WITH REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 17 



distance, and forms a manure next in richness to bones. In gardens 

 it may be used as a top-dressing to culinary vegetables, and as an in- 

 gredient in the composition of vine borders. Animalized carbon con- 

 sists of nightsoil of great age; it is sent to different parts of 

 Europe from Copenhagen, where it has accumulated during ages in 

 immense pits and heaps, which some years ago were purchased 

 from the city by an Englishman. It is an exceedingly rich manure. 

 Dry earth is the cheapest and most effectual disinfectant and de- 

 odorizer. 



Bones, though a manure of animal origin, depend for their effects a 

 good deal on their mineral constituents. Next to nightsoil, bones are 

 perhaps the most valuable of all manures. Chemically they consist of 

 gelatine, albumen, animal oils, and fat, in all about 38 per cent. ; and 

 of earthy matters, such as phosphate of lime, carbonate of lime, 

 fluate of lime, magnesia, carbonate of soda, and a small quantity 

 of common salt. In consequence of the animal matters which they 

 contain, crushed bones when laid in heaps very soon begin to ferment, 

 and when buried in the soil previously to being fermented in heaps, 

 the putrescent fermentation goes on with great rapidity. In gardens 

 they should seldom be used without being broken small and fermented 

 in heaps for several months. Bones are valuable as a specific manure, 

 because they contain phosphate of lime, which is an ingredient common 

 to a great many cultivated plants both of the field and of the garden. 

 Bone manure, if used on the same soil for a number of years, is found 

 to lose its effect ; the reason of which is inferred from one cause of its 

 excellence, viz., that the animal matter which it contains acts as a 

 ferment or stimulus to the organic matter already in the soil, by which 

 means this organic matter becomes sooner exhausted than otherwise 

 would be the case. A dressing of bone manure every fourth or fifth 

 year will suffice for most soils. 



Vegeto-animal manures consist of a mixture of animal and vegetable 

 substances, such as the straw used as litter in stables or farmyards, and 

 the excrements and urine of the animals which are kept in them. It 

 may be classed according to the kind of animal to which the litter is 

 supplied ; and hence we have horse-dung, cow-dung, the dung of 

 swine, sheep, rabbits, poultry, &c. All these manures require to be 

 brought into a state of active fermentation, and reduced to a soft, 

 easily separated mass, before being applied to the soil. This is effected 

 by throwing them into heaps, and occasionally turning these heaps 

 till the manure becomes of a proper consistence. When it is de- 

 sirable that these manures should act as mechanical as well as enriching 

 agents, then they should be applied before they are much de- 

 composed. 



In horticulture, advantage is generally taken of the heat produced 

 by manures of this kind, in forming hotbeds, and in supplying heat to 

 forcing-pits by what are called linings, but which are properly casings, 

 of dung placed round a bed of dung, tan, or soil, supported by walls of 

 open brickwork. The dung so placed can be taken away at pleasure, and 

 applied to the soil when it has undergone a proper degree of fermenta- 







