38 The Gakden. 



to be rendered friable and soluble to enter again into tbeir 

 composition. As plants can not, it will be remembered, absorb 

 manures in a gross or solid form, tbe last point is an important 

 one, and of universal application. 



Night Soil. — Human excrements, composted with, cbarcoal- 

 dust, ashes, turf, loam, etc., form a most powerful fertilizer. 

 Quicklime should never be mixed with night-soil, for while it 

 neutralizes the odor, it also expels its fertilizing qualities. .^ 



The Bung of Foicls. — The dung of fowls contains the essen- 

 tial qualities of guano, and is next to night-soil in value. It 

 should be kept dry, or else mixed at once with a compost which 

 will retain all the volatile and soluble matters which it contains. 



Other Organic Manures. — Dead animals, blood, -butchers' 

 offal, fish, hair, bristles, hay, straw, leaves, sea-weed muck, 

 rich turf, the refuse from the kitchen, and the slops from the 

 chamber are all of great value as materials for a compost. 



Ashes. — If any dried vegetable product be burned, the incom- 

 bustible substance remaining behind is called the ash or ashes. 

 This, though generally less than one tenth of its substance, is 

 all that the plant necessarily derived from the soil. The sub- 

 stances expelled are carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. 

 They return to the air, fi-om which they were either immedi- 

 ately or remotely derived. The ashes of vegetables, then, fur- 

 nish just the inorganic elements required for their growth. 

 Their value as a manure is evident, and it is astonishing that 

 any person with a garden or a farm can allow a spoonful of 

 them to be wasted. Leached ashes contain all the elements of 

 the unleached, but are somewhat less valuable from having lost 

 a portion of their potash and soda. Coal ashes, though inferior 

 to wood ashes, are still very valuable as manure. 



Lime. — We have already spoken of the value of lime in im- 

 proving the texture of soils. It also condenses and retains the 

 volatile gases brought in contact with it by the air and rains, 

 and converts the insoluble matters of the soil into available food 

 for plants, besides entering itself directly into the composition 

 of nearly all vegetation. 



