62 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



good sprinkling' of plaster while being thrown out, and about four 

 ox-cart loads of muck, loam or sods, immediately spread over the 

 pens as a basis for next year's compost heap. I would have the 

 litter from the calf-pen, the cobs from the corn-barn, about one 

 week's accumulation from the horse stalls, and a peck of plaster 

 mixed with it as it is put in the pen. Now we have the receptacle 

 prepared which is to receive everything found upon the farm not 

 fit to be put anywhere else. I may bo pardoned for going into 

 detail in the matter of- ingredients, for until one is initiated, he will 

 hardly perceive the tithe of what may be converted into valuable 

 manure, and at the same time be got rid of, in many instances, as 

 a nuisance. This pen is to receive all the horse manure made 

 through the summer, which in these days of horse mowers and 

 reapers is considerable, Very nearly over the place where the 

 horse manui'c is thrown in, is to be situated the privy, under which 

 is to be thrown every day one quart of leached ashes, or dry if you 

 have them, and a small handful of plaster. Once a week the whole 

 is to be spread over the pen and a slight sprinkling of plaster 

 thrown over it. Each day it is to receive all the slops from the 

 house not good enough to put in the swill tub, all the water with 

 which soap has been used, all the refuse pork or beef brine, all the 

 whey which the hogs do not eat, all the water used for soaking 

 butter firkins, all the weeds growing about the buildings, all the 

 accumulations in the corners of the garden and dooryard from the 

 shade trees and other sources, all the cleanings and sweepings 

 from the barn when it is cleared up for haying, all the wool and 

 woolen rags good for nothing else, all the refuse from the vegeta- 

 ble cellar, all the brakes and bog onions that can be profitably 

 mowed in the pastures, and in addition to all this, enough of dr^^ 

 muck, or loam, or scrapings from the forest are to be thrown in 

 during the summer to keep the whole just as dry as it can be and 

 not heat. Just before winter sets in I would have the whole taken 

 to the field where it is to be used the following spring, closely piled 

 up and sprinkled with plaster. 



Then immediately put in two loads of loam or muck and two 

 loads of leaves, all the horse manure during the winter, together 

 with the slops and privy as before. In the spring throw out the 

 same long enough before using to have it heat enough to make 

 fine, and put it, together with what Avas hauled out in the foil, into 

 the hill for corn, or spread it for roots. 



I have said nothing as yet about pork, and it may be needless to 



