250 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
^qrn (Kijonantg. 
MANURE IN NEW ENGLAND. 
Mr. E. H. Judd recently read a paper be¬ 
fore the Franklin Harvest Club upon 
“ Manures and their application ” which we 
find reported in the New England Home¬ 
stead as follows Mr. Judd is one of the 
most extensive market gardeners of the 
Connecticut Valley, buys large quantities of 
manures, and knows how to apply them 
intelligently. He said, that stable, or bam 
yard manure hud always given him more 
satisfaction than any of the commercial 
fertilizers, although he had been obliged to 
buy more or less of these manufactured 
articles, and they had served a good purpose 
in stimulating his crops, Mr. Judd advised 
more attention being paid to the methods of 
making, and increasing the quantity of 
stable manures and gave comparisons of 
their different values, and how obtained. 
He said the more nutritious food fed to the 
animal, the more value iu the fertilizer, t hat 
made largely from grain fed, was worth 
double that made from hay and roots. It 
has been shown by experiments, that a cow 
fed cn good hay and grain, will make ten lbs. 
of solid matter, to 100 lbs. of urine, but 
when fed on hay alone, only six and one-half 
lbs. of solid excrement,. Manure made from 
green feed is not worth more than one-half 
as much its when the animal is fed on dry 
feed, although the bulk of the manure is 
greater. I bn se manure is the most valuable, 
because it has less water than cattle manure, 
decomposes and acts on the solid quicker, 
because it contains more nitrogen. The 
same applies to sheep manure being worth 
double the cattle excrement. Hog manure 
varies in quality, according to the character 
of the feed. 
Mr. Judd gave his methods of applying 
manures. For tobacco, plow in twelve 
cords of stable early in the spring and then 
after cross plowing the land about the time 
the tobacco is set. In treating grass lands 
Mr. Judd considered it more valuable to turn 
it over and re seed rather than to apply 
manure for top dressing. For a premium 
crop of potatoes, he would plow and harrow 
fine, and drill three and one-half feet apart 
as deep as the land Is plowed, dropping the 
seed in the furrow, and drop manure at the 
rate of four cords to the acre on top of the 
seed. Four cords of manure to the acre 
yielded him last, year 200 bushels of potatoes. 
Mr. Judd believed that special crops and 
garden vegetables paid in proportion to the 
amount of fertilizers used and, the rapid 
growth, ho as to get them into market early. 
Davis H. Clark of Easthampton, another 
extensive market gardener, thought that 
Farmers could compound their own Ferti¬ 
lizers with great economy, or get them made 
by a formula prepared by Prof. Vi lie of 
France, or Prof. StOCkbridge of the Massa¬ 
chusetts Agricultural College. By those form¬ 
ulas, prepared for special crops, the want of 
the crop is supplied in just the kind and 
quantity of fertilizing elements needed, and 
•without any waste or misuse of these 
materials, the crop can be increased very 
largely over barnyard manures. He also 
believed in the use of fish guauo. and it was 
better to compost it with muck. 
Milo J. Smith of Smiths’ Ferry, spoke of 
the great waste iu barn-yard manures. Barns 
should be constructed so as to save all the 
liquids from the stable, and by the use of 
absorbents, it could be utlized so as to make 
a great saving. The manure could be large¬ 
ly increased by making compost heaps, using 
all the materials that can be gathered from 
the farm, and mixed scrapings of the barn¬ 
yard. 
Iu the application of manures, Mr. Smith 
believes iu plowing not over six inche3 deep, 
less for coarse manures, or spread on top 
and harrow in, so as to have the manure 
near the surface. Grass lands are best fer¬ 
tilized by being turned over. 
H. L. Phelps of Southampton, who gives 
his attention to the mixing of manures, said 
that it was a settled fact that farmers could 
use prepared fertilizers, that could be relied 
upon, same as barn-yard manures. The 
analysis of born-yard manure, or pure ani¬ 
mal excrement showed that one ton contain¬ 
ed 1400 lbs. of water and 400 lbs. of carbon¬ 
aceous matter, so there was but. 200 lbs. in a 
single ton that had any fertilizing material 
of value, and the reduction of that by 
chemical analysis gave the proportions : 
lbs. of nitrogen...22 cts 
12 “ •“ potash. -. 7 “ 
5 “ u phosphoric acid.12!4 “ 
with lime valued about 25 cents. The whole 
can be bought for about $3.50 in its pure 
chemical form. Mr. Phelps also said that 
the fertility which is required to raise an 
acre of tobacco or that an acre of tobacco 
exhausts, could be replaced in chemicals at a 
cost not exceeding $45. 
H. (J. Haskell of Deerfield, was buying 
tobacco stems at a cost of of $20 per ton, and 
tobacco dust for about $10 per loti more, 
which he considered cheap as compared 
with other fertilizer*. He had applied fish 
to grass lands with good effect. 
J. W. Hubbard of Northampton said he 
had applied tobacco stalks on grass, spread¬ 
ing them on in the fall, and raking off in the 
spring. They show good effect on the hay 
crop the first year, but it did not last long. 
He thought they were worth about five 
dollars. 
Jtutufilijral cbopicii. 
A WORKING FARMER TALKS TO A 
NOVICE. 
To a*Novice in Agriculture Having 
received your letter with another from a 
State still further South, in which the writer 
asks for an answer through one of the lead¬ 
ing papers, 1 will combine both replies so as 
to have them give ail the information re¬ 
quired in both communications, which will 
explain allusion to crops and animals not 
mentioned by you ; and as the number of 
acres is nearly double in one instance, the 
smaller farm will, of course, reckon half in 
all calculations, <fec. 
First, as you have ample means, don’t reDt 
on shares or by any money rental, as is cus¬ 
tomary at the pre-cut day ; because, if you 
do, by the time you have gained all the 
knowledge 1<> farm yourself, there will be 
| such reduced fertility that your knowledge 
will he too late to avail, as your beautiful 
blue grass will have been destroyed and you 
cannot bring it, back: for those who hA , e 
told you clover will enable you to continue 
cropping without any abatement in the yield 
of wheat or corn, have said that which is 
untrue. 
There is a fine tract of land in an adjoining 
County to the one you are going to, which 
has been farmed almost exactly as you say 
you were advised ; and it cannot, be rented 
to pay taxes and keep up repairs in Aauocs, 
being completely exhausted, and the owner 
of it has been obliged to take a Government 
appointment to keep up lus standing in the 
society he was raised in. 
Yen have about 400 acres which lias been 
plowed for the last twelve years, 300 still in 
timber, which is too thick to allow grass to 
grow, and 200 which has trees scattered over 
it, and is a line blue grass pasture, and 150 
lying by the “water,” (you did not say lake 
or river,) which is subject to inundations in 
spring. 
The 400 acres has been planted with corn 
and wheat and in the 12 years has had clover, 
which was mowed for hay on the parts first 
“subdued”—or in other words, first exhaust¬ 
ed ; for Western and South -western farmers 
don’t think of clover till they or their ten¬ 
ants cannot grow eorn and wheat to pay for 
cultivation ; mid then, because the clover 
roots run deep into the soil and mellow the 
under strata, while, at the same Lime the net¬ 
work of fibrous roots freshen the top soil, 
causing a good crop to succeed the clover, 
ignoiant men think this kind of cropping can 
go on for ever ; and others who know bet¬ 
ter, will pretend to believe in such folly to 
sell their worn-out land or to excuse their 
selfish and very unpatriotic proceedings. 
Instead of permitting the heaps of wheat 
straw to lie and waste in the fields, Novice 
will do well to haul it home and put it all in 
good, well-built stacks, and this summer de¬ 
cide on erecting some good cattle barns; and 
before doing so go to Mr. Alexander’s, and 
other well known stock raisers, and after 
hearing wliat they say and also talking to the 
herdsmen and men employed among homes, 
&e., relative to the convenience of the sta¬ 
bles, and questioning all as to improvements 
which could be made in new ones, Novice 
can arrive at a satisfactory conc'usiou as to 
the very best plan ; and by having a good 
builder with, him a better homestead than 
either of those viewed can be erected and 
the whole may combine theadvantnges with¬ 
out having one of the inconveniences. 
Having every comfort for good stock, the 
next step will be to decide on the course to 
pursue, whether to raise thoroughbreds for 
sale as breeders, or to raise good grades or 
half-breeds from grade dams, and whether 
sheep shall be a portion of the live stock. As | 
Novice knows little about, the different varie¬ 
ties of animals coming under the head of 
pure breeds, it will be best to commence 
with good, useful, common stock as far as 
females are concerned, and use pure bred 
males ; skid the same with sheep, &c., hav¬ 
ing good men who have been in the service 
of noted business men; and then, in the 
course of two or three years, some first-class 
pure bred females can be bought and the 
whole of the animals can be pure if Novice 
should, on trial, find them more congenial to 
his taste and more profitable to sell than the 
cross breeds. As the 400 acres is what may 
be termed arable, it may be well to crop it 
in a systematic manner and grow such crops 
as will assist in fat tening the various animals 
coming round every year, for beef, mutton, 
&c. Good clover hay, if cut when just come 
and coming into bloom, will not take out of 
the soil near so much as the shade and the 
feeding of the after growth wit h sheep, &c M 
will add ; whereas, if allowed to get nearly 
ripe, as many farmers rlobefore it is mowed, 
the stems become woody and the land is 
robbed to make the hay unpalatable and less 
nourishing. If a dairy is established, very 
great assistance can lie given by growing 
forage crops to be cut green and given the 
cows at milking time, thus helping the past¬ 
ure ; and it causes the cows to give a great 
deal more milk. 
Sheep are t he very best and most profitable 
in tin long rim on any farm ; they assist 
so very much in keeping up good fertility; 
and it is a fact which ought to be known far 
and near that as many sheep as there were 
acres have been kept on poor farms which 
had failed to remunerate for cultivation ; and 
after these invaluable animals had been fed 
ou the farm, there was more grain and more 
produce of every kind grown over and above 
what t he sheep ate than ever had been raised 
before. Iu England there arc thousands of 
farms averaging 300 acres each which have 
as mauy sheep on them us there are acres, 
and a cow for every ten acres as well, be¬ 
sides horses enough to work the land and find 
“nags” for recreation and marketing, and 
selling two or three cart horses und as many 
saddle horses. Bid ter sells higher in propor¬ 
tion than meat or wool, so it would be wise 
to have a proportion 'Of all kinds of stock ; 
and with the many advantages of climate, 
by taking care of manure at the homestead, 
using the whole of the straw arid instead of 
only having one wagon on a large farm, 
making use of carts to haul out dung, und 
growing some crops to come all the year 
round for the keeping of every kind of ani¬ 
mal in the most prosperous condition, rest 
assured the very b 2 st results would ensue. 
A Working Farmer. 
cJpetd 0|r|Oj}s. 
FIELD NOTES. 
Harrowing Wheat .—A Tennessee farmer, 
writing the Rural Sun under date of March 
1.5, says It will pay to harrow wheat, and 
pa 3 r well, and the time is now at hand to do 
the work. Have the harrow sharp, the land 
in good order (not too wet), sow' clover seed, 
and then harrow well, and it would be still 
better to follow with a good roller, and when 
your clover seed is well up sow 75 to 100 lbs, 
of gypsutu or land plaster to the acre, and 
you may feel easy, for no ordinary drouth 
will kill your young clover. Besides, you 
will be well paid for your labor in the in¬ 
creased production of wheat. Try it, farm¬ 
ers, and leave a space unharrowed and un¬ 
plastered to test the value of the experiment, 
and report results. 
Alfalfa Culture .—A correspondent of the 
Rural World says :—1. It does not injure by 
tramping iu winte r* 2, It lias no outs or ob¬ 
jections that I am aware of. 3. It does not 
slobber horses like common clover. 4. As to 
its effect ou pregnant brood mares I cannot 
write with lull knowledge, but am of the 
opinion that it has none of the bad effects of 
clover. 5. Iu sowing, the ground must be | 
well plowed and harrowed fine ; then sow 
llie seed, aud cover with a brush if conveni¬ 
ent, as a harrow is liable to bury the seed too 
deep unless the ground is smooth. 0. It can 
bo sown from March until May, but I prefer 
early sowing. Sow 10 lbs. to the acre—by 
self, as it does not do well with any other 
crop. 
Sweet Coni for Forage— Mr. Stebbins of 
South Deerfield, Mass., recommends, for a 
forage crop, planting a good supply of sweet 
corn, in hills, 2}4 feet apart, and cultivate it 
like any other crop. There is more value in 
the stalks than when it is sown, and he would 
not cut it up until the ears had half grown, 
and then feed it out in the fall, as it did not | 
pay to cure it. 
it ^ti'inc-gcnl. 
DISEASES OF SWINE. 
— 
A correspondent asks the Rural New- 
Yorkkr to give a list of the diseases which 
affect swine, or to recommend him to some 
work that will, with diagnosis, preventives 
and remedies, This is a rather formidable 
req lest, nor can wc comply with it, for the 
reason that we. do not know all the diseases 
of swine, nor of any published work which 
gives them. But we can do better. We can 
assert, without fear of contradiction, we 
think, that, there, is no need that a hog or pig 
should be diseased ; that more, if not all, of 
the diseases of swine are caused as follows : 
1. By want of proper food at the proper 
time, consequent upon the lack of knowledge 
of the physiology, nature and demands of 
the animal. 
2. By want of proper protection from ex¬ 
posure to the elements ; for too large a pro¬ 
portion of farmers treat swine as if they 
lacked all sensitivenesst>climatic conditions, 
which would kill a man if he were exposed 
to the same. It is a mist ake that too mauy 
people make, that highly-fed animals are so 
much hardier and can endure so much more 
exposure|than mankind with impunity. Our 
civilized animals require, proportionately, as 
great aa amount of protection and attention 
to their hygienic treatment as the civilized 
man. 
3. To epitomize, therefore, swine require 
good, wholesome food, varied in character, 
according to the season ; pure water, protec¬ 
tion from storms and cold, (as well as from 
the extreme heat of the sun) protection from 
malarial influences, and to he kept clean, 
warm and dry. 
Wc have never known a swineherd who 
observed these conditions who did not. suc¬ 
ceed in having healthful swine, unless he pur¬ 
chased animals that had inherited disease. 
If our correspondent, therefore, will secure 
to liis swine these conditions of health, we 
imagine lie will have little need to study 
the diseases of swine, or practice as a physi¬ 
cian upon them. 
-- 
HOG CHOLERA REMEDY. 
An “Old Hog-Raiser” writes to the Rural 
World as follows:—“Having seen many 
recipes for hog cholera, I propose giving one 
that has never been known to fail when 
properly administered, i would advise every 
reader of your interesting paper to carefully 
preserve this one, as 1 aud several of my 
neighbors have cured hogs after they were 
past eating food, and were purging and vom¬ 
iting severely by giving the medicine accord¬ 
ing to the following directions. Go to the 
druggist and order the following prescrip¬ 
tion Madder, resin, powdered sulphur, salt¬ 
peter, each 1 lb.; copperas, black antimony, 
arsenic, each ’.j lb.; powdered asafeetida, 
lb. 
“ Directions—Pulverize and mix well the 
ingredients ; then add one-third of this quan¬ 
tity of salt and as much wood or coal ashes 
as there is of the compound. Dose—One 
tablespoonful to each Jiog twice a day when 
affected. When the hog begins to mend so 
as to eat his food, give one tablcspoonful 
once a day for a week, then once a week for 
a month as a preventive. In giving the medi¬ 
cine, it is a good plan to separate sick hogs 
from the well ones and put the sick ones in a 
dry, close pen, aud let them remain from four 
to six hours, without water; then give the 
medicine in clear, cold water. The hogs will 
usually eat the medicine in wheat, bran or 
ground feed of any kind.” 
-- 
PIG-PEN PAPERS. 
Pure-bred Yorkshire*. —“Can they be ob¬ 
tained pure, in this country ? 1 confess I have 
never seen one, though I have seen many so- 
called Yorkshires—but not. such as I was fa¬ 
miliar with in Yorkshire.” So asks an En¬ 
glishman. We remember some years ago to 
have seen in the possession of an Englishman 
near Milwaukee, Wis., several Yorkshires 
which we kuew lie imported, and which 
seemed to meet the descript ions of that breed 
we had read. Whether the stock lias been 
kept pure or not, we cannot say • and we 
have not, at this writing, access to tne notice 
made of them at the time, hence cannot give 
the owner’s name. 
Berkshire- Herd Book,—l should like to 
know what is to be the basis upon which 
Berkshire animals are admitted to the pro¬ 
posed herd book. To what importations 
must they be traced f Or how is tins thing 
to be done ? Perhaps you can inform—A 
Berkshire Breeder. 
We cannot ; but if you will address A. M. 
Garland, Springfield, Ill., Secretary of the 
American Berkshire Swine Association, you 
will probably obtain answers to your ques¬ 
tions. 
_—Bra 
v 
