84 TALKS ON MANURES. 



of bran, shorts, fine-middlings, malt-combs, corn-meal, and a little 

 oil-cake. I sell wheat, rye, barley, and clover-seed, apples, and 

 potatoes, and sometimes cabbages and turnips. Probably, on the 

 average, for each $100 I receive from the sale of these crops, I 

 purchase $25 worth of bran, malt-combs, corn-meal, and other 

 feed for animals. My farm is now rapidty increasing in fertility 

 and productiveness. The crops, on the average, are certainly at 

 least double what they were when I bought the farm thirteen 

 years ago ; and much of this increase has taken place during the 

 last five or six years, and I expect to see still greater improvement 

 year by year. 



" Never mind all that," sail the Deacon ; u we all know that 

 manure will enrich land, and I will concede that your farm his 

 greatly improved, and can not help but improve if you continue 

 to make and use as much manure." 



" I expect to make more and more manure every year," said I. 

 " The larger the crops, the more manure we can make ; and the 

 more manure we make, the larger the crops." 



The real point of difference between my plan of managing ma- 

 nure, and the plan adopted by the Deacon, is essantially this : I 

 aim to keep all my manure in a compact pile, where it will slowly 

 ferment all winter. The Deacon throws his horse-manure into a 

 heap, just outside the stable door, and the cow-manure into an- 

 other heap, and the pig-manure into another heap. These heaps 

 are more or less scattered, and are exposocl to the rain, and snow, 

 and frost. The horse-manure is quite likely to ferment too rap- 

 idly, and if hi a largo heap, and the weather is warm, it not 

 unlikely " fire-fangs " in the center of the heap. On the other 

 hand, the cow-manura lies cold and dead, and during the winter 

 freezes into soli! lumps. 



I wheel or cart all my manure into one central heap. The main 

 object is to keep it as compact as possible. There are two advan- 

 tages in this: 1st, the manure is less exposed to the ram, an.i 

 (3d), when freezing weather sets in, only a few inches of the ex- 

 ternal portion of the heap is frozen. I have practised this plan 

 for several years, and can keep my heap of manure slowly fer- 

 menting during the whole winter. 



But in order to ensure this result, it is necessary to begin mak' 

 ing the heap before winter sets in. The plan is this : 



Having selected the spot in the yard most convenient for mak- 

 ing the heap, collect all the manure that can be found in the sheep- 



