HINDRANCES TO SUCCESSFUL FAR:MING. 93 



especially at night, and once knowing the existence of the 

 fence they will see well enough to avoid it. 



Some over-cautious farmers have taken the precaution to 

 nail a light rail on the top of the posts, at small expense, as 

 a caution to animals. 



The enormous amount of this fence set and in use during 

 the comparatively short time since its manufacture, — some- 

 thing over 800,000 miles, and now being built at the rate of 

 200,000 annually, — not only in every State of this Union, 

 but in Australia, New Zealand, and in almost every part of 

 the glol)e, is a strong guarantee of its safety and popularity. 



Manures. — A large item of waste exists in the treatment 

 of manure, and none is more worthy of reprobation, because it 

 is so generally and directly prejudicial to success in farming, 

 and none other of the same extent can be so easily prevented. 



Manure is the great motive power in all agricultural oper- 

 ations, especially in the worn and naturally unfertile soils of 

 New England. Special fertilizers have their use ; but farm- 

 yard manure is the staple. Good and clean cultivation is 

 very important ; but unless the soil contains the elements of 

 fertility it will avail nothing, and these can only be created 

 and kept up by the constant application of manure or other 

 fertilizers. IManures possess different degrees of power, 

 partly from their inherent richness in nutritive qualities for 

 plant-food, and partly from the rapidity with which they 

 throw off those fertilizing ingredients to assist the growth of 

 plants by assimilation. The great art of making and saving 

 manure consists in retaining and applying to the best advan- 

 tage the indispensable soluble portions, and placing them 

 where they wall do the most good. 



The old practice of placing manure eight or ten inches 

 under ground, or as deep as the heaviest plough would turn 

 it, is much changed, and farmers at the present day desire to 

 keep the manure as near the surface as they can and cover 

 it, believing that the plant roots there find it most available. 

 The farmer who should so grossly neglect his crops, either 

 in the cultivation or at the harvest, as to lose or waste one- 

 half, or any considerable portion, w^ould be scouted at, and 

 almost considered criminal, yet how many are there, passing 

 for good farmers, who annually lose a very large portion of 

 their manure. 



