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On Muck and Fresh Stable Manure, by E. G. Passmore, 

 of Delaware County r , Pennsylvania. 



JSdgmont, 1st mo. 18th, 1816. 

 Esteemed friend, 



Having read an essay in the third volume of the Me- 

 moirs of the Agricultural Society, page 221, upon the 

 subject of hot muck and rotten dung, in which there are 

 some objections advanced against the use of hot muck, 

 opposed to the result of applications that have passed 

 under my observation, and as the management and best 

 application of manure is a subject of primary importance 

 to the agricultural interest, I shall take the liberty of 

 stating my sentiments upon it, for your service. 



Though vegetables are capable of deriving their sup- 

 port from elementary principles, yet, as by a wise eco- 

 nomy in the laws of nature, the source of vegetable pro- 

 duction is replenished, by the dissolution of the produc- 

 tion, it is reasonable to conclude, (and facts support the 

 deduction) that the elements that have once formed a 

 living fibre, are, by the natural decomposition of that 

 fibre, placed in a situation more capable of entering into 

 the composition of a new race of living fibres, than the 

 same elements obtained from other sources. If the de- 

 composition be effected by combustion, the elements are 

 converted into the same state that they can be obtained 

 from other materials : when effected by fermentation, the 



