i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
47 
LEACHED FARM YARD MANURES. 
Bulletin No. 13 from the Experiment 
Station at Cornell University. As the 
R. N.-Y. stated last week, this is one of the 
most valuable bulletins ever issued from 
our experiment stations. It deals with a 
most important matter—with an agricultu¬ 
ral error that can be noticed everywhere. 
The design of the experiment was to dis¬ 
cover the loss sustained by horse ma¬ 
nure when thrown out in a pile unshel¬ 
tered from the weather, the loss sustained 
by uncovered mixed manure when piled in 
a close pile so that fermentation is very 
slow, and the loss when manure simply 
dries without fermentation. Here we have 
a summary of the results: 
“The results of one season’s trial seem to 
show that horse manure thrown in a loose 
pile and subjected to the action of the ele¬ 
ments will lose nearly one-half its valuable 
fertilizing constituents in the course of six- 
months ; that mixed horse and cow manure 
in a compact mass and so placed that all 
water falling upon it quickly runs through 
and off is subjected to a considerable, 
though not so great a loss, and that no ap¬ 
preciable loss takes place when manure 
simply dries.” 
These experiments seem to have been 
conducted very carefully. We always ex¬ 
pect careful work from Profs. Roberts and 
Wing. As the R. N.-Y. wants every one 
of its readers to send for this bulletin and 
study it, we shall merely call attention to 
a few significant facts. 
Go through the country and see how- 
many farmers throw their manure out of 
the barn windows to be washed by the 
rains. The barn at the R. N.-Y.’s. New 
Jersey farm was so placed by the man who 
built it that the manure was thrown out 
on to a little hill that slopes to a brook. 
Whenever it rains a brown stream may be 
seen trickling away to the brook. There 
are thousands of such manure locations. 
Prof. Roberts found that manure in such 
a pile lost 42 per cent, of its value in one 
season. That is to say, a ton of fresh horse 
manure contained enough of the elements 
that make chemical fertilizers valuable to 
be worth §2.45. After being exposed for six 
months the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash left w T ere worth only §1.42, showing 
a loss of §1.03 per ton; and it w-as the most 
available, hence the most valuable portion 
of the manure that was washed out, too. 
Now you farmers w-ho leave your manure 
on hill sides to leach into the brook, at the 
figures above quoted, how long will it take 
for you to lose more than enough to pay 
for a roof over the manure and a water¬ 
proof floor under it ? 
Some years ago Prof. Shelton of the 
Kansas Station, tried similar experiments. 
This is his conclusion : 
“The moral which the experiment plain¬ 
ly emphasizes is, that farm-yard manure 
must be hauled to the field in the spring; 
otherwise the loss of manure is sure to be 
very great, the waste in the course of six 
months amounting to fully one-half the 
gross manure and nearly 40 per cent, of the 
nitrogen that it contained.” 
It must be remembered that if this leach¬ 
ing had taken place out in the field, where 
the manure was to be used, the loss would 
have been less because the soil would have 
retained a good deal of the leached fertili¬ 
ty. This bulletin is aimed directly at the 
all-too-common practice of leaving manure 
exposed in hill-side barn-yards. No won¬ 
der “ farmin’ don’t pay ” on hill-side farms 
w-here 42 per cent, of the value of the ma¬ 
nure runs down to the river! Farming 
will never pay as it should on such farms 
until covered yards or sheds are provided, 
or the manure is hauled directly to the 
field where the soil may get what it can of 
the leachings. 
The experiment w-ith manure exposed to 
the sun, brings up the plan followed by the 
farmers at Cranbury, N. J. They haul 
their manure in August and spread it on 
the clover. With them there is little or no 
loss from leaching, as the manure, if not 
kept under cover, is kept in level yards 
with plenty of straw and stalks and it is 
well tramped by stock. The Cranbury 
farmers argue that the manure loses noth¬ 
ing by exposure to the hot summer sun, 
and Prof. Roberts’s experiment would seem 
to prove the correctness of their claims. 
In fact, this coating of manure, by serving 
as a mulch, may improve the mechanical 
condition of the soil, aside from the fer¬ 
tility it may add to it. 
The bulletin also contains some conclus¬ 
ions regarding the effect of a grain ration 
tor cows at pasture. The R. N.-Y. will re¬ 
fer to these at a more seasonable time. 
The leached mauuie question is a matterof 
prime importance just now-. Every day 
from now until the first of May, thousands 
of dollars’ worth of fertility will run away 
from the barn yards of New York State. 
That flow must be stopped. It is as dan¬ 
gerous to farming as the opening of a small 
vein in a man’s body is to the human sys¬ 
tem. Stop it! This bulletin should 
frighten any intelligent farmer whose 
premises would give a photographer a 
chance to make a picture such as is se^n in 
this bulletin. 
“ Every Man is presumed to know the 
La w. Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises 
from Ignorance of Law." 
LAW REGULATING THE SALE OF FERTI¬ 
LIZERS. 
L. M. S., Morgan County, Ohio. —What 
is the law regulating the sale of commer¬ 
cial fertilizers in this State ? 
Axs.—The Ohio law regulating the sale 
of commercial fertilizers is substantially 
the same as the laws upon the same subject 
in the other States in which any laws on 
the matter are in existence. It may there¬ 
fore be well to give a full synopsis of the 
Ohio law, as clearly indicating the general 
scope of the laws elsewhere. In Ohio it is 
provided that any person or company who 
shall sell or expose for sale in that State 
any commercial fertilizer, the price of 
which exceeds §10 per ton, shall conspic¬ 
uously affix on the outside of each pack¬ 
age a plainly printed certificate, stat¬ 
ing the number of pounds therein, the 
name or trademark under which the article 
is sold, the name of the manufacturer, the 
place of manufacture and a chemical analy¬ 
sis stating the percentage of nitrogen or its 
equivalent in ammonia, in an available 
form; of potash soluble in water, and of 
phosphoric acid in an available form (sol¬ 
uble or reverted) as well as the total phos¬ 
phoric acid. Moreover, before any ferti¬ 
lizer is sold or offered for sale within the 
State, the person so doing shall file with 
the Secretary of the State Board of Agri¬ 
culture a certified copy of the above certifi¬ 
cate, and deposit with him a sealed glass 
jar containing not less than one pound of 
the fertilizer, with an affidavit that it is a 
fair average sample. The manufacturer, 
agent or importer of any fertilizer, exceed¬ 
ing §10 per ton in price, shall pay annually, 
on or before May 1, a license fee of §20 for 
selling the same within the State, to the 
Secretary of the State Board of Agricul¬ 
ture, provided that when the manufacturer 
or importer has paid this fee, the agent 
shall not be required to do so. All analy¬ 
ses of the commercial fertilizers sold within 
the State, shall i e made by or under the 
direction of the Secretary of the State 
Board of Agriculture and be paid for out 
of the fund arising from the license fees, 
and at least one analysis of each fertilizer 
must be made each year. 
So far as penalties are concerned, any one 
who shall expose or offer for sale any com¬ 
mercial fertilizer, without complying with 
the provisions of the law, or who shall per¬ 
mit an analysis to be attached to any pack¬ 
age of such fertilizer stating that it con¬ 
tains a larger percentage of any of the con¬ 
stituents named in the act than it really 
does contain, shall be fined not less than 
§200 for the first offense, and not less than 
§500 for every subsequent offense, and shall 
also be liable for all damages sustained by 
the purchaser thereof, provided, however, 
that a deficiency of one per cent, of nitro¬ 
gen, potash, or phosphoric acid, claimed to 
be contained, shall not be evidence of 
fraudulent intent. Suits may be brought 
to recover fines and damages under this 
law in the county where the fertilizer was 
offered for sale, or where it was manufac¬ 
tured ; and all fines shall be paid into the 
treasury of the State by the courts collecting 
the same. All suits for the recovery of fines 
shall be brought by the Secretary of the 
State Board of Agriculture in the name of 
the State. Said Secretary or any person 
by him authorized, is empowered to select 
from any package of commercial fertilizer 
exposed for sale in any county in the State, 
a quantity not exceeding two pounds for 
analysis in order to compare the results 
with the analysis of the sample deposited 
with the Secretary and with that in the 
printed certificate on the package from 
which the specimen was taken. Who¬ 
ever sells or offers for sale any guano or 
manufactured fertilizer, without attach¬ 
ing to the package containing the same, a 
printed analysis thereof, shall be fined not 
more than §200 or less than §20, or shall 
suffer imprisonment for not more than 30 
days, or both. 
Thus it will be seen that, so far as the law 
can do so, the farmers of Ohio are carefully 
protected against frauds in the sale of fer¬ 
tilizers; and in most of the older States 
laws substantially the same are on the stat¬ 
ute books, the differences relating chiefly 
to the fees and the penalties. Many farm¬ 
ers, however, are ignorant of the existence 
or of the provisions of these laws, and some 
of those whose business it is to see that 
they are properly enforced are either culpa¬ 
bly negligent or corruptly remiss in attend¬ 
ing to their duty; hence swindles in the sale 
of commercial fertilizers still continue, even 
in States where stringent laws discourage 
them. People eager for large gains, espe¬ 
cially where these are dishonest, are always 
ready to run big risks. 
INCORPORATING A CORPORATION. 
C. E. P., Cobble skill, N. Y. —What is the 
New York State law relating to the incor¬ 
poration of farmers’ clubs for the purpose 
of doing the business of the members ? We 
have over 500 members, and are conducting 
business, but find it difficult to do so owing 
to not having any legal standing. We desire 
to turn our present sinking-fund into stock 
and issue more, so as to get a large propor¬ 
tion of the farmers of the county to take 
hold of the stock. Our idea is to have all 
the farmers in the county, and none but 
farmers, stockholders. Our aim is to buy 
goods for the members at wholesale prices 
and make all charges as low as possible, and 
sell their produce in the most direct way to 
consumers. Can the shares be as low as §1 
each, and can the members be rendered ex¬ 
empt from liability against claims against 
the corporation ? What would be the total 
cost of incorporating such an association ? 
Axs.—There is no special law for the in¬ 
corporation of farmers’ clubs; but they can 
be easily incorporated under the general 
acts of incorporation of the State. A good 
lawyer should be employed to draw up the 
charter or deed of incorporation of the as¬ 
sociation, as this is a most important 
matter. A corporation being the mere 
creature of law, possesses only those powers 
which its charter confers on it, either ex¬ 
pressly or as incidental to its existence. All 
aggregate corporations—corporations com¬ 
posed of three or more persons—in order to 
accomplish the purpose for which they are 
created, have the following powers ; 1. To 
have perpetual succession usually by elect¬ 
ing members in place of those removed by 
death or otherwise ; 2, to sue and be sued 
by their corporate name ; 3, to buy and sell 
real and personal property; 4, to have and 
use a common seal: 5, to make such rules 
and by laws as are necessary for their own 
government. One of the most notable fea¬ 
tures of a private corporation such as an 
incorporated farmers’ club, is the exemp¬ 
tion of its stock-holders from personal lia¬ 
bility for its debts. If a corporation has 
been legally created, if its organization has 
been legally maintained, and if there is no 
provision in its charter providing for assess¬ 
ments or superseding the rules of common 
law in regard to personal liability, one who 
buys stock may lose his investment by the 
bankruptcy of the corporation : but he can 
lose nothing more. It has been well said 
that “the law recognizes only the crea¬ 
ture of the charter and knows not the indi¬ 
viduals.” The lowest legal par value of 
one share in a legally incorporated associa¬ 
tion in this State is §1. Aside from the fee 
of the lawyer who should draw up the char¬ 
ter, the cost of incorporation should be a 
mere trifle. The fee for incorporation with 
the Secretary of State at Albany varies from 
§1 to §5, according to the nature of the cor¬ 
poration. 
S. T., Cheshire County, N. H .— My farm 
adjoins a school-house yard, and I want to 
erect a bar bed-wire fence to keep the young¬ 
sters out of a piece of land next to the yard. 
The school authorities say they will prose¬ 
cute me if I do; can they successfully do so? 
Ans.—Y es. Two years ago a law was 
passed in New Hampshire prohibiting, un¬ 
der penalty of a fine of §25, the construction 
of a barbed wire fence on any land adjoin¬ 
ing a school lot, in order to prevent injury 
to the bodies and clothes of the youngsters. 
P. M., Afton, Mo.— 1. My neighbor 
made a ditch about four feet deep and 
about 200 feet long, alongside of my land 
and close to the line. Has he the right to 
do it ? 
ANS.—Yes, of course. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Parlor Sets Below Cost !—This is the 
announcement made by the Wilber H. 
Murray Manufacturing Co., of Cincinnati, 
Ohio. Our readers will remember this firm 
as advertising harnesses and carriages, not 
long ago, at prices that fairly took one’s 
breath away. The R. N.-Y. knows that 
thousands of these articles were sold, 
yet no word of complaint or dis¬ 
satisfaction has ever reached us 
from the buyers. This fact gives us confi¬ 
dence in calling attention to the advertise¬ 
ment of furniture. We are very certain 
that farmers who desire to furnish their 
parlors or sitting-rooms will find it to their 
advantage to investigate this offer. And 
these remarks apply to dwellers in towns 
as well. 
IttisniUanmjsi iSUmtiging. 
A SPECIAL FEATURE. 
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Handles exclusively Kansas City in¬ 
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Farm Mortgages. 
PAST INVESTMENTS 
through this eompanyhave yielded nearly $3,000,0(10.IK) 
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PRESENT INVESTMENTS. 
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realize an income of six, seven, eight and ten per 
cent and profits, In a comparatively short time, of 50 
per cent. lDOper cent., and even larger, entirely free 
frr.m speculative features. 
For full particulars send for circulars, pamphlets 
and papers or call. 
WILLIAM H. PARMENTER, 
Cen’l Ag’t, 50 State Street, Boston; 
No. 1 Custom House Street, Providence. R. I.; 
Desk M, Mercantile Safe Deposit Co., 120 
B'way, New York City, every Wednesday. 
HOG CHOLERA AND SWINE PLAGUE 
PREVENTED 
and CURED. 
Particulars! 
and 
Information 
Free. 
AGENTS 
WA N TED. 
W. M. DOLE, 
7 1 Clinton Street, Boston. Mass. 
PATENTS 
THOMAS P. SIMPSON, Washington 
D. C. No attv’s fee until patent ob 
tained. Write for Inventor’s Guide 
CANADA CNLEACHED HARD 
WOOD ASHES, 
NATURE’S COMPLETE FERTILIZER* 
For Iruit, Grass and Grain, Quantity and quality 
guaranteed. By rail in car lots. Send for crick 
PAMPHLET and SAMPLE. 
MUMtOE, JUDSON A STSOUP, OSWEEO, «. Y 
H. S. MILLER & CO., 
-MANUFACTURERS OF- 
Pur© Animal Bon© 
FJER TILIZJERS: 
For all Crops and Soils. Factory and Principal 
Offlce on Passaic River, Newark, N. J. Baltimore 
Office, 302 & 206 Buchanan’s Wharf, foot of Fred¬ 
erick St. Write for “Farmer’s Manual,” mailed Free. 
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