220 



Application of Manures. 



Vol. VII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Application of Manures. 



Messrs. Editors, — It is really surprising 

 to see the attention that is beginning to be 

 paid to the subject of manuring ; and if to 

 this principle could be added, the more im- 

 portant one of pulverization, and the neces- 

 sity of a change of crops be understood and 

 acted upon, our labours would be one half 

 lessened, and our crops be one half increased, 

 with the greatest ease and comfort to our- 

 selves. In reading a late treatise on agri- 

 culture, I have been highly interested and 

 instructed by the following observations, and 

 conceive they would be found of great im- 

 portance to your readers, if you could afford 

 space in your publication for their insertion. 

 The author observes : 



" The application of the same kind of ma- 

 nure to plants or trees that occupy the soil 

 for more than one year, is not always advan- 

 tageous, nor does the land prove so produc- 

 tive, as might often be expected, from the 

 labour and pains bestowed. The advantage 

 of variety, is, greater fermentation — conse- 

 quently, greater benefit from the air and 

 rains ; for the same manure operates on the 

 soil, especially if it be not aided by cultiva- 

 tion, like the same medicine, or the same 

 food or air on the body, which are found to 

 lose their best effect after too long repeti- 

 tion. This is not exactly the case with ara- 

 ble land, because of the variety of crops and 

 of careful cultivation, which is the most 

 powerful means of all, as it admits of the 

 application of the same manure for ever, 

 with the same success. But it is proper to 

 observe, an excess of manure, particularly 

 when put on in a raw state for the coming 

 crop, is as injurious, as when the land is per- 

 mitted to become poor from the want of it; 

 for of fertility, there may be named three 

 descriptions; as first, extravagant fertility; 

 second, productive fertility; third, apoplec- 

 tic fertility. The first is, when so early and 

 rapid a decomposition takes place, that the 

 plants thrive too fast in their youth, and 

 then, towards harvest, they have nearly or 

 quite ceased to grow, without perfecting 

 their seeds : this is commonly called winter 

 or spring proud, and summer poor. On ex- 

 amining the stalks and leaves, they will be 

 found to be covered with rust or fungi. The 

 healthy secretions are at an end, and fer- 

 mentation of the juices succeedhi";, a gas is 

 formed which hursts the vessels of the plant, 

 and fungi make their appearance. The cause 

 of this extravag ant fertility is this — the grain 

 was sown on fresh or recently manured land, 

 and the result is, the crop receives its food 

 directly from the manure in the first instance, 



and of course, in an unselected, undiluted 

 state, instead of disengaging it from the 

 soil, witli which the particles of the manure 

 had been lightly combined by previous cul- 

 tivation ; for the fresh manure decays faster, 

 and forces itself upon the'plants beyond what 

 they naturally and immediately require, and 

 being aided in its decomposition by the ve- 

 getative powers of the grain, a too rapid 

 growth is at first brought on; and then, as 

 the plants have been induced to commence 

 their structure upon a large scale, by the 

 abundance of the materials afforded them, 

 they require a proportioned greater quantity 

 of the same materials to maintain and com- 

 plete what they had begun ; but from the 

 two-fold cause of an early extravagance and 

 large structure, they find those materials de- 

 ficient at the very time when wanted the 

 most — at the formation and completion of 

 the seed : the soil, all the time, from its 

 poverty — not having the manure properly 

 mixed and distributed by cultivation and oft- 

 repeated stirring, effects but little towards 

 the growth of the plants. Therefore, out 

 of the two sources of fertility, namely, ma- 

 nure and cultivation, the one most import- 

 ant, namely, cultivation, having- been ne- 

 glected, fails of its supply, and disease of 

 the plant necessarily follows. 



" The cause of the second, or prodin the 

 fertility, is owing to a regular decomposition 

 going on, within the reach of the roots of 

 the growing plants, when food is yielded 

 sufficiently fast to meet all their necessari 

 demands, and continues thus from the begin- 

 ning to the end ; when a well matured crop 

 is formed, with bright straw, a handsome 

 plump sample, and in quantity proportioned 

 to the native fertility of the soil: this favour- 

 able result being attributable to the crop 

 being able to disengage its food from the 

 pat tides of the soil, with which it had been 

 combined by previous good cultivation and 

 exposure — a fallow process. The beneficial 

 consequence of this is, the plants have to 

 exert their own decomposing and selecting 

 energies to obtain the food they require, and 

 therefore, take up no more than what their 

 healthy vegetation demands; instead, as in 

 the former case, of having their vegetation 

 impelled on, as it were, by the too rapid and 

 overwhelming self-decomposition of the ma- 

 nure. 



"The cause of the third, or apopleclii 

 fertility, is owing to a too rapid decomposi- 

 tion taking place throughout the growth of 

 the plants, as is the case with grain grow- 

 ing on a dung-hill: they are seen to flourish 

 away with uncommon vigor, as if in a start 

 of intoxication, producing foliage by whole- 

 sale ; and if standing in masses, are soon 



