ADVANTAGES OF RURAL PURSUITS. 55 



liquid, solid or j^as. The solid is all that most fanners save, and 

 that imperfectly. How can we preserve the liquids and gases? 

 The answer is obvious, by putting into the barnyard and barn- 

 cellar some substance that will absorb and. retain them. This is 

 the philosophy of the compost-heap. The earthy matters absorb 

 and retain the fertilizing properties of the liquids and gases, and 

 impart them again to the plants. By covering with loam the 

 fermejiting dung-heap, you retain the gases which would other- 

 wise take wings, and by coating the barnyard with loam you 

 save the liquids, which otherwise would run away or evaporate. 



The earth must not only be thoroughly subdued, but liberally 

 and constantly replenished. A plant, like an animal, must be 

 fed. It is a living being, with organs of digestion. Give it good, 

 nutritive food, and enough of it, and it will laugh and grow fat ; 

 give it poor, scanty food, it will pine and die. You may as well 

 starve your cow as your corn. 



Without the aid of science, the observation of every farmer 

 tells him that the principal food of ])lants is organic matter, vege- 

 table or animal. Keeping this simple fact in view, some practical 

 conclusions seem to follow. First, that it is as wise to waste the 

 food of plants as of stock ; manure, as hay or grain. Second, that 

 it is as judicious to feed two acres of plants with food sufficient 

 only for one acre as to winter two cows on hay just enough for 

 one. Third, that supposing the farmer has the requisite labor to 

 subdue the land, the quantity to be cultivated must depend upon 

 the manure he is al)le to make, save or buy. Fourth, that the 

 farmer who begrudges the systematic cai-e, labor or expense of 

 preserving his manure, saves at the tap but loses at the bung. 



