AND RURAL ECONOBIIST. 181 



considerable portion of it emplojred in giving out noxious 

 gases to the atmosphere. 



' By covering dead ".nimals with five or six times their 

 bulk of soil, mixed with .au part of lime, and suffering tlicm 

 to remain for a few months, their decomposition would im- 

 pregnate the soil with soluble matters, so as to render it an 

 excellent manure; and by mixing a little fresh quicklime 

 with it, at the time of its removal, the disagreeable eifluvia 

 will be in a great measure destroyed, and it might be em- 

 ployed in the same way as any other manure to crops. "^ 



If, however, quicklime cannot readily be obtained to ac- 

 celerate the conversion of dead animals into manure, it is 

 probable that covering the carcasses with a pretty thicic coat 

 of unleached ashes, and placing over all a quantity of earth 

 or earthy substance, would hasten decompositicyn, and secure 

 the gases resulting from putrescence. Earth alone will 

 answer a valuable purpose, and i.i time the largest animal 

 will l»e decomposed in nothing but common soil. 



Not only the carcasses of animals, but their excrements 

 and urine are rendered of little value by long exposure to 

 the air. Indeed, every moment of such exposure robs them 

 of a part of their fertility, as well as contaminates the at- 

 mosphere. ' He who is within the sphere of the scent of a 

 dunghill (says the celebrated Arthur Young) smells that 

 which his crop would have eaten, if he would have permitted 

 it. Instead of manuring the land he manures the atmo- 

 sphere; and before his dunghill is finished, he has manured 

 another parish, perhaps another county.' As few exhala- 

 tions as possible ought to be suffered to rise from the excre- 

 ments of animals. Fresh manure ought to be kept as care- 

 fully from the sun and rain as grass which has been cut for 

 hay. When cattle have been yarded over night, it would 

 be well to throw their droppings into small heaps or beds, 

 and cover them at least with a sufficient quantity of earth to 

 prevent fermentation, or absorb its products. This would 

 cost but little labor, and would much enhance the value of 

 the manure. 



It has been, and we believe in some instances stiil is in 

 vogue among farmers, to turn over and mix barn-yard ma- 

 nure several times before it is carried to the field. This 

 practice, however, is exploded among the best informed cul- 

 tivators. Mr. A. Young says ' no turning, but if circumstan- 



* Agricultural Chemistry. 

 16 



