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best manner it is desirable to form them in compost heaps, with 

 ctJier substances ; mud, scrapings of yards, scrapings of roads, sods 

 or decayed vegetable matters of every description ; and even simple 

 loam or mould, or any substance which will act as a retentive ab- 

 sorbent. Thus compounded the liquids of the manure will be re- 

 tained and the escape of the valuable gaseous effluvia prevented ; and 

 by being thoroughly and equally intermixed and diffused, the whole 

 mass becomes a valuable and efficacious manure. The amount of 

 manure in this way is greatly increased ; and it is believed, that one 

 part of green animal manure combined in this way with two parts of 

 mould, swamp-mud, decomposed peat, and even some portion of 

 clay, will prove quite as serviceable as if the whole mass were animal 

 manure applied in a raw and unmixed state. Some intelligent farm- 

 ers maintain that the proportion of animal manure or dung requisite to 

 impregnate a large mass in compost is much less than I have allowed. 

 This can be always favorably done in a well constructed barn-yard. 

 The bottom of a barn-yard ought always to be kept well covered 

 with loam or mud, or other matters to absorb the liquids of the yard. 

 But it may often be done to advantage, where the manure on a field 

 designed to be cultivated is seasonably carried out and mixed with 

 mould obtained from the headlands to form the heap, which being 

 turned over and worked up once or twice, will then be fit for use. 



There is another matter, to which I invite the attention of the 

 Berkshire farmers ; that is, the saving of liquid manures. In the best 

 districts on the continent of Europe, the liquid parts of manure are 

 considered in every respect equal to the solid. There provision is 

 made for saving and compounding ihem with the greatest care ; in 

 stone and water-proof vaults formed under their cow-houses. In our 

 dairy districts especially, where large herds of cows are kept, a great 

 amount of this manure might be secured by vaults, formed undei- the 

 stalls with spouts leading into them. With a view to the same object 

 likewise, the cattle instead of lying in the yards at ni2;ht, should be 

 always tied in the stalls. If the barn is properly ventilated, and the stalls 

 littered, they will lay as comfortably and securely as in the yards ; 

 and the saving of manure would much more than pay for any extra 

 trouble, which it might be supposed to involve. These are homely 

 subjects but as important as they are homely. Doubling our ma- 

 nures is quadrupling our crops ; and whoever will look with disdain 



