MR. proctor's address. 25 



it is so. If they would talce pains to look into and un- 

 derstand these reasons, which can be done just as readi- 

 ly, as they understand it is better to plant their corn in 

 May, rather than in November, they might save much 

 labor. Without doubt, many a farmer loses more than 

 half his labor applied on manures for the want of this 

 know led o^e. 



Public attention has lately been much called to the 

 application of manures in a more condensed and con- 

 centi'ated form, such as poudrette, guano, bone dust, §"c., 

 divested of the coarser and unproductive ingredients. 

 For gardening and city culture such manures may be 

 highly valuable. But whether it will be in the power 

 of our farmers generally, who rarely have spare funds 

 for the purchase, to dress their lands in this way, has 

 seemed to me questionable. The fai'raer should endeav- 

 or to find within his own precinct the means of replen- 

 ishing his soil. His main relian^^.e, after having taken 

 proper care of his barn-cellar, his barn-yard, and his 

 pig-pen, should be on his collection of compost. It is 

 believed that almost every farmer will find within his 

 own limits, or in his immediate vicinity, abundant mate- 

 rials for this purpose. When not necessarily employed 

 in other things, his attention should always be given to 

 the collecting or saving something that will increase his 

 supply of manure. The careful cultivator will find many 

 opportunities in the course of the year to add to this 

 main-spring of good husbandry. " Let no man," says 

 Mr. Quincy, who is equally at home on the fai'm, as in 

 the College, " consider his barn-yard properly arrang- 

 " ed, until he has a receptacle for his manure, water 

 " tight at the bottom, and covered at the top ; — so that 

 " below nothing shall be lost by drainage, and above 

 " nothing shall be carried away by evaporation." 



What would be said of that fai-mer who when he 

 had raised his field of grain should suffer it to remain 

 exposed until one half of it was scattered by the winds, 

 or otherwise lost ? Do W3 not often see a destruction 

 equal to this, in their collections of manure ? Is it ex- 

 travagant to say that one half of the manure ordinarily 

 4 



