SAYING OF MANURES. 493 



SAVING OF MANURES. 



From an Address before the Notfolk County Society. 



13Y HEY. JAMES IUCHARDSON". 



Treasure up every particle of liquid or solid matter that can 

 enrich and nourish your lands ; let nothing escape you. Forest 

 leaves, wash of the streets in the wayside gutter, turf and sods, 

 decayed wood and brush, chips and shavings, earth from the 

 wood shed and bam yard, the drip and cleanings of stables, 

 hog pen, vault, pigeon house, poultry yard, and ash bin, and, on 

 the coast, the precious kelp, and even the seaweed, witli the 

 choice bones, oyster shells, and clam shells, waste of woollen 

 factories, scraps of leather, and even coal ashes, — all have their 

 uses, all are to be considered manures, or matter capable of 

 enriching in some way the soil, and all are to be carefully 

 economized. I have known a coarse, sedgy marsh to be re- 

 claimed and brought to yield good English hay by the mere ap- 

 plication of coal ashes. And care must be taken in the proper 

 preparation as well as saving of these materials. See to it 

 that your stables, vaults, poultry houses, &c, are filled with 

 proper absorbents, or materials to hold the liquid and volatile 

 portions of the manure — such as clay, plaster, charcoal, and es- 

 pecially peat earth and ditch mud mingled with leaves and chips, 

 that also contain a valuable supply of carbon, etc. The manure 

 of a dozen fowls, well saved and mixed, is sufficient dressing 

 for a large garden; and that from a goodly flock of liens and 

 pigeons, properly composted, will abundantly enrich a small 

 farm. The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, or, as they 

 name it, " the Central Flowery Land," the most famous agricul- 

 turists and horticulturists of all the world, in whose territory, 

 from reverence to our primitive, fundamental, and rigl 



