Fermenting Manure. iii 



i> 



2. Fermenting manure. Where farm- 

 yard or stable manure is fermented, the 

 process may render substantial service in 

 destroying the germinating powers of the 

 weed seeds found in it, but the price paid 

 is probably too costly. Manure cannot be 

 sufficiently fermented to destroy the seeds 

 of weeds present in it, except with the 

 result of the removal of much of its most 

 useful properties, more especially of the 

 nitrogen, its most valuable constituent. 

 The reduction of manure in the soil where 

 it is to remain is attended with so many 

 advantages of a mechanical and chemical 

 nature that, whenever practicable, the 

 reducing process should always be effected 

 there, rather than in the farmyard, or in 

 wasting heaps in the field. 



Fermenting manure, therefore, with the 

 object of destroying weeds, should never 

 be resorted to unless the seeds of some 

 especially troublesome sorts are known to 

 be present in it in unusually large quanti- 

 ties. As a rule it is not necessary to resort 

 to the process at all, for if the modes of 

 fighting weeds that have been already 

 pointed out are faithfully practiced, the 

 seeds that will at lengrth be found in the 



