ESSAY. 



IT 



the earth either before or after being used for feeding 

 purposes, our soil must necessarily increase in its 

 capacity to produce crops j but if, on the other hand, by 

 neglect, by wastefulness in any manner, or the indul- 

 gence of too great a greed for money to be obtained by 

 selling hay or other products without returning their 

 equivalent in manure by purchase or otherwise, we 

 deprive our soils of this humus producing matter, they 

 must necessarily run down and become less and less 

 productive and valuable. 



Let us look for a moment at the course pursued by 

 a great majority of our farmers. Their hay and other 

 forage is perhaps well fed, and produce an equivalent 

 in manure. The solid portion is thrown out of the barn 

 window to remain in a heap, exposed to the weather 

 until the annual or semi-annual clearing up. In the 

 mean time the pile heats, and ammonia is formed, which, 

 uniting with the humus of the manure renders it soluble, 

 and every rain that falls washes out a portion which 

 either runs away, or is carried into the soil underneath* 

 This action is repeated until a great portion of all that 

 is valuable is completely lost. In addition to this the 

 liquid manure is allowed to run entirely to waste. 

 That the action above mentioned does take place is 

 shown by the effect produced by a heap of manure 

 lying during one or two rains in a field which is to be 

 planted. The manure may afterwards be completely 

 removed from that spot, and two or three inches even 

 of the soil itself carried off, and yet it will give a better 

 crop than any other part of the field ; simply because 

 of the soluble humus which has leached out of the heap 

 into the underlying soil. The same action precisely 



