t farmer and breeder, but also one of our best agricultural
writers, I asked him if he had written anything on the subject of
manures.

"St. Lawrence Co.," said the Deacon, "produces capital grass, oats, and
barley, but is, I should think, too far north for winter wheat; but what
did Mr Harison say?" --Here is his letter:

"I never wrote anything about manure. Catch me at it! Nor do I know
anything about the management of barn-yard manure worth telling. My own
practice is dictated quite as much by convenience as by considerations
of economy."

"Good," said the Deacon; "he writes like a sensible man."

"My rotation," he continues, "is such that the bulk of the manure made
is applied to _one crop_; that is, to my hoed crops, corn, potatoes, and
roots, in the second year.

"The manure from the stables is thrown or wheeled out under the sheds
adjoining, and as fast as it becomes so large a quantity as to be in the
way, or whenever there is an opportunity, it is hauled out to the field,
where it is to be used, and put in large piles. It is turned once, if
possible, in the spring, and then spread.

"The quantity applied, is, as near as may be, 25 loads per acre; but as
we use a great deal of straw, we haul out 30 loads, and estimate that in
the spring it will be about 25 loads.

"If we have any more (and occasionally we have 100 loads over), we pile
it near the barn, and turn it once or twice during the summer, and use
it as seems most profitable--sometimes to top-dress an old grass-field,
that for some reason we prefer not to break for another year. Sometimes
it goes on a piece of fall wheat, and sometimes is kept over for a
barley field the following spring, and harrowed in just before sowing.

"I should spread the manure as it comes from the sheds, instead of
piling it, but the great quantity of snow we usually have, has always
seemed to be an insuperable obstacle. It is an advantage to pile it, and
to give it one turning, but, on the other hand, the piles made in cold
weather freeze through, and they take a provokingly long time to thaw
out in the spring. I never found manure _piled_ out of doors to get too
much water from rain.

"I have given up using gypsum, except a little in the stables, because
the clover grows too strong without it, and so long as this is the case,
I do not need gypsum. But I sometimes have a piece of oats or barley
that stands still, and looks sick, and a dose of gypsum helps it very
muc