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fords nourishment to plants ; but there is an objec- 

 tion to this method of using straw from the difficulty 

 of burying long straw, and from its rendering the 

 Jiusbandry foul. 



When straw is made to ferment it becomes a 

 more manageable manure ; but there is likewise on 

 the whole a great loss of nutritive matter. More 

 manure is perhaps supplied for a single crop ; but the 

 land is less improved than it would be, supposing the 

 whole of the vegetable matter could be finely divided 

 and mixed with the soil. 



It is usual to carry straw that can be employed 

 for no other purpose to the dunghill, to ferment, and 

 decompose ; but it is worth experiment, whether it 

 may not be more ceconomically applied when chopped 

 small by a proper machine, and kept dry till it is 

 ploughed in for the use of a crop. In this case, 

 though it would decompose much more slowly and 

 produce less effect at first, yet its influence would be 

 much more lasting. 



Mere woody fibre seems to be the only vegetable 

 matter that requires fermentation to render it nutritive 

 to plants. Tanners spent bark is a substance of this 

 kind. Mr. Young, in his excellent Essay on Ma- 

 nures, which gained him the Bedfordian medal of the 

 Bath Agricultural Society, states, " that spent bark 

 seemed rather to injure than assist vegetation ;" 

 which he attributes to the astringent matter that it con- 

 tains. But in fact it is freed from all soluble sub- 

 stances, by the operation of water in the tan-pit ; and 

 If injurious to vegetation, the effect is probably owing 



