SAVING MANURE. 
We witnessed on the farm of Mr. Jonas Steiger., 
Enfield Ct., a few months since, a good plan of mana¬ 
ging manure. Large cisterns or vats were constructed 
under the stables where the cattle and horses were kept, 
into which the urine was conducted. The manure, inter¬ 
mixed with straw, litter, turf, &c., was piled up in square 
heaps over the cisterns, and the urine pumped up, and 
by means of spouts turned equally over the manure. All 
the liquid which soaked from the heaps, was again con¬ 
ducted into the cisterns. The liquid was turned on the 
manure in just such quantity as to keep up the degree 
of moisture necessary to gradual decomposition—vio¬ 
lent heat being never allowed, as it would dissipate 
some of the valuable parts of the manure. If there is 
too little moisture, the heat rises too high, and more 
liquid is pumped on to check it. 
It strikes us that this is a good mode of making com¬ 
post. It may not, perhaps, be so readily carried on in 
cold freezing weather, but during such weather, it 
should be remembered, the manure is not subject to 
waste by fermentation, and it may be piled for compost¬ 
ing in the spring. The cisterns, however, should be of 
sufficient capacity to hold all the urine which may be 
made during the cold weather. 
Mr. Steiger is from Switzerland, and had only been 
on the farm, at the time we called on him, about six 
months. His residence in Switzerland was not far from 
Hofwyl, and he was formerly acquainted with Fellen- 
berg and with the management of his celebrated agri¬ 
cultural school. It is not unlikely that the mode of 
managing manures above mentioned, may have been 
derived from Fellenburg’s Institution, as according to a 
letter of our correspondent, Mr. Horsford, (which will 
be given in our next,) it agrees with the practice there 
followed. 
We were gratified to observe that Mr. S. had com¬ 
menced on his farm several valuable improvements; 
though from the short time the place had been in his 
possession, and the exhausted and worn down condition 
it was in at the time he purchased it, it could not be 
expected that everything would at once be set right. 
It is not improper to remark that Mr. S. holds the 
patent, for the United States, of a machine invented 
about two years since in France, for knitting cloths and 
various garments. It appears to be an article of great 
value. He has now twenty-four machines, worked by 
water-power in operation, and has others in progress. 
A machine will make from thirty to sixty yards per 
day. The materials used are cotton, worsted, common 
woolen yarn, and silk, of all various degrees of fine¬ 
ness and quality. Some of the articles produced are 
very beautiful, and they are said to be generally supe¬ 
rior in cheapness and durability to woven goods. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE ESSEX (MASS ) AG- SOCIETY- 
We tender our thanks to John W. Proctor, Esq. for 
a pamphlet of 125 pages containing the doings of the so¬ 
ciety for the last year. This is one of the oldest and 
most useful agricultural societies in the country, and is 
said to have been the first in Massachusetts to publish 
in detail its Transactions. We are informed in a note to 
Mr. Stone’s address, contained in the pamphlet before 
us, that the Hon. Timothy Pickering was the presi¬ 
ding officer of this society for ten successive years, and 
that J. W. Proctor, the present secretary, has held 
that office for twenty years. 
Mr. Stone’s address contains much that is interesting, 
but we have room for but a brief notice of it. It par¬ 
ticularly encourages the introduction of the study of ag¬ 
riculture into our schools. «I wish,” says Mr. S., “ to 
see the subject of agriculture hold a place in our school¬ 
books as prominent, at least, as that of war. If the spir¬ 
it of the latter is to be fostered wher.e young ideas bud 
and often fruit, by the charms of poetry, it cannot be 
asking too much that the praises of peaceful agriculture be 
said in sober prose. The relation which the latter holds 
to the former, in some of our school-books, affords little 
hope for an improved public sentiment while they con¬ 
tinue in popular use.” 
Mr. Stone observes that es there is frequent complaint 
among farmers that their sons early imbibe a distaste for 
agriculture—that as soon as they are of an age to be 
useful, they seek employment and leave them to manage 
the homestead under the disadvantage of hired assist¬ 
ance.” Mr. S. thinks this evil would be in a great 
measure remedied, if the elements of agriculture were 
made a branch of study in our common schools. “ Pos¬ 
sibly,” he continues, “some may consider this a useless 
appendage to the studies now pursued—they may think 
that a boy can learn enough of agriculture on the farm, 
without the study of books. But if I have rightly esti¬ 
mated the influence of books or the choice of pursuits, 
then this study, so far from being useless, will be found 
an important auxiliary to an interest from which other 
interests are annually abstracting much of the best tal¬ 
ent.” 
INDIAN CORN. 
Mr. Tucker —Of all the crops which are raised in 
the middle states of the union, none are of so mnch im¬ 
portance to the farmer as the corn plant, not only for 
its valuable grain, but its leaves, husks, and stalks, for 
fodder and manure; no plant which he cultivates being 
so well adapted to hold the valuable parts of the faces 
and urine of the barn-yard from the pithy structure of 
its interior. 
Corn, for success, requires a loose and rich soil, by 
which a rapid growth is obtained, and is thus ena¬ 
bled to overcome the changes incident to spring and 
its two ordinary and most powerful enemies, the wire- 
worm and the grub. The ravages of the former, are 
as we all know, below the surface, appear to be pro¬ 
portioned to the hardiness and probable poverty of the 
soil, preying on the main root, effectually preventing all 
production of the grain, if not destroying the plant. 
The grub, on the contrary, cuts off the stem near the 
surface; its range of destruction more general as re¬ 
gards soil, but evidently feeding from preference upon 
the more feeble plants, and therefore by complying 
with the conditions requisite for a vigorous growth, its 
action is but feeble. So also when corn is planted upon 
a sod recently turned under, the grub finding still its 
accustomed food. 
There is also another observation which I wish to 
have recorded, being important to prove, if true, or to 
set aside, if false. It is the belief that the tendency of 
the corn plant is to produce a greater yield of grain in 
northern climates, and less grain and more leaf and stalk 
in southern ones; no state in the union producing such 
prodigious crops, per acre, as New-York, for example. 
Should this be the fact, it will lead the farmers here, 
and further south, not to force the plant after it has 
escaped its early enemies, but to reserve its strength 
and that of the soil, to near the time of setting; merely 
giving a healthy growth by moderate, and not excessive 
cultivation, previous to that important state of its being. 
For the first years of my farming the manure was 
spread in the spring, upon a sod, for corn, finishing in 
time to plow for planting. This plan was changed, 
hauling out and spreading it the preceding autumn, 
plowing as before. This latter method appeared to 
be preferable, giving not only a quicker growth to the 
young plants, but evidently a better stand. I also no¬ 
ticed that the effect of the manure from remaining upon 
the surface for so long a period comparatively, was to 
make the soil loose or mellow, and to render the wire- 
worm and grub no longer causes of uneasiness. 
The good effect of covering the ground in the autumn 
for the corn crop, were fully confirmed on an adjoin¬ 
ing farm, and the knowledge thus obtained, led to the 
plan which at present I pursue. My neighbor com¬ 
menced by hauling out the manure which was left af¬ 
ter preparing his wheat ground, which sufficed for only 
I about one third of it. He then proceeded to cover the 
