The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1869-12-02
Comparative Value of Hay, Corn and
Rnnts.

their work-horses, but keep them in high
working ord er with straw, roots and shorts.
The equivalent of twelve tons of hay can
be produced on one acre of roots. Far
mers in this country will eventually bring
vegetables mere into use as stock feed, for
roots are cheap, healthy and nutricious.
The American Stock Journal has the fol.
lowing suggestions on this subject:
San acre of ground retained expressly
for hay yields ON an average not more
than one aud a-half tons of vegetable
food an equal space planted with carrots
or ruta-bagas will yield from 10 to 20
tons, say Is tons, which is by no meansa
high average, and has often been attained
without extraordinary cultivation. 1t has
been asoertained, by careful experiment,
that three working horses, 10 l-2 hands
high, consume hay at the rate of 200 lbs.
per week, or five tons and lO48 lbs. per
annum, besides one and one-half bushels Of
oats per week, or 78 per annum. By n
repetition of the same experiment it was
found that an unwOrked horse consumed
hay at the rate of four and quarter
tons per amum.
"The produce, therefore, of nearly six
acres of land is necessary to support
working horse for one year, but half an
acre of carrots at 600 bushels per acre,
with the addition of chopped straw, while
the season for feeding them lasts, will do
as we'll, if not better. These things do
not admit of doubt, for they have been the
subject of exact trials, as some Of your
agricultural friends can testify.
1t has also been proved that the value
of one bushel of corn, together with the
fodder upon which it grew, will keepa
horse in good working order for week.
An acre planted with corn, and yielding
60 bushels, will be ample to keep good
sized horse in working order for one year.
'Let the farmer, then, consider wheth.
er it is better to maintain horse on the
produce of half an acre of corn or, on the
other hand, upon the hay and grain from
six acres of land-for it will require six
acres of good land to produce the neces-
sary hay and grain as above. The same
reasoning might be made use of in the
feeding of cattle and sheep"
How and When to Use Manures.
The best method Of using stable or barn
yard manure for corn and potatoes is to
haul it fresh from the cellar in the condi-
tion in which it rests in the vaults, spread
it upon the plowed field, and harrow it in
with Il Geddes harrow. This is what is
called "long manure" and in form which,
according to the opinion of many farmers,
is unsuted to immediate use; also, it is
objected, that in spreading fresh manure
upon plowed fields, and covering it only
specifically with earth, much of it is lost
by evaporation; or, more correctly speak
ing, certain volatile gaseous constituents
rise on the breeze, and are waited away.
In our view, both of these notions are in.
correct. The excrement Of animals must
undergo kind Of fermentation, or putre-
factiye change, before it is assimilated by
, plants and it is better that this be carried
forward in the field, as there it is in con-
tact with the soil, which is greedy to abb
sorb all the products of the chemical
change. Creative power has bestowed up
on dry earth prodigious absorptive capa-
bilities. If lump of fresh manure as
large as a peck-measure is placed on a
plowed field, uncovered and allowed to
) ferment or decay in the open air, the abb
: sorptive powers of the earth are such that
it will actually attract toward it ammonia
cal and other gases, and thus rob the at
mosphere of its natural volatile principles.
A film of earth no thicker than the rind of
} an orange, placed over manure will pre-
vent loss of manural products, under all
possible circumstances. 1t will be agreed,
then, that harrow is equally as effective
as plow in protecting manure in the open
field. 1t is better to have the manure
near the surface, as the rains can reach it,
and dissolve the soluble salts, and, by per-
: collation., carry them down to the hungry
roots of plants. Long manure is not lost
when deeply turned under the plow; but
the farmer does not secure the whole VAL
ne of his dressing under this mode of treat
ment in any case; and in some soils, the
loss is a most serious one. In the process
of soap-making, it becomes necessary to
, set up leach. Now, the farmer will not
attempt to exhaust the tub of ashes of its
, potash by forcing water into the bottom,
and dipping liquid off from the top. The
natural percolating or exhausting process
is downward, in accordance with the laws
of gravity, The soluble alkalies and salts
are driven downward; and, in the case of
the leach, we must have vessel ready to
receive them at the bottom; and, in the
case of the same substances leached from
manure, We must have the manures SO
placed that plant roots will be near at
hand to absorb them before they pass be-
, yond their reach.
Manure is never so valuable as when It
is fresh. 1t then holds in association not
= only all the fixed soluble substances nat
ural to the solid excrement, but much that
is Of great value found only in tho liquid.
1t is in condition to quickly undergo
!, chemical change; and the gaseous, ammo
, e,ouro1 ova double kh0oa