174- OF MANURE. 



condensation occasioned by the pressure of the carts and 

 horses, tends to retard the fermentation, by excluding the 

 external air. The second is, not to build the dung in leets, 

 or upright sections, one by the side of another, as these 

 never thoroughly coalesce, and allow the rain and moisture 

 to drain off through the intermediate fissures ; but in build- 

 ing the dunghill, let the surface built on, be always kept in 

 a sloping direction from the top of the dunghill to the 

 ground, which makes the dung settle into one uniform 

 mass, thereby enabling it to retain the moisture ; and for 

 this purpose a slight covering of earth, (peat-earth, where 

 it can be got,), along the top, when the dunghill is finished, 

 will greatly contribute : And the third is, if dunghills are 

 formed in the field during winter, it has been found a good 

 practice, when opportunity offers, to heap up snow on the 

 top of them; for snow-water, being divested of its fixed air 

 in the process of freezing, is thereby rendered a more 

 powerful agent in promoting putrefaction, than either rain 

 or river water, and from the snow melting gradually, the 

 absorption is more complete, than when water is artificially 

 applied.* 



3. It is not yet decisively ascertained, which is the best 

 mode of using stable dung, whether in a fresh or rotten 

 state. Mr Andrew of Tillilumb, near Perth, states, that 

 he has sometimes seen it used successfully fresh, as, for in- 

 stance, put on for potatoes, or ploughed down in the end 

 of the year for beans ; but he would rather incline to have 



* Mr John Shirreffis of opinion, that stable-yard manure, ought ne- 

 ver to be stirred, after it is deposited in the dung pit, till finally carted 

 on the field, and deposited in the soil. For every time it is stirred, its 

 finest parts escape into the atmosphere. In the way some people ma- 

 nage dunghills, more than one half of their most valuable parts are lost 

 in steam, when shaken up as a gardener's hot-bed. 



