THE 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



275 



matters, you must remember that some 

 elements of vegetables are volatile, and 

 some soluble, and that those which are* 

 least volatile and least soluble are also 

 least valuable. The substance in manures 

 which is most volatile is ammonia ; and 

 where there is bad management this will 

 pass away into the air ; while the potash 

 and the soda, and the other soluble mate- 

 rials, will be washed away. As compared 

 with the practice which I have mentioned, 

 would it not be well to put your straw in 

 the farm-yard sheltered from wet, and 

 place your feeding animals upon it ? be- 

 cause, in that case you would have the 

 dung of the animals upon the straw, and 

 the vegetable matter also. The truth is, 

 that every possible precaution ought to be 

 taken against losing anything valuable that 

 is contained in vegetable matter; and with 

 this view you should seek to have a proper 

 amount of moisture and no more, and en- 

 deavour to associate farm-yard manure 

 with materials which will tend to fix the 

 ammonia, and so on, and prevent it from 

 passing away. Now the quality of the 

 manure must depend on the quality of the 

 vegetables on which you feed your ani- 

 mals. If you feed them merely upon 

 straw, the value of the dung will be in 

 proportion to that of the straw ; whereas, 

 if you add oilcake and other substances of 

 a similar nature, there will be a propor- 

 tionate increase of value. There is no 

 ultimate action in the animal economy — 

 no action, that is, in relation to the food 

 which the animal consumes, that does not 

 take place in ordinary decomposition. If 

 you decomposed a large quantity of veg- 

 etable matter, whether it were oilcake or 

 straw, you would have just the same ulti- 

 mate result as if you passed it through 

 the body of an animal. The animal sys- 

 tem does not add anything whatever to 

 its value : the animal only gives forth 

 what it received. Indeed, so far as ma- 

 nuring is concerned, the dung of the ani- 

 mal is always less valuable than would 

 have been the food on which the animal 

 had subsisted. It must, therefore, always 

 be borne in mind by practical farmers that 

 the animal adds nothing to food, but only 

 substracts from it. Many persons are apt 

 to imagine that the fact is otherwise; but 

 they are certainly mistaken. If you had 

 more turnips than your sheep required — 

 and I have known such an instance — and 



'were to chop up a field of turnips and 

 plough them in, the result would be that 

 you would afterwards get a far better bar- 

 ley crop than you would have done had 

 sheep, by eating them, robbed the turnips 

 of a portion of their value. I have seen 

 that experiment tried over and over agnin, 

 and it has always been attended with the 

 same result : therefore theory and prac- 

 tice perfectly coincide in this matter. — 

 Well, now, with respect to the making of 

 farm-yard manure, let me impress upon 

 you that, so far as the quality is concern- 

 ed, that depends on the food of the ani- 

 mal ; and that in order to its conservation 

 you must protect it against water. It is 

 my opinion that, with the view of most 

 effectually preserving the ammonia, you 

 had better make a kind of compost heap, 

 first spreading a quantity of ditch stuff, 

 road scrapings, or other earthy matter, and 

 then putting a layer of dung, then another 

 layer of earth, and so on, alternating the 

 earth with the dung in such a manner as 

 will be most likely to cause the earth to 

 absorb the substances which would other- 

 wise pass into the air, and to prevent the 

 wasting away of the soluble materials. — 

 You will, I believe, secure a far better 

 kind of farm-yard dung in that way than 

 by any other mode of proceeding with 

 which I am acquainted. It is the duty, or 

 at least the interest, of every one to try 

 and make the vegetable matters of the 

 farm go as far as he can : though, howev- 

 er, he may aim at doing this, he will never 

 be able to produce upon the farm all that 

 it actually requires ; and hence he will oc- 

 casionally be obliged to resort to extrane- 

 ous sources to supply the deficiency. I am 

 afraid I am detaining you, Mr. Chairman 

 and gentlemen, at too great length. The 

 subject is such an extensive one that there 

 are one or two other points which I de- 

 sire still to introduce, but it must depend 

 upon yourselves whether I shall do so 

 (loud cries of "Go on.") Well, I will 

 first mention the rotation of crops, and af- 

 terwards speak for a few moments in ref- 

 erence to artificial manures. With res- 

 pect to the rotation of crops, I wish to 

 point out to you a very clear and simple 

 illustration. Taking the four-course shift 

 as the example — though it may be ex- 

 panded to six, or eight, or ten, or any 

 number that you please — I will suppose 

 that you have turnips and barley and seeds 



