MANURES. 178 



325. Always moist but never leached^ should be the 

 farmer's rule for his manures. The more manure he 

 makes, both in his cow-yard and his pig-pen, the more 

 easily can he keep it within this rule. A few inches 

 of manure, spread over the yard or pen, will be dry 

 as powder one day and thoroughly leached the next ; 

 while a depth of ten, fifteen, or twenty inches, will 

 stand a long drouth, or hold the water of a long rain. 

 Consequently, it generally happens to the farmer who 

 makes manure on a liberal scale, that his manure is as 

 much better in quality as it is more in quantity. 



326. I have said, always moist hut never leachedr 

 Closely allied to this is another rule. Who has not 

 noticed that a pig-pen, in which the occupants are in 

 danger of drowning, and one in which the manure is 

 so dry as to be suffering a rapid fermentation, always 

 smell horribly ? To say nothing of the keeper and 

 his family, the pigs themselves are less healthy in such 

 an atmosphere, and they will thrive less on the same 

 keeping. To keep a stinkiilg pig-pen, is to throw 

 away part of the feed and part of the manure at the 

 same time. By giving corn to swine, shut up to a pol- 

 luted atmosphere, the farmer loses a portion of his 

 last year's crop ; and, by letting his pig-pen " waste 

 its sweetness on the desert air," he fails of a portion of 

 his next year's. A valuable portion, and not a small 

 portion, of what should produce crops next summer, 

 is going beyond his reach. 



327. Not the least offensive odor should escape from the 

 pig-jpen This is the rule before alluded to ; and it is 



