12 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jaw. 
MAKII^ §AYIW€I ANI> APFMCATWI OF MAIUHFo 
Messrs. Editors---! have something further to offer, 
in continuation of my remarks published in the Novem¬ 
ber number of the Cultivator, upon the subject of 
u making and saving manure.” They may appear 
somewhat racy, but yet, I fancy, they will be found to 
have a practical bearing upon this important matter. 
In the November number, I remarked that my break¬ 
ing up of sward land is done in November. I will be 
more particular in stating my reasons :—Besides other 
reasons that might be named, the frosts of winter so 
pulverise the surface of the inverted furrows, that I 
can the more easily bury the dressing of compost that 
is applied in the spring to a suitable depth without dis¬ 
turbing the sod. The harrow is put on first, after 
spreading the manure, which distributes it more equally 
ever all the land, and finally divides the loose earth 
above the sod, so that when the plow is put in, the 
roller on the beam being gauged to the right depth, 
the manure can be buried three to four inches, which 
is, in my opinion, about the right depth for compost. 
By this mode of practice, my corn crops are always 
heavy. Five years since I broke up a field of ten acres 
in November, nine inches deep, and in the spring ap¬ 
plied forty-two-horse loads per acre, of a compost of 
two loads of muck to one of stable manure, and planted 
it to corn. This field averaged eighty-five two bushel 
baskets of ears to the acre. The crop of oats follow¬ 
ing was very heavy, as have also been those of grass. 
I have mowed this field three years, and one raking on 
a side with a hand rake, makes as large a winrow as 
can be managed. The year previous a field of five 
acres, managed in the same way, averaged over ninety 
bushels of corn per acre. 
In speaking of the hog-pen, I might have added, 
that where practicable, it should be located so as to 
receive the manure from the horse stable. My hog¬ 
pen is situated under the horse stable windows, and the 
manure of tw 7 o horses is thrown into it. Horse ma¬ 
nure, if left in heaps by itself, becomes almost worth¬ 
less lay overheating ; but if thrown into a hog yard 
there is no danger of over fermentation, for the hogs 
keep it continually moving, and they also mix it up 
thoroughly with the other materials in the yard. 
Among other materials that may profitably be gath¬ 
ered for manure, I mentioned in my November article, 
that the accumulation of leaves and vegetable mould, 
in the hollows and at the foot of hills in woodlands, are 
good. In the month of November, I dig from these 
places, with stout hoes made for the purpose, a quan¬ 
tity of this material, and with wheel-barrows put it 
into a large heap or heaps, so that I can get at it with 
a sled in the winter—being exceedingly light, it will 
not freeze more than two or three inches deep, and if 
sl deep snow lays on the heap it will not freeze at all. 
This is sleded home, a few loads at a time, and put into 
<empty stalls, or in one corner of the shed, and used 
for bedding the cattle. In the morning, after the sta¬ 
bles are cleaned out, a bushel basket or so of this ma¬ 
terial is put under each animal, and a little straw 
sprinkled over it. The next morning the leaves and 
black mould will be quite wet with urine, and this, 
with the solid excrements, is thrown out of the window. 
If the windows have a southern exposure, a snow storm 
«f a foot in depth will not lay on these heaps twenty- 
four hours, owing to the powerful fermentation pro¬ 
duced upon this vegetable matter by the urine with 
which it is saturated. I find this to be the very best 
manure I make, and although attended with some extra 
labor, it comes at a season of the year when it edn 
generally be done about as well as not. In travelling 
the country, how many valuable deposits of this kind 
you will see, Messrs. Editors, where a stone wall or a 
Virginia fence borders a wood-lot, and that perhaps a 
side hill, where the accumulation has been going on for 
years unheeded by the owner! 
In my former communication, I remarked, that lime 
or ashes make an excellent compost with muck, and gave 
an example of the value of lime and muck. I can 
speak in equally as high terms of ashes and muck, a 
compost which I have repeatedly used. A few years 
since, I tried what amounted to an exact experiment 
with this compost without originally designing it. A 
friend sent me a few ears of a new variety of corn, and 
as it did not come to hand until after my land was all 
planted, I took it to a distant lot where then at work, 
and loaded up a half cord of mannre from the bottom 
of a stable window heap, thinking that this would give 
each hill a large shovelful. It only answered for about 
half the corn, however, and as I had a heap of muck 
and ashes near by, that had been recently laid up, I 
directed an equal quantity of this compost to be used 
in the remaining hills, in order to mark the result. 
Until July the corn treated with manure was manifestly 
the best, but after that the scale began to turn, and in 
the fall the corn dressed with the muek and ashes was 
much the heaviest—-so much so that the difference was 
perceptible at quite a distance. 
I have now done with this subjest, Messrs. Editors, 
for the present; but I hope it will be followed up by 
other correspondents of the Cultivator. 
The subject of making manure is an old one, upon 
which much has been written during the last few years; 
but this does not hinder that it should be necessary and 
profitable to us all to be reminded of its importance 
over and over again. Indeed it may truly be said to 
be the practical subject of all others, connected with 
farming. 
I think I am warranted in saying, that a large por- 
tion of the farms, in New England at least, are still 
annually decreasing in fertility from the want of proper 
attention to this very business of making and saving 
manure. 
You have acquitted yourselves nobly in this matter, 
in your volume for 1847. The editorial articles on ma¬ 
nure alone in Vol. IV, are richly worth more than the 
price of the volume. I am compelled to say to your 
correspondents, however, that this matter ought to b© 
oftener the subject of communications from them. 
There are many, very many, excellent, practical far¬ 
mers in the list of your frequent correspondents, whose 
ideas and practice connected with this subject would 
be highly instructive and useful, if made known. 
11 Help one another,” should be the motto in the agri¬ 
cultural profession, where so much is yet to be learned. 
We want light in our profession—especially the light 
elicited from the practice of this profession by our in¬ 
telligent, practical farmers. F. Holbrook. 
Brattleboro, Vt ., Nov. 10, 1847. 
Winter-killed Wheat.™ Wm. Little, in the Ohio 
Cultivator, says that his late sown wheat on com 
ground, was much u winter-killed,” that is, thrown out 
by frost, which he chiefly remedied by using a heavy rol¬ 
ler, pressing the half-killed roots into the ground, which 
caused them again to vegetate. Such wheat yielded 
about 20 bushels per acre. 
