56 ON MANURES. 



Some of our good farmers prefer to apply this kind of 

 manure in a green state, and cover it well with the 

 plough. They say if it is once buried beneath the 

 surface, though buried deep, you may be sure it will 

 impart to the soil all its richness, sooner or later ; 

 that, as the gases issuing from it never descend into 

 the sub-soil, they must ascend ; and that our only risk 

 of losing its strength arises from not burying it deep 

 enough. This theory is plausible, and is gaining 

 ground in New England. It is pretty evident that the 

 useful salts in this manure cannot descend far beneath 

 the surface of the soil. If they could we should find 

 the sub-soil rich in a field that had for ages been highly 

 manured. We find it not so. Yet may there not be 

 a loss in burying it too deep, not only in the first season, 

 but ever after ? Can you keep this kind of manure 

 buried deep — in a cellar for instance — for years, 

 without loss of its strength? From some experiments 

 which I have made, I think you cannot keep it without 

 loss, even in a cool place, where no fermentation takes 

 place. 



If this be so, then there is a loss if we bury it too 

 deep in the soil. I think I have buried it so deep that 

 it never gave a good account of itself the first year, or 

 the second, and I had no hopes of it afterward. 



That considerable loss arises from its evaporation, 

 when laid on the surface, there is as little doubt. To 

 be satisfied of this, one has only to pass by a field in the 

 summer, manured in this manner : his olfactory nerves 

 will teach him that something stronger than '^ watery 

 particles " is passing off from the field, and going, possi- 

 bly, to enrich another's crop in a distant enclosure. 

 And who can say that this may not be nourished by 

 the passing effluvia as eff'ectually as the man who was 

 nourished by the steam from his neighbor's beef steak ? 



There is a proper medium to be observed. Manure 

 of this kind is found to do the most immediate service 

 when slightly covered with earth. The roots of plants 



