require a manure of medium proportion, then the contents of all the courts should be mixed together. The appropriation of dung to the particular crop best suited for it is not so much attended to by farmers as it deserves; and it is not urged by me as a theoretical suggestion, but as practically being the best mode of applying the manure of the farm to raise crops to the best advantage. To make myself more intelligible, I shall suppose that carrots are to be raised on a field of light land; then the land should be dunged in the autumn with a manure such as the contents of the court K, because it contains a large proportion of horse-litter. When potatoes are desired to be raised on heavy soil, which is not their natural one, horse-litter also should be used. Turnips grow best with cow-dung, and therefore the contents of the courts I and 7, and of the hammels M, would be best for them. Should carrots not be raised, and the soil be naturally favourable to the potato, and therefore horse-dung not be specially wanted, all the different sorts of dung should be mixed together, to form dunghills possessing general properties.

2001. There is another matter which deserves consideration before the courts are begun to be cleared of their contents, which is the position the dunghills should occupy in the field; and this point is determined partly by the form which the surface of the field presents, and partly from the point of access to the field. In considering this point, which is of more importance than it may seem to possess, it should be held as a general rule, that the dunghill should be placed in the field where the horses will have the advantage of going down-hill with the loads from it, when the manure is applied to the land. Wherever practicable, this rule should never be violated, as facilities afforded to labour in the busy season are of great importance. If a field has a uniformly sloping surface, the dunghill should be placed at the highest side; but the access to the field may only be at the lowest side, and it may be impracticable to reach the highest side by any road. In such an untoward case, the loads should be taken to the highest side, up a ridge of the field; and frosty weather be chosen to form the dunghill in it, as the cart-wheels and

horses' feet will then have firm ground to move on. But if it is impracticable to lead dung there, on account of the continued soft state of the land, or of the steepness of the ascent, the only alternative is to form the dunghill at the side nearest the access. When the field has a round-backed form, the dunghill should be placed on the top of the height, to allow the load to go downhill on both sides of the dunghill; and, to form a proper site for a dunghill in such a case, a headridge should have been formed for it along the crest of the height, at the time the stubble was ploughed. In a level field, it is immaterial which side the dunghill occupies.

2002. The precise spot which a dunghill should occupy in a field is thus not a matter of indifference. I have seen a dunghill placed in the very centre of a field which it was intended wholly to manure. From this point, it is obvious, the carts must either go across every ridge between the one which is being manured and the dunghill, or go direct to a headridge, and thence along it to the ridge to be manured. This latter alternative must be adopted if the dung is to be deposited in drills; and if not, the drills prepared for the dung will be much cut up by the passage of the carts across them-a practice which should never be allowed when neat work is desired. The dunghill should be placed on a head-ridge or a side-ridge of the field; and of these two places I prefer the side-ridge, because the abutting length of every dunghill prevents the ends of all the ridges opposite them being ploughed or drilled to their proper length. The dunghill on a side-ridge curtails only a portion of the single ridge which it occupies. When a field requires two dunghills, the one first to be used should be placed along a ridge at such a distance beyond the space of ground the manure it contains will just cover, measured from the side of the field from which the manuring is to commence, as that the ridge occupied by the dunghill may be ploughed to its end before it is manured; and the dunghill to be used second should be placed along the farthest side-ridge; but this second-used dunghill should be first formed, being farthest off. Should the weather be fresh and the ground soft, a dunghill should be made on the side-ridge

nearest the gateway, and, should no frost occur, this one should be made large enough to manure the whole field. A large dunghill in one place will doubtless take more time to manure the field at the busy season, than two dunghills at different places; but, in soft weather and soil, it is better to incur future inconvenience in good weather, than make the horses drag half-loads axle-deep along a soft headridge. When proper sites can be chosen for dunghills in fields, the loads, in the busy season, will not only have a passage downhill, but the dung will be situate at the shortest distance from the place it is wanted, and the ploughed or drilled land uninjured by cart-wheels and horses'

feet.

2003. The fields in which dunghills should be formed, are those to be fallowed in the ensuing season; that is, to grow the green crops, such as potatoes and turnips, and for the bare or summer fallow-if there be any-which depends on the state of the soil, whether it be foul or dirty, or whether or not the land can grow green crops. The potato coming first in order, the land for them should first have its manure carried out and formed into a dunghill. The turnips come next, and, lastly, the bare fallow. All the dunghills should of course be respectively made of such a size as to manure the extent of land to be occupied by each crop. The manure for bare fallow, not being required till much later in the season, may be left untouched in the courts, or made in purpose in summer.

2004. I have already said (in 1086, 1087, and 1088) that the courts ought to be completely littered before being occupied by the cattle; but as no one would believe the care that is requisite in laying down straw in a court, except those who have witnessed the inconvenience and loss of time incurred in removing dung from it, this seems a befitting time to show how the inconvenience does really arise. The courts are usually cleared during frost, when time is erroneously regarded of little value, because the plough is rendered useless; but, notwithstanding this common opinion, a loss of a small portion of time, even at this season, may have a material effect upon several future

operations. For example: the hard state of the ground may favour the carriage of manure to a distant field, to gain which, most of the time is spent upon the road. Suppose frost continued as long as to allow time to carry as much manure as would serve the whole field, provided ordinary diligence were used on the road, and no interruption occurred in the courts. Suppose further, on manuring the field in summer, there was found to be less manure in the dunghills, by a small quantity, than was wanted, and that half-a-day, or, at most, a whole day's driving from the steading would have supplied the requisite quantity, it is clear that the one day's driving could have been accomplished in

frost at much less trouble than at the season when the manure is wanted. But this sacrifice of time must be made at the instant, or the field will be deprived of its due proportion of manure. This is no hypothetical case; it has occurred in every farmer's experience. Now, what is the primary cause of this dilemma? Either too much time had been spent upon the road in driving the manure, or interruption experienced in the courts. To which of these two causes ought the waste of time to be properly attributed? With regard to driving, farm-horses get into so regular a pace upon the farm road at all times, that little loss or gain of time can be calculated on their speed; and besides, when a head of carts is employed at any work, each cart must maintain its position in the order, otherwise it will either be overtaken by the one behind, or be left too far behind by the one before. The probability therefore is, that the loss of time is incurred in the courts, and the reason is this:The usual mode of taking away the wet litter from the work-horse stable is to roll as much of it together with a graip as one man can lift, and throw it into a barrow, in which it is wheeled into the court, and emptied on any spot to get quit of it in the shortest time, and left in heaps to be trampled down by the cattle. Backloads of thatchings of stacks, not always dry, are carried into the courts, put down any where, and partially spread. Long straw ropes, which bound down the thatching of the stacks, are pulled along the court. In doing all this-and it is not all done at one time-no idea ever enters the head to facilitate the lifting of the straw after

wards; and when it is lifted before it becomes short by fermentation, considerable difficulty is experienced in the removal of it. A lump of long, damp straw is seized in one part by a graip, and the other part, being coiled in the heap it was first laid down, cannot be separated without much exertion on the part of the ploughman, pulling it this way and that; and in a court occupied by young cattle, it is too soft to be cut with the dung-knife. Another graip encounters a long strawrope, which, after much tugging, is broken or pulled out, and thrown upon the cart with its ends dangling down. In short, not a single graipful is easily raised, and the work is not expedited when a heap of chaff evades the grasp of the graip. Add to this the few hands generally sent to assist the ploughman to fill the carts, and the consequent time spent by the team in the court, and some idea may be formed of the causes which wastes much time in this necessary work. It is not that the men are actually idle, for in these circumstances they may be worked very hard, and yet show but a small result for their exertion; but it is easy to conceive that, in this way, much time may be uselessly thrown away, which might have been saved by previous proper arrangement, and as much time lost in clearing all the courts as would have given all the carts a half or whole day's driving, which is just what was required to remove the dilemma experienced in manuring the field. The only effectual method of preventing the recurrence of so great delay in carrying out manure, is to put down the litter so as it may be easily lifted; and to afford as much assistance in the court as to detain the horses only a short time, and keep them constantly on the road and a constant walk for a short winter day will not fatigue them.

2005. The litter should be laid down at first, and continued to be so, in this manner. On fixing on the gate of the court through which the loaded carts should pass to the nearest road to the fields requiring the manure in the ensuing season, and, after covering the ground of the court evenly with straw, as mentioned in (1087,) the litter should be laid above it in small quantities at a time, beginning at the end of the court farthest from that gate. The litter should be spread with the slope of its

lower part towards the gate, and carried gradually forward every day until it reaches the gate; and every kind of litter, whether from the work-horse stable, the stack-yard, or straw-barn, should be intermixed and treated in the same manner. The straw-ropes, as I mentioned before, (1722,) should be cut into small pieces, and spread about, and the chaff not fit for fodder sprinkled about, and not laid down. in heaps. Thus layer above layer is scattered, until they make a mass of manure of sufficient height to be carried out and formed into dunghills in the fields. Were all the straw for litter cut short with a chaff-cutter, as has been proposed, no precaution would be necessary to spread it about, and the dung would be more easily removed with the graip than the present plan.

2006. When the time has arrived for emptying the courts, the process is begun at the gate through which the loaded carts are to pass, and the dung first lifted there will come up in sloping layers, having an inclination from the ground to the top of the dung-heap, not in entire layers of the whole depth of the dung heap, but in successive small detached layers, one beside the other, and succeeding one after the other, from the gate to the farther end of the court. The empty carts enter the court by another gate, if there be one, and, without turning, take up their position where the loaded cart was before, and has just passed through the gate appointed for it. When there is only one gate to a court, and the court not very large, and the lot of beasts obliged to be kept in it, for want of room to put them elsewhere, it is better for the empty cart to wait on the outside until the loaded one has gone away. When the court is large, with only one gate, the empty cart should go in, and turn round to be ready to succeed the one being filled. On dropping work at mid-day, it will save time, at starting again after dinner, to fill the first cart returning empty from the field, that has not time to reach it again loaded, and return before dinner-time; and allow it to stand loaded, without the horses, until the time for yoking, when the horses are put to it, and it then forms the first load ready to start for the field immediately at the hour of yoking.

2007. On clearing a court, or any part of it, it should be cleared to the ground; because the manure made from a dung-heap that has been simultaneously formed, will be more uniform in its texture than that made from a heap composed entirely of new dry straw on the top, or of old and wet straw at the bottom. Besides, it is much better, for the future comfort of the cattle, that the court receive a fresh dry littering from the bottom, than that the wet bottoming should remain.

2008. Cattle sometimes are injured by a cart or horse when the court is emptying; and, to avoid the risk, they should be confined in the shed as long as the people are at work in the court.

2009. To form a dunghill in the field requires some art. A dunghill having a breadth of 15 feet, and of four or five times that length, and of proportionate height, will contain as much manure as should be taken from one spot in manuring a field quickly. Suppose that 15 feet is fixed upon for the width, the first carts should lay their loads down at the nearest end of the future dunghill, in a row across the whole width, and these loads should not be spread very thin. Thus, load after load is laid down in succession upon the ground, maintaining the fixed breadth, and passing over the loads previously laid down. On frosted ground the bottoming is easily formed. After the bottom of the dunghill has thus been formed of the desired breadth and length, the further end is made up, by layer after layer, into a gradual slope upwards from the nearest to the farthest extremity. This is done with a view to effecting two purposes; one to afford an easy incline for the loaded carts to ascend, the other to give ease of draught for the horses to move along the dunghill to all parts, to compress it firmly with the carts. Every cart-load laid down above the bottom layer is spread around, in order to mix the different kinds of dung together, and to give a uniform texture to the whole heap of manure. To effect this purpose the better, a field-worker should be employed to spread the loads on the dunghill as they are laid down; the ploughmen being apt to spread it as little as possible. When the centre has reached the height which will enable the dunghill to contain

the desired quantity of manure, that height is brought forward towards the nearer end; though the centre will first attain the greatest elevation, as a slope at both ends is required-one to allow the carts to take up the requisite quantity of dung from one end, and another to allow them to come easily off at the other end. It is essential to have the whole dunghill equally compressed, with a view to making the manure of similar texture throughout. After the carting is over, the scattered portions of dung around, and the thin extreme ends of the dunghill should be thrown upon the top, and trampled down, and the entire top brought to a level. Such a finishing to a dunghill is very generally neglected.

2010. The object aimed at by the compression of the dunghill by the loaded carts, is to prevent immediate fermentation. So long as the temperature continues at its average degree in winter of 45°, there is little chance of much activity in the interior of a dunghill; but towards spring, when the temperature increases, it will show symptoms of action; but even then a temperature of 65° is required to begin the second stage of fermentation. The first fermentation only evaporates the water, and the destruction of fibre only commences with the second stage of fermentation.

2011. Covering the dunghill in the field with a thick layer of earth, with a view to exclude the air and check fermentation, is unnecessary in the coldest months of winter, though of service in spring to a dunghill which is not to be immediately turned. A dunghill, made up in a loose manner at once in graipfuls from each cart-load, gives, in effect, the dung a turning, and, when even covered with earth, soon becomes fermented enough for an early crop, such as beans; but if it is not to be used until an advanced period of the season, when the temperature will have increased considerably, the loose dung will ferment too rapidly. The new-made dunghill thus formed should therefore be covered with earth or not, according to the use to be made of it.

2012. The dung in the hammels, and especially in the hammels M, will be found much more compressed than that in the large courts I and K, in consequence of

the heavy cattle moving over it so often within a limited space. It is sometimes so compressed as almost to resist the entrance of the graip. To enable it to be easily lifted, it should be cut in parallel divisions with the dung spade, fig. 191. Fig. 191. This consists of a heartshaped blade of steel, thinned to a sharp edge along both faces; and its crosshead, or helve, is fastened to it with nails into a split socket. The height of the spade is 3 feet, length of the cross-head 18 inches, length of the helve 18 inches, and length of the blade 16 inches, its breadth 10 inches. It is sharpened THE DUNG-SPADE. with a scythe-stone. In using this spade, it is raised with both hands by the cross-head, and its point thrust with force into the dung-heap, making a rut across the dunghill. The blade, it will be observed, is heart-shaped, not squared like a common spade, because, when cutting the dung-heap to a greater depth than the length of the blade, the rounded ears escape catching the dung which square ones would, on the blade being drawn up. A man's strength is required to use this spade effectively, a woman's being too weak. Another instrument for cutting dung is like the common hay-knife, and used in like manner, but is not so efficient as this implement.

2013. It is a practice of some farmers to keep the dung from the cow-byres in a loose state in a dung-court, enclosed with a stout wall 3 or 4 feet in height, into which the dung is wheeled as it comes from the byre, on a plank as a roadway for the barrow to ascend, and it is allowed to accumulate to the height of the walls, or even more. The dung never requires turning, and soon becomes in a state fit for potatoes or turnips. This plan saves the trouble of turning the dung, but the dung must be led direct from the court to the field at a season when labour is precious, and, when the field is distant, the extra time spent in taking out the manure may more than counterbalance the cost of turning. This dung may be reserved for a near field, but the nearest may be found to be at an inconvenient distance in the busy season.

2014. Of late years the carting out of dung, as described above, has been objected to, because, as alleged, the gasses useful to vegetation are thereby dissipated. I do not see the force of this objection in winter, when, certainly, no decomposing process can naturally originate or proceed in the dung-heap. Water, it is true, may be evaporated at a very low temperature, even below 50°, but what harm can accrue from this? and if dung must be prepared by fermentation for some crop, of what avail is it to prevent fermentation, if the manure is no more than sufficiently prepared when applied? Of course, waste of the materials of the dung-heap should be provided against. To provide against waste from fermentation, it has been suggested to make the dunghills under cover, instead of in the open air, in order to ward off the rain and keep the heap dry, as the rain may dissolve and carry off the soluble salts of the dung. The shed would certainly keep the dunghill dry, and thereby retard its fermentation, but whether the dung would be as good by the treatment, would depend upon circumstances. If the large courts, as also those of the hammels -which are at present open to the air-were covered, so as to prevent the rain falling on the dung-litter, the state of the dung would be the same as that is at present which is made under the sheds of the courts and hammels, and which is avowedly too dry to make good manure, and could never make good manure at all, unless it were mixed with the wet dung-heap of the open courts. To have the dung-litter moist enough by the urine alone of the animals, less litter must be laid down in the courts so covered, than is at present in the open courts. So little straw would then be required to be used in litter, that the dung-litter would be unable to support the weight of the cattle, and their limbs would penetrate through it a state to which cattle ought not to be subjected. It thus seems to be desirable, for the sake of both cattle and the manure, to use the straw in litter, so as to make the dung-heap as moist as will make good manure, and as firm as will easily and comfortably support the weight of the cattle. Both these requisites cannot be obtained under a covered shed; and if the present mode is really injurious to the manure, the only alternative is to put the cattle under cover, in byres, and manufacture the manure as desired; but before such a change can be accomplished, the treatment of young cattle in winter, and the plans of steadings, would require to be entirely altered.

2015. It has been made a subject of complaint against farmers, that uncovered courts receive so much rain so to dissolve and carry off a large proportion of the valuable salts contained in the urine and dung of the cattle. This evil, in my opinion, does not arise so much from the want of a cover over the courts, as the want of waterspouts along the eaves of those parts of the steading which immediately border upon the courts. The courts can receive no more rain than falls on their areas, and this, we have seen, (in 654,) does not exceed, during the winter quarter at least, 1.92 inch in depth-a quantity which could easily be absorbed and retained in the litter, were the rain to fall gradually. The roofs