PREPARATION OF BARN-YARD MANURE. 137 



increased by decomposition ; that barn-yard manures that 

 had been carried through the fermenting and heating pro- 

 cesses, although they had lost in weight, were largely in- 

 creased in their fertilizing power, not only in the soluble 

 salts, but in the nitrogenous compounds which, as Prof. 

 Goessmanu has told you, are so valuable for the encourage- 

 ment, at least, of the growth of plants in the soil. So I say, 

 that the decomposition of manure when properly composted, 

 is a very important and valuable consideration for the farmer, 

 and should be carried on in the way most economical and 

 most effective, using muck to extend your barn-yard manure 

 for sandy lands, because sandy lands will not heat it suffi- 

 ciently, by the use of sand for clay lands, by the use of 

 straw for making grain-crops, and by the use of any nitro- 

 genous compound that will increase the nitrogenous power of 

 barn-yard manure, when you propose to raise cabbages, 

 mangold-wurzels or any other heavy-feeding plants. 



These are my views in regard to the preparation of what 

 we usually call barn-yard manure. I believe in supplying it 

 as far as possible. I shall set forth Lo-morrow, I suppose, 

 what kind of animals we should have, and how they should 

 be fed in order best to produce it ; but I would urge upon 

 every farmer the economical preparation of it in the way to 

 which IJiave alluded. 



Now, in regard to commercial fertilizers. The law which is 

 on the statute l)ook you have had expounded to you as well 

 as any lawyer could have expounded it in the State of Mas- 

 sachusetts. Prof. Goessmanu has told you all about it. But, 

 gentlemen, I believe that the best way to get rid of many an 

 evil is to keep out of its way. The farmers of Massachusetts 

 can better afford to stop buying commercial fertilizers one 

 year, — stop systematically and deliberately, — than they can 

 afford to spend their money, as they have been spending it 

 for years, in purchasing what is not worth a quarter part of 

 the money they pay. Stop one year, and you have applied a 

 law that every manufticturer will feel in a moment. He will 

 say to himself, " Something has got to be done here. These 

 men have found out that they want their money's Avorth " ; 

 and, as Prof. Goessmanu says, they will find it is more 

 profitable to them to manufacture a reliable article than it is 

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