30 A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



the process is carried too far, and the manure has been fre- 

 quently turned, — until, as said by some farmers, ^ black butter 

 becomes black snuff :^ it has then, indeed, been found so com- 

 pletely deprived of its nutritive sap as to produce no ettect 

 whatever upon the land. On the whole, there is reason to 

 believe, * that there is, in the management of dung, as in all 

 things else, a certain point which constitutes the maximum of 

 profit, beyond which there is nothing but loss. 



The management of farm-yard manure, upon light and 

 heavy soils, should diifer according to the use intended to be 

 made of it ; for it is generally employed in different seasons 

 and applied to different crops. For light land, on which the 

 most common crop in the commencement of a rotation is 

 usually turnips, it requires to be highly fermented ; because, 

 if not incorporated with the ground in that soft and sappy 

 state in which good spit dung ought to be, the plants will not 

 receive such immediate nourishment as will serve to push 

 them into rough leaf before the attacks of the fly. But for 

 clays and other strong soils generally, whether the manure be 

 applied to a fallow under preparation for an autumn sowing of 

 wheat, or in the early part of the spring for beans, as it has a 

 longer time to decompose in the soil, a less degree of putre- 

 faction is necessary than for turnips. Potatoes, also, though 

 grown on light land, may be raised by the use of fresh unfer- 

 mented manure, because they do not require the same nutri- 

 ment as turnips during their early growth, and because they 

 are also supposed to be assisted by the action of long dung in 

 opening the soil. 



When, therefore, a farmer looks chiefly to a prompt return 

 through immediate benefit to the next crop, the manure should 

 he thoroughly rotted to the condition of spit dung ; ' but if his 

 views extend to subsequent crops, or if the soil be of a nature 

 to receive benefit by the fermentation and heat produced by 

 the application of long dung,' then it has been affirmed ' that 

 preference should be given to that in a fresh state, provided 

 it be immediately ploughed in and totally covered.' This, 

 however, although the opinion of the author whom we have 

 just quoted, as well as that of several practical men, should 

 yet be received with a certain degree of caution ; for, besides 

 the objections already stated to manure of this description, 

 there is such difficulty in ploughing in the straw, that much 

 of it is necessarily left upon the surface of the soil, where its 

 virtues are in a great measure lost; or, if buried deep in cold 



