£74 GREEN MANURES SEA-WEED. 



ganic matters which it contains, of the hygrometric properties which 

 it possesses, and of the saline substances which enter into its com 

 position. The agriculturists of Brittany have employed sea-weed 

 as manure from time immemorial ; and so have the people ot 

 Scotland and Ireland. In Brittany, the sea-weed is gathered at 

 periods fixed by law. The first gathering, as well as that which 

 has been cast up by the waves, is given up to the poor. The gath- 

 erings then take place at regular intervals by means of a kind of 

 cutting rake. The sea-weed cut from the rocks is piled upon rafts 

 or thrown into barges, and carried to the shore ; and there is a tiade 

 carried on in the article all along the shores of the channel between 

 Genest and Cape La Hogue, from the Chansey Isles, and from the 

 coast of Calrados. 



When sea-weed is employed in the fresh state, it is ploughed in 

 as speedily as possible. For those kinds of citips which require made 

 manures, the sea-weed is stratified with dung and so left to ferment. 

 In some places the sea-weed is roasted or imperfectly burned, by 

 which, while a large proportion of the vegetable tissue is destroyed, 

 an azotized product is still left behind. Before burning the sea- 

 weed, it is exposed for a time to the air and the rain, and it is then 

 dried, being frequently turned. In this state, it is even used as fuel 

 in places where wood is scarce. One great advantage in sea-weed 

 which has been particularly indicated, is its total freedom from the 

 seeds of noxious weeds. 



Aquatic plants which grow in fresh water may also be employeil 

 as manure ; the common reed cut and buried green, decomposes 

 rapidly. And here I may mention that to destroy reeds which are 

 often a cause of great annoyance in ponds, Schwertz reconmiends 

 lowering the water about 16 inches, cutting the plant, and then rais- 

 ing the water to its old level ; the water enters the interior of the 

 items and they all die in a very short space of time. 



Crops which are buried green, for the improvement of the soil, 

 are also to be ranked in the list of the manures which now engage 

 us. The plan of burying green crops dates from the most remote an- 

 tiquity ; it was greatly recommended by the Honums, and is followeil 

 in Italy at the present day. TUe plants usually grown for the pur- 

 pose of being burned green are colza or colewort, rape, buckwheat, 

 tares, trefoil, &c. The preference, however, is given to one or 

 other of the leguminous plants, such as tares. lupins, &c., plants 

 which appear to have the hijihest power of extracting azotized prin- 

 ciples from the atmosphere ; and indeed the value ot" the whole pra 

 cess is founded upon this fact, for otherwise it would be impossible 

 to give any reason for this long accredited mode of improving the 

 soil. This, too, is one of the ways in which fallowing becomes use- 

 ful ; it is not merely the rest which the land thus obtains, it is also 

 benefited by the vegetables which grow upon it spontaneously, which 

 come to maturity and die, leaving in this way in the ground all they 

 had attracted from the atmosphere, or fixed 'rom the water with 

 which they had been supplied. 



Seeds, Oil-cakc. It is in the seed that by fs; the largest proper 



