The Canadian Horticulturist. 



SUBSTANCES WHICH GIVE MANURE ITS VALUE. 



J 



ANURE, without doubt, was the first fertilizer employed 

 in a general and systematic manner by the tillers cf 

 the soil. Its use dates back to the beginning of regularly 

 organized cultivation of the soil. The constant and 

 rational use of this fertilizer is evidence of the effec- 

 tiveness which is universally conceded to it and of the 

 beneficial influence which it exercises on the physical and 

 chemical properties of the majority of soils. Manure is, in fact, what might be 

 termed a perfect fertilizer — it is at the same time organic and mineral ; it 

 contains nitrogen, phosphates, potash, and lime ; its organic matter decomposes 

 readily ; its physical character promotes aeration of the soil, rendering it more 

 porous, and facilitating the respiration of the roots and the nitrification of the 

 nitrogenous materials which nourish plants ; finally, manure is a fertilizer which 

 repairs the losses of humus substances from the soil. It has long been main- 

 tained that these substances are unavailable to plants in their original state, and 

 that time must be allowed for their decomposition and transformation into 

 soluble products, but experiments conducted by Petermann at the Agronomic 

 Institute of Gembloux, Belgium, have shown that these substances just as they 

 exist in the soil are capable of being dialyzed through membranes and are 

 therefore assimilable by plants, at least by certain species of plants. 



In extended studies of the composition of straw the author discovered a 

 very carbonaceous substance which Deh^rain has named decomposable 

 vasculose. This substance appears in the manure in large proportions, and, as 

 is explained further on, one benefit derived from the application of manure to 

 the soil is the restoration of this carbonaceous principle which is exhausted by 

 growing certain plants. It is therefore desirable to so conduct the preparation 

 of the manure that those fermentations are promoted, which will give, even at 

 the loss of a small amount of nitrogen, a fertilizer containing in a free state a 

 large quantity of black substance {matiere noire). It should be mentioned, 

 however, that many agriculturists do not adopt this idea and look upon manure 

 principally as a means of returning to the soil the nitrogenous and mineral 

 matters removed by crops. These authorities are, therefore, especially concerned 

 to prevent the loss of these substances by various means which arrest or prevent 

 unusual fermentation of the manure itnd as a" consequence the formation of black 

 substance. 



In the following table we calculate from these figures the quantities of 

 fertilizing materials contained in the solid and liquid excreta discharged per 

 head yearly by the principal kinds of farm animals : 



