MANURES. 145 



produced on the nearly exhausted soils of Virginia, and Mary- 

 land, and Kentucky, and North Carolina, of which reliable 

 accounts are given in the publications of the day. 



Phosphates and Super-phosphates of Lime. — Of the value 

 of these fertilizers and their effects, neither experience nor 

 observation enables us to speak with confidence. From the re- 

 marks made to us by judicious and intelligent farmers, and from 

 the favorable accounts, which we presume are in all respects 

 reliable, given of experiments made with them, we are induced 

 to urge upon the farmers of this county the careful and thorough 

 trial of their use in different modes of operation, and upon dif- 

 ferent sorts of vegetable culture. We believe that every new 

 discovery in this department of agriculture, and every instance 

 of the successful application of concentrated manure to the soil? 

 is of vast importance to the farmer, and will help to lessen the 

 hardships of his occupation, to increase the sum of his gains, 

 and to enlarge the opportunity for his rest and intellectual and 

 social enjoyment and improvement. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Report of the Committee. 



In respect to the preparation for manure, it should not be 

 forgotten that the excretions voided by an animal, — a cow or 

 an ox, for instance, — during the time when usually housed and 

 yarded, if carefully saved and properly composted, with good 

 facilities for doing this, are capable of converting into valuable 

 manure only a limited quantity of absorbent material. What 

 is that quantity ? This, of course, will depend, in some de- 

 gree, upon the nature and amount of the food consumed. 

 What is the quantity, then, — or, rather, what is the maximum 

 average of such material, estimated per head, to which the ex- 

 cretions from an ordinary stock of neat cattle, as generally kept, 

 can be made to impart the virtues of good manure ? This is a 

 very important question, any thing approximating to a correct 

 solution of which, would greatly facilitate a just estimate of 

 the value of the composts offered for premium, composed, as 

 they generally are, mostly of such ingredients. Many farmers 

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