Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-12-07

Glover Farmers and Mechanics Club.
A Farmers and Mechanics Club having /
been previously organized, they met Nov I.
22d, WHEN the following notes were taken
down:
Emery Cook spoke of the useless waste
of manure, and the usual practice of al
lowing horse manure to burn, and cited
an instince where he had bought some
that Wa so badly burned as to be nearly
worthless; said he applied 50 bushels of
ashes to one acre of greensward oats, and
they were much heavier and better every
way than strip of One-half acre around
the outside of the piece where no ashes
were used; tried them on wheat also, with
the sane result; advises the use of lime or
ashes, plaster and salt with manure, and
thorough pulverizing and decomPosing by
means Of oyerhauling. Used sawdust for
beddiIg, and drops the horse manure into
his hog pen in the cellar, and Is well sat
isfed With this method Puts in manure
with nyolring cultivator. Thinks sods
betteI, n most muck to mix with ma
nur 47een manure not worth more
than hssSas much as decomposed used
manure made on grass for corn to save
weeds used Goes phosphate with equal
quantity of ashes on potatoes and corn
with berefit, but thinks the cost of Phos-
pilates better be applied to making and
saving manure. Thinks farmers ought to
be growing better grass, and might As well
cut three tons Of hay to the acre As less.
He had used plaster with no effect on moist
land for grass, and ashes with good effect.
D. Baker said enough manure was vast
ed in Vermont to nearly produce the pro-
visions fer her population, that farmers
manure heap was his capital, and that more
attention should be given to increasing
both the quantity and quality of manure.
He spoke of the superiority Of cellars over
sheds for storing manure, where the liquid
portion escapes and is wasted, and called
the attention of the club to the fact that
farmers who had provided manure cellars
| had improved their farms, and said this
had become more apparent to him an ac-
count Of an absence of eight years, from
the farms in this vicinity. He thought
plaster was good as a fertilizer on clay soil,
and when mixed with manure would fix
and retain the gases and should be 50
| used. He also recommended salt, lime
and ashes, when applied judiciously as fer
tilizers Had used Bradley's Phosphate
on corn two years with no profit, but on
turnips with profit. He believed that the
profit realized from given amount ex-
pended in compost, would be more than
double that from the same investment in
phosphates. He also favored the plan o.
blowing in green crops, such as clover
sowing about 20 pounds of seed to the acre
early, and pillow in just before maturity.
| E. Cook said he was credibly informed
that large quantities of pebble stones wer,
gathered and sold, from which phosphate
was manufactured, that a friend from
Massachusetts said he was acquainted will
man there who had worn out set o
mill stones in grinding pebble stones tt
powder, and that it was sold to manufac
turers of phosphate; that it could only fine
market when sent to distance, as NJ
farmer in that vicinity ever thought of us
I Il Il Il
green crops.
D. Baker said he was well aware tina
the so-called phosphates contain very lit
tie phosphate.
&C. Hardy believed an investment il
manufacturing manures more remunerativ
than the purchase of the commercial fer
tilizers, and referred to portions of Eng
land that had been reclaimed from
barren waste and made rich and immense
ly productive lands. In his remarks O
manures Mr.. Hardy said brine would pre-
vent horse manure from heating, and thu
the chemicals used in Clarks compos
! would also prevent it from burning.
2. S. Weber believed horse manure t
be equal to COW manure, and that bot
were improved by mixing. He was in fl
l vor of manure cellars, and using turf an
muck to absorb the liquid manures whic
. contain more nitre and more alkali tina
Z the solid, and also to absorb and hold i
solution the valuable gases contained i
the manure, and muck used in this way
more valuable than foreign fertilizers.
d. Baker said muck should lay in tt
heap one year and become dry before u
; ing, and that at the present price of labt
it would not pay to use more than is r
: quired as an absorbent in the manure
He believed more stock could be kept c
less land than in the usual way, by raisir
: more green fodder and keeping stock L
v more.
c. A. Clark said he believed much
the commercial fertilizers in market W
Il spurious, and that farmers would do bett
s to buy the chemicals and mix them Their
e selves. He believed that in many cas-
IF more than half the manures of the far
Is were wasted. He had raised very fair CO..
with horse manure well decomposed gres