MANURES. 31 



that whatever can be added that is good in itself is useful 

 even if no better than the rest of the available soil. 



Dressing for Cottagers. — One of the causes of the 

 superior productions of cottagers is the pains they take to 

 collect all kinds of manures, and waste nothing. Many keep 

 pigs, and in such case all the vegetable waste is thrown to 

 them, there to be partly devoured and converted to dung as 

 far as the waste is eatable, and the remainder gets trampled 

 upon and mixed with the filth, and, when cleared out and 

 laid in a heap, forms an excellent, but very strong compost. 

 This requires putting in the ground a good spit deep. It 

 would be too strong to come in contact with the young fibres 

 of seedling plants ; but lying in the ground until the next 

 turning up of the soil, it would give heart to it, and have the 

 best effect ; but pig-dung should always be mixed with some 

 kind of soil even while l}dng in the heap. 



Dressing for INIarket Gardeners. — Market gardeners very 

 frequently dig in the dung just as it is brought down warm 

 from the stables of London, and that in tolerable quantity ; 

 not less for the sake of the warmth there is in it, than for the 

 dressing it gives for the next crop ; for it is said by them that 

 all the ammonia that would fly off during the whole time it 

 lies above ground is retained in the soil. There is no doubt 

 that each plan has its advantages, and it is unwise to lay down 

 any positive rule when we see, as we may every week of our 

 lives, a dozen market gardeners and gentlemen's gardeners 

 producing first-rate crops, and of the finest qualities, and not 

 two of them acting on the same plan in the dressing of their 

 soil. We have seen the finest strawberry plants that coidd 

 be grown, with no other dressing than the digging in of all 

 their own waste ; but there is no recommending this as a 

 general rule, because, perhaps, there was no occasion for any 

 dressing. Many soils are so strong, and so well adapted for 

 peculiar crops, that they would be fertile without dressing for 

 a long time ; but certaiij it is that self-manuring would go a 

 long way if we really took no more from the earth than was 

 exactly necessary. We have heard of vines abroad which did 

 well for years with nothing but the digging in of their own 

 cuttings ; and there never was a more silly habit than sending 

 to market so much unprofitable stuff as we every day see, in- 

 creasing the bulk to carry, and impoverishing the soil. Look 

 at cabbages the greater part of the season sent to market with 



