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tion of the animal to the vegetable matter, tlie more readily will the latter 

 ferment and decompose. 



The urine of animals is itself a very rich manure, and contains, in certain 

 states of combination, all the elements which enter into the composition of 

 plants. It is necessarily mixed with, and partly absorbed by the litter and other 

 substances in the yards, and it hastens in a material degree the fermentation of 

 these substances. 



But while no necessity exists for fermenting the matter of the barn-yard 

 beyond the degree requisite for the special purpose intended ; yet it is always a 

 point of good practice to ferment it to that degree. In order to know when it is 

 sufficiently fermented for the particular use required, a very little practice and 

 observation will suffice for the intelligent farmer. 



When fully fermented, the long stems of straws which formerly matted it 

 together, are in such a state of decomposition that the pai-ts can be readily 

 separated by a fork. Whenever farm-yard dung has been fermented to that 

 extreme state of decay in which we often see it used by gardeners, in which it 

 can be cut by a spade like soft earth, it has been kept beyond the proper 

 time, and the management has been bad. 



But besides the immediate produce of the farm-yard, there are ceitain vege- 

 table and animal substances, which, in their separate states, may be applied to the 

 manuring of land. 



An example of this kind is, when certain plants are allowed to come into 

 flower, and are then ploughed down in their green state and mixed with the soil. 

 When jrreen di-essino-s are resorted to as a manure, such ffi-owths should be 

 selected for the purpose as are cheap in the article of seed, and, at the same time, 

 quick, vigorous and bulky. Buckwheat is much used foi- this purpose. When 

 this practice is adopted, the period when the plants may be ploughed down, is 

 when they have come into flower, for then they contain the largest quantity of 

 readily soluble matter, and have least exhausted the nourishing substances of the 

 soil. In order that the growth be turned effectually under, it should be laid 

 prostrate by running the roller over it, in the direction in which the plough is to 

 follow. By the 20th of September, this growth would probably be fit to be 

 turned under, after a crop of rye, oats or barley has been harvested, and a crop 

 of wheat sown on the lay. 



Bones are regarded as a very important animal manure. They are a powerful 

 agent in fertilizing the soil. They contain in an abundant form the food of 

 plants. They abound in what chemists call phosphate of lime, a substance found 

 in all plants — and a large amount of gelatine, an animal substance soluble in 

 water. Bones have been used as a manure for many years in Europe, with the 

 greatest advantage; its effects upon the production of wheat in Great Britain 



