102 MR. JOHN JUST ON FAULTS IN FARMING. 



Fine and dry weather cannot injure manure. It is true 

 a small amount of ammonia may dissipate from it ; but this 

 loss is in no way appreciable. It is merely from the moist 

 fluid parts that ammonia is given oif. Dung itself in drying 

 concentrates its ammonia. Fluid matter loses only its 

 watery particles, and hence desiccation injures not the 

 quality of the manure. Were this not the case, where 

 would be the value of guano ? Centuries have passed over 

 this manure in a perfectly dry state, and yet it has lost none 

 of its qualities. It acts as freshly and as vigorously as if its 

 application to active soil had taken place when the sea-fowls 

 voided it on the barren beaches of the Peruvian shores. 

 Yet farmers are foolish enough to keep their stocks of 

 guano for several weeks when the weather is dry, for fear, 

 if they should sow it before moisture comes, it should 

 spoil on the ground. We have seen one part of a mea- 

 dow sown with guano at the beginning of a month of con- 

 tinued drought, produce a crop of grass, not inferior to, but 

 surpassing that of the other part which was sown afterwards 

 when the rain came. 



Besides thus separating farm-yard manures, and using 

 them according to their natures and qualities in relation to 

 the crops we are cultivating, we ought never to apply them but 

 when they can immediately act and aid vegetation. Manure, 

 like money, ought never to be idle. Manures can neither 

 lie in nor on the soil doing nothing. Always onward is the 

 course of nature. Whether we profit or not by their decom- 

 position and decay, the process must proceed. If we profit 

 not by the reconstruction of the liberated elements, we lose 

 by them. Hence manures, if both judiciously reserved and 

 judiciously applied, ought to be as judiciously proportioned. 

 Just as much only as will secure one good crop is true eco- 

 nomy. Vegetation during the season should lay hold of all 

 we supply. Nothing should be left for waste during winter. 

 Nature keeps a good and equitable balance for all she deals 



