MANURES. 181 



to lug tlie peat all the way home this fall, only to 

 carry it back again next spring. Let him lay it, then, 

 near the field where it is to be used. If it be in a part 

 of the country where lime is known to work well on 

 corn land (and there are few parts where it will not, 

 if used as I am going to direct), let him mix 10 bush- 

 els of lime with as many loads of peat for each acre 

 of his field ; and let the compost, thus far prepared, 

 lie till spring. If peat cannot be had, let him take 

 what is most like it, as swamp mud, black mould 

 from the edge of the wood, partially decayed leaves, 

 mouldering turf, road-scrapings, or rich loam, if noth- 

 ing better can be had. In the mean time, let him re- 

 serve from the home process of composting a few loads 

 of rich heating manure, as that of fattening cattle, 

 of horses or sheep. In the spring let him draw this 

 to the field, and mix it load to load with the limed 

 compost already there, adding for each load of the 

 loam manure one bushel of plaster and a peck of salt. 

 The tendency of the lime would be to hasten the fer- 

 mentation too rapidly, and thus drive off the ammo- 

 nia ; but the plaster and salt will hold it fast, and the 

 whole will form a compost worth more for a corn 

 crop than 20 loads of the best stable manure, worth at 

 least as much for the permanent good of the land, and 

 not less than ten dollars cheaper for every §cre. We 

 have here then a process at once for cheapening the 

 cost of production, and increasing the crop, and of thus 

 stretching the profits at both ends. This is no specu- 

 lation ; it is the result of actual experiment. This 

 very year I have seen, not for the first or second time, 

 corn grown in the wa/ just described, not in one in- 



