ADDRESS. 276 



which we have to bestow upon them. In other words, 

 an acre well manured and well worked, will be found to 

 be more profitable, than four poor acres badly worked. 



I may be here asked, whence are to be obtained 

 the vast supplies of manure requisite to manure our old 

 lands ? I answer, from a multiplicity of sources around 

 us, from every animal and vegetable substance within our 

 reach. Nothing that has once been part of an animal or 

 a vegetable, but can be converted into corn, grass, and 

 roots. I think I may assume as facts, that upon an aver- 

 age, not half the manure is saved upon our farms that 

 might be, and that this moiety is half lost before it is ap- 

 plied to the soil. Every horse, ox, or cow, wintered upon 

 the farm, if well fed, and littered with the straw, stalks, 

 &c., of the crop, should make from six to ten cords of 

 good manure. Dr. Coventry, late Professor of Agricul- 

 ture at Edinburgh, estimated that the straw of an ordinary 

 acre of grain, computed at 21 cwt., may be converted 

 by the urine and liquids of the stables and cattle-yards, 

 into three and a half tons of manure ; that meadows which* 

 cut one and a half tons of hay will give four tons of ma- 

 nure ; clover, the first year, six tons, and the second year, 

 five and a half tons per acre ; and that with the extraneous 

 substances which may, with due care, be collected with- 

 out expense from the roads, the ditches, the ponds, and 

 from refuse of every kind about the house and premises, 

 the acreable amount should be amply sufficient for a full 

 supply of manure once during every course of the four- 

 year system of husbandry. Arthur Young, with 6 horses, 

 4 cows, and 9 hogs, which consumed 16 loads of hay and 

 29 loads of straw, obtained 118 loads of manure, 36 

 bushels to each ; and from 45 fatting oxen, well fed and 

 littered, 600 tons of rotten manure. But an American 

 lawyer,* and an excellent practical farmer withal, has 

 gone beyond these estimates. I visited, a few weeks ago, 

 his farm, which lies upon the sea-shore. It consists of 

 about 200 acres, most of which was in a course of crops. 

 The crops of the season had all received an ample supply 



* W. A. Seeley, Esq., of Staten Island. 



