TAKING REINS IN HAND. 97 



tribution which, at first, could not be depended on, 

 That the liquid form is the one, under which manurial 

 material under a complete system of culture, will work 

 the most magical results, I have no doubt. But until 

 that system is reached, very much can be done in the 

 way of economizing the fertilizing elements of the 

 farmyard, short of the tank and the water cart ; and 

 this by modes so simple, and at an expense so small, 

 as to be within the reach of every farmer. 



Let me illustrate, in the plainest possible manner, 

 by my own experience. The barn, as I have said, 

 was slatternly ; it had yielded a little to the pinching 

 northwesters, and by a list (as seamen say) to the south 

 east, gave threat of tumbling upon the cattle yard. 

 This yard lay easterly and southerly, in a ragged, 

 stony slope, ending on its eastern edge with a quag 

 mire, which was fed by the joint wash of the yard 

 and the leakage of a water trough supplied from a 

 spring upon the hills. The flow from this quagmire, 

 unctuous and fattening, slid away down a long slope 

 into the meadow, at first so strong, as to forbid all 

 growth ; then feeding an army of gigantic docks and 

 burdocks ; and after this giving luxuriant growth to 

 a perch or two of stout English grass. But it was a 

 waste of wealth ; it was like a private, staggering 

 under the rations of a major-general. I cut off the 



rations. With the stones which were in and about 

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