APPENDIX. 



loss of weight, I think, would not be very great, nor the bulk lessened 

 over one-half. 



Many years ago an old and successful farmer said to me, " if you want 

 to get the full benefit of manure, spread it as a top-dressing on some 

 growing crop," and all my experience and observation since tend to con- 

 firm the correctness of his advice. 



While on this subject, allow me to protest against the practice of 

 naming the quantity of manure applied to a given space, as so many 

 l>ads, as altogether too indefinite. The bushel or cord is a definite quan- 

 tity, which all can understand. 



The average price of good livery stable horse-manure at this place has 

 been for several years four dollars a cord. 



With two and a half miles to haul, I am trying whether keeping a flock 

 of 50 breeding ewes, and feeding liberally with wheat bran, in addition 

 to hay and pasture, will not produce the needed manure more cheaply. 

 Respectfully yours, EDWARD JESSOP. 



P. & You ask for the average weight of a cord of manure, such as we 

 pay four dollars for. 



1 had a cord of horse-stable manure from a livery stable in York which 

 had been all the time under cover, with sevaral pigs running upon it, 

 and was moist, without any excess of wet, loaded into a wagon-box 

 holding an entire cord, or 123 cubic feet, tramped by the wagoner three 

 times while loading. 



The wagon was weighed at our hay-scales before loading, and then the 

 wagon and load together, with a net result for the manure of 4,400 Ibs. 

 I considered this manure rather better than the average. J had another 

 load, from a different place, which weighed over 5,000 Ibs., but on ex- 

 amination it was found to contain a good deal of coal ashes. We never 

 buy by the ton. Harrison Bros. & Co., Manufacturing Chemists, Phila- 

 delphia, rate barnyard-manure as worth $5.77 per ton, and say that would 

 be about $7.21 per cord, which would be less than 1* tons to the cord. 

 If thrown in loosely, and it happened to be very dry, that might be pos- 

 sible. 



Waring, in his " Handy Book of Husbandry," page 201, says, ha caused 

 a cord of well-trodden livery stable manure containing the usual pro- 

 portion of straw, to be carefully weighed, and that the cord weighed 

 7,080 Ibs. 



The load I had weighed, weighing 4,400 Ibs., was considered by the 

 wagoner and by myself as a fair sample of good manure. In view of 

 these wide differences, further trials would be desirable. Dana, in hia 

 " Muck Manual," says a cord of green cow-dung, pure, as dropped, 

 weighs 9,289 Ibs. 



Farmers here seldom draw manure with less than three, more generally 

 with four horses or mules ; loading is done by the purchaser. From the 

 barn-yard, put on loose boards, from 40 to 60 bushels are about an aver- 

 age load. 



In hauling from town to a distance of three to five miles, farmers ren- 

 erally make two loads of a coi-d each, a day's work. From the barn-yard, 



