344 The Application of the Manure of the Farm. 
power of farmyard-dung to do so. Tims we find in the same 
experiment that when artificial manure was employed instead 
of the extra 13 loads of dung, there was a further increased yield 
of (Si tons per acre, whilst, as stated above, the increase from tlie 
use of the extra dung was only 1 ton. 
Class II. — Animal Manures without Straw. 
Although manures of this class are, generally speaking, depo- 
sited upon the land by the animals themselves, yet even here we 
can exercise a more important control than is at first sight appa- 
rent. This class includes all manures produced on the farm by 
the consumption of the growing crops, and therefore comprises 
such as are produced by grazing and folding. In connection 
with the grazing of cattle and horses, little can be done but to 
knock about and spread their droppings — a work which will 
more than repay the cost of the labour of the old man or boy so 
employed, by obviating the growth of rank and sour herbage, 
which the stock will refuse to eat. By the practice of folding 
we can very completely regulate the application of manure. As 
a rule, it is only applied to sheep, although in some exceptional 
cases it has been adopted for horned stock and for pigs. Even 
sheep-folding has too often been restricted to the consumption of 
the turnip-crop on the land ; but I shall endeavour to show that 
still greater advantages have been derived from the extension of 
this system to other crops. 
By a regular division of the field into folds we gain the very 
important advantage of an cifual distrihnfion of the juamnc over 
the land. Unless the field is thus apportioned ofij the sheep will 
resort to their favourite lairs, and these spots will receive too 
much manure, whilst other parts of the field will have scarcely 
any. The corn is consequently too rank in the former places, 
and is likely to be laid ; but on the latter parts the crop is not 
strong enough. The regular distribution of the manure favours 
a more even growth of the corn-crop which is decidedly 
advantageous. 
It is only right that in restricting sheep from resorting to their 
favourite lairs we should notice why they give such a decided 
preference to these spots, such preference being certainly the 
result of an instinctive guidance ; and therefore it were well to 
be assured that in counteracting this natural desire we provide 
an adequate substitute. Two conditions generally influence the 
preference shown by sheep — shelter and dryness of soil. The 
former can be readily supplied by the use of light hurdles 
covered with thin boarding or by wattled flakes, both of which 
can be shifted as easily as ordinary hurdles. If it be intended 
to have a more permanent fold, a double row of hurdles stuffed 
with stiaw gives even more shelter ; but for all ordinary purposes 
