414 On DuckeVs Skim Coulter Plough. 



By means of this implement, Mr. Young had repeat- 

 edly seen, on Mr. Du^keVs farm, stubble completely 

 turned down ; and crops of turnips. Sec. instantly put 

 in. Weeds were converted to manure. He " once 

 saw him turn down a crop of rye, six feet high, and 

 immediately roll in turnip seed. Not an atom of the 

 rye [green] was visible, though the depth of plough- 

 ing was only eight inches." Long dung, he says, has 

 been ploughed in, by other farmers, twelve inches deep. 

 I copy what Mr. Young has published relative to Mr. 

 Duckefs practice, many years ago ; and repeated in 

 this lecture. But Mr. Young^s long dung, is not the 

 straw and unfermented mass, applied by hot and fresh 

 muck- farmers. 



" Dependent on the trench plough, is Mr. Ducket's 

 <^ system oi dunging ; he conceives, and I apprehend 

 ** very justly, that the more dunghills are stirred and 

 " turned over,^ and rotted, the more of their virtue is 



* Dung in tight pens, or covered stercoraries, is never " stirred 

 or turned^^ necessarily. But the juices, or moisture, are preserv- 

 ed from evaporation, the drainings returned on the heap, and " their 

 virtue'^ preserved ; instead of being " lost.** R. P. 



I take this opportunity of mentioning, that I have recently re- 

 ceived a letter from J. Quincy, Esq. which completes the requisite 

 information as to his stercorary. It shews, that the only objec- 

 tion to covered stercoraries is irrefragably obviated by irrigation. A 

 neighbour of mine, who spares no necessary cost or pains, built a 

 hay-house over an excellent stercorary ; made according to the plan 

 suggested by me, in our first volume. His dung htcdcrae Jire-fanged, 

 or dry rotten ; and he abandoned all use of the stercorary, for his 

 manure. I was certain that he did not irrigate the muck suffici- 



