rman potash
salts."

"That would be a good plan," said I; "but I would do it by buying bran,
mill-feed, brewer's-grains, malt-combs, corn-meal, oil-cake, or whatever
was best and cheapest in proportion to value. Bran or mill-feed can
often be bought at a price at which it will pay to use it freely for
manure. A few tons of bran worked into a pile of cow-dung would warm it
up and add considerably to its value. It would supply the nitrogen,
phosphoric acid, and potash, in which ordinary manure is deficient. In
short, it would convert poor manure into rich manure."

"Well, well," exclaimed the Deacon, "I knew you talked of mixing
dried-blood and bone-dust with your manure, but I did not think you
would advocate anything quite so extravagant as taking good, wholesome
bran and spout-feed and throwing it on to your manure-pile."

"Why, Deacon," said I, "we do it every day. I am putting about a ton of
spout-feed, malt-combs and corn-meal each week into my manure-pile, and
that is the reason why it ferments so readily even in the winter. It
converts my poor manure into good, rich, well-decomposed dung, one load
of which is worth three loads of your long, strawy manure."

"Do you not wet it and let it ferment before putting it in the pile?"

"No, Deacon," said I, "I feed the bran, malt-combs and corn-meal to the
cows, pigs, and sheep, and let them do the mixing. They work it up fine,
moisten it, break up the particles, take out the carbonaceous matter,
which we do not need for manure, and the cows and sheep and horses mix
it up thoroughly with the hay, straw, and corn-stalks, leaving the whole
in just the right condition to put into a pile to ferment or to apply
directly to the land."

"Oh! I see," said the Deacon, "I did not think you used bran for
manure."

"Yes, I do, Deacon," said I, "but I use it for food _first_, and this is
precisely what I would urge you and all others to do. I feel sure that
our dairymen can well afford to buy more mill-feed, corn-meal, oil-cake,
etc., and mix it with their cow-dung--or rather, let the cows do the
mixing."

LETTER FROM THE HON. HARRIS LEWIS.

I wrote to the Hon. Harris Lewis, the well-known dairyman of Herkimer
Co., N.Y., asking him some questions in regard to making and managing
manure on dairy farms. The questions will be understood from the
answers. He writes as follows:

"My Friend Harris.--This being the first leisure time I have had since
the receipt of your last le