NOTES. 



NOTE A. 

 MANURE. 



For the application of manures see the quotations from Arthur 

 Young's prize essay on manures, in Memoirs of New York 

 }3oarci of Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 264. He gives the authority of 

 upwards of twenty most intelligent and experimental farmers, who 

 are decidedly in favor of applying manure in a green or unrotted 

 state to all crops, which admit of being hoed. 



" With respect to laying on manure, says Mr. Wilkes, I have ex- 

 perienced that dung carried from the stable yard at not more than 

 three days old, and laid directly on the land both in summer and 

 winter (that is in England) has an advantage of twenty per cent 

 over that dung, which is kept from nine to twelve months." 



" It has become a pretty well settled principle among good farmers 

 (says Jesse Buel, Esq. of Albany, one of the best farmers in the 

 country) that we should never delay applying manure because it is 

 unfermented or unrotted ; but on the contrary that they are the 

 most profitably applied before fermentation commences, or while it 

 is in an incipient state." — N. Y. Memoirs^ Vol II. p. 220. 



*' Our eyes and nose, without the aid of chemistry, are sufficient 

 to inform us, that farm yard manure loses one half, if it be kept 

 twelve months; and in proportion if it be kept a shorter time, while 

 the season favors decomposition." — Lorain^ s Hushandry , p. 100. 



" Those parts of a field to which short dung was applied gave the 

 best crops the first year, but those on which the long dung had 

 been laid, gave the best crop tho second and third years ; a fact 

 which authorises the conclusion that if we wish to obtain one great 

 crop the rotted dung is best ; but when we look to more permanent 

 improvement the long dung is to be preferred." — Armstrong's 

 Treatise, p. 65. 



" It is a common practice amongst farmers to suffer the farm yard 

 dung to ferment till the fibrous' texture of the vegetable matter is 

 entirely broken down, and till the manure becomes perfectly cold, 

 and so soft as to be easily cut by the spade. There are many ar- 

 guments and facts which show that it is prejudicial to the interests 

 of the farmer. 



" During the violent fermentation, which is necessary for reduc- 

 ing farm yard manure to the state in which it is called shoj^t muck, 

 not only a large quantity of fluid but likewise a gaseous matter is 

 lost ; so much so that the dung is reduced one half or two thirds in 

 weight ; and the principal elastic matter disengaged, is carbonic 

 acid with some ammonia, and both these if retained by the mois- 

 ture in the soil are capable of becoming a useful nourishment for 

 plants." — Sir Humphrey Davy's Lectures, p. 209. 



