Therefore we begin by selecting an acre of land which affords the best facilities for laying tile-drainage pipes. An easy slope with a good, open outlet into ditch, run, or gulch, is all that is required. The advantages of a sunny exposure are so obvious that, if possible, we should choose land which trends to the south and east. The tile-draining of one acre will necessitate an outlay of about twenty-five dollars; but this expenditure is indispensable to the obtaining of the best results. THE DUNG HEAP. Truly did the German agriculturist, Schwerz, in seeing the fertile streamlets oozing and trickling away from the exposed manure piles of his opinionated countrymen, denominate the dung heap the “Fountainhead of Benediction.” This, like other blessings, may but too readily be perverted in its uses. Impressed with the necessity of husbanding every part and portion of this substratum of good agriculture, we choose between two distinct methods of saving and utilizing the fluid and solid _dejecta_, viz.: the dry and wet. In the former the _dejecta_ are commingled with such absorbents as dry earth, leaves, straw, sawdust, etc.; in the latter, they are received in a tank where they are mixed with sufficient water to stay loss by too rapid fermentation. The application of the manure under either method is respectively in its dry or in its liquid condition. [Illustration: Fig. 24.—A COW STABLE WITH MANURE CELLAR.] If the dry or absorbent method be adopted, it will be found advantageous to locate the stable on a little declivity, so as to secure a manure cellar with the least excavation. Thus, in fig. 24, _C_ represents a manure cellar under the cow, with a door at _K_ for removal of manure. The floor and walls, to a hight of two feet, of this cellar should be cemented. The floor, on which the cow stands, should be of two-inch oak plank, with a gutter behind, and a trap to empty the contents of the gutter into the cellar. On level tracts of ground the Flemish stable, as used in parts of the Brabant, and as described in the following plan fig. 25, by Felix Villeroy (Manuel de l’Eleveur de Bètes, â Comes, 6 Ed., p. 63), could be advantageously used for one cow. In figure 25, _A_ is the place where the cow stands; _B_, Passage for distributing food, etc.; _C_, Depression where the manure is allowed to accumulate behind the cow; _D_, Cellar for roots; _E_, Hay loft. In this plan the floor _A_ and _C_ would require to be finished in brick and cement, or concrete. The warmth of the stable might, at times, develop a too rapid fermentation of the manure. This would be checked by working the pile and by forking it over. [Illustration: Fig. 25.—SECTIONAL VIEW OF STABLE.] But to secure perfect cleanliness, purity of air, and freedom of the hay stored above from the odors of fermentation going on in the dung heap, the manure would be better placed outside of the stable walls, as suggested in figure 26 (see next page).