160 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



that amount of manure. But this is far from being 

 the fact. The dried leaves I have found to stand 

 relatively to the leached organic matter of manure, 

 as 10 to 30, in ash value ; and when the soluble 

 salts of manure are taken into account, the com- 

 parative value is as 10 to 60, weight for weight. 

 A cord of dry forest leaves, made up of the usual 

 deciduous varieties, maple, beech, oak, etc., has 

 an actual manurial value of not over fifty cents, 

 reckoning good stable manure at eight dollars the 

 cord. Will it pay to collect them ? Certainly not, 

 for the amount of fertilizing material they contain. 

 As litter or absorbents in the stable, leaves have 

 some value, but much less than straw, inasmuch 

 as they lack the reedy, character of straw, and be- 

 cause they are far more slowly decomposed. 



A pound of good, thoroughly formed peat, taken 

 fresh from the meadow upon my farm, lost a iittle 

 more than fourteen ounces of water in drying. A 

 farmer drawing from his meadow a cord of peat 

 weighing 4,000 Ibs. has upon his wagon 3,500 Ibs. 

 of water, and but 500 Ibs. of the dry material he 

 seeks. This, dried'Vnd compressed, could be placed 

 in a couple of our largest farm baskets. The 

 amount of ash constituents in the pound of peat, 

 after drying, was a little less than 10 per cent. ; so 

 that when we reduce the heavy load of peat, which 

 to the eye appears so bulky and valuable, down to 



