Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-05-06
Agricultural.

ASHES AND NIGHT Soil. = Which is
preferable for a garden, leached ashes
or ashes Just as they come from the
stove?
For the garden unleached ashes are
the best, especially if horse manure and
COW dung have to be employed. The
soil OF the garden suffers heavy loss
of potash in the removal of all root
crops, of asparagus, celery, cabbage,
and the like, which ashes are adapted
to supply. They are also excellent as
an insect t-killer, when busted on plants
attacked by caterpillars, slugs, or aphids
as they not only choke, but cauterize
these vermin. When this Office is served
they reach the soil with advantage as
top-dressing. They are also useful IL
promoting chemical change in the too
inert organic matter of old garden SOL,
and where the garden has been heavily
and exclusively manured with stable
manure for years, and has become black
and mucky; good dose of ashes well
mixei with the soil often operate as
beneficially as a renewed manuTing OF
the usual kind. The ashes and seed
should not come too near each other.
There may be several "best ways" oi
applying night soil to gardens, accord
ing to the circumstances, One Of them,
and on all accounts perhaps the very
best. is to apply it by irrigation. Night
soil, containing necessarily much urine,
decomposes III warm weather with
extraordinary rapidity, and unless it Is
used fresh or nearly so the best of II
Ill 80.
requires either that 1t be dried by the
earth closet system or diluted with bath
and kitchen slop and applied as q
drench. Dry earth is not competent TO
save the nitrogen of night-sOll, as DR..
Voelcker has lately shown, and as j
had ascertained some three years ego
by my own analysis. Ii the nlght-soil
and other hOuse-slOp are received into
a tight cistern situated in the garden
the contents can be pumped up and
distributed when and where they are
wanted by hose, by drain pipes, or by a
cask on wheels, with the most complete
economy of all the feTtiiIzing matters,
and with no annoyance worth naming.
l have In mind an elegant house, stu
ated upon a small lot on the finest street
of a New England city, where a con
servatory, a rose-hOUse, a eTapeTv, and
various garden-beds are manfred IN
this manner and with the most s5tlsfac-
tory results.
JAPAN PEAS.-Some fifteen years ago
the Japan pea, sO-called, made quite a
furore In the agricultural or rather nor
ticultural world. We raised il and were
pleased with If. Its growth is some
what similar to cotton, being a bush
and not a vine as most peas are. The
peas, II we remember right, were borne
in small pods, two or three IN 6 pod,
thickly distributed along the stems; on
rlch land the bushes, ii not too thick,
reached a height of about three and a
half to four feet. The yield OF peas, II
properly thinned and cultivated, was
very great, greater we should think than
from anything else Of the kind We have
ever seen. For culinary purposes with
us they proved utterly useless, as We
could never, with any amount Of cook
ing, rid them of a strong raw taste,
which made them disagIeeable eating.
As We then lived in corn-growlng st c.
tiop, and did not want snything of the
kind for stock, we neglected them and
got out of seed. But as food for hogs
aud poultry we believe them equal al
least to the common coTDfeld peas, and
We are satisfied that from halt the seed
on the same land more than twice as
many Japan peas can be raised as OF the
common kinds now III cultivation. We
have long believed that it would be
economy for the Virginia farmers to
fatten their hogs on peas, as the vines,
&c. left upon the ground after the hogs
had eaten the peas, would improve land
rather than impoverish it. We found
the Japan pea very good for this pur-
pose, and also as winter food for poultry.
We feel rather disposed to recommend
its culture. We have been led to give
this brief description of this plant be-
cause we see it advertised as something
new, and we know some people are liable
to be deceived by their own imagiGatiOn
into expected impossibilities OF every
new thing. We intend to give il a trial,
and would like to see IT fairly tested IL
Virgins. Planter.