given by Prof. 
Roberts are for 
solid, wet, cow 
manure, they 
could not prop¬ 
erly be applied 
to my compara¬ 
tively dry ma¬ 
nure. I do not think I used as much manure as Prof 
Roberts estimates ; pnjbably (iO tons would be nearer 
right. I am, also, not at all sure that 1 could not 
have got exactly as good resiilts by using somewhat 
less manure ; but this was not what I was after or 
what 1 had in mind when writing about my patch. I 
was thoroughly disgusted with the results of farming 
as most others do it. I was tired of folhiwing a horse 
and cultivator over acres of ground, and getting only 
moderate returns at the best, as I know the vast 
majority of farmers (lo, and I determined to see if I 
could not get better return.-> fcjr the manure and labor 
used, by putting both on a smaller piece of land. I 
am satisfied that 1 am on the right track, and purpose 
to follow it up. I shall put all the manure on a com¬ 
paratively small piece of ground, and cultivate that 
