176 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



gaseous matter, is lost ; so much so that the dung is reduced 

 one-half or two-thirds in weight ; and the principal elastic 

 matter disengaged, in carbonic acid, and some ammonia; 

 and both of these, if retained by the moisture of the soil, are 

 capable of becoming useful nourishment of plants. 



' It is usual to carry straw that can be employed for no 

 other purpose to the dunghill to ferment and decompose ; 

 but it is worth an experiment, whether it may not be more 

 economically applied when chopped small by a proper ma- 

 chine, and kept dry till it is ploughed in for the use of the 

 crop. In this case, though it would decompose much more 

 slowly and produce less effect at first, yet its influence would 

 be more lasting.' 



Eobert Smith, Esq., president of the Maryland Agricul- 

 tural society, in an address to that society, observed, ' With 

 respect to stable dung, I shall for the present content my- 

 self by barely suggesting, that my experience strongly in- 

 clines me to the opinion that, however long, it ought to be 

 ploughed into the ground without any previous stirring, and 

 as soon as practicable after it has been taken from the farm- 

 yard.' 



We believe that the question relative to long and to short 

 manure must depend on circumstances. In certain soils, and 

 for certain crops, long manure which has undergone but a 

 slight fermentation is to be preferred. But if used for wheat, 

 and other kinds of grain, and in all crops which cannot con- 

 veniently be hoed or weeded, or, probably, when applied to 

 soils containing acids or some substances which may prevent 

 fermentation and retard the progress of putrescence and dis- 

 solution, it must be well rotted. 



Rotting manure, however, in a barn-yard, or in any situa- 

 tion in which its volatile and liquid products escape into the 

 atmosphere, or soak into soil not designed to support vege- 

 tation, is very slovenly and wasteful, and always to be a\oid- 

 ed if possible. The effluvia or gas which is suffered to es- 

 cape from fermenting manure is not only almost altogether 

 lost to useful vegetation, but, what is still worse, fills the at- 

 mosphere with particles injurious to health, and often de- 

 structive to life. The evaporations from a manure yard 

 rob the farmer of a part of his substance, starve his crops, 

 and it is well if they do not, moreover, poison him and his 

 family by their contaminating influence. Some farmers' 

 barn-yards, hogpens, and other receptacles of manure, are 

 very offensive, and if they do not generate typhus fever in 



