GREEN MANURES. LEAVES. Ill 



but docs not last long, showing its effects, however, more 

 the second year than the first. 



369. The straw and leaves of particular vegetables are 

 the best manure for those vegetables, wheat straw for 

 wheat, potato-tops for potatoes, and the leaves and prun- 

 ings of grape vines for those vines. 



Straw ploughed into stiff clay soils renders them more 

 porous and thus lets in the air, and causes decay not only 

 of the straw but of the organic matter previously existing 

 there. Wheat and other grain stubble on stiff soils 

 should be ploughed in soon after the grain is removed, 

 both for the reason just given, in regard to straw, and 

 because, the fresher the roots, the more rapidly do they 

 decompose. This docs not hold true for light sandy land. 



For hay land, or land to be laid down to grass, damaged 

 hay, not fit for animals, is valuable as a manure. Sedge 

 and the reed-grass of salt marshes are also of use, but 

 less valuable than the substances just mentioned. 



870. The leaves from different trees have very different 

 degrees of value. Poplar leaves, oak leaves and chestnut, 

 beech, and maple leaves, are rich in nutritive matters, 

 while thinner leaves and pine leaves contain very little 

 nourishment for plants. The leaves of the larch are con 

 sidered favorable to grasses, from the fact that hills 

 planted with larches afford better pasturage than they 

 had furnished when they were bare. But this may be 

 the consequence of the land being shaded. All leaves 

 should be ploughed in as soon as possible after they have 

 fallen. Leaves, grasses, young twigs, and all other green, 

 vegetable matter, the very element of humus, arc valuable 

 as manures, and their value is greater in proportion to 

 their freshness when ploughed in ; and whatever is val 

 uable in this way is valuable for the compost heap. 



