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T/iaer^s Principles of Agriculture. — Manuring the Soil. Vol. X. 



nure; large pits are inconvenient, both as to 

 the drawing it out, and because the liquid 

 portions arising from the decomposition, are 

 liable to be lost in the removal. Von Thaer 

 thinks the best arrangement is to have the 

 place where the dung is kept, hollowed out 

 and inclined towards the centre, through 

 which an opening is to be made for the es- 

 cape of its liquid portions. The urine should 

 be incorporated with the dung and litter. 

 There is no doubt that manure should be 

 kept as much as possible from the sun and 

 rain — how this is to be done is rather a 

 question of the farmer's means, than of the 

 propriety of the course. It will be hardly 

 possible for the great majority of the farmers 

 of this country to cover in their manure 

 heaps, or build over their barn-yards — the 

 expense would overbalance the profit. The 

 only plan that it seems possible for them to 

 adopt readily, is that of throwing dirt over 

 the yard, and defending their manure in this 

 way. This, unquestionably, where it is not 

 attended with too much labour, is an excel- 

 lent plan, and one every farmer should adopt; 

 every method witliin his reach should be em- 

 ployed to preserve and keep in fine order the 

 material on which all his hopes of profit, and 

 all his success as an agriculturist, depend. 

 Not all, but surely some of us, can go to the 

 trouble of turfing or throwing dirt over our 

 dung-heaps, to absorb the gasses and the 

 moisture during decomposition, or even go 

 as far as they do in Switzerland, where the 

 dung made from straw litter is put in regu- 

 lar heaps, and the outside of the heap is 

 made of the more strawy portions, and folded 

 over so as to shut out all contact with the 

 atmosphere; in dry weather these heaps are 

 watered, or the liquid from the manure 

 thrown over them — the urine is collected 

 separately in a trench dug on purpose, and 

 used by itself The time when manure 

 should be carted to the field, and in what 

 condition this manure should be, are ques- 

 tions to be decided very much by the expe- 

 rience of the farmer ; some prefer the ma- 

 nure to be entirely decomposed, others would 

 have it carted immediately from the stable 

 to the field. On heavy, tenacious soils, there 

 seems little or no doubt that fresh made litter 

 buried in the soil, is better than fermented 

 dung. The ammonia acts on the insoluble 

 mould contained in such soils, and the nutri- 

 tive portions of the soil are brought into 

 action more readily by this undecomposed 

 manure, than by that which has gone through 

 its several stages of decay. On light soils 

 it is the reverse, they derive no advantage 

 from manure that has not fermented. One 

 precaution appears necessary, as to the time 



when manure should bo put upon the land — 

 it should be removed before fermentation 

 takes place, or after it has subsided ; as in 

 either of these conditions nothing is lost by 

 exposure to the air, but while in a high state 

 of fermentation, many of its active and nu- 

 tritive portions would evaporate. Von Thaer 

 is strongly in favour of a practice not com- 

 mon among us, that of spreading fresh ma- 

 nure on the land and letting it remain till 

 the spring before it is ploughed in. Accord- 

 ing to his experience, it is not only of the 

 greatest present advantage to the land and 

 to the crop, but all the succeeding crops are 

 very superior to those raised on land where 

 a larger quantity of decomposed manure has 

 been used. He finds it difficult to explain 

 this result, but it would seem in our opinion, 

 to be owing to the juices of the manure 

 being carried into the ground by the melting 

 snows of the winter and the rains of the 

 spring. This plan will only do on level 

 ground ; on declivities it would be washed 

 away in heavy rains. The proper quantity 

 of manure for any given quantity of land 

 will depend on the nature of the soil. Cold 

 clay, moist grounds, require heavy manur- 

 ing, while light porous soils, will bear but 

 light dressing. They require it more fre- 

 quently, but less at a time. But among . 

 other important points in the manuring of 

 land, there is one which appears very sim- 

 ple, but which in reality requires judgment 

 and is of the greatest consequence, that is, 

 the proper distribution of the manure. If 

 not spread equally over the surface, in those 

 parts where too much is thrown, the grain 

 will very probably lodge or be laid, while 

 where it is too thinly disposed, the crop will 

 show it, and not only the present crop, but 

 each succeeding. The hand that is now 

 writing these words, undertook for the first 

 time to spread manure this summer; it ap- 

 peared a simple process, but after exertions 

 in which he could feel nearly every artery 

 throb, from his head to his feet, he found 

 that it must all be done over again. He 

 learned in this way, that there is in the 

 seemingly coarsest operations of agriculture, 

 an art and mystery that must be acquired by 

 experience and practice. 



After going through the solid manures we 

 come lo the liquid, as agents in cultivation. 

 Of the utility of these there is but one opin- 

 ion among the best agriculturists. The only 

 objection there can be to their general adop- 

 tion, is that they are as yet in this country, 

 among those novelties from which the old 

 fashioned farmer turns with doubt or disbe- 

 lief The amount of trouble or expense 

 that it would cause to make all the arrange- 



