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XVIL. On the Alsurdity of burying Weeds and turning-in young 
Crops with the Intention of making them serve as Manure. 
By Mrs, AcNr¥s Ipprtson. 
To Dr. Tilloch. 
/ 
Sir, — To establish facts upon the sure and solid foundation 
of repeated experiment, and to discard all those customs that are 
derived from too hasty conjecture, and which have not been sub- 
jected to proper trials and strict examination, is the duty of every 
botanist and agriculturist. That such an error as burying weeds 
_ and turning-in young crops for the purpose of making manure, 
should have been maintained in regular practice, without any ra- 
tional person considering that it was admitting the grossest con- 
tradiction in practice, if not in words, is most strange. We 
wish to keep our roots, such as carrots, turnips, potatoes, free 
from decay till we want them: for this purpose we place them 
in the earth; cooks and others having experienced that placing 
venison in the soil will either freshen it, or at least stop its 
further progress towards. decomposition. These various trials, 
therefore, prove the earth to possess the power of repelling pu- 
trefaction. How then can we in the same manner, and .at.the 
same season, turn-in our weeds, and the refuse of our -fields 
and gardens, and expect by this means ta procure for that crop 
just put in, manure that will nourish and support it? Is that 
not pretending that the earth. will preserve and at the same 
time decay? Can it do both? If the crop requires manure, is it 
not deceiving ourselves to turn in that matter which will not 
produce it? If the positive proof we have received, both in 
the animal and vegetable world, of the earth’s preserving 
powers, does not suffice to convince us, a trough is easily pro- 
cured. | tried two for three years. We know that potatoes, 
ée, are not only preserved, but that their roots grow, and that 
the plants throw up suckers and new shoots: on examining the 
trough, J found that the grass and weeds had repeatedly spread 
suckers through the top of the case, which proved that they 
were still perfectly alive. Sir H. Davy (that great luminary of 
the physical and chemical world) has said that vegetables do 
not produce manure that can be serviceable to a crop; which, 
when we consider the process the plants must pass through after 
death, before they can be sufficiently decomposed to serve as 
manure, is completely exemplified. There are always three fer- 
mentations sneceeding death, and each ‘takes a long time; the 
saccharine, the vinous, and the putrid, It is easy to know the difs 
ferent states in which the vegetable zs at the time of examination, 
“. verge No. 286. eb. 1822, L since 
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