IIQ - BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the tbmg. How an article -vrorthless as a producer where it 

 lies, and still worthless when deposited a load in a place in 

 the open field as is often the case, can be of itself of great 

 value in combination, is perhaps more than could be claimed of 

 them to know. Precisely how the soil is aifected by acid or 

 alkali, ora-anic or inoriranie, animal or vegetable elements, is 

 what they do not care to know, but leave to the fools who make 

 books, and the greater fools who read them. But this head- 

 strong prcjuduce is fast yielding to sincere and earnest inquiry, 

 which needs to be rightly directed. 



Stable manures are generally used in a crude state, though 

 I think nine-tenths of our farmers would readily admit they are 

 much better composted. This is their impression, but they 

 have no definite knowledge on the subject in which they put full 

 confidence, nor do they know how to do it, nor is it easy for 

 them to ^nd the time necessary for the work. For myself I 

 have for some years composted nearly all coarse manures, so 

 as to use up each spring everything in this shape, applying 

 muck in all the places when the manure had been scraped clean 

 to begin the next year's stock. 



I am confident that the value of manure in this neighborhood,' 

 and as far as ray observation has extended, in this State, might 

 be doubled, with reasonable care, and with small expense : and 

 with a profitable outlay, much more than doubled. 



What is the present condition of our farm arrangements in 

 this respect ? In many cases a large wet barn yard has a pow- 

 erful current of water in every rain of much magnitude, thor- 

 oughly drenching it into some swamp or running brook near by. 

 The hog yard is on a steep side hill or exposed place, full per- 

 haps of rocks and bushes, and has been so for years. The 

 privy may, as I have often seen it, set over a brook, or 

 might as well. The sink is a nuisance to the family. The suds 

 are poured out to waste ; and sometimes the ashes are sold for 

 a York shilling per bushel, costing half of it to market them, — 

 the farm from which they were hauled casting after them a lean 

 and hungry look. The chip yard, it may be, has not been 

 scraped up for twenty years, or has been emptied into the high- 

 way to dry up some wet spot, which in the end is made worse. 

 Such, in brief, is what meets us, not everywhere, but gcnerallij. 



