620 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



duce almost any crop iii abundance. It will of course require 

 occasional additions of phosphates and other inorganic salts, 

 without which it would soon share the fate of the formerly rich 

 Western lands. 



Before proceeding to the consideration of the artificial manure 

 to be used during the time of storing these heaps, I will discuss 

 a few of what I think errors in the preparation of manure as 

 practised at present. The usual method is to throw every 

 vegetable refuse into the hog pen with a quantity of bog muck 

 to absorb the moisture and gases and to be thoroughly in- 

 corporated by the treading and rooting of the animals. Now 

 notwithstanding the addition of the muck, much of the very 

 valuable portion of the manure is evaporated in the atmos- 

 phere, during the time that this turning over and incorporation 

 by the animals is going on. The smell of such a hog pen is 

 just this rich portion evaporating, and, as hog manure is the 

 poorest of all animal manure, there is not much to spare. I 

 will say nothing of the health of the animals breathing this 

 atmosphere. All manure from animals, particularly the liquid 

 part, commences decomposition in ten or fifteen hours after it 

 has left them ; it then begins to form various gases which escape 

 into and mix with the surrounding air. These are the most 

 valuable parts of the manure, and although a portion of them 

 is absorbed by the carbonaceous muck thrown in, yet a large 

 portion escapes. When hot stable manure is taken out, much 

 of the vapor arising is a great loss to the quality of the manure. 

 As a general rule therefore all animal manures should be taken 

 to the heap as often as the quantity amounts to sufficient to 

 make it worth while to carry, and then put under protection as 

 before mentioned. If there be a deposit of peat muck on the 

 farm, it becomes an essential and important ingredient of the 

 heap, and requires some study in order to avoid error here also. 

 All peat muck is a carbonaceous matter arising from the de- 

 conipobitiou and concentration during ages of vegetable matter, 

 chiefly of such plants as thrive in wet and watery situations. 

 This muck is mixed with such acids as arise from the decom- 

 position of the juices of vegetables of this nature and from 

 stagnant water, and they are generally injurious to the growth 



