16 



diate plowing after the precious contents of the barn 

 yard were spread broad cast before their eyes. It 

 was a prevalent opinion that nearly all the richness 

 would dry out, in a few days, if exposed to the 

 weather. 



They had often noticed, that manure under cover, 

 was about twice as good as that which lay out of 

 doors all summer, but they did not discover that the 

 great injury which it had received was owing to the 

 leaching rains, which dissolved and carried off its 

 richest elements, and not to the sunlight which 

 occasionally fell upon it. 



When manure is spread it soon becomes dry, and 

 then all chemical changes cease, fermentation is 

 arrested, it will decay no more in that condition. 

 And when the dews settle and the rains descend 

 upon it, it will dissolve, day after day, and a peculiar 

 dark rich coffee, will saturate the soil beneath it, so 

 effectually, that Alderman Mechi, could hardly do 

 it better, with his steam-engine, and his pipes and 

 hose in every field. 



John Johnston writes to the " Country Gentle- 

 man :" "If I only had Col. Pratt here for five or 

 six months I could convince him that surface manur- 

 ing is the true way, and will, before ten years from 

 this, be the way generally that manure will be 

 used." 



And in the " Genesee Farmer," he says to Joseph 

 Harris : u I am not surprised at your correspondent, 

 Buckeye, being opposed to surface manuring. I 

 would have been so myself had not experience 

 taught me better. I have used manure, only as a 

 top dressing, for the last twenty six years, and I do 



