436 USE OF MALT-DUST, DRY LEAVES, AND PEAT, AS MANURES. 



rectly to the land. In France and some parts of Belgium, where the 

 poppy is largely cultivated for the oil yielded by its seeds, the cake 

 v^rhich these seeds leave is highly esteemed as a manure. 



5°. Malt-dust. — When barley is made to sprout by the malster, and 

 is afterwards dried, the small shoots and rootlets drop off', and form 

 the substance known by the name of malt-dust. One hundred bushels 

 of barley yield 4 or 5 bushels of this dust. It is sold at the rate of 

 from 5s. to 8s. a quarter, and has been applied with success as a top- 

 dressing to the barley and wheat crops. It may also be drilled in 

 with turnips or dusted over the young grass in spring. 



6°. Saw-dust is usually rejected by the agriculturist, in consequence 

 of the difficulty which is generally experienced in bringing it into a state 

 of fermentation. It decomposes slowly when ploughed into the soil in 

 its dry state, but it nevertheless gradually benefits the land, and should 

 not, therefore, be permitted in any case to run to waste. It forms an 

 excellent absorbent also for liquid manures of any kind, which it pre- 

 serves from sinking too rapidly when they are to be applied to porous, 

 sandy, or chalky soils, while these liquids again hasten the decomposi- 

 tion of the saw-dust and augment its immediate effect upon the land. In 

 localities favorable for the collection of sea- weed, it may also be more 

 rapidly fermented by an admixture with this substance. Saw-dust 

 forms an ingredient in some of the mixed manures which have re- 

 cently come into use (see Appendix, No. VIII., Exp. B.) 



7°. Dry leaves may either be dug into the land at once, or maybe 

 laid up in heaps, when they will gradually decay, and form, in most 

 cases, an enriching manure. They gradually improve the soil (as 

 we have already seen, p. 429,) on which they annually fall, but the 

 same quantity of leaves will do mora good if collected and immedi- 

 ately dug in, or if made into a compost heap, than if left to undergo 

 a slow natural decay on the surface of the land. 



§ 12. Of the icse of decayed vegetable matter as a manure. 



The most abundant forms of partially decayed vegetable matter 

 which come within the reach of the practical farmer, are peat and 

 tanner's bark. 



1°. Peat. — To soils which are deficient in vegetable matter, it is 

 clear that a judicious admixture of peat must prove advantageous, be- 

 cause it will supply some at least of those substances which are neces- 

 sary to the production of a higher degree of fertility. But peat decays 

 very slowly in the air, and hence its apparent effect when mixed with 

 the soil is very small. It may gradually ameliorate its quality, espe- 

 cially if the soil be calcareous, but it will not immediately prepare the 

 land for the growth of any particular crop. But if the obstacles to 

 its further decomposition be removed — that is, if by artificial means 

 its decay be promoted — then its immediate and apparent effect upon 

 the soil is increased, and it becomes an acknowledged fertilizing ma- 

 nure. Different methods have been successfully practised for bring- 

 ing it into this more rapid state of decay or fermentation. 



a. The half-dried peat may be mixed with from one-fourth to one- 

 half of its weight of fermenting farm-yard manure — the whole heap 



