MANURES. 127 



taction will thus be retarded, and its fertilizing power 

 delayed, will yet ultimately afford nourishment. 



9. To form composts with dung, or other animal 

 and vegetable substances, and earth, for application 

 to light soils. 



10. To spread the manure, when carried to the 

 field, with the least possible delay ; and, if laid upon 

 arable land, to turn it immediately into the soil. 



11. To preserve the drainage from stables and 

 dunghills in every possible way ; and, if not applied 

 in a liquid state, to throw it again upon the mixen. 



12. To try experiments, during a series of years, 

 upon the same soils and crops, with equal quantities 

 of dung, laid on fresh and afterward rotted, in order 

 to ascertain the results of their application to the 

 land. The whole quantity to be first weighed or 

 measured, and then divided. 



" Tho fermentation of farmyard manure is, in fact, 

 a subject of far greater importance' than is generally 

 imagined ; for on a due estimation of its value mainly 

 depends the individual success, as well as the na- 

 tional prosperity of our agriculture. The experi- 

 ments to which we point cannot, therefore, fail to 

 come home to the interests of every man ; they may 

 be made without expense, and without any other 

 trouble than the mere exercise of common observa- 

 tion and intelligence. Leaving, however, aside the 

 discussion concerning the disputed worth of fresh or 

 fermented, of long or short dung, let the farmer 

 sedulously bend his attention to the accumulation of 

 the utmost quantity that it may be in his power to 

 procure The manner and the time of using it, in 

 either state, must, however, be governed by circum- 

 stances which may not always be within his control; 

 and every judicious husbandman will rather accom- 

 modate himself to the exigency of the case, than ad- 

 nere strictly to his own notions of what he conceives 

 to be the best practice. In fine, whether favouring 

 the one or the other side of the question, let him col- 



