MANURE. 239 



PLYMOUTH. 



Statement of Jonathan Copeland. 



Having entered as a competitor for the premium on compost 

 manure, I give the following statement : — 



Having a barn cellar, forty by thirty-six feet, with a yard 

 adjoining, I cover the cellar and yard with swamp mud and loam 

 in the fall. 1 keep from ten to fourteen head of cattle. My 

 cows, one yoke of oxen, and horses, have been kept in the barn 

 nights, all the year ; and the manure made by them goes into 

 the cellar, where I have kept from four to six shoats, which 

 work over and mix the manure in the winter. I have a sty, 

 which I fill with loam, muck, ashes, weeds, potato tops, &c., as 

 occasion requires, and keep two hogs in it. I have made and 

 carted out, the past year, 335 loads, and judge that I have 60 or 

 60 loads more to get out. 



I have got out 150 loads of meadow muck for the purpose of 

 composting. 



Statement of Austin J. Roberts. 



It is of little use for me to compete with farmers in the quan- 

 tity of compost manure. My aim is not quantity, but quality. 

 Probably a less quantity of compost, for the number of stock 

 kept, (three horses and ten head of^cattle, besides pigs,) is not 

 made by any practical farmer in the county. The chief concern 

 of some of our agriulturists appears to be, who shall manufac- 

 ture the greatest quantity of manure, without due regard to the 

 quality of the article. This depends, in a great measure, on 

 the mode of feeding cattle. Substantial feeding will give a 

 corresponding value to the excrements of animals. Oil meal, 

 fed to stock, enhances the value of the dung fourfold, and 

 enriches a far greater proportion of soil than would be the case 

 Ln common feeding. 



I observe strictly, the following rule in my management of the 



' compost heap : The cattle are housed in summer and winter, 



not yarded, as is the general plan, during the summer. Their 



excrements fall into the cellar beneath the barn, are worked 



over and mixed, by pigs, with about twice the quantity of pul- 



