30 Orange County Manures. [Jan., 



but the solubility of the two kinds of matter, is, to use a techni- 

 cal phrase, inversely as their quantities — that is, the organic 

 matter rapidly, and the inorganic very slowly, passes into that 

 condition in which they can be taken up by water and carried to 

 the mouths of plants. 



3. Plants require their food in a fluid state. The extremities 

 of the roots are the proper mouths. They consist of a spongy 

 substance, pierced with numerous pores, by which they imbibe 

 every thing fluid which comes within their reach. Nothing solid 

 can enter these pores, no matter how^ minutely it may be divided. 

 All the soluble parts of the soil, and all soluble substances in the 

 soil, are taken up by water passing through and carried to the 

 roots of growing plants, and passing into the circulation, all parts 

 which are of use in the vegetable economy are retained, and the 

 others rejected. 



4. A plant, then, is a highly organized living being, requiring 

 food and care to bring it to perfection, and repaying the care just 

 in proportion to the amount bestowed on it. 



Without multiplying points of consideration, which would only 

 grow upon us as we proceed, we will regard those cited above as 

 including all the groundwork upon which to construct a history 

 of manures, and their application. And without pausing to 

 make any artificial divisions of manures, into organic and inor- 

 ganic, insomuch as all organization is destroyed before they be- 

 come the food of plants, and they are reduced in fact to inorganic 

 matter, we shall proceed at once to the subject, considering every 

 thing as a manure which promotes the growth and perfection of 

 the plant. But it will be impossible to cover the whole ground 

 in the brief space belonging to such a paper as this. We shall, 

 on this account, aim at being as local as possible, and have refer- 

 ence principally to the ■ sources of manures which Orange 

 county has within its own borders, and their use and preparation. 



In a county possessing all the natural advaiitages which this 

 possesses, it is folly of the grossest kind to undertake the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil, or even the restoration of worn-out lands by the 

 introduction of manures from abroad. We have ever been dis- 



