Notices for a Young Farmer, xxv 



XL Be not discouraged by casual failures, from repetitions 

 of good practices. Some seasons are more inauspicious than 

 others, to some particular plants, or modes of culture. Con- 

 fide in a general rule, although, in some instances, there may 

 be successful exceptions. Avoid controversies about theories. 

 An useful result fe often neutralized, or lost, in a dispute on 

 the cause or mode of producing it. A careful attention to 

 facts, is far more instructive than the most elaborate discus- 

 sions on theories. 



XII, Gather all your summer dung ; dropped near fences 

 and hedge rows, (if you will suffer such incumbrances,) and 

 under trees ; and mix it with earth, on a ploughed head-land ; 

 to save it from sun, winds, and dung-beetles. All dung should 

 be covered either with earth or a roof; to prevent evapora- 

 tion and waste of its most valuable ingredients. Mix no hot 

 lime with your muck, dung, or compost-heap, before fer- 

 mentation has ceased, or sufficiently advanced ; as it injures 

 moderate fermentation, and often consumes the muck. In- 

 stances of even conflagration of strawy muck by hot lime, 

 to a great extent, can be given. No doubt, excess of fer- 

 mentation is injurious ; and over-rotted dung is not desirable. 

 But extreme cases should not be resorted to, for instruction 

 or argument. If lime be used, that slacked is always safest 

 and best, when mixed with either dung or compost. A justly 

 celebrated Lecturer, (Sir //. Davy,) objects to watering dung. 

 But it can be proved, by many facts, that infinitely more 

 losses and injuries to dung in stercoraries, have accrued from 

 the dry rot, for defect of moisture ; than can be produced in 

 watering muck or dung, from any cause. In covered ster- 

 coraries, as all ought to be, watering judiciously is all es- 

 sential. See, among other proofs, Mr. Quincifs account of 

 his stercorary: 3d vol. Philadelphia Agricultural Memoirs, 

 pages 292, 3, 4, 5. 



XIII. Sow no winter grain, the first year of liming fields. 

 The crop is generally retarded in ripening ; and caught by 

 mildew, blight, or rust. The liming here meant, is one suf- 

 ficient for durable improvement of the soil. Those who lay 

 on lime in small quantities, which may do neither good nor 



D 



