148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



the dung from the sheds and stables, without being too elevated, so as to 

 cause it to become soon dry, or so greatly de[)re9,sed as to favor the stag- 

 nation of water upon it, and thereby deprive it of the properties most essen- 

 tial to the promotion of vegetable growth. Before each of the dung heaps 

 a reservoir should be made, into which the drainings may empty themselves. 

 Without these, much loss of manure must occur daily from the liquid mat- 

 ters of such places continually running away, and being in other ways 

 wasted, as well as the impossibility of making use of them to forward the 

 conversion of other matters into the condition of manures. Where these 

 and such other suitable accommodations as have been described, are pro- 

 vided, the farmer will have nothing to do except to provide such matters 

 as may be suitable for the purpose, and cause them to be properly placed, 

 that they may speedily be reduced into the state of manure. With this 

 view various vegetable matters, such as leaves, rushes, pond weed and 

 other aquatic plants, straw, hay, flags, and coarse grasses and weeds, 

 should be preserved and collected in as largo quantities as possible, by 

 permitting nothing of the kind to be carried oif the farm, unless you may 

 be situated near a town where other matters can be bought to replace them. 

 The stubble from grain fields, leaves from the woods, coarse grasses, weeds, 

 &c., should be mowed when in a juicy and succulent state, dried and car- 

 ried to the farm yards, and there stacked in convenient places, for the pur- 

 pose of being used as litter. 



Besides these means, there are others that equally demand attention; 

 every leisure opportunity should be taken, before the foddering season 

 commences, to bring into the barn yard rich surface mould, muck, marl, 

 dry mud from ditches, ponds, &c., scrapings from roads, and other similar 

 substances, as can be obtained, to be used as foundations for the compost 

 heaps, as well as to bo deposited in the cisterns, for the liquid matters in 

 them to act upon. When the cattle are confined in their stalls, thick litter- 

 ings of one or more of these materials should be placed in them, and after 

 they are broken up, and reduced, may be placed in the compost heaps, by 

 which means their decay may be rendered more quick. If the textures 

 happen to be hard and ligneous, their reduction may be expedited by means 

 of a small quantity of lime sprinkled upon them. To render this plan effec- 

 tual, all the cattle on the farm should be strictly confined to the yards dur- 

 ing MMuter, and not turned out as they generally are, into the pastures, by 

 which much injury is often done by poaching, and the making of much 

 manure prevented. Besides all this the stock are injured by cold and other 

 causes. At the close of the winter and early spi'ing, when the cattle are 

 turned out of the yards, the compost heaps, which have been collected to- 

 gether, must be thoroughly turned over, in order that the animalized mat- 

 ters may thereby not only be still more incorporated with the earthy sub- 

 stances, but also, that atmospheric air may be retained among the clods, 

 and thus induce the putrefactive process to become more complete, and 

 readily combine the oxygen with the carbonaceous material of the dung, 

 as well as the nitrogen with hydrogen, as such matters constitute the most 

 beneficial properties of the compost heap. On these accounts, as well as 

 others that have been mentioned, the compost heaps should not be made 



