THE CULTIVATOR 
387 
ease. Mr. Youatt, however, holds in common with Prof. 
Dick, and many other veterinary writers, that foot-rot is 
sometimes originated spontaneously—that is, it is caused 
“ by the feet having been macerated by the soft and damp 
pastures on which they have trodden, and the internal part 
of the foot being thus denuded and injured.” He says— 
There are many flocks in which it would be idle to seek 
for the cause of foot-rot in infection”—* * * and 
adds, “It is almost superfluous to argue that there are 
numerous diseases that may be produced by natural 
causes, and yet are communicable from one animal to 
another.” 
Mr. Youatt then goes on to relate many experiments 
which have been made by different persons to test the 
point under consideraion, by inoculating the feet of sound 
sheep with the virus of foot-rot. Many of these attempts 
at inoculation failed, but several succeeded ami clearly 
established the fact of contagiousness. In one class of 
experiments referred to, conducted by Prof. Gohier, the 
disease was only communicated by inoculation in two 
cases out of six; but in the experiments of M. Favre, a 
Genevese veterinarian of high standing, out of thirty-two 
sound sheep inoculated with the matter of foot-rot, 
twenty became infected. “ On one of the sheep,” says 
Mr. Youatt, “ that would not take the infection, he opera¬ 
ted six times ineffectually. He tried once more and foot- 
rot was produced.” In the cases where the disease was 
produced by inoculation, it was sufficiently marked to 
leave no room for doubt. 
P. S. Since writing the above we have received a 
communication from Rutland, Vt., signed (C Farmer.” 
This writer takes the same ground in relation to foot-rot 
and the communication of “ Grazier,” as our correspon¬ 
dents above mentioned. But upon carefully reading over 
his article, we cannot discover any important point that 
is not already sufficiently discussed and explained, and 
any further remarks would therefore seem to be unneces¬ 
sary. 
FARMERS’ CONFERENCE MEETING. 
We find in the Onondaga Standard , a report of the do¬ 
ings of a Farmers’ Conference, held at Marcellus, in that 
county, on the 6th Nov., from which we take pleasure 
in presenting the following extracts. We hope many of 
these conference or club meetings will be held by our 
farmers during the present winter. We know of no 
measure cauculated to have a more decidedly beneficial 
effect than such meetings, where, with the freedom of 
the fire-side, each one gives the details of his practice 
and the results of his experience. In this way, much 
useful information is imparted, and a spirit of inquiry 
and investigation awakened, from which the most happy 
results may be anticipated. 
PREPARATION AND APPLICATION OF MANURES. 
The meeting having been called to order, John Sand- 
ford, of Marcellus, was called to the chair, and Jas. M. 
Ellis, of Onondaga, appointed Secretary. 
Mr. Brown, Pres’t of the Co. Agricultural Society, 
said: The meeting had been called by him in pursuance 
of a resolution of the Society, passed at the last annual 
meeting, and its object was the free and social conference 
of the farmers of our county upon the leading questions 
of practical Agriculture. The subject to be discussed at 
the present meeting was the preparation and application 
of manures. 
Mr. Brown has ascertained by careful observation that 
he has saved by his attention to the saving and prepara¬ 
tion of manures, more than sufficient to pay his town and 
county taxes. His plan is to stable all his cattle and to 
litter his barn yard twice a week in winter, with straw, 
and allow his sheep, and his cattle, when out of the sta¬ 
ble, to run over it and tread it in, with the manure they 
deposite upon it. He sprinkles plaster on his stable 
floors, and over his yard in sufficient quantities to absorb 
all the volatile portion of the manure, so that there is no 
smell arising from it whatever. He cleans his yard in 
the spring, and places the manure in a heap under his 
shed, mixing plaster with it plentifully as it is piled; ex¬ 
cept such a quantity as he may need for his hoed crops, 
which he prefers to take out fresh and plow it under. 
Mr. Brown finds that plaster, applied to his manure heap 
and his stables, have added 50 per cent to the strength 
and value of his manure. He sows plaster over his barn 
yard once a week. 
Mr. Brown has used salt as a manure with great bene¬ 
fit. He sows it broadcast upon wheat and grass at the 
rate of 3 to 5 bushels to the acre. On grass he would 
sow it in the fall—for wheat he would sow it just before 
the wheat is sown. He found that 3 bushels of salt to 
the acre on his wheat field, occasioned an increase of 17 
bushels of wheat to the acre over that which had no salt. 
The soil was a strong loam with a stiff subsoil. Mr. B. 
had not tried salt to kill wire-worms. 
Mr. Shepherd thought salt would kill angle-worms. 
Mr. Sandford asked Mr. Brown why he preferred fresh 
manure plowed under for corn and hoed crops. 
Mr. Brown said he preferred it in this state because it 
made the ground warmer and more friable—and was 
more enduring in its effects. 
Mr. Sandford asked if more benefit was not derived 
from manure used in this way in all cases? 
Mr. Brown thought not, because on sowed crops it 
brought too many weeds, and on sandy soils it leached 
away. 
Mr. Sandford did not believe any soil leached ir the 
sense that term is commonly used. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
of Albany, had proved by careful experiment that such 
could not be the fact. He had filled a barrel with per¬ 
fectly clean sand and turned on it water from the farm 
yard which was saturated with manure, and had found it 
always came through pure and limpid, and on examina¬ 
tion he had never found the least trace of manure lower 
than one inch and a half below the surface. This proved 
to his mind that sandy lands did not leach in the sense 
generally understood, but that the failure of manure on 
sandy soil is owing to the too rapid evaporation of the 
more valuable portions of the manure, there being no 
mineral substances in the sand to fix and retain gases. 
Mr. J. B. Burnet was inclined to credit this theory. 
He thought the fact that all complaints of leaching were 
so suddenly removed by the application of a light deposit 
of marl or clay or muck, was corroborative of this 
theory. An inch or two of marl or clay or muck spread 
upon the surface of a sandy soil would not prevent filtra¬ 
tion certainly. But it removed the complaint of leach¬ 
ing invariably, and rendered manures on such soils effec. 
tual and durable. This result must be accounted for by 
the supposition that marl or clay or muck will fix the 
volatite portions of the manure, and prevent evaporation. 
Mr. Chester Moses would state two facts which he 
thought conflicted with this theory. 1st. He had always 
observed that those sandy soils which had a stiff subsoil 
were more retentive of manures than those with a loose 
subsoil. 2d. He knows that the wells bordering on the 
Farmington Canal were filled with the foetid matter of 
said canal, notwithstanding there was a wide bank of 
sand between the canal and the wells. 
Mr. Ellis thought the latter fact might be explained by 
the supposition that the sand had become saturated with 
the impurities of the water by long continued filtration. 
Mr. Curtis Moses thought this a plausible explanation, 
and it was supported by the fact that the wells were 
perfectly good for some considerable time after the canal 
was filled. 
Mr. Sandford would remark that whatever objection 
might be brought to Mr. Van Rensselaer’s theory, the 
experiment he had described was a very simple one, and 
each person might try it for himself. 
Mr. Brown resumed the subject of the preparation of 
manures, and remarked that he thought all manure should 
be sprinkled with plaster as soon after its deposition as 
is convenient. He had a sewer from his sink through 
his vault, which conveyed the night soil, and suds and 
dish water, to a reservoir near his barn, which reservoir 
he kept constantly supplied with plaster. He found the 
manure thus made very valuable, and would recommend 
the practice to others. 
Mr. Moses and Mr. Sandford had no doubt of the effi¬ 
cacy of plaster in fixing the gasses of manure. 
Mr. Sandford had seen large quantities of packing sal 
