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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ammonia escaping from it. Many also went so 

 far as to erect sheds to protect the pile from the 

 action of tiie weather, and to use pumps, by which 

 the watery parts should be repeatedly thrown back 

 upon the pile, to encourage the decomposition of 

 the woody fibre it contained. For many crops the 

 manure is thus brought into a much better con- 

 dition, and by the fermentation a large proportion 

 of the seeds of weeds would lose their vitality. 

 Such a compost, half loam or peat, is thought 

 better, load for load, than fresh yard manure. 



To recur to the main question, let me again refer 

 to the great German philosopher, who has divided 

 cultivated vegetables into four clasees, according 

 as one or other of tlie important inorganic elements 

 predominates in their ashes. 



1st. — Alkali Plants — Those who contain double 

 alkaline salts, such as beets and potatoes — the 

 vine. 



2nd. — Lime Plants — Those that contain the 

 earths, especially lime and magnesia, as clover, 

 peas, beans, &c. 



3rd. — Silex Plants — Those that contain silex, as 

 the grasses. 



4th. — Phosphorous Plants — Th.Q^Q that contain 

 the phosphates, such as wheat, corn, rye, oats, &c., 

 the cereals — fruits. 



With these lights before us, and with the full 

 understanding and adoption of the proposition that 

 all manure is but food of plants, and that the 

 stimuli of vegetation are heat, light, and perhaps 

 electricity, with which latter upon the present 

 occasion we need have nothing to do, we may hope 

 to indicate a practice in the supply of plant food 

 or manure, that will be productive of good results, 

 and, as a summing up, the following propositions 

 may be announced : 



1st — Ascertain the chemical character of the 

 whole of the plant to be fed or manured — the crop 

 to be grown. 



2nd— Ascertain whether the soil upon which we 

 intend to sow the seed contains a sufficiency of all 

 the inorganic elements needed by the crop. 



3rd — If there be any deficiency of any one of 

 these elements, let it be supplied at once with the 

 needful material, in a condition to be accessible 

 and available to the plant, but we must avoid 

 excess. 



4th — Ascertain whether there be any acrid or 

 poisonous substances in the soil, that would prove 

 injurious to the plant; even an excess of some of 

 those elements that are needful constituents of the 

 vegetation that is desired, will, in some cases, prove 

 fatal to success — this is especially true of the 

 alkalies and alkaline earths in a caustic state ; but 

 the latter, lime, is soon neutralized by exposure 

 to the air. It is also true of sulphate of iron, also 

 corrected by lime. 



5th — In the application of manures of any kind, 

 whether yard manure, more concentrated com- 

 pounds of excrementitious and other animal matters, 

 or those substances that are called special and 

 mineral manures, care must be exercised to have 

 these matters properly comminuted, and for this 

 purpose they may be mingled and diluted with 

 common soil — thus they may be the more evenly 

 and regularly distributed. This is especially the 



case with guano, boiled or ground bones — oil cake, 

 poudrette, &c. 



Gth — In the use of yard manures, the great 

 question, as to whether it shall be applied green, 

 or thoroughly fermented and composted, the answer 

 must depend upon the character of the soil, as to 

 its texture, and also upon the nature of the crop 

 to which it is to be applied. 



/"th — For corn, potatoes, and other field crops, 

 apply it green, and in the spring of the year, par- 

 ticularly on clayey soils. For gooseberries, cur- 

 rants, shrubbery, &c., where it may be useful also 

 as a mulch, apply it on the top of the freshly dressed 

 soil, either in the fall or early spring, but the 

 former is better. For grass lands, apply late in the 

 autumn or early in the spring — without regard to 

 the moon's phase. For gardens, vineyards, and in 

 all cases where it is an important desideratum to 

 avoid weeds, and where the soil does not need the 

 disintegrating influence of decaying vegetable 

 fibre, let it be very thoroughly composted, but let 

 this process and the fermentation attendant upon 

 it be very closely watched and kept under control ; 

 such manure can be thoroughly incorporated with 

 the soil and be accessible to the roots. 



In support of the recommendation to apply the 

 manure unfermented or fresh, I may again refer 

 to the great loss of ammonia that is sustained by 

 fermentation, and also let me assure the timid 

 one that he need not be afraid of losing his 

 manure spread upon the surface, if the soil have 

 been prepared for its reception. Of all the won- 

 derful things on the face of the earth, what is more 

 surprisingly wonderful than the soil itself? * * 

 When we find that its chief ingredients possess 

 the power of retaining just the very elements that 

 are designed for the food of plants, which it will 

 then hold firmly, not allovt'ing them to be leached 

 out by water, but ever ready for the roots of plants, 

 we have reason to admire the wisdom that has so 

 planned and ordered it. 



Baron Liebig, in his recent work on modern 

 agriculture, says: "There is not to be found in 

 chemistry a more wonderful phenomenon, or one 

 which more confounds all human wisdom, than is 

 presented by the soil of a garden or field. 



" By the simplest experiment any one may 

 satisfy himself that rain water, filtered through a 

 garden or field, does not dissolve out a trace of 

 potash, silicic acid, ammonia, or phosphoric acid. 

 The soil does not give up to the water one particle 

 of the food of plants which it contains. The most 

 continuous rain cannot remove from the field, 

 except mechanically, any of the essential con- 

 stituents of its fertility. The soil not only retains 

 firmly all the food of plants, which is actually in it, 

 but its power to preserve all that may be useful to 

 them extends much further. If rain or other 

 water, holding in solution ammonia, potash, phos- 

 phoric, and silicic acids, be brought in contact 

 with the soil, these substances disappear almost 

 immediately from the solution ; the soil draws them 

 from the water. Only such substances are com- 

 pletely withdrawn by the soil as are indispensable 

 articles of food for plants ; all others remain wholly 

 or in part in solution. If a funnel be filled with 

 soil, and a dilute solution of silicate of potash be 



