On welUrotted Diing^ Stercoraries^ ^c, 227 



account, to establish my own opinions. But I feel a 

 strong desire, that it may be well considered ; and that 

 both sides of a question, in which the prosperity of 

 our agriculture is so deeply involved, should be fairly 

 examined, and deliberately investigated. 



Yours, very truly, 



Richard Peters, 

 Dr. James Mease. 



Secretary of the Philad. Agric. Soc, 



POSTSCRIPT. 



I add the following as a Postscript, to my com- 

 munication on muck, and rotted dung. 



As long as opinion is subject to variety, differ- 

 ences of sentiment, on the subject of fresh muck, and 

 rotted dung, will exist. I do not enter the field as a 

 controversialist, but as a narrator of my own experi- 

 ence. If in doing this, I have wandered into reasoning 

 on causes, or theories ; facts must, nevertheless, decide 

 all questions. 



Since the date of the foregoing communication, a 

 collection of agricultural essays, entitled Arator, by 

 a citizen of Virginia, has been put into my hands. It 

 is attributed to a citizen of that state whose talents I 

 always respect, and whose facts I do not, in the small- 

 est degree, doubt. He is an able advocate for the use 

 of long and hot muck ; and the earth, not the stercora- 

 ry, is his laboratory. The constituent parts of his ma- 

 nure, exposed in open -pens, till it is hauled into his 

 fields, early in the season, are, in no small proportion, 



