MANURES. 149 



makes all his manure under cover, and seems unreasonably 

 afraid of the influences of the sun and atmosphere on the com- 

 post heap. Excrementitious matter is manifestly impaired in 

 exposure to sun and air ; but in well-managed compost heaps 

 other materials are kept on the outside, and such as sun and 

 air constantly improve. We think a good farmer will every 

 year make more compost than even the largest cellar would 

 contain, and believe it practicable for him to compost in the 

 open air without much loss. Swamp mud, recently dug, needs 

 greater action of the atmosphere than it will have in the barn 

 cellar. 



Statement of Amasa Howard. 



As a competitor for the premium on manure, I will state how 

 mine was composted. From two pens, where I have kept on an 

 average eight swine, I have made seventy loads, one of the 

 pens being connected with the sink drain from the house. My 

 stable has been occupied by from two to four horses, and from 

 the cellar I obtained one hundred and twenty-two loads. I 

 have kept one yoke of oxen, four cows, two heifers, and one 

 horse, through the winter, in my barn, and the oxen are kept 

 there through the year. In that and in the yard adjoining 

 I have made three hundred and twenty-two loads ; and in my 

 compost heaps, composed of muck, loam, soil, ashes, lime, and 

 other materials, I have ninety-seven — making in all six hundred 

 and eleven loads of forty cubic feet each. 



Statement of Jonathan Copeland. 



I make the following statement of the manner in which my 

 manure was made : The most of it was made in the barn cel- 

 lar ; meadow muck and upland soil, mixed together, were the 

 principal. My stock last winter consisted of six oxen part of 

 the winter, four oxen all winter, four cows, one two-year old, 

 one horse, and five swine, kept in the barn cellar all winter on 

 the droppings of my cattle and horse. The remainder was 

 made in the hog yard near my house, where it had the wash of 



