MANURES. 25 



MANURES. 



Brother farmers, we shall have much to say to you 

 on manures. We shall often interrogate you as to the 

 best modes of making, preserving, and applying 

 manures. These are three important considerations in 

 our calling. It may be thought by some of you that 

 enough has already been said on the subject. Many, 

 truly, have written upon it, and some have written 

 truly. But let us have the sentiments and the experi- 

 ence of practical men. From our observation of the 

 practice of farmers in New England, we are satisfied 

 that, on an average, they lose one half the advantage 

 they might derive from their manures. We lose, in 

 the first place, by neglect of gathering it together ; 

 secondly, by suffering it to spoil in the heap, for Avant 

 of proper mixing ; and, thirdly, by a wrong application 

 of it to the soil. The liquid portion of it is allowed to 

 be as valuable as the solid ; and this, in many instances, 

 is wholly lost. We often suff"er a mass to dry up, or 

 evaporate, by lying thinly spread over a yard. We 

 often lose by heaping it together and suffering it to 

 burn. We lose much by spreading on the surface of 

 the field green manure that cannot be covered with the 

 harrow ; and we lose more by laying it out in small 

 heaps of one or two shovels full to a hill, and planting 

 our seeds in those heaps, We lose in winter by heav- 

 ing it out at the windows, and suffering it to freeze in 

 a scattered situation. 



We assert, with the utmost confidence, that we can, 

 by taking proper care of our means, make every part 

 and parcel of our farms rich ; that is, so rich that one 

 acre shall feed one cow through the summer, and 

 another acre shall give us sixty bushels of corn ; and 

 this without buying a single load of manure from the 

 stables. This matter must be better attended to by us 

 who occupy a soil that has been cropped, and mis- 

 3* 



