AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 509 



Water, 698 parts. 



Salts, - 20 " 



Bilious and extractive matter, 17 " 



Green matter, albumen and mucus,. _ 63 " 



Vegetable fibre and remains of food, 202 " 



1000 



u 



These are the chief constituents of barn-yard manure retained 

 by most farmers, but the soluble parts they almost invariably per- 

 mit to be carried to the nearest drain, and thus lose the valuable 

 salts. As it is utterly impossible for manure to putrefy without 

 moisture, this water should by all means be retained in proper 

 tanks, and daily pumped over the dung heaps, if it is inconve- 

 nient to have the tanks large enough to contain them, which would 

 be infinitely preferable. It is impossible to value this liquid too 

 highly, as it can be applied immediately to the young plant in 

 such a manner as to produce almost incredible luxuriance. All 

 fertilizers should be placed in the vicinity of germinating seed, 

 to afford it proper nourishment at the earliest period of its growth, 

 thus to enable it to develop its roots and fibres and strengthen its 

 stem and leaves, which absorb the gases and aqueous dews from 

 the atmosphere in enormous quantities. This is shown by the 

 amount exhaled by different plants daily; for example, a cabbage 

 weighing forty pounds, throws off" every twenty-four hours, by in- 

 sensible perspiration, twenty pounds of water. Barn-yard manure 

 is more or less valuable according to the food fed stock. Fatten- 

 ing cattle of course yield the most valuable fertilizers as they are 

 fed upon corn, oil cake, beans, turnips, and ground grains, while 

 lean cattle are fed straw, corn stalks, and occasionally hay, the 

 nourishing principles of which are extracted to build them up, 

 and their excrement is not worth collecting. 



Horse dung is one of the most valuable manures we have, if 

 properly taken care of; but I am sorry to say this is not the case 

 with nine farmers out of ten. You will find it accumulating day 

 after day in heaps before their stable doors, exhaling into the air 

 its choice ammoniacal properties, fermenting and heating in the 

 centre until burned to a white powder, in which state it is 



