180 RESOURCES 'FOR ORGANIC MANURES. 



to use which would be but a waste of labour or money, if in ad- 

 vance of marling. Among the most abundant of such materials, 

 may be mentioned marsh grasses and marsh or pond mud, espe- 

 cially if used in compost ; and also the purchase of rich alimentary 

 manures from towns, to be carried by land or by water carriage to 

 much greater distances than has yet been done, or can be afforded 

 to be done, on other lands. Even saw-dust and spent tanner's 

 bark, which, because of their insolubility, are generally deemed of 

 no value as manures, would form important and valuable materials 

 for fertilization, in situations where they can be obtained cheaply 

 and in great quantity. Mixing these or other insoluble vegetable 

 substances with rich putrescent matters, and still more if with 

 some alkaline matter also, would render them soluble, and convert 

 them to food for plants. These inert substances would be most 

 profitably used as litter for stables and cattle pens in summer, where 

 the ordinary more decomposable materials are too quickly rotted, 

 and subject to great loss thereby. 



But putting aside the consideration of all such unusual or un- 

 tried resources and operations for additional fertilization, and limit- 

 ing the present view merely to the ordinary materials furnished by 

 the fields of every farm, the progress and profit of improvement 

 by such means only, after marling, will be greater than will be at 

 first believed by most cultivators of acid soils, not yet marled or 

 limed. If, on such soils, the general course above advised be pur- 

 sued (and using merely the resources of the farm after marling), 

 the products of crops on all the marled land usually will be doubled 

 in the first course of the rotation often in the first crop immedi- 

 ately following the marling; and the original product may be 

 expected to be tripled by the third return of the rotation. And 

 this may be from merely applying marl in sufficient (and not ex- 

 cessive) quantities, and giving the land two years' rest in four 

 without grazing. But on the parts having the aid of farm-yard 

 and other putrescent manures, and of clover, still greater returns 

 may be obtained. 



