No. 105.] 421 



ters have been allowed to accumulate in the soil, all farmers depend 

 on manures for the production of their crops. 



Mr. B. said his practice had been, as soon as all the manure is re- 

 moved from the cattle-yard, in the spring, to cart in loam, or peat, 

 to the depth of two or three inches. At the close of every fourth 

 week, another covering of an inch or two was added. By the last 

 of September, it has accumulated to the depth of six or eight inches 

 over the yard. The cattle are always confined in the yard nights — ■ 

 their urine is absorbed by the loam or muck — and they have always 

 a dry place to lie on. He had also increased the manure of his hog- 

 pens by the addition of weeds, refuse vegetables, turf taken from the 

 roadside, bottoms of ditches, &c. His cattle-yard is " dishing," yet 

 it sometimes overflows, and he has caused a basin to be excavated 

 outside the yard to retain the liquid. Near this basin he builds his 

 compost heap, by placing first a layer of yard-manure, about a foot 

 thick, then a layer of soil, then a layer of green weeds, then a layer 

 of horse manure, then a coat of turf or soil, and so on, adding such 

 materials of a fertilizing nature, as are available, and carrying up the 

 sides square to the height of five or six feet. After completely 

 saturating the w^hole mass with the liquid which escapes from the 

 cattle-yard, he covers the whole with fine soil to prevent evapora- 

 tion. After a sufficient time, it is turned over and completely mixed, 

 throwing on the liquid manure as the work progresses. A fermen- 

 tation soon takes place sufficient to destroy the vitality of the seeds 

 of weeds, &c. After two or three turnings it becomes sutTiciently fine. 

 He has made in this w^ay, from a hundred to a hundred and fifty loads 

 of good manure annually. 



In regard to the application of manure, Mr. B. said his practice 

 had been to plow in all manure as soon as spread — he had even been 

 so particular as to spread no more in the morning than he could plow 

 in before noon, and while the teams were eating, only so much more 

 as could be plowed in before night. He considered top-dressing, 

 that is, spreading animal manure on grass-lands, the most wasteful 

 way in which it could be used, with one exception, and that is, on 

 meadow land which is so moist as to render it improper to break it 

 up. Lands kept constantly in pasture, show how little benefit is de- 

 rived from dung dropped from the animals. That of horses, though 

 of two or three inches thick, very slightly enriches the spot where it 

 lies ; and that of cattle, lying from one to two inches thick, has no 

 considerable effect. Whereas manure which is spread and immedi- 

 ately plowed in, and in course of cultivation is well mixed v^ith the 

 soil, will produce several good crops — more or less according to the 

 quantity applied, and the nature of the soil. Twenty loads of ma- 

 nure, free from litter — each load filling a common sized two-horse 

 wagon-box, may be considered a pretty good allowance of manure 

 for an acre ; yet if evenly spread, it would form a cover of but little 

 more than a quarter of an inch thick. Were this thin covering left 

 on the surface, exposed to the influence of the sun and air, it was 

 doubtful whether its effects would be visible much beyond the crop of 



