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place, his chimney, his wood-yard, his stable, his hog-stye, his 

 poultry-yard, his dove-cote, his road-side, his meadows, his 

 peat-bogs, his Avoods, every mud-hole on his farm, every loit- 

 ering place for his cattle, every clay pit, every marl-bed should 

 be laid under contribution. As the main element in agricul- 

 tural improvement and success, the farmer should direct his at- 

 tention to the increase and protection of his compost heap. 



Mr. Phinney's notions in respect to the application of man- 

 ure in a green or fermented state, seem to deserve a remark. 

 That the efficacy of green barn manure is much greater than 

 that of an equal quantity of decomposed or rotted barn man- 

 ure cannot be questioned, because the experiments of many dis- 

 tinguished cultivators have fully determined this. Manure of 

 course is not so easily applied in a crude as in a fermented state ; 

 and on this account it is perhaps always desirable that it should, 

 by being turned over and made short, be made to undergo a 

 degree of fermentation and applied to the soil in as warm a 

 state as possible. But Mr. Phinney, by the plan which he 

 adopts, has another object in view, which is the increase of the 

 quantity of his manure. For this purpose he compounds it ; 

 using a third part of stable manure with two thirds peat-muck, 

 and in the mode in which he mixes them, the fermentation of 

 the stable manure dissolves the peat — and the peat, acting as an 

 absorbent, takes up and fixes all the enriching volatile gases of 

 the fermenting manure, and thus becomes itself enriched. This 

 is undoubtedly a good method ; but the keeping of barn man- 

 ure by itself until it becomes thoroughly decomposed and effete, 

 instead of applying it in a green state, would be a wasteful and 

 object ionable process. 



The application of quick lime to barn manure or animal man- 

 ure of any description, is, 1 believe, always bad. It consumes 

 or drives off all the enriching parts of the manure, and renders 

 other parts insoluble. The application of quick lime to night- 

 soil, which is often recommended, will, it is true, remove all 

 offensive odors, but at the same time, it drives off and removes 

 all the most valuable parts of the manure. The lime which 



