1849. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
139 
accounts mentioning that potatoes to which salt had 
been applied, had escaped the disease, while those by 
the side of them which had received no salt had been 
destroyed, I have never made any experiments with 
this article, though I design doing so the coming season. 
The best and safest way of applying salt, I suppose 
to be to scatter it over the ground broadcast after plow¬ 
ing and before harrowing, at the rate of from three to 
five bushels per acre. Some recommend double this 
quantity. The experiment is easily made, and the ex¬ 
pense of trying it on a small scale is trifling. I hope 
the merits of this fertilizer may be more fully tested. 
If the application of three or four bushels to the acre 
does no good, I think we can safely say of it, as of ho¬ 
moeopathic medicine —it will do no harm. 
Should any one who reads this article, be capable of 
giving further information on this subject from his own 
observation or experience, I hope he will do so. J. 
M’Kinstry. Greenport , Columbia Co., N Y, March 
15, 1849. __ 
How to make Manure. 
Eds. Cultivator —Perhaps there is no branch of 
agriculture more open to improvement than that of ma¬ 
king and applying manures. Although we occasional¬ 
ly find a farmer who thinks he knows enough without 
learning anything new, yet the best farmers,—those 
who have made the most improvement,—tell us they 
have but just begun to learn. They regard manure¬ 
making as an art to be studied; and are ever ready to 
learn by reading, by observation, and by experiment. 
There is no doubt that farmers in Vermont, will find 
it for their interest to turn their attention, more gene¬ 
rally, to manure-making for, whatever may be said 
of the fertility of other regions, there can be no ques¬ 
tion but our soil needs manure, and must have manure, 
or become barren and worthless, as much of it is fast 
becoming so already. 
But the farmer sometimes objects, that it costs so 
much to make manure, he cannot afford it. This, we 
think, a mistake, especially where the farmer owns the 
land he cultivates. The art of manure-making, like 
the art of house-keeping, consists very much in saving; 
and there can be no doubt but a large share of the far¬ 
mers, either for want of information or proper care, 
suffer one-half their manure to waste. A few months 
since, we saw, in a neighbor’s barn-yard, some half- 
dozen heaps of green manure, which the owner said he 
was going to spread over his yard, that it might lie 
through the summer and mull. He was of the opinion 
that manure was best after it was thoroughly mulled. 
About as good economy as it would be to leave ashes 
exposed to the weather for a year, and then expect to 
make soap or potash from them. 
Many farmers, if they wished to have as little ma¬ 
nure, and that little as weak as possible, could not ma¬ 
nage their yards better for that purpose, than they now 
do. The urine, which is of about the same value as 
the solid manure, is oftentimes nearly all wasted, and 
the droppings of the cattle are left scattered about, ex¬ 
posed to the weather, till two loads have hardly the 
strength of one, and are as much diminished in quanti¬ 
ty as in quality. 
The barn-yard is often so constructed that the water 
runs out of it, and in times of rain, perhaps through it, 
into the road, or some stream nearby; and that stream, 
loaded with juices from the barn-yard, is suffered to 
run off, when it might, by plowing a few ditches, be 
turned over the mowings. In one instance, we knew 
a man, when building a wall on some land he had 
bought, fill up the places where the water had been ac¬ 
customed to run through, because he did not want the 
trouble of ditches, and of having the dirt washed on to 
bis grass. The trouble of ditches and dirt he saved, 
and, also, the trouble of cutting more than about half 
the former crop of grass. While such a system of ma¬ 
nure-making, or rather manure wasting is so common, 
is it not quite obvious that much may be done by way 
of improvement, with very little expense ? 
1. It should be constantly borne in mind, that the most 
valuable part of the manure, in the farmer’s barn-yard, 
consists of salts that are liable to be washed away by 
the rains, and of gases, that will evaporate if exposed 
to the atmosphere; consequently, what manure the far¬ 
mer has, not designed for immediate use, should be 
kept heaped up, and if possible, sheltered, so as to pro¬ 
tect it from the action of the rains and sun. Is there 
not a great deal lost by neglecting to do this ? 
2. If farmers have manure they wish to ferment or 
mull, they can cover it with muck, loam, or something 
of the kind, so that the gases that escape in fermenta¬ 
tion, may not be lost in the atmosphere. And the more 
surface the manure occupies, the more important it ks 
that it should have a covering or something mixed with 
it, to prevent the escape of the ammonia. 
3. Farmers may save a great deal by fixing their 
yards, so that the wash will not all run out. Mr. A. 
is greatly averse to having his yard wet, and to prevent 
this, he has the middle the highest, so that all the wash, 
and all the rain that falls into it, run into a little brook 
just below, and thence, on to his neighbor B.’s mow¬ 
ing, who saves all the wash he can get, by having ditch¬ 
es in all directions. Mr. A. has a clean, dry yard, and 
can go through it without dirtying his boots; but hi* 
neighbor B., who has his yard constructed differently— 
like a basin, 11 right side up with care,”—makes mor» 
manure, and raises much heavier crops. Cannot farm¬ 
ers attend to this without much expense ? 
4. A great deal may be saved by taking care of the 
cow-yard in the summer. This should always be cov¬ 
ered with something to absorb the urine, and the drop¬ 
pings should either be covered up where they are left, 
with muck or loam kept in heaps about the yard, or be 
thrown into a heap with the shovel, and then covered, 
to prevent drying up. It is no exaggeration to say, 
that when the cow-yard is left without any care, two- 
thirds of the manure is wasted. Farmers, is not this 
too much to lose ? 
5. Much may often be done in turning the wash of 
roads and buildings upon the mow-lands, by having 
ditches wherever there is a chance for any wash. Fre¬ 
quently, a few hours work in plowing ditches, would 
make tons of hay; and with but trifling expense, the 
whole crop on many acres might be doubled; yet the 
owners, while they complain of “ light crops,” and often¬ 
times are compelled to buy hay to winter out their 
stock, say they cannot afford to make manure ! 
6. We not unfrequently see all the soap-suds, and 
wash from the house thrown into the door-yard, making 
a mud-hole which breeds swarms of flies, and fills the 
air with its pestiforous effluvia. In such cases, farmers 
might profitably save their soap-suds for manure, and as 
for the odor, that of a fragrant bed of flowers would b© 
quite as agreeable, as well as more healthy and profit¬ 
able. 
The importance of saving the wash from the house 
can hardly be too highly estimated. A few years since, 
a British Agricultural Society, offered a premium for 
the best method of making compost manure. The suc¬ 
cessful applicant obtained his method of an Irishman. 
He examined every potato patch he could find ; and in 
one large field, cultivated by many different families, 
he found one patch of very luxuriant growth, and more 
promising than any other. He inquired of the owner 
whether he did not keep more stock than a cow and 
pig, but found to his surprise that he kept neither cow 
nor pig. He had a pit dug, where he threw all the 
wash from the house, mixing it with straw, turf, scrap* 
