126 OP FERTILIZERS. 



many animal and vegetable substances will have collected 

 and been completely decomposed. The mud at the bot 

 tom will be made up of the remains of these substances 

 and of earth completely saturated with their elements. 

 Such mud must be full of fertilizing material. It is 

 therefore a great and unnecessary waste to allow the 

 scourings of hills near the homestead, and especially of 

 streets and roads, to pour themselves directly into brooks 

 and rivers, and to run off and be lost in the sea. A little 

 care may prevent this. They may be made to pour upon 

 low grounds, and a low mound of earth may detain them 

 and allow them to deposit their mud. 



402. A compost for trees to be planted on meagre, 

 sandy soil, should be prepared of clay well mixed with 

 muck or marsh mud, and with lime or marl. For clayey 

 soil one of sandy loam, light muck and lime, with a por 

 tion of barn manure. Bog earth or peat, with lime, makes 

 a good compost for almost any land except boggy land. 

 To each of these a most important addition is ashes, or 

 potash, or substances containing potash. The leaves of 

 all trees, indeed all leaves, and weeds, and the small 

 branches of all shrubs, are rich in potash, and are a 

 natural manure for trees. 



These, prepared long before hand, and thoroughly 

 mixed with the soil, will have a surprising effect upon the 

 growth of tfees. 



A good compost for any common crop is made of one 

 cord of barnyard manure, with two or three of muck, 

 MVMMIJ) mud, or loam, and ashes or potash. 



A compost which has been successfully tried by a 

 careful oltsrrvor is made of farmyard manure, twenty- 

 five bushels, muck or mud, twenty-five bushels, and six 



