214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ially, if the wash from the house is conveyed hither, that the 

 best manure of the land — the true source of nitrogenous food 

 for his crops — is made. If the cesspool has to be frequently 

 cleaned out, its contents can be at once availed of, or can be 

 conveyed to the compost heap ; and when delivered load for 

 load with dung from the cellar or the pen, will form a mass to 

 please and convince the most skeptical. 



Should there be no such method of carrying off the wash, 

 cast muck, morning and evening, behind the cattle, and as often 

 throw that which has absorbed the urine upon the dung, of 

 course under cover. Thus not one drop is lost, and the satis- 

 faction of knowing it is great. 



It is argued by some, that it is better to cart the dung into 

 the field mixed with the urine, and. the muck, if used at all, by 

 itself, thereby saving double carting. In rare cases, where 

 sufficient care and judgment are used, this may be so ; but we 

 doubt it, and should always advise the other course. The solid 

 excrement contains the woody fibre and the insoluble animal 

 matter and salts, and the urine the more soluble salts and sub- 

 stances rich in nitrogen. Now, if the greatest care be not 

 taken of the urine, it soon putrifies, its nitrogen flies off in the 

 shape of ammonia, its soluble salts are carried away by every 

 shower of rain ; and although a portion of them may be saved 

 by their mixture with the dung, yet the greater part of its vol- 

 atile contents is evaporated by the action of the atmosphere. 

 If it be allowed to drain into a tank or cesspool, it there also 

 rapidly undergoes putrefaction ; and if this be not checked, a 

 considerable part of the ammonia produced will escape with the 

 sulphur and phosphorus resulting from the decomposition of 

 the salts composing those substances, occasioning the intolerable 

 stench observed in such cases. 



Now the ammonia and the alkalhie and earthy salts are far 

 the most valuable part of manure, and the former is more val- 

 uable when the cattle are fed with grains, oil-cake and other 

 rich food. Without ammonia, if there be any truth in chem- 

 istry, no seed could be produced ; and without alkaline and 

 earthy salts neither seed nor plants could exist. How needful 

 it is, then, that we should take good care of all the manure 

 which is made upon our own farms, which certainly contains all 

 elements of plants, and upon which we most safely may rely. 



