MANURES. 135 



vegetable material, whether grown upon the land or in the sea, 

 all of which should be husbanded with the utmost care, their 

 volume and power multiplied by composting with peat, loam, 

 and in some cases sand. As much poudrette can be made from 

 a single load of night-soil by composting it with meadow mud 

 or muck, as can be purchased for twenty-five or thirty dollars ; 

 and of as good quality. Sea manure, consisting of kelp and 

 the various sea mosses, or rock weed when mixed with an equal 

 quantity of muck, will make a compost equal in quality with 

 the best stable manure. The farmer having secured as great 

 a quantity of these materials as possible, has yet another 

 resource, unlimited in extent, easy of access, and with the 

 materials already at hand, may increase .the fertilizing capacity 

 of his manures immensely. 



Chemistry informs us that plants are enabled to absorb large 

 portions of three of the four organic elements which constitute 

 them, through their leaves, viz., carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, 

 while the fourth, nitrogen, though constituting four-fifths, of the 

 surrounding atmosphere, is not thus absorbed, as has been proved 

 by careful experiment ; but must be supplied through their 

 roots. According to the estimate of a careful chemist, three- 

 fifths of the value of barnyard manure is the nitrogen that it 

 contains. Now the question arises, how can the farmer within 

 his own means, draw from the never-failing fountain that nature 

 has so generously provided, and appropriate to the growth of 

 his crops. It is well-known that nitre or saltpetre is manufac- 

 tured by composting animal and vegetable manures with loam, 

 meadow muck and other earthy substances. In short, a good 

 thorough compost heap, well worked, will accumulate nitric 

 acid from the atmosphere in proportion as it is worked over 

 and exposed to it. France has in time of war manufactured 

 two thousand tons of saltpetre annually in this way. Why not 

 make the same effort to promote the peaceful art of agriculture ? 

 An economical, and it is believed a successful method of accom- 

 plishing the same end, is to apply the manure made during the 

 summer, directly to the land, and ploughing it in after harvest, 

 and then ploughing twice in the spring before planting, thereby 

 making a nitre bed of the whole surface of the field. This 

 process seems to be justified by the principle upon which every 

 good farmer composts and pitches over manure to increase to 



