WEST SOMERSET SOCIETY. 155 



Manures. The manure and urine of three head of horned 

 cattle, tied up nights all the while, and one horse part of the 

 time ; three hogs all the time ; the manure of twenty hens, 

 carefully saved under cover, and occasionally mixed in; the 

 contents of the privy, six and seven in family; box water tight. 



Coarse manures, muck, (^'c. Coarse straw dung, ten cart 

 loads in June ; two cart loads of rotten cob and rich earth, in 

 June. After this, muck was hauled in about once a week, until 

 it was completed. The muck was hauled from its bed one year 

 before, and laid in the sun. 



Liquids. From a gutter leading from the sink, all of the 

 suds (using one and one-half barrels of soap per year) and all 

 other liquids from the slop pail, <fcc., was run directly on to this 

 heap. ^ 



Minerals or Chemicals. Lime, ashes, gypsum or plaster of 

 paris, and common salt were used at discretion. "When it became 

 strong and offensive to the smell, gypsum was applied ; when 

 muck was hauled in, lime and ashes were used. Aside from 

 what the hogs rooted and pulverized, it was shoveled over 

 about the middle of September. For several years past I have 

 made similar heaps in winter and summer. The effect on the 

 crops is entirely satisfactory. This year from about four and 

 one-quarter acres of light sandy land, only manured in the hill, 

 one shovelful in each, I raised some four hundred baskets of 

 round corn. It also continues in the ground better than any 

 other compost I have ever used, of which the succeeding crops 

 fully attest. 



Statement of R. Bixhy. I have on hand ten or fifteen cords 

 of composted manure, made after the following form : I have 

 in one corner of my barn-yard a cavity, into which I put, one 

 year ago last November, about thirty cart-loads of swamp muck ; 

 this muck has the wash of my barn-yard and sheep-yard through 

 the year. The first of June last, I mixed with it about one- 

 fourth part of long barn-yard manure and four barrels of ashes, 

 and plowed it over till it was thoroughly mixed, leaving it about 

 one foot in thickness. About the first of September I mixed 

 plaster with it, and shoveled it over, leaving it about three feet 

 thick. This heap lay till the last of October, having become 

 completely pulverized, then it was hauled into the field and 



