100 



THE farmers' cabinet. 



VOL. I. 



of gaseous matter, is lost so much so that 

 the dung is reduced one-half or two-thirds in 

 weight; and the principal elastic matter dis- 

 engaged, is carbonic acid, and some ammo- 

 nia ; ami both of these, if retained by the 

 moisture of the soil, are capable of becoming 

 useful nourishment of plants. 



* It is usual to carry straw that can be 

 employed for no other purpose to the dung- 

 liill to ferment and decompose ; but it is 

 worth an experiment, whether it may not b;- 

 more economically applied when chopped 

 small by a proper machine, and kept dry till 

 it is ploughed in for the uieof the crop. In 

 this case, though it would decompose much 

 more slowly and produce less elfect at first, 

 yet its influence would be more lasting.' 



Robert Smith, Esq., president of the Ma- 

 ryland Agricultural Society, in an address to 

 that society, observed, ' VVith respect to sta- 

 ble dung, I shall for the present content my- 

 self by barely suggesting, that my experience 

 strongly inclines me to the opinion that, 

 however long, it ought to be ploughed into 

 the ground without any preivous stirring, and 

 as soon as practicable after it has been taken 

 from the farm-yard.' 



We believe that the question relative to 

 long and to short manure must depend on 

 circumstances. In certain soils, and for cer- 

 tain crops, long manure which has under- 

 gone but a slight fermentation is to be pre- 

 ferred. But if used for wheat, and other 

 kinds of grain, and in all crops which cannot 

 conveniently be hoed or weeded, or, proba- 

 bly, when applied to soils containing acids or 

 some substances which may prevent fermen- 

 tation and retard the progress of putrescence 

 and dissolution, it must be well rotted. 



Rotting manure, however, in a barn-yard, 

 or in any situation in which its volatile and 

 liquid products escape into the atmosphere, 

 or soak into soil not designed to support 

 vegetation, is very slovenly and wasteful, 

 and always to be avoided if possible. The 

 effluvia or gas which is suffered to escape 

 from fermenting manure is not only almost 

 altogether lost to useful vegetation, but, what 

 is still worse, fills the atmosphere with par- 

 ticles injurious to health, and often destruc- 

 tive to life. Tlie evaporations from a manure 

 yard rob the farmerof a part of his substance, 

 starve his crops, and it is well if they do 

 not, moreover, poison him and his family by 

 there contaminating influence. Some flirmers' 

 barn-yards, hogpens, and other receptacles 

 of manure, are very offensive, and if they do 

 not generate typhus fever in its worst form, 

 which we fear is frequently the case, they at 

 last cause a degree of langor and debility, 

 which embitters existence, and in a great 

 measure disqualilies for any useful purposes 

 .of life. It is a fact that those exhalations so 



injurious to animal life are the essence of 

 vegetable life, and the volatile substances 

 which offend our senses and injure our 

 health, if arrested in their transit by the hand 

 of skilful industry, may be so modified in 

 the great laboratory of nature as to greet us 

 in the fragrance of a flower, regale us in the 

 plum or nectarine, or furnish the stamina 

 of life insubstantial viands from the field and 

 the stall of the cultivator. 



If we are correct in the foregoing, an im- 

 portant axiom may be adduced, viz. : JS'o 

 putrefacliov process ought to be svfferd topro- 

 ceed on a farmf:r\s ]ir(miies,uiUiout his adopt- 

 ing some mode to save, as fur as possible, the 

 gaseous products of such putrescence. These 

 gaseous products constitute important ele- 

 ments of vegetable food, and a farmer may 

 as well suffer his cattle to stray from his 

 stall, or his swine from his sty, without a 

 possibility of reclaiming them, as permit the 

 principles of fertility expelled by fermenta- 

 tion or putrefaction to escape into the atmos- 

 phere for the purpose of poisoning the air, 

 instead of feeding the plants. It is very easy 

 to arrest these particles. A quantity of earth 

 thrown over the matter in whicW the fer- 

 mentation is going on will check its violence 

 and arrest its gaseous products, which will 

 bei mbibed by the soil, and afterwards yielded 

 to plants in such proportion as the wants of 

 vegetation may require. 



' Fermentation, that destroyer of all organic 

 conformation, is not to be feared by the farm- 

 er, if it be conducted and carried on in the 

 presence of earth, which fixes and secures 

 the gases as fast as they are liberated. Even 

 the degree of the process is a matter of less 

 consequence; because if the elementary prin- 

 ciples are in keeping, and reserved for future 

 usefulness, it is immaterial whether this has 

 happened by a new al sorption, or by still 

 holding there orirrinal and unchanged form. 

 In his composite hill [compost heap] the 

 whole animal or vegetable structure may be 

 dissolved, and leave behind no trace of ex- 

 istence, without the last waste of the prin- 

 ciples of fertility; because the ingredients 

 superadded to the dung have become sur- 

 charged with them, or, to speak philosophi- 

 cally, fully saturated. We may go further 

 and state that complete decomposition is de- 

 sirable in this case, which is so much to be 

 avoided in the farm-yard ; because putrescent 

 matter can only become vegetable food by 

 its resolution into primary parts, and if this 

 be effected by any preparatory step, the young 

 crop receives the full and instantaneous bene- 

 fit. The compost manure is carried to the 

 field ready to give out its richness on the 

 very first call, and to supply the nascent 

 radicle [young root] with a copious share of 

 nourishment. 



