MR. COLMAn's ADDKESS. 11 



upon our farms is little attended to. Universally in Flanders, 

 one of the best agricultural countries in Europe, water-tight 

 vaults are constructed under all their stables, and their liquid 

 manure is considered of as much or greater value than their 

 sohd manure. Such a practice among us would be of great 

 utility ; and by constructing cisterns under our stables to be filled 

 with mud or loam, and by Uttering our cattle abundantly, this 

 valuable manure which is now lost, might be turned to the best 

 account. But the great means of obtaining manure is from con- 

 suming our produce upon the place in the form of hay or vege- 

 tables. Where this can be done, and to the extent to which it 

 can be done, we may be sure of the means of increasing the 

 fertility of our farms. Here we come back again to the great 

 circle of reciprocity and mutual connexion and benefit. Increas- 

 ing your products will enable you to increase your stock ; — 

 increasing your stock will increase your manure ; increasing your 

 manure will help you to increase your cultivation ; increasing 

 your cultivation will increase your products. This is the golden 

 chain of comfort and wealth, which Divine Providence has 

 formed, every link of which is essential to the perfection of the 

 whole. I will remark in passing upon the application of ma- 

 nure. It is the opinion of many farmers that it is better to keep 

 their stable dung until it is a year old and becomes thoroughly 

 rotted. But this practice is condemned by the fullest experi- 

 ments. Animal manure cannot be applied to the land in too 

 fi-esh a state, though it would often be beneficial to mix it with 

 other substances. " By fermentation," says Curwen, a prac- 

 tical farmer already quoted, " dung is reduced to one half its 

 bulk and its quality is reduced in greater proportion. The 

 evaporation from dung is five times as much as from earth and 

 is equal on the surface of an acre to 5000 pounds per hour, and 

 this is losmg its most valuable gases. By making use of dung 

 in its freshest state, the farmer may extend his cropping to one 

 third more land with the same quantity of manure." " The 

 experiments of Arthur Young and other practical and scientific 

 farmers have demonstrated," says Judge Buel, as competent an 

 authority as 1 can quote, " that animal and vegetable manures, 



