60 HORTICULTURE LECT. iv 



also piggeries. This kind of manure is taken first 

 as being more generally used than any other, because 

 more accessible to the majority of cultivators. It is 

 also a safe form of manure, and when good, contains 

 those elements of plant food which our experiments 

 have shown to be indispensable. 



A ton of farm-yard manure should contain at least 

 nine to fifteen pounds of nitrogen, nine to fifteen 

 pounds of potash, and four to nine pounds of phos- 

 phoric acid. There is from sixty to eighty per cent, 

 of water in it, taken up by the litter, the decay of 

 which produces humus, which in due course does good 

 work in the soil. No doubt there is, and always has 

 been, much waste in the manufacture of farm-yard 

 manure, by the draining away of its juices in the 

 form of dark liquid, and the escape '.of pungent gases 

 (through overheating), leaving the heap a mere husk 

 a dead body from which the spirit has gone. 



When good natural, or farm-yard, manure can be 

 obtained or prepared, it should be used freely, say at 

 the rate of forty or fifty cart-loads to the acre, or 

 three or four good barrowfuls to a rod, according to 

 the condition of the soil and requirements of the crops 

 to be grown. 



Compost Heaps. All animal and vegetable re- 

 fuse, including leaves of various kinds, soft weeds 

 piled in a heap, whitened with lime, covered with soil 

 and moistened with soap-suds, dish washings, and bed- 

 room slops, thrown on frequently, decays and becomes 

 a store of rich food for crops. If turned over a few 

 times and sprinkled with soot, the heap will be in- 

 creased in value, while if covered with soil, after 

 throwing waste liquid refuse over it occasionally, the 

 mass will not be in the least offensive. When decayed 

 and friable the compost is good for digging into the 

 ground for all crops, and for sprinkling on the surface 



