HOW TO SAVE MANURE. 745 



plow first one way and then the other. When your trees are 

 large enough, sow to grass. Shape the top of your trees while 

 young, and then trim no more. 



MANURES. 

 It has been said by many farmers that manure was the 

 farmer's capital ; but such is not the case, at least in the great 

 West. Drain tile is the farmer's capital, and as I have very 

 fully given my views and ideas upon the subject, I will now 

 say a few words upon manures. When I travel over the fair 

 and beautiful land of Ohio, and behold its fine mansions and 

 well arranged farms, I suppose that the farmers possess a vast 

 amount of agricultural knowledge ; but on making a close ob- 

 servation of their farms, and asking a thousand questions about 

 the high and noble calling that they are engaged in, and how 

 they manage things generally, I am often surprised to find 

 that they do not understand the first principle of agriculture 

 which is to keep the land up to a high state of fertility. I 

 have often seen farmers committing the suicidal act of burn- 

 ing their straw and raking up their corn-stalks and burning 

 them. A man who does this is a robber and a thief, who 

 takes from the land its fertility without returning it. To keep 

 up such a system of farming as this would certainly impoverish 

 the coming generations, and destroy any country or any 

 nation. 



HOW TO SAVE AND MAKE MANURE. 



The urine of animals contains a very large amount of 

 nitrogen, the thing most needed for plant food, and though 

 the richest and best part of the manure it goes to waste on 

 most farms. To save this valuable manure, I have the floor 

 of my cow-stable tight, with a close drain at the back part of 

 it, and have my straw-stack near to give the cattle plenty 

 of bedding, which will absorb all the urine ; then as fast as 

 the manure accumulates, both at the cow and horse stable, I 

 haul it to the fields, and lay it in piles until wanted. But the 

 most practical way for the mass of farmers to save the greater 

 part of tlie urine, is to let the stock run to the straw-stack, 



