The bottom of the manure bin is only twenty-four inches below the surface, as on level ground the labor of raising the manure from a deep cellar would be disproportionate to the advantages of the depth. The floor of the stall should be laid in brick and cement, or in concrete, as should be the floor and lower walls of the manure bin. The floor of the stall should be kept covered with dry earth, leaves, sawdust, or spent tan-bark; and the bottom of the bin should be covered to the depth of several inches, with similar absorbents. In the absence of these to-be-preferred materials, weeds, straw, or other dry vegetable refuse, may be used. With the gutter sufficiently inclined, the excessive urine will of itself flow readily to the bin; the solid matter should be removed twice daily, just before the cow is milked. The gutter should be washed down with a pail of water daily, and sprinkled with gypsum (sulphate of lime). The manure pile, as it increases, should be constantly commingled with fresh absorbents. This is most readily and economically done by baiting a pig with a handful of maize cast on the manure in the bin. The lusty porker will go to the bottom of the pile, if need be, for each grain, and by his energetic rooting and trampling, will daily incorporate the materials in the most thorough manner. [Illustration: Fig. 26.—PLAN OF STABLE WITH CISTERN AND MANURE BIN.] On page 260 of Boussingault’s Rural Economy (Law’s translation) are some very urgent warnings against the frequent turning of dung heaps. His objection, Mr. Law thinks, should be limited to more than three turnings of the dung. But this objection and limitation apply to horse manure, the more active fermentation of which rapidly develops the highly volatile salt known as carbonate of ammonia. There can hardly be too thorough a working together of cow-manure, with its organic absorbents, particularly when the working is accompanied by the compacting tread of animals. The pile should be watched, and the slightest perception of the pungent ammoniacal odor should be the signal for more absorbents, bearing in mind that all organic matter thus composted becomes a valuable fertilizer, and remembering that nothing should be left undone to increase to the greatest extent possible the source of your anticipated blessings. The manure bin should, of course, be so covered as to exclude rain and sunshine.