64 



bottom be porous, let it be Hagged or paved, to pre- 

 vent the sap from sinking' into the g-round, and the 

 over flowings of it can be carried by a gutter into 

 some hollow, where g-ood rich mould should be laid 

 to receive it, which will become as good as stable 

 dung- ; lint the system recommended in No. XIV. is 

 far the best preservative of the principal liquid. 



When dunghills heat too much, water is sometimes 

 thrown over them to check the fermentation. This 

 may cool the dung- for a time, but, moisture being a 

 chief agent in all the processes of rotting (of decom- 

 position), to supply water to fermenting dung is to 

 increase what you want to lessen. As dung is an 

 article of the tirst importance in husbandry, one 

 would think that the collecting- it would be a great 

 object with the industrious farmer, and that every 

 thing would be collected which will rot. There is 

 one article, however, almost universally neglected, to 

 collect which there is a double motive — weeds. A 

 farm full of these is a nuisance to its neighbourhood ; 

 it poisons the fields around, and the possessor ought 

 to be disgraced as a pest to society. Now, the cutting 

 down of weeds before their seed is formed answers 

 two purposes; first it encourages good crops liy keep- 

 ing the ground clean — secondly, it adds to the quan- 

 tity of dung. By mixing them with other substances — 

 l>y littering in summer, when straw is scarce, with 

 weeds and the long rank grass of ditches, aiul in au- 

 tumn with stubble-straw, (the pulling of which will 

 well repay the time and laliour,) a vast deal of ma- 

 nure, which is now lost, might be saved. 



Good management and industry will turn every 

 animal and veg^'table matter into manure, and ])re- 

 vent that waste which is so common. Were I to 

 tell you of the ways and means ])y which manure is 

 made and economised in China, where it is necessary 

 to raise food for a tremendous population, you would 

 think me a bouncer; delicacy prevents me from en- 

 tering into all the details. This much, however, has 



