SECRETARTS REPORT. 129 



absorb and save it. The manure made by the hog is said to be the 

 best for corn. I think one reason Avhj' it is better, is, that there is 

 more urate in it. The hog is generally kept with plenty of litter to 

 ■absorb and save his. urine. Hence its strength. 



All manures before use should be kept housed. They would be 

 •as much better as our firewood is better for being housed. 



Although muck is not found on all our farms, almost every farmer 

 . might obtain it. It is not generally used to much extent. One 

 farmer here uses a great quantity. Some he puts under his Hntos, 

 to catch and absorb the urine. Some he puts where the suds from 

 the wash tubs are emptied. ■ This he says, is good to put in the hill for 

 corn. 



Guano has been used two or three years only, by a few of our 

 farmers. All kinds of grain and especially oats, have grown well on 

 it. It has been tested by manming a part of the same field with 

 • manure from, the barn, and the other part with about two hundred 

 and fifty or three hundred pounds of guano to the acre. The result 

 is in favor of the guano. These experiments were tried with oats, by 

 J. B. Dunton, Joseph Wiley, and Jason Bills. I "have used six bar- 

 rels of poudrette and two barrels of the tafeu, but have not fairly 

 tested their value. I am satisfied they are powerful fertilizers ; but I 

 am not satisfied that they are cheaper, according to their fertilizing 

 properties, than guano. Ebenezer Philbrick used a small quantity of 

 •super-posphate of lime last year and was satisfied that it v/as a power- 

 ful fertilizer." 



iStock. » 



Intimately connGcted with, and oT scarcely less importance 

 tliati manure, is the subject of stock. This is apparent, if we 

 look at the amount of capital invested in animals, and the means 

 ef properly caring for their wants, or at their relations to a 

 prosperous agriculture. As one of the early writers on hus- 

 bandry quaintly says : " A housbande cannot thruye by his 

 corne without cattell, nor by his cattell without corne." The 

 ricmish adage, '.'without forage no cattle, without cattle no dung, 

 without dung no crops," involves a most important truth, and it 

 is beyond question, that the best system of agriculture is that 

 which sustains the greatest quantity of stock. From no point 

 of view is the superiority of English agriculture so apparent, 

 as 'in the amount of stock which is fed upon their farms. In 

 one instance, no less than seven hundred sheep and Iambs sub- 



