40 MANURES. 



over a field and ploughed in for wheat, have produced so rank 

 a crop, that it was entirely laid before harvest. 



It is easy to explain the operation of fish as a manure. The 

 skin is principally gelatine, which, from its slight state of co- 

 hesion, is readily soluble in water; fat oil is always found in 

 fishes, either under the skin or in some of the viscera; and 

 their fibrous matter contains all the essential elements of vege- 

 table substances. Its effects are visible for several years. 



Among oily substances, blubber has been employed very 

 beneficially as a manure. It is most useful when mixed with 

 clay, sand, or any common soil, so as to expose a large surface 

 to the air, the oxygen [vital air] of which produces soluble 

 matter from it. The best way is to form it into a compost, a 

 layer of earth and then of blubber, and so on. It should be well 

 stirred three or four times, at different intervals, and not used 

 under nine or twelve months. 



The refuse of various manufactures in which skin, wool and 

 other animal substances are used, forms manure of various 

 quality, according to the substances employed and the nature 

 of the manufacture such are the refuse of the currier, the 

 offal of the glue-maker, and various others of similar cha- 

 racter. 



Bones are regarded as a very important animal manure. In 

 the hands of intelligent agriculturists they are a powerful agent 

 in fertilizing the soil. Those which are most usually employed 

 contain nearly equal quantities of phosphate [salt formed 

 by a combination of phosphoric acid, with a base of earth, 

 alkali, or metal,] and gelatine, [an animal substance soluble in 

 water,] of which they are principally composed. 



Bones, it is well ascertained, contain, in an abundant form, 

 the food of plants. They are made up of a large amount of 

 animal substance mixed with earthy and saline matter and 

 they abound in what chemists call the phosphate of lime, a sub- 

 stance, which, as we have before observed, is found in some 

 measure in all plants, and a powerful means and instrument of 

 vegetable growth.* 



Bones have been used as a manure for many years in Eu- 

 rope, with the greatest advantage; and they are now sought 

 after, by intelligent farmers in the United States, with the 

 greatest avidity. At first, after being broken down and boiled 

 for grease, they were sold to the farmer; but since their more 

 general extension as a manure, they are applied in their raw 

 state. They form in the old countries a very considerable 

 article of commerce. 



* Rev. HENRY COLMAN, Massachusetts. 



