MANURES. 53 



of the privy vault should run the drain from the sink, not only 

 to save the washings of the sink, but also to keep the vault 

 washed out, and to dilute the urine, which renders it more 

 valuable. Of course, a brick or stone cesspool is the most 

 durable, but an oil butt, or hogshead, sunk in the ground, forma 

 an economical substitute. The place may be hidden from pub- 

 lic view by a row of dwarf trees, pines, or spruces. Near it 

 should be hauled peat, muck, leaves, straw — any kind of vege- 

 table matter — and the contents of the cesspool poured on to it. 

 For this purpose, a long-handled dipper may be constructed 

 of a keg or firkin. When this heap is thoroughly saturated, 

 fork it over, haul it away, and bring new material. Peat will 

 absorb more ammonia than any other soil, and is therefore the 

 most valuable for this purpose. The manure thus made will 

 be worth more, than the same amount of the best barnyard ma- 

 nure. Don't pay a dollar for fertilizers till you have made the 

 most of this valuable matter right at your elbow. Proceed 

 about it at once, for it is money wasting every hour before 

 your eyes. 



The Barnyard must always be the farmer's main source of 

 supply for manures. And here, as in the previous case, the 

 almost universal mistake is in the waste of the urine, the liquid 

 manure. The urine of most animals is nearly, if not quite, as 

 valuable as the solid manure ; but it is usually allowed to go 

 wholly to waste. And, more than this, it is allowed to carry 

 away with it many elements of fertility fl-om the solid manure. 

 "We protest, in the name of the hungry lands, against this waste 

 j of vegetable food, of the best quality. And we not only pro 

 \ test, but shall give practical directions for saving it. 



Every farmer should soil his cattle in the stables or in the 

 yard. A cow will produce about three and a half cords of 

 solid and three of liquid manure ; this, absorbed in twice its bulk 



