58 



AGRICULTURE. 



CHAPTER VI. 



OF MANURES ; THEIR MANAGEMENT AND APPLICATION. 



THE principle of fertility (the result of animal and 

 vegetable decomposition) is, as we have seen, sus- 

 ceptible of solution, and in this form becomes the 

 aliment of that artificial vegetation which is the 

 work of man, and which leaves so little on the 

 earth to compensate for the great deal which it 

 takes from it. In a course of years, therefore, 

 there will be an actual loss or subtraction of mat- 

 ter, useful or necessary to the growth of plants, 

 and which can only be re-established by manures of 

 vegetable or animal origin. The most approved 

 methods of preserving and applying these must 

 therefore be among the objects most important to 

 the agriculturist; and that the reader may better 

 understand the reasons of the practice we mean to 

 recommend, we begin the discussion with Kirwan's 

 analysis of stable manures.* 



* Tull and Du Hamel's doctrine, that frequent ploughings 

 and sowings superseded the necessity of manure, is no longer 

 held by any well-instructed agriculturist. The maxim of Oliver 

 de Serris is much better founded. " Le bien labourer, le bien 

 fumer, est tout le secret de Pagriculture." Till well and manure 

 well is the whole secret of agriculture. 



