THE CULTIVATOR. 
109 
daily, he would not do it. When they have the whole 
run, they have a sufficient bite of the new daily growth, 
which is sweeter than any other. 
MANURES. 
At a previous meeting, the subject of manures and ma¬ 
nuring, underwent a most animated and full discussion. 
The point of deep or shallow covering of manures, show¬ 
ed considerable difference of opinion among practical 
farmers. The opinion of some, derived from experience, 
was that there was little danger of covering manure too 
deeply, while others controverted this position strongly. 
The advocates of deep covering manures, adduced Judge 
Buel as in favor of that practice; while others stated 
that they had covered so deep that their crops derived no 
benefit from its application. 
We have tried manures on different soils and at differ¬ 
ent depths, for many years, and carefully noted the results. 
Our experience has convinced us that all manures which 
are unfermented should be covered, but not deeply. The 
use of the covering of earth is to absorb and retain the 
matters, gases, &c. thrown off during decomposition, and 
more than is sufficient for this, is useless if not injurious. 
Composts, or thoroughly rotted manures, may be covered 
slightly, but will produce better effects on crops, if only 
harrowed in on the surface, than if turned under deep 
with the plow. Much too is depending on the character 
of the soil, in applying manures. Long coarse manures 
plowed into compact, heavy soils, render it less dense, 
and are in this way, as well as in the nutrition afforded 
to plants, useful. In light sandy soils, the object is to 
give more compactness to the surface, and hence deep 
covering of the manure, when applied in its long or un¬ 
fermented state, is best; and it was on such a soil that 
Judge Buel's experiments were made. In forming opin¬ 
ions on such matters, attention is usually not sufficiently 
given to the different circumstances of soil, state of ma¬ 
nures, &c., hence such conflicting statements as to prac¬ 
tice and results. We proceed with our condensation of 
reports. 
PREPARATION OF MANURES. 
Mr. Hardy said every farmer has the materials on his 
own farm to enrich it. How shall he apply them? How 
make his compost heaps ? I answer, with his yard ma¬ 
nure, and his soil mixed -with it; and in the room of lime 
and ashes, give me hog’s noses. Writers may talk about 
their chemical or mineral manures; keep hogs, hogs! 
Keep them in cellars, and throw in your hassocks; their 
noses will sooner decompose a hassock, than all the nos¬ 
trums of the chemists. Hogs will work better than your 
Irishmen, though it may cost more to keep them. Hogs 
will work seven days in a week, while you must be pret¬ 
ty lucky to find an Irishman that will work six. If a 
farmer has a dozen head of cattle, he may make 50 cords, 
or 200 loads in a year. He must occasionally haul ma¬ 
terials from the first of July until December. Others, 
nigh the city, may buy manure, but I can’t afford to haul 
it to my farm; I can make it for half of what it costs in 
Boston. Some farmers with 40 head of cattle, make less 
manure, than others with 7 head. Keep cattle, make 
your hogs work; no labor is cheaper than that of the 
hog.” SALT. 
The testimony in favor of the use of salt, was very 
conclusive. Mr. Everett had applied it to corn at the 
rate of two bushels per acre to keep off worms, and with 
the desired effect. The corn grew well, and where the 
salt was strewed most profusely, the crop was most lux¬ 
uriant. The field had not been plowed for a number of 
years. 
Mr. Merriam said he had used it successfully in destroy¬ 
ing worms in his garden. He puts brine in his compost 
heap, and thinks salt a valuable manure, but too costly for 
general use. (In the vicinity of our salines in the inte¬ 
rior, every advantage for experiments with salt is afford¬ 
ed; and we hope it will be undertaken by many. We 
think that the refuse of the works, called bitterns, would 
be a capital manure, especially on dry sandy soils. This 
substance may be obtained in any quantity. It consists 
of muriate and sulphate of lime, strongly impregnated 
with chloride of soda. Some who have tried it, speak 
highly of its efficacy, a result to be inferred from its com¬ 
position.—Eos. Cult.) 
GYPSUM. 
Mr. Everett of Princeton, said that he had used plaster 
in dry ground, successfully; that in a field of potatoes he 
experimented on four rows through the middle of the 
field: in two rows he manured in the hill, in the other 
two, manure was not used. To one of the rows with 
manure, and one without, he applied about a table spoon¬ 
ful of plaster to each hill. The potatoes had a yellow, 
sickly appearance, when they were dressed with the 
plaster, but in a week recovered, and looked well through 
the season; and the rows with the plaster could be dis¬ 
tinguished a mile from the field. When the potatoes 
were dug, the result was as follows: 
1st row with manure alone, it took 28 hills for a bu. 
2d ee with manure and pla&ter, 15 “ 
3d ee plaster, without manure, 20 ee 
4th (< neither plaster or manure, 38 i( 
ASHES AND LIME. 
Dr. Jackson said that ashes and lime alone would ren¬ 
der a soil fertile. He had analyzed a soil, a blowing sand 
which had been manured with ashes alone, for 7 or 8 
years, at the rate of 200 bushels to the acre, and found 
there was 3 per cent gain of organic matter after the 
crop was taken off. Light soils are the most benefited by 
ashes, while heavy clay soils are but little. The first ef¬ 
fects of unleached ashes are the most powerful, but the 
effect in succeeding years, show that leached ashes are 
as good. It should be remembered that the lime which 
is added to leached ashes, more than repays the loss of 
the alkali. 
Mr. Robinson said he had used ashes and lime, mixed, 
two parts of the first to one of the latter, as a manure 
for potatoes; half a pint to a hill, at the time of planting, 
the soil light and loamy. Where the manure was used, 
7 hills produced as much as 12 not so manured. The 
lime had been slacked some time. 
We cannot further extend our condensed extracts at 
this time. The conduct of the Massachusetts Legislature 
is deserving of commendation and imitation. It is our 
firm conviction that if a large portion of the time of the 
legislatures of the several States, that is now occupied in 
filling our statute books with useless or conflicting legis¬ 
lation, was spent in discussing such subjects as the im 
provement of stock, the preparation of manures, or the 
cultivation of crops, the country would be quite as much 
benefited, and their constituents receive as little detri¬ 
ment as they now do. 
FINE MEAT. 
The Centre Market in this city presented a rich show 
on the morning of the 22d of February last. The butch¬ 
ers purchased for that occasion, some of the finest cattle 
and sheep that could be had. Among the cattle were two 
very superior cows; one a full blood Durham, purchased 
of E. P. Prentice, Esq. of this city, and bred in England 
by the Earl of Derby; the other, also a full blood Dur¬ 
ham, bred by Mr. Van Rensselaer, and purchased of Col. 
Gilchrist. Both were remarkable animals, and though no 
particular pains had been taken in fattening them, their 
beef was pronounced of excellent quality. Mr. Pren¬ 
tice’s cow had only been fed with a view of killing her, 
since November last; and previous to that time, she had 
been kept on extremely poor food—for two winters, 
having been fed on nothing but stratv, in the hope of so 
reducing her flesh, that she might again breed. Mr. Gil¬ 
christ’s cow had a calf last spring, and was only five 
years old, yet her beef was of most extraordinary fatness 
and quality. 
The sheep in market were mostly of the Leicester and 
Cotswold breeds, from the flocks of Messrs. McIntyre, 
Bullock, Dunn, &c. They were prodigies of fat—the 
carcases weighing from 130 to 175 pounds each. We 
noticed an uncommonly fine wether, a cross of the Cots¬ 
wold and South Down, bred by Mr. Mclntyrb. 
Liberality in good barns and warm shelters is the 
source of health, strength and comfort to animals; cau¬ 
ses them to thrive on less food, and secures from dangei 
all sorts of garnered crops. 
