312 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



our fields in the form of crops. What is fed to the animal in the 

 adult state, is immediately returned, if not in substance, at least in 

 quantity ; for the full-grown animal, suifering no increase of body, 

 requires only so much food as will compensate for the waste con- 

 stantly taking place. In the young and growing animal, a little more 

 is necessary, to assist in the construction of bones, muscles, etc.; 

 whilst from the old animal, which is continually becoming smaller, 

 more is given off than is consumed. Thus the action of crops in 

 exhausting the land will readily appear, as also the use of the ap- 

 plication of manures. What is taken off and fed to cattle or con- 

 sumed by man, is so much of the inorganic matter of the soil taken 

 away, which, if necessary to the production of one perfect crop, is 

 as necessary for another ; and as the soil is deprived of these year 

 by year, its capabilities will be diminished, till it becomes incapable 

 of producing the same crop. In animal manures we restore all this, 

 and thus are enabled, for any length of time, not only to keep up, 

 but to increase its productiveness. 



But, on no farm, can the amount of animal manure produced, be 

 equal to the waste. Grain is carried to the distant market, as also 

 fattened animals, and consumed there ; all of which is so much 

 lost to the soil, and unless they are restored, will become so deficient 

 as to leave the soil entirely exhausted. It becomes necessary, there- 

 fore, to resort to artificial manures to supply this loss, and the scien- 

 tific farmer will use the greatest care to convert every convertible 

 substance into food for his crops. 



But as well known as it is at the present day that the liquid are 

 of more value than the solid contents of the yard, it is matter of no 

 little surprise that some men, in building their stables, select the 

 very top of some hillock, for the express purpose, as it would seem, 

 of draining off all the fluids that would otherwise collect about them, 

 and in this way lose the greater and the better part of their manure. 

 Wherever the yard is situated, it should be "made lower in the centre 

 than at the sides, and well paved with stones or a solid bed of clay. 

 This will serve as a basin to hold all the drainings of the stables, and 

 here they may be mixed with the solid manures : this will prevent 

 the fermentation which they will undergo if collected in pools or 

 tanks. If such are used, it should only be for the purpose of saving 

 these liquids in order to restore them again to the dung heap. Much 



