liO 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
the reots of that cotton sliould not havebeen cut, and that 
the plow should not have passed nearer to the stalks than 
the mark furnished by the roots and indicated by the limbs 
whose length at nil ages of the stalk, in its natural state, 
will be found to be equal. In spite of the dirt instantly 
thrown to it, and everything I could do, the squares then 
on the cotton were cast, and none since then have made 
their appearance. 
With great respect, and truly yours, 
H. W. VtcK. 
THE PSSPAEATIOH AMD USE OF MANURE. 
There is no department of farm economy more impor- 
tant than the skillful preparation and use of manure. One 
has only to see a cultivator manage his manure heap, 
to form a very correct opinion of his knowledge of his call- 
ing. If he habitually wastes the indispensable food of his 
annual crops by allowing the droppings of his cattle, hogs 
and other stock to fall in winter, or whenever he feeds 
them, where rains, ox snows, his practice is that of a 
thoughtless spendthrift, unless he designs to fertilize the 
yard or field in which his stock run. ]n the latter case, his 
manuie may not be used to the best advantage, tgat it is 
not wasted except in a small degi’ee. To increase the ab- 
sorptive power of the soil, it is generally good policy to 
plow any lot near one’s stable or barn on which hogs, 
cattle, sheep or mules are to be fed, and leave their solid 
and liquid excretions. To keep off the direct rays of the 
sun, a covering of forest leaves, straw, or broom-grass 
spread ov-er the lot is worth more than it costs, while the 
animals gain faster in flesh for having a first-rate bed to 
lie on. This arrangement saves all the trouble and ex- 
pense of hauling out dung, when other work often presses 
hard for immediate attention. After one lot is made rich, 
turn into another, subdue it well, being particular to avoid 
all surface washing from a side hill, or other inequality. 
There are, however, from four to six months in a year, 
in Georgia, during which all kinds of stock do better, and 
fay better, under a proper sheltef from cold rains and other 
storms, than they possibly can when denied these advan- 
tages. The true philosophy of domestication, as applied 
to the animal kingdom must be studied and understood 
before the most economical preparation of manure will ap- 
pear in its true light to such as rear and keep live stock. 
Many nov/ have a mistaken notion to the effect that, to 
produce superior Ij^orses, mules, steers, cows, hogs, sheep 
and poultry, and at the same time make a very superior 
article of manure in abundance, is a losing business^ It is 
the secret dread of final loss in a pecuniary point of view 
that really prevent so large a share of the community from 
making the most of all the elements of fertility within 
their reach. They fear to touch anything like a new plan 
for sheltering manure and housing stock that differs from 
what they have before seen. So far as artificial warmth, 
civilized protection, and liberal feeding are concerned, 
their minds recognize only a . mere shade of difference be- 
tween wild animals which wholly feed themselves, and 
those taught to depend on the foresight and care of man 
as a superior intelligence. V/ildness, independence and 
small expense to the owner in animals involve nearly the 
total loss of all their manure, a loss of most of the milk or 
kine, and of much of their flesh. To improve a cultivated 
plantation, such slock is utterly valueless. Its whole re- 
cuperating machinery is outside of the stercorary, or place 
where fat, dung and urine are accumulated. The advan- 
tage of a stercorary over a stable for the manufacture of 
manure is, mainly, in the facility it affords for carting 
leaves, corn-stalks and other trash into the sheltered place 
where stock will tread coarse vegetable matter into a fine 
pulp, which, with their droppings, will form a cheap and 
profitable aliment for all kinds of crops. There is often 
much inconvenience in getting a wagon or cart near en- 
ough to the dung in a stable to handle it with ease and 
rapidly. A good stercorary is not liable to these objec- 
tions. 
Manure from horses is very apt to fire-fang, whether 
under shelter, or exposed to the weather. In this exces- 
sive heating it often parts with all its ammonia, and most 
of its oxygen and hydrogen, and is rendered comparative- 
ly valueless. A few buckets of water thrown once in ten 
days on the heap, or over the dung will arrest this injuri- 
ous chemical action, and prevent loss. Where family 
clothes are washed at no great distance from a stable, the 
servants should put all wash-water and other slops on 
manure heaps; especially upon such droppings as are 
under a roof. Indeed every barn, stable or stercoraryj 
ought to have eve-troughs and a reservoir for catching 
rain-water. Thi.s is quite desirable for watering stock, 
as well as for tempering sheltered manure. Too much 
water is to be avoided ; and one of the greatest objections 
to permitting manure to lie in an open cow-yard, or any 
similar place, is the repeated washings to which it is ex- 
posed. The direct rays of the sun increase the injury 
done to the manure in open courts or lots, We have 
often seen the earth excavated in a stock -yard to form a 
broad and sometimes a deep basin for holding both liquids 
and solids. This practice runs into the opposite extreme 
to fire-fanging, and is equally unwise. In the March num- 
ber of this journal we called the reader’s attention to the 
value of Shade, Shelter and Moisture as chemical agen- 
cies, in promoting the rotting of dead plants, and the in- 
crease of fruitfulness. We desire now to state that th^ 
presence of too much water, like that which surrounds the 
logs and brush at the bottom of a mill-dam, wholly pre- * 
vents vegetable decay, and of course the farther rotting of 
a mass of water-charged, saturated manure. Timber, 
forming the bed of old Roman bridges, which had been 
twenty centuries under water, has recently been taken out 
of the mud and found sound. The preservation of deli- 
cate plants, their organs and tissues, in sw.imps, under 
water, has frequently excited the admiration of natural- | 
its. i 
Manure in a hole filled with water, is little better than a 
small natural swamp, and not at ail adapted to the forma- 
tion of a good fci-tilizer. 
Formerly it was the German, Scolch and English prac- j 
tice to work over large masses of compost with a shovel 
or dung fork ; and among old fashioned farmers this sys- 
tem still prevails. Where labor is cheap and crops dear, j 
so much handling may not involve any considerable loss ; 
