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It is not uncommon, indeed nothing is more common, than to see large heaps 

 of manure thrown out from the stables and feeding sheds, and exposed in that 

 state to the weather, without any regard to its being laid up in a regular or careful 

 manner, secured from evaporation, or carefully mixed in difl'erent proportions, 

 according to its various qualities: yet these proportions are each of a very distinct 

 and important nature. 



The simplest of all composts is a mixture of barn-yard dung and sui-face 

 mould, taken from a field under regular culture. The proportions between the 

 ingredients are fixed by no determinate laws, and consequently great liberty is 

 allowed to the operator. Some use two cart loads of dung to one of earth; 

 others blend them in equal quantities ; and it is not unfrequent to compound 

 them, two of earth and one of dung. Such is the uncertainty in the composition, 

 that almost every farmer adopts a method peculiar to himself, and with equal 

 success. The only erroi- into which the farmer can run, is to supply such an 

 inconsiderable quantity of soil as will be incapable of imbibing the elastic and 

 volatile particles, and thus by his own mismanagement occasion a waste of the 

 vegetable aliment. One cart load of soil to two of stable dung, is the least pro- 

 portion wliich he should ever attempt to combine; and perhaps if the two were 

 mixed in equal proportions, he would be compensated for the additional labor 

 and exjiense. 



The produce of the farm yard will necessarily afford the chief part of the 

 manure consumed upon farms, which do not possess extraneous sources of sup- 

 ply. It consists of the excrements of the animals kept and fed upon the farm, 

 together with the straw or other materials used as litter, and generally of the 

 refuse and offal produced about the homestead. This mixed mass is collected 

 during the pi'ocess of feeding, when it undergoes a certain degree of fermentation. 

 The dung of hoises more quickly ferments than that of oxen ; therefore it should 

 not be allowed to accumulate in a mass, but spread abroad upon the general 

 heap. That of horned cattle also soon ferments when it is collected into a heap, 

 and is only moistened by its own humidity; but this process is slower than in that 

 of horses, because it is not so much exposed to the same internal heat, in conse- 

 quence of which its evaporation is less. Sheep dung decomposes quickly when 

 it is moist, and compactly massed together ; but when dry and dispersed, its 

 decomposition is slow and imperfect — its effect upon the soil is soon dissipated — 

 and is generally exhausted after a second crop. 



When animals are fed on straw, and the diied stems and leaves of plants, 

 the dung is less rich and decomposable than when they are fed on roots and 

 other nourishing food. And the same thing holds with respect to the dung of 

 the hoo- and other animals. The excrements of the diff'ei'ent feedino- animals is 

 mixetl in greater or less proportion with their litter; and the greater the propor- 



