The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1874-05-12

hHhupp iiO ibubbNtf dbh Nhho ob'
ing to agricultural industry hundreds Of
thousands Of acres Of those invaluable in
tervales. 1t is within the memory Of
many here present, when by huge EN-.
bankment Haarlem Lake was shut out
from the sea, afterwards pumped dry,
and thus restored over 10000 acres Of
the best farming lands Of Holland. In
our own country similar efforts are being
made to recover the immense tracts lying
waste in New jersey. BY copious irri-
cation, too, many sections hitherto un.
productive have been made to produce
crops unprecedented for their abundance,
as in Colorado BY systematic drainage
thousands OF acres Of impossible morass
have been converted into arabic fields or
beautiful meadows. And BY green ma.
nuring many arid wastes of sand have
been bro ught to produce abundant crops.
| DO not here speak Of vermont and cx-
hausted lauds,so called which are SO poorly
remunerGtve as perhaps properly TO be
regarded as waste lands. refer more
especially to those few waste rods or
acres of land which may be found upon
almost every farm, and which little
thoughtful care might transform into
sources Of profit. | refer, toe, to those
immense tracts VI tangled underbrush
covering our hilsides with brambles, the
disolated track of the axe of the wood
man, Why may we not save the scanty
soil of these rocky slopes from waste, by
again restoring to them the only produc.
tive crop they are capable Of sustaining,
the only crop which may be safely remov.
ed from them, a crop OF rapidly. growing
forest trees, or, if the locality warrants,
fruit trees? Why should not the pru.
dent farmer regard these patches Of waste
land, that unsightly ridges or that
water soaked swale, with something akin
to the tender interests with which he
singled out some invalid or injured mem.
Der Of his hard, and by bestowing upon
it little extra thought, little extra
care, restore it TO productivcness? |
might here pause to give some illustra-
tons under each Of these heads, but Yer.
mont farmers happily can supply them
al Hbitum from their own experience or
from observation, and l pass, therefore,
to consider another waste more general
in its character, in each peculiar detail
more insignificant, and therefore the more
readily overlooked but in its aggregate
often disastrous in its results to the in,
dividual, to the community, to the State,
aud to the country. A penny saved is
two earned, somebody has said, and in.
deed it might have been said is a dollar
earned, with greater truth in the majority
Of cases, | refer now to.
9th Those immense waste products
Of Il farm ordinarily not regarded as of
any marked value, and therefore every
where in ore form or another going to
waste. Let us consider for few moments
their nature, and we shall probably be
surprised at their number. In one Of the
departments Of the Vienna Exposition
there was shown a case filled with the nu.
merous useful products obtained from
dead horse. and one would. until few
moments reflection has prepared his
judgment, have been astoundod at their
number, their variety, their usefulness
Of course | shall attempt no catalogue of
them, but, for one purpose and another,
everything, hide, hair, and hoofs, name,
tail and shoes; flesh. fat and sinews /;
blood, bones and intestines, even, every.
thing was turned to use, and amid the
nulnberless (almost) products, hair cloth
AID mattresses, leather, gelatinc and
glue prussiate Of potash, grease, soap
and candles knife handles and knives /;
phosphorus, bone dust, bone charcoal and
suporphosphate Of lime appeared in the
confusion Of productive industry to which
this ono waste product was applied. Now
| do not, OF course, present this array Of
facts in the expectation of establishing
upon every or any farm any manufacture
which shall depend for its raw material
upon dead borses Obviously it is only
in the immediate vicinity Of our larger
cities, where the mortality OF these anil
mails is great, that such establishments
can be maintained; but | wish only to
impress upon you the fact that these dead
horses, sheep, hogs, dogs, and cats, do
have even to the most limited farmer a
positive money value, and that wise
economy would no sooner justify his
hauling them away TO some remote corner
Of the woods, where they remain food for
crows, and render the air for rods about
intolcrable, than if he were to cart his
manure heap to The nearest stream. Bet
ter and wiser by far add it to his compost
heap, there to pass under proper chemi.
cal treatment, into a most valuable fer.
tilzer for his crops.
(Io be concluded meat ircek.)