642 



FARMER'S REGISTER— PUTRESCENT MANURES. 



always should be; and if one who has no great 

 stock of either, may venture to otrer his mite of 

 contribution towards the attainment of your well 

 inibrmed correspondent's purpose, I will now pre- 

 sent it in the most intelligible waj' I can. 



Throughout J. B's. communication the predom- 

 inant opinion seems to be, that the best general 

 practice in regard to the jjreparation and applica- 

 tion of manures, is, that they should be used in the 

 freshest state comj)atible with whatever degree of 

 fermentation may be necessary to fit them best for 

 food to plants. This seems to be the present opin- 

 ion of a vast majority of the best informed agi'i- 

 culturists — both in Europe and America; and it 

 appears to be as clearly proved as any thing of the 

 kind can be — provided we take it for granted, that 

 previous lermentation, by man's management, 

 really is indispenable. But the great ^'nodus 

 vindice dignus,^'' — the grand difficulty to be over- 

 come is, to ascertain what should be the precise 

 degree of this supposed essential lermentation. 

 Nearly the whole puzzle, in my humble judge- 

 ment, arises Irom all parties having assumed it as 

 true, that irom the incij)ient to the final stage of 

 fermentation in manures, both the evaporable and 

 evaporating substances, not only all constitute the 

 food of ])lants — Avhich has never been proved; but 

 that all have a greater tendency to unite with 

 the atmosphere, than with the earth, which is also 

 an oj)inion without any thing like satisfactory proof 

 Now there is an hypothesis, which I will father, 

 if no one else has a previous claim, — an hypothe- 

 sis strongly corroborated, I think, by J. B. him- 

 self, (as I will hereafter show,) which, if true, 

 will go farther towards putting this much vexed 

 question to rest, than any other that I have ever 

 noticed. 



The earth has truly been called the matrix or 

 common mother of all plants, except the very few 

 that 'tis said, will grow in the air suspended by a 

 thread. Of the natural food lor her ofi^spring, she 

 herself possesses, as all admit, a verj' large quan- 

 tity; but not having enough, where too many and 

 unreasonable exactions have been levied upon her 

 by the reckless cupidity of man, an all bountiful 

 Providence has given her the power — a kind of 

 chemical affinity or elective attraction, (as I beg 

 leave to call it,) of drawing to herself and uniting 

 with all extraneous substances, in contact with 

 her surface, which are susceptible of conversion 

 into the food of plants. This conversion begins 

 the moment these substances touch the earth, if 

 there is any moisture in them, and continues, un- 

 til the rains dissolve every thing in them, capable 

 of solution. Admit this, and does it not follow, as 

 a necessary consequence, that the earth, which is 

 the natural mother of a vast majority of all the 

 plants known to man, must have a much stronger 

 elective attraction lor every kind of food essential 

 to the healthful nourishment of her children — food 

 which she herself has to administer below her sur- 

 face, than the atmosphere can possibly have, 

 which is not their natural parent, and has nothing 

 to do with their nurture, until they appear above 

 ground? ff she has, then will the conclusion be 

 irresistible, that all the gaseous substances which 

 are supposed to be component parts of the food of 

 plants, will first impart, while in solution, to the 

 earth herself; such portion of that food, as she 

 alone can prepare and administer, rather than 

 wait to be carried off with some sort of gas to the 



atmosphere, where it cannot be used, simply be- Jj 

 cause the means and appliances used by the lat- ^ 

 ter, for the nurture of plants, are materially dif- 

 ferent from those used by the former, each hav- 

 ing distinct functions to discharge for the accom- 

 plishment of the same great end, which is the per- 

 fection of every plant that grows. Again, having 

 these distinct functions to discharge, which none I 

 believe deny, even supposing the earth and the 

 atmosphere to be sentient and moral beings, is it 

 rational to conjecture, that either would, if it were 

 possible, deprive the other of any means to pro- 

 mote a common object, which that other alone 

 could apply? Would the earth keep gas, (which, 

 by the way, is as great a phj'sical impossibility as 

 to prevent vv^ater from seeking its level,) when 

 she could not apply it to the nurture of her chil- 

 dren — that application being the natural province 

 of the atmosphere? Or would the atmosphere 

 take fi-om her sister — were such robbery in her 

 power, any nutritive substance which she herself 

 was incapable of applying? A -negative answer, 

 I think, would be given to both these questions by 

 every man whose sole object was truth. 



The only thing assumed in the foregoing hy- 

 pothesis is, that the earth and the atmosphere hav- 

 ing to nourish plants in a different manner, and by 

 different means — one being the nurse below, and 

 the other above ground, neither can possibly take 

 fi'om the other, any thing which itself cannot use 

 for their joint object. Of course, nothing will be 

 taken; and of course, there can be no danger in 

 spreading manure on the surface of the earth as 

 soon as it may be convenient to do so. In sup- 

 port of this theory, I will now adduce, among other 

 proofs, the premised fact from J. B himself. 'Tia 

 true that he gives it in the form of a simple asser- 

 tion; but all, 1 think, will admit it to be both a fiict 

 and a truth, although not according to his logic. 



In commenting upon Avhat he calls "the causes 

 of waste" in the making and applying manures, 

 he says: — "Fortunately hoAvever, for the fertility 

 of the earth, bountiful nature oflcrs to the soil 

 much more than it is deprived of by fermentation: 

 and however great may be the losses sustained, 

 still the gains are greater.'''' Although he has not 

 specified how these gains accrue, it must be ob- 

 vious to all, that it cannot be, in any other way, 

 since the mode is a natural, not an artificial one, 

 than by the frequent deposite, on the sutiice of the 

 earth, of all the deciduous parts of trees and 

 smaller plants. In this mode, you see, nature ap- 

 plies all her restoratives to the surface, there to be 

 dissolved by the rains, and absorbed by the earth, 

 which retains her proper portion, while the exhal- 

 ing gases impart to the atmosphere her congenial 

 part, thence to be returned to the plants through 

 the absorbent vessels of their leaves and other 

 parts. To talk of the latter committing upon the 

 former, either grand or petty larceny, in stealing 

 her property, or to speak of nature as losing or 

 wasting any thing, seems to me, a slander upon 

 her character. God leaves that folly to be com- 

 mitted — only by his creature man, during the va- 

 rious trials to which he is subjected for his own 

 good. 



In the last quotation from J. B. we find the opin- 

 ion very distinctly expressed, that natui-e herselfj 

 in process of time, restores to soils, in some way 

 or other, more than they are generally V)elieved to 

 lose by fermentation. But I beg leave to inquire, 



