336 [Assembly 



In England, such is not the case among the same class of farmers. 

 Their cow houses are badly constructed, exceedingly dark, and not 

 sufficiently ventilated. In our country, the same class have no cow 

 houses at all. Their cattle generally do not know any other luxury, 

 than to be allowed to stand on the south side of the barn during four 

 months in the year. Before their stable doors may be seen large 

 piles of horse manure, scarcely allowing space for egress or ingress; 

 "the centre of which, if opened, will be found burned to a dry white 

 powder, and is termed fire fanged. I could name four farmers, liv- 

 ing in one of our most celebrated agricultural counties, who have 

 absolutely moved their barns fi'om their manure heaps, instead of 

 their manure heaps from their barns. Two of these gentlemen have 

 long talked of removing west, on account of the sterility of the soil. 



Let stock be soiled, and the value of their manure is in proportion 

 to their feed. He who feeds oil cake, wheat bran, clover, and lucerne 

 grass, will obtain a manure exceedingly rich, and worth precisely 

 double that derived from animals fed upon straw and chaff. In the 

 former case, his animals will yield a large quantity of milk; it will 

 be rich, and afford cream capable of making the best butter, or the 

 milk itself will make the richest cheese. In the fall of the year the 

 cows will be fat, and fit for the butcher. In the latter case, his ma- 

 nure is comparatively worthless; he obtains a small quantity of their 

 milk, incapable of producing either much or rich butter or cheese, 

 and his animals are mere shadows. The only question as to rich food 

 for cows will be, can it be more advantageously? and this wnll de- 

 pend upon the use to be made of the produce, upon situation, mar- 

 kets, and circumstances. 



As no plant can use other than liquid manure in its growth, farm- 

 ers should be particularly careful of the liquids of their barn-yards. 

 Every barn-yard should have the requisite cisterns or pit holes, into 

 which all the manure made should be thrown daily. When full, let 

 it remain one nionth to "become soluble, after which apply it to your 

 land and plow it under. If left on the surface, exposed to the dry- 

 ing influences of wind, or the scorching sun, great waste necessarily 

 ensues. 



Although I would advise farmers to soil their stock, still I would 

 not keep a single animal expressly for its manure, as hundreds do iri 

 England. The manure should be a clear profit, and it can only be 

 so, by making the horses and oxen perform sufficient labor to pay 

 for their food, and the money expended upon them. When cattle are 



