e end. Two hours' work, in winter, will save three hours'
work in the spring. And three hours' work in the spring is worth more
than four hours' work in the winter. So that we save half the expense of
handling the manure. 2d. When manure is allowed to lie scattered about
over a large surface, it is liable to have much of its value washed out
by the rain. In a compact heap of this kind, the rain or snow that falls
on it is not more than the manure needs to keep it moist enough for
fermentation. 3d. There is as much fascination in this fermenting heap
of manure as there is in having money in a savings bank. One is
continually trying to add to it. Many a cart-load or wheel-barrowful of
material will be deposited that would otherwise be allowed to run to
waste. 4th. The manure, if turned over in February or March, will be in
capital order for applying to root crops; or if your hay and straw
contains weed-seeds, the manure will be in good condition to spread as a
top-dressing on grass-land early in the spring. This, I think, is better
than keeping it in the yards all summer, and then drawing it out on the
grass land in September. You gain six months' or a year's time. You get
a splendid growth of rich grass, and the red-root seeds will germinate
next September just as well as if the manure was drawn out at that time.
If the manure is drawn out early in the spring, and spread out
immediately, and then harrowed two or three times with a Thomas'
smoothing-harrow, there is no danger of its imparting a rank flavor to
the grass. I know from repeated trials that when part of a pasture is
top-dressed, cows and sheep will keep it much more closely cropped down
than the part which has not been manured. The idea to the contrary
originated from not spreading the manure evenly.

"But why ferment the manure at all? Why not draw it out fresh from the
yards? Does fermentation increase the amount of plant-food in the
manure?" --No. But it renders the plant-food in the manure more
immediately available. It makes it more soluble. We ferment manure for
the same reason that we decompose bone-dust or mineral phosphates with
sulphuric acid, and convert them into superphosphate, or for the same
reason that we grind our corn and cook the meal. These processes add
nothing to the amount of plant-food in the bones or the nutriment in the
corn. They only increase its availability. So in fermenting manure. When
the liquid and solid excrements from well-fe