60 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



MANURING AND MANURES. 



Manuring, then, is to furnish to the plant, in a fit state and 

 under suitable conditions, those elements which are essential 

 to its healthful growth ; in other words, to feed it, accompa- 

 nied with such stimulants as will induce more vigorous action 

 in the appropriation or assimilation of the food we offer. Some- 

 times, indeed, we modify the form, or withhold the stimulants, 

 having rather in view permanent than immediate benefit, as 

 when we apply alone crushed bones, lime, unrotted manure, 

 muck, etc., all of which we use with more or less calculation 

 of benefit to future crops, or to the composition of the substance 

 of the soil. There is, however, much yet to be. learned as to 

 the precise modes of operation of divers manures, and the pe- 

 culiar secretions of different vegetables. As an illustration, 

 we may instance the fact that white bush-beans, which con* 

 tain some sixty or more per cent, of largely nitrogenous nutri- 

 ment, are so commonly raised upon poor land that it has be- 

 come proverbial to say of soil absolutely impoverished, it is 

 " too poor to raise white beans." 



CLASSES OP MANURES. 



Manures are sometimes conveniently classified as, 1st. Ani- 

 mal manures. These are either decaying animal matter, fish, 

 etc., or they are certain natural or prepared manures, in which, 

 with the other ingredients, animal matter, or the product of its 

 putrefaction, in the form of ammonia, fixed or free, may to some 

 extent abound, as ta-feu, guano, poudrette, etc. 



They are regarded as powerful stimulants to vegetation. 



2d. Vegetable manures. These are stable and barn-yard 

 manures, green crops, swamp-muck, etc., in all of which vege- 

 table matter predominates, though they are neither destitute 

 of animal matter nor free from admixture of earthy matter and 

 salts. They are especially calculated to favor and promote the 

 growth of vegetables as distinguished from seeds or grain. 



3d. Earthy or saline, sometimes called specific manures, be- 

 cause containing only one, or, at most, a few of the necessary el- 

 ements of vegetable growth. These are lime, gypsum, or sul- 



