MANURES. 27 



nothing animal or vegetable should be lost, because everything 

 is serviceable to the ground : old rags, paper, woollen cloth, 

 tanners' waste, gas-tar water, ammoniacal liquor from the gas 

 works, the waste Hme from the gasworks, all and everything 

 capable of decomposing is a dressing for land. In some of 

 these things there must be a little care, in others it matters 

 little how much is put on ; of vegetable waste, for instance, 

 you cannot have too much. Pigs' -dung and poultry-dung 

 ought to be used carefully ; they are strong, and might be 

 used miscliievously, but they should be mixed with as much 

 as their own bulk of some useful soil, and be laid together 

 for a time to rot or amalgamate. In this way the strongest 

 manure may be used. 



The Muck-heap is made up of all sorts of waste, and it is 

 impossible to calculate on the strength of the manure it forms, 

 but one thing may be always done to moderate the strength, 

 so as to prevent mischief. The slops from the house and 

 night-soil are always too strong for use, in any quantity, like 

 other manures ; and the best way to keep them of moderate 

 strength is to mix with something at the time ; road-sand is 

 in general easily obtained, and it would be desirable always to 

 get as much as j^ossible on the premises. Strong slops should 

 always be mixed with as much sand as would absorb it all 

 and lie solid. Soap-suds, vegetable liquor, and ordinary 

 house drainings, might always be thrown into a tub, to be 

 used as common water in watering plants, while strong slops 

 would require ten times the bulk of plain water to render it 

 useful for immediate application to crops ; but those to whom 

 economy is an object must bear in mind that there is not an 

 atom nor a drop of refuse of any kind to be wasted. The 

 better the ground is manured, the better will it yield, and it 

 behoves us to treasure up everything. If w^e are near to the 

 neighbourhood of lime, it is a treasure, because by a little 

 mixture of lime the most offensive of all is immediately ren- 

 dered harmless, and this is so important that it should never 

 be lost sight of. Charcoal has the same effect, and is a good 

 fertilizer. 



EoAD-SAND AND ScRAPiNGS OF DiTCHES. — Eoad-saud, as it 

 is called, being the scrapings of the roads, and which are 

 readily given up in most places, and sold cheap in others, is 

 invaluable in every kind of soil, no matter how light or heavy ; 

 though it is perhaps of the most real service in heavy soils. 



