THE CULTIVATOR. 
Economy of Manures. 
Recent readings and observations have impressed 
upon us deeply the persuasion that among the bulk of 
our farming community there is a great want of eco¬ 
nomy and good management in respect to the manures 
which the farm itself might be made to yield. We 
are not prepared to go so far as to say, with Mr. Edg- 
erton in Country Gentleman of Aug. 10th, that “no 
farmer ever need go off from his own farm for means 
to enrich it;” but we are persuaded that very many 
allow the fertilizing materials of their vaults, of their 
sinks, of the droppings of their cattle, and of their 
swampy lands, to go to waste—giving out their rich¬ 
ness, not to the fields and the crops, but to the ‘ desert 
air.’ We are persuaded that very few farmers are as 
strenuous about making and saving all the manure 
possible on the farm, as is the Massachusetts farmer 
of whom we have recently read, who says, “ as to ma¬ 
nure, it has been my constant effort to make and use 
as much as possible from the barn-cellar, yard, hog¬ 
pen, vault, sink-drain, Ac., always using it the present 
(current) season. I keep loam constantly in the cellar, 
which is ready to be put to the droppings.” This 
model farmer commences his winter management of 
his farm manures, by carrying one hundred loads of 
•mud or black earth, to the cellar, which he uses to 
throw on to the droppings as often as once a week. 
Our persuasion of a general wastefulness and want 
of economy in the management of the fertilizing ma¬ 
terials which the farm itself yields, was considerably 
deepened by a portion of an extended account of an 
agricultural school in France, and of the farm attach¬ 
ed to it, which we recently met with in an English 
journal. In this notice of the school and the attached 
farm at Grignon, it is said that there is little or no 
outlay for portable or foreign manures on the farm. 
Guano has been tried but poudrette is preferred, hav¬ 
ing been proved by experiment to be superior. The 
English visitor who gives the account to which we re¬ 
fer, attempted to persuade the professors, or those in 
charge of the farm, that there might be larger crops 
and more profits secured by the use of guano; but he 
was met with the assertion that the English farmer 
did not “conserve,” or economize the manure of the 
farm like the French farmer. In this respect, we fear, 
the American copies more after the English than af¬ 
ter the French pattern. 
We feel convinced that much larger crops and lar¬ 
ger profits might be secured, if farmers were at a lit¬ 
tle more pains to prevent the escape and loss of their 
most valuable fertilizers. For example, much valua¬ 
ble manure might be saved from going to waste, if 
farmers were at some pains to have all the urine on 
their premises absorbed and fixed by means of mea¬ 
dow muck and other absorbents or by running it into 
tanks. Much valuable manure might also be made 
on every farm, by manufacturing the contents of the 
vault into poudrette. Domestic poudrette can be made 
without much difficulty according to directions which 
may be found in former volumes of this paper.* 
Much valuable manure might be made, more than 
usuallj' is, if all that is thrown out of horse and cattle 
stables, was immediately mixed up, or covered over 
with earth or muck, after the manlier of the model 
Massachusetts farmer to whom we have already refer¬ 
red. Much, also, might be saved, which is now allow¬ 
ed to go to waste, if manure and compost heaps were 
more generally put under some kind of cover to pro¬ 
tect them from the destructive influences of sun and 
rain and wind. Much might be done also, to enrich 
the farms throughout the land, if the rich black muck 
which the rains of many former years have washed 
down into our swamps and low lands, were carried 
back again, either by itself, or still better after having 
been carried to barn-yard or cellar, and there mixed 
with the cleanings of the stables and the droppings of 
the cattle and the poultry in the yards, after the manner 
of a compost or otherwise. 
As long as a farmer suffers all the fertilizing mate¬ 
rials above indicated to makevtheir escape, without be¬ 
ing made to yield their riches to his fields and crops, 
he must be suffering leakage and loss. While the fer¬ 
tilizing materials which the farm itself yields are neg¬ 
lected and unused, it seems as if it could be only with 
an ill grace and a great want of consistency and good 
policy that any farmer, save in extraordinary circum¬ 
stances, can lay out money for guano or other marketa¬ 
ble manures. ^ 
Securing Corn Fodder. 
{In answer to IV J. Pettee , Lakeville, Ct .)—The 
only difficulty with corn fodder is in harvesting and se¬ 
curing the crop. The difficulty is greater with the 
compact stacks of thickly sown crops expressly for fod¬ 
der, than with the larger and coarser stalks of ordina¬ 
ry corn. The leaves may become perfectly dry after 
weeks of exposure to fine weather, and the whole ap¬ 
pear fit for stacking; when after all, the amount of 
moisture in the stalks themselves may be enough to 
cause heating and fermentation, and the loss of the 
whole stack. The best way is to bind in bundles, and 
place them at once in good, substantial, large-sized 
shocks, with a few of the upper and outer bundles re¬ 
versed, so as to turn off the rain, which otherwise be¬ 
comes lodged in the fork between the leaf and stalk. 
In this way, they will become thoroughly dry, and if 
not drawn till they are wanted in winter, will do well 
and cannot spoil. Or, after drying in the shock some 
weeks, they maybe placed in small stacks, salted with 
five or six quarts per ton, with a ventilating hole in 
the middle, to prevent the accumulating of heat. This 
hole may be made by building the stack round three 
upright stakes or rails, set about a foot apart, and 
touching at the top; or round a bundle of long, coarse 
brush; or by placing an empty barrel in the middle 
and building round it, drawing it upwards by a rope 
fastened across the top, as the stack proceeds. This 
leaves a hole in the middle for the escape of any ge¬ 
nerated vapor. 
* See July no., page 176 . 
'J&n 
