416 [Assembly 



forty loads of barn yard manure, even if it be combined with horse 

 manure. 



I would, however, prefer the excrementitious matters derived from 

 man to all other manures, and trust the day is not far distant when 

 our city authorities will find it to their interest to construct at the 

 terminus of every sewer, a light receptacle for the collection of excre- 

 ments, street water, &c. The street manure should then be removed 

 to some convenient place, where the two matters might be incorpo- 

 rated. If this plan were pursued, in five years this matter would 

 become an immense revenue to the city, and every man, woman and 

 child would afford a quid pro quo for their annual support. Next 

 to human ordure, I prefer a compost for all agricultural purposes, 

 made of the following substances, and in the manner following : 

 Collect refuse hay, river or sea weed, river mud, rushes, corn stalks, 

 blood, hair, horn, shavings, bone dust, leather, shavings, dry leaves, 

 bushes, tender twigs of trees, decayed wood, branches, buckwheat 

 haulm, chaff", muck, straw, place them together in a compact heap, 

 cover the mass with quick lime, over the quick lime place a layer of 

 peat earth, sods, &c., and over that plaster of paris ; then a layer of 

 clay or sand, over that soot, leached and coal ashes, unleached ashes, 

 a few bushels of salt, then saturate the whole with water, and when 

 decomposition commences, cover the whole with pulverized charcoal 

 dust ; occasionally it wnll be necessary to run a crow-bar, or long 

 rod of iron through the heap in various places to admit the moisture. 

 In two weeks this will be a fine mass of the most valuable manure 

 imaginable, containing every known ingredient found in any plant 

 by analysis, and capable of producing wonderful effects ; add to this 

 deep sub-soil plowing, and your farm will surpass your most san- 

 guine anticipations. 



TuU said manure was entirely unnecessary, if the ground was 

 properly plowed and pulverized. Many have tried this plan, and 

 for a time it proved successful, that is to say as long as it felt the 

 effect of the decay of vegetation upon it, or the manure previously 

 applied. Manure cannot be made available to the plant until it be- 

 comes liquid, as it is only in that form that plants can elaborate it 

 in their systems. In Flanders this is most perfectly understood, they 

 place extraordinary confidence in the value of liquid manure, and 

 always apply it to the plant when particularly required, sometimes 

 when the seed is placed in the ground, but oftener when it is com- 

 ing up ; they seem to consider that perfectly clean tillage consti- 

 tutes the chief principles of agriculture. They approve highly of 



