206 [Senate 



els.) Transportation by water adds twenty cents per load, delivered 

 at the landings, and unloaded from the boats at the farmer's expense, 

 thus costing him fifty cents per load. An ox-cart will hold two city 

 cart loads. This kind of manure is generally considered a great fer- 

 tilizer, but it is not uniformly good. That which is collected in the 

 outer parts of the city where the population is not dense, where the 

 streets are recently paved, or where they have been repaired, or where 

 sand has been thrown up from laying water or gas pipes, is generally 

 of inferior quality. At best, it commonly contains brick-bats, pav- 

 ing stones, sticks, old shoes, iron and other refuse materials thrown 

 into the streets. Notwithstanding these draw-backs, street dirt is an 

 excellent manure. It is a compost of earthy substances ground fine 

 by the constant attrition of carts and carriages, with lime from new 

 and old buildings, ashes occasionally thrown into the streets, the 

 droppings of horses and other animals driven about the city, and ma- 

 ny animal and vegetable substances from the markets and houses, &c. 

 All these, when mixed together, form a fermentative mass containing 

 all the elements which nourish vegetation. 



The farmers generally purchase it throughout the Island, and some 

 cart it several miles from the landings, and find it profitable. It is 

 the practice here to mix it with barn-yard manure and let it all heat 

 together. For instance, a farmer engages one or two freights of street 

 manure in the spring for corn, and receives it in April; previous to 

 which he carts out an equal quantity from his barn-yard, and heaps it 

 in the field to be manured. When the street dirt arrives, he carts it 

 from the vessel and covers the heap from the barn-yard. These lay 

 together for three or four weeks, andbecome heated by fermentation, 

 and in that state are turned over, mixed, carted, spread and plowed 

 in, or most frequently used by the shovel full in each hill of corn or 

 potatoes. 



This method has been adopted from its practical benefits and not 

 from theory, and yet it corresponds with the best theoretical views. 

 The street manure is ground fine and contains soluble substances to 

 nourish the young plants, while the coarse barn-yard manure is set 

 into a state of fermentation, and as that is continued under the soil, 

 the carbonic acid, or ammonia, or both, are evolved in the course of 

 the decomposition, and add other ingredients to feed the growing and 

 full grown plants. 



Barn-yard manure. — This is generally a compost as formed here 

 from the droppings of horses, cattle and swine, mixed with straw, 

 cornstalks and sea weed. Such manure, when drawn out in the spring 

 or autumn, and heaped until in a state of incipient fermentation, and 

 then applied to corn, wheat or rye, &c. will of itself produce good 

 crops without the admixture of street dirt. It is not every cultiva- 

 tor of the soil in this county, however, that has the ingredients for 

 making such a compost. 



It is the practice of some to clear out their barn-yards in the au- 

 tumn, and prepare for making manure for the ensuing year, accord- 

 ing to the materials at their disposal. Those on the south side of the 

 Island, first litter their yards with sea weed. When the cattle are 



