SAVING MANURE. 287 



Dr. "Wakefield, for the committee, submitted the follow- 

 ing essay upon the 



SAVING AND PREPARATION OF MANURE ON THE FARM. 



]\Ianures lie at the foundation of all successful husbandry. 

 Plant-food is stored up in the soil by processes of nature, and 

 continues to increase while undisturbed; but, when removed 

 by cropping, the equilibrium must be restored by the appli- 

 cation of something containing these elementary principles ; 

 and for the farmer the main supply is furnished by the 

 manure-heap. Every plant needs and takes up most of the 

 original elements of its being from the soil in its immediate 

 vicinity. It is modified by heat and light, gathering some 

 of its elements from the atmosphere, absorbing therefrom, 

 through its leaves, the vital organs thereof. Plants spring 

 from seeds, grow, mature, fall, decay, are restored to their 

 elementary ingredients, buried in, mixed with, mother-earth, 

 and again stored, and held for future use. 



Most of our soils contain all the ingredients necessary and 

 essential to the propagation of all crops, with the exception 

 of these three ; viz., nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. 

 Carbon enters largely into the composition of all plants ; but 

 of this nature furnishes an ample supply, and the farmer 

 need give himself no anxiety about its failure. If these three 

 essential ingredients are furnished the soil in profusion from 

 the barnyard, from nature's or the chemist's laboratory, a 

 series of croppings can be carried on with this twofold re- 

 sult, — increase of crops, and improvement of soil. 



In this way of husbandry, which is the only successful, 

 and for a series of years the only paying way, is success 

 achieved, which proves to the husbandman, as his crops in- 

 crease, his barns are filled, his garners burdened, and his 

 broad acres teeming with plenty, that the " Lord loveth the 

 cheerful giver." 



The question before us is. How shall the manure-heaps be 

 increased and improved, and the compost-piles from all 

 sources on the farm be saved, enlarged, and utilized ? 



1st, The barns should be so constructed, that all the ma- 

 nure, solid and liquid, can be saved, and no particle suffered 

 to go to waste. This truism cannot too often nor too forci- 



