Joseph Harris

“ If weeds grow and decay on the land, they make manure. If we grow a crop of buckwheat, or spurry, or mustard, or rape, or clover, and mow it, and let it lie on the land, it makes manure; or if we plow it under, it forms manure; or if, after it is mown, we rake up the green crop, and put it into a heap, it will ferment, heat will be produced by the slow combustion of a portion of the carbonaceous and nitrogenous matter, and the result will be a mass of material, which we should all recognize as “manure.” ”

“ Venter.
Spru. How now Jack! What all alone Man?
Fri. No, for I have heard some say, Men are ne’re less alone, then when alone. The reason I suppose is this, because they have Crowds of Thoughts, that still perplex the Mind; which wou’d be, like the Soul retired and free, thereby to enjoy that sweet repose, which nought but that can Grant.
Spru. Pshaw! Pox of this Morality and dull Stuff; Prithee let us be Merry, and Entertain the Bride and Bridegroom. Ods fish there a parcel of rare Creatures within! But of all Mrs. Clara for my Money. ”

“ Or, rather, we can make our land rich, by draining it where needed, cultivating it thoroughly, so as to develope the latent plant-food existing in the soil, and then by growing clover to take up and organize this plant-food. This is how to make land rich by growing clover. It is not, in one sense, the clover that makes the land rich; it is the draining and cultivation, that furnishes the food for the clover. The clover takes up this food and concentrates it. The clover does not create the plant-food; it merely saves it. It is the thorough cultivation that enriches the land, not the clover. ”

“ If we have the necessary materials, it is not a difficult matter to make manure; in fact, the manure will make itself. We sometimes need to hasten the process, and to see that none of the fertilizing matter runs to waste. This is about all that we can do. We cannot create an atom of plant-food. It is ready formed to our hands; but we must know where to look for it, and how to get it in the easiest, cheapest, and best way, and how to save and use it. The science of manure-making is a profound study. It is intimately connected with nearly every branch of agriculture. ”

“ Madam, You are obeyed, your hard Commands fulfilled; at your Request I’ve kill’d my Friend, nay and my best of Friends.
Cla. How? kill’d your Friend for me.
Fri. Indeed ’tis true.
Cla. Then thou art truly wretched: But say, say quickly, who’s this unhappy Man whom thy Mistake hath thus untimely kill’d?
Fri. Bonvile.
Cla. Bonvile said you? My Blood with an unusual Course runs backward from my Heart! Horror has seiz’d my Soul! A thick-black Mist has overcast my Sight, and I am not the same: but speak, O speak again, Was it Bonvile? ”

“ Dodge. You are a worthy Gentlewoman upon my word; there are but few of such a noble Temper: But what makes the Fool of the Husband then so troublesome; does he not know when he’s well?
Mrs. Ven. So ’tis a sign.
Dodge. A Blockhead, to proclaim his own Disgrace, and make himself laugh’d at.
Mr. Ven. That’s not it, he hopes to be the better by what is settled on the Boy.
Dodge. O, God’s so, that’s true: But never fear, I’ll be hang’d if he carry it, for you have Money, as I told you, Sir, before: but see, Sir, there they are. ”

“ The sight of that wheat field impressed me, as nothing else could, with the importance of guarding against the loss of available nitrogen from leaching, and it has changed my practice in two or three important respects. I realize, as never before, the importance of applying manure to crops, rather than to the land. I mean by this, that the object of applying manure is, not simply to make land rich, but to make crops grow. Manure is a costly and valuable article, and we want to convert XII it into plants, with as little delay as possible, which will, directly or indirectly, bring in some money. ”

“ He believed that good farming would pay, and it was this faith in a generous soil that made him willing to spend the money obtained from the first crop of wheat in enriching the land, and to avail himself of his credit. Had he lacked this faith—had he hoarded every sixpence he could have ground out of the soil, who would have ever heard of John Johnston? He has been liberal with his crops and his animals, and has ever found them grateful. ”

“ Yet you must forgive me, indeed you must, by all that once was dear to me; and what I dare not mention more, by Love and Honour, I implore thy Pardon—Still art thou deaf to my Complaints?—Nay, then upon my Knee, I will enforce thy Pity. Behold me, Bonvile, prostrate at thy Feet, crawling for Mercy, swimming in Tears, and almost drown’d with Shame; extend thy Arm to help me, as thou’rt a Man, be God-like in thy Nature, and raise me from the Grave ”

“ I am perfectly aware, that on stiff clay land, farm-yard manure, more especially long dung, when plowed in before the frost sets in, exercises a most beneficial action by keeping the soil loose, and admitting the free access of frost, which pulverizes the land, and would, therefore, by no means recommend to leave the manure spread on the surface without plowing it in. All I wish to enforce is, that when no other choice is left but either to set up the manure in a heap in a corner of the field, or to spread it on the field, without plowing it in directly, to adopt the latter plan. ”

“ Well, Gentlemen, since the Bridegroom’s absent, I must supply his Place: Come, when I have waited on you to your Pleasure, I will return [To Summerfield.] to you, Sir, we must discourse more of my Bonvile yet.
[Exeunt all but Summerfield.]
Manet Summerfield solus.
Sum. What a trembling Trade’s this, when Conscience, that shou’d be our only Guide, flies and leaves us to our accusing Guilt. A Thief! the very Name and Thought chills my Blood, and makes me tremble like an Ague-fit. A Dog, nay every Bough that moves, puts us in fear of present Apprehension. ”

“ After all is said and done, farming is a business that requires not merely science, but industry, economy, and common sense. The real basis of success is faith, accompanied with good works. I cannot illustrate this better than by alluding to one of my neighbors, a strong, healthy, intelligent, observing and enterprising German, who commenced life as a farm laborer, and is to-day worth at least one hundred thousand dollars, that he has made, not by the advance of suburban property, but by farming, pure and simple. ”

“ O happy Bonvile! How I admire and wonder at thy Choice!
Enter Friendly.
Madam, a Wife like you, exceeds the greatest Blessing sure on Earth.
Fr. [Aside.] The nearest way to a secure Revenge, is private Malice, which, like a Spark long lying hid amongst neglected Ashes, by the least Blast of Wind becomes it self a Flame—Ha!, who have we here? Thrice blest Occasion! which thus have offered me at once the Scope of my revengeful Wishes. ’Tis Arabella and her Darling Summerfield, one who, in the Bridegroom’s Absence, is grown thus intimate with his beloved Bride. ”

“ Indeed, by the householders of this city, and quite generally by the farmers, manure is regarded as one of those things—like drouth and grasshoppers—with which a mysterious Providence sees fit to clog the operations of the husband-man. The great bulk of the stable-manure made in this city is, every spring, carted into ravines and vacant lots—wherever, in short, with least expense it can be put out of reach of the senses.
It must not be understood by this that manure has little influence on the growing crops in Kansas. ”

“ This summer-fallow experiment, instead of affording an argument against the use of summer-fallowing, is an argument in its favor. The summer-fallow, by exposing the soil to the decomposing influences of the atmosphere, converts more or less of the inert nitrogenous organic matter into ammonia and nitric acid. This is precisely what a farmer wants. It is just what the wheat crop needs. But we must be very careful, when we render the nitrogen soluble, to have some plant ready to take it up, and not let it be washed out of the soil during the winter and early spring. ”

“ Grass alone will not make rich land. It is a good “savings bank.” It gathers up and saves plant-food from running to waste. It pays a good interest, and is a capital institution. But the real source of fertility must be looked for in the stores of plant-food lying dormant in the soil. Tillage, underdraining, and thorough cultivation, are the means by which we develop and render this plant-food available. Grass, clover, peas, or any other crop consumed on the farm, merely affords us the means of saving this plant-food and making it pay a good interest. ”

“ The animals do not take out more than from five to ten per cent of the more valuable elements of plant-food from the clover. And so my plan, while it produces as much and no more grain to sell, adds greatly to the fertility of the land, and gives an increased production of beef, mutton, wool, butter, cheese, and pork.
“But what is a man to do who is poor and has poor land?” If he has good health, is industrious, economical, and is possessed of a fair share of good common sense, he need have no doubt as to being able to renovate his farm and improve his own fortune. ”

“ At present, while we have so much land in proportion to population, we must, perhaps, be content with large crops of grain, and few of them. We must adopt the slower but less expensive means of enriching our land from natural sources, rather than the quicker, more artificial, and costly means adopted by many farmers in England, and by market gardeners, seed-growers, and nurserymen in this country. Labor is so high that we can not afford to raise a small crop. If we sow but half the number of acres, and double the yield, we should quadruple our profits. ”

“ If I set out cabbage on an acre of land, which, without manure, would produce 16 tons of cabbage, does any one mean to tell me that if I put the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash which 10 tons of cabbage contain, on an adjoining acre, that it would produce an extra growth of 10 tons of cabbage. I can not believe it. The facts are all the other way. Plant growth is not such a simple matter as the advocates of this theory, if there be any at this late day, would have us believe. ”

“ If the land is well cultivated, and if our low, rich, alluvial portions of the farm are drained, and if the hay, grass, clover, straw and fodder crops are retained, the more phosphates we use, the richer and more productive will the farm become. And I think it is a fact, that the farmers who use the most phosphates, are the very men who take the greatest pains to drain their land, cultivate it thoroughly, and make the most manure. ”

“ Experience has taught me that the best and most profitable mode of applying lime is on grass land. If the grass seed is sown in the fall with the wheat or rye, which is the common practice with us in New Jersey, as soon as the harvest comes off the next year, we apply the lime with the least delay, and while fresh slacked and in a dry and mealy state. It can be spread more evenly on the ground, and is in a state to be more readily taken up by the fine roots of the plants, than if allowed to get wet and clammy. ”

“ However much farmers may differ in regard to the advantages or disadvantages of fermenting manure, I have never met with one who contended that it was good, either in theory or practice, to leave manure for months, scattered over a barn-yard, exposed to the spring and autumn rains, and to the summer’s sun and wind. All admit that, if it is necessary to leave manure in the yards, it should be either thrown into a basin, or put into a pile or heap, where it will be compact, and not much exposed. ”