Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

and use. The value of farm-yard and stable manures consists mainly in the progressed in organic matter they contain, and in the state of division in which that matter exists, and not, as many suppose, in the amount of nitrogen or ammonia they contain; for the value of ammonia consists, not in being a food for plants, but in its ability to give to water the power of dissolving new portions of the soil itself, passing it through the proper chemical changes to fit it for plants. It is doubtful if any plant ever received, through its roots, any of the constituents of ammonia; and it is only to this function of ammonia that the farmer need look for any advantage from its use.

If his soil be fairly arable, from former use, and be thoroughly underdrained, and subsoilploughed, containing a full share of progressed inorganic food for plants, he will find no benefit from the application of ammonia in any form; for soils so prepared will receive all they require of nitrogenous matters from the atmosphere, as they will be continuously condensing from that source moisture charged with gases. We freely admit that on badlyprepared soils, merely surface-ploughed, and presenting so slight a depth of soil to atmospheric influences that the necessary quantity of nitrogen cannot be received, it is necessary to increase the solvent power of the moisture they contain so as to secure the solution of a sufficient amount of inorganic pabulum to sustain crops; but the real value of every manure, so far as furnishing the constituents of plants is concerned, is due not only to the amount of inorganic food which it contains, but to its condition or state of progression, and not to the amount of nitrogen combined therewith in any form.

The best cultivators do not use open barnyards as the receptacle of manures, but the manures of the farm are removed daily to adjacent manure-sheds, where the compost is placed on and above the surface of the ground, with a drainage cistern at the lower end of the shed, furnished with a pump, so that the fluid drainage of the manure heap may be thrown from the cistern on top of the mass, and by its downward filtration through the compost supply moisture and convey the soluble portions to the inert parts, causing continuous fermentation without excessive heat, preventing firefanging, and insuring' entire disintegration, destroying weed seeds, and breaking up organic forms of all kinds, so that the mass may become homogeneous without the labor or expense of turning by forking, etc. All the fluids of the stables, house, etc., may be carried by gutters to this cistern, the compost heap may be supplied with muek, meadow mud, headlands, weeds, and all waste materials of the farm, and by the continued and repeated infiltration of the soluble portion through all other parts, the admixture will become more perfect than by any other method; the occasional addition of sulphuric acid to this cistern will convert all the volatile products of decomposition

into sulphates which are non-volatile, thus preventing evaporation, malaria, etc.

Special fertilizers which are soluble may be thrown into the cistern, and so find their way through the mass, and, with it, to the fields.

When the drainage is insufficient to supply the necessary amount of moisture, water may be passed into the cistern, and when fluid manures are called for to be used on the farm, they may be taken from this reservoir, and distributed by a sprinkling-cart.

With such an arrangement all kinds of farm manures may be thoroughly combined, securing such chemical changes as will do away with the disadvantages consequent upon their separate use, such as the unfavorable influence of hog-manure, when used alone upon the brassica tribe of plants, clump-rooting cabbages, giving ambury, or fingers and toes, to turnips, etc. The manure of the hen-house should frequently be added to the compost heap, so as to be more evenly divided through it.

The pump with which the cistern is supplied may be moved by a small wind-mill, placed above the shed, causing the changes to be continuous by the downward filtration through the mass followed by the atmosphere.

The value of manure so prepared, diluted with many times its bulk of waste organic matter, such as muck, leaves from the woods, woods-earth, etc., is greater per cord after fermentation than that of the pure manure kept in an open barn-yard, while the quantity will be materially greater, no loss by washing or evaporation having occurred. When potash is required by the soil, it may be added in the form of wood-ashes, and other special amendments, in solution or otherwise. These will not only find their way to the field, but while in the compost heap will furnish chemical action for the decomposition of all other portions, securing at the same time their own dissemination throughout the mass. So much for farmyard manures; but who can produce so large a quantity of such manures (whatever may be the extent of his stables) as may be used on his land with increased profit? We claim that no farmer or stock-breeder can do so, and when, under these circumstances, the farmer has the means of farming more profitably, he must of necessity become the buyer of fertilizers; there are but few localities where farm and stable manures can be purchased; those manures made upon the farm itself may be used with profit, but if they are to be carted from a distance, the transportation will generally render them more costly than other fertilizers. Factory wastes of various kinds frequently may be purchased at less cost near towns and cities. Night-soil, also, may be used with advantage. Peruvian guano contains many of the constituents required by crops, and when properly treated before use is an admirable manure; it should be finely ground and mixed with some divider, such as charcoal dust, woods-earth, or even the ordinary soil of the farm, and should

be wetted with dilute sulphuric acid, so as to render its phosphates more soluble and its carbonates less volatile; or, what is still better, it may form part of a well-made superphosphate of lime. The best of these is the nitrogenized superphosphate of lime, made by the admixture of 100 pounds of calcined bones, 56 pounds of sulphuric acid, 36 pounds of Peruvian guano, and 20 pounds of sulphate of ammonia, to which may be added an equal weight of dried blood, the whole to be thoroughly ground together. Six hundred pounds of this mixture will fully represent twenty-five cords of wellrotted farm and stable manure.

Lime.-Lime, as it is generally used, cannot be viewed as an immediate or direct food for plants; that which is contained in decaying organisms, or as resulting from the ashes of wood and other substances, when applied to the soil, is readily assimilated by plants; but the more crude kinds of lime, such as are made by the burning of the ordinary limestones, have their first action friendly to vegetable growth in their power to decompose all organic matter, and thus cause it to give up its inorganic constituents; in addition to which, it acts upon the inorganic constituents of the soil itself, forming silicate of lime; and by removing portions of the surface of particles, presents new surfaces for other chemical action and continued development.

Lime, when combined with salt, so as to form chloride of lime and carbonate of soda, before its use in soils, becomes materially more active and in a condition to be rapidly appropriated. Three bushels of lime, slaked with a solution of one bushel of salt, and then exposed to the atmosphere until the chlorine of the salt combines with the lime, forming chloride of lime, and setting free the soda, permitting it to combine with carbonic acid from the atmosphere, becoming carbonate of soda, form an admirable fertilizer. Four bushels of this mixture, sufficiently old for all the chemical changes to have occurred, if mixed with a cord of any cheap organic matter, such as swamp muck, woodsearth, etc., will decompose it to a powder in a very short space of time. It is therefore a valuable auxiliary to most composts.

Sulphate of Lime, (plaster of Paris,) usually known as gypsum, supplies to the soil not only lime, but also sulphuric acid, and previous to undergoing any change, it has the power of absorbing and giving off to water large amounts of the gaseous products of the atmosphere, as well as those consequent upon organic decay in the soil; it is found also to be valuable in deodorizing the effluvia of stables, compost heaps, etc. In soils containing very minute proportions of progressed inorganic materials, plaster is often used to assist in the growth of clover. This in turn throws down its deep roots, gathering from the subsoil large amounts of inorganic matter, elevating them to the surface soil, and on decaying, when ploughed under, enriching the soil, not, as has been frequently asserted, by the decomposition of matters abstracted from the

atmosphere alone, but by its power in progress ing the inorganic materials of the soil, and rendering them fit for future assimilations.

Wood-ashes.-These supply to the soil large amounts of potash, with smaller quantities of the other constituents shown in their analysis. Thus leached ashes from which the potash is entirely removed, still exercise, on many soils, a friendly influence, by furnishing plants with the other constituents making up their composition, all of which, once having been in organic life, are progressed and fitted for entering a higher class of vegetable growth.

Lime, ashes, and other alkaline substances, tend to alter the mechanical conditions of soils; clayey soils are rendered more free by their use, while sandy soils become more compact, each being improved in degree.

Our space will not permit any further detail on the subject of fertilizers; however, it should be remembered that all those which are not of a volatile character may be applied to the more immediate surface with greater benefit than when ploughed deeply under; for, in the former case, as they become soluble by the combined effects of sun and air, and the consequent chemical changes, they are presented to a greater number of particles attacking their surfaces, and coming in contact with a larger quantity of roots, than if they had been originally placed more deeply in the soil. Thus we find that the topdressing of grass and grain crops with phosphates, ashes, etc., is of material benefit, while lime, from the peculiar shape of its particles, descends from the effects of rains and dews; and in soils which have not been subsoiled, the accumulation of lime applied during many years, will be found coating the surface of the subsoil, and can be brought into activity again only by an increased depth of ploughing of the surface, or the disturbance of the subsoil. Lime, therefore, should always be applied in small doses, and more frequently than has been usually practised. The chief benefit to be derived from the ploughing in of green crops, the application of meadow muck, river mud, and other cheap organic substances, is as follows: they furnish large amounts of progressed inorganic materials; during their decay or subdivision, they leave interstices in the soil for the reception of atmosphere; the process of decay generates heat, and this accelerates growth; and they supply large amounts of carbon, evenly divided, which perform the offices in the soil to which we have before referred.

It should be remembered that a soil, surfaceploughed to a reasonable depth, then subsoilploughed and fully underdrained, containing fertilizers of the kinds suggested above, has advantages over soils differently prepared; among which are the entire absence of any ill effect from drought, greater ease of manipulation, and the presence of conditions by which all that class of plants, known as tillering plants, can increase the number of their bearing shoots. A single grain of wheat will sometimes, by til

lering, throw up sixty separate standards, each bearing grain. This arises from tiller roots thrown out near the earth crown, but whenever any one root of a stool comes in contact with a cold subsoil, which has never been disintegrated, the tillering in the whole crown ceases. It is for this reason that grass crops frequently run out, in soils not so prepared; while with proper preparation, and the top-dressing we have named, a field once in grass may be maintained at its maximum of product for any length of time.

Recent Changes in Farm Crops.-Until within a very few years the American farmer has paid but little attention to the cultivation of roots as food for cattle. William Cobbett, the English statesman, was the first to introduce the culture of the rutabaga turnip as food for cattle in America. Its general adoption, however, until within a few years has been slow; it is now known that a proper variety of root crops is not only less exhausting to the soil than grass or grain crops, but that they are more economical as food for stock, securing a higher state of health, and producing results not attainable without their use in part.

Beets, parsnips, carrots, turnips, caulo-rapas, and many other roots, are now being raised by our dairy and stock farmers. The old style of cultivation, requiring laborious hand-work with hoes, spades, forks, etc., is fast passing away, also the hilling of potatoes, corn, etc., for which practice no good reason has ever been presented. The introduction of the various horse tools, for the cultivation of root and other crops, has materially lessened farm labor. Fifteen years ago, the writer required 20 men to cultivate properly a garden of 30 acres; now, by the use of a few judiciously chosen horse tools, he cultivates many times that area with but 8 farm hands, 4 of whom are boys. These tools include the digging machine, the lifting subsoilplough, used as an instrument for cultivation, the carrot-weeder, the horse-hoe, in two modified forms, the roller, and the clod-crusher.

Seeds are now sown by machinery, and the variety of seed-sowers has been much increased within the last few years. For broadcast purposes, Cahoon's seed-sower is the best. It will sow with perfect evenness 35 acres a day; and the same instrument will spread manures, intended as top-dressings, over an equal number of acres. The corn-planters, drawn by a single horse, will do the work of 25 men; the ordinary seed-drills for the sowing of row crops, work with great exactness, and as they leave the seeds perfectly straight and equidistant from each other, the after cultivation of the surface is readily performed by a single mule or a horse.

With either of the following tools, a mule, with a boy driver, will represent many men with forks and spades. Thus, when row crops merely appear at the surface of the soil, a smallsized lifting subsoil-plough may be run half-way between the rows, disturbing the soil by a slight

lifting, so that soil and plants are both raised together, leaving the earth loosened to a depth of twelve inches, and more thoroughly than could be effected by many hoeings, without covering the plants at all; this, in addition to the original ploughings, constitutes the necessary manipulation of the soil for the sowing of seed; the carrot-weeder may then be run between the rows, embracing the whole surface from row to row, disturbing the upper two inches more thoroughly than can be done by repeated hoeings, and leaving all the weeds lying on the surface to be wilted by the sun, and at the same time effectually disintegrating the surface soil. In this way the crops may be kept clean until their completion, and with very much less labor than would be required in the use of hand-tools.

The larger row crops, or, as sometimes grown, hilled crops, should receive a somewhat similar treatment. Corn, for instance, may be thus cultivated; the lifting subsoil-plough is run in both directions transversely, when the hilling system is preferred, and on each side of the rows of corn, when two or three inches high, and before the roots have extended out into the paths between; the expanding horse-hoe is then run between the rows, keeping the whole surface clean of weeds, and at such depths as the operator may desire, rendering the tedious hand-hoeing unnecessary; for if the planting be straight and true, every inch of the soil may thus be cheaply and thoroughly disturbed.

The same may be said of the potato and of all other analogous crops.

One of the greatest improvements in the feeding of roots to stock, consists in pulping them by machinery. After being pulped, the roots are mixed with chaffed hay or other provender, doing away with the necessity of the use of large quantities of water, and presenting the food in the most acceptable form, and susceptible of greater variety; for all the roots that we have named may in turn be used, changing the kind each week. The carrot is perhaps the most valuable of the roots as food for all animals; with the cow, it increases the flow of milk, greatly improving its quality as well as that of the butter, cheese, etc. Horses fed in part with this vegetable are not liable to the heaves, and, as is the case with other cattle so fed, soon acquire a loose hide, smooth skin, shining coat. The value of the carrot does not consist alone in the amount of nutriment it furnishes, but rather in the pectic acid which it contains, and which is found in degree in many roots; this acid has the curious property of gelatinizing the contents of the stomach, thus enabling the peristaltic motion of the intestines to act more thoroughly in the process of digestion. When the stomach of an animal is filled with water containing cut hay and other materials, digestion is very incomplete; thus we find horses fed on cut hay and whole oats frequently voiding the oats unchanged, and always

some of the shells; while the dung contains so much starch as to cause fire-fanging in the compost heap.

Six quarts of oats, bruised, and six quarts of carrots, pulped, and the hay chaffed and mixed therewith, will sustain a horse as well as twelve quarts of oats with nearly a double portion of hay in the natural state, not chaffed, and without the use of carrots. Fatting cattle will flourish well with a less amount of grain when carrots are substituted in part. We should remember, however, that for the purpose of inducing appetite, a variety of roots is quite desirable. The cooking of food for cattle is becoming quite general, and many convenient steaming apparatus have been invented for this purpose. Hay is now chaffed instead of being cut; for it is well ascertained that 23 lbs. of hay, in the natural state, 19 lbs. cut one inch long, and 13 lbs. finely chaffed, are equal in value as food for horses, cattle, etc.; and when this is steamed before use, its value is still further increased, particularly if mixed with the ineal intended to be used before steaming, after which the pulped roots are added.

The feeding of cooked food to hogs is a material improvement now generally acknowledged and much practised; half the amount of corn, after being cooked, will fairly represent an entire quantity in the raw state, as food for hogs. Straw and corn-stalks, when used in place of hay, are found to be of high value if chaffed and steamed before use.

The thorough ventilation and proper temperature of stables are now recognized as adding materially to the economical keeping and healthful condition of the animals. The use of charcoal dust, plaster of Paris, and other deodorizers in and about the stalls of animals, is a material amendment in practice.

Mulching. It is now well understood, that protecting the soil with a slight covering during the colder seasons, materially benefits the crops of the following year. If a board lie on the soil during fall and winter, and be removed in early spring, it will be found that the grass, during the following summer, will grow more profusely on that spot than elsewhere, and this fact has suggested the similar use of slight coatings of straw, salt hay, and other cheap materials, which may be removed with a horse-rake in the spring, and then used as bedding for animals. Grass and grain crops, by such treatment, are saved from the effects of winter, sometimes so disastrous to their growth. The sprewing or freezing out of crops seldom or never occurs in soils properly prepared to a sufficient depth.

The use of mowing machines has of late become quite general, and farmers who formerly were constrained to keep no more stock than they could supply with the quantity of hay which they, and one or two laboring men, could cut and cure at the proper season, are now enabled to appropriate a greater breadth of land and raise a larger amount of stock.

Threshing-machines are just taking the place of the flail and barn-floor. Many farmsteadings are now supplied with a steam or caloric engine, enabling each farmer to grind his own corn, pulp his roots, chaff his hay, straw, and corn-stalks, saw his own wood, thresh, winnow, and clean his grain, etc., by machinery. In the culture of small fruits the improvements have been very great, and the citizens of New York and other cities, can now vie with those of London and Paris in the quality of fruits of all kinds obtainable in their markets. The culture of dwarf pears has materially increased; and we have so advanced in grape culture that we shall soon become a wine-making country; California furnishing an amount almost as great as produced by all the rest of the Union. Ohio, Missouri, and other States, are wine producers on an extended scale, while all our markets are supplied with grapes as a dessert fruit. Improved kinds are fast being introduced, of this as well as of all other fruit.

In flax culture the increase is very great. The late improvements in machines for the dressing and preparation of flax, will soon enable us to become large exporters of this article.

Bones are no longer exported from our shores for the use of English and French farmers, but they are all manufactured into superphosphates. The agricultural societies in all our States and in almost all our counties, are fast disseminating agricultural truths throughout the breadth of the land; we find from the reports of fairs that, in many agricultural districts, staple crops are continually on the increase. The wasting system which caused the wheat crop of the State of Ohio to fall from 35 bushels to 12 per acre, and of New York from 30 to 10, as average crops, and Massachusetts to be entirely unable to supply her own population, is fast passing away, and we anticipate that the future census of the Government will show, that as agriculture becomes a science, the suicidal skinning of the soil will cease. American agricultural machinery is now fast supplanting that of England and other European countries; even their own colonies, the Cape of Good Hope, and many other African settlements, and Australia and all of Central America, are now our customers for agricultural implements. American ingenuity is fast furnishing advantages which equal that of the lower price of European labor, and enable the American farmer to compete in the world's markets at their prices.

In all the older States, worn-out soils are being resuscitated and swamps drained, bringing new lands into cultivation; underdraining and subsoil-ploughing are fast doubling the available power of soils, and when the same kind of enterprise shall become general in the cotton-growing States, the increase of produce will be immense. We find, in almost every county throughout the Union, some individual who raises double the average of the corn crop of his State, double the average of the cotton

trop, and, indeed, this may be said of any or all crops.

With the amount of capital and enterprise now being applied to agriculture, these improved results will become patent to all operators; and let us hope that with the present generation will die out the last vestige of that dogged resistance to agricultural progress from which the cause has already suffered so severely. An increase of one inch in the depth of ploughing, throughout the land, will do more to increase the national wealth than can the mines of California, and if we mistake not, this inch of soil, which would be a far richer acquisition than a new territory, will be enabled to yield up its treasure before many generations shall have passed away.

During the past year the United States Government has, more than ever before, recognized the great national importance of affording the largest facilities towards agricultural improvement, and the community are at present eager ly awaiting some tangible expression of that recognition in the formation of an Agricultural Department at Washington, with a secretary at its head, holding even rank with the Secretaries of State, of War, etc. The farmers of our country own more than half the wealth, pay more than half the taxes, and the principal business of our large cities is acting as their factors by importing their supplies and exporting their products. It is but proper that they should be fairly represented by a distinct department.

ALABAMA, one of the Southern States, is bounded on the north by Tennessee, east by Georgia, south by Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and west by Mississippi. It is 330 miles in its extreme length from north to south, and 300 miles in its greatest breadth. The population of the State in 1860 was 960,296, of which 2,630 were free colored, and 435,132 were slaves. The Governor is elected for two years by the people. The Senate consists of thirty-three members elected for four years, and the House of Representatives of one hundred members elected for two years. The Legislature meets on the second Monday in November, biennially. (See NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA.)

The southern portion of the State was strongly in favor of secession from the United States. Early in December, 1860, State Commissioners were sent to the authorities and people of the other slaveholding States, to urge forward a movement in favor of secession, and a union of these States in a separate Confederacy. All represented that the purpose of Alabama was fixed to secede, even if no other State did. The announcement of the secession of South Carolina was hailed with great joy in Mobile. hundred guns were fired. Bells were rung. The streets were crowded by hundreds expressing their joy, and many impromptu speeches were made. A military parade ensued.

One

The first official movement in Alabama towards secession was the announcement by Gov

ernor Moore of his intention to order an election of Delegates to a State Convention. He advised the people to prepare for secession. This election was held on the 24th of December, 1860, and the Convention subsequently assembled on January 7th. At the election, the counties in North Alabama selected "coöperation" members. The members throughout the State were classed as immediate secessionists, and cooperationists. The coöperationists were divided into those who were for secession in cooperation with other cotton States, those who required the coöperation of a majority, and those who required the cooperation of all the slave States. Montgomery County, which polled 2,719 votes on the Presidential election, now gave less than 1,200 votes. The inference drawn from this at the time was, that the county was largely in favor of conservative action. The vote reported from all but ten counties of the State was, for secession, 24,445; for coöperation, 33,685. Of the ten counties, some were for secession, others for cooperation.

The popular vote at the Presidential election in November was: Douglas, 13,651; Breckinridge, 48,831; Bell, 27,875. Bell was the candidate of the American and Union party, Douglas, of the non-intervention Democrats, and Breckinridge of the Southern States.

The Convention met at Montgomery on the 7th of January. All the counties of the State were represented. Wm. M. Brooks was chosen President.

A strong Union sentiment was soon found to exist in the Convention. On the day on which it assembled, the Representatives from the State in Washington met, and resolved to telegraph to the Convention, advising immediate secession, stating that in their opinion there was no prospect of a satisfactory adjustment.

On the 9th the following resolutions were offered and referred to a committee of thirteen:

Resolved, That separate State action would be unwise and impolitic.

Resolved, That Alabama should invite the Southern States to hold a Convention as early as practicable, to consider and agree upon a statement of grievances and the manner of obtaining redress, whether in the Union or in independence out of it.

Mr. Baker, of Russell, offered a resolution requesting the Governor to furnish information of the number of arms, their character and description, and the number of military companies &c., in the State, which was adopted.

Also the following was offered and discussed:

Resolved, by the people of Alabama, That all the powers of this State are hereby pledged to resist any attempt on the part of the Federal Government to coerce any seceding State.

After a lively discussion of some days, a brief preamble and resolution refusing to submit to the Republican Administration, were proposed in such a form as to command the unanimous vote of the Convention. It was in these words:

Whereas the only bond of union between the several

« EelmineJätka »