174 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[June, 



seed. Manure, then, gathers infinite importance. 

 There may come a condition of soil that nothing 

 but manure will restore. Rotation of crops, fal- 

 low, trenching and deep plowing cannot fully or 

 adequately bring it back into good "heart" or fine 

 "tilth." These means only serve as a partial reno- 

 vator. Prof. William Rhind, Mareschal College, 

 Scotland, in his great work, " History of the Vege- 

 table Kingdom," says : "Soils in a state of culture, 

 though consisting originally of the due proportion 

 of ingredients, may yet become exhausted of the 

 principle of fertility by means of too frequent 

 cropping, whether by repetition or rotation of the 

 same, or of different crops. In this case it should 

 be the object of the phytologist, as well as of the 

 practical cultivator, to ascertain by what means 

 fertility is to be restored to an exhausted soil, or 

 communicated to a new one. Even upon the plan 

 of rotation, the soil becomes at length exhausted, 

 and the cultivator obliged to have recourse to 

 other means of restoring its fertility." 



Draining and burning the soil are equally un- 

 available in renewing land. It may be well to 

 mention the benefit accruing from burning. It is 

 the decomposition of the vegetable substances 

 contained in the turf, and subjected to the action 

 of the fire, which dispenses part also of the 

 superfluous moisture, but leaves a residue of 

 ashes favorable to future vegetation. " But it 

 often happens," says Rhind, " that the soil can 

 no longer be ameliorated by any of the fore- 

 going means, and in this case there must be a 

 direct and actual application made to it of such 

 substances as are fitted to restore its fertility. 

 And hence the indispensable necessity of manures, 

 which consist chiefly of animal and vegetable 

 remains, that are buried and finally decomposed 

 in the soil, from which they are afterwards ab- 

 sorbed by the root of the plant in a state of solu- 

 tion." It stands to reason that land cannot forever 

 be drawn upon and not become sterile ; that is, if 

 nothing be furnished it to replace what has been 

 extracted. This is exactly the principle involved 

 in manuring. Says Morris Copeland, in " Country 

 Life," " We know that any plant cultivated on an 

 acre of land for many successive years without 

 manure, finally reduces that acre to sterility. It 

 will bear no more of its old crops. The reason 

 for this seems to be that the constituents of which 

 that crop is composed are withdrawn to such an 

 extent that there is not enough left to support new 

 plants ; not, enough, I mean, in a form adapted to 

 the plants." 



Now, if manures be absolutely necessary, what 



are they, and which is the best ? There are many. 

 First and foremost, the animal manures, fish, 

 bones of animals, lime, gypsum, wood ashes, 

 common salt, soot, peat earth, sea weeds, malt 

 dust, rape cake and linseed cake, green suc- 

 culent plants, and commercial fertilizers. I would 

 call special attention to bran as a fertilizer. It is 

 of great value. I would urge tillers of the soil to 

 experiment with it on a small scale at first, to test 

 the matter for themselves. The results will con- 

 vince them. I have said that constant cropping 

 without ever fertilizing, will ultimately render it 

 worthless. Copeland states, "Take the best soil 

 and cultivate it without manure. For many years 

 the crops will be undiminished, but will ultimately 

 decrease. The land is at first in what is called 

 good heart; the balance is large and crops can 

 draw on it to any extent without danger of check ; 

 but to ensure a continuance of this fertility, and to 

 exactly carry out nature's laws, we must return to 

 the soil as much of the constituents of the crops as 

 they remove. Unless we restore the elements we 

 take from the soil in crops, we shall ultimately 

 impoverish it." 



Which is the best mauure ? Sheep dung. 

 In a fresh state it consists of water, 68.71 ; 

 arotized matter, 23.16; saline matter, 8.13, in 100 

 parts. The 8.13 parts of saline matter is composed 

 of phosphate of lime, magnesia, silicate of potash, 

 common salt and silex. Says Copeland, "So pow- 

 erful is this manure, that it is said that 1,000 sheep 

 folded on an acre one day, would manure it suffi- 

 ciently to feed 1,001 sheep, if their manure could 

 all be saved ; so that by this process, land which 

 can the first year feed only 1,000 sheep, may the 

 next year, by their droppings, feed 1,365. Spren- 

 gle allows that the manure of 1,400 sheep for one 

 day is equal to manuring highly one acre. In 

 France it is allowed that one sheep manures about 

 ten and a half square feet of land per night — when 

 folded on the land. I dwell particularly on sheep 

 excrement, for I am a great advocate for sheep 

 grazing, for various reasons, not the least, their 

 rich droppings. Horse manure is composed of 

 water, 75.31; geine, or organic matter, 20,57; 

 salts, 4.02, in 100 parts. The geine has carbon, 

 9.56; hydrogen, 1.26; oxygen, 9.31; nitrogen, 

 0.54. It is nearly double the geine of cow ma- 

 nure. Cow manure, in 100 parts — Geine, 15.45; 

 salts, 0.95 ; water, 83.60. Organic matter — Nitro- 

 gen, .505; carbon, .234; hydrogen, .824; oxygen, 

 4.818. 100 parts fresh cow dung afford five- 

 eighths pounds nearly pure ammonia, or about 

 two pounds two ounces carbonate of ammonia. 



