MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



which manurial material under a complete 

 system of culture, will work the most magical 

 results, I have no doubt. But until that system 

 is reached, very much can be done in the way 

 of economizing the fertilizing elements of the 

 farmyard, short of the tank and the water 

 cart; and this by modes so simple, and at an 

 expense so small, as to be within the reach of 

 every farmer. 



Let me illustrate, in the plainest possible 

 manner, by my own experience. The barn, 

 as I have said, was slatternly; it had yielded 

 a little to the pinching northwesters, and by a 

 list (as seamen say) to the southeast, gave 

 threat of tumbling upon the cattle yard. This 

 yard lay easterly and southerly, in a ragged, 

 stony slope, ending on its eastern edge with 

 a quagmire, which was fed by the joint 

 wash of the yard and the leakage of a water 

 trough supplied from a spring upon the hills. 

 The flow from this quagmire, unctuous and 

 fattening, slid away down a long slope into 

 the meadow,— at first so strong, as to forbid 

 all growth; then feeding an army of gigantic 

 docks and burdocks ; and after this giving lux- 

 uriant growth to a perch or two of stout Eng- 

 lish grass. But it was a waste of wealth; it 

 was like a private, staggering under the rations 

 of a major-general. I cut off the rations. 



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