ESSEX SOCIETY. 43 



Experiments on Manures. 



Great diversity of opinion has been entertained ." y farmers 

 respecting the best method of applying manure to the gro.ving 

 crops. While some have directed to spread on the surface, 

 and then turn under to the bottom of a deep furrow, that 

 evaporation may not readily carry off its more volatile particles, 

 others, on the contrary, insist that it should be spread on the 

 surface, and thoroughly incorporated with the soil, by repeated 

 harrowing. So far as our experience goes, the latter mode is 

 preferable. The salts of animal manures buried deep in the 

 soil, have a tendency to settle in the subsoil, below the reach 

 of the roots of plants, which, if admixed near the surface, give 

 immediate aid to vegetation. 



If evaporation of manure near the surface be more abun- 

 dant, do not the absorbent vessels of the leaf drink in the gas- 

 eous fluid with the greatest avidity ? Is not evaporation then, 

 one of the most efficacious means of rapidly advancing the 

 growing crop ? 



The custom has prevailed, and still prevails, to a considera- 

 ble extent, to haul on the top dressing for grass lands, in the 

 autumn, and leave it in heaps to be spread in the spring. We 

 think a better course is to spread the manure as it is hauled 

 upon the land. It thus protects the roots of the grass, and 

 being settled down by the dissolving snows of spring, has the 

 greatest eff"ect. 



Every resource within reach of the cultivator for the increase 

 of his manure, should carefully be made available. Leaves of 

 trees, turf from waste places, and the clearing of drains in low 

 lands, when spread over the barn, or hog yard, soon become 

 valuable. On many farms, an inexhaustible supply of material 

 for the manufacture of a valuable compost, may be found in the 

 peat meadows. It is, indeed, manure itself, for all dry, grav- 

 elly, or sandy soils. As a material for compost, peat has been 

 much neglected. 



Were the privies of farmers so constructed, as to have a cel- 

 lar under them, tightly planked, say eight feet long, six feet 



