THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



137 



may thus be kept in tolerable plight ; but milch 

 cows and working oxen can never be subjected to 

 this mode of feeding with benefit to themselves or 

 profit to their ovvners; nor do 1 think that a larger 

 or equal amount of manure can be made by piu) 

 feeding, than can be made by the same number 

 of cattle stali-led, daily cleaned, and fresh littered. 

 I believe, by the experience of those who have 

 tried both modes, the preference is given, in point 

 of quality if not quantity of manure, to that liom 

 etail-fed cattle. 



The essayist's mode of feeding hogs is not 

 such as I think would suit the judicious hog 

 breeder. Filthy as the general habits of the hog 

 are supposed to be, it is an animal that is greall}^ 

 benefited by cleanliness in keeping, and especially 

 in feeding. As a manure raiser, the hog is cer- 

 tainly a valuable animal, and will amply repay his 

 owner for plentiful supplies of litter, and lor hav- 

 ing his sty or pen frequently cleaned out. The 

 supplying, however, of hog-pens with "scrapings 

 of roads, ditches, &c., or of rich deposites of 

 mud," is, 1 think, at best of doubtful economy ; 

 and In a majority of instances the labor of haul- 

 ing and depositing such materials in the pens is 

 unnecesearj', if not injurious. If the deposites of 

 mud, &c., are rich, why not haul them at once to 

 the fields to be manured? The fermenting of 

 either of them in the hog pens cannot be attended 

 with any benefit, unless they contain a large pro- 

 portion of inert vegetable matter, approaching to 

 the nature of peat, which in this climate very 

 rarely occurs. In the Farmers' Magazine, vol. 

 XV., p, 351, are the following remarks : ' Making 

 composts, then, of rich soil of this description, 

 with dung or lime, mixed or separate, is evidently, 

 to say the least of it, a waste of time and labor. 

 The mixture of earths of this description with 

 dung produces no alteration in the component 

 parte of the earth, where there is no inert vege- 

 table substances to be acted on ; and the mixture 

 of earth full of soluble matter with dung and 

 quicklime, in a mass together, has the worst 

 effects, the quicklime decomposing and uniting 

 with the soluble matter of the earth as well as 

 that of the' dung; thus rendering both, in 

 every case, less efficient as manures, than if ap- 

 plied separately from the quicklime, and even the 

 quicklime itself inferior as a manure for certain 

 soils, than if it had never been mixed with the 

 dung and earth at all." 



The essayist's theory, "that liquids are quite 

 as necessary, and even more so, In exciting and 

 hastening the decomposition of the litter than the 

 solids are," appears to me "unqualified. Tliat 

 moisture is necessary to induce fermentation con- 

 not be doubted; but it is equally certain that an 

 excess of moisture is destructive to and affords to 

 the farmer the best means of checking and pre- 

 venting injurious fermentation. 



On the preserving of manures, (he essayist ob- 

 serves, " x\s a general rule, manures ought al- 

 ways to be used, or at least placed in a situation 

 to be used, as soon as thoroughly made ;" and 

 subsequently occur the terms, " properly made," 

 " fairly made," " fully made." I would ask the 

 writer, when is manure thoroughly, properly, 

 fairly, fully made? On this point much diversity 

 of opinion prevails. If I, from some experience, 

 might venture to give an opinion, I would say 

 that the slighter the degree of fermentation which 

 Vol. X.-18 



takes place before manure is applied, aa a general 

 rule, the better. In colder climates, the bringing 

 on of an incipient fermentation in manure before 

 its application to the soil may be a desirable ob- 

 ject; but in this climate the difficulty appears to 

 me to be, with the judicious farmer, not in obtain- 

 ing or facilitating but in preventing fermentation. 

 On this subject, and for the climate of England, 

 Davy speaks as follows : 



" A slight incipient fermentation is undoubtedly 

 of use in the dunghill ; for by means of it a dispo- 

 sition is brought on in the woody fibre to decay 

 and dissolve, when it is carried to the land, or 

 ploughed into the soil ; and vvoody fibre is always 

 in great excess in the refuse of the /arm. 



'• Too great degree of fermentation is, however, 

 very prejudicial to the composite manure in the 

 dunghill ; it is better that there should be no fer- 

 mentation at all before the manure is used, than 

 that it should be carried too far. This must be 

 obvious from what has been already stated in this 

 lecture. The excess of fermentation tends to the 

 destruction and dissipation of the most useful part 

 of the manure ; and the ultimate results of this 

 process are like those of combustion. 



" It is a common practice amongst farmers to 

 suffer the farm-yard dung to ferment till the fibrous 

 texture of the vegetable matter is entirely broken 

 down, and till the manure becomes' perfectly cold, 

 and so soft as to be easily cut by the spade. 



" Independent of the general theoretieal views 

 unfavorable to this practice founded upon the na- 

 ture and composition of vegetable substances, 

 there are many arguments and facts which show 

 that it is prejudicial to the interests of the farmer. 



" During the violent fermentation which is ne- 

 cessary for reducing farm-yard manure to the state 

 in which it is called short muck, not only a large 

 quantity of fluid, but likewise of gaseous matter, 

 i^ lost ; so much so, that the dang is reduced one- 

 half, or tv/o-thirds in weight ; and the principal 

 elastic matter disengaged is carbonic acid, with 

 some ammonia ; and both these, if retained by 

 the moisture in the soil, as has been stated before, 

 are capable of becoming a useful nourishment of 

 plants." 



The essayist's observation on the best mode of 

 applying manures, " that he has com.e to the con- 

 clusion that the application of rotted manure as a 

 top-dressing, and the coarse and unrotted to be 

 immediately ploughed under," is contrary to the 

 experience and practice of many intelligent and 

 observant farmers. The shortest manures are 

 doubtless the best adapted for winter and spring 

 application, for any hoe crop immediately follow- 

 ing. For example, the application of coarse 

 litter, such as straw or corn-stalks only partially 

 decomposed, to-a field previous to planting corn, 

 will cause serious impediment in the subsequent 

 culture of the crop, and without any appreciable 

 benefit to this or the following crop. On the 

 other hand, the application of such manure, and 

 also of dry straw, leaves, &c., which have under- 

 gone no previous lamentation, as a top-dressing 

 on clover, is attended with the happiest effects, 

 both to the clover ard succeeding wheat or corn 

 crop. 1 have seen finely rotted manure, dry straw 

 from the stack, and dry and recent leaves from the 

 woods, applied to clover side by side, and the best 

 results were from the covering of dry straw. I 

 have also seen young wheat top-dressed with pine 



