On well-rotted Dung^ Stercoraries^ ^c, 223 



or successfully contend, that it is uselessly employed, 

 or wasted, in its proper place. True it is, that a fer- 

 mentation, more gentle and profitable, must proceed 

 in the natural ventricles, allotted for fitting all food, 

 after it is duly prepared, for entering the system of ani- 

 mals. I should presume, that the analogy requires si- 

 milar circumstances, in regard to plants. The stereo- 

 raryy and not the earth, seems to be the place of prepa- 

 ration of what is to become the food, or stimulus to the 

 growth, of plants ; for we know not, correctly, the mo- 

 dus operandi. After such preparation, and not before, 

 it is fitted for the place of final deposit ; — to wit, — the 

 ground in which the plant is to grow. 



Strength of manure, as it is called, amounting to 

 force and violence, is not desirable. It has an indis- 

 criminate, partial, and irregular impetus ; very differ- 

 €nt from constant, durable, and wholesome endea- 

 vours. A heated, overflowing, and rapid circulation, 

 occasioned by the violent operations of hot muck, 

 bursts the vessels of the most valuable plants ; and 

 produces, in grain-crops, smut, blight, and mildew ; 

 or loss, by laying, of over-abundant straw. Weeds, 

 and vermin are generated, increased, and invited by it; 



raw meal, or grain. This analogous illustration, may be deemed a 

 mere fanciful speculation.— Be it so. — I rely ot\ facts to which my 

 attention has been called, through many periods of my life. The 

 subject has always produced difTerences of opinion and practice, 

 among farmers ; from the time of rny earliest recollection. The 

 great majority have preferred well rotted dung. But few, indeed, 

 have paid sufficient attention to the all-essential uses of the sterco- 

 rarv. 



