Eidogkim on William West. 153 



tliis great requisite; for in the one case it would be les- 

 sened in quantity, and diminished in quality by the 

 action of the elements upon it ; and in the other, it 

 would be totally lost. He therefore confined his cattle 

 to the barn yard, during the winter, and to increase the 

 quantity of manure, he, in the first instance plentifully 

 strewed the yard with leaves from his woods, while the 

 scanty crop of straw, corn blades and corn stalks, which 

 his first course yielded, assisted in supplying food. 



The sites of the old fences he had removed, the 

 earth under the wild hedge rows which he had previ- 

 ously grubbed, were ploughed up, and together with 

 that taken from the ditches he dug or cleaned out, were 

 formed into composts containing a large proportion of 

 lime ; while every species of offal and vegetable matter 

 about the dwelling house, and innumerable weeds while 

 yet unripe, were added to the contents of the barn yard. 

 He provided against drought by leading a spring from 

 a considerable distance along his high lands, so as to 

 irrigate at pleasure some of his largest fields. The 

 precious v/ater from the barn yard, which even to this 

 day, is either entirely lost, or permitted by most farm- 

 ers to run off in wasteful profusion over a particular 

 field, was confined by the construction of the yard, and 

 forced to increase the riches of the fresh materials v/hich 

 were continually in progress to the fertilizing heap. 

 To all his grass grounds, previously cleansed of peren- 

 nial weeds by fallow crops, he applied a compost ma- 

 nure early in the spring, always observing to accommo- 

 dating it to the nature of the soil. He had the satisfac- 

 tion to see the complete success of the practice. For 

 as the artificial grasses declined, the permanent native 



VOL. II. tJ 



