MANURES. 195 



plants is sold off than is brought back, can be perfectly manured 

 by using only the excrement of the animals feeding upon it. 



These earthy constituents have a very different value in different 

 localities. In Central Illinois — where, as a correspondent of the 

 Country Gentleman recently wrote . " Corn is the crop, every 

 time" — they must still be of very little value. On the island of 

 Rhode Island, where it pays to buy coarse stable manure at six 

 dollars per cord, and to expend a day's labor of a man and four 

 oxen in hauling it to the farm, they are of very great value. In 

 Illinois, where there is still a superabundance of them in the soil, 

 their value will increase as the stock on hand becomes reduced by 

 future crops. In Rhode Island, where, probably, as much is now 

 returned as is taken away, their marketable value is likely to be 

 reduced by the more complete development of the supply already 

 contained in the soil. 



The question is, after all, a purely commercial one. So long 

 as the soil, aided only by the manures made on the farm, yields 

 paying crops, and purchased manures would not increase the 

 product sufficiently to return their cost, it is of course to be rec- 

 ommended, that the whole attention of the farmer be given to the 

 careful husbanding of his home-made supply. When it becomes 

 profitable to buy manure, (or, which amounts to the same thing, 

 to buy food for the sake of the manure it will make,) that made on 

 the farm should be still more vigilantly protected against loss, and 

 the cheapest means of supplying the deficiency must be sought. 



So long as the yield, with no manure, is large enough to satisfy 

 the ambition of the' farmer, even farm-yard manure will not be 

 used at all. This is a misfortune, of course, but there is no help 

 for it, and there is nothing to be gained by talking about it. 



Within the past twenty years, the question of the use and 

 application of farm-yard manure has been a good deal discussed, 

 and some new ideas on the subject have been developed. 



The most complete practical investigations were made by Dr. 

 Voelcker, Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Agricultural Col- 

 lege, Circencester, (England,) whose report was published in the 

 "Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society," (vol. xvii.,) and re- 



