FOUR LECTURES, &c. 



1. FAKMYAKD MANUKE. 



FARMYARD MANURE differs from all artificial manures in several 

 important particulars. I have purposely selected a general title 

 for the lecture inasmuch as the subject is a wide one, and pre- 

 sents to the chemist and the practical man so many points of in- 

 terest that it is a great difficulty to make a proper selection. I 

 do not propose to give a complete lecture on farmyard manure, 

 but to make some observations of interest, which are the result, 

 not of speculation, but of a number of experiments analytical 

 ones in the laboratory, and practical ones on the farm. I shall 

 first make some remarks on the composition of fresh farmyard 

 manure ; and need not tell any one practically acquainted with 

 the matter, that nothing can be more varying. Manure produced 

 from young growing stock is not so good as that from old or fat- 

 tening animals. Then again that which is produced from under- 

 fed animals is of a very inferior description ; and indeed it is 

 very bad policy to keep animals underfed, for it occasions a waste 

 of food and manure as well. Then the composition of the excre- 

 ments of the domestic animals is different. The excrements of 

 horses, which are fed with a more nitrogenised food, are of a very 

 fertilising character ; and perhaps the animal excrements may be 

 placed in the following order : horse- dung and sheep-dung are 

 about equal, then cow-dung, and last pig-dung. But not only 

 the different excrements influence the composition of farmyard 

 manure, but also the quantity of litter employed. Then the way 

 in which the manure is prepared whether made in boxes which 

 retain everything valuable, or in an open yard ; also in the manner 

 in which it is kept whether placed on a slope, allowing the best 

 part of the manure to trickle away to the nearest drain, or 

 whether it is kept on level ground, or covered up so as to keep 

 off the rain, must affect the quality of manure. I wish to impress 



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