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them into the barn-yard for the absorption of the urine and in- 

 crease of the compost heap. No husbandry can be eminently 

 successful, or be considered as improved husbandry, without 

 the most devoted attention to the increase of the manure heap. 

 Manure, if not, as some choose to denominate it, the right hand 

 of the farmer, may, if so homely a comparison is allowable, be 

 considered as one of his legs, without which he must either 

 stand tottering or unsafely upon crutches, or, what is more 

 likely, not stand at all. The practice of constructing a base- 

 ment story or cellar under a barn, for the reception of the ma- 

 nure, both liquid and solid, cannot be too strongly recommend- 

 ed. The bottom, in such cases, should be hollowed out and 

 puddled with clay, so that it may hold what falls into it. It 

 should be well stored with mould, or mud, or peat, or some 

 other absorbent material to take up the liquid parts of the ma- 

 mu'e, which are beyond all question the most valuable parts of 

 it. This mould or mud should be applied at successive times, 

 as the manure is thrown in, so that the manure and absorbents 

 may be interspersed like the leaves of a book, miless Vw'here 

 the better practice prevails of keeping those useful laborers the 

 store hogs in the cellar, who, in their philosophical turn of mind, 

 are accustomed to deep investigations and generally go to the 

 root of matters, and will therefore save the farmer the trouble of 

 compounding these materials. If we would keep our manure 

 from evaporation, and preserve not only its quantity but its 

 strength, we cannot too effectually exclude the sun and air. 

 The advantages to be derived from such provision for saving 

 and composting manures, are a fourfold compensation for the 

 expense of making it. A good farmer ought to regard it 

 equally needful as a barn for his hay or a cellar for his potatoes. 

 There is another advantage in the case which deserves consid- 

 eration. Where such manure cellar is well walled or banked 

 at the north, the manure, being to some extent secured from 

 frost, may be much more early worked in the spring ; and in 

 this "w^ay, in some cases, considerable and most valuable time 

 may be saved. Too much stress cannot be laid upon this point. 



