MANURES 17 



MANURES 



In addition to a plentiful supply of water there must 

 also be a bounteous, almost a prodigious, quantity of 

 manure available and the best stable manure into 

 the bargain ; otherwise intensive cultivation is quite 

 out of the question. Good stable manure costs any- 

 thing from 45. to 75. per ton ; and 1,000 tons 

 annually may be required for a garden of two acres. 

 The first year, naturally, is more expensive in every 

 way than succeeding years, and with the progress 

 of time somewhat smaller quantities of manure may 

 suffice. 



When the manure becomes old or spent it is not 

 useless. It gradually becomes trodden down into fine 

 black particles, and in this condition of vegetable 

 mould is a most important ingredient in the soil of 

 every French garden. In some old Parisian gardens 

 I visited, the manure of former years covered the 

 original soil to a depth of two or three feet, and it 

 almost felt as if one was walking on a velvet pile 

 carpet. This old manure, decayed into fine particles, 

 assumes a deeper and deeper tint with age, and yields 

 up its fertilising foods under the influence of air, water, 

 and heat for the benefit of the crops grown upon it. 

 It is used over and over again for spreading over the 

 open borders, over the hot manure in the frames, and 

 over the cloche beds, in layers of varying thickness, 

 and the tender rootlets have no trouble whatever in 

 penetrating its moist, warm, and spongy tissues. 



Besides good stable manure, other manures such 

 as that from cows, pigs, sheep, etc. are also freely 

 used by some growers, as well as night soil when ob- 



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