ON MANURES. 23 



and seasons in which they can be most advantageously applied. 

 A heap, for instance, composed entirely of dung from stables 

 where horses have been plentifully fed with corn, must be far 

 superior to one produced by cattle in the straw-yard ; yet so 

 little is this very material point adverted to, that nothing- is 

 more common than to hear of ' so many loads per acre' being- 

 laid upon the land, without regard to the ingredients which it 

 contains, though nothing is more certain than that its power 

 over the crops will be in exact proportion to the qualities of 

 the materials of which it is composed. 



This writer advocates the separation of the various species 

 of manure, in order that the properties of each may be dis- 

 tinctly ascertained ; yet another author, of equal experience, 

 says, in treating of Norfolk, ' that the principal error in the 

 common method of manufacturing farm-yard dung, originates 

 in the prevailing custom of keeping the dung arising from dif- 

 ferent descriptions of animals in separate heaps or departments, 

 and applying the same to the land without intermixture, and 

 consequently in an improper state.' He then alludes to the 

 difference arising in the manure from the modes of keeping 

 fatting and store cattle in yards by themselves, ' while horse- 

 dung is also usually thrown out at the stable-doors, and there 

 accumulates in large heaps, which very soon ferment and heat 

 to excess ;' he therefore recommends that litter to be spread 

 over the straw-yard, and the whole of the dung from the dif- 

 ferent yards and the hog-styes to be mixed together.* 



On these opposite opinions we have to remark, that, when 

 either the soil or the intended crop is essentially different, it 

 may be very desirable that the manure to be employed should 

 possess distinct properties, and therefore, in such cases, a por- 

 tion of it should be separately kept, as well as difrerently pre- 

 pared. Thus vv^arm and cold soils require manures of a con- 

 trary nature ; an advanced stage of their fermentation is in 

 some cases less favourable to vegetation than in others ; and, 

 in the instance of potatoes, it is well known that stable-dung 

 is employed with more eiTect alone than when mixed. It 

 may, therefore, be advisable that horse-litter in particular 

 should be separately kept in the yards, not merely for the pur- 

 pose just mentioned, but that, as being of a hotter nature than 

 any convnon dung, it may be mixed with that of other cattle 



* Blaikie on Farm-yard Dung, edit. 1828, pp. 3, 5, 6. See also the Not- 

 tinghamshire Report, p. 168. 



c2 



