MANURES. 75 



seldom that people generally give the matter a thought 

 until garden-making time comes around in the spring, 

 and then anything in the form of manure is carried into 

 the garden, and applied whether fit or unfit. This is not 

 the proper course. 



Every garden should have its manure heap, that, in the 

 fall or spring, when it comes to be applied, will cut like 

 paste. In that state only is it safe to apply it. All parts 

 of it are then decomposed thoroughly ; all seeds of 

 noxious plants are dead, and it is in a condition capable 

 of yielding at once, to the roots of growing plants, healthy 

 nutrition, that will produce a vigorous, firm, sound, and 

 fruitful growth ; and this is precisely what is wanted : 

 far better to have a tree starved and stunted, than forced 

 into a rank, plethoric growth, with crude, ill-prepared 

 manures. 



SECTION 2. PREPARATION OF MANURES. 



The best gardeners pursue a system something like 

 this : A trench is prepared, two or three feet deep, and 

 large enough to hold what manure may be wanted. In 

 the bottom of this trench, a layer of muck, grassy turf, 

 ashes, anything and everything capable of being decom- 

 posed, is laid down, say a foot deep. On the top of this, 

 a thick layer of stable or barn-yard manure, two or three 

 feet deep, then another layer of muck, gypsum, etc. In 

 this way it remains until more manure has accumulated 

 around the stables ; it is then carried and deposited in 

 another layer, with a layer of the other materials on the 

 top. The manure should always be saturated with mois- 

 ture, and trodden down firmly to hasten its decay; and if 

 an occasional load of night soil could be mixed in with 

 it, all the better. The layer of muck and other substances 

 being always placed on the top of the last layer of 

 manure absorbs the evaporations of the heap, and hastens 



