ately ploughed in, and in the courfe of cultivation is well mixed with the foil, will produce feveral good crops-more or fewer according to the quantity applied, and the nature of the foil. Twenty loads of winter-made dung, of neat cattle, in which there is commonly very little ftraw or other litter, each load filling the body of a cart drawn from the dung-heap to the field, by one pair of good oxen, would be confidered as a pretty good allowance of manure for an acre; yet, if evenly and closely fpread, it would form a cover but a little more than a quarter of an inch thick. Were this thin cover to remain on the furface, expofed to the fun and air, I should doubt whether its effects would be visible much beyond the crop of the year: although if ploughed in as foon as applied, the crops of four or five years would be manifeftly improved. I am induced to think the fpreading of dung on grafs land, the most wasteful way in which it can be used. Only one exception occurs to me: where a meadow well laid down in good grafs lies fo low, and is so moift, as to render it improper to break it up.

I take the opinion to be general, that manure when ploughed in cannot be kept two near the furface; on the common idea that its effence will be diffolved and carried down by rains below the reach of cultivated plants: but if the above theory be correct, this notion is wholly unfounded.

So extremely minute are the mouths and veffels of plants, that the nourishing parts of manure can enter them only in a state of diffolution by water. This element, fupplied by rain, or otherwise, to the earth, during the feafon of vegetation, is, in a regular course, afcending. The effence of manures afcends with it, and the portion not intercepted by the roots of plants, efcapes into the air.

Another confideration forbids me to think that manures are loft by their valuable portion finking beyond the reach of plants, as it would then be forever loft, and the means of renewing vegetable and confequently animal life be fo far diminished: a result which would seem to derogate from the frugal and admired economy of nature. Whereas, what riles into the atmosphere, though loft to the individuals who omit the proper means to retain it, is not loft to the globe: the air contributing its ftores to promote the growth of plants.

From thefe confiderations, the inference feems obvious, that manure arifing from dung, and from all animal and vegetable fubftances, fhould be expofed as little as poffible to the fun, the air and washing rains; and when applied to the foil, be immediately ploughed in. And further, that the aim of the huíbandman, poffeffing a foil from which the effence of his ma nure foon escapes, should be to add fomething which will render it more tenacious; like the foil which, in current language, is faid "to hold manure well." For this purpose, nothing, probably, is equal to clay. Were a bank of clay in my own farm, I should deem it a treasure: because, substantially to meliorate fuch a foil, fo large a quantity would be required as diftant carriage would render too expenfive. Clay marle, were it attainable, would be still more valuable; because it would at the fame time fupply a fubftance, without which, a distinguished British writer,* and in early life a practical farmer, pronounces, that foils cannot attain their highest degree of fertility. That substance is calcarious, or of the nature of lime; being the mouldered or mouldering fhells of animals bred in water. Where limestone is wanting, oyster

*The late Dr. James Anderson.

thells are often burnt for lime. It has feemed to have been the popular idea, in this country, that marle was merely a very fine, rich earth: but without calcareous matter mingled with it, there can be no marle.

But however correct and economical may be the manner of faving and applying manure, the quantity still falls vaftly fhort of the farmer's wants. How to fupply the deficiency merits the deepest attention of the Society. Dr. Elliot, a highly refpectable clergyman of Connecticut, who feventy years ago wrote Effays on Field Husbandry, tried this method: In the road he made a pen, long in proportion to its width, in which he confined his cows every night during the fummer; and once a month, taking down the end fences, ploughed up the pen. By this procefs, he remarks, "the furrow depth of earth was become dung," and when applied to grafs and corn appeared to equal other dung in its effects.

A gentleman of Virginia, one of the greatest and moft fcientific farmers in the United States,* recommends, from his own experience of its benefits, the nightly penning of cattle during the fummer. But to prevent lofs by evaporation, he, at the end of every two weeks at fartheft, fhifts his fence, and forms a new pen; and immediately fecures the riches of the former, by a fingle ploughing. One hundred head of ordinary cattle, of the ages common when raised on the farm, and as many fheep, he fays, will in this way manure eighteen acres annually, fufficiently to produce fine crops of Indian Corn and Wheat, followed by clover. This plan, however, is impracticable on the fmall farms of Effex. Nor is Dr. Elliot's mode, of forming pens by the fides of

* Col. John Taylor, of Caroline county.

the highways, admiffible here. A substitute, adapted to our small farms, may perhaps be obtained in this way :-As foon as all the manure is removed from the barn-yard, in the spring, carry into it any kind of earth most easily attainable, and cover it two or three inches thick. At the end of every two weeks [better if done weekly-but this might be thought too minute and troublesome] add another cover of an inch or two of earth By the last of September there would thus be collected a mass of manure from eight to twelve inches thick, over the whole barnyard. And while the dung and urine of the cattle would thus be in a good degree fecured against lofs by evaporation, the cattle would always find (what they invariably seek for) a clean bed to lie on. If at the times for fowing turnip feed, or winter rye, or wheat manure be wanting, it will be in the barn yard well prepared for thofe purposes. A thin coat of ftraw, or other litter, at the bottom, and a thin fprinkling of it under every fresh layer of earth, might be useful to prevent the latter being trod into hard cakes; while it would absorb a part of the urine, and be itself converted into good manure. The manure made by hogs in pens may be increased and preferved in the fame way, and by the addition of ail the weeds and refuse vegetables which can be collected.

LIVE-STOCK.

In order to encourage the procuring and propagating of improved breeds of cattle, sheep and fwine, the Trustees of the State Society of Agriculture have inftituted an annual fhow of these animals, and given premiums for those deemed the beft. I view it as a valuable inftitution. But, with great deference, I

would inquire, whether giving rewards for the biggest and the fatteft is the beft mode of obtaining the most valuable breeds. Bakewell, the English celebrated breeder of cattle, sheep and fwine, exercised his genius to produce fuch as were excellent in form, of fufficient fize, which yielded the greatest quantity of meat on the most valuable joints, and would grow and fatten on the smallest quantities of food. These circumstances will, I conceive, merit the attention of the Society, should it hereafter have the means of bestowing premiums of this fort. In the fattening of cattle and sheep, there is a point to be attained, at which their flesh will be of the best quality, and most valuable to the confumer. Is not all beyond this a waste of time and expense in their keeping?

The quality of cows is highly interesting to the farmer who makes butter and cheese. Some yield little of either, although giving much milk. And Dr. Anderson mentions an inftance of one cow from whofe milk no butter could be made. She was purchased of a farmer who kept a large dairy, by a perfon who had no other cow; and thus the discovery was made. Thrown into the general mass, her milk had been useless, and her keeping a dead lofs to the farmer. Hence the Doctor judiciously recommends the setting, in a separate pan, the milk of every cow, to afcertain its quality; that fuch as give meagre milk may be fattened and fent to the flaughter-house. This experiment will affift the farmer in felecting the cows most proper to be the parents of his future ftock. Cows which, in equal times, make fatter calves than others, may be prefumed to give richer milk, or greater quantities of a good quality; and the calves of fuch cows may be raised with a fair profpect of obtaining an improved breed.