managing manure in the
dairy districts?' The usual method is to cut holes in the sides of the
stable, about every ten feet along the whole length of the barn behind
the cows, and pitch the manure out through these holes, under the eaves
of the barn, where it remains until too much in the way, when it is
drawn out and commonly applied to grass land in lumps as big as your
head. This practice is getting out of fashion a little now, but nearly
one-half of all the cow-manure made in Herkimer Co. is lost, wasted.

"Your last question, 'What improvement would you suggest,' I answer by
saying it is of no use to make any to these men, it would be wasted like
their manure.

"The market value of manure in this county is 50 cts. per big load, or
about one dollar per cord."

"That is a capital letter," said the Deacon. "It is right to the point,
and no nonsense about it."

"He must make a good deal of manure," said the Doctor, "to be able to
use 40 loads to the acre on his meadows and pastures once in three
years, and the same quantity every year on his field of mangel-wurzel."

"That is precisely what I have been contending for," I replied; "the
dairymen _can_ make large quantities of manure if they make an effort to
do it, and their farms ought to be constantly improving. Two crops of
hay on the same meadow, each year, will enable a farmer to keep a large
herd of cows, and make a great quantity of manure--and when you have
once got the manure, there is no difficulty in keeping up and increasing
the productiveness of the land."

HOW TO MAKE MORE AND BETTER MANURE ON DAIRY FARMS.

"You are right," said the Doctor, "in saying that there is no difficulty
in keeping up and increasing the productiveness of our dairy farms, when
you have once got plenty of manure--but the difficulty is to get a good
supply of manure to start with."

This is true, and it is comparatively slow work to bring up a farm,
unless you have plenty of capital and can buy all the artificial manure
you want. By the free use of artificial manures, you could make a farm
very productive in one or two years. But the slower and cheaper method
will be the one adopted by most of our young and intelligent dairymen.
Few of us are born with silver spoons in our mouths. We have to earn our
money before we can spend it, and we are none the worse for the
discipline.

Suppose a young man has a farm of 100 acres, devoted principally to
dairying. Some of the land l