90 



On the Prepai^ation and Use of Manures. Vol. VIII. 



On the Preparation and Use of Manures. 



BY WILLIS GAYLORD, OF OTISGO, N. Y. 



Introduction. — Of all the pursuits to which 

 mankind, from necessity or inclination, have 

 devoted themselves, there is none more hon- 

 ourable, — certainly none more useful, — than 

 that of airriculture. To pursue this business 

 successfully, knowledge, extensive and va- 

 ried, is required; for, although a man may 

 succeed by following the beaten paths of his 

 predecessors, occasions will frequently arise, 

 when the end desired may be attained by 

 methods much sliorter than tliose usually 

 adopted, if the farmer is able to form and 

 apply them. It is here tlint science has, 

 within a few years, rendered the most es- 

 sential aid to agriculture. Sometimes, rea- 

 soning from well known effects to their 

 causes, the agricultural chemist has placed 

 in the hands of the farmer the means of pro- 

 ducing results, always desirable, but which, 

 under the older systems of farming, with his 

 utmost care, he frequently failed of obtain- 

 ing. Again, taking well established facts 

 in animal or vegetable physiology, as his 

 starting point, he has arrived at results of 

 the highest practical importance, and is en- 

 abled to render more certain and effective 

 the more tardy operations of nature. In no 

 department of agricultural industry, it is be- 

 lieved, have the labours of science been more 

 beneficial or more apparent, than in that of 

 the preparation and use of manures; certain 

 it is, there is no department more deserving 

 attention, or where an elucidation of the 

 principles and laws that govern the growth 

 of plants, acts with a more direct an" ener- 

 getic influence. 



Definitions. — A definition of tlie term ma- 

 nure, may be necessary, in order to treat the 

 subject understandingly, as different indivi 

 duals use the word in widely different senses, 

 some in a wide, and some in a limited one 

 A few instances of the meaning put upon 

 the term will be given from a few of the 

 modern writers who have adverted to this 

 topic. Tlius Dr. Leiber, in his German 

 Conversationes Lexicon, defines manure to 

 be " vegetable, animal, and mineral matters, 

 introduced into the soil to accelerate vege 

 tation, and increase the production of crops." 

 The Encyclopedia, published by the London 

 Society for the promotion of Useful Know- 

 ledge, thus defines it: — "Every substance 

 which has been used to improve the natural 

 soil, or to restore to it the fertility which is 

 diminished by the crops annually carried 

 away, has been included in tlie name of ma- 

 nure." Loudon, in his great work on agri- 

 culture, says : " Every species of matter ca- 



pable of promoting the growth of vegetables, 

 may be considered as manure." Prof. Low, 

 in his Elements of Agriculture, says: "All 

 substances which, when mixed with the mat- 

 ter of the soil, tend to fertilize it, are in 

 common language termed manures." Mr. 

 Johnson, in his " Farmers' Encyclopedia," 

 lately published, says : " A manure may be 

 defined to be any fertilizing compound or 

 simple ingredient added to a soil, of which 

 it is naturally deficient." The definitions 

 of Prof. Liebig and Dr. Dana, two of the 

 latest writers on the subject, do not differ 

 essentially from those already given. Of 

 these definitions, I prefer the most simple 

 and comprehensive, that of Loudon, and in 

 this paper shall consider the term manure, 

 as embracing every substance capable of pro- 

 moting the growth of plants. 



Classification. — Manures, by some, are 

 clas^ed as earthy, organic and saline ; others 

 divide them into animal and vegetable, mine- 

 ral and mixed manures, and some speak of 

 them as composed only of geine or humus, 

 and salts. Others class them as organic 

 and inorganic; but these divisions are of 

 ittle consequence, as every flirmer under- 

 tands that manure is the result of decompo- 

 sition or change ; and that, whether organic, 

 tliat is, derived from animal or vegetable 

 matter; or inorganic, such as the earths, 

 clay, lime, the alkalies, &c., it is only effi- 

 cient when presented to plants in certain 

 forms, such 'as decomposition, division or so- 

 lution. In France, they have terms to dis- 

 tinguish those substances which act mechan- 

 ically in improving the texture of the soil, 

 from those which act directly in the nou- 

 rishment of the plant. The former class of 

 substances they call amendements, and the 

 latter engrais. It is probable, however, that 

 the system which considers all manures as 

 consisting of humus or geine, and salts, 

 comprehending, in the latter term, all the 

 mineral substances that enter into the growth 

 or nourishment of vegetables, will eventually 

 be found the most simple, and at the same 

 time the most accurate, of all the proposed 

 divisions of manures. Thus humus consti- 

 tutes the source of the carbon, forming the 

 principal part of the structure of plants, and 

 the salts, where they do not enter into the 

 structure of plants, are active in preparing 

 the other inorganic elements, and exciting 

 the vegetable organs in their reception and 

 appropriation of nutriment. 



Humus or Geine. — Humus or geine, is 

 simply decomposed animal and vegetable 

 matter; and as from it, by the action of oxy- 

 gen, carbonic gas is derived, to be absorbed 

 by water and taken up by the roots, or mixed 

 with the atmosphere and taken up by the 



