1846.] Orange County Manures. 31 



posed to repudiate in the strongest terms the introduction of such 

 fertilizers as guano into this county, from the sole fact that the 

 manner of using them requires more knowledge and care than 

 our farmers can commonly lay claim to. Men who have been 

 accustomed to apply their manures by the cartload, can hardly be 

 persuaded to reduce the quantity to a tea spoonful. But this is 

 not all. The accidents and losses which occur under the circum- 

 stances of climate, and wet or dry weather, &c., in using these 

 powerful fertilizers, are a powerful argument against their use. 

 The single summer of 1845, will long be remembered by those 

 w^ho chose to neglect the resources they had at home, in order to 

 improve the precarious chances of foreign aid. Thousands of 

 tons of guano w^ere imported, and as far as can be learned, in the 

 ordinary farming operations, have been entirely useless. It mio-ht 

 as well have lain upon its original dung hills in the islands of 

 Africa or South America. 



We would depend upon the resources which we have within 

 our own borders for all the improvements which can possibly be 

 attained for generations to come. These resources we have in 

 abundance, to make the fields of Orange county as fertile, and to 

 cover them with as luxuriant harvests as ever waved upon them. 

 These, it is now our purpose to examine, somewhat in familiar 

 detail. 



1. The Farm Yard. — Here must ever be the grand hope of the 

 farmer. It is the place into which is collected every thing that 

 is thrown away as good for nothing but manure. It is the most 

 important spot on the farm, and according to the condition of the 

 farm yard, will be that of the whole farm. Several things con- 

 nected with it deserve paiticular mention. 



Its locality. — This should not be, as is often the case, the top 

 of a hillock, whence all the juices of the yard can be leached off 

 into the nearest pond or creek. Neither if it is somewhat hollow 

 so as natm-ally to hold the wash, should it be carefully ditched, 

 as we have seen done, to drain off the wet. A place should be 

 selected where there is a gentle inclination to the centre from all 



