174 APPENDIX. 



on fodder and turnips. The contents of the pit produced 288 loads, 

 allowing 2 cubic yards to be taken out in 3 carts ; and he spread 40 of 

 these on each acre, so that this urine in five months, and from fourteen 

 cattle, produced a compost sufficient for the fertilization of seven acres 

 of land. He states further, that he had tried this experiment for ten 

 years, and had indiscriminately used in the same field either the rotted 

 cow-dung, or the saturated earth ; and in all the stages of the crop, he 

 had never been able to discover any perceptible difference. But what 

 is still more wonderful, he found that his compost lasted in its effects 

 as many years as his best putrescent manure ; and he therefore boldly 

 avers, that a load of each is of equivalent value." 



" Conclusions of vast importance are deducible from this statement : 

 and I cannot resist the feeling, of placing them in a strong and advan- 

 tageous light. They speak a volume of instruction ; and if we are 

 willing to learn, they must lead to a very material alteration in the 

 construction of our barns. It appears, then, that in five months, each 

 cow discharges urine which, when absorbed by loam, furnishes manure 

 of the richest quality, and most durable effects, for half an acre of 

 ground. The dung-pit, which contained all the excrementitious mat- 

 ter of the 14 cattle, as well as the litter employed in bedding them, 

 and which was kept separate for the purpose of the experiment, only 

 furnished during the same period 240 loads, and these, at the same 

 rate, could only manure 6 acres. The aggregate value of the urine 

 therefore, when compared with that of the dung, was in the ratio of 7 

 to 6 : so that we are borne out by these premises in this extraordinary 

 inference, that the putrescible liquor which in this province, and under 

 the management of our farmers, is wasted and annihilated as far as re- 

 gards any useful purpose, is intrinsically worth more than the dung, as 

 an efficacious and permanent dressing : and if we take into considera- 

 tion, that this latter manure is not treated with any skill and judg- 

 ment, it will not seem surprising, that the culture of white crops has 

 never been carried here to any extent, since we have despised and 

 neglected the only means of creating them." 



