ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MANURES. 69 



dung, by their urine, which may be conducted into the 

 yard by paved or other conduits, leading from the stables 

 to the yard. In these, too, litter may be as profitably 

 employed to increase the dung, and to promote the health 

 and comfort of the animal, as in the yard or open sheds. 

 The dung from the horse-stables, if suffered to lie in 

 mass, is apt to heat and become fire-fanged^ as it is term- 

 ed, which very much impairs its quality. Where there 

 are cellars under stables, the dung is thrown down into 

 them, and is there protected from the wasting influence 

 of the weather ; but even here it is liable to suffer injury 

 unless hogs are permitted to root among it, or unless the 

 cellar is frequently cleaned out. An approved practice 

 is, to scatter the dung from the stables over the cattle- 

 yard, which thus retards fermentation, prevents waste, 

 and produces a homogeneous mass of excellent manure. 



3d. The hog-pen. Hogs are excellent animals for man- 

 ufacturing manure, if they are furnished with the raw ma- 

 terial, as peat earth, straw, weeds, &c., and a suitable 

 place for conducting the process. The composts of their 

 formation are among the cheapest and the best that are 

 used upon the farm. The slops of the kitchen, the weeds 

 of the garden, the refuse fruits of the orchard, and the 

 offal of the farm, are readily converted, by these swinish 

 laborers, into meat or manure. Hogs are profitable la- 

 borers, and should be employed to as great an extent 

 upon the farm as the proprietor's circumstances will per- 

 mit. 



4th. The sheep-fold may be made an abundant source 

 of fertility to the farm. Economy in its management con- 

 sists in giving abundance of litter, repeated at short inter- 

 vals, sufficient to absorb the urine, prevent wasting exha- 

 lations, and secure health to the flock — and in applying 

 the dung in its recent or unfermented state. 



5th. Composts. These are an artificial mixture of 

 vegetable or animal matters, with earthy or mineral sub- 

 stances, and may be profitably resorted to in two contin- 

 gencies, viz., first, to arrest and detain, for useful purpos- 

 es, fertihzing matters which might otherwise be wasted and 

 lost — as the urine of animals, or the gaseous matters 



