38 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



of soil and manuring, the future wants of the crop are abundantly 

 cared for. And if the principle is true, it will go far against the 

 use of unfermented manures, particularly' when the seed has not 

 been previously prepared. 



It is highly important that experiments should be tried on the 

 effects produced by manuring at different periods of the growth oJ 

 plants. Very little is in reality yet known of the principles whicb 

 determine the action and force of manures, and consequently z 

 greiat want of economy in the use of them, may be the result. B} 

 adapting the manure both in kind and in quantity to the wants o ' 

 growing plants, great saving may be effected. 



3. How ought manure to be applied ? This question was briefly' 

 noticed in the last number of this Journal, when it was stated tha' 

 manure is generally buried too deep in the soil. Since that time' 

 we have met with an article in one of the monthly journals, ij' 

 which the w^riter attempts to show that the great loss to be guard 

 ed against, is not downward but upward. And he reasons in thi 

 way. Fill a barrel, whose head has been knocked out, with sane ' 

 and pour upon the top of the sand, any kind of manure stirred u 

 in water. After it has passed through the sand, it will be foun 

 to be almost pure water. Here the writer reasons only from th 

 sense of sight. He has forgotten that all that is of use for tij 

 nourishment of plants is dissolved in the water and invisibl 

 whilst the dirt which floats in it is useless, and is all that is sepi 

 rated by filtering. If he had examined the fluid which had pasS4 

 through the sand, he would have undoubtedly found it laden wif 

 the most fertilizing properties. 



The tendency of the gases produced during the decompositio 

 of vegetable and animal matter under the soil, to escape upwan 

 is in our opinion very slight. The soil, like all other porous be 

 dies, has a strong attraction for some of the gases, and holds thej 

 with great force. It is a fact well known, that the carcase of 8 

 animal when covered with only a thin coating of earth, will ni 

 dergo decay without tainting the neighboring atmosphere, Tl' 

 gases generated, do not escape into the air, but are held in the pt 

 rous earth. But the rain falling upon the soil and passing throug. 

 has the power of extracting these gases, which it must inevitab' 

 bear with it in its downward passage. Nothing which is solub 

 in water can be separated from it by filtering, and these solub 





