MANUS A HAND. 1 05 



way they are fertilizers. Of course the pease and 

 clover ploughed under are lost as far as crops of pease 

 and clover are concerned ; yet so great is the gain to 

 the next crop, that in many places the farmer can well 

 afford to lose the clover and pea-plants for the sake of 

 the next crop that follows them. The pease and clover 

 are rich in the element called nitrogen ; and this, too, 

 makes them useful for green manure. By the use of 

 green manure, poor and barren soils may be made 

 fertile, and even good soils greatly improved. Plants 

 thus make the cheapest of all fertilizers, and can be 

 used when other manure cannot be obtained. This 

 use of plants also shows us one thing more. If a 

 plant buried in the soil restores to it the elements it 

 obtained from the soil and the air, then all the useless 

 plants in our fields and gardens should be at once 

 returned to the ground. Suppose we have a kitchen 

 or flower garden. We plant pease, and, when the 

 peas are ripe, gather them for the table. There are 

 the vines standing in the garden, and there are the 

 pea-pods. Many people throw both away : the pods 

 go to the waste-barrel ; and the vines are left where 

 they stand, to go on robbing the soil, or they are 

 pulled up, and left to wilt and die in a corner. The 

 true way is to pull up every vine the very day the last 

 pease are gathered, and to bury them with the pods 

 in the ground. We have already learned in our studies 

 of climate, that, when a crop is gathered, the ground 

 should be planted again with some other crop. By 

 using the vines as a fertilizer, we clear the ground and 



