CHAPTER III. 



MANURES. 



EXT to thorough draining, the great lack, in American 

 farming, is a proper economy and application of ma- 

 nures and fertilizers. By manures, we mean that pro- 

 duced on the farm ; and by fertilizers, guano, phos- 

 phates, and the like. And no farmer should buy any fertilizers 

 until he saves and applies his manures. From extensive ob- 

 servation, we conclude that not one farmer in one hundred 

 makes the most of his manures. The urine of a cow is aa 

 valuable as her dung ; and not one farmer in one hundred saves 

 it. The urine and excrement of each member of the family is 

 as valuable as that of the cow ; and yet it is not cared for. 



Such waste of valuable food for crops cannot be too strongly 

 condemned. 



Our object, then, in this chapter, will be to show the farmer 

 how to save and apply manure. And we begin where there is 

 the most general and inexcusable waste — at the privy. The 

 urine and excrement of each member of the family is abun- 

 dantly sufficient to fertilize a half acre of land yearly. The 

 simplest way to save this, where the vault can be opened, is to 

 cover it with five or six times its bulk of peat or muck once a 

 week. But a much better way, is to have a shallow vault, with 

 a cemented or tight board bottom, sloping to one corner, from 

 whence there should be an ample drain leading into a cesspool 



at convenient distance from the house. Into the upper corner 

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