MANURES. 19 



face, and dig it in one spit deep, there to leave it until the 

 ground is wanted for cropping again, when it will only require 

 levelling or drilling, as the case may be, to receive the plants 

 or seeds without again disturbing it. There is yet another 

 mode of partially applying manure, which is by spreading it 

 over the surface, and allo^ving it to wash in by the rains. 

 But this mode of apjDlication is more adapted to other and 

 more powerful manures, such as bone-dust, wood-ashes, poulti-y 

 dung, guano and its substitutes, and, generally speaking, all 

 those dressings which require but little in bulk to be given. 

 All sorts of dung intended to be used for manuring the garden 

 should be laid in heaps to rot ; for, among other reasons, it 

 lies in a smaller compass, and there is not so much labour in 

 wheeling it on to the ground. 



In solving, it is a practice to use powerful manures in small 

 quantities at the same time — that is, manures prepared on 

 purpose. There are now many preparations to be used as 

 substitutes for natural dungs. Nightsoil disinfected may be 

 purchased in a granular state fit for sowing. This and many 

 other substances have been prepared with a view to being 

 drilled into the ground with or under turnip or other seeds. 



MA^UEES. 



Ground, in a state of nature, may be rich and require 

 nothing, or poor and want everything that can be done for it ; 

 but there are certain manures that cannot injure by excess, 

 while others may be useless or mischievous. Among the 

 most certain and useful may be reckoned — 



Vegetable Mould, or Decayed Vegetables. — This com- 

 prises all the waste of a garden, the leaves swept up by the 

 road-side, and from under all the trees on the estate, or any 

 neighbouring forest. This and other vegetable matter, laid 

 in heaps to rot, may be laid on the ground, or dug in with 

 impunitj'-, for it is simply returning to the earth what has 

 been taken from it, with certain perfectly innocent or useful 

 adflitions, taken from the atmosphere — for it would be idle to 

 suppose that the plants, from a daisy to an oak, lived entirely 

 on what has been withdrawn from the soil. Vegetable manure, 

 therefore, is decidedly a safe and useful dressing, and it would 

 be difficult to apply too much. Many dig into the ground all 

 the waste of the crop they are taking off. There is but one 



b2 



