No. 63.] 69 



stitute no inconsiderable portion of his food. As all animals receive 

 their food, either directly or indirectly, from the vegetable kingdom, 

 it is evident their excrements, or their decomposed bodies, must form 

 manures of the most valuable kind; and it is to this source, the ex- 

 crements of animals, that the farmer must look for his supply of ma- 

 nures to restore the fertility of the soil. In treating further of 

 manures, it will be best to begin with this, as the most important class. 



A late British writer on agriculture, says: — " The chief use of cat- 

 tle on an arable farm, besides those necessary for the operations of 



. . -n. husbandry, is to produce manure for the land. If the 



nures. cattle repay their food, and the expense and risk at- 

 tending their keep, the manure is sufficient profit. Even with a 

 moderate loss, they must be kept, when manure cannot be purchased. 

 The loss, if any, on the cattle, must be repaid by the increase of the 

 corn crops. Manure is to a farm, what daily food is to an animal; 

 it must be procured at any sacrifice." Common barn-yard or stable 

 manure is the kind to which most farmers must look for the fertility 

 of their farms. This consists of the droppings of the cattle, mixed 

 with the straw used for littering in stables or thrown into the yards 

 for the amimal to feed or lie upon, the coarser hay and weeds re- 

 fused by the stock, and the urine of the animals kept in the stables 

 or yards. This is constantly trampled, is usually kept moist if not 

 wet, and is finally decomposed, or converted into manure fit for the 

 production of crops. This is the most usual course, but it is evident 

 that there must, in this method, be a serious loss to the farmer, of 

 the more valuable properties of the manure. In this way, the decom- 

 position is unequal; a part will be converted into mold while the 

 other will be scarcely acted upon; the salts and the more soluble 

 parts of the excrements, which are the most efficient ones, are dis- 

 solved by the rains, and carried off by the drains, or lost in the 

 earth; and where any considerable degree of heat is evolved, as 

 there will be when the decomposition is rapid, or is going on in large 

 masses, the escape of ammonia, so easily detected by the smell, 

 shows that the nitrogen, so essential to the growth and perfection of 

 a grain crop, is rapidly wasting. 



To prevent these results, and secure the whole benefit of the ma- 



p ^_ nure, two methods have been adopted. The first consists 



tion. in applying the manure fresh, or in a long state, to the fields 



it is wished to manure, without waiting for it to decompose. In 



