GOOD HUSBANDRY. 77 



etc. All these materials are constantly running to waste through 

 this avenue ; I said to waste, but it should be added, to worse than 

 waste ; for it creates a pool of filth full of the germs of disease, al- 

 most under the window, and as offensive as it is unhealthy. This 

 may not onl}' be, as it ought to be, avoided, but turned to good account 

 as a field or garden dressing. A simple and cheap method of utiliz- 

 ing the deposits from the sink-spout is to construct a pit as described 

 before, which will hold about a cord. Fill with any good absorbent, 

 or waste material, as rotten chips, turf from the roadside, etc., which 

 will absorb the fertilizing matter, and connect with the sink by a long 

 pipe or spout, and the thing is complete, except, of course, the cov- 

 ering, which must not be neglected. Here, then, we have another 

 source of revenue to the farm, not large, but constant and unfailing. 



This subject is not exhausted, and cannot be in one paper without 

 making it too long. The contents of the hennery, the privy, chamber 

 slops, etc., are sources which yield the richest material for fertilizing 

 the soil, and which, like other sources of loss, are almost universally 

 neglected. 



I wish now to call your attention for a few minutes to the necessity 

 of plowing the ground. 



In order to realize the best results from cropping, the physical 

 condition of the soil must be changed occasionally. I have thought 

 sometimes that plowing the ground is quite as necessar}' to keeping 

 it in a healthv condition as manurino". At anv rate, iud2;ino: from 

 my limited experience and observation, manuring without plowing 

 (top-dressing) will produce no better results for a few 3'ears than 

 plowing and re-seeding to grass without manuring. 



It is patent to every farmer, upon a little reflection, that the soil 

 needs stirring occasionallv. The simple process of plowing does not 

 add anything directly to its fertility, but it renders more of that 

 already in the soil available. The air cannot circulate freely through 

 a solid mass; the rains, instead of being absorbed, would run off; 

 the frost would not operate on a solid mass so beneficially, so the 

 more compact the soil is the less benefit it would receive from these 

 important agents. Without the air and rain the soil would produce 

 nothing, however highly' it ma}' be manured ; but so long as it is 

 kept open, porous, it is in the best condition to receive the greatest 

 benefit from the atmosphere and rain. 



These natural agents, indispensable to everything that grows from 

 the soil, we have no power to control ; but, bj- a judicious prepara- 



