Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-02-24


' SANS, at" VI, 'oo''n' '''' "'u" i'",''"
20 '''e' ,''''o'' 80 ''''1'
- VI ,',, ''''"s u" 49,
,',' ~ ~ ~ ~ Wv ',,e :.
,''o' oe''0V,' o'''''',' 'i' ~
- ~.
- cto.., IL. -. a., -,
..n.. .,., a.. -, e,.t,. g.. an. III
a., (, i ,,raa, -, :. M. -,
,,y ,,oyorrod IN, Cha Win - n,o III n
hc,,o5 o,lnca,;,,, oa, ho ,,Io.d ,,a ,,oo
ala 10 nat lro,, Re- - anal vii no, ,ov
themselves 10 soo,ro !, Zoo u,oir children
In Eurone. the cre,t agricultural schools OK.
detrimental stations and modal farms rofor,sd
To here. had not horn established hv the
working farmers. They had in many cases
opposed them AS thev do hero. and education
had been. as it were. forced upon them by
the wealthy land owners and the government.
Draining was forced upon the farmers of
England, and in order To coax them to it.
the government offered loans Of money at
low rates of interest to be expended in drain
ing the land in order to make it more pro-
ductive. But here the people are the gov
eminent there is no power that can apply
pressure upon them; and to elevate free
people who don't appreciate the value Of
knowledge is like mans trying to lift him
self over fence by the straps of his boots.
In Europe, now, since the profit of high
| farming has been proved, even the working
farmers are in favor OF it. Here, the only
way we can hope for improvement is by the
evidence Of success achieved 10y educated
men in agriculture. lie was glad TO see that
in many cases, as IN that OF Mr.. Douglas,
the success OF such men is beginning to be
appreciated and that the best OF our farmers
come to these meetings and listen to these ed
ucated brethren, and question them, and
show that they begin to believe that, as Mr.
Douglas says, knowledge is power ON the
farm.
j. 7. Foster, OF Barnet then read paper
on Progress in Agriculture and Education"
which was followed by considerable desul-
tory but interesting discussion, after which
]
THURSDAY EVENING.
The evening session was opened with
some discussion upon the value of salt as a
fertilizer. Mr.. Nathan WAY. Of sutton,
spoke highly of it in his experience. and
Professor Collier, being called upon for his
opinion. said that salt was believed to aid in
the solution of silica in the soil. Silica is
the hard, glossy substance that gives strength
and polish TO the outside of the straw Of
wheat and other grain, and consequently
there is reason to believe that farmers are
right in applying salt TO their grain fields.
But tobacco growers find it very injurious to
the quality of that crop.
Mr. j. G. IIovey, of st. Johsbury, then
read paper entitled "What Kind of Farm
ing Paws ?" in which he seemed TO favor the
idea that energy industry and spirit of
improvement were the needful things in this
respect.
The discussion that followed this paper
was mainly upon manures. Mr.. Cook. of
St. Johnsbury Center, favored turning back
the cows upon the pasture at night in order
10 give the pasture the benefit of their ma
nure. The chairman said he never could
see that cattle manure dropped in the pas
ture did much good. 1t sheds water. and is
not washed into the ground by the rains. but
mostly dries up and blows away. Would
prefer to yard the cattle. and draw the ma
nure, after it was well rotted. into the pas.
ture and spread it, Some one in the audience
asked if any body ever heard of case where
farmer drew out good fine manure and
spread it ON his pasture Nobody seemed to
have any such case to report.
The subject of fire-forging." or overhead
ing, in stable manure, was discussed; the in
jury to the manure in consequence was well
recognized, and various methods suggested
to prevent it. In barn cellars the keeping
of hogs upon the manure was considered suf
fcent. Where hogs were not kept, mixing
the horse and COW manure together. using
the horse dung to bed the COWS with, wetting
the piles with water from the wash or in
case of necessity forking it over as often as
it was strongly heated, were advised. Prof.
Collier expressed the opinion that good
deal of smell could be made by little am
monia, and that there might not be much
loss, even where there was considerable
smell. Mr.. Nathan Way said that though
there was great loss of weight by heating,
the fre-fanged manure was by no means
worthless. A load of it was actually shown,
by experiment. to produce greater effect
upon grass than manure that had not been
heated. There might be some loss of am
monia, but the mineral elements remained
and were concentrated, that is, there was
more of them in given weight of the ma
nure, and they acted strongly as a fertilizer
But he did not favor allowing it to burn
Mr.. +. V. Powers, of Waterford then read
an admirable paper on "The Importance of
System in Agriculture" After hearing Mr.
Powers paper the meeting adjourned till
Friday morning at nine o'clock.