FALLOWING. 79 



As regards the depth at which manure ought to be 

 placed, extremes must be avoided. Barn dung should 

 be buried to a good depth ; and in this state should re- 

 main till it has sufficiently rotted ; for by lying too near 

 the surface much of its efficacy is lost. Other manures 

 which have a tendency to sink, must have a different 

 management. 



A sound discretion is essential, in determining how 

 much manure may be expended, to advantage, on lands ; 

 generally speaking, much is lost in falling short of that 

 point where, by the aid of plentiful manuring, the 

 greatest profits are to be expected. Enough should be 

 applied to fertilize the ground,, and render it capable 

 of producing good crops. Soils may, however, be over 

 charged with composts, or with raw barn-dung. But it 

 has been too much practised in this country, to apply 

 scanty portions of manure to lands in tillage, and hard- 

 ly sufficient to have a perceptible effect. Mr. Deane re- 

 commends a plentiful dunging, once in two years, or in 

 a course of crops ; and the year the manure is laid on, 

 take a crop that bears high manuring best, as Indian 

 corn : Afterwards crops that need less manure, till the 

 end of the course. 



There is a system of management (says the celebra- 

 ted Arthur Young'^ which has attracted a good deal of 

 attention, and that is, to use dung fresh as made ; thus 

 requiring no dunghills at all, or nearly none. He men- 

 tions the late Mr. Ducket, who conceived that the more 

 dunghills are stirred, and turned over, and rotted, the 

 more of their virtue was lost. Long dung he esteemed 

 much more than the same quantity of short dung. A 

 very accurate farmer, of Hertfordshire, says the fresher 

 dung is used, the better, even for grass. Near Meaux, 

 in France, the farmers carry out their dung quite in a 

 long strawy state, which they contend earnestly is much 

 better than to leave it to be more rotten. He quotes 

 many other authorities in f\ivour of this management, 

 which tends to reduce their labour and increase their 

 crops. Warmth and nutriment will in this way be more 

 gradually applied to the roots of plants. Vegetable and 

 animal matters cannot serve as manures, says Senebier^ 

 till they begin to ferment; nor are they of any utility 

 when the fermentation is finished. Fresh long dung; 



