MANURE. 



New-Lands, cleared of their trees, and the brufli 

 and rubbifli burnt on the ground, yield a number 

 of crops without other manure But in Efiex, there 

 is, I prefume, no land of this fort. All our farmers, 

 therefore, depend on common manure for crops that 

 will reimburfe the cxpenfe of their culture. But 

 the quantity of manure arifing within their farms, 

 is extremely limited, and wholly inadequate to their 

 wants. And as " dung Is all in all," * it is of the 

 higheft interell to every farmer, firft to hufband 

 what he has, and next to confider how he may in- 

 creafe the quantity. 



It is feventeen years fince, riding from Bofton into 

 the country with a friend, and palling a farm con- 

 liiling, on one hand, of gentle hills, and on the other 

 of a plain^ to which latter part great quantities of 

 manure had been applied, but which produced only 

 a very tranlient fertility ; — " Thai (he remarked) is 

 good land — ibis (the plain) is riddle land.'* After 

 we had parted, his expreflion, " riddle land," oc- 

 curred to me. " And what (putting the queftion to 

 myfelf) is riddle land f' That which is of fo open 

 and loofe a texture as to let the rain falUng on it 

 pafs through it, as water poured into a riddle or 

 iieve, and carrying down with it the cflence of the 

 manure below the roots of plants for whofe nourifli- 

 ment it is applied. But is it true, that on fuch land, 

 or on any land, the fertilizing parts of manure ef- 

 cape by fmking beyond the reach of plants ? If they 

 do, how happens it, that in lands which have been 

 cultivated and manured for ages^ every layer of earth 



* A remark long since made, I think by Arthur Young, a celebrated 

 English writtr ou husbandry ; comprehending litter and all other materials 

 Usj^sfuUy mi^ol^d with the dung and urine of animals. 



