out too much exposure to the action of the atmosphere. If manures are reduced in cool weather, when they are not in a state of actual fermentation, it may be done without great loss of their gases. All manures that are to be applied to the surface should be pulverized as finely as possible. Some plants spread their roots and seek their food near the surface, as the strawberry, and the whole family of the cucurbitaceæ. These, especially, require finely reduced manure. When manures are to be buried deeply in the soil, this mode of preparation is less absolutely necessary. All manures, whether applied in a coarse or fine state, should be immediately covered under the soil, that as much as possible of their volatile elements may be absorbed by the soil. These elements, as we have said, permeate the soil and divide its particles, and render them light and easily traversed by the delicate radicles of plants. This mechanical effect is one of no small importance. A soil rendered light and porous by fermenting manure is as much better for this operation, as bread risen by yeast is better than a mass of dough.

It is the general practice of our farmers to apply manures but once in a season; but certain manures may be applied more than once with much profit, provided they are applied during the growing stage of the plants, and in such a form as to mingle at once with the soil, and become a constituent part of it. It must be either finely pulverized, or in a liquid state. In either form, it should be immediately worked into the soil around the plants with the hoe or rake. Many plants, including most of the small fruits, may be treated in this way with excellent results. We have already seen that liquid manures may be applied several times during the season to grasses, thus enabling us to take two or three crops or cuttings in a year. This is an important fact in soiling cattle, as it enables us to supply them with green and succulent food during the entire summer and autumn from the same ground.

Did we understand more perfectly the chemical constitution of the plants we cultivate, we might, doubtless, in many cases, supply to the soil the elements especially adapted to them; but such is the influence of the vital powers in modifying the laws of organic chemistry, that we do not anticipate any important results from the doctrine of specific manures considered by itself. Grapes appropriate a large amount of potash. Asparagus, originally a marine plant, appropriates marine salts. But we cannot depend upon lime and ashes to give us luxuriant grapes, nor upon marine salts to give us large and succulent asparagus. They both require, in addition to these substances, a generous supply of the same elements of nutrition that other plants require. This subject is but imperfectly understood. Theories may give us indications in this direction, but they will need to be corrected by much experimental research before they can guide us to any certain results.

Nature works out from a few simple elements, variously combined, the wonderful variety of products exhibited by vegetable life. If left to herself she always obtains a supply of these elements; but when disturbed in her operations by man, who removes from the soil its productions for his own use, instead of leaving them to decay where they grew, the soil becomes exhausted of necessary elements, and, unless they are returned to it in the form of manures, she soon becomes unable to complete the process which she commences, for want of material. The plant is not perfect; its framework is not fully developed, or its seed does not reach a perfect form, or does not arrive at maturity, because the needful elements are annually diminishing. The Fellahs, in Egypt, raise wheat a few inches high, with heads not more than two inches long, upon soil that was once the granary of the world. But Ishmael is teaching them a better style of farming, by showing them upon his plantations wheat standing four feet high upon the soil. In the older western States we are told that the wheat crops have diminished from one-fourth to one-third in quantity per acre, and, unless the elements that have been removed from the soil are returned to it, the crops will

continue to diminish in a still more rapid ratio, until it ceases to be a remunerative crop. In eastern Virginia and Maryland, the soils that formerly yielded thirty bushels of wheat now yield five or six, and are being deserted because their produce will not sustain their cultivators. Guano has been applied to such soils; the nitrogen, and phosphates, and alkalies which it contains, render soluble certain elements still left in the soils, and one or two crops of ten or twelve bushels have been obtained. But this process will soon cease, and the soil be left more completely exhausted than before. Portions of this exhausted soil are being treated in a different way by cultivators of market vegetables, who are applying muck, stable manure, lime, leached ashes, green crops, and whatever will restore to the soil, in the most permanent form, the elements required by such vegetables. Hundreds of acres may now be found covered by thrifty crops of strawberries, gooseberries, currants, celery, radishes, turnips, beets, onions, melons, and similar crops, which a few years ago did not repay the labor of cultivation. The favorable climate and convenient markets render such crops highly remunerative. The neighboring cities furnish the means of restoring to the soil the elements needed to sustain the large draught made upon it. The outlay for manures in this case is large, and for grain culture probably would not pay. But it shows in a convincing manner what manures may accomplish. There is a vast amount of manurial substance produced in all cities, the largest part of which is annually wasted. If it could be carefully collected and judiciously applied to the soils in their vicinity, their productiveness would be wonderfully increased. But the transportation of manures to the soil to be cultivated is an expensive operation, and will prove economical only within certain limits, and for certain purposes. The true system of farming is undoubtedly to consume upon the farm so much vegetable matter that the solid and liquid animal excrement resulting, applied either simply or composted with other suitable substances, shall enable the farmer steadily to increase his crops, while, at the same time, his soil shall be as steadily growing richer and more productive. Every acre cultivated should be left in better condition after the crop is taken off, than it was when it was put on. To attain this point, no more land should be cultivated than can be done without exhausting it. The good teamster will keep his horses or oxen at work steadily, without diminishing their flesh or strength. Every one who has had experience will affirm that it is the most profitable to keep his team in high condition. The same is true of the soil. If the good teamster has food for only two horses, he will not attempt to keep three. So the judicious farmer will cultivate no more acres than he can feed well. In most instances it is better and more profitable, and attended with less expense and labor, to raise a large crop from one acre, than to raise the same amount from two. The soil of the one acre is left in a better condition, and in a better state for any succeeding crop, than is the soil of the two acres.

We think that, in general, the farmers must rely upon their own farms for their permanent supply of manures. Imported manures and artificial manures may be resorted to occasionally as temporary expedients; but unless the produce can be sold at a near market and at a high price, their use will not be found economical in the long run. Although we think every farmer should rely upon his own farm, he may with propriety avail himself of such natural sources of supply as his own neighborhood affords. The cultivator upon the sea-shore may and ought to use the materials thrown at his feet by the waves. It would be very unwise for him not to do so. Fish and fish offal are a resource of great value to those within its reach. If combined with peat as a deodorizer during its putrefaction, it may be used without inconvenience. Marl-beds are so many mines of wealth to cultivators in their neighborhoods. In the vicinity of soapworks every one will be eager to avail himself of the leached ashes. Woollen factories afford wool-waste and the washings of the wool, articles of great value as fertilizers. Various manufacturing establishments, as glue-making, tanning,

gas-making, &c., furnish waste materials that may be obtained by farmers in their vicinity at a remunerative price. Every opportunity to obtain these and similar materials to add to the manure of the farm will be improved by the enterprising farmer.

There is one other means of reclaiming and fertilizing an exhausted soil, to which we have barely alluded, that is worthy of more attention than it has received in this country, especially on light, sandy soils, at a distance from the farm or from extra sources of supply; we mean the ploughing in of green crops. As a means of recuperating exhausted lands in sections of country where stable manures cannot be obtained, as old prairie lands or cotton fields, this must ultimately come to be a matter of the highest importance. Instead of leaving such lands to lie fallow, to recover by the slow processes of nature, and to be filled with the seeds of weeds, which it requires great labor to eradicate, buckwheat, clover, or other crops, ploughed into the soil, will become the means of rapidly restoring their fertility. But this whole subject of green manuring has been treated so expansively by Mr. Wolfinger, in the last Report, that we will abstain from its further discussion.

We have now spoken of the elements which enter into the composition of the principal manures in use, of the sources from which they are derived, and the principles which should guide us in their preparation and application. The quantities of the several kinds which may be most profitably applied, must depend upon the circumstances of each case. The nature and condition of the soil, the kind of crop, and the character of the manure, must all be taken into consideration. When manures are carbonaceous, and not volatile, they may be applied in large quantities at a time, and their effects will be permanent. When manures consist largely of volatile elements it is a better rule to apply annually, or oftener, in such quantities as are needed for immediate effect. Such manures cannot be depended on for the permanent improvement of soils, for their active properties are soon converted into gases and lost; their power is expended in the growth of the present crop; hence they should be applied with reference. only to the present crop, and, in such quantities as its wants require. The quantity of any kind of manure must be determined by observation and experience; the judgment and skill of the farmer must be his guides in this matter. There is undoubtedly a disposition to cultivate too much land, to spread manure over too large a surface. We do not yet understand the capacity of land. A stable keeper in Massachusetts kept fifteen horses, and spread all their manure on one acre and a half of land for several years in succession, and took off at three crops seven and a half tons of good hay in a year, as much as he would have got had the manure been spread on three or four acres.

Spreading manure over a large surface answered tolerably well when the soil was new, and good crops were obtained for a time; but in this way many farms have become exhausted. As the soil becomes exhausted of the fertilizing elements stored up in it, by repeated croppings, the injurious effects of this treatment become more and more apparent. Men are slow to renounce the usages that were established in former times and under different circumstances. They hesitate to give up allegiance to custom, in agriculture as in other things, and pursue practices of ruinous tendency merely because they are sanctioned by authority. Needed reformations are seldom inaugurated until they are compelled by necessity. But many of our most intelligent cultivators have commenced the work of reform; and when we shall all so cultivate our lands that they shall become more fertile and more productive after every successive crop, we shall have learned the only true and economical method of applying manures.

CUTTING AND COOKING FOOD FOR ANIMALS.

BY E. W. STEWART, NORTH EVANS, NEW YORK.

A cursory survey of the business of agriculture will at once reveal the fact that the great effort of the farmer is to supply food for his animals, and that it requires more food to supply the animals kept in the United States than to feed its whole population. It becomes, then, one of the most important inquiries, how to economize this food so as to yield the greatest return. A saving of even ten per centum would amount to millions of dollars annually.

The discussion of the topics embraced in this article at State fairs, and by individuals, shows that farmers are anxiously inquiring upon this subject. Careful experiment is, no doubt, more satisfactory, and more convincing to the practical farmer, than any theory, however plausible, and he generally wishes to know, first of all, what the facts are. If they are upon the right side, he cares little for the reasons upon which the facts are founded. But there is no doubt, also, that a clear theory, or the justification of a process, increases confidence in its utility. The writer must, therefore, beg the indulgence of the reader, while he goes somewhat into the theory and reasons for cutting the dry food of animals.

Much has been said for and against this practice. One affirms that teeth are given to animals expressly to masticate their food, and that all attempts to grind or pulp it artificially, are impeachments of the wisdom of the Creator. The same line of argument would abolish all shelter and care of animals by man; would return man himself to the savage state, and feed him on wild fruits and nuts. Those who talk so reverently of nature, and fear so much to improve upon her, forget that cattle in their wild state crop only green, succulent grasses, and do not dry and lay up a supply for winter use. As soon as the grass becomes ripe and tough in the north, they migrate toward the south, where they find green herbage. Thus it will be seen that man, in domesticating animals and keeping them in a cold climate, changed their mode of living, substituting dry for green food in winter, and that it thus becomes necessary to compensate for this by assisting the animals in mastication. Man has produced from the wild crab-apple the splendid modern pippin; and from the lank wild bull and cow, the magnificent proportions of the Durham and the rounded beauty of the Devon. This, too, has all been done in opposition to the natural habits of tree and animal, and man is quite likely to continue his efforts so long as he is rewarded by such splendid results.

WHY FODDER SHOULD BE CUT.

The object of mastication of food is to comminute it, to break down its structure, and to render it more easily acted upon by the gastric juice, thus enabling the animal to appropriate its nutriment. Now, the more finely divided food is, when subjected to the gastric juice, the more rapidly and easily it is digested. For when finely divided it presents many hundred times more surface to the action of the digesting fluid. This is simply represented in cooking fine meal or whole grain. We know it takes but a few minutes to cook the meal, while hours are required to soften the whole grain.

When cattle eat succulent food, the fibre is easily broken and reduced to a pulpy mass; but not so with dry, woody fibre, which must be broken and comminuted before the food contained in it is accessible for animal nutrition. This the animal seldom does, and more especially the non-ruminating; therefore it becomes highly necessary that we should use machinery to assist the animal, as much as possible, in extracting the nutriment contained in dry food. And if it be profitable to cut hay, straw, and other coarse fodder, for the purpose of breaking the fibre, and rendering it more easy of mastication and digestion by the animal, then it is well to cut or divide it as finely as is consistent with economy. There is no danger of inventing machinery which will cut or pulverize it too finely. The great want now is, a machine, cheap and durable, which shall reduce woody fibre to pulp. This will require a machine which shall bruise as well as cut, so as to leave the whole fibre thoroughly mashed and divided. It will not be liable to the objection urged, that it will leave nothing for the animal to do; for this dry fibre, when reduced to the greatest degree practicable, will still require more mastication than green grass. Our whole effort in cutting and steaming is merely to produce an imitation of nature's green food.

pay

MIXING DIFFERENT QUALITIES OF Food.

Here another advantage not to be overlooked is, that it enables the feeder to mix different qualities of food together, making it all palatable, and thus saving all. This is a matter of great importance, and alone would vastly more than all the expense of cutting. In this manner poor straw and good hay may be mixed, coarse swale meadow hay with fine hay, corn stalks with hay, and pea or bean straw with hay, when the poorer qualities would not be eaten alone; or, if hay be scarce or of too high price, cut straw may be made equivalent to the best hay, by mixing two quarts of fine middlings or bran, or one quart of corn meal with a bushel of straw.

The writer of this paper has practiced cutting and steaming fodder, of all kinds, in winter, for a stock numbering from ten to fifty-five neat cattle and horses, during the last ten years. He therefore deems his experience sufficient to enable him to speak with some degree of confidence. He tried a long series of experiments to determine the quantity of middlings or meal necessary to mix with a bushel of straw, to render it equivalent to the best hay. Ten animals of about uniform size, standing in the same stable, were parted-five being fed upon hay, and five upon the mixture. At first four quarts of middlings were mixed with a bushel of straw. The animals were fed for one month-five upon this mixture, and five upon the hay. Those fed upon the mixture were found to gain decidedly upon those fed upon the hay alone.

The experiment was then reversed, putting those upon the mixture that had fed upon the hay, and vice versa. At the end of the month those fed upon the straw and middlings had gained rapidly, while those fed upon the hay had hardly held their condition. Then the experiment was continued by reducing the quantity of middlings one-half, or to two quarts, on which mixture the animals did rather better than those upon hay, while, upon reversing, those at first fed upon the hay when fed upon this mixture did better than those on hay. Upon several trials afterwards it was uniformly found that a bushel of straw with two quarts of middlings was quite equal to the same weight of cut hay, and was worth 25 per cent. more than uncut hay. It was found that the animals would eat 25 per cent. more hay uncut than cut. The same experiment was then tried with corn meal, and one and one-half pints were found to make a bushel of straw equal to hay, though the formula is generally given as a quart to a bushel of straw, which will render almost any quality of straw equal to the same weight of good timothy hay.