28 Orange County Manures. [Jan., 



and fertile vegetation, it gets purified in due time by rains which 

 carry off those noxious ingredients into the drains, and leaves the 

 soil in a fit state to be again brought to the surface in due time, 

 when the new surface soil has become in the same state the old 

 was when turned under. 



RESOURCES OF ORANGE COUNTY FOR MANURE. 



The following paper was prepared as a " Report of the Committee on Ma- 

 nures " for Orange county. But, by accident, not being prepared at the 

 proper time, it is now offered to the public through this Journal, being 

 adapted to all the river counties. — a. j. p. 



The full investigation of the subject of manures, of necessity 

 involves a thorough consideration of the whole art of agriculture. 

 We must start upon the broad principle, that all plants are living, 

 organized beings, dependent either upon the soil or the atmos- 

 phere, or upon both, for food to sustain life, and by the process of 

 nutrition impoverishing these sources of nutriment, and eventually 

 exhausting them, unless the loss is supplied by means of manures. 

 The science of farming then is the science of manuring — the whole 

 art of farming is the art of making and, using manures. They 

 are the food of plants, and upon the amount of food, together 

 with its quality, depends the amount and quality of the crop. 

 These are facts which are so well settled, and so extensively 

 known at the present day, that it would seem superfluous to men- 

 tion them, did not the truth stare us every day in the face, that 

 multitudes do not know them, and most men disregard them. In 

 order then, to come to as full an understanding as possible of this 

 subject, it is necessary, very briefly, to notice some starting points. 

 1. Continual cropping exhausts any soil. The plant does not 

 send down its roots into the earth merely to sustain its top in a 

 vertical direction. The roots themselves are the proper mouths 

 by which every vegetable draws a laige portion of its nourish- 

 ment from the soil. Part of this food is a portion of the soil 



