Account of a Stercorary, 291 



ceases ; and its stimulating qualities are either feeble, 

 or entirely torpid;* when over-rotted. 



Many object to covered stercoraries (though they 

 allow the manure to be the better for being secluded 

 from the sun and winds,) on account of the dryness of 

 the materials ; which they conceive, prevents fermen- 

 tation, and produces combustion. I have seldom found 

 this objection important. But, Mr. £luincy has prac- 

 tic iliy established a cheap and convenient mode of ir- 

 rigation J which must silence all complaints in this 

 regard. 



I think some means might be used, for introducing 

 air, through the muck of deep stercoraries ; to promote 

 fermentation, and save the trouble and expense of 

 throwing it over. Faggots placed vertically, or hori- 

 zontally, among the muck, in proper places, would ad- 

 mit of currents of air. Brick-wells, or vertical tunnelsy 

 built higher than the heap, would, at any time, rise ; 

 checkered with holes, or vacancies, in the brick work, 

 would both admit air, and drain the muck. These re. 

 servoirs might be pumped out; and the drainings 

 thrown over the heap. When the superabundant 



* During our revolutionary war, the late general P. Schuyler 

 mentioned that he had once purchased a farm from tlie representa- 

 tives of an old settler in the then colony of New York. A great 

 inducement was, that some thousands of loads of dun^^ had been 

 accumulating, for half an age ; it having been considered as useless, 

 when the land was fresh ; and thrown into a vast ravine. At first, 

 the dung was operative ; but the lower the mass was penetrated, 

 the more worthless it became. 'Till, finally, it would not compen- 

 sate the labour and expense of hauling it out on the land. R. P. 



