NATURE AND CORRECT USE OP THE EXCREMENTS OP 

 ANIMALS CONSIDERED AS MANURE; THE MODE OP 

 ITS ACTION AND PRESERVATION. BONE DUST, AND 

 DEAD ANIMAL MATTER. 



One practical farmer applies, indiscriminately, any 

 fertilizing material to his land in any state ; another 

 allows violent fermentation to reduce his mixture of 

 Straw and manure to one-half its weight — during which 

 operation much gaseous ammonia is disengaged and 

 lost, which, if retained, or supplied to the soil, would 

 have proved extremely serviceable. Both methods can- 

 not be right in all cases. 



Besides the dissipation of gaseous matter, when fer- 

 mentation is pushed to the extreme, there is another 

 disadvantage in the loss of heat, which, if excited in 

 the soil instead of the dunghill, is useful in promoting 

 the springing of the seed, and in assisting the plant in 

 the first stage of its growth, when it is most feeble and 

 most liable to disease ; and the decomposition of manure 

 in the soil must be particulaily favorable to the wheat 

 crop, in preserving a genial temperature beneath the 

 surface late in autumn and during winter. These 

 views are in accordance with a well-known principle in 

 chemistry,— that in all cases of decomposition, substances 

 combine much more readily at the moment of their dis- 

 engagement than after they have been some time per- 

 fectly formed and set at liberty. And in fermentation 

 beneath the soil, the fluid matter produced is applied 

 instantly, even while it is warm, to the young organs of 

 the rising plant; and, consequently, is more likely to be 

 efficient, than in manure that has gone through the pro- 



