Mature and preparation of manure. 



37 



not been manured at all ; the third year it was better, the fourth 

 year it was still better, the fifth year it reached its greatest 

 fertility ; after which it declined constantly till the ninth, when 

 it was quite exhausted. Here the effect of the manure evident- 

 ly depended upon its progress in putrefaction. 



From this account, as well as from the knowledge we may 

 derive from our own observations and reflections on this sub- 

 ject, it will be seen, that the class of cultivators who depend on 

 the immediate produce of their industry for support, err in the 

 mode of applying, as manure, straw, or other undecayed veg- 

 etable substances. The nutritive powers of this kind of ma- 

 nure, contribute something to its weight, but very little to its 

 bulk ; that may principally remain, when its efficacy in the 

 growth of plants is entirely destroyed ; and this destruction 

 may be effected by its being continually leached in w^ater, by 

 being pushed to excessive fermentation, when deposited in 

 heaps, or being much exposed to alternations of drought and 

 moisture. 



After its dissolution, the residual earth remaining, is very 

 light in weight, and always of a blackish color ; so that what- 

 ever may be the visible bulk of such vegetable substances, 

 after their nutritive elements are exhausted by any of the 

 means which have been mentioned above, or otherwise, they 

 contain no matter essentially efficacious as the proper food of 

 vegetables. 



But the knowledge of the manner in which nourishment is 

 communicated to the plant, is so inseparably connected with 

 the science of preparing and applying vegetable manure, that 

 the principles which relate to both may perhaps be better ex- 

 plained, by considering them in their connection. 



Nature and Efficacy of the different MaNi^res, 

 AND the Best Mode of Preparing and Applyin© 

 them. 



When the soil in the United States becomes exhausted, by 



too frequent cropping, or bad husbandry, as it has in some of 



the northern and middle states^ the knowledge of the nature 



and efficacy of tho different kinds of manure, and the best mode 



D 



