Liquid Majiurcs — Comparative Values. 47 



be found sufficiently strong ; if too strong its use would 

 be injurious rather than helpful, and might often 

 destroy a crop entirely. There is far more danger of 

 jrettins: it too strong than of making it too weak. It 

 may be doubted, indeed, whether the diluting element, 

 v/ater, is not, at least, an equal cause of the fertility 

 which sometimes attends its use, when directly applied. 

 The result either of watering or liquid manuring will 

 be less favorable in a cool season than in a hot one ; 

 owing to the reduc'.ioa of temperature occasioned by 

 wet applications to the soil. 



A way of procunng liquid manure — convenient 

 when a small quantity only is required — is to leach 

 solid stable manure as ashes are leached for obtaining 

 Ive. For special results, solutions of specific commer- 

 cial fertilizers are valuable, and are easily made. For 

 instance, liquid nitrate of soda is obtained by dissolving 

 one povmd of the nitrate in twelve gallons of water. 

 It is beneficial to all garden crops, though particularly 

 recommended for grass plats — but its chief value to 

 the vegetable grower is as a destroyer of slugs and 

 other garden pests. 



The most valuable liquid manure is, however, the 

 urine of stabled animals, which when not allowed to 

 run to waste is ordinarily taken up by absorbents kept 

 under the animals, in the stalls or in the cellar beneath 

 them. Sometimes, however, it is conducted by natural 

 flow in gutters and pipes to a tank from which it may 

 be pumped. It is very valuable, more so than the 

 solid excrement from the same animals; and more 

 effectual means of saving and applying it than those 



