iv. ] FERMENTA TION OF MANURE. 3 r 



want of proper care, until its valuable constituents are 

 either sent into the air or washed into the ditch, and 

 the humorous description of the late C. W. Hoskyns 

 becomes verified in " Dry chaff's dung-cart that creak- 

 ing hearse that is carrying to the fields the dead 

 body whose spirit has departed." Very imperfect 

 ideas are entertained of the enormous losses which 

 are thus suffered by men, who would not willingly 

 throw money away, and yet what they waste in their 

 farm-yards they have often to pay for in hardly-earned 

 gold. 



56. The extent to which the fermentation of farm- 

 yard manure should be carried depends very much 

 upon the character and condition of the land to 

 which it is going to be applied. If the land should 

 be a sand, or a sandy loam, the manure should be 

 added as short a time as possible before the crop is 

 going to be sown, in order that there may be less 

 time for it to waste away in the soil. These soils 

 from their want of power to hold a manure that is, 

 to preserve the manure from this wasting away can- 

 not be safely trusted to take proper care of it, and 

 therefore it should not be added to the land until you 

 are going to sow a crop which will quickly make use 

 of it. In order that the crop may be able to use the 

 manure quickly, it must be ready for use, or, in other 

 words, the fermentation must have been carried on so 

 far that it has become thoroughly well rotten. The 

 light and free character of these soils does not admit 

 of their being safely rendered more open by the use 

 of long dung which has not been fully fermented. 



57. The circumstances are just reversed in the case 

 of clay and clay-loam soils. These possess the power 

 of holding manure in safety, and they are improved in 

 their mechanical conditions by the use of manure 

 which has been but slightly fermented. Upon these 

 soils the fermentation of the manure may be safely 

 permitted to take place after its addition to the land. 



