Vol. L— No. 29. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL,. 



229 



ver there is an unusual large crop of corn, 

 we are generally told that a quantity of green 

 manure was plowed into the field before plan- 

 ting, and old manure was put into the hill. 

 I observed, in afield of Indian corn last year, 

 a part of which was manured in the hill 

 with green dung, and the other with old, a 

 greater burthen in the latter than in the for- 

 mer. This difference was undoubtedly ow- 

 ing to the causes before assigned. I have 

 this year made a similar experiment. One 

 half the quantity of green dung was used as 

 of old. Every other circumstance was e- 

 qual. The former was with the hoe coarsely 

 pulverised, and mixed with earth. The 

 corn, planted on the green dung, has appea- 

 red as well through the season as any other 

 part of the field, the ears quite as well set 

 and filled. 



I have been informed by a farmer that he 

 is in the practice of planting Indian corn on 

 green dung, and that his crops are as good 

 as his neighbours. He sleds his dung from 

 his barn window late in the winter. The 

 operation of the frost breaks up its texture, 

 and by a little shovelling in the spring, it is 

 pretty well prepared for the hill. Besides 

 the loss in quantity and quality of manure 

 in keeping it a year longer than is necessary, 

 the economical farmer will calculate his loss 

 of interest on the capital for that time. 

 If the farm yard is cleared of manure twice 

 in a year, equal quantities cf other materi- 

 als may be carted into it as when cleared in 

 the fall only. The manure, which the in- 

 dustrious farmer has collected in his yards 

 ■during the summer months, will, in the fall, 

 be carted to his fields and mixed, by alter- 

 nately carting a few loads from each source 

 to the same heap. This manure will be in 

 the best order to put into the hill for Indian 

 corn. In the spring a large quantity of un- 

 fermented manure may be taken from the 

 same sources to be spread on the same field, 

 and for potatoes in the hill. In this econo- 

 mical plan, more ground may be kept under 

 tillage,with greater returns of English grain 

 and hay, succeeding Indian corn, without 

 additional manure. 



The importance of the subject, I trust, 

 will in some measure apologise for having 

 said so much on the degree of fermentation 

 required in the preparation of manure. 



Compost, made by plowing the sides of 

 the roads, by decayed chips, fcc. to which 

 is sometimes added barn yard dung, lime or 

 ashes, is most beneficially applied to top- 

 dressing grass land. In this preparation, a 

 material error is olten observable. Green 

 dung is spread on the .surface of the bed or 

 heap, and thus is lost the object of this ap- 

 plication. Fermentation takes place slowly 

 in the dung, but the heat and gases escape 

 in the air, while the other materials remain, 

 nearly unaffected by the process. The dung 

 should be incorporated with the other mate- 

 rials by plowing, or laid up in alternate lay- 

 ers into heaps, the last layer being earth. — 

 In this way the process of decomposition, 

 commencing in the dung, communicates it- 

 self to the other matters, and the products 

 disengaged, are absorbed or retained. Lime 

 or ashes may be added, and perhaps, as eco- 

 nomically without dung. They are power- 

 ful agents in promoting putrefaction. Com- 

 post of this kind cannot be profitably made, 

 except for top-dressing land, which cannot 

 be plowed, without an injury to the soil ; for 

 most of these materials would be more ser- 

 viceable in the barn and hog yards as before 



stated. Top-dressing is undoubtedly a 

 wasteful way of applying manure. If the 

 land be descending it is washed off; if not, 

 much of it escapes by evaporation. 



Wood ashes have been used to fertilize the 

 earth so long as we have any account of the 

 art of husbandry. They contain charcoal 

 and the vegetable alkali united to carbonic 

 acid. These may again be reorganized in- 

 to vegetable life. The alkali acts power- 

 fully, in decomposing the woody fibres ; and 

 the gradual solution of charcoal increases 

 their value as a permanent manure. They 

 attract moisture from the atmosphere, which 

 renders them particularly serviceable to dry 

 soils. They are very beneficial to Indian 

 corn, when applied to the hill, early in the 

 season. But no grain receives so much ben- 

 efit, from a dressing of ashes as wheat. In 

 top dressing of grass land, they are also use- 

 ful. Seven years since I applied a few cart 

 loads of leached ashes to that part of a mead- 

 ow, which bore little else than stinted hard- 

 hacks, cranberry and moss. The first year, 

 clover and herds grass made their appear- 

 ance. Since which time, it has produced a 

 very good crop of these, red top, and mead- 

 ow grasses. I have annually applied to dif- 

 ferent parts of the same meadow, either road 

 manure, barn yard dung, or plaster. They 

 have all been evidently useful ; but the ash- 

 es the most so. Leached ashes are undoubt- 

 edly more beneficial than the unleached, ac- 

 cording to their merchantable prices. Prob- 

 ably owing to their containing more char- 

 coal, and possessing more body, their capa- 

 city for the absorption of moisture is great- 

 er. The opinion, that ashes exhaust the 

 soil by their forcing properties, inithe sense 

 as generally received, is incorrect. It is 

 true, they call into use some of its dormant 

 qualities, which must in time be expended, 

 and the soil less productive, unless some pro- 

 portion of its produce is restored, in the 

 state of manure. But if they force the soil 

 to do its office, they furnish from themselves, 

 and the atmosphere, a considerable share of 

 vegetable food. Instances could be men 

 tioned of the perceptible good effects of 

 ashes, on plowing eighteen or twenty years 

 after their application. The paring and 

 burning of loose vegetable mould, produce 

 their favorable effects principally by the 

 combustion of parts of its inert materials; 

 and thus affording ashes and charcoal, which 

 have a tendency to decompose the remain- 

 der. 



Lime is a useful manure. When applied 

 to soils, like ashes, it promotes the decom- 

 position and putrefaction of vegetable mat- 

 ter. " By this kind of operation," says Sir 

 H. Davy, " lime renders matter, which was 

 before comparatively inert, nutritious ; and 

 as charcoal and oxygen abound in all veget- 

 able natters, it becomes at the same time, 

 converted into carbonate of lime." 



Lime should not be applied with animal 

 manures, unless they are too rich, and for 

 the purpose of preventing noxious effluvia. 

 It is injurious, when mixed with any com- 

 mon dung, and tends to render the extract- 

 ive matter insoluble. It is evident from its 

 operation that lime should be applied spa- 

 ringly to light and naturally weak soils ; but 

 strong heavy loams containing much inert 

 matter, will bear larger quantities,with more 

 durable effects. It is a pretty well establish- 

 ed fact, that worn out lands cannot be res- 

 tored by the use of lime. It is obvious then, 

 that it should not be repeated till the soil be 



furnished with vegetable matter requiring its 

 soluble powers. This should seem to favor 

 the opinion, that lime is incapable of be- 

 ing converted into vegetable food. But, b\ 

 its action on vegetable matter in extracting 

 its carbon and oxygen, it may in part form 

 a soluble compound, capable of being ab- 

 sorbed by, and forming a constituent ol 

 plants. It is said in the Edinburgh Ency- 

 clopedia, that, " it is the farmer, only, who 

 can judge of the quantity (of lime) to be 

 given, but as a general principle, it is safer 

 to exceed the proper quantity, than to be 

 below it. In the latter case, the application 

 may prove useless, and the whole expense 

 lost; whereas, it rarely happens that injury 

 is sustained from an excess, especially if 

 more or less dung is soon added." 



If a compost bed is to be made of mater 

 rials difficult to dissolve or putrify, as tan- 

 ner's spent bark, saw dust, shavings, Sic. no 

 other article could be so usefully added as 

 quick lime. 



Gypsum is much used, and is annually 

 growing into higher estimation in this coun- 

 try. Its modus operandi on vegetation re- 

 mains yet an unsettled question. By one 

 writer, Kirwan, it is said that " the rationale 

 of its effects may be deduced from its extra- 

 ordinary septic powers ; for it is found to 

 accelerate putrefaction in a high er degree 

 than any other substance, and that it is no 

 inconsiderable part of the food of many 

 plants. Sir H. Davy from experiments 

 made by himself, has formed an opinion that 

 it possesses no putrefactive powers, but that, 

 its effects result solely from its entering into 

 the composition of plants, and " the reason 

 why gypsum is not generally efficacious is 

 probably because most cultivated soils con- 

 tain it, in sufficitnt quantities for the use of 

 grasses." This he thinks may be furnished 

 the soil in the manure ; and is not taken up 

 in the crops of corn, peas, and beans, bur 

 is consumed by the growth of grass and 

 hay. 



I have in the course of this month tried 

 several experiments, with the impression 

 their results would correspond with those of 

 the valuable author last mentioned ; bnt I 

 have been disappointed. I united 10 grains 

 of each of the following articles, — plaster, 

 ashes, slacked lime, and salt separately with 

 as many pieces of mutton, of 200 grains 

 each, and placed another piece of meat in 

 the same situation. Decomposition was first 

 discoverable in that with plaster, and ashes, 

 and during the several days they were ob- 

 served, they retained equal moisture and 

 weight, whereas that with lime and the one 

 to which nothing was added lost weight by 

 the more rapid evaporation of their moisture. 

 I have made similar experiments by mixing 1 

 drachm of beef intimately with one grain, 

 also with half a grain of each of the above 

 articles, lime excepted, and the results were 

 similar to the above. These experiments 

 were witnessed by gentlemen, who agreed 

 with me in the results stated ; and were they 

 not contradictory to so good authority, I 

 should deem them satisfactory. At present 

 I do not consider them decisive, but should 

 future experiments confirm these results,the 

 operations of plaster might first be deduced, 

 from the power of absorption of moisture, 

 which it imparts to the soil ; secondly, from 

 its septic powers on animal and vegetable 

 substances ; thirdly, itself affording a valu- 

 able nutriment to plants. 

 It is perhaps, only from, such a combina- 



