farmers' miscellany. 311 



» MANURE.— NO. II. 



MANAGEMENT AND APPLICATION. 



It has appeared to \iz better, before examining the causes in- 

 luencing the action of manures, to make our remarks assume a 

 noce practical form, and direct the attention of our readers to the 

 nanagcment and application of those substances which arc com- 

 Qonly used for supplying the food of plants. These are points 

 vhich — let objectors say what they may — are capable of being, 



a great degree, settled. Experiment, if correctly pursued, will 

 le found to confirm whatever theory suggests. And in advocating 

 cOnomical farming, it is necessary to have a good understanding 

 f the way in which manures may be made to exert their utmost 

 fFect and suffer the least loss. But we do not theorise only — we 

 epend upon what is already known from experience in some mea- 

 are, and shall attempt, in as brief a manner as possible, to lay the 

 latter in a clear light before the reader. If in doing this, we say 

 luch that some already know, we are certain they will excuse us, 

 /hen they reflect that we write for the ignorant, that they also 

 iiay know. 



1 The first consideration then, claiming our notice, is the saving 

 f manure. We read in ancient mythology, of the uEgean stables, 

 nd their purification ; but we realize something of it, when we 

 Be the mountains of manure which the Wolga bears away every 

 pring, on its ice — the accumulations of the neighboring farm-yards 

 -or when, " on the borders of the Roman Campagna, we see 

 hole hills of dung — the long accumulating refuse from the stables 

 f the post-house." Such an exhibition might excite surprise in 

 le most slovenly and wasteful of our farmers ; and yet, among 

 ,ie best of our practical agriculturists, instances are not rare, of 

 1 disregard of saving, which, if not exactly parallel to these, are, 

 ) say the least, equally deplorable. We have ourselves travelled 

 irough a large portion of our new states, and witnessed much of 

 lis evil. Vast piles of manure are suffered to go to waste, or even 

 irted out in the spring and thrown into some pond-hole — the en- 

 re straw of numerous harvests left to rot on the spot where it 

 as threshed, or turned on the same spot, are some of the evi- 



