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FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2. 



the dung is placed in these heaps, it is in a state 

 very favorable to further lermentation; for it is to 

 be observed, that in all cases, the turning over of 

 the dung, so as to give access to the air, causes an 

 increase of fermentation, and this is the method 

 adopted by farmers and gardeners, when they 

 want to give a greater degree of fermentation to 

 any heap. Should the dung in these large heaps 

 not ferment to the degree required, they are to be 

 turned over, and formed into new heaps, the up- 

 per part being placed below, and what was before 

 below at the top. By this means the fermenta- 

 tive process will be renewed: and should this turn- 

 ing not be found sufficient, the heaps must be again 

 turned over, so that they may be brought to the 

 degree of decomposition required. The large 

 heaps of this kind should not be placed in a very 

 exposed situation, so as to be too much acted upon 

 by the winds, and it is often a good precaution, 

 and a necessary one in very warm countries, to 

 face up the sides with a little earth or turf and to 

 strew some earth upon the top so as to prevent the 

 escape of decomposing matter. When it is wish- 

 ed to hasten the putrefactive process in these 

 heaps, it is better that they be not compressed by 

 the carriages going upon them to unload; but 

 where there is no peculiar necessity for hastening 

 the putrefactive process, the carriages and beasts 

 of draft can go upon the heap without injury. 

 When peculiar care is required, as when the dung 

 has been injured by fire-lhnging, or otherwise im- 

 perfectly fermented in the yards, it should be 

 spread over the heap in layers, so that one layer 

 may undergo a slight fermentation before it is 

 compressed by that which is to be placed above it. 



Sometimes the mass may be turned over in the 

 yards where it lies, and allowed to ferment before 

 it is carried out to the fields for use. In this case 

 the workmen begin at one side of the heap and 

 with large forks, turn it over, laying that which 

 was before uppermost underneath, so as that the 

 whole may be reversed. If after this process of 

 turning, no treading of cattle is allowed, the fer 

 mentation of the mass will proceed with rapidity, 

 and then the whole may be led out at once from 

 the yards to the fields for use. 



When the dung produced is very rich and well 

 decomposed, as when cattle have been feeding in 

 stalls on juicy and nutritive food, it may not ap- 

 pear to require this turning over to fit it for use; 

 yet even in such a case it is generally beneficial 

 that it be turned over at least once before being 

 used, the effect being to ferment the mass not on- 

 ly sufficiently, but equally, and to mix its different 

 parts together. It may be observed also, that 

 when the mass of vegetable and animal substances 

 ie thrown into a common yard, some care should 

 be bestowed in spreading it equally, so that one 

 part of the yard may not be filled with rich dung, 

 and another with poor. The dung of horses, for 

 example, is more susceptible of quick fermenta- 

 tion than that of oxen. When the stable, there- 

 fore, opens upon a common yard, the horse dung 

 should not be suffered to accumulate in a mass 

 about the stable door, but spread abroad upon the 

 heap. 



Farm-yard dung is chiefly applied to the soil, 

 by being spread upon the land when in tillage, and 

 covered by the plough. The periods at which this 

 is done, and the manner of doing it, will be after- 

 wards pointed out. By being covered by the 



earth, the dung soon passes through its course of 

 fermentation, and becomes decomposed and mixed 

 with the matter of the soil. 



This valuable substance must be economized in 

 the manner of applying it. The soil must be 

 kept as rich as the means at the farmer's hands 

 will allow; but it is an error in practice to saturate 

 it at one time with manures, and to withhold them 

 at another. They ought rather to be applied in 

 limited quantity, and frequently, so as to maintain 

 a uniform or increasing fertility in the soil. 



The produce of the farm-yard will necessarily 

 afford the chief part of the manure consumed up- 

 on farms which do not possess extraneous sources 

 of supply. But besides the produce of the farm- 

 yard, there are certain vegetable and animal sub- 

 stances which in their separate states may be ap- 

 plied to the manuring of land. An example of 

 the application of vegetable substances, in this 

 state, is where certain plants are allowed to come 

 in flower, and are then ploughed down in their 

 green state, and mixed with the matter of the 

 soil. This is a practice derived from very ancient 

 times, and is yet followed in Italy, and other parts 

 of Europe. 



Vegetable matter when thus covered by the soil 

 in its green and succulent state, readily undergoes 

 decomposition, and forms a very enriching sub- 

 stance. The practice, however, is chiefly suited to 

 the warmer countries where vegetation is very ra- 

 pid, and even then it argues a somewhat low state 

 of the art, and is not the best way for producing 

 decomposing matter for manures. When we are 

 able to raise green food of any kind, it is better that 

 we apply it in the first place to the feeding of an- 

 imals, for then it not only yields manure, but per- 

 forms another and not less important purpose. 



When, however, the practice is for any reason 

 adopted, the period at which the plants should be 

 ploughed down is just when they are coming in 

 flower, for then they contain the largest quantity 

 of readily soluble matter, and have the least ex- 

 hausted the nutritive substance of the soil. The 

 plants employed for the purpose by the ancients 

 were chiefly the leguminous, as the Lupine, which 

 is still used in Italy for the same purpose. Buck- 

 wheat is also employed, and appears to be the 

 plant best suited for the practice in northern coun- 

 tries, for it is easily cultivated, and soon arrives at the 

 necessary maturity. For the same reason, spurry 

 has also been cultivated for this purpose: nay, the 

 clovers have been thus employed at the suggestion 

 of speculative writers even in England, and thus 

 the error has been committed of employing a val- 

 uable article as a manure, which might have been 

 employed in the first place in supporting live stock 

 of the farm. 



The leaves of trees also form a vegetable 

 manure, though not a good one: for although 

 leaves enrich, to a certain degree, the surface upon 

 which they fall and decay ,'tbey will rarely pay the 

 expense of collecting them expressly for manuring 

 land. 



The roots of plants disengaged from the soil in 

 the process of tilling and cleaning it, are also em- 

 ployed as a vegetable manure. Some of these, 

 however, as the couch grass, being very vivacious, 

 would readily spring again; and therefore it is ne- 

 cessary that their vegetative powers be destroyed, 

 which may be done by mixing them with lime, 

 and forming in this way a compost. JVlanyfarnu 



