Year: 1859

VEGETATION annually appropriates to it.
self and removes from the soil a portion
of the nutritive principles therein con
tanned, and if they be removed without
compensation in some way, baroness will
ensue.


Upon the facilities which the farmers
may be able to command to secure an ad-
equate supply of food from his crop, his
success must in great measure depend.
Manure is term of broad application.
1t was formerly confined chiefly to the
excrements of animals, but now it has a
wider signification, and may be under
stood as embracing any animal vegetable,
| or mineral matter, capable of improving
| and fertilizing the soil, or of correcting its
faults and supplying its defects. Wheth-
er artificial fertilizers may or may not be
profitably employed, is of far less moment
for us to understand. than how to make
the most of home resources; the true pol
| icy being to increase the productiveness
! of the farm within itself To accomplish
| this, every source of fertilizing material
| upon the farm should be made to contri-
/ butte, and care should be taken that no
/ thing be wasted. Not only should the
! solid excrements of animals, which too
/ often is the sole dependence Of the farmer,
/ be properly cared for, but special efforts
| should be directed to the liquid also,
| which are not only more exposed to waste
| but possess a superiority over the other,
/ which renders their loss irreparable.-
An eminent agricultural writer says -
when it is considered that with every
/ pound of ammonia that escapes, loss of
| corn is sustained, and that with every
! pound of urine pound of wheat might
I L 1. IL,
/ the liquid eXcrements are regarded is
| quite incomprehensible." Another says
"The quantity of liquid manure produced
by one COW annually, is equal to fertili-
zing an acre and quarter Of ground, pro-
ducing effects as durable as do the sol
id evacuations. A cord of loan, saturated
/ with urine, is equal to a cord of the best
dung. II the liquid ana sUi1d evaCuatiUHs,
| including the litter, are kept separate,
and soaking up the liquid by loan, it has
been found they will manure land, in pro-
portion by bulk, of seven liquid to six sol
| id, while their actual value is as two to
one. The simple statement then, in fig
ures, of the difference in value of the sol
id and liquid excavations of a COW, should
impress upon all the Importance of saving
the last in preference to the first"


Excrementitious matter, whether solid
or liquid, is by no means our only source
of food for plants. Almost every farmer
possesses an indefinite and often most
abundant supply, in the deposits of de.
cayed vegetable matter known as muck
or peat. This, to be sure, in its natural
condition, Is not ready available by plants
they would relish and thrive upon il
about as well as we would on raw pOta
toes, but nevertheless, the food is there
and only needs due preparation to make
it both palatable and nutritious. Muck
or peat is also Of great value, and almost
indispensable as an absorbent of liquid
manure, and Of the gases generated du
ring decomposition.


In this way it not only proves a most eff
fectual and economical means of prevent
ing waste, but is itself, in so doing, mod
flied or changed so as to be converted int
valuable and available manure. Muck
treated with ashes, is found to do exceeding


ly well. Another mode of treating j


which has many advocates, is, to slacl


quick lime, with saturated solution o


common salt, and mingle with the muck


in the proportion of one cask of lime to


cord of muck. Thus prepared, it is not


simple mixture of lime, salt and muck


but during its preparation as stated above


a decomposition Of the salt takes place


alkah is liberated equivalent to the ashe


used in the other case, and by its actor


the vegetable food in the muck is rer


dered soluble and thus made available t


plants.-,Soldhern Homestead.


WHEN CoRN GRows-Dr. R. Harrison


Of Prince George County, Virginia, Ina


taken some pains to make some careful eN
b aminations, to ascertain whether cor
a grows, as is generally supposed, more a


night than by day. August l. corn gre,


in twenty-four hours five inches; at nigh


one and half inches. August ,. it gre


four and seven-eights inches; at nigh