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MANURES. & 31 
manure, which will absorb the superabundant moisture which they 
contain, and will thus permit their vegetable fibre to decompose 
. Peat, when saturated with water, abounds in tannin; and this sub- 
stance preserves both vegetable and animal matter frora decomposi- 
tion. Thus, as no growing plant can absorb nutriment from vegeta- 
ble matter, unless it be first thoroughly decomposed ; peat, though 
abounding in the elements necessary for the food of plants, can af- 
ford them no nourishment till it has been deprived of its superfluous 
moisture. Heath mould does not require any substance to absorb 
its moisture, as the sand with which it is mixed answers that pur- 
pose; and from the quantity of vegetable matter that it contains 
naturally, it does not require any manure, more than what is fur- 
nished by the decaying leaves of the plants grown in it. 
Nearly the same rules apply to decaying leaves and other sub- 
stances used as manure, as to stable-dung. They may be buried in 
an undecayed state in clayey soil, when the object is to separate the 
adhesive pzeticles of the clay by the process of fermentation; but 
their component parts should be separated by fermentation before 
they are applied as a manure to growing plants. Vegetable mould, 
(that is, leaves thoroughly decayed and mixed with a little rich loam,) 
is admirably adapted for manuring the finer kinds of flowers, and 
plants in pots. There are many other kinds of manure used in gar- 
dens occasionally ; such as the dung of pigs, rabbits and poultry, 
grass mown from lawns, parings of leather, horn shavings, bones, 
the sweeping of streets, the emptying of privies, cess-pools, and 
sewers, the clipping of hedges and pruning of trees, weeds, the re- 
fuse of vegetables, pea-halm, &c. All these should be fermented and 
applied in the same manner as the common kinds of manure. 
The following is a summary of the general rules to be observed in ma- 
nuring and improving soils :—Never to use animal manure and quick- 
lime together, as the one will destroy the other. To use lime asa 
manure only in very moist peaty soils, or in soils which have been 
injured by want of drainage, and a superabundance of manure. To 
take care that lime, when applied, is mixed intimately with the soil, 
and not laid on the surface to be washed in by kd rain. Toremem- 
ber that rotten manure is considered to give solidity; and that unfer- 
mented manure, buried in trenching, has a tendency to lighten the 
soil. To dilute liquid manure from a dung-hill with water, before 
applying it to growing plants; as otherwise, from the quantity of 
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