69 



This is too low an estimate for manure that has never 

 been leached by rain ; but may apply very well to all 

 that has been exposed to the weather all summer, 

 and has lost by drainage nearly all its soluble elements. 



Great care should be observed in purchasing 

 manure. Its value depends entirely on the kind 

 of material of which it is made, and the care 

 bestowed upon it afterwards. If it has lain in a dry 

 place, and become fire-fanged, and white and mouldy, 

 and so light, that it feels on your fork like a bunch 

 of dry leaves, it is hardly worth hauling home at any 

 price. And if it is made of nothing but straw, 

 although it may look well, do not pay much for it. 



But if preserved in a cellar, or covered yard, and 

 has been kept moist with urine or drainage from the 

 yard while rotting, and the animals while making it, 

 have been fed two or three times a day on grain, or 

 brafn, or oil-cake and good hay, and the pile is well 

 concentrated by decay, then it is good manure, and 

 worth hauling several miles to your home. 



On Plumgrove farm, I have all the liquid which 

 settles in a tank at the lowest corner of the yard 

 pumped up and sprinkled over the manure under 

 cover, and the process of decomposition goes on so 

 regularly, that it could not be made better any other 

 way. Yet with all the care we can bestow upon it, it 

 seems almost impossible to save all the liquid in the 

 stables. 



Barns are not properly constructed for this purpose. 

 Stalls should be eight or ten feet high from the floor 

 to the joists above, so that three feet deep of manure 

 may be left under all the animals all the time. And 

 when the stables will hold no more, they may be 

 cleaned out to the bottom, and then refilled with one 



