180 ■ EOAED OP AGIIICULTUIIE. 



position there is a floor near the ground,) the absorbent may be 

 shoveled directly into the gutter through doors made to rise and fall 

 in opening and shutting. Besides this being a convenient depository 

 of muck, &c., it may be lighted and made comfortable quarters for 

 poultry, both summer and winter. 



With these fixtures, and a supply of dry muck on hand, the 

 aiTangements are complete for "preserving solid and liquid ma- 

 nures," so far as the manure of neat stock and poultry is concerned ; 

 and to secure all the benefits of them, it will be necessary that the 

 dairy cows, and such other stock as come home at n'ght, should be 

 put in the stable, and that all stock should be fed under cover during 

 Avinter, the gutter daily supplied with as much muck as the urine 

 will saturate, and be cleared out every day. The practice of ' ' putting 

 up cattle " at night will never be abandoned by any farmer who has 

 tried it long enough to learn its advantages. By pursuing a method 

 similar to the one suggested, the last two summers, the manure of 

 five cattle, with the addition of three or four cords of charcoal dust, 

 has been made of as much value to me as that of fifteen or twenty 

 for the same time would have been if dropped in the yard. 



To save the manure from sheep, they should be fed under cover, 

 in boxes or cribs, either in sheds open on the warm side or with 

 wide doors that open by raising them with pulleys. Sheep, if left 

 to their choice, will leave most of their manure under cover, both 

 winter and summer. The floor of the sheep house should have an 

 occasional covering of muck, that nothing be lost. Pastures for 

 sheep should be so arranged, if possible, that they can have access 

 to their winter quarters in the summer, which they will be sure to 

 occupy on hot days, if the sun is excluded and there is a free circu- 

 ,lation of air through them. If sheep cannot come to the barns in 

 summer, low roofs may be built on high ground in their pastures, 

 and dry muck thrown under for them to leave their excrement in. 

 Sheep prefer this kind of shade to any other, and to be out of the 

 sun and the trouble of flies, will occupy it during most of the warm 

 days. In this manner, a few loads of manure each year may be 

 saved, which would otherwise be an entire loss. This manure is not 

 inlerior in quality to that sometimes sold for guano. 



To go through with describing the methods of preserving other 

 wastes about farm establishments is more of a task than I feel 



