188 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



mixed with earth or any substance which will attract and 

 imbibe its gas, effluvia, volatile products, or (to be more plain) 

 that which causes it to smell unpleasantly, be applied to 

 a field of plough land, it ought to be spread evenly and 

 ploughed, or at least harrowed in immediately. If a farmer's 

 chief dependence is in grazing land, and he has dung, or pu- 

 trescent manure not made into compost, to apply, we would 

 suggest it for his consideration whether it might not be well, 

 first to spread his dung as evenly as possible over his field, 

 and then spread over the whole at least an equal quantity of 

 good eprth or loam. By such means a compost is made in 

 the field after the putrescent manure is applied, and the earth 

 or loam spread over the dung will not only absorb its gase- 

 ous products, but in a great measure protect it from being 

 dried by the air or scorched by the sun, till its fertilizing 

 qualities are dissipated. This metnod of managing with top- 

 dressing for grass land, however, we should suggest merely 

 as an expedient for the saving of labor in cases where far- 

 mers have much dung, but little plough land in proportion, 

 and with whom the saving of labor is a very great object. 

 As a general rule, the following maxim of Sir John Sinclair 

 will apply as well in this country as in Great Britain. 

 ' There are strong objections to the application of dung to 

 grass lands ; (much of its strength being evaporated, from its 

 being exposed to atmospheric influence ;) composts are greatly 

 to be preferred. They may be applied at the rate of from 

 thirty to forty cubic yards per acre. To keep grass land in 

 good condition, a dressing to this amount is required every 

 four years. The application of unmixed putrescent manure 

 will thus be rendered unnecessary.' 



The mode in which some farmers manage with regard to 

 manuring their grass lands is not only absurd, but ruinous. 

 Early in the fall they cart their dung from their barn-yards 

 and sties, which perhaps had been a year or more accumulat- 

 ing, and of course is finely pulverized and ready to take 

 the wings of every breeze. They place it on a tough SAvard 

 in little heaps about the size of a two bushel basket. The 

 sun, high winds, rain, and drying atmosphere, all conspire to 

 rob these little heaps of nearly all their fertilizing qualities, 

 and leave little but a dead mass of matter as 'dry as a husk.' 

 Late in the spring, and generally during or just before a dry 

 time, Mr. Cultivator spreads these little heaps (reduced by 

 exposure to wind and weather to about the size of a half 

 bushel measure) over the sward. If the season proves dry, 



