No. 112.] 383 



of the regular annual processes of farming, than they now do of 

 engaging in the manufacture of the air they breath. The pre- 

 vailing notion seemed to be, that only animal stock could render 

 any aid in the process of making manure ; and that only those 

 productions of the soil which had been obtained by the sweat 

 and toil of man, as grain, hay or roots, could be made of any use 

 in that process! that all the part the farmer could take in the 

 manufacture . of manure was the feeding and care of his stock , 

 and that when it left the laboratory of his animal chemists, it 

 was not only complete, but indestructible, absolutely out of the 

 reaCh of any of the ordinary agents of decomposition, decay or 

 waste ! But how is it now ? Let your own experience answer. 

 Which uf you, gentlemen, has not come to regard, practically I 

 mean, weeds and all forms of vegetable ruljbish, as well as the 

 suds and slops from the kitchen, worth adding to the manure 

 heap? And which of you that has it on his farm, or within his 

 reach, fails of supplying his barnyards every autumn, with a quan- 

 tity of muck, to absorb the liquid portion of the manure, which 

 would else leach away and be lost? And which of you would 

 not about as soon rnn the gauntlet, as be seen hauling manure 

 from his yards and spreading it out upon his fields in autumn, 

 there to leach and whiten, and waste its volatile parts by evapo- 

 ration, during five or six long wintry months, preparatory to a 

 crop the next season ? 



Improvement of Stock and Implements. 



" Improvements no less conspicuous and important, have been 

 going on, in the character of our stock, in the number, variety 

 and perfection of our laljor-saving inplements, in the improved 

 condition and general appearance of our farms, in the convenience 

 and air of neatness and comfort, in the barns, out -houses and 

 dwellings of the farmer, wliicli are every where springing up. 



*' But I need not stop to expatiate on the evidences of improve- 

 ment. No one with his eyes open, and in his right mind, can 

 fail to s«'e it, in whatever direction lie may look. And he must 

 be a st(»ut unbeliever in the m<jral }>ower of association^ wlio can 

 for a moment hesitate about giving to the agency of this society 

 some i^hare at least of the credit of producing these results. 



