92 On the Agriculture of England, 3famires, ^c. 



I have invariably applied my farm yard manure, to 

 my summer fallow crops, which have ever been far 

 superior to those who have pursued a contrary prac- 

 tice, and the wheat, barley, and grass crops, grown 

 after those summer fallows, without any further addi- 

 tional manure, I have ever found fully equal, and fre- 

 quently superior, to the crops grown by my neigh- 

 bours, who almost universally applied their manure 

 immediately to their wheat and barley crops: and when 

 their fields of those grains were poisoned with weeds, 

 and the grasses sown over them greatly injured, from 

 the same cause, my grain crops were clean, and much 

 readier and sooner harvested, for it was not found ne- 

 cessary for them to stand exposed in the shocks, until 

 the succulent weeds were sufficiently dried, to pre- 

 vent injury from fermentation, in the stacks or barns, 

 and the harvesting of my grasses derived equal advan- 

 tage, from the same cause, in quantity and quality. 



Leaves, straw, weeds, vines, cornstalks and their 

 roots, were all carefully gathered and used by me, ei- 

 ther for littering the stalls or cattle yards. This mode 

 of management produced a large quantity of manure, 

 for as those substances were fully saturated with the 

 moisture of the cattle yards, they formed a valuable 

 compost, without the labour of heaping and turning, 

 and in this situation, previously to fermentation, they 

 were hauled, spread over, and immediately ploughed 

 under the soil designed for my summer fallow crops, 

 which were principally Indian corn and potatoes ; and 

 I am well satisfied, that as much ground may be ma- 

 nured in this way by one ox, as could be effected with 

 two, if it is suffered to ferment and rot in the cattle 



