98 MR. JOHN J I' ST ON FAULTS IN FARMING. 



use should be made of the drainage as the nature of the case 

 may require. And, as no growth goes on during the winter 

 months, no kind of liquid manure ought then to be applied 

 to any kind of crop, since that application becomes so diluted 

 by the washings of rains during the inactive period, as to be 

 of little use to growth when its season arrives. Every 

 method, therefore, which ingenuity can devise, ought to be 

 adopted to retain the fluid menstrua during winter; such 

 as the saturation of soils, the carbon of turf, ashes, chaff, 

 refuse of vegetables, or any other absorbent substances, not 

 in themselves detritnental to the soil. 



We have already stated, that the farm-yards in this dis- 

 trict show no such care and economy. Yet the evil of 

 farm-yard practice ends not here. This one great fault and 

 egregious blunder is not sufficient. After a whole winter's 

 washing such as has been specified, dung must be detained 

 likewise through a part of the summer, to be washed away, 

 as if it required a cleansing before it could be season- 

 ably or profitably applied. And had not nature in this in- 

 stance, as in many others, been as provident against man's 

 ignorance as she is ready to respond to the calls of his know- 

 ledge, in limiting the effects of such washings, and the con- 

 sequences of decompositions to the surface of dunghills 

 chiefly, the summer spreadings of the winter-collected 

 manures would be nearly a useless expenditure of labour. 

 Much might be said of methods of storing up manures so 

 as to obviate injurious effects, but such is not the object of 

 the present paper; we merely wish to draw attention to the 

 wanton waste of the great staple of agriculture. 



We proceed to notice another great fault connected with 

 part of our subject. A common practice is to hoard up a 

 considerable portion of the farm-yard stock of manure for 

 the meadow lands, as tillage for a crop of hay. This por- 

 tion is reserved, though it has had nothing to do but go 

 through its washings, to the end of July or the beginning 



