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Manures

The clayey and stone marls are distinguished by their colors, viz., white, black, blue, and red.

The white, being of a soft, crumbly nature, is considered to be the best for pasture re land; and the blue, which is more compact and firm, for grain land. In the districts where marl is much used, these distinctions of management are attended with advantage, if the following rules are adhered to:

If marl is of the blue kind, or of any kind that is compact or firm, lay it upon the land early in the season, so as the weather may mellow it down before the last plough; and, if on pasture land, let it also be early laid on, and spread very thin, breaking any lumps afterwards which are not completely separated by the first spreading. If marl is of the white, or any of the loose or crumbling sorts, it need not be laid on so early; because these varieties break and dissolve almost as soon as exposed to the weather.

Sea-weed.

Sea-weed is driven ashore after storms, and is found to be an excellent article for manuring light and dry soils, though of little advantage to those of a clayey description. This article may be applied on the proper soil with advantage to any crop, and its effects are immediate, though rarely of long continuance. As the coast-side lands of Great Britain are, in every case, of superior fertility to those that are inland, we may attribute this superior fertility to the great quantity of manure found upon their shores after every storm or high tide, whereby the resources of the ocean are in a manner brought forward for the enrichment of the lands locally situated for participating in such benefits. The utmost attention has long been paid to the gathering and laying on of this valuable manure. Application of Sea-weed.

Sea-weed is applied at all seasons to the surface, and sometimes, though not so profitably, it is mixed with untrodden dung, that the process of putrefaction may be hastened. Generally speaking, it is at once applied to the soil, which saves labor, and prevents that degree of waste which otherwise would necessarily happen. Sea-weed is, in one respect, preferable to the richest dung, because it does not produce such a quantity of weeds. The salt contained in sea-weed, and applied with it, is the real cause of the after-cleanliness. This may be inferred from the general state of coast-side lands, where sea-weed is used.

These lands are almost constantly kept in tillage, and yet are cleaner and freer from weeds than those in the inland situations, where grain crops are not so often taken.

When a coast-side farm contains mixed soils, the best management is exercised, by applying sea-weed to dry, and dung to clay-land. In this way, the full advantage of manure may be obtained, and a form so circumstanced is of infinitely greater value, with respect to manuring and laboring, than the one which contains no such variety.

Burning the Surface. raise up their dormant powers, thereby rendering them fertile and productive in a superior degree to what could otherwise be accomplished.

Mr. Curwen's Method of Burning Surface Soil and Clay.

Mounds of seven yards in length, and three and a half in breadth, are kindled with seventy-two Winchester bushels of lime. First, a layer of dry sods or parings, on which a quantity of lime is spread, mixing sods with it, then a covering of eight inches of sods, on which the other half of the lime is spread, and covered a foot thick, the height of the mound being about a yard.

In twenty-four hours it will take fire. The lime should be immediately from the kiln. It is better to suffer it to ignite itself, than to effect it by the operation of water. When the fire is fairly kinthe fire is fairly kindled, fresh sods must be applied. I should recommend obtaining a sufficient body of ashes bebody of ashes before any clay is put on the mounds. The fire naturally rises to the top. It takes less time, and does more work to draw down the ashes from the top, and not to suffer it to rise above six feet. The former practice of burning in kilns was more expensive; did much less work; and, in many instances, calcined the ashes. I think it may fairly be supposed that the lime adds full its worth to the quality of the ashes.

Where limestone can be had, I should advise the burning of a small quantity in the mounds, which would be a great improvement to the ashes, and, at the same time, help to keep the fire in.

The general adopting of the system of surface and soil clay-burning, is likely to be an important discovery for the interests of agriculture.

To burn Moss with the Ashes.

The following directions for burning moss along with the ashes are of considerable importance:

Begin the fire with dry faggots, furze, or straw, then put on dried moss finely minced and well beaten with a clapper; and when that is nearly burnt down, put on moss less dry, but well minced and clapped, making holes with a prong to carry on the fire, and so adding more moss till a hill of ashes, something of the size of a wagon load, is accumulated, which, when cold, carry to the bins, or store heaps, before the ashes get wet.

Mr. Roscoe's Method of Improving Moss Land.

The best method of improving moss land is by the application of a calcareous substance in a sufficient quantity to convert the moss into a soil, and by the occasional use of animal or other extraneous manures, such as the course of cultivation and the nature of the crops may be found to require.

After setting fire to the heap and herbage on the moss, and ploughing it down as far as practicable, Mr. Roscoe ploughs a thin sod or furrow with a very sharp horse-plough, which he burns in small heaps and dissipates; considering it of little use but to destroy the tough woods of the ediophorus, nardus stricta, and other plants, whose matted roots are almost imperishable.

The moss being thus brought to a tolerably dry and level substance, then plough it in a regular furrow six inches deep, and as soon as possible after it is turned up, set upon it the necessary quantity of marl, not less than 200 cubic yards to the acre. As the marl begins to crumble and fall with the sun or frost, it is spread over the land with considerable exactness, after which put in a crop as early as possible, sometimes by the plough, and at others with the horse-scuffle, or scarifier, according to the nature of the crop, a quantity of The practice of burning the surface, and applying the ashes as manure to the soil that remains, has been long prevalent in Britain; and is considered as the most advantageous way of bringing in and improving all soils, where the surface carried a coarse sward, and was composed of peatearth, or other inactive substances. The burning of this surface has been viewed as the best way of bringing such soils into action; the ashes, furnished by the burning, serving as a stimulant to | manure, setting on about twenty tons to the acre. Moss-land, thus treated, may not only be ad- | wall. These pipes are formed of sods put on edge, vantageously cropped the first year with green erops, as potatoes, turnips, etc., but with any kind of grain.

Peat and Peat Ashes used as Manure.

In the county of Bedford, England, peat ashes are sold as manure, and are used as a top dressing for clovers, and sometimes for barley, at the rate of from forty to sixty bushels per acre. They are usually spread during the month of March, on elover, and on the surface of the barley-lands after the seed is sown. Peat ashes are also admirably useful as manure for turnips, and are easily drilled with or over the seed, by means of a drillbox connected with a loaded cart. After the quantity required has been cast, a portion sufficient to kindle a large heap (suppose two cart-loads), is dried as much as if intended for winter's use. A conical pile is then built and fired, and as soon as the flame or smoke makes its appearance at any of the crevices, it is kept back by fresh peat, just sufficiently dry to be free from water; and thus the pile is continually increased, until it has burnt thirty or forty loads, or as much more as may be required. The slower the process the better; but, in case of too languid a consumption, the heap should be stirred by a stick, whenever the danger of extinction seems probable. In case of rain, the workmen should be prepared with some coarse thick turf, with which to cover the surface of the cone.

Coal Ashes used as Manure.

Coal ashes may likewise be made a most useful article of manure, by mixing with every cart-load of them one bushel of lime in its hottest state, covering it up in the middle of the heap for about twelve hours, till the lime be entirely slacked, and incorporating them well together; and, by turning the whole over two or three times, the cinders, or half-burnt parts of the coal, will be reduced to as fine a powderas the lime itself. The coal-ashes should, however, be carefully kept dry; this mixture will be found one of the best improvers of moorish and benty land.

Method of Burning Lime without Kilns.

The practice of lime-burners in Wales has formerly been to burn lime in broad shallow kilns, but lately they have begun to manufacture that article without any kiln at all.

They place the limestone in large bodies, which are called coaks, the stones not being broken small as in the ordinary method, and calcine these heaps in the way used for preparing charcoal. To prevent the flame from bursting out at the top and sides of these heaps, turfs and earth are placed against them, and the aperture partially closed; and the heat is regulated and transfused through the whole mass, that notwithstanding the increased size of the stones, the whole becomes thoroughly calcined. As a proof of the superior advantage that lime burnt in these clamps or coaks has over lime burnt in the old method, where farmers have an option of taking either lime at the same price, a preference is invariably given to that burned in heaps. This practice has long prevailed in Yorkshire and Shropshire, and is also familiar in Scotland. Mr. Craig's Improved Method of Burning Clay.

Make an oblong enclosure, of the dimensions of a small house - say fifteen feet by ten - of green turf-seeds, raised to the height of three and a half or four feet. In the inside of this enclosure air-pipes are drawn diagonally, which communicate with holes left at each corner of the exterior and the space between so wide only as another sod can easily cover. In each of the four spaces left between the air-pipes and the outer wall, a fire is kindled with wood and dry turf, and then the whole of the inside of the enclosure or kiln filled with dry turf, which is very soon on fire; and, on the top of that, when well kindled, is thrown on the clay, in small quantities at a time, and repeated as often as necessary, which must be regulated by the intensity of the burning. The air-pipes are of use only at first, because if the fire burns with tolerable keenness, the sods forming the pipes will soon be reduced to ashes. The pipe on the weather side of the kiln only is left open, the mouths of the other three being stopped up, and not opened except the wind should veer about. As the inside of the enclosure or kiln begins to be filled up with clay, the outer wall must be raised in height, at least fifteen inches higher than the top of the clay, for the purpose of keeping the wind from acting on the fire.

When the fire burns through the outer wall, which it often does, and particularly when the top is over-loaded with clay, the breach must be stopped up immediately, which can only be effectually done by building another sod wall from the foundation opposite to it, and the sods that formed that part of the first wall are soon reduced to ashes. The wall can be raised as high as may be convenient to throw on the clay, and the kiln may be increased to any size by forming a new wall when the previous one is burnt through.

The principal art in burning consists in having the outer wall made quite close and impervious to the external air, and taking care to have the top always lightly, but completely, covered with clay; because if the external air should come in contact with the fire, either on the top of the kiln or by means of its bursting through the sides, the fire will be very soon extinguished. In short, the kilns require to be well attended, nearly as closely as charcoal-pits. Clay is much easier burnt than either moss or loam - it does not undergo any alteration in its shape, and on that account allows the fire and smoke to get up easily between the lumps - whereas moss and loam, by crumbling down, are very apt to smother the fire, unless care-. fully attended to. No rule can be laid down for regulating the size of the lumps of clay thrown on the kiln, as that must depend on the state of the fire. After a kiln is fairly set going, no coal or wood, or any sort of combustible, is necessary, the wet clay burning of itself, and it can only be extinguished by intention, or the carelessness of the operator, the vicissitudes of the weather having hardly any effect on the fires, if properly attended to. When the kiln is burning with great keenness, a stranger to the operation may be apt to think that the fire is extinguished. If, therefore, any person, either through impatience or too great curiosity, should insist on looking into the interior of the kiln, he will certainly retard, and may possibly extinguish, the fire; the chief secret consisting, as before-mentioned, in keeping out the external air.

The above method of burning clay may be considered as an essential service rendered to agriculture; as it shows farmers how to convert, at a moderate expense, the most worthless barren subsoil into excellent manure. To decompose Green Vegetables for Manure.

The following process for the decomposition of green vegetables, for manure, has been practised with great success in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, England:- Place a layer of vegetable matter a foot thick, then a thin layer of lime, alternately; in a few | phosphate of lime mixed with a little sulphate of hours the decomposition will begin, and, unless prevented by sods, or a fork full of vegetables, will break out into a blaze; this must be guarded against; in twenty-four hours the process will be completed. Weeds of every description will answer for vegetables; two pounds' worth of lime will produce manure for four acres. Use the vegetables as soon after cutting as possible, and the lime fresh from the kiln, as distance will allow. Bone Manure.

Mills are constructed for the purpose of bruising (not pounding) bones; and the dust riddled therefrom is reckoned a still stronger manure.

The same person selects the best bones, which are sawn into pieces, for button-moulds and knife-handles: and the saw-dust from this operation is particularly useful in gardens and hotbeds. It suits every vegetable, hot-house, or green-house plant.

Bone manure is best adapted for cold and light sandy land. The usual quantity per acre is seventy bushels, when used alone; but when mixed with ashes, or common manure of any sort, thirty bushels per acre is thought quite enough. It is applied at the same periods as other manure, and has been found in this way to remain seven years in the ground. The rough part of this manure, after being five years in the ground, has been gathered off one field and thrown upon another of a different soil, and has proved, even then, good manure.

The bones which are best filled with oil and marrow are certainly the best manure; and the parts generally used for buttons and knife-hafts are the thigh and shank bones. The powdered bones are dearer, and generally used for hot-beds in gardens, being too expensive for the field, and not so durable as bruised bones, yet, for a short time, more productive.

A dry, light, or gentle soil, is best adapted for the use of bone-manure; as it is supposed that, in land which retains wet, the nutritive part of the bone washes to the surface of it and does not incorporate sufficiently with the soil.

Bruised bones are better when mixed with ashes or any other manure, as the juice of the bone is then more equally spread over the field.

Bone manure ought to be ploughed into the land in tillage. On the grass the powder should be sown in the hand.

Super-Phosphate of Lime.

To Liebig is due the greatest credit for the theory that the organic matter of plants is supplied abundantly by nature from air and water; that the ashes of plants exhibit the mineral matters most needed for a fertile soil; that the ashes of the most valuable parts, such as the husk of wheat, especially show what matters are required for the most abundant production of those parts; that soils are most frequently deficient in phosphoric acid, which should be supplied in the form of bones, guano, and more especially as a more or less soluble phosphate of lime. Long and extensive experience has proved the great value of a fertilizer which contains a portion of so-called super-phosphate of lime; that is, a bone-phosphate of lime, which is treated with sulphuric acid, so that more or less of the phosphate will dissolve in water. Of course a true chemical super-phosphate would wholly dissolve, but such a one is impracticable in use; moreover it is found by practice that a few per cent. of phosphoric acid in a fertilizer is sufficient to insure its promotion of fertility. Hence some fertilizers in commerce consist almost wholly of a lime (plaster), resulting from the action of the sulphuric acid, so that it contains 15 to 20 per cent. phosphoric acid, one-third or one-fourth of which readily dissolves in water. These fertilizers to the soil. are found to yield excellent results when applied The superiority of these nitrogenous superphcsphated fertilizers over all others may be summed up in a few words. They surpass stable manure in their extremely small bulk and weight for the same fertilizing effect, and consequently in the greater ease and less expense of their handling, hauling and spreading, and yet further in their never fouling land by the seeds of weeds and noxious plants. They excel bones and phosphatic ing a quicker return. They excel Peruvian guano guano in their more rapid action and their yieldin continuing their fertilizing effects for a longer period of time, in their being less violent at first, and yet sufficiently energetic to yield a return the first season of their application. Most of our land is either poor by nature or through exhaustive cropping, and there is nothing that will more rapidly restore and increase their fertility than the ammoniated super-phosphates. It may be yet further observed, that there is scarcely any soil to which their application will not prove a decided benefit, and scarcely a crop which they will not improve, whether grain, vegetables, cot ton, tobacco, fruits, etc.

Various Substances used as Manure.

J. B. Bailey, Esq., presented to the Agricultural Society of Manchester, the following enumeration of substances which may be applied usefully as manures instead of stable dung, viz., mud, sweepings of the streets, and coal-ashes, night-soil, bones, refuse matters, as sweepings and rubbish of houses, etc., sea-weeds, sea-shells, and sea-gravel, river-weeds, sweepings of roads, and spent tanner's bark to mix with lime. Peat or moss, decayed vegetables, putrid water, the ashes of weeds, etc., the refuse of bleacher's ashes, soap suds, or lye, peat ashes, water infloating, refuse salt. The use of liquid manure, so long common in China and Japan, is gaining in favor with agriculturists everywhere. Peruvian guano is one of the important discoveries of modern times; with its use ground almost barren may be made productive; it is available for almost all kinds of crops. Plaster of Paris used as Manure.

Plaster of Paris is used as a manure in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The best kind is imported from hills in the vicinity of Paris: it is brought down the Seine, and exported from Havre de Grace.

The lumps composed of flat shining spicula are preferred to those which are formed of round particles like sand; the simple method of finding out the quality is to pulverize some, and put it dry into an iron pot over the fire, when that which is good, will soon boil, and great quantities of the fixed air escape by ebullition. It is pulverized by first putting it in a stamping-mill. The finer its pulverization the better, as it will thereby be more generally diffused.

It is best to sow it on a wet day. The most approved quantity for grass is six bushels per acre. No art is required in sowing it more than making the distribution as equal as possible on the sward of grass. It operates altogether as a top manure, and therefore should not be put on in the spring until the principal frosts are over and vegetation has begun. The general time for sowing in America is in April, May, June, July, Its August, and even as late as September. effects will generally appear in ten or fifteen days; after which the growth of the grass will be so great as to produce a large burden at the end of six weeks after sowing.

It must be sown on dry land, not subject to be overflown. It has been sown on sand, loam, and clay, and it is difficult to say on which it has best answered, although the effect is sooner visible on sand. It has been used as a manure in this state for twelve years; for, like other manure, its continuance very much depends on the nature of the soil on which it is placed, Mode of Applying Blubber as a Manures This is a very rich ingredient, as well for arable as pasture lands, when mixed at the rate of one ton of blubber to twenty loads of mould, and one chaldron of lime, per acre. It must be turned over and pulverized; and when it has lain in this state three or four months, it will become fit for use, and may be put upon the land in such quantities as the quality of the land to be manured requires. It is a very strong manure, and very excellent.

Application of Manures to Land.

Early in autumn, after the hay crop is removed, is the most convenient and least objectionable period for the purpose. The common practice is to apply manures during the frost, in the winter.

But the elastic fluids being the greatest supports of vegetation, manures should be applied under circumstances that favor their generation. These will occur in spring, after the grass has, in some degree, covered the ground, the dung being then shaded from the sun. After a frost much of the virtues of the dung will be washed away by the thaw, and its soluble parts destroyed, and in a frosty state the ground is incapable of absorbing liquids.

Management of Arable Land.

Alternate husbandry, or the system of having leguminous and culmiferous crops to follow each other, with some modifications, is practicable on every soil. According to its rules, the land would rarely get into a foul and exhausted state; at least, if foul and exhausted under alternate husbandry, matters would be much worse were any other system followed. The rotation may be long or short, as is consistent with the richness of the soil, on which it is executed, and other local circumstances. The crops cultivated may be any of the varieties which compose either of the two tribes, according to the nature of soil and climate of the district where the rotation is exercised, and where circumstances render ploughing not so advantageous as pasturing, the land may remain in grass, till those circumstances are obviated, care being always taken, when it is broken up, to follow alternate husbandry during the time it is under tillage.

In this way we think it perfectly practicable to follow the alternate system in every situation; nor do we consider the land being in grass for two, three, or four years, as a departure from that system, if called for by a scarcity of manure, poverty of soil, want of markets for corn, or other accidental circumstances. The basis of every rotation we hold to be either a bare summer fallow, or a fallow on which drill turnips are cultivated, and its conclusion to be with the crop taken in the year preceding a return of fallow or drilled turnips, when, of course, a new rotation commences. First Rotation of Crops.

According to this rotation, wheat and drilled beans are the crops to be cultivated, though clover and rye-grass may be taken for one year, in place of beans, should such a variety be viewed as more eligible. The rotation begins with summer fallow, because it is only on strong deep lands that it can be profitably practised; and it may go on for any length of time, or so long as the land can be kept clean, though it ought to stop the moment that the land gets into a contrary condition. A considerable quantity of manure is required to go on successfully; dung should be given to each bean crop; and if this crop is drilled and attentively horse-hoed, the rotation may turn out to be one of the most profitable that can be exercised.

Second Rotation.

Upon loams and clays, where it may not be advisable to carry the first rotation into execution, a different one can be practised, according to which labor will be more divided, and the usual grains more generally cultivated; as, for instance: 1. Fallow, with dung. 2. Wheat. 3. Beans, drilled and horse-hoed. 4. Barley. 5. Clover and rye-grass. 6. Oats, or wheat. 7. Beans, drilled and horse-hoed. 8. Wheat.

This rotation is excellently calculated to insure an abundant return through the whole of it, provided dung is administered upon the clover stubble. Without this supply the rotation would be crippled, and inferior crops of course produced in the concluding years.

Third Rotation.

This rotation is calculated for clays and loams of an inferior description to those already treated of: 1. Fallow, with dung. 2. Wheat. 3. Clover and rye-grass. 4. Oats. 5. Beans, drilled and horse-hoed. 6. Wheat.

According to this rotation, the rules of good husbandry are studiously practised, while the sequence is obviously calculated to keep the land in good order, and in such a condition as to insure crops of the greatest value. If manure is bestowed either upon the clover stubble or before the beans are sown, the rotation is one of the best that can be devised for the soils mentioned.

Fourth Rotation.

On thin clays gentle husbandry is indispensably necessary, otherwise the soil may be exhausted, and the produce unequal to the expense of cultivation. Soils of this description will not improve much while under grass, but unless an additional stock of manure can be procured, there is a necessity of refreshing them in that way, even though the produce should, in the meantime, be comparatively of small value. The following rotation is an excellent one: 1. Fallow, with dung. 2. Wheat. 3. Grass, pastured, but not too early eaten. 4. Grass. 5.

Grass. 6. Oats.

This rotation may be shortened or lengthened, according to circumstances, but should never extend further in point of ploughing, than when dung can be given to the fallow break. This is the keystone of the whole, and if it is neglected the rotation is rendered useless.

Fifth Rotation.

Peat-earth soils are not friendly to wheat unless aided by a quantity of calcareous matter. Taking them in a general point of view, it is not advisable to cultivate wheat, but a crop of oats may almost be depended upon, provided the previous management has been judiciously executed. If the sub-soil of peat-earth lands be retentive of moisture, the process ought to commence with a bare summer fallow; but if such are incumbent on free and open bottoms, a crop of turnips may