M03T ECONOMICALLY APPLIED TO THE LAND. 475 



10 owl. of dry food and straw y.eld of recent dung 23 to 25 cwt. 



At the end of six weeks 21 cwt. 



After eight weeks 20 cwt. 



When half-rotten 15 to 17 cwt. 



When fully-rotten 10 to 13 cwt. * 



These quantities, you will observe, are supposed to be obtained in 

 the common open farm-yards, with the ordinary slow process of fer- 

 mentation. An improved, quicker, or more economical mode of fer- 

 menting the mixed dung and straw may be attended with less loss 

 and may give a larger return of rich and fully-rotten dung. 



A knowledge of these facts shows clearly what is the most eco- 

 nomical form in which farm-yard manure can be applied to the land. 



P. The more recent the manure from a given quantity of food and 

 straw is ploughed in, the greater the quantity of organic matter we 

 add to the land. When the only object to be regarded, therefore, 

 is the general enriching of the soil, this is the most economical and 

 the most expedient form of employing farm-yard manure. 



2°. But where the soil is already very light and open, the plough- 

 ing in of recent manure may make it still more so, and may thus ma- 

 terially injure its mechanical condition. In such a case the least of 

 two evils must be chosen. It may be better husbandry — that is, more 

 economical — to allow the manure to ferment and consolidate in the 

 farm-yard with the certainty of a considerable loss, than to diminish 

 the solidity of the land by ploughing it in in a recent state. 



3°. Again — in the soil, a fermentation and decay similar to that 

 which takes place in the farm-yard will slowly ensue. The benetii 

 which generally follows from causing this fermentation to take place in 

 the field rather than in the open yard is, that the products of the decom- 

 position are taken up by the soil, and thus waste is in a great measure 

 prevented. But in very light and open soils, this absorption of the pro- 

 ducts of decay does not take place so completely. The rains wash out 

 some portions, while others escape into the air, and thus by burying the 

 recent manure in such soils, less of that waste is prevented which when 

 .ft1t in the open air it is sure to undergo. It may even happen, in some 

 cases, that the waste in such a soil will not be greatly inferior to that 

 which necessarily takes place in the farm-yard. The practical man, 

 therefore, may question whether, as a general rule, it would not be safer 

 in farming very light arable lands, to keep his manure in heaps till it is 

 well fermented, and to adopt those means for preventing waste in the 

 heaps themselves which science and practical skill point out to him. 



It may be regarded indeed as a prudent and general opinion to hold 

 — one, however, which must not be maintained in regard to any par- 

 ticular tract of land in opposition to the results of enlightened expe- 

 rience — that recent farm-yard manure [Long dung) is not suited to 

 very light soils, because it will render them still Hghter, and because 

 m them the manure may suffer almost as Kuch waste as in the farm- 



* In an excellent little practical work printed for private circulation, under the title of 

 " Notes on the Culture and Cropping of Arable LMnd," by the late Dr. Coventry, of Edin- 

 burgh, the reader will find a valuable section upon manures. The most complete work 

 now in existence upon the general subject of agricultural statics, is that of Hlubek, DieEV' 

 ndhrung der PJlanzcn une die iStatik dea Landbaues. 



