DUN 



D YK 



123 



much torn and spread about by 

 swine, or by the scratching of 

 dunghill fowls, the heaps may be 

 included in pens made with wide 

 boards ; or some rocks may be 

 laid round them. Turfs may be 

 laid over them, to prevent their 

 evaporating ; as well as under 

 them, to prevent their soaking in- 

 to the earth. 



The heaps should have such a 

 degree of moisture as best pro- 

 motes fermentation and corrup- 

 tion. A cavity may be made 

 close to the lower side of the 

 heap, to receive the superfluous 

 moisture as it runs from it after 

 rain ; and this liquid, highly im- 

 pregnated with the strength of the 

 manure, should be thrown, from 

 time to time, on the top of the 

 heaps, with a scooping shovel. In 

 a wet season, the heaps will need 

 some slight sheds over them. In- 

 deed it would be best to cover 

 them in all seasons, and to apply 

 water to them when they need it. 



Heaps about the barn or cow- 

 yard, may be augmented with 

 some of the nearest earth, swamp 

 mud, straw, weeds, &c. those at 

 the hogsty with the same, together 

 with the dung of fowls, or other 

 hot manures, as the dung of swine 

 is naturally cold. But the farmer 

 should acquaint himself with the 

 nature of different manures ; and 

 always let that ingredient in his 

 heaps be predominant, which is 

 best adapted to correct and melio- 

 rate the soil on which it is to be 

 laid. If it be destined for a sandy 

 soil, clay will be an excellent in- 

 gredient in the composition of the 

 beaps. If it be designed to lay 



on a clayey soil, sand is proper. 



DUTCH HOE, sometimes cal- 

 led a Scuffle ; an iron instrument, 

 with a sharp steeled edge, nearly 

 in the shape of the letter D. with a 

 shank from the rounding part, five 

 or six inches long, which passes in- 

 to a handle of about six feet in 

 length. It is of use to clean walks 

 and avenues in gardens. No gard- 

 ener should be without one of these 

 instruments. 



DYKE, OR DIKE, a sort of dam, 

 constructed of earth, timber, fas- 

 cines, &c. to oppose the entrance 

 of water from rivers and from the 

 sea. 



Dykes made to exclude the sea 

 from marshes, are built with sods 

 cut out of the marsh, so as to make 

 a ditch near the dyke, or else a 

 ditch on each side. The sods are 

 laid as a wall sloping on both sides ; 

 they should be laid very close,that 

 the water may not enter ; and 

 some slender bushes should be laid 

 between them, that the work may 

 hold together the better. Some of 

 the bushes should have roots to 

 them,thatthey may grow,and more 

 strongly bind the sods together. — 

 Shrubs without roots will not live 

 placed in the dykes at mid-summer, 

 the time when dykes should be 

 built. But they may be inserted 

 afterwards, at a proper season. 



A dyke, seven or eight feet wide 

 at bottom, and three a-top, and 

 made a little higher than the high- 

 est spring tides rise, will be suffi- 

 cient on high marsh. When a 

 dyke passes through a low place,or 

 through a creek, it must be wider 

 at bottom in proportion to the 

 depth of the hollow, or creek, so 



