34 MANURES. 



or autumn, immediately following the winter in which it has 

 been prepared. It should always be applied as soon after it 

 has been prepared as possible, their being a waste either in 

 retaining it too long, or in causing it to undergo a greater de- 

 gree of fermentation than is required. 



Certain kinds of plants require a greater action of manures at particular 

 stages of their growth than others. Thus the beet, turnip and carrot, require 

 that the manure applied shall be in such a state of decomposition as to act 

 upon and nourish them in the first stages of their growth otherwise the crop 

 is very liable to fail. In these and similar cases accordingly, the complete 

 preparation of the farm-yard dung is an essential point of practice. 



Other plants, again, do not require the same state of decomposition of the 

 dung. The potato requires less in the first stages of its growth than the tur- 

 nip, and hence it is unnecessary to subject the manure to be applied to the 

 same degree of fermentation. 



But while no necessity exists for fermenting the matter of 

 the barn-yard beyond the degree requisite for the special pur- 

 pose intended; yet, it is always a point of good practice to 

 ferment it to that degree. In order to know when it is suffi- 

 ciently fermented for the particular use required, a very little 

 practice and observation will suffice for the intelligent farmer. 



When fully fermented, the long stems of straws which for- 

 merly matted it together, are in such a state of decomposition, 

 that the parts can be readily separated by a fork. Whenever 

 farm-yard dung has been fermented to that extreme state of 

 decay in which we often see it used by gardeners, in which it 

 can be cut by a spade like soft earth, it has been kept beyond 

 the proper time, and the management has been bad. 



In some cases the manure is mixed with the soil some time 

 before the seeds of the plants to be cultivated are sown. In 

 this case the manure undergoes the necessary fermentation in 

 the soil itself, and does not require that previous preparation 

 which, in the case of the turnip and some other plants, is indis- 

 pensable. 



When the mass of vegetable and animal substances is thrown into a com- 

 mon yard, care should be taken to spread it evenly or equally, so that one part 

 may not be filled with rich and another with poor dung. The dung of horses 

 more quickly ferments than that of oxen; therefore horse-dung should not be 

 allowed to accumulate in a mass, but spread abroad upon the general heap. 



Farm-yard dung is generally applied to the soil when in a state of tillage, 

 by being spread upon the land and covered with the plough. Being thus co- 

 vered by the earth, it readily passes through its course of fermentation, becomes 

 decomposed, and is mixed with the matter of the soil. 



This valuable substance must be economized in the manner of applying it. 

 The soil must be kept as rich as the means at the farmer's command will jus- 

 tify; but it is a grand error in practice to saturate it at one time with manures, 

 and to withhold them at another. They ought to be applied in limited quantity 

 and frequently, so as to maintain a uniform or increasing fertility in the soil. 



The produce of the farm-yard, will necessarily afford the 

 chief part of the manure consumed upon farms which do not 

 possess extraneous sources of supply. But besides the imme- 



