Year: 1872

retail, IL no will but inquire and be patient could
always buy all wanted In NewYork at or below fifteen
cents per bushel and have had o carload at q tmo
given me by who had for suOh Salt but
urgent noed OF the room 1t occupied. Such wndfals
come every year to those who are looking for them


One OF these days. Out not In my day) wo shall have
great pumping works beside harbors, sounds or in
let's lifting seawater by tie thousand gallons up 10
hight whence pipes tubes will convey i aided only Ivy
gravitation. to plains and valleys inland, which
will be allowed gently overflow irrgato and fertize
IT, after time, fresh water shall be deemed desirable
In its turn then the salt of the seawater will be pre-
ciptaed on its passage by cheap chemical agency
and only the thus freshened water reach the SOIL


The prominence given to Phosphates, and TO Phos
phatic substances day. is fully justified In rude
ages when cultivation desultOry and crops scany
and caprcious while animals decayed where they died
and bones thrown anywhere so that they should
not be in the way there was little need OF applying
Phosphaes TO the farmers fields and call for the
At length all is changed For half century, England
quietly bought up the bones OF all animals that deu OF
were slaughtered on near our seaboard and appheu
them to the fertilization of her fields while our farms,
through the sale Of milk and OF living or slaughtered
animals steadily losing all that hers we're gaining
When We at length awoe suicidal madness OF this
display of ignorance and heedessness ON our part we
had to recover the leeway thus made; and have no
doubt that wo had, and still have, meadows and pas
lures which would still give fair crops OF grass but on
q
reared Hence the policy and necessity OF applying
Phosphaes in some form to THO welworn fields OF our
older statesa necessity which is not at all felt in newer
regions and on virgin Soils


AS TO the ordinary farmyard manures, no one need be
told that they excellent far they g0hat he Is
fortunate indeed who obtain them in abundance and
little cost They contain In available form most OF


the ingredients required by ordinary soils to n them for
producing excellent crops more accurately they en-
body OF the elements of plants in such form that
plants may readily absorb and thrive upon them. You
may have them in abundance, yet still need certain
mineral additions to your eOii-Ldmo Sulphur, ana
Phosphorus especially-but very small outlay VIII
suffice for all that you need OF these II you have In
abundance farm-yard manures, that these be well
rotted and wisely applied. He who has these where
they ought be buy and pay for all else that
he needs.


But the farmer who apply twenty cords per acre


from his barnyard TO ten acres per annum Of his farm Is
q marked exception There are more who could not
deal with per annum thus generously. For,
while manure is the life Of the farm, nothing else Is
treated so wasefully Thrown out to be drenched 10y
water from the caves then bleached In the sun and
burned by internal fermentation, most farmers treat
as nuisance rather than their most essential resource
We must change all this il TO our farms
what they should be-


have paved cellar expressly for manure under the
entire cattelOOr of my barn. with floor and scafold





but entirely satisfactory while cost moro than the
average farmer afford recommend to him the fol-
lowing substitute:


Dig the center of your barnyard to depth of six
or eight feet in the middle making it pit hollow
with regularly soping sides Raise the outer residue
of the yard with the earth excavated that water
can never stand any where else than in the hollow
Now all the weeds and brakes you can find in the roads
around YOU in your fields first, then in those of
your neghbors who will let you gather dry leaves
wherever they are not needed, and litter your cattle
generously, alike In stable and yard Cut your straw
and stalks If you can, and let everything that
remains uneaten be squickly transferred to the
pit. Devote at least week in the Fall
to the collection of litter of all kinds, and
make the week month If you possibly spare the
time No labor on the farm pays better than that which
is devoted to increasing the size while improving the
quality Of its muck-heap If your soil Is sandy or
gravey, and pit bank of clay is convenient, one
hundred loads OF simple clay per may be spread
your grasslands late in the Fall early the
Winter with profit, while clay soils In like manner
improved by dressing Of sand fine gravel by loan. Fill
up any hOlOws depressons by thus coating clay with
sand and sand with clay, and large crops will respond
to your persistent wisely directed efforts. or COURSE
whole canuot be thus thoroughly treated at once
but get into perfect condition each year. lay
down grass and proceed with the next lot, and
your whole farm will soon be model alike for facility
Of working and certainty OF ample harvests.


am writing for poor men, who do not admit that they
should therefore be poor farmers. The rich can buy
fertilizers right and left underdrain, subsoil and till to
perfecton butI address the thousands whose will is
good but whose scanty. who cannot af-
ford TO "branch out" but must make each years
savings pay for the next years improvements To tell
one of these how he might prOftably spend several
thousand dollars forthwith his farm is only to annoy
him he has not the money, cannot borrow it, and
spare nothing wherewth TO buy it, So have said little
Of
acre. and in order, except small SCALE until
the farm has been made productive and profitable Let
the farmer of scanty means improve the first dry
Autumn to underdran thoroughly his wettest, bog
giest acre when thoroughly dry, let him sweeen this
by liberal application Of Lime and, thoroughly puver
izng SOIL well the two three succeeding crops,
and think he will be convinced Cas ann that Under
draining pdS at least wherever is undenaby needed
Undertaking dry upland will come far later and to
many farms may never come at ALL


With Irrigation the case is different Doubtless gen
eratens will pass before fields are blessed by that
Universal Irrigation by the help Of wells pumped by
wnd-power, which thoroughly believe in. That must
come slowly, gradually, in ages, not years merely, and
viii be hurried. Let me speak only of what is prac
tcable and Advisable today


Most farms traversed or skirted by sort Of
brook runne or timer watercourse which be dry for
a part of nearly every year. Each is fullest in Spring
when fed by copous rains and often by melting
also It's current Of course richest in pantfood just
when most ample. slight dam thrown its chan
mel near the upper side Of farm field with fur
row run dagonally thence through the field fields be-
low so as 10 lead the water gradually away from the
brook escaping the lower bank of the shallow
ditch at intervals until the last drop has been used to
moisen and enrich the soil through which 1t filters down
to Its natural bedsuch is rude outline OF very rude
device for doubling the crops while increasing the per-
manent fertility of larger smaller portion of almost
every farm. OF course, the mode must be varied TO