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farm. Confino your cattle as much as possible when at home to 

 your l)arn yard ; and never suffer them to be in the roads ; or to 

 waste their manure at their watering places. In the morning throw 

 tlie droppings of every night into a heap and cover it with a light 

 coat of soil. It is a better plan to house your cattle every night as 

 much in summer as in winter, unless the weather is extremely hot. 

 In general, if tlie barn is well ventilated they will be as comfortable 

 in doors as out, and in this way your manure heap will be greatly 

 increased. Take care of the contents of your privy, and save the 

 refuse of your sink by throwing it upon a compost heap, or making 

 the deposite whore it can easily be removed. The privy and sink 

 on many farms are most offensive places, and are sometimes so situ- 

 ated that they compel one to think that their owners have scarcely 

 made an approach to a state of civilization.* We should copy the 

 extreme carefulness in this respect of the Chinese and the Flemish 

 farmers, who suffer nothing to be lost. A good farmer should look 

 upon manure of every description as money, which he may place at 

 once at compound interest, and the payment of which is sure. 

 There is no provision of nature, which is adapted more to strike 

 the reflecting mind with grateful astonishment, than that by which 

 the most offensive substances, instead of remaining to pollute the air 

 and destroy the health and comfort of man, are converted into the 

 means of fertilizing the earth and return to bless him in all the 

 varied forms of beauty and utility, in flowers and fruits and the 

 more substantial products of esculent vegetables and grain. Ma- 

 nures decidedly improve each other by being mixed in compost 

 rather than applied singly. For almost all crops they are of much 

 greater value applied green than kept over the year ;f and where a 

 farmer cannot form a cellar under his stables, he will find his ac- 

 count in erecting a cheap and rough shed over his manure heap to 

 preserve it from the wind and sun and drenching rains. The ex- 

 pense of it when attached to the barn need not be great, and will be 

 much more than compensated by the advantages gained by it. 



* We trust we shall be excused the plainness of these hints, but they concern 

 health, comfort, and interest. A vault walled with stone is to be preferred, but 

 if you have not this, place under the necessary a wooden box with or without 

 a bottom, about two and a half feet deep, and let it extend three or four feet 

 behind the building, having; a close but moveable cover; and then having a 

 load or two of loam placed near, by throwing a few shovels full in every two or 

 three days, you will effectually prevent the place from being offensive both 

 within and without ; and the contents may be easily removed at any time to 

 tlie compost heap witliout disgust or inconvenience. 

 t See note A. at the end. 



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