94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Our census of 1875 gives 46,848 as the number of farm 

 barns in the State, in which were made 422,478 cords of 

 manure, valued then at $5,50 per cord, amounting to the 

 handsome sum of $2,321,373. 



What proportion of this is securely kept in liarn cellars, 

 or carefully under cover, there are no means of know- 

 ing ; but a ride through the country, and an observation 

 taken of farm barns at large, will show a very large number 

 where the manure lies in piles under stable windows, receiv- 

 ing the drip of the eaves, Avhich continually washes much 

 of it into the highway, or to some neighboring Ijrook, where 

 probal>ly the same thriftless farmer drives his cattle to water, 

 instead of having running water in his yard. 



The liquid manure, nearly or quite as valuable as the solid 

 excrements, is lost, unless it drops into a cellar, or is pre- 

 served by some good absorbent, and this is too often neg- 

 lected. 



Manure depreciates much by exposure in an open yard a 

 long time. Prof. Voelcker found, by actual experiment, that 

 manure lying in a yard, spread about, exposed to all weath- 

 ers, lost, in the course of a year, two-thirds of its value. 



Manure may be profitably carted out and spread directly 

 on the land, for a top-dressing, or to be ploughed or wheel- 

 harrowed in. Many good farmers practise drawing out their 

 green manure, daily or weekly, through the winter, and 

 spreading it. Others make a large heap on the field in win- 

 ter, to be distributed in the spring with a Kemp spreader or 

 the cart. 



The worst of all ways, is to cart out manure and leave it 

 in small heaps on the lot. To warrant spreading manure 

 in the fall or winter, unless done early, the land must be 

 very flat ; if it is descending, the manure is liable to be 

 washed down l)y heavy rains and lost. 



The saving of both solid and liquid manure is a great ar- 

 gument in favor of soilins: cows, which ouo^ht to be more 

 generally practised in, the Commonwealth, — certainl}^, 

 wherever pasturing is insufiicient, or the land too valuable 

 to be spared for pasture. If cows are kept in the stable, 

 with only a run in a large yard, or a paddock, for a few 

 hours to get water, sun and air, fed with a variety of green 



