STALL-MANURE AND STRAW. 139 



recent experiments in France are affirmed to have 

 shown that stall-manure, when mixed with green 

 vitriol, has produced upon limy soils an increase of 

 one third in crops of grain, and upon grass-land even 

 five times more hay than common manure of equal 

 quality and age. 



6th. On the height to which manure may be 

 stacked upon the heap, it is somewhat dangerous to 

 lay down a precise rule ; inasmuch as it may vary 

 with the kind and management of the muck, the 

 season of the year, locality, etc. Practical men of 

 approved fidelity prescribe, in consonance with the 

 results of actual experience, that a height of from 

 four to five feet should not be exceeded. The larger 

 the masses of manure, and the higher they are piled, 

 the greater will be the difference, in respect of the 

 stage of their decomposition, between the upper and 

 the lower layers; below they are perhaps already 

 unctuous, in the centre merely mellow, and above 

 altogether strawy. As an intermixture is impracti- 

 cable upon the heap itself, the farmer must endeavor 

 to bring it about, so far as possible, upon the field, 

 whilst scattering it. Such as is least rotted will, 

 as a general rule, prove most serviceable for win- 

 ter grain and more binding kinds of soil ; that which 

 is more completely rotted, for summer grain, and also 

 for lighter lands. 



In general, the dung-heap is an evil, which in 

 most farms is deemed a "necessary" one. The 

 shorter the interval during which manure remains 



