1838] 



FARMERS REGISTER. 



469 



the leaves of trees Turnish a material for alimenta- 

 ry manure; and, in as much as the quantity in tiie 

 reach o( most Ihrmors in ^'irgi^i;l, is super-abun- 

 dant, that this resource I'or ierlili/alion, if pro[)er- 

 ly used, would he ol' incalculable value, on all lanJs 

 eo constituted as to he ])rofitab!y emiched by any 

 other vegetable manures. On soils wanting this 

 proper constitution, profit is not to be expected, 

 either from leaves, or from far richer vegetable 

 manures. 



But, putting theory aside, (as its authority is 

 deemed of but small value by most cultivators,) 

 there are enough examples, in the rctriilar prac- 

 tice, and the results, of many succe.^si'ul farmers, 

 to place beyond question the advantage and pro- 

 fit of using leaves as manure. Many striking facts 

 of extensive and successful use of leaves as manure 

 have been reported in the Farmers' Register, in 

 the practices of sundry good farmers, and profita- 

 ble enrichers of land. 



Still, however, many other farmers have com- 

 menced, and made, for a while, energetic efforts to 

 collect and apply leaf-manure, and have encoun- 

 tered so much trouble for so little of appreciable 

 or manifest improvement, that their efforts soon 

 slackened, or totally ceased, because they were 

 supposed not to be compensated. Such was the 

 impression and the course of the writer of these 

 remarks, after a very large use of leaves for one 

 year. But being now satisfied that the failure 

 was owing to his own improper practice, and not 

 to the want of value -n the material used, he will 

 state what he believes to have been his and the 

 general errors in the mode of application; and the 

 few tacts since ascertained, as well as the reasons, 

 which recommend a different and cheaper mode. 



Though nearly the whole of every vegetable 

 substance is a material for manure, and capable 

 of becoming food for growing plants, it is far from 

 being the case that all, of any one substance, is 

 readj^ so to act at any one time. And it may well 

 be with some substances, which strongly resist 

 rotting and decomposition, that the portion which 

 is fit lo feed plants is so small, at any one time, 

 and the proportion of the unfit (and for the time, 

 therefore, hurtful,) so large, that no profit, or 

 perhaps benefit, would be derived from the most 

 abundant applications. No part of vegetable mat- 

 ter is ready to act as manure, unless it is at the 

 time soluble in water; as it is only when fluid, 

 and dissolved, that it can be taken up by the very 

 small absorbing mouths of the roots of plants. (See 

 Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, Lect. I, and VI) 

 Therefore the deduction is clear, that if of 100 

 pounds of leaf-litter, applied as manure, 5 pounds 

 only are soluble, the other 95 pounds are, for the 

 time, useless; and, if buried in or mixed with the soil, 

 may even be injurious to the crop. Saw-dust is a 

 vegetable substance, containing still less soluble 

 matter, and is very slowly decomposable; and 

 though its entire substance also is capable of be- 

 coming food for plants, and of course manure for 

 the soil, yet it has not been found worth using, in 

 any common mode of applying manures. Tan- 

 ner's spent bark, also, for immediate or speedy 

 action, is worthless as manure, and would do more 

 harm than good to the first crop. Vegetable sub- 

 stances, of a more decomposable nature than these, 

 when under a low temperature, continue unde- 

 composed, and of course insoluble, for ages ; and, 

 in that state, are a cause of sterility, instead of be- 



ing manure to the covered soil. Such are the 

 peat lands of Scotland, and other cold and moist 

 countries. In such regions, there is but little of 

 naturally poor land which, if let alone, will not, in 

 the course of time, be covered with some inches' 

 thickness of peat, or pure and solid vegetable mat- 

 ter, formed from the annual dying and deposite of 

 the plants growing thereon ; and in the most fa- 

 vorable situations, this covering of inert and al- 

 most barren vegetable matter, increases to many 

 ttietin thickness. Yet all these vegetable sub- 

 stances are still composed of materials fit to be 

 converted lo food for plants. This conversion 

 of peat has indeed been made, in practice ; and 

 not only in scientific experiments, but economical- 

 ly, and profitably, in practical agricultural improve- 

 ments. The means used were to make the peat 

 into compost, with both alkaline and highly pu- 

 trescent animal manuring substances, so as to in- 

 duce fermentation and decomposition in the before 

 inert and dead peaty matter. Such would be the 

 case with any other of the least decomposable and 

 soluble of other vegetable matters. But though 

 theoretically true, it may well happen that the re- 

 turns from some such substances would not com- 

 pensate the labor and other cost of converting them 

 to active manures. Such, however^is not the case 

 with leaves : which, in this climate, are not too 

 slow or difficult to decompose, even without any 

 admixture of either alkaline or animal matters, 

 and which are far richer in nutriment than the 

 more intractable and insoluble substances named 

 above for illustration. 



But while mamtaining the value of leaves to be 

 important, on account of their great quantity, and 

 usual cheapness, it is not pretended that they are 

 to compare in richness, bulk for bulk, with straw. 

 Upon the grounds stated above, it is presumed 

 that their whole substance is a fit material for food 

 lor plants, and therefore may be entirely converted 

 to manure. But still it will be a ponr manure, in 

 comparison to most others in common use, and of 

 established value. Articles of food lor plants, like 

 those of food for animals, may be altogether nour- 

 ishing; but yet nourishing in very difierent de- 

 grees. Thus, though meat, bread, and potatoes, 

 are all excellent and nourishing food for man, still 

 the nourishment received from an ounce of meat 

 might be as much as from six ounces of bread, or 

 from twenty of potatoes. And still the potatoes 

 may be the cheaper and more fattening and profi- 

 table food, if, to a starving people, forty times as 

 much in quantity can be flirnished as of meat, at 

 equal cost. This is the mode in which the value 

 of leaves should be estimated, in comparison with 

 farm-yard and stable manures. And the farmers 

 who commence their use will be disappointed in 

 the results, if they make their cost (in the labor of 

 preparation and application,) equal to that of farm- 

 yard manure, or expect equal effects, from equal 

 quantities. 



In applying leaves, and in large quantities, as 

 manure, the first object of the farmer should be to 

 make the mode of application as cheap as possi- 

 ble ; and the next, to prevent any of its effects be- 

 ing actually injurious. Neither of these objects are 

 usually attained ; and hence the many disappoint- 

 ments in the early practice, and the general relax- 

 ing, if not entire cessation of effort in this direction. 

 Such was the result of my own early and very ex- 

 tensive use of leaves ; although I did not commit 



