144 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



inches of seaweed or drift. To the accumulation of 

 the place during the winter, when little is to be lost, 

 in fermentative manures, by solar heat or evapora- 

 tion, I cart around the yard and spread on its upper 

 edges, some eight, ten, or more feet wide, the empty- 

 ings of my stables and yard-sheds, with the litter- 

 ed surface occasionally of my hogpens (which are 

 placed in the centre of my barnyard). The feeding- 

 racks and moveable pens are from time to time 

 shifted, that the turf and seaweed may, by the tread 

 and droppings of the cattle, and the occasional moist- 

 ure of the yard, be worked together, and the turf sat- 

 urated with them as much as practicable. The main 

 part of the manure, being placed on the upper sides 

 of the yard, in settling down to the centre and to- 

 wards the barnyard drain, passes necessarily among 

 the bottoms of the turf and seaweed, which thus be- 

 come imbued with the substances necessary ft> pre- 

 pare them for the fermentative decay, which the acid 

 of the one and the saline impregnation of the other 

 require for them. In the spring, as soon as solar 

 heat may induce a tendency to fermentation, and 

 consequent evaporation and loss, the yards are turn- 

 ed over with a plough or the shovel, that the whole 

 may be so commingled that the turf may attract and 

 absorb the waste which would otherwise ensue. At 

 the lowest part of the barnyard, and that to which 

 everything from the farmhouse, kitchens, farming- 

 yards, and stables tends, I have a cemented cistern 

 or tank capable of containing 250 hogsheads. The 

 windmill and horse power of the yard is connected 

 with this tank by pulleys, straps, and chain buckets, 

 so that if, during the winter, spring, or summer, ] 

 think best to wet my compost heaps, hogsties, or any 

 of the yards with those drainings, the power is con- 

 veniently applied, and by leaders the draining is 

 thrown back to settle again through the mass and 

 return to the tank. The compost-yard adjoins the 

 barnyard ; and is so graded, that if the drainings from 



