75S [Assembly 



scent are both right. One goes up and the other down ! It would 

 be better to inquire what is the best manure, for instance, what of 

 the liquid manures? 



Judge Van Wyck. Dr. Underbill has spoken of the benefit to soil 

 by covering it, for a time with matting, hay, straw, &c., as arresting 

 the ascending elements of manure. But do not those substances on 

 the surface impart to the soil below them some fertility? Such is 

 even the advantage of mere shade to soil. A covering of brush 

 gives a vigorous growth to plants. 



Mr. Meigs spoke of the views expressed by late French Agricul- 

 turists, of the benefits of shade to vegetation. The clouds were in- 

 tended to answer that end. That in some cases it is proper to form 

 artificial shades over some plants. That deserts are formed by long 

 continuance of cloudless skies. 



Mr. Pike. Gurneyisro is found useful even in moist England. 

 Put a cloth over a load of dung when you move it; the effluvium, 

 ammonia, from it is so strong, that no lady can faint where it is near. 

 In 1834 I went to Sheffield, (England) on the first day of January, 

 meant to leave there on the second, but it seemed to me to be snow- 

 ing fast. It was, how^ever, to me a singular snow, so perfectly even 

 every where, and so thin I could hardly make a foot print in it. 

 What is this? said I. 0, ho, it is Rime! I think liquid manures 

 are of the first importance, and we should have the best methods of 

 saving them. I conduct that from my stable to a row of hogsheads 

 in my garden. I pump it onto my solid manures, and save all that 

 runs off. Farmers should remove manures only in cloudy or falling 

 weather. I put peat into my heaps, and everything else. I make a 

 layer of solid, about a foot thick, then about three inches of mineral 

 manures, plaster, &c. I want to know the precise proportions of all 

 the best components of a good manure pile. This past season I plan- 

 ted Ruta Bagas in the fore part of July, and many of them weighed 

 ten pounds each. 



Judge Van Wyck. Put soil in your compost pile, it holds the gas: 

 add charcoal, that fixes the ammonia. 



Mr. Pike. Peat is excellent. Muck requires two or three years of 

 exposure to the weather before it is good. I have some four years 

 old, I plough it up once in a while; mix thirty bushels of lime with 

 thirty of muck. 



