ON MANURES. 51 



extent of perhaps 6 or 7 feet, which is left as a path. It is 

 then laid over with straw, to which the litter from the stables 

 is also added, and upon this bed the feeding-cribs of the store 

 cattle are placed. In this manner the dung is often allowetl 

 to accumulate durmg the entire winter, or until it rises to 

 such an inconvenient height as to compel its removal ; it is 

 then either piled in the yard, after being mixed and covered 

 over witli earth, and left there until it may be wanted in the 

 autumn, or else carted out to the mixen, and there treated 

 as already stated. 



In using turf, or any kind of grass, in the mixture of a com- 

 post, it will be proper to recollect that, if taken up during most 

 parts of the summer and autumn, it will not only be found 

 generally impregnated with the seeds of weeds, but that grub- 

 worms, wire-worms, and various other insects, usually select 

 dry banks by the road-side, hedge-rows, or dry pasture, in 

 which to deposit their eggs. When turf or earth is carried 

 from such places, and added to the compost without having 

 been previously subjected to the processes of tillage, the 

 greatest care should be taken, either that it be turned up a 

 full twelvemonth before it is applied to the land ; or, as we 

 have already observed, that quicklime be strewed between 

 the sods, in order to guard against every chance of their pro- 

 pagation. 



The Application of Dung to different soils and crops, 

 though matter of wide discretion to the farmer, is yet a subject 

 which admits of a few general directions. Notwithstanding 

 what has been already said respecting the practice of those 

 farmers who allow this manure to lie for a long time upon the 

 surface of the land, we however agree with the opposite 

 opinion — that it should be spread the moment it is taken from 

 the cart, and completely incorporated with the soil; for by 

 tillage it becomes amalgamated with the inert particles of the 

 earth, through which means both that and the dung form one 

 substance in the fittest state of nourishment to promote vege- 

 tation.* It should not, however, be deep buried in the soil at 

 first ; for, though it is the prevailing opinion of many persons, 



* This has been exemplified by the observations of Marshall upon a crop 

 of wheat of 4 quarters the acre obtained from his own farm, after peas, 

 which had been dunped and thoroughly incorporated with the soil ; w hile 

 another field of wheat, sown at the same time, and fresh dun^'ed with fine 

 spit-dung, superior both in quality and quantity, but which had been 

 ploughed in large lumps along with the seed, only produced 2 quarters.— 

 Min. of Agric. 



