264 VALUE OP FRESH AND MADE MANURES. 



accrues to the farmer in forcing: his crops, will often induce him to 

 use manure that has ripened in the pit or stance. 



In warm and moist countries, as may be conceived, it is almost 

 matter of indifference whether the dung be put into the ground quite 

 fresh, or in a state of decomposition further advanced ; its decom- 

 position, aided by the heat of the climate, is always effected rapidly 

 enough. But it is otherwise in cold climates, where the tempera- 

 ture which excites and maintains vegetation is often of short dura- 

 tion, and must at once be taken advantage of. During a great part 

 of the year, the ground is so cold that organic substances buried in 

 it are preserved with comparatively little change. Under such 

 climatic conditions, there is no doubt that manures in a state of for- 

 wardness are to be preferred. It is probably from such motives 

 that the extensive use of liquid manures in Switzerland is derived, 

 the action of these being, so to speak, immediate ; and it is with 

 such manure that in Flanders the cultivation of various plants that 

 are of great value in manufacturing processes, is carried on. 



When the fermentation of manure has been managed discreetly, 

 and all the precautious requisite to prevent the dissipation of ammo- 

 niacal salts and the loss of soluble elements have been taken, there 

 is the immense advantage attending it, besides obtaining immediate 

 action, that a manure is produced of greater value under a smaller 

 bulk and a less weight. The dung-heap often loses a third of its 

 bulk in undergoing fermentation, a circumstance which occasions an 

 important saving in carriage. A like saving may be effected with 

 reference to fresh manures, by drying them in the sun, which I have 

 sometimes seen done ; they are thus reduced to one-third or one- 

 fourth of their original weight, and when the distance to which they 

 have to be carried is great, there may be real advantage in proceed- 

 ing in this way. 



An objection of some moment made to the use of fresh dung to 

 corn lands is, that it usually contains the seeds of weeds and the 

 eggs of insects which nothing but putrefaction will destroy. This 

 objection of course loses all its weight when the land that is ma- 

 nured is to receive a crop which admits of hoeing ; and the custom 

 which obtains with us at Bechelbronn of using manure in every 

 state of decomposition to the first crop in the rotation, is a guaran- 

 tee that fresh manure is really productive of no inconvenience in 

 practice. Another difficulty pointed out by Thaer, is that of cover- 

 ing in dung so long and full of straw as fresh stable or stall dung. 

 This objection disappears when the manure is laid in furrows formed 

 by the plough, as is done in Alsace, by which means the covering in 

 is effected by a single operation. 



If opinions are still divided upon the question whether dung ought 

 to be employed before or after fermentation, they are no less so as to 

 the mode of spreading it, and the best periods for laying it on the 

 land. It may be imagined that the conclusion come to upon the first 

 question necessarily influences, the opinions held on the second. 

 Thoge who believe that manure may be advantageously used in the 

 Btate in which it comes from the stables, are altogether indifferent io 



