On xvell-rotted Dungj Stercomrics, ^e» 231 



overcharge of any of these, is certain destruction to a 

 less powerful plant than Indian corn ; and, not sel- 

 dom, even to this. In our hot beds the evaporation of 

 hot muck, however well covered with mould, or rich 

 earth, unless suffered to escape ; by frequently opening 

 the glass covers, will kill the strongest plants. This 

 I have repeatedly suffered under, through the care- 

 lessness of my gardeners. The heat and evaporation 

 must subside, before we dare plant our hot- bed vege- 

 tables. Every species of our common field-plants, have 

 been killed or stunted, by mephitic exhalations, or the 

 drainings of stercoraries. Yet when weakened, by 

 sufficiently diluting them, nothing can be more salu- 

 brious than the latter. Exhalation is the great foe, 

 Arator constantly combats, watches, and studies to 

 defeat. Yet 1 do not fear it, in a well conducted ster- 

 corary, or compost heap. It is, in fact, nothing equal, 

 in volume or compound, to the waste he imagines. I 

 doubt whether he ever made a fair comparative expe- 

 riment. I think the loss, by the common and inevi- 

 table exhalation of stercoraries, which can be, in a 

 great degree, restrained; is, in profitable result, a 

 gain. The superabundant azote, and poisonous qua- 

 lities of the muck, escape ; and the residuum is more 

 than worth the whole mass. It may not spread over a 

 space so extensive. But " exiguum colito^'^^ has always 

 been my motto. 



After all, — whatever may be the correctness, or mis^ 

 tfike, in the opinion I entertain, as to the qualities of 

 the dung ; I do not presume to enter into the expedi- 

 fncy of the mode adopted by Arator. He is the best 

 judge of the circumstances, in w^hich Virginia farmers 



