Manures" with much
interest, hoping to get new light on a subject second to none in
importance to the farmer.

I have done a little at composting for some years, and am now having a
pile of about forty cords, made up of stable-manure and earth taken from
the wash of higher lands, turned and fined. The labor of digging and
hauling the earth, composting in thin layers with manure, turning, and
fining, is so great, I doubt whether it pays for most farm crops--this
to be used for mangel-wurzel and market-garden.

The usual plan in this county is to keep the stable-manure made during
winter, and the accumulation of the summer in the barn-yard, where it is
soaked by rain, and trampled fine by cattle, and in August and September
is hauled upon ground to be seeded with wheat and grass-seeds. I do not
think there is much piling and turning done.

My own conclusions, not based on accurate experiments, however, are,
that the best manure I have ever applied was prepared in a covered pit
on which cattle were allowed to run, and so kept well tramped--some
drainage into a well, secured by pouring water upon it, when necessary,
and the drainage pumped and distributed over the surface, at short
intervals, particularly the parts not well tramped, and allowed to
remain until it became a homogeneous mass, which it will do without
having undergone so active a fermentation as to have thrown off a
considerable amount of gas.

The next best, composting it with earth, as above described, piled about
five or six feet high, turned as often as convenient, and kept moist
enough to secure fermentation.

Or, to throw all the manure as made into a covered pit, until it is
thoroughly mixed and made fine, by allowing hogs to run upon it and root
at will; and when prepared for even spreading, apply it as a
top-dressing on grass-land--at any convenient time.

As to how many loads of fresh manure it takes to make one of well-rotted
manure, it may be answered approximately, _three to one_, but that would
depend a good deal on the manner of doing it, and the amount of rough
material in it. If well trodden by cattle under cover, and sufficient
drainage poured over it, to prevent any violent fermentation, the loss
of weight, I think, would not be very great, nor the bulk lessened over
one-half.

Many years ago an old and successful farmer said to me, "if you want to
get the full benefit of manure, spread it as a top-dressing on some
_growing crop_,"