PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 329 



the soil, the competitors have discovered a commendable de- 

 gree of industry and skill, though no new theory has been de- 

 vised, whereby its efficacy has been essentially increased. 



Manures are the elements of fertility, and the basis of all 

 good farming. It is one of the laws of nature, that the nutri- 

 tious elements, which are abstracted from the soil by the culti- 

 vation of plants, must be restored to it again. Without ma- 

 nure, our crops must fail, or illy requite us for the labor be- 

 stowed upon them. There are few who have the raw material 

 in sufficient quantity for all the acres they cultivate ; it is 

 important, therefore, that we supply this deficiency in the 

 cheapest and most economical manner, with a compost suited 

 to the soil and the crops. For argillaceous or clayey soils, we 

 need a compost, the basis of which shall consist of silicious or 

 sandy loams, that it may destroy, in a measure, the adhesive- 

 ness of the soil, admit the genial rays of the sun, and absorb 

 the gases of the atmosphere. For a silicious or sandy soil, we 

 should change the basis to clay, peat or mud ; these should 

 be divested of their acidity, by being thoroughly mixed with 

 a sufficiency of barn yard manure, ashes or lime, to induce fer- 

 mentation. When we take into consideration, that every 

 bushel of good ashes contains five and a half pounds of pot- 

 ash, a quantity sufficient to decompose two hundred pounds of 

 peat mud, and render it an efficient manure, it will scarcely 

 admit of a doubt, that they are the cheapest ingredients (at 

 the present market price,) that the farmer can employ to amel- 

 iorate the condition of his silicious soils ; composted with peat 

 or mud, they are invaluable, but applied alone on soils desti- 

 tute of vegetable matter, they will remain inert, until that or 

 some other organic matter is applied. 



HORACE COLLAMORE. 



Morrill Alleti's Statement. 



At my time of life, with the recollection of having been 

 honored, in repeated in^tances, with the award of premiums for 

 extraordinary crops of Indian corn, my name probably would 

 not again have appeared on the list of competitors for the 

 greatest crop, had not the editor of an agricultural paper, in 

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