No. 151.] 333 



hedge rows, pond mud, refuse vegetables, and numerous other sub- 

 stances that might be named. The hogs turn them over and incor- 

 porate them one with another, and the stock trample down and 

 form them into a solid mass; charcoal dust is once a w^eek spread 

 over the whole, which retains and preserves all the gases that would 

 otherwise escape; every three months it is drawn out, placed in a 

 square heap and mixed with plaster, ashes, salt, muck, and guano; 

 the whole is then covered with charcoal dust to the depth of six in- 

 ches, and left until fall, when it is used upon the fields most re- 

 quiring it; spread on broad cast, and plowed under the earth, and 

 the crops make use of the gases as nature provides, and all care 

 ceases. 



Another most important advantage accrues to the soiler, viz: a 

 piece of land that would support five cows, depastured one week, 

 would amply furnish the same with an abundant supply of food one 

 month, if cut and carried to them. The piece depastured would likewise 

 be almost destroyed by poaching in wet weather; trampling, sleeping 

 upon, and injuring the herbage by close eating. Horses do much 

 more damage than cows, as they eat much closer, and frequently pull 

 the grass out by the roots. 



When cattle are stall-fed, or soiled in the yard, the nitrogen of 

 the manure may be preserved by artificial means. It is an ingredi- 

 ent absolutely indispensable to the growth of plants. By analysis it 

 has been found in every part of the growing plant; the roots, stems 

 leaves, &c., contain it, showing that without it plants cannot be 

 grown. How important then -it is, that so valuable a substance 

 should be preserved. I have grown plants in pure charcoal dust, by 

 watering them with rain water; the rain w^ater yielded them ammo- 

 nia, and consequently nitrogen as one of its elements. I found with 

 spring water, I could not grow them after a certain period at all in 

 charcoal dust; but with rain water most successfully. Although the 

 air must contain a vast quantity of nitrogen, I am confident the 

 plants I grew, did not obtain the quantity they required from that 

 source; if they had, th? spring water would have answered them as 

 well as the rain water; they must have obtained it through the me- 

 dium of ammonia, contained in the rain w^ater. This is a singular 

 fact, and goes to show that although a generation of more than one 

 thousand millions of the children of Adam, and 20,000 millions of 

 animals cease to exist, and the nitrogen w^hich they contain, is 

 yielded in part to the heaven every thirty years, still plants cannot 

 elaborate it in their system, except through the medium of the roots. 



