FARMERS' REGISTER— PUTRESCENT MANURES. 



643 



why suppose any loss at all from this cause? If 

 the nauu'al means of restoration, only alluded to 

 by J. B. be, (as I suppose,) the rotting upon the 

 earth's suriace all the deciduous parts of trees 

 and smaller })lanls, what is the thodus ('perandi, as 

 lar as we understand it, of effecting this restora- 

 tion.^ As it is nature's method, we must believe it 

 the best; and where is the necessity of supposing it 

 any thing lost in the process, since it is quite irra- 

 tional, as well as unscientific, to imagine /jer capa- 

 ble of wasting any of her precious gifts to man? 

 Would it not be nmch more consistent, both Avith 

 science and reason, to su|)pose, that such parts of 

 her deposites as are designed to restore to the earth 

 her diminished power of nourishing plants — a 

 power which the folly and ingratitude of man 

 alone may have im|)aired or destroyed, are con- 

 verted to that use without any loss or waste what- 

 ever, than to imagine that the atmosphere stole a 

 ])art of these deposites — a part too, which the at- 

 mosphere could not apply? Would it not be a 

 much easier solution ol" the seeming mystery, to 

 believe, that the earth and the atmosphere, by 

 their own peculiar elective attractions will and 

 must divide between them, all the Ibod of j;lants 

 contained in manure, whether such manures be 

 above or below ground; and that theretbre, inter- 

 position by man can only injuriously retard, but 

 cannot prevent it? Na}-, that he cannot, by any 

 imaginable contrivance, cause the one to encroach 

 upon the functions of the other, since nature has 

 proclaimed to each — "thus Jar shalt Ihoa go, but 

 no farther.^'' 



In nature's method of restoring exhausted fer- 

 tility, there is no heaping and j)iiing, and turning, 

 and hastening or retarding termcntation; but when 

 the rains, and the dews, and the heat come from 

 the heavens, the process of converting the decidu- 

 ous parts of trees and smaller plants into proper 

 food for themselves and their successors, com- 

 mences and goes on with more or less natural ra- 

 pidity, until it is finished — the earth doing her du- 

 ty, and the atmosphere her's, without the possibili- 

 ty of any interference whatever. Such an unnat- 

 ural conflict can have no existence but in the va- 

 garies and vain imaginings of man himself Now, 

 if the admirable rule, "follow nature," is to beany 

 guide tor us in improving our lands by manure, 

 how is this to be done? Is it by applying them to 

 the surface, or burying them below it? The an- 

 swer to these questions, if candidly given, would 

 end the controversy forever. But it will be said 

 perhajis, by some who loathe the trouble of stu- 

 dying any subject thoroughly, "this is all theory! 

 what says practice?''^ Let us try then, whether 

 their great oracle, practice, (great, I admit it to be, 

 when truly scientific,) affords no testimony con- 

 clusively lavorable to the opinion which I hav^e 

 ventured to advance. I mj'self can testify to lour 

 different exj)eriments, made with great accuracy, 

 upon cow-pens, alternately ploughed up on remo- 

 val, and lelt unpioughed, having been made and 

 continued from the earliest period in the spring, 

 at which cattle are penned, to the latest time in the 

 fall. The pens were regularly removed once a 

 fortnight — the size of each pen was exactly the i 

 same, as was also the average number of cattle, | 

 during each fortnight, without any variation worth 

 noticing. In every case, without a solitary ex- 

 ception, a purblind man might have seen the dif- 

 ference, most distinctly marked, in favor, not only 



of the corn crop, but of the wheat crop also, 

 whicli immediately followed. The rationale of 

 these fiicts I have already attemi)ted to explain; 

 and if such explanation be deemed satisfactory, 

 your correspondent J. iJ. I hope, Avill admit them 

 to be truths also. Experiments precisely similar, 

 and witli the same results, have been stated to me 

 by not less than ten or fifteen gentlemen of un- 

 questionable veracity — so that I, at least, no long- 

 er entertain a shadow of doubt, as to the best 

 management of the manure from spring, summer, 

 and fall cow-pens. If ploughed in, the soluble 

 parts very soon unite with the subjacent stratum 

 of earth, at a depth too great for such fibrous root- 

 ed plants as form the chrcf of our staple crops, to 

 derive much, if any benefit from them; while such 

 portions as have a stronger chemical affinity to the 

 atmosphere, inevitably find their way to it, al- 

 though some\vhat more slowly perhaps, than if 

 left on the surface. To suppose it possible for 

 gaseous substances to be confined below the sur- 

 face of the earth, at any depth to which manure 

 is ever buried — unless indeed, they were hermeti- 

 cally sealed up in vessels of glass, stone, or metal, 

 seems to me a supposition that would never enter 

 into any man's head who had the least knowledge 

 even of the simplest principles of chcmistrj'. But 

 unless such confinement were practicable, merely 

 b}' the ploughing in of manure, then the above 

 objection to this j^rocess appears to me sufficient to 

 prevent its adoption. When manure is spread on 

 the surfiice, as nature spreads ail her fi^rtilizing 

 substances, the parts of it which naturally have a 

 greater tendency to unite with the earth than with 

 the atmosphere, will all certainly do so immedi- 

 ately after the rains and dews dissolve them; and 

 that too, to the average depth best suited to a 

 great majority of the plants to be nourished by 

 them. 



But the great doubt, the grand difficulty with us 

 slovenly Virginia fiirmers, is said to be, how to 

 manage that principal dependance for improving 

 those exhausted lands which have been nearly 

 murdered by our barbarity and ignorance. I mean 

 the coarse fi\rm-pen manure of which corn-stalks 

 constitute, at least a most conspicuous, if not a 

 verj'^ useful part: corn-stalks! those treacherous 

 little rogues that contrive to steal away our farm- 

 pen gases, in a manner heretofore so unsuspected, 

 and hitherto so inexplicable. 



If hearsay testimony were admissible, I could 

 adduce much in which I myself" entirely confide, 

 to prove that surface-application is best, even for 

 coarse farm-pen manure. But unfortunately, I 

 have personal knowledge of only one case, which 

 having happened on my own farm, where all the 

 circumstances occurred under my own eye, I will 

 venture to state. In regard to the result, there 

 could not possibly be any mistake; neither was 

 there any in the facts which I shall detail. If my 

 hypothesis be deemed insufficient to explain the 

 whole, both as to cause and effect, I invite J. B. 

 or any other of your numerous contributors to try 

 his hand at expoundinj^. 



The case to which f allude, was the following. 

 Some years ago, I had spread and ploughed un- 

 der, (according to Col. Taylor's plan,) as much of 

 my farm-pen manure as I supposed would suflice 

 for that part of corn land — previously ploughed up 

 in beds to be reversed, which I had allotted to re- 

 ceive it. The pens, however, produced more than 



