Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-09-17
How 10 Manure Our Farm.
BY JUDGE FRENCH.
Water amt Sand Essential but 1ns file lent
Value of LeaVes-Peat--S Sewage Com
mercial Fertilizers.

| Tie piece OF muslin over tumbler
t kept filled with water, and put upon the
muslin half dozen peas so that they will
rest on the water, and suspend the tumb-
| Ter in a sunny window by three or four
strings, and the peas will not only vege-
! tate, but will grow a foot or two high and
/ blossom with thrifty stems and leaves
Probably they will not produce peas, bnt
! as to the rest [ will bear witness from per
| sonai observation.
1t is common in propagating houses to
! start plants, as grapes from single eyes or
cuttings of various kinds, by placing them
! in shallow beds of pure sand, and water,
heat and light, they speedily strike root
and send up leaves and stems, and form a
! plant fit to set IN open ground for ordina-
| ry culture.
Experiments often repeated have shown
that plant may be raised in flower pot
from IA seed and receive no nonrlshment
but pnre water, and yet shall far exceed ia
wight all the soil in which it grew.
In all the cases the plants receive all
| they want from the ordinary essentials Of
plant growth, mir light heat and moisture
To mature profitable crop, however, we
! find practically that something besides air.
! light, heat and moisture is essential, and
| that essential is not pure silex, however
well silex may answer for the first process
| of termination.
| Besides our processes which change the
physical character OF our soil, as drainage
and pulverization by plowing and the like;
besides what may be called amendments OF
the soil, as when we mix sand with clay or
peat, we must systematically add some
thing which we call Manure, or the richest
soil will by and by be exhausted.
It is not my purpose to advance any new
theory wish merely to make clear to the
mind, what little reflection might make
manifest to any one. The air and heat and
light and moisture will usually do their
part with no artificial help. And again,
most of our soils contain enough of sand,
SO that we do not haul on forty loads, more
or less. OF compost to each acre to supply
either of these essentials.
The want of manure is the limit of our
cultivation on most New England farms.
We might readily double and. quadruple
onr crops if we only had manure enough.
Chemists no doubt, tell us correctly what
elements make up the matured crop, and
the chemist knows better than we how
many embarrassments Nature interposes
to his investigations, how the life-principle
modifies chemical processes IN the soil and
exerts influences which he cannot measure.
In general we know what we want to ada
to the soil, by knowing what we take from
it, as shown by chemical analysis. shall
not attempt to define what kinds OF fertill-
zers we should apply to our land, but de-
sire rather to impress on the farmer the
folly or at least the wastefulness of much
of his labor in applying to his farm what
he calls manure.
With many farmers, quantity seems to
be the great object, and their manure heap
seems valuable in prof Ortion to size.-
They haul from the fields, the head-lands
and the middle furrow, and all they can
scrape of ordinary soil, into their barn
cellars to the amount of hundreds of loads
annually, and in few months haul it out
again upon the same fields mixed with
manure from their cattle. Again it is quite
common to team wet swamp mud mile or
two to be used in compost. So far as dry
material is needed to absorb the liquids of
the cellars, and dry soil may be usefal,
and reasonable amount of sand even
may be used as q divisor to render ma
nure gne and convenient of application
but it is we'll to remember that soil from
the field hauled into the cellar and out
again, is not by that process rendered val
liable. Peat and swamp muck contain
usually valuable elements of fertility but
we often fancy that our teams are loaded
with manure, when, in fact, they are toll
ling all day to haul water upon farms al
ready too wet. The true. value Of some OF
the substances which we are in the habit
of using in our compost heaps, is we'll ex'
pressed in valuable essay by DIR. james
r. Nichols, published in the Agriculture
of Massachusetts for 1868. He thus dis
poses of two of our favorite articles, leaves
and peat.
THE VALUE OF LEAVES.
A bushel of we'll pressed dry leaves, as
they fall from the trees in autumn, weighs
about four pounds ; by further drying
they part with little more than 30 pei
cent. of water held in. the cells of the leaf
structure. A cord of absolutely dry
leaves will weigh about 325 pounds, reck
oning' 100 bushels to the cord. In weight
then, a cord represents about One-twelfth
of cord of wet barnyard manure, and II
they contained the same amount of fertlllz
ing material in same condition, would be
equal in value to that amount of manure.
The dried leaves | have found to stanC
relatively to the leached organic matter ot
manure as 10 to 30 in ash value, and when
the soluble salts of manure are taken into
account, the comparative value is as 10 tc
60, weight for weight. A cord Of dry forest
leaves made up of the usual deciduonE
varieties, maple, beach, oak, &c, has ar
actual nannnrriGi value of not over .ff2
cents, reckoning. stable manure at eight
dollars the cord Will it pay to collect
them ? Certainly not for the amount Of
'?rtili'ing mat, rial they contain. As litter
or absorbenta in the stable, leaves have
some value, but much less than straw, in
asmuch as they lack the reedy character Of
straw, and because they are far more diff
Guilty an slowly decomposed.
So much for leaves Now let us see
what DIR Nichols saws of
THE VALUE OF PEAT.
"a pound of good, thoroughly formed
peat. taken fresh from the meadow upon
my farm, lost of water in drying, a little
more than Il ounces. farmer drawing
from his meadow a cord of peat weighing
4, 600 pounds, has upon his wagon $500
pounds of water, and but 500 pounds oi
the dry material he seeks. This dried and
compressed, could be placed in a couple
of our largest sized farm baskets. The
amount of ash constituents in the pound
of peat after drying, was little less than
ten per cent. so that when we reduce the
heavy load OF peat which TO the eye ap-
pears so bulky and valuable, down to its
contained inorganic principles. we find
the whole amount to be less so pounds
| r hone not to be misunderstood in the