Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-09-28
AGRICULTURAL.
FAKm, GARDEN asD HOUSEHOLD.

4 hops IN EDRlauus are IliObo WHICH, sup
ply to "A greater or less extent ammonif
aud phosphoric acid. These form the
composition of two important funda
mental classes of artificial manures
phosphate and nitrogenized. Phos
| phatic manures, it Is said, tend to pro.
mote the quality of the hops, but not
the quantity. Among these manures
may be enumerated fresh bones, bone
dust, bones treated with sulphuric acid,
phosp latic matter of Saldanha Bay and
Patagonian guano.
Animal matter of all descriptions,
rape cake, farmyard manure, nitrogen
| lied matter, such as wool, blood, flesh,
Peruvian guano, SCOT, wooden rags,
Ishoddy, putrid animal substances, horn
shavings, glue refuse, &C., are all very
conducive to the growth of the hop
plant.
MIR. Troutbeck, in an essay before
the Maidstone Farmers Club, Eng.
land says that after selecting the land
for hops, the most important consider
alton is its drainage, and he advises
that if the land has not a good natural
drainage it should be thoroughly
drained at no less depth than four
feet. In preparing the land for hops
he wonld avoid burying the 9nrface
soil, and says it will depend upon cir
eumstances as to how far il may be
desirable to mix some of the surface
soil with some of the subsoil. On the
heavy clays of Kent, there is frequent
" deficiency in lime and phosphoric
acid, and he remarks that most salts
factory results have been had from an
application of compost made of lime
and vegetable mold-the cleansing of
bitches and ponds and fresh burned
lime, while the addition of bone dust
or half inch bones, greatly increase the
fertility and improve the quality of the
hop.
In the management of farm-yard
manures for the hop, he advises the
employment of hop vines as a litter in
part for domestic animals. Farm yard
manure made from hop vines, he re-
marks, is not only source of food TO
the plant, but is one of those which
opens up the storehouse of unavailable
food. While it is undergoing decom-
position, il Is yielding certain sub
stances capable of acting upon the soil,
and of transferring from the unavaila-
BILE to the valuable category-of putting
in that condition in which the plant
can absorb them-the matters of which
it is IN need. He states it as his belief
that well made and well managed farm
yard mannres from fattenlng animals,
when the hop vine rs employed in
part as a litter, to be one of the best
aud most perfect manures, inasmuch
as it contains every substance the plant
requires. 1t is to the use of this ma
nure that he attributes in part the sue
cess OF many of the hop growers in
Kent
He is in favor of applying farm-yard
manures In a rotten state, and recon-
mends getting it into heavy soils in the
autumn, as by so doing there is less
loss In cases where the hop grower
is compelled TO use any substance very
soluble and powerful, he believes the
best mode Is to divide into small
quantities and apply it at various times
during the season. In the case of
lands inclined to be light, or land rich
in phosphates, he would use sparingly
OF substances rich IN ammonia, aud
wonld resort to a mixture, which, al
though not containing much ammonia,
is capable of leaving it, Utica Herald
RED CLovER.-In a recent discussion
on the value Of red clover as a fertil-
iZer, before the New York Farmers
Club, s. Edwards Todd made the fol-
lowing remarks
Ia many parts of the older states, red
clover alone has manifested the fertility
of the soil for more than sixty years.
Without it the proprietOrs of these
farms would have been obliged to dis
pose of their homes as best they conld,
and migrate to the fertile plains of our
western world, where at present the
cultivation of red clover is not neces-
sity. Yet the day is coming, and is not
far In the unknown future, when red
clover will be called into requisition in
the west, where manure is now a
nuisance, and fertilizing matter thing
of indifference. On the heavy, stub
born soils of the slopes of our northern
lakes, the production of red clover has
been of incalculable value in renovating
and changing the character of those
stubborn soils, SO as to render them
L -
Under the smeliorating inhuen-
ces of crop of red clover,
farms that produced scarcely a remun-
Grating crop when the virgin soil was
first turned up with the pillow, now
yield annually heavy crops of choice
wheat or other grain. The distinguish
ing Characteristic of red clover as a
renovator of the soil, is to produce
vegetable mould or humus. Where
hnmus abounds in large quantities in
the soil, red clover is not the fertilizer
required. But where the surface is
not covered by a stratum of fine mould,
red clover can be raised with eminent
satisfaction and profit. Our most ex.
tensive Pennsylvania farmers under.
stand and appreciate the excellence and
efficiency of red clover. Almost oul
entire country has got to renovate with
red clover. Old aud impoverished
fields will eventually be made to fee
the ameliorating influences of the eff
cient renovator of poor and badly man
aged soil And this great and desirable
change will be wrought out by the pro
duction of red clover. When the
thousands of acres of uncultivated and
despised land of Long Island, and the
vast tracts of wild land in South Jersey,
shall he brought under the ameliorat
ing influences of red clover, those who
occupy the positions where we now
stand will see the wilderness and the
solitary places rejoice, and the desert
blossom rs the rose.
TOPPING Corn. we have nc
doubt that the corn is injured by this
practice, we do not hesitate to recon-