EXPERIMENTS ON MANURES. 137 



The custom lias prevailed, and still does, to a considerable 

 extent, to haul on the top dressing for grass lands, in the au- 

 tumn, and leave it in heaps to be spread in the spring. We think 

 a better course is to spread the manure as it is hauled upon the 

 land. It thus protects the roots of the grass, and being set- 

 tled down by the dissolving snows of spring, has the greatest 

 etlect. 



Every resource within reach of the cultivator for the increase 

 of his manure, should carefully be made available. Leaves of 

 trees, turf from waste places, and the clearing of drains in low 

 lands, when spread over the barn, or hog yard, soon become 

 valuable. 



On many farms, an inexhaustible supply of material for the 

 manufacture of a valuable compost, may be found in the peat 

 meadows. It is, indeed, manure itself, for all dry, gravelly, 

 or sandy soils. As a material for compost, peat has been much 

 neglected. 



Were the privies of farmers so constructed, as to have a 

 cellar under them, tightly planked, say eight feet long, six 

 feet wide, and four feet deep, with a door on the back side, the 

 length of the cellar, swinging outward, and upward from the 

 floor, (the building might be placed three feet from the ground 

 with an excavation of one or two feet on the back side, to fa- 

 cilitate the removal of the contents,) the cellar supplied with 

 a cord of peat mud, once a month, and as often removed ; the 

 farmer, having a family of six or eight persons, might in this 

 way obtain a dozen cords of the most fertilizing manure, worth 

 on the farm, as manure usually sells in the larger towns, at 

 least sixty dollars. A great annual loss is sustained by the 

 fatmers of the county, through want of economy, in this res- 

 pect. We trust that the liberal premiums offerad, will induce 

 farmers in future, to make careful and exact experiments in 

 the composition and use of manure, thereby not only benefitting 

 themselves, but also promoting the great cause of agriculture. 



Subjoined is a letter from Richard P. Waters, Esq., one of the 

 Committee, giving his practice of increasing the manure heap. 

 For the Committee, JOSIAH NEWHALL. 



Lynnfield, Dec. 10, 1851. 

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