THE CULTIVATOR. 
69 
fioient, than in manure that has gone through the process, and oi 
which all the principles have entered into new comb.nations. 
Checking fermentation by covering .—“ There are reasons sufficient¬ 
ly strong,” Grisenthwaite observes, “ to discourage the practice ol 
allowing dung-heaps to ferment and rot without interruption. Ii 
appears that public opinion has slowly adopted tlie decisions of che¬ 
mical reasoning, and dung-pies, as they are called, have been form¬ 
ed with a view to save what was before lost; a stratum of mould, 
sustaining the heap, being p'aced to receive the fluid part, and a 
covering of mould being applied to prevent the dissipation of the 
aerial, or gaseous products. These purposes and contrivances, unfor¬ 
tunately, like many of the other operations of husbandry, were not di¬ 
rected by scientific knowledge. To cover is so commonly believed 
to confine, that there is no wonder that the practical cultivator adopt¬ 
ed it in this instance from such a consideration. But it is in vain; 
the elasticity of the gases generated is such as no covering what¬ 
ever could possibly confine. If it were perfectly compact, it could 
only preserve as much carbonic acid as is equal to the volume or bulk 
of air within it; a quantity too inconsiderable to be regarded, could 
it even be saved; but every particle of it must be disengaged, and 
lost, when the covering is removed.” 
Checking fermentation by watering is sometimes recommended; 
but this practice is inconsistent with just chemical views. It may 
cool tlie dung for a short time; but moisture, as before stated, is a 
princioal agent in all processes of decomposition. Dry fibrous mat¬ 
ter will never ferment. Water is as necessary as air to the process, 
and to supply it to fermenung dung, is to supply an agent which will 
hasten iis decay. In all cases when dung is fermenting, there are 
simple tests by which the rapidity of the process, and consequently 
the injury done, may be discovered. If a thermometer plunged into 
the dung, does not rise to above one hundred degrees ot Fahrenheit, 
there is little danger of much aeriform matter flying of!’ If the tem¬ 
perature is higher, the dung should be immediately spread abroad. 
When a piece of paper, moistened in muriatic acid held over the 
steams arising from a dung-hill, gives dense fumes, it is a certain 
test that the decomposition is going too far, for this indicates that 
volatile alkali is disengaged. 
In favor of the applical ion of farm-yard dung in a recent slate, a great 
mass of facts may be found in the writings of scient'fic agriculturists. 
A. Young, in the Essay on Manures, already quoted, adduces a 
number of excellent authorities in support of the plan. Many, who 
doubted, have been lately convinced ; and perhaps there is no sub¬ 
ject of investigation in which there is such a union of theoretical and 
practical evidence. Within the last seven years Coke has entirely 
given up the system formerly adopted on his farm, of applying fer¬ 
mented dung; and his crops have been since as good as they ever 
were, and his manure goes nearly twice as far. A great objection 
against slightly fermented dung is, that weeds spring up more luxu¬ 
riantly where it is applied. If there are seeds carried out in the 
dung, they certainly will germinate ; but it is seldom that this ean 
be the case to any extent; and if the land is not cleansed of weeds 
any kind of manure, fermented or unfermented, will occasion their 
rapid growth. If slightly fermented farm-yard dung is used as a 
top-dressing for pastures, the long straws and unfermented vegeta¬ 
ble matter remaining on the surface should be removed as soon as 
the grass begins to rise vigorously, by raking, and carried back to 
the dung-hill: in this case no manure will be lost, and the husband¬ 
ry will be at once clean and economical. In cases where farm-yard 
dung cannot be immediately applied to the crops, the destructive 
fermentation of it should be prevented as much as possible ; the 
principles on which this may be effected have been already alluded 
to. The surface should be defended as much as possible from the 
oxygen of the atmosphere; a compact marl, or a tenacious clay, of¬ 
fers the best protection against the air, and before the dung is co¬ 
vered over, or, as it were, sealed up, it should be dried as much as 
possible. If tlie dung is found at any time to heat strongly, it should 
be turned over and cooled by exposure to the air. 
The doctrine of the proper application of manures from organized 
substances, offers an illustration of an important part of the economy 
of nature, and of the happy order in which it is arranged. The death 
and decay of animal substances tend to resolve organized forms into 
chemical constituents; and the pernicious effluvia disengaged in the 
process seem to point out the propriety of burying them in the soil, 
where they are fitted to become the food of vegetables. The fer¬ 
mentation and putrefaction of organized substances in the free at¬ 
mosphere are noxious processes, beneath the surface of the ground 
they are salutary operations. In this case the food ot plants is pre¬ 
pared where it can be used ; and that which would offend the senses 
and injure the health, if exposed, is converted by gradual process 
into forms of beauty and usefulness; the foated gas is rendered a con¬ 
stituent of the aroma of the flower, and what might be poison be¬ 
comes nourishment to animals and to man. 
To preserve dung for any lime, the situation in which it is kept is 
of importance. It should, if possible, be defended from the sun. To 
preserve it under sheds would be of great use; or to make the site 
of a dung-hill on the norih side of a wall. The floor on which the 
dung is heaped, should, if possible, be paved with flat stones; and 
there should be a little inclination from each side towards the cen¬ 
tre, in which there should be drains connected with a small well, 
furnished with a pump, by which any fluid matter may be collected 
for the use of the land. It too often happens that a dense mucila¬ 
ginous and extractive fluid is suffered to dram away from the dung¬ 
hill, so as to be entirely lost to the farm.— En. of Ag. 
[From Hayward's Science of Agriculture .] 
ON HAY-MAKING. 
Having observed that in a season when there was no rain what¬ 
ever, and the hay had been made with rapidity, and carted within a 
short time after it had been cut, that a greater quantity was destroy¬ 
ed and injured by being overheated and burnt, than in a catching ir¬ 
regular season ; that when hay had not heated in the stack, it is fre¬ 
quency mouldy ; that as hay lost its native green colour, and ap¬ 
proached a brown, it lost its nutritive qualities; and that altogether 
the making of hay, as usually conducted, was a very precario >■ and 
teasing operation ; I determined on trying to arrange a system on 
some more regular and certain principles, in which I succeeded; and 
by adopting a certain and regular course of operations, was enabled 
to make my hay of a uniform good quality : and, let the weather be 
as it might, at a regular expense of labor. And considering such a 
process not. only of importance, as it ensures a more perfect quality; 
but as it affords a more certain protection against the injuries usu¬ 
ally consequent on the uncertainty of the weather, and overheating 
in the stack ; and that it thus removes two great causes of anxiety^ 
it may be well worth the public attention. 
In the first place, as to the state of the weather, it generally hap¬ 
pens at this season of the year that there are three orlbur days dry ; 
therefore on beginning to cut the grass, as it is well known that dur¬ 
ing wet weather grass may be cut, and suffered to remain in the 
swarth for several days without injury ; and it being desirable, where 
hands are plenty, to have a good quantity, or so much as will com¬ 
plete a stack in a day, in the samestate of forwardness, I should pre¬ 
fer beginning to cut during the rainy weather; however, be this as 
it may, swarths should not be opened but on a certain fine day ; and 
when this is done, the grass should be well shaken apart and equally 
spread over the ground. As soon as the upper surface is dry turn it 
well over; and in this operation great care should be taken to open 
and spread any cocks that may not have been divided in the first 
opening. This being done, commence raking info wind-rows, in time 
that the whole may be made into small cocks before night. The se¬ 
cond day these cocks must remain untouched, let the weather be ivet or 
dry: the third day, if the weather be certain and fine, throw the 
cocks open : but if the weather be wet and threatening, they may re¬ 
main another day, or until the weather is certain to be fine for the 
day. The cocks should then be thrown, according to the crop, into 
beds of two or three rows ; and after three or four hours exposure, 
turned over; and taking time to gather the whole into wind-rows 
and cocks before night, let this operation commence accordingly, and 
none be left open; the day after this, which in fine weather will be 
the fourth, the cocks must again remain untouched, or not be opened, 
whether the weather be wet or dry. On the fifth or next day, these 
cocks will only require to be opened for an hour or two, when they 
wdl be fit for the stack. The novelty of this mode consists only in 
suffering the hay to remain in the cock the second and third, or al¬ 
ternate days ; and at first sight it may appear that so much time in 
fine weather must be lost, but this is not the case. Whilst the hay 
remains in cocks, a slight fermentation, or what is termed sweating 
will take place, and in consequence, after it has been opened on the 
third and fifth days, it will prove to be just as forward as if it had 
been worked every day. And the advantages resulting from this, 
are, obviously, the following: by shortening the time of”open expo¬ 
sure, the colour of the hay is more perfectly preserved, and conse¬ 
quently the quality ; and the fermentations or sweatings which take 
