WASTES OF AGRICULTURE 491 



mancnt improvement. It. may l>c better to import manures 

 than to be without them ; but of all importations it is the least 



creditable to the country while the present customs remain. 



By the census of 1850 it appeared that there were seventy- 

 five thousand barns in the State; and the Secretary of the 

 Board of Agriculture estimates the quantity of manure at five 

 cords each, worth three dollars per cord — making a total of 

 one million one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. If 

 we assume, what appears liberal, that one-fourth of the barns 

 have cellars, it follows that three-fourths of this manure arc ex- 

 posed to atmospheric and other deteriorating influences. Many 

 competent persons estimate the loss from this cause at one- 

 half; but if it is only one-third, we show a waste from the ex- 

 posure of manure of 'two hundred and eighty-one thousand two 

 hundred and fifty dollars per annum. 



Nor is this all. Without a barn cellar it is impossible to 

 secure the stale, which is nearly equal in value to the solid, 

 manure. Stockhardt estimates that, of the manure of neat cat- 

 tle, fifty-three per cent, is solid, and forty-seven per cent, i 

 stale. Farmers who neglect the latter ought not to be pur- 

 chasers of foreign manures. If the calculation of the Secre- 

 tary is accurate, this waste is three-fourths of forty-seven per 

 cent, of one million one hundred and twenty-five thousand 

 dollars — which is seven hundred and forty-eight thousand two 

 hundred and thirty dollars. There is, then, an aggregate waste 

 in the State, in the matter of manures, of one million twenty- 

 nine thousand four hundred and eighty dollars, which might and 

 ought to be saved. It may be mentioned incidentally as the 

 observation of a practical farmer, and its truth has been estab- 

 lished by experiments, that gravel or subsoil is a much better 

 absorbent than soil which has been cultivated. 



There are other losses of manures which amount to as much 

 as that which has been mentioned. 



A hv^ farmers have built reservoirs for the waste water of 

 their houses; yet much the larger number neglect this means 

 of wealth altogether. 



I think it safe to say that the farmers of Massachusetts neg- 

 lect and waste more manure than they use ; and the loss of a 



