into the Practices and Results of Horticnlture. 403 



salts in vegetables, or for their influence on vegetation, when 

 blended with carbon ; but in this, as in many other cases, al- 

 though we find it impossible to divulge all the secret mov^e^ 

 ments of nature, we may be amply rewarded for our study o^ 

 and attention to, her laws and principles ; as we are not only 

 thereby enabled to account for the effect of many important 

 operations which have been hitherto conducted in uncertainty, 

 but we may find the means of increasing our powers of fertil- 

 ising the earth, in a twofold degree. By the reducing vege- 

 tables to ashes by fire, alkaline salts are produced ; hence, then, 

 may be traced the effect of the operation of fire in fertilising 

 land, which is found to be different in different situations ; for, 

 it is evident, that according to the nature and quantity of the 

 vegetable and inert carbonaceous matter, contained in the soil 

 submitted to die influence of fire, must be its fertilising effects. 

 Stable litter is found, in the usual process of cultivation, to 

 afford a more efficient compost than any other combination of 

 vegetable and animal matters, and this may be traced to the 

 urine of the horse, which is blended with the straw. The supe- 

 rior fermentative qualities of stable litter, over all other matters 

 usually collected for generating heat, may also be traced to 

 the uiine of the horse; and is accounted for by the urine 

 being found to contain more alkaline salts than that of bul- 

 locks. Thus, according to Sir Humphry Davy, the 



iTrine of the horse contains Urine of the cow contains "-^ 



'^'Carbonate of lime - 11 parts. Phosphate of lime - 3 partt^^'-J 



l8< Alkaline salts - 42 '//Jud j: Alkaline salts - 24 ,h 



-""^^ J " •, ' ^ ^'shnsi-j^Kica - „ - "^ -k^,^ 



^,^ Water and muclage^, ^^ ba^^^at^r^d mifc^lage 969 ^ ^^ 



'^[ in every/ ibdd'^is snilBjife dxiT .Jte:eV^Jiiooo ff 



Hence it may be seen why the urine of the horse is more 

 fertilising than that of the cow, and why a compost made of 

 the dung and urine of those animals combined should be more 

 fertilising than either, when applied to the land in a separate 

 state, and which is always found to be the case. The facts 

 being as stated, it must readily occur to every person, that 

 an immense saving may be made, and a great accumulation 

 of the fertilising principle, by collecting and appropriating 

 the urine of animals, and blending it with their dung and 

 other vegetable matters, instead of permitting it to drain off 

 to waste, as it commonly is, from stables and cattle yards. It 

 must be obvious, that if the refuse vegetable products of the 

 garden and house be collected and placed in a shallow pit or 

 reservoir, and the slop-bucket emptied on it, or, when decom- 

 posed, some alkaline salts or slaked lime be added, a much 



