424 



STE 



STE 



we doubt not but you vvlli (ind it 

 a very (at substance ; being, as we 

 conjecture, mostly muscle and 

 other sliejis mixed w.ilh earth, 

 brou^iht by the tide and the river. 



" After this bank has stood six 

 weeks or two months, incorporat- 

 ing and fermenting, turn and mix it. 

 Yoke your |jlough, enter upon your 

 stercorary with a cleaving furrow, 

 and continue repeating the plough- 

 ings the same way, until the very 

 bottom be ripped up ; then harrow 

 it; it is impossible to overdo it. If 

 it is very cloddy, it should be har- 

 rowed between the ploughings. 

 Begin then in the middle, and 

 plough again and again in the gath 

 ering way, until it be brought into 

 as narrow bounds, and be raised as 

 high as possible. Let all that the 

 plough has left be thrown up with 

 shovels on the top. Every such 

 turning and heaping occasions a 

 new ferment, and improves the 

 manure. If the first heat should 

 go off before it is reduced to a fine 

 fat mould, it may be turned over 

 again, and will take a new heat. 

 About fifty or sixty cart loads of 

 this compost are used upon an acre 

 of ground" 



Any farmer may easily follow 

 this example, and suit his compost 

 to his soil. It will save much cart- 

 ing, especially when the land to be 

 manured with it lies at some dis- 

 tance from the farmyard. At the 

 same time it will reduce tliose dis- 

 agreeable ridg( s that gatlier in the 

 borders of lots that are long tilh^d, 

 which are always a richer soil than 

 the rest of the field and more fit for 

 this use. 



An operation similar to the above, 



was experienced by i\Ir. Eliot. 

 He built a cow yard very long and 

 narrow, at the side of a road, and 

 once in three or tour days, he re- 

 moved the fences from the ends, 

 and gave it a deep ploughing. 

 The consequence was, that all the 

 earth which was stirred with the 

 ploughs became, in his opinion, of 

 ecjual value a« a manure, with good 

 barn dung. The advantage of this 

 method of increasing manure is un- 

 speakably great. 'I'he manure of 

 a yard may thus be increased to ten 

 fold. 



The 3d volume of x\Jemoirs of 

 the Philadelphia Agricultural So- 

 ciety, pages 222, 3,4.5, contains an 

 account of a Stercorary, erected 

 by Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts, 

 from which the following is extract- 

 ed. 



"The area of my Stercorary is 

 90 feet by 40, the cellar is in the 

 shallowest part eight feet deep, in 

 its deepest twelve, and in the well 

 if I mistake not, fifteen. — It is open 

 nearly the whole length of one of 

 its short sides, and one half of the 

 long, viz. at the north and west, 

 besides large openings at the east. 

 There is always four or five (t-et 

 atmosphere above the top of the 

 manure, and between it and the 

 barn floor, and a constant current 

 setting one way or another. This 

 gives the advantage of a free cir- 

 culating air, which in general, in 

 such cases is not obtained. 



" Tlie great difficulty 1 have had 

 to encounter, arises from the ne- 

 cessity of an equal irrigation of 

 the heap ^ a difficulty which must 

 attend all permanently covered 

 Stercoraries. For water turned. 



