Eulogium on Wilham West. 153 
—= 
this great requisite; for in the one case it would be les- 
sened in quantity, and diminished in quality by the 
action of the elements upon it; and in the other, it 
would be totally lost. He therefore confined his cattle 
to the barn yard, during the winter, and to increase the 
quantity of manure, he, in the first instance plentifully 
strewed the yard with leaves from his woods, while the 
scanty crop of straw, corn blades and corn stalks, which 
his first course yielded, assisted in supplying food. 
The sites of the old fences he had removed, the 
earth under the wild hedge rows which he had previ- 
ously grubbed, were ploughed up, and together with 
that taken from the ditches he dug or cleaned out, were 
formed into composts containing a large proportion of 
lime; while every species of offal and vegetable matter 
about the dwelling house, and innumerable weeds while 
yet unripe, were added to the contents of the barn yard. 
He provided against drought by leading a spring from 
a considerable distance along his high lands, so as to 
irrigate at pleasure some of his largest fields. The 
precious water from the barn yard, which even to this 
day, is either entirely lost, or permitted by most farm- 
ers to run off in wasteful profusion over a particular 
field, was confined by the construction of the yard, and 
forced to increase the riches of the fresh materials which 
were continually in progress to the fertilizing heap. 
To all his grass grounds, previously cleansed of peren- 
nial weeds by fallow crops, he applied a compost ma- 
nure early in the spring, always observing to accommo- 
dating it to the nature of the soil. He had the satisfac- 
tion to see the complete success of the practice. For 
as the artificial grasses declined, the permanent native. 
VoL. II. U 
