ON BURYING MANURE. 237 



in various forms of combination, and leaving the 

 earths, alkalis, and carbonaceous matters remain- 

 ing. 



When this decomposition takes place beneath the 

 surface of the ground, these gaseous compounds, as 

 well as the carbon (which there is reason to believe 

 assumes also the gaseous state by combining with 

 oxygen), may be supposed to be partially or wholly 

 retained in the earth, to afford the matter of nutri- 

 tion to plants. 



Purely animal substances, therefore, which thus 

 readily decompose, do not absolutely require fer- 

 mentation before they are mixed with the soil. 



Vegetable fibre is, under certain circumstances, a 

 slowly decomposing substance. When vegetables 

 are green and full of juice, as all green crops and 

 grass leys, they readily ferment [hence the impro- 

 priety of wasting these fertilizing properties by 

 cross-ploughing] ; but when the stems are dried, as 

 in the case of straw and litter, they decompose with 

 slowness, and the mixing them with animal matter 

 hastens the putrefactive fermentation. 



The principal animal matters which are mixed 

 with the ligneous fibre of the litter, and which cause 

 it to undergo decomposition, are the'dung and the 

 urine of the animals. Prof. Low. 



The practical lessons to be drawn from the above 

 theory are, 1st, to make your cattle-yards concave, 

 or hollow in the middle, to retain the urine of the 

 animals, nearly a moiety of the manure : 2dly, to 

 strew or feed your straw, stalks, and other litter in 

 the yard, to absorb the urine and other liquids there 

 accumulating : 3dly, to apply this manure before it 

 has undergone much fermentation, that the soil may 

 absorb its gaseous portions ; and we would add, 

 4thly, to apply it to a hoed, crop, that the weeds and 

 grasses, the seeds of which are blended with the 

 dung, may be extirpated in the process of after cul- 

 ture. 



