On covered Earth as a Manure, i 77 



[The fertilisino; property of earth taken from pits, welh, or 

 cellars, or that has been for some tinif' kept covered, has long 

 been known. Mr Bordley mentions that ground sheltered by 

 a temporary fodder house 300 feet long and 20 broad, fjr six 

 months, ('October to April) shewed inarks of richness during 

 the five following years, greatly superior to the adjoining; land 

 on which cattle had been foddered for some time. In, aiiotjier 

 instance clay was turned out from four feet in de;Hh in digy;ing 

 a cellar, and two years afterwards the hillocks as foimr»| in 

 turning the clay out of barrows, were sowed with riielon, 

 cucumber and squash seeds, and excellent crops produced;* 

 Col. Forrest of Philad. Co. found a cover of earth from the iloor 

 of a green-house, greatly to promote the growth and produc- 

 tion of a decaying strawberry-bed, and his experience has since 

 been confirmed by others.! An explanation of the fuct could 

 be given, on chemical principles, but it may probably be suffi- 

 cient in a work intended for the use of the practical farmer, to 

 mention a source of manure of which he may often avail him- 

 self; as when removing an oltl house, an old log or frame barn, 

 or hay barracks. I have seen with f egret upon s"uch occasions, 

 the first two spade -depths carted away, instead of being drawn 

 into the barn yard, or put upon a worn out piece of land ; and 

 this too, by men who had no resource of maintenance except 

 the produce of their farms. M.J 



* Efis^ys^anrf notes on Husbandry and Rural Affi'-irs, p. 14S. 272. Philad, 179& 

 t See the,paiiii(^uiars-in.,Con,c*cl?s Agricultutat Al(nan%o of Philadelphia, for the 



