ed directly to
the soil. Bones are best ground, but may be used whole, pounded, or
chemically dissolved, or mixed with alternate layers of fresh
horse-manure, they will be decomposed by the fermentation of the manure
(see "Bones"). Perhaps there is as much imprudence in wasting manures as
in any part of American domestic economy. One who leaves his stock
without care, and so exposed to the weather as to lose half of them and
injure the others, is not fit to be a farmer; yet, many waste manure
that would produce plants for man and beast, of far more value than the
loss of stock complained of, and yet no one notices it--it is a matter
of course, exciting no surprise. Wastefulness in a family, if it be of
bread, flour, or meat, is considered wicked and impoverishing; while ten
times that amount may be wasted in manures, that would enrich the soil,
and excite little or no disapprobation. We hope the agricultural
periodicals will keep this subject before the people, until these mines
of wealth will no longer be neglected or wasted.

_Application of Manures_ is a subject that has been much discussed, and
respecting which, intelligent agriculturists differ materially. Some
apply them extensively as a top-dressing for grass lands. This does much
good, but probably one half of their virtues is lost by washing rains,
and by evaporation. A better way is not to keep land down in grass long
at a time, and, when under the plow, manure thoroughly. We knew a piece
of light land that annually produced half a ton of hay per acre. The
owner plowed it up, raised a crop, put a moderate quantity of
stable-manure, and ten loads of leached ashes to the acre. We saw it in
haying time, the third season after it had been manured and subsoiled
and seeded down, and they were then taking fully three tons of timothy
hay from an acre, which was the quantity it had yielded three years in
succession, without any top-dressing. If a top-dressing of manure is to
be applied, harrow the land quite thoroughly, and always apply the
manure in the fall--it is worth twice as much as when applied in the
spring. The rains and snows of winter cause it to sink into the soil,
while the heat of spring and summer evaporate it. A mixture of plaster,
lime, ashes, and a very little salt, sowed on meadows, immediately after
haying, secures a good growth of feed, much sooner than it will come on
other meadows. It also increases, quite considerably, the hay crop of
the follow