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I 
GENERAL FARM MANAGEMENT. 321 
Manufacture of Manure.— Three methods of making ma¬ 
nure may be mentioned. The first is that which is so much in 
vogue among western farmers, as any one may see who travels 
through the country in the fall of the year ; it may be termed 
the negation method, and those who practice it must not be 
surprised if it should ultimately produce negative results ; it 
consists in burning the straw, or in leaving it in huge heaps in 
the lots, there to be slowly decomposed by the elements. This 
practice is so slovenly and barbarous, and so unworthy of an 
American farmer of the nineteenth century, that I notice it 
to pass upon it the bann of severe condemnation. AYould that 
the farmer believed one truth—that, while it is easy, by the 
application of proper means, to keep land at its ordinary or nat¬ 
ural range of fertility, the process of renovating worn-out soil 
is difficult, tedious, and expensive. The second is to make the 
straw into manure, by feeding and littering the animals plenti¬ 
fully with it ; this is a good practical method, and will always 
give good results. According to the third method, all the ani¬ 
mal excrements, with other refuse matter, are thrown into a 
large tank, and there, by the application of water, digested 
into liqmid manure, which is thence conveyed into the different 
fields by means of pipes, laid in the ground for that purpose. 
It is by following this plan that Mr. Mechi, on a naturally poor 
farm, is enabled to raise those big crops, that so perfectly 
astonish the old English farmers. But this system is very 
expensive, and probably would not answer for the West at 
present; nevertheless, w r hen the millenium of farming shall 
come, it is the one that will be universally adopted. 
Application of Manure. —Should the manure be applied 
to the grass, or to the crops ; and in what manner, and at what 
time must it be applied to either ? These are important inqui¬ 
ries, and in answering them the farmer ought to consider, not 
what is best for individual crops, or particular fields, but what 
is best for the general welfare of the whole farm. Guided by 
this rule, I have no hesitation in saying that the grass land 
should receive all the manure, for the manure will quicken the 
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